"My name is Aili Lavena," said the woman who had just beamed aboard the Enterprise. "I am a Selkie from the planet Pacifica, and this is my son, Veser."

Deanna gasped in disbelief. Lavena was one of the strangest looking humanoids she had ever seen. Her body seemed to be covered with blue-green scales, and her fingers were webbed. Her hair looked like green seaweed, and her eyes were very large and round. She was wearing a suit similar to that which a scuba diver might wear. Veser resembled his mother somewhat, except that his scales were fewer and sparser, and he had human-like dark brown hair and very large blue eyes. Except for their size, they looked eerily similar to another pair of blue eyes that Deanna was very familiar with. Instead of a suit like his mother's, Veser wore regular clothing.

"Veser wanted to meet his father, and I promised him that I would do what I could to find him," Lavena continued. "His father is William Riker."

Deanna sensed Will's astonishment, although his face showed no emotion.

Will looked at Lavena. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

"There was no need to. Veser has only recently become curious about his father."

"But don't you think I had the right to know he existed?" Deanna sensed how upset Will was.

"I have business to attend to in the quadrant," Lavena said, ignoring Will's question. "I thought that it would give you and Veser an opportunity to get to know one another. I will leave him in your care and return for him shortly." With that, she was gone.

Veser looked questioningly at Will, who gave him a reassuring smile. "Would you like a quick tour of the Enterprise?" Will asked.

"Oh ,yes! Is this your ship?"

"No, sorry. This is Captain Picard's ship. I'm just the first officer." Will took Veser's hand, and they left the bridge together. Deanna, badly shaken, stared after them, knowing that she wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else for the rest of the day.

"You did it with a...a fish?" Deanna was incredulous.

"Lavena's not a fish. She's a Selkie, also known as a Pacifican. There's a difference." Will sounded amused.

"I still can't believe you did it with her." Deanna was trying, and failing miserably, to keep the raw, aching pain out of her voice. "What in the world did you see in her?"

"I was lonely, and she was available. It was just a casual fling, nothing serious at all," he grinned. "Besides, as I recall, you were pretty much giving me the cold shoulder at the time. That, and your mother's constant intrusions became tiresome."

"Don't you dare use my mother as an excuse for your philanderings!" Deanna stalked away angrily, the sound of Will's laughter ringing in her ears.

Lavena didn't return that day, nor did she the next, nor the next. Will enrolled Veser in the Enterprise's school and designated a spare room in his quarters as Veser's bedroom, filling it with items of interest to the boy. Grudgingly, Deanna had to admit that Will was doing an admirable job as a single father, especially considering that the responsibility had been thrust upon him with no prior notice or time for preparation.

One day Deanna was sitting in Ten Forward when Will and Veser entered. Will nodded to her, and she smiled.

"Hey, Miss Deanna, Dad's taking me to the holodeck to teach me how to play basketball," Veser said excitedly.

"Is that right? Well, I'll bet you'll be a star player." Deanna smiled kindly at Veser. After all, he was just an innocent child, and none of this was his fault.

"Would you like to come along too, Deanna?" Will gave her a friendly smile.

"Yeah, come on, Miss Deanna. It'll be fun!" Veser urged.

"Well...all right." Deanna laughed and joined them.

To her surprise, Deanna enjoyed the time she spent with Will and Veser on the holodeck, and afterwards they invited her over for dinner in Will's quarters.

"I think you're a really nice lady, Miss Deanna," Veser told her.

"Thank you, Veser. I think you're a very nice boy as well."

Will grinned and put an arm around each of them.

"Thank you for dinner, Will. I really enjoyed spending time with both of you, but I must return to my quarters and finish up some psychology reports," Deanna said after dinner.

"Aww..." Veser was disappointed.

Will walked her to the door. "Are you sure those psychology reports couldn't wait until another time?" he asked hopefully.

Deanna shook her head. The psychology reports were really just an excuse, and he probably knew that. She saw the longing in his eyes and left before she could change her mind.

Several days later, Aili Lavena beamed aboard the Enterprise once again.

"Where's Veser?" she demanded.

"He's in class. Why do you want to know?" Will asked.

"Why, I've come to take him back home with me, of course."

Will looked directly into Lavena's eyes. "And what makes you think you have the right to do that?"

Lavena seemed taken aback. "He's my son!"

"He's my son, too," Will said evenly. "Don't you think that I should have some input into where he goes and what happens to him? It was bad enough that I didn't even know of his existence for the first seven years of his life. And now that I've had the chance to get to know him and form a relationship with him, you think that you can just breeze back into his life and take him away?"

Lavena laughed cruelly. "Did you actually believe that Veser is your son?"

"I know that he is."

"Veser's father is human, but he's not you. He's a cruel tyrant who kidnapped me and blackmailed me into staying with him. I was very lucky to be able to eventually escape."

"When Veser asked me to help him find his father, I knew that I could never return to that monster. And yet I couldn't let Veser down, either. I knew that he needed a father figure, someone who was honorable and respectable, someone he could rightly look up to. That's why I came to you, Will."

"You're lying!" Will was furious. "You just made that up to make me believe that I don't have any claim to him. Don't you think a father would recognize his own son?"

Lavena became angry herself. "Are you going to allow me to take my son and leave with him in peace, or are you going to insist on a legal battle?"

"We'll let Dr. Crusher settle this once and for all." Will strode toward sickbay.

"I'm sorry, Will, but Lavena's right," Beverly said to Will sometime later, after she had examined Veser with her medical tricorder. "The DNA tests show that Veser is not your son."

"Come, Veser." Lavena grabbed Veser's hand. "It's time to go home."

"Good-bye, Mr. Will. Maybe I could come back and visit you again sometime," Veser said to Will as he and his mother prepared to leave.

"I don't know whether I should feel relieved or betrayed," Will said later to Deanna, when they were alone.

"If she was nothing more than a casual fling to you, why should you feel betrayed?" Deanna asked curtly. "Or does it just hurt your pride to realize that perhaps you meant no more to her than she did to you?"

"Leave me alone, Deanna!" Will stalked away angrily.

Deanna returned to her quarters, where she cried until there were no more tears left.