3.

Usually it was Jean-Luc who woke me in the morning. He is a morning person, after all; he's always taken alpha shift without complaint; schedules early morning staff meetings and even earlier breakfasts with Beverly. I am not a morning person, yet another one of the intrinsic differences between the two of us. I've taught myself to retire at a reasonable hour but not because it's my inclination; perhaps it's the musician in me, but I prefer the late night hours. We'd managed to make our schedules work despite these differences. Two days a week I still went to PT with Jai Patel, and on those two mornings Jean-Luc had his customary breakfast with Beverly. It had seemed a simple adjustment to me, as PT requires absolutely no thought whatsoever, and always ended with a massage; I was reasonably awake and ready to start the day, after. Jean-Luc had been surprised when I'd suggested it, but he'd forgotten, as he often did because the ship ran smoothly, that I was the one who made these adjustments so the ship would run smoothly.

I guess I'd managed to exhaust him, however, because I was the one who woke first. At first I'd had the unimaginable thought that we'd both slept in. While that might have amused the senior staff and the bridge crew, it would have undoubtedly sent Jean-Luc into a sour mood, something to be avoided at all costs. I slipped out of the bed and went into the head to urinate, and checked the time with the computer. We weren't that out of synch; there was no reason to panic, and certainly no reason for me to stay out of bed or wake Jean-Luc.

I crawled back into the bed and turned into him. It seemed that I'd wakened him anyway, and he reached his arm around me and pulled me to him.

"Is this a Beverly morning?" I asked.

He grunted, and then he kissed my head. "Good morning to you, too," he said, his voice low and still sleepy.

I closed my eyes and started to drift off.

"No," he said, after a moment.

"Good," I answered. "I give us both permission to sleep in."

He was silent, and I thought he'd gone back to sleep.

Then he said, "While that's a lovely idea, William, today isn't the day."

"I thought it wasn't a Beverly morning," I mumbled.

"We've a staff meeting at 0830 and you have a battle simulation to run," he answered.

He tried to sit up, and I pulled him back down. "But it's still too early to get up," I protested.

"I need to send my response to Robert," he said.

I sighed. "I'm awake," I said. "But you owe me."

He laughed. "And what exactly do I owe you, mon cher?"

I sat up. "One morning together, uninterrupted," I replied. "I'll get your tea. You take your shower."

"We could," he said in my ear, "take a shower together."

"I thought we didn't have time," I said.

"You're a little old to be pouting, William," he answered.

I looked at him. He wasn't smiling, but he was teasing me just the same.

"Two mornings," I said.

Breakfast was a little more formal this morning, because there was the communication from his brother to deal with, and the video reply from Mrs Troi. Usually we grabbed a quick breakfast and went our separate ways until the senior staff meeting. Today Jean-Luc set the table – although not in the formal and genteel way he did when he was meeting Beverly – and he had his usual tea and croissant. Food in the morning had remained difficult for me. I tried to eat something, but because I'd been forced to give up caffeine, I usually had no appetite. It wasn't something to worry about, although sometimes I think he did, worry about it. At least I managed something small, for his benefit anyway, if not for mine. Lior Cardozo had introduced me to the English muffin, and I'd decided that it was innocuous enough for me to be able to eat without any issues.

Perhaps it might have been better to start off with Mrs Troi, but Jean-Luc simply handed me his padd when I sat down with my tray from the replicator.

"Is that enough for you, Will?"

He asked me this every morning.

"I have a slice of cheese on the muffin," I answered, "and I have some fruit."

He didn't say anything else, and I read Robert's response to our wedding invitation.

Brother, it said, I received your invitation with a great deal of surprise, seeing as how you have never even mentioned this fellow in your correspondence with my wife. I take it since you are having this aboard your ship that Starfleet does not look askance at such affairs. It isn't awkward, to be marrying one's first officer? Marie would have me thank you for inviting us, which I certainly do, as you have never seen fit to invite us aboard your ship before. And René, of course, is quite eagre for me to accept. But you know what time of year it is, and you know how important it is for me to be here at this time, and while I would send Marie and René together gladly with my regrets, Marie will not go without me, and René is much too young to undertake such a journey on his own. I wonder at the wisdom of such an action, given the situation, but you have always considered yourself above family and after all these years it is obvious that you are incapable of change. Marie would have me send our best wishes, and she will send a suitable gift, in due course. Robert

I sipped my coffee and wished that it weren't decaffeinated. Finally I said, "This fellow?"

Jean-Luc sighed. "It isn't personal, Will," which is what he'd said to me last night.

