SECTION 32

You decide that it’s high time you told Reginald the truth. You may be retired, but as this whole incident has shown, there are no guarantees that your past career won’t continue to intrude on your current existence. And with you living with Reginald on the Anomaly, it’s a lot harder to hide Section 31 from him than it was when you were living in on Earth and he was out on assignment somewhere.

You step over to your husband and take his hands in yours.

You know what? Let’s let Rosalyn handle this part. You got her this far and preserved this timeline in the process. Somewhere out there is another timeline where the Hobus supernova happened and wiped out Romulus. A timeline where some rogue Romulans used some synthetic beings to destroy the Federation’s rescue fleet and created a period where synthetic beings weren’t trusted and Starfleet admirals yelled obscenities at highly-decorated retired officers. And a timeline where Rosalyn Davies never married Reginald Bain.

This is not that timeline, though. This is the timeline that you helped Rosalyn save.

Great work!

But she can take it from here.

“That was a timeship captain from an alternate version of the 29th Century with a grudge against me,” Rosalyn says. “But I don’t think she’ll be troubling us anymore.”

“A grudge? Who could possibly have a grudge against you?” Reginald asks.

“A great many people, I’m afraid,” Rosalyn says with a sigh. She takes a deep breath, steeling herself for what comes next. “I hope you know by now how much I love you and our family and how I cherish all of the years we’ve been together. But I haven’t been fully honest with you about myself. I did teach at Starfleet Academy, but I also work for Section 31. I know how you feel about them. You made that abundantly clear after we helped Starfleet deal with the Vulcans. But like Starfleet, we swear an oath to protect the Federation. We just do so in secret…even from many of those we love. I’m retired now. Both from the Academy and Section 31, but there are things from my life as an agent that could come back to haunt us. And it’s not fair for me to keep that danger from you. It hasn’t been fair for a long time. It never was really. And I’m so sorry, Reginald. I understand that this is a lot to take in, but I just couldn’t…”

“I knew,” Reginald says simply.

Rosalyn is actually stunned, which doesn’t happen often. “You…what?”

“I knew, dear. The sudden disappearances. That black outfit you’d wear all the time that didn’t look remotely comfortable. The fact that you maybe taught one class per semester and had substitutes fill in for you a lot of the time. And you can’t be in Starfleet for as long as I have without hearing about Section 31. It took me a little while to put all of the pieces together, but I got there in the end.”

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“I always thought you’d tell me eventually…when you were ready.” A hint of a smile plays at the side of his mouth. “I’ll admit that I never thought it would take quite this long.”

“I did try. A few times. It just never was the right moment. But for all these years, you were okay with what I did?”

“I can’t say that I approve of a lot of the things I’ve heard about Section 31 or its methods. But I knew…and I know you. Whatever you were doing, I had absolute trust that you were doing it because it was the best for the Federation and us. And I wasn’t about to step in and say that you couldn’t continue in a job that you clearly loved.”

“You are an amazing man, Reginald Bain,” Rosalyn says.

“And you are an incredible woman,” Reginald replies. “I’m just glad that you finally told me and we can put this secret behind us.”

“Me too. Tovar and Audrey will be so relieved.”

“They knew, too?!?”

“Let’s go to sleep, dear,” Rosalyn says, pulling Reginald toward the bedroom. “We can talk about in the morning.”

THE ACTUAL END