„Will!", she shouted with excitement. "We got a letter!" Finally, after two weeks of hoping and doubting, they had received word. She got up and nearly collided with her husband in the open doorway.

"Well…?", he uttered as a question. Deanna simply smiled for a moment, she had to let this news sink in herself.

"In case you missed that, I'm not a telepath."

She laughed, shaking her head. "It's the adoption papers."

Whatever reaction she may have expected, it didn't come. Will merely stood frozen into place, wearing a bemused expression. "That…that means they accepted us?"

"Yes! They're going to drop Lily off tomorrow afternoon, when they will also file the adoption."

"Oh my God, that's wonderful! That…Deanna!" Out of a sudden urge, he took her into his arms, swirling her around.

"Stop it!", she laughed once again. When he had set her down, there were thousands of thoughts shooting through her mind at the same time. "Ready to be a dad?"

With a brief nod to Jeffrey, a security officer, she had the force field lowered and entered their captive's space. The invisible wall popped back in place, as the young man jerked up from his bed in the corner. He had been lying there, staring at the ceiling.

There he stood, she thought, a tall, big man with an immense strength in his muscles and trained to kill, yet so unaware of his own doings. His mind was at the level of a little child's. The counsellor had talked to him twice now, but due to a sudden occurrence of high fever, the upcoming conversation had been delayed.

Nevertheless, she had a good feeling about their past meetings. It had taken more than a universal translator to actually have a conversation with him, but she had found an approach. Undoubtedly, part of it could be blamed on his affinity for her as a woman, but any connection was better than none.

"Hello, Manhari.", she smiled. "Are you feeling better today?"

"Yes. The doctor made me heal."

"That's good." He scrutinized her, looking up and down, his grey-blue eyes open, hands tucking at the new, plain, blue clothes. She stepped over to the table. "I see they finally brought you games. Have you tried any of them yet?"

"Yes. This-", he held one of them up. "and this." His play drive was extraordinarily high, which was one of the first things she had noticed about him. That and the fact that it was nearly impossible for her to read his emotions.

"Musicman-that's a good game, isn't it?"

"I like it."

"Do you have games at your home?"

"No." His expression sobered. "Wemrak says they're bad. Bad waste of time."

"But if you enjoy them…"

"No, Wemrak says they're bad!" As if he had suddenly grown aware of something, he swiped "Musicman" off the table with his left arm. The security officer jumped up from his chair, ready to intervene if the unpredictable man should turn aggressive.

"It's alright, Jeffrey.", she assured him quickly. "So Wemrak is someone who commands you."

"He's very smart, yes, he tells us what to do." Manhari's eyes were sparkling with admiration, as he took a seat on his bed again.

"All of the other Epamari?"

"Yes, all of us. I will never ever do something against him."

"Did you ever?" The warrior's face clouded, he clenched his fists.

Deanna crouched down to meet his eye level. "Manhari, I know it's hard for you to talk about it, but was that the reason why you were hurt? That you disobeyed Wemrak?"

"No, no, they didn't hurt me! They didn't! Wemrak is always right…they didn't hurt me!" His body was rocking back and forth, while he withdrew completely, muttering something the universal translator was unable to catch.

She took his arms without holding them too tightly. "It's okay, Manhari, no one can hurt you here. You're safe."

The counsellor began to feel terribly sorry for him, in spite of professional distance. He was a murderer, but also a victim. But if he had been used, hadn't all of them been? Weren't all of them, in a way, victims?

The Keionian seemed to trigger off into his own world. This was definitely enough for today. "I'm going to leave you now, but I'll come back tomorrow. Will you be okay?"

"Stay!", he pleaded. "Will you…will you play this with me?" He went over to the table and picked up another squared box.

She hesitated for a moment. "Well, I suppose I could stay for one round."

Manhari was beaming at her, and eagerly began unpacking the tiny figures of the game. They started playing by rules which were slightly altered, and Deanna let him win. "Nice job!"

He smiled at her. "You're very pretty."

"Oh…well, thank you.", she replied. "But it's really time for me to go now." She got up and scooted the chair back into place, he followed her.

"No, not yet!"

"I have to, there's work for me to do. But I promise I'll come back tomorrow."

