"Wow, I can't believed you got walloped in front of everyone like that!" Wesley whistled as if impressed

"Yes it was quite the accomplishment" Jean Luc rolled his eyes, blushing when he caught some of the kids still looking at him. He quickly locked his eyes firmly on Wesley. However the former Captain blinked as Wesley opened up his locker and put his hover board inside "Don't you want to try the court?"

"It will still be their tomorrow" Wesley shrugged "Besides I'm not about to let my friend sit about ackwardly on the sidelines. We can find something just as fun to do together"

"I appreciate the thought but I won't want-"

"Jean Luc" Wesley said surprisingly sternly "You're ackward enough around me. I'm not about to throw you to the wolves by yourself" motioning at all the other kids (some of whom quickly adverted their eyes as if trying not to get caught staring)

Jean Luc blinked before giving a sigh, shocking himself when heard it did not sound exacerbated so much as relieved "Thank you"

"What are friends for" Wesley shrugged stunning Jean Luc

"Friends?" Jean Luc accidentally wondered out loud

"Well yeah" Wesley shrugged "I mean, I get that it's weird but... aren't we friends?" he grew less certain

Jean Luc thought it over. He understood that Wesley was his equal now and they did spend a lot of time together. They helped each other out and truthfully Wesley was one of the few kids not to stare at him like a freak when he did something child related and even joined him in the play. Jean Luc had even come to rely on the boy for emotional support "Yes... yes I believe we are"

Wesley smiled "Had me worried there for a second"

"Sorry, I just had never really thought about it" Jean Luc admitted "I guess I was in too much shock becoming equals with you to really analyze our new relationship... but honestly you and Guinan are probably my best friends"

"What about the senior staff?" Wesley asked "I thought you'd gotten a lot closer to them since the deaging thing"

"I wouldn't know about that" Jean Luc confessed "I have been seeing them in more informal settings however... they treat me like an adolescent. We have a good deal of fun together but they also scold me and... I always thought of them as family and they appear to reciprocate my feelings but circumstances have caused them to evolve into more of a... I suppose you could call it the role 'aunts' and 'uncles' tend to play. Our relationships are undoubtedly closer but we are not friends anymore"

Wesley patted Jean Luc's back "Sorry to hear that" then the boy suddenly jumped "oh crap"

Jean Luc blinked following Wesley's eyes and groaning when he spotted it. Riker had walked into the rec center and was talking with the host.

"That's... sort of a good sign" Wesley tried

"And how exactly is that?" Jean Luc groaned

"Well... I mean the host is supposed to call a kid's parents when their is an incident right? Tell them to come by as soon as their shift is over?"

Jean Luc nodded

"Well Riker dropped everything and came straight here. Doesn't that show he cares? Or at the very least is taking this parenting thing seriously"

Jean Luc blinked looking over at Riker near the front of the center "I suppose" that thought was pleasing... but unfortunately seeing the angry look on the man's face as the host explained to him what had happened... maybe it was best if the man didn't care so much.

Jean Luc jumped a bit as the newly appointed Captain / father glared in his direction. The boy couldn't help but gulp as the Captain signalled him to come over. However hesitant Jean Luc was it was unfortunately not long at all before he was standing in front of the Captain.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" Riker demanded

Jean Luc gulped again and tried to find a reasonable response.

"Jean Luc" Riker glared "I am extremely disappointed in you" Jean Luc didn't know why those words hurt so much "I gave you this little rec center because you told me it's what you needed to adjust. You didn't have to embrace being a reckless kid so thoroughly"

"I'm sorry" Jean Luc muttered

"You should be. YOU COULD HAVE BROKEN YOUR NECK! Do you even understand that"

Jean Luc shifted his feet a bit "I understand the dangers of the stunt..."

"Then why the hell did you do it!?"

Jean Luc made an involuntary gesture.

"Did you just SHRUG at me!" Riker growled

"Jean Luc has decades of experience on Hover Boards sir" Wesley defended. Jean Luc had been so focused on Riker he didn't notice his friend follow.

"Wesley" Riker tried not to growl "I highly suggest you go find somewhere else to play. Try the arcade or something well I talk to Jean Luc"

"You're angry sir" Wesley pointed out

"Of course I'm angry!" Riker couldn't help but snap "Jean Luc nearly killed himself doing some ridiculous stunt!"

