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Seventeen seconds. That’s how long a ride from the bridge to sickbay took. At least in theory anyway, according to Starfleet manuals for Luna-class starships. As Captain William T. Riker entered the turbolift, he reached out for his wife via their special bond and felt his heavy heart sink when she didn’t respond. That didn’t bode well for whatever chaos would probably greet him down there. As he watched the doors to the turbolift close, Riker took a deep breath to brace himself for the longest seventeen seconds of his life. His stomach fluttered, caused by the upheaval of inertia when the turbolift began its rapid descent. Seconds stretched into minutes that felt like hours during which Will saw his son’s entire life flash in front of his eyes.
17
“What’s wrong, imzadi?” Will looked at Deanna over the small dinner table sharply, when she suddenly dropped her fork and reached for her small baby bump.
“Nothing,” she gave him a serene smile, “just wondering whether our son will inherit his father’s blue eyes from you.”
“My blu…” He started and stopped when the full implications of her words sunk in. “Son?”
She nodded, “I can feel his presence now.”
16
So small. So tiny. So fragile. So helpless. And so goddamn slippery. Why had nobody warned him about that?!? What if he accidentally dropped him?! Will stares in absolute shock at his newborn son that the doctor just placed into his hands unceremoniously so he could tend to the afterbirth. What was he supposed to do now? With him? His son. He has a son! His beautiful, perfect baby boy. Thaddeus Riker Troi.
Thaddeus Troi-Riker, his wife reminds him with an exhausted smile from the biobed.
15
“Hey,” Deanna’s tired, soft voice greets him.
After a long shift on the bridge, an exhausted Will drinks in the sight of his wife nursing their son in bed. He rushes over to her side and sinks into the pillows next to her that she propped up to support her back.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” he kisses her with slow-burning passion. Then he bends over his son and kisses his bald head. Maybe they should have named him Jean-Luc after all. Thad’s eyes pop open and fix him with that intense Betazoid gaze, as if he was quietly assessing the intruder, all the while making his cute little sucking sounds. Then he stops nursing long enough to give his father his first smile.
14
“Don’t,” Riker stops Troi with a hand on her shoulder.
She protests, “He’ll bump his head!”
“Then we’ll kiss it better.”
Huffing and puffing from exertion, little Thaddeus Troi-Riker is clawing his short fingernails into the thick synthetic leather of the seat under the watchful eyes of the Titan’s bridge skeleton crew. Will and Deanna are observing, equally proud and amused, how their son is using the captain’s chair for leverage to pull himself upright – inch by glorious inch for the first time in his young life. Finally, Thad turns around on two wobbly feet to face his parents, still holding onto the upholstery for balance, and squeals triumphantly, “Dada!”
“Yes! That’s my chair.” Will can no longer hold his wife back who is already rushing over to pluck up their son, swinging him through the air. “Look at you, little one! Standing on your own cute little chubby feet. Mommy’s so proud of you.”
Meanwhile Will works his throat hard to swallow the lump that is forming there as he can feel the telltale prick of tears in his eyes. The son of William Riker and Deanna Troi has never been prone to do things halfway any more than his parents. It figures he’d casually throw in “daddy” as his first word as if it was nothing after having just mastered gravity.
13
Flanked by both his parents, little Thad gazes at the two candles on his cake, while he is listening raptly to their rendition of “Happy Birthday.” Fascinated by the flickering flames, he reaches out to catch the dancing lights halfway through the song. Deanna’s hand darts forward to grab her son’s fingers before he can make contact. When Thad looks at her confused, she shakes her head gently no and kisses the back of his hand instead.
“…happy birthday, dear Thaddeus, happy birthday to you!”
“Mo!” Their son is clapping his hands and demanding an encore. With his dark hair and black eyes, Thad is all Deanna. His contemplative nature, compassion for others and infectious laughter make him so easy to love. Some days, he reminds Will so much of Ian, his heart skips a beat right before it breaks into a million little pieces for his wife and the son they never raised.
Deanna ruffles Thad’s dark curls, “How about you blow out your candles first, little one?”
The little frown his son gets, when he concentrates, is adorable. With a dramatic flourish that is all his grandmother, Thad inhales deeply and blows out both candles in one go.
“That’s my boy,” Riker exclaims proudly while his wife reminds their son gently to make a wish.
Thad ponders his options for a minute, then looks up at his father with a big toothy grin, “Music, daddy!”
12
Thad picks at his pasta with his fingers till he pulls out a long noodle and lets it dangle over his mouth.