"No!", he yelled, suddenly thrusting her against the wall. An immediate lightning of pain shot through her head and back, barely letting her notice Jeffrey knocking the Epamari unconscious with a phaser.

Will hurried into sickbay. What the hell was going on? "Deanna!" He discovered her, sitting on a biobed.

She took word before he was able to say anything. "Don't worry, I'm alright."

"What happened? They couldn't tell me much about the attack. Are you okay?"

"As I just said, Will, it's nothing. Really." She looked a little pale, but not any abnormal besides that. He looked at the doctor expectantly.

"A laceration and a light concussion…not nothing, but she's going to be just fine.", Jay'Cel explained with an assuring smile. "There, that would be it." He lowered the cell regenerator. "Are you feeling any dizzy?"

"Just a little."

"Headache?"

"Oh yes.", she grimaced.

The doctor grabbed a hypospray. "This will help."

"Thank you."

"You're free to go then. Take it easy for another couple of hours, no work."

"Thanks, Jay'Cel."

Deanna tried to tidy her brown hair, and hopped off the biobed. "Weren't you right in the middle of a conversation with the admiral?"

"That's okay, there's still time for that later." He trivialized it with a movement of his hand. "I'll come with you."

"That's very sweet of you, but you don't have to."

"But I want to."

"Please, don't make such a fuss!"

"Don't pretend nothing happened!"

"Will…!"

"Hello, Captain Riker from the U.S.S. Titan.", he greeted the secretary politely. "Are Admiral Nechejev or Admiral Janeia by chance available right now?"

"Have you made an appointment?"

"No, but I have to talk to one of them about a matter of high importance."

"I'm afraid they're very busy.", the elderly woman replied coolly. "I could set up an appointment for you though."

"Please, it's very urgent. Couldn't you ask them if they have five minutes?"

"Mr…"

"Riker."

"Every communiqué arriving here is 'urgent'. That doesn't mean I can go bother them with everything while they do not want to be disturbed, can I now?"

"Of course not, m'am." Who did they employ down there? "Listen, technically, I shouldn't be telling you that, but it's about an issue of interior security."

The secretary looked at him sternly, not amused at all. "I am not dumb. Good day, Mr. Ri-"

"Miss…"

"Chambers, Mrs."

"Mrs. Chambers, couldn't you please just look at the schedule lying right in front of you, if, by coincidence, one of the admirals does have time at the moment?"

The old woman sighed, throwing a quick glance on the data padd. "Admiral Wilson would be free right now."

Great, that was his typical luck. "I'm sorry, but I really have to speak with Admiral Janeia or Nechejev." Mrs. Chambers got angry now, apparently thinking it a waste of time to converse with him any further.

"Would you give me an appointment?", the captain asked with resignation.

"Fine." The secretary's features softened, this was her job. "How about tomorrow at 1330 hours with Admiral Janeia?"

That would be half an hour before Lily arrived, but he didn't want to press his luck. "That would be great. Thank you."

"Good day, Mr. Riker."

"…so I'm going to discuss it with him later." Deanna nodded, listening with half an ear while they were preparing Lily's room.

"Would you hand me the blanket?" He looked around for a few seconds, before spotting it in the corner behind him.

"So what did you find out about the Keionian?"

"Well, it's hard to receive any information on the reasons for the attacks from Manhari. I don't think he knows anything, but he appears to have high respect for a person called Wemrak, who must be his superior. The Epamari are following his orders, 'blindly', you could say because any disobedience is punished horribly. Manhari was trained not to question anything, once he recognizes authority, he follows it. When we were talking about the attack on the Inugia settlement, he didn't seem to comprehend the seriousness, or the immorality of it."

"Didn't comprehend or didn't want to comprehend?"

"No, Will, at his current state, he cannot understand it. He received very specific education, but wasn't taught common sense. The way he was treated, even the way he was raised, which seems pretty close to 'mass breeding', caused an underdevelopment of his character. See it this way: He knows how to repair a phaser, but is illiterate at the same time. Manhari is not…deliberately 'evil'."

Her husband turned away with an annoyed eye-roll. "I still don't get why he had to hit you though, while you said that the meetings with him were going well."

"It was a spontaneous overreaction. He did that because he can't control his emotions. He's very much like a child…unfortunately, a child with muscles and weapons."

