"So you came from over three hundred years in the future just to save me?" Irina was understandably having a very difficult time processing the information. The two couples were sitting together at a charming little outdoor cafe just outside the hospital. It was a beautiful sunny day. Irina had just been released after three days of receiving an antibiotic through an IV. "But how?"
"Time travel through worm holes became possible when a method was discovered to stabilize them long enough for passage to take place," Will explained.
"I've heard of worm holes," said Irina. "So are you two married?"
Will and Deanna exchanged glances. "No," Deanna replied.
"But it may well happen some day," Will added quickly.
"Arkady and I have been married for three years now." Irina smiled as she took her husband's hand.
"How did you meet?" asked Deanna.
"It was in 1983," Irina began. "He was investigating a crime, and he interviewed me because I had been good friends with one of the victims. I was trying to defect to the United States at the time."
"Defect?" Deanna was puzzled.
"That would have been during the Soviet era," Will reminded her.
"To me that seems so very long ago."
"It doesn't seem that terribly long ago to me," said Irina. "Arkasha and I fell in love, but then I had to stay in New York and he had to go back to Moscow. We didn't see one another again for eight years after that. I thought that he would wait a year or two and then join me in New York but he never did. He promised to keep in touch, but he didn't. I moved to Germany to be closer to him, and one day he called me out of the blue and wanted to see me again."
"After I left her in New York, I thought I'd never see her again." Arkady took up his wife's story seamlessly. "I didn't write back to her because it would have been too painful. I was sure she'd met another man and I didn't want to hear about it. One day in 1991, I was listening to Radio Liberty and heard her voice. Right then and there, I knew that I had to find a way to see her again. I found out where she was and went there."
"I was cold to him at first, but it was only because I was so badly hurt that he'd never contacted me or tried to find me over all those years. I never stopped loving him." Briefly she thought of Max, of all the times she'd lain underneath him and joined her body to his while all the time pretending that Arkady was there instead.
"As I never stopped loving you." Arkady kissed her lips, a soft, sweet, chaste kiss.
"That sounds so much like our story," said Deanna. "Will was a young Starfleet officer stationed on Betazed when we met at the wedding of a mutual friend. We were together for a little while, but then my mother interfered and broke us up. Later we made plans to get together on Risa, but he got a promotion and chose that over our relationship."
"Risa?"
"It's a bit like Monaco, or perhaps Las Vegas."
"Oh, I see." Irina nodded.
"We didn't see each other again until we were stationed together on the Enterprise in 2364. We tried to be just friends for a long time, but in the end we had to admit that we were still in love."
"Tell me about this Betazed," said Irina. "Is it much like earth?"
"It's a beautiful planet. There are lush jungles and wide canyons, jutting cliffs and clear lakes. The Janara Falls is a very special place to Will and myself. Perhaps we could all go there someday."
Irina shook her head. "This is all just so very new to me."
"That's perfectly understandable," Will replied.
"Neither of them said anything at all about having any children," Deanna remarked. Having decided that they might as well enjoy a vacation since they were there anyway, they'd checked into a Moscow motel and were now relaxing on the bed.
"Perhaps my great times nine grandfather is yet to be conceived," said Will. "It did feel strange to converse with that couple while at the same time realizing that they're actually my distant ancestors."
"It's a good thing you didn't tell them that," Deanna replied. "The shock would have been too much for them. They're both still reeling from a combination of Irina's close brush with death and the things we've told them already."
"Perhaps it won't be necessary to tell them at all," said Will. "But I would really like to get to know them better."
"I can sense that Arkady is much like you: fearless, loyal, devoted, and protective, but with an inclination toward over confidence and false bravado. I'd love to know more about his family background. I strongly suspect that it's similar to yours, Will. Irina, on the other hand, is quite different from myself, but of course, her background is vastly different from mine. I sense in her a brashness, a tough exterior concealing a tender heart."
"And you can tell all that just from being around them twice."
Deanna laughed. "I came by it honestly."
They'd no sooner entered the apartment than Irina had pressed Arkady against the wall and began to kiss him passionately. He responded by reaching underneath her skirt and pulling her panties down while she undid his belt buckle and unzipped his pants. Within seconds he was inside her, thrusting with abandon. "Harder," she whispered. "Faster."
He obliged, his breath coming in deep, ragged gasps as she groaned in pleasure. As he erupted inside her, his knees gave way and he fell to the hard wooden floor, pulling her down on top of him. Both of them just lay there, gasping and panting, for a few seconds. "I really could have lost you." Arkady's voice was choked with emotion. "You could have been gone forever."
Gently she pressed a finger against his lips. "We're here together now. That's all that matters."
It didn't occur to her until much later that her period was about three weeks late.
