All standard rules of disclaimer apply. I do not in any way own any Next Generation characters in this story. I simply find great joy in writing about them. Paramount is the Great Trek God and I am merely a servant to the Gods.
Two Days
"How did it happen?" Captain Riker could barely contain his emotions. Only training and surviving through war gave him the ability to not break at that particular moment. On the viewscreen in front of him was the person that was responsible for his entire life being what it was, Chandra Xerx. If it had not been for her marrying right when he had been assigned to Betazed, he would never have met Deanna. After hearing the news he understood why she had wanted to speak to him and not his wife. She had just given him some of the most unhappy news he had ever received, Lwaxana had died.
He had expected this to happen someday, but not like this. He had expected her to pass from old age, or some sort of illness that would give him time to prepare. Not so suddenly. He had even seen her a month ago at Julie's sixteenth birthday party. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he nearly missed Chandra's reply.
"There was a fire at the Assembly House. Barin was with her when it happened. He was seriously injured. It was touch and go for a few hours but he is going to make it. That is why I waited to call you. I was at the hospital with Cameryn. I stayed until I knew that he was going to be ok."
At least that is one crisis that was thankfully averted. I don't know if I could handle Barin dying as well. At least he has his Imzadi to be with him. And as a wonderful a mother-in-law as I did.
"Will, I am sorry."
"I know Chan. Has anyone seen to the arrangements yet?"
"Only to the point of interring the body. We were waiting on getting in touch with you and Dee about the memorial service, and finding out if it was even possible for you to get here."
"I can't divert the Titan right now, but we are not on such a critical mission that I can't make arrangements to get us there. It's about two days to you from here by my personal ship. We should be able to leave within a couple of hours. We can start on the other things en route."
"Do you want me to tell Deanna?"
"No, I can do it. I don't think she is going to want to talk to anyone after she knows, even her 'aunt'." Deanna had always been very close to Chandra, the two were like sisters. Then three years ago, Barin had fallen for her daughter, and they had married last spring, making her long time friend her aunt by marriage. "I can manage from here. We will be there in two days."
"Let me know if there is anything that I can help with."
"I will Chan. Call me as soon as Barin is able to talk to people, I think Deanna will want to talk to him as soon as she can. Bye Chan."
"Bye Will." The screen went blank.
Will slumped in his chair, trying to muster the energy to call his wife. It took several minutes but when he sat straighter in his chair he was ready. Luckily both Dee and Julie made a habit of purposely not peeking into what went through his mind. They would know that he was upset, that couldn't be helped. But they would not pry. Carefully he closed his mind, blocking out everything that he could and called his wife, purposely choosing to use his Captain's moniker for her. "Number One?"
"Yes sir." Deanna sounded concerned, proving Will's notion that she knew something had happened.
"Report to my Ready Room." He tried to remain as stoic as possible, but failed rather miserably.
Deanna entered the room. She was not expecting what she saw, which was her husband leaning over the desk with his head in his hands. Immediately the First Officer vanished, leaving only Will's Imzadi. Oh my God. Who?
Instead of trying to form the words that would not come from his throat, Will took his wife in his arms. Once there he opened his mind completely to her, allowing her see what he had learned. For several long and tearful moments they grieved together. Neither wanted to break the contact when they finally did, but they realized that they had business to attend to before they could run off to deal with this.
"Are you sure we both can leave?"
"I am fairly certain that we can. Granted, I don't think that it would be wise to pull the Titan to go; this mission is running behind already. But you and I can definitely be spared for a week or so, and if we have to I can come back first if you need to finish things at home."
"So, that leaves Quenten Marks as CO. Who are you going to bump to Number One?"
"Wesley. His assistant can handle anything he throws at her. Besides I think its time he got his feet wet near the big chair."
"Ok," she allowed herself to let a little humor slip out, "Just don't tell Admiral Picard about it. I have a feeling that if Beverly or he found out you were letting Wes have even the back door key to this place they would drop dead themselves."
"You have a point there. I will make sure to tell Quenten to leave it out of the logs." That's my girl. Let's get started. We have a lot to do, you get Julie from Cartography and I will get Kyle from his class. After we tell them I will tell Marks what is going on. He switched back to verbal speech, feeling the need to fill the emptiness that was in his normal hearing. "I am betting that it will only take me a few minutes to brief the both of them. I will even tell Wes to call home and tell his parents too."
"Let's do this. I am ok for now, but I am going to need a chance to fall apart later, and I don't know how long it will be until later."