"Will leaned against the wall, trying to pull his thoughts together. "Okay, but even if he's partly unguilty of his actions, that doesn't change the fact that he'll do more harm if we release him. He's a dangerous man."

"That's true.", she shrugged. "I don't know…I need a little more time with him."

"You should leave the force field up though. Who knows what he'll do next."

"I can't, that would destroy every fragile amount of trust I got so far. But I'm sure going to watch out better next time."

"Take another officer with you, at least."

"There was another officer there…"

"Outside of the force field, standing somewhere out of hearing range!"

"I can hardly take him with me, that would only make things much worse! Manhari would feel threatened…"

"Well, that's just too bad then!" He was mad, this whole issue about that Keionian bothered him. Why did she have to defend him like that? He was a killer, maybe an abused one, but still a killer! But no, she had to be stubborn again and talk to him by herself because there had to be some way of fixing him so everything would fit into her view of the universe.

"Will, I can't go in there with another officer because he won't tell me anything then. There would be no point in-"

"I can make it an order.", he interrupted.

"Don't you dare…He's my patient! Besides, I could override your command by releasing a medical order." He could tell that she was much more angry than himself. If looks could have killed…

"Not in this case, you don't have sufficient arguments for it. Like it or not, I still am your superior officer."

"You can be such an arrogant jerk!", she shouted. "You wouldn't even listen to my arguments…could you try to leave personal issues out of here?"

That was way too much of an accusation. "I would have ordered anyone to take another officer with them while entering that man's space, and you know that, because it's simply a matter of safety!"

"Great, that's settled then. Permission to leave, Captain?" Without waiting for any further answer, she stormed out of their quarters, furiously.

Will exhaled deeply and sank onto the next best chair. What had that been all about? He hated fighting with Deanna, but why couldn't she understand that he only wanted what was best? They seemed to get into heated arguments a lot lately. Okay, he wasn't unguilty of it, but…he didn't exactly enjoy it either.

"So you just did all of that without getting any permission for it?", Janeia wondered, frowning.

"The systemic overload was a ship internal problem, which we were able to solve by ourselves."

"It's not the overload I'm talking about, Riker."

"I know.", he sighed. "Admiral, I'm aware that we didn't have orders to fly to Fepris II, but neither did we have orders not to do so, and our other missions were fulfilled. We found the Silvershot, there was a connection between that attack and the Inugia incident, so I felt it would be our duty to investigate those offenses against Starfleet."

The admiral smirked. "Do you jump off a roof just because I didn't tell you not to do so? I appreciate your sense of duty, but don't try to impress me with noble talk about Starfleet's codex of honor. You were curious and mad about the attacks, so you decided to take justice into your own hands, that's understandable, but incorrect. You were not assigned to investigate the attacks because of your personal involvement, we felt it might affect your objectivity. But instead of following orders, you discovered a new race, which you didn't tell anyone about, examined another planet, and took a captive! What do you expect me to do?"

"With all due respect, Sir, the authorized investigation didn't seem very eager to find the perpetrators."

"What are you implying?"

"Nothing, but I'm saying that Commander Jenkins was sent to the Titan to 'supervise our actions'…and that he did."

It was hard to see the Trill's honest opinion on the situation because his face showed no direct reaction. His years as a diplomat had taught him not to show emotions too openly. "Captain, Jenkins had no orders to do what he did."

"Maybe you didn't order him to hold back information from us, but someone did." Will could not accuse the man he had in mind directly. Even in his current situation, it would have appeared as a bold, unjustified judgement. And as important as the truth was to him, he didn't want to end up in a court. "By the way, I'm surprised to hear that you never received information about the humanoids on Keiona before, since I told Admiral Wilson about it several days after our-unauthorized as it may be-away mission. He reminded me of the Federation's principle not to interfere with the development of a foreign culture and told me to stay away from them."

Janeia scratched the blue spots at the side of his face thoughtfully. "That better be true, Riker."

"Check the communicative logs if you like, Admiral." He tried not to look too triumphant, but it was a hard task.

"You can be sure of that. The Phoenix is going to meet with you tomorrow to pick up Ensign Bicami, you have to get the time and coordinates settled with them.

