posted 11-11-2002 07:19 PM            

Jason McLoude smiled brightly as he played with his newest of toys, a die-cast replica of an old World War Two fighter plane. The five-year-old dane-mix had he admitted secluded himself a bit today from the other children. There were times he liked to play alone. Not many of them but there were times. He had been busy that morning, asking for blocks and some drawing paper he had made himself an ‘airbase’ for his planes and all. The young mix didn’t think himself special but when Ensign McCarthy had seen his work she insisted on taking a picture of it for his mother and father to see.

Jason was just glad McArthur wasn’t being his normal bossy self today. He was the worst with his siblings, but, the four-year-old had a habit of thinking he was in-charge of the young children on-board, and that upset Jason. Jason himself really wasn’t comfortable at how a lot of the children looked to him in situations, he thought he was way too young to be a leader of any sort, or, at least he thought that way as a child would. Still, if they thought of him as good enough to ask questions about, he was going to make sure that he never broke their trust. McArthur on the other hand bossed the children around, especially his siblings. That grated on Jason’s child-like nerves to no end and whenever he tried with the other children, Kate or her brother Joe especially, Jason would stand up to the much larger pup and face him down. Why he hadn’t gotten pummeled yet was a mystery to the dane-mix. But, in all honesty he didn’t care, just as long as McArthur backed off the other children.

“Jason why’ya all’alone?” a familiar voice called out and Jason looked up to see Elizabeth Rikes smiling down on him. The six-year-old was the eldest of all the young children in the classroom, and the captain’s daughter to boot, but she prefer playing to leading, and making sure everyone else was playing like they should, in her mind, as well.”

“Playin’,” Jason said simply as he put down his plane and looked up at his friend.

Her bright ice-blue eyes, a characteristic she shared with her mother, and a rarity in setters, sparkled with mirth. “Yer not hidin’ are ya’?”

“Huh?”

“Hidin’ from ‘Vira.”

“Jason frowned gently. “What’s wrong with Elvira Beth?”

“Nothin’, she’s jus all’ays lookin’ foryeah.” Beth didn’t really understand what it was she was talking about, she jus found it funny that border-collie always sought the dane-mix out. Of coarse, she also didn’t understand the sad looks that same border collie had whenever she saw Jason and his best friend three-year-old Kathryn McAllen playing together.

“Wadda bout you and Remy?” Jason asked.

“I like to jump on him and give him a hard time.”

Jason nodded, the two were close, it was strange, the mischievous Remy and the proper but playful Elizabeth seem to spend a lot of time together, he remembered it was Beth, however unintentionally who had stalled Remy long enough for the rest of the children to find him before he had gone into the holodeck, without any adults. That had been a little scary, and people said Jason had risked his life to save Elvira but he really didn’t know what they were talking about. All he did was stand in front of her so the malfunctioning holograms wouldn’t hurt her.

Just then Elvira walked into view and saw Jason, a huge smile blossoming on her face. Jason couldn’t remember quite what all happened when for a short period of time he, Kate, Elvira and Dyhakia had all been transformed into adults, but, ever since then, Elvira had been very, very dependent on him for a lot of things. It made him a little uncomfortable, after all she was a genius with a brain better than a lot of adults and that meant she was far smarter than him, but, Jason, always the caring little boy he was, tried to be what she wanted, though he still couldn’t understand why she always went away when Kathyrn and he were playing, and why Remy had told him she always cried.

The boarder-collie walked up and smiled shyly at Jason. “What are you doing today?”

He shrugged. “Playin’ till Da comes for me. Gonna go to the holodeck with mama and sissies, Da wants to have time together with alla’us.”

She frowned and sighed. “Oh, I was hoping that you would stay the entire day today,” Elvira returned. She frowned, Jason’s parents had started to take him out of pre-school early a lot now that his little sisters had been born almost a year ago. Apparently Elvira thought, they want him to spend time around his infant siblings, that, and Commander McLoude simply preferred having her son near her, something she noticed Jason liked. Elvira wouldn’t call him a ‘mother’s boy’ she didn’t lead him by the hand everywhere, though he always did ask to hold her hand. It was more the fact Elvira thought, that Jason adored his mother, and the mental link that all the McLoudes shared because of the Commander’s abilities seemed to amplify those feelings of adoration.

Beth spoke up before Jason had a chance to apologize. “Isn’ Missus and Mistah McAllen also goin’ to the holodeck wit you?”

That one brought a wince from Elvira as she tried not to meat Jason’s eyes as she looked toward where other children were having their naps, including the three year-old mix Kathryn, wrapped up in a blanket and clutching a stuffed teddy bear that was nearly as big as she was, sleeping peacefully. She hated having competition for Jason’s affections. Worse still was the fact that neither Jason nor Kathryn knew that their very close friendship was the beginning seeds of romance. It hurt Elvira knowing that she was probably loosing him, that, in the end he would choose Kathryn over her. More-so because she still had all the feelings she had had for him when they were for a very brief time adults, while Jason it seemed, while still caring for her, had lost all of the romantic feelings when he returned to childhood. Elvira wondered if it was art of her astounding IQ that caused her to keep all the feelings. She sighed, once again her intelligence was just as much a curse as it was a gift.

“All right,” she said with a sigh as she began to walk away. While she had never ment to, she had found a way to manipulate Jason quite easily. He had a rather large heart as some would say, with extra compassion to go around. While she never did it to truly manipulate him, or actually knew what she was doing half the time, she still could get Jason to jump to her side quite quickly.

“Some’tin wrong Elvira?” Jason asked, his voice full of concern.

Yes, something is most definitely wrong, the love of my life is a child who doesn’t realize how much I love him, and most likely will fall for an inferior intellect of a little girl and reject me, Elvira wanted to say, but knew she couldn’t. One it would hurt Jason, something she knew she didn’t want to do at all. And for a second it would let not only Jason, but Elizabeth in on her secret. She knew that once Beth knew, then most likely the entirety of the nursery and her parents would know her secret as well, and that would make all the grown-ups jump to separate her from Jason till they could identify what it was that was making her feel this way so early, and how to ‘cure’ her of it.

Instead she just shook her head. “No, I’m all right Jason, I think I’ll just go take a nap,” and she walked over to the ‘naptime’ mat and laid down.

“But she hates tanking naps,” Beth thought allowed.

Jason shrugged. “Just as’lon’ as she is ok.”

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(Krystie) Shawn, I think I am pregnant....