“Thaddeus!” Lwaxana Troi scolds her grandson, “We don’t play with our food!”
“But daddy does!” Thad protests immediately and Will groans internally. Trust his son to take no prisoners. “I seed him throwing the skettis against the wall!”
“Excuse me?” Deanna turns to her husband with a quirk of her eyebrow.
“First of all,” Will sends his son a mock-glare who shrinks back a little, realizing his mistake, “it’s ‘I saw’ and not ‘I seed’. Second, I thought that was supposed to be our special little secret. You know, just between you, me, and Uncle Drew?”
“Sorry, daddy, I forgots.” Thad looks at him with sorrowful puppy eyes and Will sighs defeated. Lwaxana tries very hard to hold back her laughter.
Used to her son’s antics, Deanna’s eyes remain fixated on her husband. “Would you care to explain yourself? You said you were going to teach the boys how to cook.”
“I did,” Will tries to smooth things over with his wife, “it’s an old Earth trick. You throw the pasta against the wall and when it sticks, it’s done.”
Suddenly the gong chimes, and everyone looks up surprised. Deanna’s little brother puts down the mallet and shrugs his shoulders sheepishly, “I think Will cooked them to perfection.”
“Toady!” Thad accuses and glares at his uncle, “You just want to be his soup chef next time!”
At this point, Lwaxana Troi can no longer hold in her rapturous laughter that can be heard all the way down to Rixx probably. Deanna may have taken her sweet time to make her a grandmother, but Thad was worth every minute of the long and excruciating wait.
11
“Again!” Thad is clapping his hands together.
Captain Riker looks at his son with exasperation, “Again?”
“Yes!” The boy commands, “Again!”
Will turns to Deanna, “Is it just me or do I seem to be taking more orders from a four-year-old than four-star-admirals these days?”
“Daddy, puhleeze!” Thad whines impatiently.
“You heard the Admiral, Captain.” Deanna smirks sitting next to their son on the couch, and Will licks his lips with an exasperated eyeroll before he lifts his trombone to play the seventh encore of “Pennsylvania 6-5000”, his son’s favorite tune at the moment.
Thad is quietly humming the iconic melody along, waiting anxiously for his father’s trombone to drop out, so he can shout at the top of his lungs, “Pencil mania six five thousand!”
10
“Hi dad,” Thad greets his father as they pass each other in the doorway to their quarters, “bye, dad.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, not so fast,” Will grabs his son by the waist, “where you off to?”
“Can’t talk, dad, I’m already late. Couple of us are meeting on the holodeck for a swim.”
Taking in his naked son wearing only his snorkeling mask, Will chuckles, “I gather as much but aren’t you forgetting something?”
Thad looks around, then slaps his forehead. “Gee, dad, you’re right! Thanks!”
Shaking his head in amusement, Will watches his son dash into his room only to return a moment later with a towel. “I’ll be back for dinner, I promise,” he tries to breeze past his father, but the use of the captain’s command voice makes him stop dead in his tracks.
“Thaddeus Troi-Riker!”
“What’s wrong now, dad?”
Rolling his eyes, Riker drags his son in front of the full-length mirror, “You tell me, son.”
Thad looks himself up and down in the mirror, then frowns. “Oh.”
“Yes,” Will huffs, “oh.”
“I guess I’ll go get my swim trunks?” The boy trots back into his room, his head hanging low in shame.
“First smart move I’ve seen you make all day,” Will calls out after his son, shaking his head.
A minute later, Thad returns appropriately dressed for the occasion and with the towel draped around his shoulders like a superhero’s cape. “Um, dad?”
“Yes?”
“Can we not tell mom about this?”
“Sure thing, kiddo.”
9
Deanna watches father and son chasing each other around the lush green meadow of their holodeck suite on the Titan, tossing a Ruviellian slime disc back and forth between them.
“Alright, boys,” she calls their attention, “time for cake!” Will and Thad trot back obediently.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Deanna slaps her son’s fingers when he tries to swipe off some of the chocolate frosting, “go wash your hands in the brook first. I don’t want your slimy little fingers anywhere near my cake.”
Thad challenges her, “Don’t you mean my cake? It is my birthday after all.”
His mother puts her hands on her hips, “Well, I made it.”
“We have a replicator,” Thad points out.
“Fine, I adjusted the recipe, so it would taste more like real K’tarian chocolate.”
Thad’s eyes light up. Like his mother, he is a slave to all things chocolate. “The really dark one?”
“Mhm, so go wash your hands or I’ll eat it all by myself,” she threatens.
“You wouldn’t!”
