The gift was wholly unexpected.
Katriel sat back in her seat, her mind full with a whirlwind of thought, memory, and emotion. After receiving her gift from the fleet holiday exchange, she had quite honestly rushed her way back to her quarters on the Reyga to dig through her old communications. The painting was unmistakable and the betazoid had recognized it right away, but never expected to find it in her own hands one day.
On the other hand, intended or not, it made the identity of her ‘Santa’ easy to track down, assuming the painting hadn’t exchanged hands since it was won. There in her communications archive, she found the memorandum that had been circulated to all the auction participants.
Katriel shook her head with some bewilderment. Why part with a painting that the then-Lieutenant-now-Commander had – ahem – fought so hard for? Had she grown dissatisfied with it? Or did she simply think that the former-counselor would appreciate it more? The mystery of why was almost as interesting a gift as the painting itself.
She studied the brush strokes of the painting as it lay on her desk. The truth was that this piece, when it was made, had not spoken to her. But now as she contemplated the colors and the shapes, she felt a small suffusion of gratitude. For that first charity auction, Katriel had been personally involved with volunteers to generate the neural art that had been put up for sale. So whether or not the Commander had intended it, the art piece represented some of Katriel’s work on the station, and it had been work that she had loved.
So it may have taken three years of age and distance, but she now, too, loved this painting.
(Even if Matt was going to call it crazy abstract nonsense. Maybe she could convince him that it was of a fish?)
This is definitely going in my office, she decided. She turned to her console again to start shopping for a worthy picture frame.