"You know what? I think Lwaxana would find this rather amusing, us dropping everything and running to her side like this. She would say it's about damned time."
"You're probably right. I was always in trouble as a kid for not coming when she called me, and up until Julie was born she would still scold me for not calling home often enough." She fell into his embrace one more time. I needed that Imzadi.
Will was amazed at how little time it took to be ready to leave. Even with every single member of the crew that saw him stopping him to offer condolences they were still boarding the Captain's yacht within three hours. During that time they rarely spoke to each other and only spoke to crew when someone directly spoke to them. One turn that surprised Will was the offer that Julie made. She told him that she wanted to be the one to call Tina and Tom. When she had returned from talking to the Captain and First Officer of the Enterprise she seemed to be a little more at peace with the situation. "Tina and Tom both send their love. They are stuck and don't think they can make it, but they will be able to meet the Titan again in about three weeks. So they will come and see us then."
He leaned against the wall for a moment. "Did I ever tell you how much you amaze me? Every time I turn around, you are doing something I did not expect. I just can not get over how much you are like your mother and grandmother." He saw and felt her sadden. Taking her chin in his hand he smiled at her. "Hey, don't let yourself get too down. I know it's going to hurt for a while, but you will manage. Right now I am going to need you to help me with your mother and brother. Kyle is going to need someone to help him during the funeral. Most of the private ceremony will be done telepathically, but the one that includes all the diplomats will be spoken. Can you help me and your mom translate it into spoken words for him? He is going to feel bad enough as it is, I don't want to point out that he doesn't have any telepathy yet. And as for your mother, one thing that she very good at is hiding her own feelings while dealing with others. I think you know enough about that to keep reminding her to look out for herself, and not just the rest of us." He watched as his daughter visibly lighten her mood. Knowing her as well as he did he wasn't exaggerating that she knew how Deanna handled things. The really were two of a kind. The bonus was that they both knew it and the result was always that instead of hiding things from each other they were more likely to work it out together, instead of hiding and allowing what others went through to cloud their mind even more.
"Of course I will." Trying to keep her spirits higher she changed the subject to something that she enjoyed a lot more. "Can I take the pilot's seat?"
"Just don't get us lost. Why don't you see how many more hours you need to log to pilot on you own? I'll sign off for you on what you log from here to Betazed. If I am right you should be rated as a solo pilot when we get back. One good thing, at least you will be able to take the conn when you do go shipboard. Not many Counselors can do that." Will had heard Deanna coming with the last of the things that they needed, the Scared Chalice of Riix. The chalice was only drunk from at the wedding of the new holder, the naming day of her eldest daughter and the funeral the person of any person that held the chalice. He pitched the last sentence so that she would hear him as she rounded the corner.
"I will have you know that I did not know that I was ever going to be stationed on ship. When I went into the Academy, they did not even have my job. Not to mention, it never occurred to me that I would one day need to fly a crippled saucer section into a planet on purpose. But I bet that I could hold my own with you now." She shoved the chalice into a storage bin. "Let's go. I have a lot of things to do over the next two days, and I just want to get this over with."
"You heard the Commander, pilot." He looked at his daughter, trying to make sure that he remained light hearted enough to keep his family from falling into the spiral that was all too common among empaths. Hopefully they would not lock onto each other's grief to the point that they could not separate it from their own. Will was having enough trouble dealing with his own mental stability, but for the next few days at least he would have to make sure that the rest of his family did not fall into severe depression. He turned his attention to watching what was going on. Kyle had taken the liberty of finding the most comfortable chair, and returning to one of the novels he had been reading. The boy read more than the other three of them combined, and that included the paperwork that he and Deanna did. He seemed fairly stable for the moment, although Will knew that he was more like his namesake than he cared to admit. Kyle William was nearly a twin in personality to Will's father. When he decided to do something he was obsessed with it. He also tended to cover his emotions as much as his grandfather. This whole thing would not sink in on him until after everything was over.
Turning his attention back to the cockpit, he watched as mother and daughter went through the preflight as if they had been working together for years; although he and Deanna had taken pains to make sure that she had several different instructors Deanna always demurred to him when it came to teaching their daughter how to fly. Will did not let anyone else take her anywhere until she was ready to sign off on the training programs. Julie was well on her way to being a top pilot, and in some ways Will regretted that she wanted to go into psychology like her mother. But he was certain of one thing, whichever career she chose she would do wonderfully, probably outstripping her parents.