“She would,” Will steps in and looks at his son sternly, “now stop arguing and do as you’re told.”
Thad rolls his eyes dramatically before he ambles off to the small brook that runs nearby the spot Deanna picked out for their picnic. At nine years of age, the Riker genes are finally beginning to assert themselves slowly – and mostly in the form of ridiculous growth spurts, ill-timed wisecracks, and that familiar Riker twinkle in his son’s eyes. Heaven help them all when Thad would reach full puberty!
8
“Is this where grandfather taught you how to fish?”
“No, he preferred a clearing on the other riverbank.”
“Oh ok.” Thad scans the area and inhales deeply, “I like it here.”
“Yeah?”
Thad nods, “It’s beautiful and quiet.”
“You like that, huh?”
His son nods again, “You know I love mom, but she can be intense sometimes.”
“That’s Betazoid moms for you,” Will laughs out loud, not missing the irony of his wife becoming a little more like her own mother as Thad tests the boundaries of their mother-son relationship more and more, “She can’t help it. It’s in her genes. She’s just worried about you.”
“No, I get that. It’s just… do we always have to talk everything out? Can’t we just be for once? Like you and me right now.”
“Your mom loves you very much. And as an empath, she feels everything you feel – only you’re not just anyone, you know? You’re her son. That makes it a million times more intense. She can’t shut it out like she’d do with other people because you’re connected. When you hurt, it suffocates her. When you’re sad, her heart aches. But when you smile, Thaddy, it lifts her up into spheres unknown.”
“Dad!” Thad starts to jump up and down excitedly, “I think I got one.”
Will sighs regretfully. He wishes he could bottle up these moments with his son. “Alright, kiddo, you know what to do. You’ve done this dozens of times on the holodeck before.”
“I don’t know, dad,” Thad worries his lower lip, “this one feels much bigger than the ones in our programs there.”
“You can do it, Thaddy-boy,” Will drops his rod and moves behind his son. “Angle your tip up a little but not too far or it’ll break.”
“Like this?” Thad is looking at his father over his shoulder for guidance, “Now what?”
“Reel it in, son.”
“It’s really strong, dad. I don’t know if I can hold it.”
“Yes, you can, Thad, just reel it in a little bit faster,” Will puts his palm over his son’s much smaller hand and shows him the correct speed, “there you go, kiddo, now you do it. Keep it steady. Just keep reeling.” He steps back and watches his son proudly as he fights with his first wild Alaskan cod.
“But dad! What if I lose it?”
“Then you’ll catch the next one.”
7
Will locks eyes with his son while he counts them in quietly. As always, Thad gets the giggles when his father uses the slide to make his trombone sound like an old-fashioned Earth train whistle during the intro, but he pulls himself together quickly enough to soar through the first chorus of the “Chattanooga Choo Choo” on his saxophone.
Deanna is listening amused to her boys improvising round after round of the popular jazz standard, silently impressed with their son’s stamina and musical creativity. Though Will may be oblivious to his son’s clever attempt at pushing back his bedtime, she caught on to Thad’s ever more elaborate schemes of staying up longer. So, when they finally return to the familiar melody, Deanna sings along, “Pardon me, boys? Isn’t it time for Thaddy’s curfew? Yes, nineteen oh eight! Thad, you should be in bed.”
The saxophone stops when Thad glares at his mother. “Mom!”
“What?”
“Dad, do something!” Thad complains to his father, “Can she do that?”
“Do what?” Will echoes his wife’s question.
Thad stomps his foot, “Ruin a perfectly good song like that?!”
6
Riker is watching his son at the helm of the space shuttle, stroking his beard pensively. “Son, we need to talk. Your mom mentioned something over breakfast this morning that I want to follow up with you. Apparently, she caught you a few times sneaking out of your room in the middle of the night to use the replicator?”
The space shuttle takes an unexpected nosedive as Thad blanches visibly. Riker holds on to his console while his son corrects the course quickly. Luckily, they’re on the holodeck using the flight simulator program Will designed for his son’s first flying lessons.
“You know, you could just replicate a stack of sheets and keep them in your room? That way you can still change them whenever you wake up from a wet dream and toss the dirty laundry in the reclamation cycle when you’re home alone after school but before mom returns from the office.”
The boy looks at him mortified, “You figured it out?”
“Thad, I was thirteen once,” Will motions for his son to keep his eyes front, “only I didn’t have access to a replicator and had to wash mine.”
“Yuck!” Thad enters new co-ordinates into the system to account for the gravitational pull of the planet that had just appeared on the screen. “Does mom know? I mean, do you think she can sense when I… you know…” he lowers his voice “get aroused?”
