CYTM11

=Chapter 11=
==Can you tell me where can we start over?==
Lyran Commonwealth Military Base
Tamar, Lyran Commonwealth
Late 3048
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[Late in the term...]
The knock on the BOQ door woke Patrick enough to get him out of bed. "I'm coming..."  
He opened the door, and Elizabeth was standing in the hall.
"Jesus!!"
"Hi big brother." she said.
"Liz, how-..where's Mom?" he asked.
"Mom? ****** if I know." she said, "Can I come in?"
"How did you get here?"
"I...bought a ticket." she said simply, "It's not like it's hard, Pat. You go on the local 'net, and find someone looking to pad their freighter, and buy a passage."
"wait...does mom know you're here?"
"I hope not."  she dropped into the desk chair, keeping her voice down for his room-mates.  "Mom doesn't know where I am, I hope.  I left a trail aimed at Kowloon, so that should throw her off."
"Lizzie..."
"Never let them hit you twice, Pat." she said.  "Remember? Only I can't just stick a knife in my mother."
He sighed, "What happened?"
"Mom found some stuff in my room." she said quietly.  "Stuff I'm not supposed to have, and she didn't just yell this time."
"What were you doing with it?" Patrick asks
"Headaches." she said, "Real barn burners...and I can't sleep...so I found something that works, because the doctors won't help me."
"What do you mean 'won't' help you?"
She reached into her jacket, and laid the print out on the table.  
"What's this?" he asks
"Diagnosis." she said, "Mine. You'd think that'd make her hold back on the punches, Right?" 
He lifted it up.
"This is real?"
"It's how Great Uncle Truk died." she said, "Mom and Dad were fighting about it a few nights ago.  She wants to send me to New Avalon to be a lab-rat, so I can die screaming in twenty three years like Grandfather's brother.  I have a better alternative."
"Which is?"
"Take drugs. Live what life I've got, and don't worry about it." she said, "Mom is not a fan."
"How did you get the drugs?"
"Kid at school." she told him.  "I was going to keep it on the down-low, but Dad's on another deployment. I can't bother Henry with this-he doesn't need it on top of the schoolwork, he's failing a couple classes."
"Jesus. Liz, if he hears you ran away from home, it's going to fu-...mess with him more."
"I sent him a note." Liz stated.  "Getting on-post wasn't that hard, you know the gate guards didn't even question why my dependent ID said 'Donegal' instead of 'Tamar'?  after that, it was paying a cabbie to take me to the BOQ's and the Charge Quarters just kinda let me in when he saw my name."
"Liz, I can't take you on as a full time dependent. You've gotta go home." he told her.
"I want to go home, but they'll drag me back to Donegal if I do." she said with a harsh laugh.  "Pat, I can't go back there. When she's sober she treats me like I'm made out of glass. When she's drunk, I'm a punching bag! I don't know which is worse. The pity or the abuse? I know I don't want to be pitied any more, and that's what's gonna happen if it becomes official."
"I'll set you up a cot, and we'll see then." He said, "I might be able to sweet-talk the Battalion CO into letting you stay at the Post Arms for a while. Lizzie, but if mom's graduated from shouting to hitting. Then something has to be done. Not just for you, but for her, too."
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[Aftermath..]
Solutions aren't easy.  Elizabeth's anger really didn't hold a candle to what her older brother was feeling, and he decided, after she went to sleep, to do some actual fighting.
There aren't many things that are as scandalous, as custody battles inside families.
When all concerned parties save the minor children are active-duty military, it becomes a Military concern, with Military Justice becoming involved.
Without a perfect solution available, imperfect compromises have to be met.
The drug use is real, and really is not permitted.  The allegations of abuse led to investigation, followed by counseling, with a court-appointed guardian ad lidem to oversee details.
Since a senior Lieutenant really doesn't have the allotments to house a dependent without being married, Patrick was forced to step aside, and a court-appointed temporary guardian at Elizabeth's last known world of residency was sought-in part. To oversee and confirm that the girl's mandatory treatment for drug abuse was completed.
This is how Elizabeth Ngo, a ducal scion from Kowloon, wound up meeting Margaret Doons, the owner and CEO of Nashan Diversified. A military contractor with some ties to both the LCAF, and to Ngo Industries.
Maggie in turn to comply with side-judgements from the LCAF's JAG and Commonwealth Courts. She enrolled Elizabeth in addiction treatment at the Marsden Youth Center, an in-patient facility currently hosting her own granddaughter after a bout with whiterock Opioids.
The same judgements, mandated that Lt. Colonel Allison Russell-Ngo undergo counseling and therapy for a diagnosed Bipolar Depressive disorder.
Nowhere in the publicly available, un-sealed part of the court records, was Elizabeth Ngo's diagnosis of Cholmann's Syndrome mentioned.  It did, however, generate a flag on her identity with AFFC's Recruitment department, effectively banning her from every military academy in the Inner Sphere. Along with every standing army, most mercenaries, and anyone else running a check...with a legal exemption from the draft that doesn't significantly impact her rights as a citizen.
Maggie Doons has lawyers that are just that good.
==Author's Notes==
In the Ngo-verse, especially after the publication of FM:Lyran Alliance, I took an interest in fleshing out a canon person to fill a specific role.
Margaret "Maggie" Doons, head of Nashan Enterprises.  Now, to give y'all a little bit of how I came to decide what kind of fleshing out she got in these, you have to look at the one color plate and caption showing her.
Older lady, with boytoys.
I decided she was gonna be the 'my setting' version of the Grand Dame of the Lyran social set.  The platonic alpha of wealthy, powerful, socially connected society Ladies.  In the canon, I guess this was supposed to  be Katherine's role, but frankly, that didn't add up to me.  Kate hardly lived LONG enough to fill that role, and most of her time was being spent being a princess.
Basically, Maggie Doons is a powerful influencer, wielding the force of charm, class, and sophistication.  The Devil Wearing Prada, the woman who can slay an entire fashion trend with a single disparaging remark at a private function, on a Saturday.
A mistress of social manipulation and marketing, and also a guardian and gatekeeper of what is socially acceptable in high (but not necessarily polite) society.
I envisioned her as cold-blooded, ruthless, and classy.  Every lover feels loved, every employee, valued, every enemy respected-even as she annihilates them.
She's Elizabeth's mentor figure in the vulnerable years between 3049, and 3051, and again from 52 to 53.
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