During the two days that it took them to reach Betazed they had managed to come to a stoic acceptance of Lwaxana's passing. Kyle still seemed rather unflappable, meaning that he would most likely not deal with the situation totally for a while yet. Julie was reminding Will so much of her mother at the moment that it was nearly frightening. The two of them wore identical expressions. Unfortunately he was all too familiar with the mask that he saw. He knew that they logically accepted the situation, but they were not allowing themselves to show what they felt. It was the same expression that Deanna wore throughout most of the Dominion War, especially during Betazed's occupation.
They had finished the arrangements for both ceremonies well before they arrived and even had a chance to talk to Barin and Cameryn. Now they had to get through the ceremonies themselves. Once they had managed to get through that and handle any last legal stuff they would be able to relax and finish allowing them to adjust to not having Lwaxana in their lives. But until they were on their way home, they would need to keep a good head on their shoulders.
Chandra met them at the Troi estate. Barin would be released in the morning in time for the service. Deanna!! The two women embraced as both found new tears to weep.
Chan am I glad to see you. Is Barin really ok?
He is doing fine. Lots of burns and skin damage, but other than that he will be in tip top shape within a few days. I told him yesterday. He is not quite as upset as I can tell you are still.
He's probably still just in shock at being alive. It is going to be worse for him. Survivor's syndrome will hit him soon, if it hasn't already. Deanna switched to verbal speech to include Kyle as well as being easier than trying to talk to more than one person telepathically. She could manage when dealing only with Betazoids, but Julie had never been able to do more than follow her and Will, and that wasn't a sure thing. "Is Mr. Homm still here?"
"Actually I haven't seen him since the fire. I don't know where he is."
"After all these years I still don't know how that man works. I just want to make sure he knows he is welcome to stay as long as he wants." Deanna did not necessarily want to keep the house. "Actually I would say that is your decision. If you two want this house, you can. I doubt we're going to retire soon, and Will still has his father's house in Alaska on Earth. We don't need two places."
"We might, but I don't want to think about it for a while."
That's ok, Chan, take all the time you need.
The diplomatic funeral was easier to get through that either Will or Deanna thought it would be. Neither had to address the assembled mourners, this was strictly a professional memorial. Both of them had witnessed so many of this type of service that it was easy to begin to think that it was not someone that they knew. The other service, which included only family and close friends (Which in the case of Lwaxana still numbered over 100), would be very personal indeed. Both Will and Deanna were to speak at the second service. That was when it would be hard for them.
After the diplomats filed out of the mausoleum the remaining mourners became nearly silent. To an outsider it would have seemed a very eerie sight, but to the Rikers it was what they knew. This ceremony would mostly be conducted telepathically. Although they could have elected to ask that the words be spoken , Will had decided not to, based on the idea that Kyle was hurting enough as it was, being reminded that he was different would make it even worse. Julie was going to act as his translator with both of his parents helping. Only during their part of the ceremony would Kyle be able to listen to the ceremony, both had chosen to address the mourners verbally.
When the time came Will managed to say the words without losing control, but he worried about Deanna. When she rose to speak he felt Julie brush his mind as he offered support to his wife. What she needed to perform was a simple ritual, just a few words; much like the final phrase in Terran funerals, 'ashes to ashes, dust to dust'.
"The body is a shell to house the mind. The soul that was this body has been set free. May the spirit that was my mother find flight. I commend the body of the eldest daughter of the fifth house to her final resting place." Deanna finished the ceremony by kissing the coffin. In more of an Earth custom she then placed a single white rose on top, and moved on. The final words of the ceremony were spoken telepathically by Deanna as her family also laid roses on the coffin of Lwaxana Troi. May the Gods welcome my Mother as her family says farewell. May you rest peacefully and may you soar with the eagles as my father would have said. Good-bye Mother. The tears which she thought had dried up flowed again as she joined her husband. She's really gone. I couldn't bring myself to believe it until now. What am I going to do Imzadi?
Let her go. Remember the good, and gloss over the bad. This is part of life and apparently it was her time.
You sound just like me.
I had the best teacher for that, you. You told me the same thing when Dad died. I didn't believe you then, especially the part about time making things easier. It does. I can tell you that of all the people that you and I have lost Dad was the hardest for me. I can't measure how much you hurt or how long before you heal, but I know that you will.
I can't say my own advice is not sound, can I. You are right. And I have you. She looked at all three of them, "No we have each other."