Oh, the joys of being part Betazoid, Will sympathizes with his son. “Probably,” Riker checks his console and nods satisfied with his son’s choice of course correction, “I don’t know if she’s put two and two together yet about your late-night replicator antics, but don’t be surprised if you find a bottle of hand lotion on your nightstand soon.”
“Oh my god,” Thad scrubs his palm over his face and switches to autopilot for the docking maneuver. “She’d do something embarrassingly stupid like that to show her ‘quiet support’, wouldn’t she?”
“Hey, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it,” Will winks at his son, “those Betazoid oils are really something…”
“Dad!” Thad gapes at his father horrified.
“Sorry, kiddo,” They never went to great lengths to hide the physical aspects of their relationship from their son, exchanging the occasional kiss here or tender caress there. Deanna is adamant that Thad grows up around a healthy adult relationship so that he learns to model his own ones on. But now as he is studying his son’s reaction, Will comes to the disconcerting realization that perhaps Thad’s empathic skills have grown strong enough to pick up on their raging desires just when they’re getting sloppy with their shielding during Deanna’s phase. “Can you tell when your mother and I…?”
“Sometimes,” Thad stares dead ahead at the viewscreen, waiting for the docking procedure to complete.
“I’m really sorry about that, Thad,” Will gives his boy a sympathetic smile and pat on the back, “I think it’s time you sat down with your mother and learned how to shield your own thoughts and block out other people’s feelings.”
“Oh, just kill me now.” His son parks his face on the helm console in a remarkably similar fashion to his mother when she gets drunk, Riker notes.
5
“Uh-oh!” Will and Thad panic at the sound of the chime. A moment later, the doors slide open and reveal a frazzled looking Commander Troi returning from her away mission. Frowning, she leans back to check the room number for the correct quarters.
“Mom!” Thad exclaims surprised, “We didn’t expect you back so early.”
“Obviously,” Troi replies dryly as she surveys the mess that once was the captain’s quarters. Her husband and son exchange guilty looks at the poker table. “So, that’s what my boys get up to while I’m off saving the galaxy!”
“I dream of a galaxy where your eyes are the stars and the universe worships the night,” Will toasts his wife with his synthale, who is looking at her husband as if he was coming down with polywater intoxication.
Nursing his own first synthale, Thad pipes up, “Dad’s teaching me how to pick up girls.”
“Wow, Will,” Deanna shakes her head at her husband, “drinking, gambling and solicitation? You’re just on a roll today, are you?”
4
“Any parting words of wisdom?” Thad looks at his parents who’re in the transporter room of the Titan to see him off.
“Well,” Deanna hugs her son, “the best advice I ever got was that your first duty is always to the ship. If you keep that in mind, you’re going to ace all of your exams up to the bridge officer's test.”
Thad smiles over her shoulder, “How about we just focus on getting me into the Academy for now?”
She squeezes him tighter, “Aw, I’m going to miss you, little one.”
“Says the mother of the son who’s a head taller than her,” Will quips from the sidelines.
“Shut it,” Deanna swats her husband’s chest.
“Then stop hogging our son!”
“Mom, I’ll only be gone for a few weeks.”
“I know,” Deanna sniffles and pulls back, “but you’ve never been away from both of us for that long.”
“I’ll be fine,” Thad squeezes her shoulders before he lets her go, “I promise.”
“Alright, son,” Will pats his son on the back, “I’m proud of you and remember what we talked about.”
Thad recites by heart, “No means no. Always use protection. Call mom once a week. Make fast friends with the cadets in engineering because they’re the ones going to save my ass one day. Fate protects only fools, little children and ships named Enterprise. So, if in doubt, ask yourself what would JLP do.”
“Good,” Will nods as he pulls his son in for a bear hug. “But most importantly, don’t ever let your ambitions come between you and the woman you love,” he mumbles against his son’s temple before he presses a kiss there. “You hear me, boy? Don’t make the same mistakes your old man did.”
“Yes, dad,” Thad glances at his mother when his father pulls back. “Geeze, you two! I’m not leaving forever.”
“We love you, Thad,” his mother sniffles, “don’t you forget that! And remember, we’re but a subspace call away!”
“Love you, too, guys.” Thad watches his father step back next to his mom and put his arm around her back. His mother lets her head fall back against her husband’s chest and pulls his arm a little tighter around her waist. They’ll be fine, Thad tells himself, as long as they have each other to hold on to.