"Mom never punishes me when she's angry" Wesley insisted "It's like the prime directive of parenting"

The host spoke up "That's actually a good idea. It be best to just confine the child to his room until you cool down"

Riker hesitantly nodded "Alright, Jean Luc go wait for me in our quarters and find a corner to stand in"

Jean Luc blushed "A corner Number One? Surely that's-"

"Now little man unless your keen on having another spanking right here"

Jean Luc blushed all the way to his ears "T-that will not be necessary"

"Be sure to thank Mister Sakatulk as I have have a mind to bare you right here and give you a proper spanking"

Jean Luc's eyes wided and he quickly bowed to the Selay, who he assumed was named Sakatulk "Thank you sir"

"Run along little one" said the Selay "Captain perhaps you would like a drink? I took the liberty of programming a calmly tea from my planet into the replicator"

Riker reluctantly nodded at the reptile as Jean Luc ran out the door "Sure, I'm no good on the bridge right now" he wasn't exactly thinking with a level head. He kept envisioning Jean Luc laying dead on that bloody court.

Sakatulk directed him to the juice bar where he pushed a few buttons on a screen under the counter and two large glasses of a odd purple tea. Being in Starfleet, where they had him play the diplomat on more then one occasion, Riker drank the strange substance without batting an eye. It was actually rather sweet tasting, more fruity then what one would expect to come from boiled leaves. The drink actually was making him feel a good deal calmer, like a natural sedative but to a much lesser degree of course.

"I'll admit with how my species handle our young I am not familiar with a 'family dynamic'," Sakatulk admitted "but I worked most of my life at the hatchery so I know a thing or two about children. I'll just have to get usef to dealing with their 'parents' as well"

Riker nodded "I'm not completely familiar with how your people handle your young"

Sakatulk shrugged "In ancient times we would simply lay the eggs somewhere and leave. If the children survived to adulthood or even hatched was left in the hands of our gods well we didn't care in the slightest, but when we started living in villages we left all the eggs in a section in our church with a few priest to make sure they hatched and to look after them and teach them until they were old enough to Apprentice for a trade. This originally wasn't done out of any kindness but necessity to raise our numbers to contribute to the community. You might find this strange to hear but my species was already more advanced technologically then most species when we finally tried living together. We are not pack animals like humans. We are very solitary creatures by nature and would only interact with each other to breed or trade. Most of my species had private farms with working plumbing connected to our own personal well system and electricity generated through a private windmill which they set up entirely by themselves. This was long before my ancestors thought to cluster the farms near each other for support and safety. We had no concept of 'mates' and too this day taking a lifelong partner is very rare. It wasn't until he made contact with other worlds that we learned other species found companionship even in lower animals and took them into their homes as 'pets'. Our technology advanced long before our society appeared so we had no laws or any form of government. It was our war with the mutts from a nearby planet that causes us to develop those things instead of everyone just doing whatever it was we wanted with no regard for anyone else. Before all that we would even make sure to get far away from our land to lay our eggs so our young couldn't bother us. We didn't start out as a very respectable people by most species standards"

"I've never met a sentient species that didn't used to be completely made up of bastards, humans included. However you are reptiles and all those are common instincts for many of them. It make sense you'd start out like that"

"Thanks for saying so... Anyway now we continue to raise all the children together by a select group of people who train for it. When they reach maturity they are moved from the hatchery to the Clutch of their choice. All our jobs are divided into various divisions called 'Clutches' which focus on a specific task for the betterment of our city. We never developed a concept of currency although we do use a barter system. Each Clutch actually grows their own food and handles the chores to sustain their department themselves like... a large compound. The children will apprentice for their required task under the guidance of the rest of the Clutch. I suppose that is as close to a Family Dynamic as we get but the children are largely independent by that point. Well I was apprenticing I went to the space fair Clutch. There I studied various alien languages and cultures but I also took courses in child rearing. I studied child psychology and welfare, including the habits of alien children. See I had hoped to be placed on a long term exploration mission, in which cause they would need people to look after any eggs that were laid during that time and to deal with the Hatchlings. Unlike those born on a colony these hatchlings were predetermined to join the ship as crew but they still got to decide their role on board. Ship like that tend to be generational vessels. We have over 137 transmitting data from all over the quadron to us. They only come back once every 50 years. Some of those ships are starting to head into other Gamma and Delta quadrants and aren't expected back for another 200. Such devotion is part of the reason we had hoped the Federation would accept us. We have one of the most complete Star maps in the galaxy and the best systems for long range subspace communication. Personally I doubt we'll get in any time soon. We might be technology advanced but we're still new to the politics of the greater galaxy and even the idea of government. We might have investigated a lot of planets and observed them but we never interacted with any of them until we crossed paths with the Federation. We assumed all alien lifeforms were like the Anticans. We wanted to explore but were scared of being discovered. Meeting the Federation was a turning point for my people. You gave us hope that not everything we find out here would be bad"