"I grant you that it's not personal as he doesn't know me," I said. "But this certainly feels personal."

"I was unable to attend his marriage to Marie," Jean-Luc said.

"Oh." I was quiet. "So this is about that?"

"Yes," Jean-Luc answered, "and every other slight and unfairness that Robert thinks that has ever occurred between us. I had thought that we made some progress toward being finished, with this."

"But isn't he older than you?" I asked. "Surely, since he's the one who took over your family business, and you're the one who disappointed everyone by joining Starfleet, wouldn't that suggest that he was the favourite, if that's the game he's playing?"

"It would, I suppose, if this were logical. Which it is decisively not," Jean-Luc added. "He followed the rules. I broke them. I got the honours; he got the vineyards. Somehow in that there is a litany of abuses."

"I see," I said. "But that just makes it sibling stuff, right? How do you read it as being a disappointment to your family and your father? And – if you don't mind me asking – how could you disappoint your father when he's been dead for so many years?"

Jean-Luc was exactly thirty years older than me. In fact, he was the same age as my father. His parents, while they'd both been living throughout his childhood, had died while he was in the 'Fleet; first his father, when he'd been a lieutenant jg, and then his mother, when he'd been on the Stargazer. My mother had died when I was two and a half; my father had allowed himself to be taken down almost four months ago.

"The Picard family," Jean-Luc said, "is very old. We have been in France – and there is a branch across the Pyrenées in Spain – for many centuries. It has come down to my father and his two sons. And then to my brother and his son."

"Oh," I said again. "It's about children."

"Indeed," Jean-Luc said.

I really needed a cup of coffee to think about this, and I stood up and walked over to the replicator. I ordered a dark roast with three creams and then returned to the table. I sat down with my cup and waited for Jean-Luc to point out to me that I wasn't permitted to have caffeine, but his mind was back in France.

"No cousins, Jean-Luc?" I asked.

"None that I know of," he replied.

It was ironic, but the truth was, I had a huge family. My father had kept them from me, even though my mother's aunt and uncle had been the ones to care for me while he was away from home. Most of my childhood playmates had been cousins or related to me in one way or another. My mother had been an only child, but she'd had two aunts who both had had large families, as was traditional in my village. My auntie Tasya was the mother of five children, and the children of those children – my friends Dmitri, and Niall, and Mike, and Tom, and Maya, and all the others – had been my cousins. My father had been the only Riker son, but he'd had two older sisters and they had children. I'd gone from thinking I'd had no one anywhere, to finding Jean-Luc, and then finding my family.

"May I read your response?" I asked.

"Of course, Will," he said mildly.

He really was upset. I read what he'd written back, which was just a little bit terse, but basically said he was sorry that they couldn't come, and letting his brother know that we would be spending our honeymoon on Earth while the Enterprise was at McKinley Station for upgrades and repairs.

"It seems a shame that he won't allow René to come," I said. "He could take the regular service to Betazed, and we are going to be picking up Admiral Laidlaw and Mrs Troi from there."

"René would enjoy it," Jean-Luc said.

"What did Guinan mean about a title, Jean-Luc?" I thought we might get everything out in the open.

He rolled his eyes. "It's Robert's title," he said. "He was the heir. It has nothing to do with me, because it will go to René."

"Who wants to go to the Academy as you did," I answered. "What title?"

"Count," Jean-Luc answered, "Robert is Le Comte de Picard."

"I thought the Federation did away with those things," I said.

He shrugged. "If you say so," he replied.

"Okay," I said. "What you wrote is fine, Jean-Luc."

"Don't let this upset you, Will," he said. "It's just old stuff. Every time I think I'm too old for this, or he's too old for it, it reappears."

I finished my coffee. "It seems to me," I said, standing, "that your brother has made a number of assumptions, Jean-Luc. Perhaps we should go see them, before we go on to Sitges."

"Are you sure that's wise, Will?" Jean-Luc asked, rising as well. "My brother can be very unpleasant."

"You said he's very old-fashioned, didn't you?" I asked.

"To a fault," he answered.

"Well," I said, "then hospitality is everything, and he'll bend over backwards to be nice to me."

He gave a very undignified snort of laughter.

"What?" I said.

"You," he replied, wrapping his arms around me, "are a very bad boy."

I kissed him, and then I shrugged. "It seems to me that tribal people are all the same," I said, "whether they are in a small village in Alaska, or a small village in France." I let him hold me, resting my head against his shoulder. "Besides," I continued, "I've already told you that I think we should have a child. Or two. Anyway, I'd better get this simulation started."

I left him standing in the middle of our dayroom.