Will sees that familiar Riker twinkle in his son’s mischievous eyes and orders the transporter chief to “Energize!”
“Oh, don’t fret, mom,” Thad grins as his molecules start to dissolve, “just think about all the wild sex you and dad can have all over our quarters now while I’m go…”
“Thaddeus!” Deanna exclaims and turns to her husband with fire in her eyes, “Get him back right now.”
But Riker has no such intention at all. His whole body is shaking with laughter, as he drags his scowling wife behind him, “Come on, imzadi, you heard the Admiral.”
3
“Aw,” Deanna pinches her son’s cheek when his girlfriend mentions that Thad made pizza for her on their third date, “like father, like son.”
“Mom!” Thad blushes.
Thad’s girlfriend nudges him, “Oh, lighten up, Teddy.”
Teddy? Riker and Troi mouth over the kids’ heads, exchanging curious glances.
“She’s your mom,” the younger woman continues, “she brought that face into the world; she can do whatever she pleases with it.”
“Oh, she’s a keeper, son,” Deanna raises her wine glass, then looks at her husband with true affection in her eyes. “Will used to cook for me when we started dating.”
“The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach,” Will philosophizes to everyone’s amusement.
Conspiratorially, Troi leans over the table to her son's girlfriend, “That’s Riker-men code for marry me, I can feed you and the children on even the remotest of planets.” Both women giggle.
“And you were worried we weren’t going to make a good impression serving pizza instead of a five-course meal.” Will winks at his wife and steers the conversation back to safer grounds, “So how’d you two meet?”
“Well, Teddy’s ship picked up my research team from a geological gig on Rugala Prime to drop us off at the next starbase. There was a malfunction with the universal translators, so I thought his name was Ted and not Thad.”
That gets a good chuckle out of everyone.
“Wait it gets better,” Thad grins, “When I asked her out to dinner in the crew lounge, it got translated into would she mind if I carried her rocks.”
“I was a bit surprised, since I just assumed the samples would be beamed directly into lab storage, but who was I to argue with the second officer…”
Troi snorts, “Oh no!”
“Oh yes, I carried those damn rocks all the way to her guest quarters,” Thad laughs out loud, “and they were heavy, too! But,” he wiggles his eyebrows, “she was smitten with my strength and gallantry so she insisted on thanking me with dinner in her quarters. And the rest is history as they say.”
Deanna smiles, “So that’s why you call him Teddy.”
“Yeah, you know how life is in Starfleet. We didn’t see each other often in between our first few dates and by the time he corrected me, he’d been firmly Teddy in my head for months.” She shrugged her shoulders, “It proved a tough habit to break.”
“Months?” Riker looks at his son.
“Well, I didn’t want to hurt her feelings,” now it is Thad’s turn to shrug his shoulders, “and I really wanted to get that second date.”
“And a third one, and a fourth one, and a fifth one…” Thad’s girlfriend trails off.
“Oh Thaddy-boy,” Will sighs, shaking his head, “you’ve got it baaaad, son.”
“Oh, like mom never made you do anything stupid?”
“So how did you meet Thad’s father?” The younger woman asks Deanna, “Any funny stories how he asked you out?”
“The way I recall it, there wasn’t really any talking involved – just lots of,” Troi clears her throat, “kissing.”
“Oh my god, mom!” Thad looks at his mother horrified.
To make their first encounter sound less scandalous, Riker supplies helpfully, “We met at a friend’s wedding. There… uh… was a lot of romance in the air.”
Thad’s girlfriend grins amused.
“Actually, it was a Betazoid joining ceremony. It was very obvious Will was interested in me if you catch my drift.”
“Oh,” The younger woman mulled over the additional information, looking between her boyfriend's parents. Finally, the penny dropped, and she blushed furiously, “Oh!”
“Seriously, mom, that’s just gross!” Thad looks at his mother mortified and laughs nervously, “What’s gotten into you today?”
“Oh lighten up, Thaddy, your wrinkly old parents have a sex life, get over it,” Deanna rolls her eyes, as she lifts her glass, “where do you think you came from?”
“That’s enough, imzadi, you’re cut off.” Will reaches over and plucks the wine glass from his wife’s fingers. “I’m sorry son, I’m afraid that’s my fault. She was a little apprehensive about meeting your girlfriend and I thought laid-back mom would be better than high-strung mom, so I may have encouraged her to dip a little into Uncle Jean-Luc’s finest before dinner.”
Thad’s girlfriend blinks at Troi confused, “What reason could you possibly have to be nervous about meeting me?”