"Why explore at all if you were scared of what you'd find?"

The Selay shrugged "We had to. There isn't any real reason for it beyond the desire to do so... if I could be poetical, maybe we were looking for you. Some proof that the galaxy wasn't such a horrible place. I would have liked to be on a generational ship out in the true fringes of space but I couldn't pass this up. The moment the Federation offered my government to put some of us on their ships to better our understanding of each other I was one of the first to apply. I really lucked out getting this ship. Not just because it's the Flagship but because of this" he looked around center with the kids laughing and playing "It's a lot better a job then I was expecting. I thought I would end up working in a school but this little club house is similar to the rec centers my people have in our hatchery. It's more familiar then I was expecting"

Riker nodded

"Children have a habit of being reckless when they get over excited in places like this but they are also necessary for them to burn off energy... don't be too hard on Jean Luc. I already punished him and I believe I got my message across. I don't think he'll try anything like that again"

"Let's just make sure the lesson sticks" Riker insisted looking over at the court "I knew I shouldn't have had that bloody thing installed"

"Don't worry too much about it" The Selay insisted "The construction workers did a good job with the padding. It's not likely the hatchling would have gotten seriously hurt if he messed up his little stunt. Maybe dislocated something or gotten a fracture but it's unlikely he would have actually broken anything"

Riker sighed with relief hearing that. Yes he already knew that in theory but he needed to actually hear it was safe. He definitely didn't want the kids to test just how much of a beating they could take on it but he'd be lying if he said he never did anything stupid on a hover board.

Taking another drink Riker asked "So you don't think your people are ready to join the Federation?"

"It's rather infamous how badly our dignitaries represented us during our summit with your Federation. It was a good way to flush out all our dirty laundry... and seeing as some of the delegates of our worlds literally killed each other that's not something we are likely to recover from for a long time"

"It was an interesting experience having them on board" Riker confessed

"Just please keep in mind that although many of my kin gleefully kill the Anticans that is in response to centuries of them coming to our planet and hunting us for sport. We are considered a 'rare delicacy' by these 'civilized' mammals. My species may not be ready to join the Federation but the Anticans never will be"

"The Federation does like to keep it's distance from species willing to eat other sentient lifeforms. That defeats the purpose of what the Federation is about"

Sakatulk gave a light smile "That's a relief to hear"

Riker blinked when Sakatulk suddenly put his glass down and looked over that the roller court. One of the kids had tripped and seemed to have skinned their knee "Excuse me" The Selay bowed before leaving to check on the kid.

When he got over there he picked the kid up and brought them over to the tables where he sat him down. Taking a first aid kit out of his robes he quickly healed the minor injury before sending the kid back to play.

Riker smiled when the Selay come back to the bar "They teach you first aid at your Clutch?" even though he knew the answer when he read over the guy's file before recruiting him. Still he wanted to hear his answer.

"Just some basic stuff. It wouldn't make much sense if I was trusted to look after children and didn't know how to handle a scrapped knee. I'm far from a doctor but I qualify as a field medic. Now I need to get back shepherding the hatchlings and I believe you have one of your own that requires your attention"

Riker groaned "You're right. Better get going. Thanks for the drink"

###

A/N:

This Chapter is mostly just fleshing out the new Character who I'm thinking about making the love interest for Riker. Tell me what you think about that or if there are other alien races you think would make a good Partner for Riker.

And yes I know I need to have a capture where Jean Luc interacts with the senior staff and not just Riker but I want to spend a little time building up the father / son dynamic before I get into the aunts and uncles thing.