"Thank you, Admiral."

The Trill nodded and cut the connection. He would take the right steps, Will was certain of it. That man could be trusted.

Deanna was standing in transporter room 3, nervously waiting for her daughter's arrival. 'My daughter'; she liked that thought. Her husband wasn't there yet, which actually surprised her. It wasn't like him to be unpunctual, not on a day like this at least.

"Anxious to see your little girl?", Chief Histra asked, breaking the awkward silence.

"And how!", she smiled.

"I can imagine…"

"How are Jonah and Michelle doing, by the way?"

"Jonah's fine, though he has developed a fanatic interest in Starfleet."

"Well, he's taking after his father."

"I guess so. Although I'd prefer him to go out and play with the other kids some more. Michelle is…a teenager. Of course she thinks I'm terribly old fashioned."

"She's 13, right?"

"14."

"And trying to find her own way…"

"Yeah. Which her parents have to survive somehow.", he grinned. "But, you know…they're worth it. The kids I mean."

"Good to know."

"Oh, they're ready for transport.", Histra informed her.

Quickly, a molecular structure began to form on the transport platform, soon to be distinguishable as an exotic looking man, and a young girl with two ponytails of curly, dirty blonde hair and dark brown eyes. The latter was beaming from ear to ear and ran to Deanna immediately.

"Lily!" The Betazoid picked up the child and hugged it. "I've missed you so much."

"Missed you, too.", she mumbled somewhere into her hair.

"Have you been a good girl?" Lily nodded and raised her head, looking at the woman holding her.

"Is it true that I never have to leave here again? Never?"

"Yes, that's true, you're staying here…supposing you want to stay!"

"Yes!" Deanna was close to tears again, how foolish of her. Everything was fine now.

"Are you crying?", Lily wondered confusedly.

"Just a little, because I'm so happy."

"But…but that's no reason to cry! Don't cry!" The girl stroked her cheek.

"I'll try, sweetie.", she laughed.

The social worker, who had decently remained in the background so far, uttered a quiet cough. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Lahera, I was-"

"That's okay, I understand completely.", he smiled. "It's just that I need to leave very quickly for an appointment, so if you have any questions, you might want to discuss them now."

"I can't think of anything at the moment."

"Well, if any problems should occur, feel free to send me a communiqué. If not, I'll get back to you in a month to see how Lily got settled in. Unfortunately, there was an error in the papers-your name was misspelled, to be exact-so that they will only be ready in few hours. I will send them to you though, and it would be great if you could sign them and send them back as soon as possible."

"We will."

"Well then, I'm glad that we got to this solution, give my regards to your husband, and good luck!"

"Thank you…for everything.", Deanna replied warmly.

"You're welcome. Take good care of them, Lily!", he winked. The child nodded and waved shyly.

Lahera stepped back onto the platform, gave his confirmation to beam down, and disappeared after a last goodbye.

"Where's Will?", the little girl asked.

"He really, really wanted to be here, but he has to talk to an admiral, a very important man. You'll see him later though."

"Oh." She seemed very disappointed.

"Hey, what do you think about just the two of us girls getting some ice cream right now?"

"Awesome! Chocolate ice cream?", Lily grinned.

"You know me too well.", Deanna sighed dramatically.

When they were right about ready to leave, a tall, bearded man entered the transporter room, exclaiming "Sorry I'm late!" before even seeing anyone in particular.

"Will!" The Betazoid set the child down, who ran towards the man right away, hugging his legs.

"Whoa, hey there!"

Will crouched down to meet the girl's eye level. "Is that possible? I think you grew during those two weeks."

"It's very much possible.", Lily explained with serious conviction. He smirked and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"We're gonna go eat ice cream! But it's just for girls."

"Well, I'm afraid I can't keep up with that."

Deanna walked up to them. "You think we could make an exception for him?" Her daughter nodded emphatically.

"I'll be glad to come along then."

Lily took their hands and pulled the two adults through the door out into the hallway. What she didn't see was the apologetic glance her new father threw his wife, which remained without a response.

Well, I wrote the last part of this chapter very quickly and didn't edit it a lot because I wasn't sure if I would have time to post this during the next few says. There might be some mistakes in the paragraphing, hope you don't mind it!