“Do do you have any idea how many parents I counselled on the Enterprise who complained about their estranged children after they met their spouse?” Deanna sighs, “And it’s not like Thaddy’s ever brought someone home to meet us before.”
“How much is a little?” Thad eyes his father suspiciously.
“She chugged down a glass of Chateau Picard 2379 just before you arrived.”
“Oh dear, that year packs a punch.” Thad looks from the empty bottle on the table to his mother worriedly, “is she going to be ok?”
“Oh yeah,” Will reassures his son, “it’s the tequila shots we would have to worry about. That’s when she gets feisty and handsy.”
“What’s Tequila?” Thad’s girlfriend inquires.
“Tequila was a vile concoction brewed by 21st-century barbarians in a secret attempt to take over the galaxy and should be outlawed like Romulan ale,” Deanna states confidently while Will contradicts her with a quiet headshake.
“Meanwhile, I’ve been a wreck ever since Teddy told me about the dinner invitation. I mean you’re both practically Starfleet royalty. I can’t believe I’m eating pizza with the legendary Counsellor Troi and Commander Riker from the Enterprise.”
“You mean Commander Troi and Captain Riker from the Titan, Ensign.” Deanna deadpans. When the girl’s face falls, she quickly reassures her, “I’m kidding, Will and Deanna is just fine. I’m so glad, we’re all hitting it off on the right note.”
Riker leans over to his son and whispers, “You mean you didn’t tell her anything about the Fifth House shenanigans yet?”
Eyes wide, Thad shakes his head no.
2
Remember when it was us up there? Will takes his wife’s hand as they watch their son exchange vows with his bride.
Mhm, Deanna wipes a tear out of her eye and rests her head on her husband’s shoulder, you looked so handsome in your mess dress.
Will glances down at her, And you were so hot in that cute little pink dress of yours.
You couldn’t even wait until after the reception to get me out of it. She looks up into his eyes.
Only because you couldn’t keep your fingers to yourself. He flashes her his trademark Riker grin, fully aware of all the things it does to her. Now see, that’s the part your people got right. No clothes to get in the way because the act of love is already built into Betazoid joining ceremonies.
Deanna presses her lips together to suppress the bubble of laughter that threatens to erupt. She reaches up and plays with the hairs in his neck, Do you ever regret it?
He frowns, Marrying you?
No, she rolls her eyes exasperated by his dumb question, not getting married sooner. All the time we wasted being stupid and insecure and career-driven...
Sometimes, he admits, but then I think about all the great times we had together on the Enterprise, building our friendship over all those years, and I realize… That foundation is what makes our marriage so solid. There’s nothing the universe can throw at us that we can’t overcome because I married my best friend.
I never stopped loving you, imzadi, Deanna touches their foreheads together, even when we weren’t together, that never changed.
Oh, I know, Deanna, I know. I’ve always loved you, too. We both know that was never our problem. Will gives her a wicked smile, I remember it like yesterday when we made him. Rolling around the ceremonial sheets in your mother’s garden...
Who would have thought she was right? Deanna matches his grin, Having that Betazoid joining finally was sooo worth it. She glances from her husband to their son kissing his bride. We did good, didn’t we?
Yes, we did, imzadi.
Of all the good things we did together, Thad’s the one I’m proudest of.
Me, too.
I still love you, imzadi. Will feels the gentle caress of Deanna’s mind brushing against his, asking him to let her in deeper. Can you feel it? Our love’s burning as brightly as the day we met. He nods and captures his wife’s lips in a longing kiss. Till death do us part, imzadi, he vows, till death do us part.
1
“She’s beautiful, Thad.” Riker watches his granddaughter frolic around the gardens at the Fifth House with her mother and grandmother in tow, the soft breeze mussing her long blonde curls.
“Oh, I can’t take any credit,” Thad chuckles, “she’s all her mother. I just reported for duty when she was made and born.”
Will laughs out loud, “You know I used to make that exact same joke about you to your grandmother? You’ve always looked so much more like your mom, and you got all your good qualities from her, too.”
Thad tilts his head, “That’s funny because all I’ve ever wanted was to become just like you.”
Will looks at his son with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh come on, dad? How can you not know after thirty years that you’re my hero?”
“I don’t know, son,” Will sighs, shaking his head, “looking back, I can’t help but wonder if I always did right by you. I was so busy running my ship when you were little. Never had enough time for you and your mother.”
“Are you kidding me, dad? You can’t possibly be serious! I had a great childhood! All those times on the holodeck when you taught me how to swim and fish and fly? The nights I missed mom when she had to go away on a mission, and you let me stay up late in your lap during your poker games till I fell asleep? That trip we took to Alaska, just the two of us? The music and cooking lessons that drove mom crazy?” Thad shakes his head, “We had so much fun together, you, mom, and me. I can only hope I’ll be half as good a parent as you were to me.”
“Of that I have no doubt, son, you’ve got your mother’s patience and wisdom. For starters, you were smart enough to have your children at an age when you can still run after them without having to ask the ship’s doctor for the good stuff to help keep up your stamina. And it will be easier for you, too, to make time for your family. Don’t get me wrong, first officer still comes with a heavy workload and a lot of responsibilities, but not everything rests solely on your shoulders. Once you get to know your crew and figure out their limits and abilities, you trust them to do their jobs and they’ll carry you through any adventure.”
Thad keeps a watchful eye on his daughter who is now picking flowers with her grandmother. “Thanks for watching her while we get settled in on the new ship.”
“Don’t mention it,” Will dismisses his son’s gratitude with a brush of his hand, “I just don’t know how we’ll get your mother to give her back.”
“We’ll send chocolate to bribe her,” Thad chuckles, “lots of chocolate.”
“When do you leave?”
“Three days.”
Riker nods, “So the Titan, eh? Returning to your old stomping grounds.”
“Well, you know what they say over at headquarters: It’s not really a Titan …” Thad snorts and both men chorus, “… till there’s a Riker on the bridge.”
“Kinda makes me wish I could go back out there with you.”
“Dad, no,” Thad shakes his head, “your boots are big enough to fill without you looking over my shoulder every minute of my shift. Besides, it’s mom’s turn now to pick up the mantle of the Fifth House. You go and enjoy being Mr. Troi for a while. You’ve earned it.”
Riker scowls.
“I promise if we stumble across something really exciting, I put in a request for you and mom to come aboard for babysitting duty.”
Will studies his son carefully, “Deal?”
“Deal,” Thad holds out his hand and father and son shake on it.
“Son, you’ve already exceeded our wildest expectations. All we ever wanted for you was to be happy. I would have been just as proud of you if you had ditched the Academy to join a Jalalan artist collective and paint abstracts for the rest of your life.”
Thad howls with laughter, “You’d be miserable, dad, coming to my openings and staring at all those blots and drips.”
“But I would if it made you happy…”
“I know, dad. I am happy. I’ve got a beautiful wife, an adorable daughter, a baby boy on the way, and two parents who love me and support me unconditionally. And to top it all off, a great career lies ahead of me. Some mornings I pinch myself because no man should be so lucky. I just hope I’ll do the Riker and Troi names proud.”
“You will,” Riker winks at his son, “just don’t get lost in the Jeffries tubes again.”
“That one time!” Thad protests, “I was three years old!”
“You see that?” Will points towards a random spot in his grey hair, “That’s from the hours your mother and I spent crawling around Jeffries tubes trying to coax you out. And that one,” Will points at another spot, “is from when you threw your Chrysalian lollipop into the warp core and I had to call Uncle Geordie for help because we were dead in the water. And how could I forget the one where you wandered off the Galoren Conference when you were six? By that point, your mother seriously considered putting you on a leash!”
“Dad!” Thad shakes with laughter, “stop it. I get it! Your hair turned grey because of me.”
“This one,” Will’s tone softens, “I got when I sat with you in sickbay after you got knocked out cold playing Parrises squares and your mom was stuck on Betazed. And this one when you contracted the Zaldonian flu and none of the antibiotics seemed to be working. Your mother and I thought we were going to lose you…”
“I’m still here, dad.”
“Don’t take your time with your children for granted, Thad. They grow up so fast. You blink and you miss half a lifetime.”
“Do you ever wish you could go back in time and fix things? You know, meet mom on Risa? Marry her and have kids when you were younger?”
“Nah,” Will gazes at his son, shaking his head, “never! ‘cause then we would have never had you.”
0
Thad’s face faded away and Will found himself reaching out for his son that was no longer there. Confused, he blinked a few times to clear his head. The hustle and bustle of sickbay became louder, drowning out the quiet solitude of the gardens at the Fifth House on Betazed, where he had still been a moment ago. Slowly, he came out of his reverie – unsure how long he had been standing there at the entrance to sickbay. Nobody had seemed to notice him, so it couldn’t have been for too long.
“Where is she?” It came out harsher than he had intended, and half a dozen heads jerked up at his command voice booming across sickbay. The staff parted like the red sea for him till he saw her lying on a biobed in a far end corner. He appreciated the courtesy that would allow his wife as much privacy as possible under the circumstances. He reached her side in a few quick strides.
Leaning over the biobed, he brushed her bangs aside and kissed her forehead softly. “I’m here, imzadi.”
“Will!” She opened her eyes in relief.
He reached for her hand and clasped it in his, “Everything’s going to be alright, imzadi.” He kissed her fingers. “I promise.”
Tears of frustration sprang into her exhausted eyes, “Your stubborn son won’t turn around!”
“Oh,” Will countered amused, “so when he’s stubborn, suddenly he’s mine?” He reached out to poke and prod his wife’s baby bump, “What’s this I hear, son? Giving your mother so much grief already? That wasn’t our deal.”
Troi replied testily, “You don’t think we’ve tried that already?”
“Doc?” Riker pulled back his hand and looked up at his CMO for a status update.
“The bioscans show Thad facing the wrong way for a vaginal birth. We’ve already tried changing your wife’s position a few times, but he hasn’t budged. Tricorder stimulations haven’t helped, either.”
“Maybe he’s stuck,” Deanna worries as she runs her hand over her baby bump, “I can sense his distress.”
“Alright,” Riker ran his hand through his hair, “what are our options?”
“I’m afraid, we’ve run out of those, sir.”
The captain narrowed his eyes at his CMO, “There must be something you can do.”
The ship’s doctor nodded, “A cesarian.”
“No,” Troi vetoed as her face distorted with the onset of a contraction.
“Breathe, imzadi,” Will reminded her as he felt her squeeze his hand tighter.
“Commander, we’re running out of time. Your contractions are getting stronger and closer.”
“Thank you,” Troi breathed harshly, “I hadn’t really noticed.”
Riker bit his lip. Sarcasm had been an unexpected side effect of the pregnancy hormones.
The ship’s doctor sighed exasperated, “Short of reaching inside you and turning him around with my hand, Counsellor, there’s nothing else I can do.”
Will blanched and Deanna reached out to steady her husband, “You ok, imzadi?”
He gave her a feeble smile, “I know you have your heart set on a natural childbirth…” They had discussed this at length. After her rather unusual experiences with Ian, she wanted as normal a pregnancy as possible. While they couldn’t accommodate a traditional Betazoid water birth aboard their ship to help with the notoriously long and complicated Betazoid labor, Deanna was confident she could endure a vaginal delivery relying only on her meditation techniques and breathing exercises.
“I won’t traumatize him with a cesarian, Will! He needs to come out on his own terms when he’s ready.”
“That won’t do him any good if he dies in the process.”
“If they put me under, he won’t be able to sense me anymore!” He’d read the books, too. Maintaining the maternal bond during delivery was just as important as the first feeding for Betazoid moms and their newborns.
“Can you do the cesarian without general anesthesia?” Riker turned to his CMO.
“It’s not recommended for emergency cesarians, sir.” The doctor sighed, “But I suppose we could make an exception.”
Will raised his eyebrows at his wife.
“I’ll be able to feel him?”
“Yes, you’ll be fully conscious but in no pain at all,” the ship’s doctor reassured her quickly. “You may feel slight discomfort from the pressure on your abdomen, though.”
“OK,” Troi nodded, “do it.”
“You heard the woman,” Riker gave the order, “let’s get him out!”
Instantly he was surrounded by a flurry of activities, as his wife was prepared for surgery. One of the nurses pulled up a chair and pushed him down. He smiled a thank you.
“I’m so scared, Will!” Deanna looked at him with tears in her eyes. “What if something goes wrong? I can’t lose him, too.”
“Shh,” he leaned over and kissed her forehead, “I won’t let anything happen to you or him.”
“You can’t make promises like that,” she whimpered through another contraction.
“Yes, I can,” Will locked his eyes on hers, “because I saw his whole life in front of my eyes on the way down here and,” he swallowed down the lump in his throat, “imzadi, you have no idea just how amazing it's going to be.”
“You saw him?”
Blinking back his own tears, he nodded. “Oh, you’ll be so proud of the kindhearted man we raise.”
She smiled. “Takes after his father.”
“No,” he bumped their foreheads softly together, “he’s all you, imzadi. From his black eyes and dark curls to his compassion and insightfulness.”
“I knew we’d make beautiful babies.”
“You have no idea, Deanna,” he shook his head smiling, “he’s perfect. Not in my wildest dreams…” He choked up. “Just wait and see for yourself.”
“Show me, imzadi, show me now.”
Riker closed his eyes and concentrated on sending her the images of Thad still fresh on his mind.