"I'm so glad you were able to stay for the play," Deanna told Lwaxana. "It should be good. Will's been practicing hard. He's been very dedicated."

"I can't wait to see him perform," Lwaxana replied. The play they were discussing had been written by Beverly, and Will was to portray an insane man in an asylum who was being tortured by the doctors there. Lwaxana and Deanna were currently in the audience waiting for the play to start.

"What I need is to get out of this cell. I've been here for days. You've controlled my every move. Told me what to eat, drink, and say. Whenever I show a glimmer of independent thought, you strap me down, inject me with drugs. You call it a treatment!" Will played his role very convincingly, and everyone applauded for him when he finished.

Four days later, Will left for a covert mission on the planet Tolonus IV. While he was gone, Jeyal's sister Majel arrived on the Enterprise for a visit. Deanna hadn't seen her since the wedding ceremony of Jeyal and Lwaxana on Betazed several years previously.

"I went to Betazed first, but they told me you were visiting the Enterprise," Majel explained. "Jeyal has been wondering how his son has been faring, and to be honest, I'd like to see Barin myself. I've never seen a little boy before."

"Why, of course you can see him," Lwaxana told her. "He's in Ian's bedroom playing with him."

She led Majel to the bedroom, and they looked in on the boys. Ian was showing Barin how to put puzzle pieces into a wooden frame.

"See, the cow goes here, and the pig goes here," Ian patiently explained. Barin grabbed a puzzle piece and tried to force it into a shape. "No, no, Barin. That's where the duck goes. The sheep goes over here. See?" Ian tried to take the puzzle piece from Barin, who protested.

"You've got some company, boys," Lwaxana told them.

"Hello," Ian said to Majel. Barin just stared. Lwaxana picked Barin up and held him.

"Hello, Barin," said Majel. Barin hid his head in the front of his mother's dress.

"Say hello to the nice lady, Barin," Lwaxana urged. Majel caressed Barin's head, and he turned to look at her but didn't say anything.

"You are such an adorable boy! May I please hold you?" Majel extended her arms to Barin, who still looked hesitant.

"Go ahead, sweetie," Lwaxana urged. Barin continued to look at Majel and held his arms out to her. She picked him up and held him tightly, then kissed the top of his head.

"You are so precious," she told him. He smiled a toothy smile at her.

"Thank you so much for sharing your son with me," Majel told Lwaxana after she had visited with Barin for a little while.

"It's no problem at all," Lwaxana told her. "After all, he is your nephew."

"You're a very handsome boy as well," Majel told Ian. "How old are you?"

"Four," Ian said proudly.

"You're the first four-year-old boy I've ever met," Majel told him.

Ian's eyes grew round with surprise. "Really?"

"Yes. You see, on the planet I come from, little boys and men live separately from little girls and women, so they never see each other."

"That's crazy!" Ian said. He looked perturbed.

"Nevertheless, it's our culture," Majel told him.

"A lady came to visit Barin today," Ian told Deanna as she was getting him ready for bed that night. "She said that on her planet, boys and girls live in separate places and never see each other."

"That's right," Deanna said sadly.

"But why is it that way, Mommy?"

"I don't know, Ian. I guess they're afraid that little boys would act too much like little girls and little girls would act too much like little boys if they let them live together."

When Will returned from his mission on Tolonus IV, he was sent to sickbay immediately. Deanna waited anxiously in the waiting area until he finally came out and joined her.

"Will! Are you all right?" she cried.

"I'm fine now, Imzadi," he said with a smile. "While I was on Tolonus IV, the aliens captured me and scanned my brain for strategic information about the Federation. Boy, did I go through some wierd stuff! First of all, I thought that I was performing the play when I suddenly found myself in a cell with an alien doctor. Later I was in a cafeteria with an alien woman who was speaking into a spoon, pretending it was a communication device. Then I was back on the Enterprise briefly, then back in the asylum again. They were talking about doing some kind of treatment on me using holographic projections, and I agreed to it, hoping that I might gain my freedom by doing that. Then I found myself back on the Enterprise, holding a phaser. Sure that it was another illusion, I pointed it at myself and pulled the trigger. Then I found myself back in the asylum, and an alien was telling me that the phaser was really a knife from the kitchen and trying to take it away from me. I woke up on an operating table to find that I was about to undergo brain surgery. I escaped and had myself beamed back aboard the Enterprise. Boy, am I glad to be home!"

"Oh my gosh! Well, all's well that ends well, I suppose," Deanna said, giving him a reassuring hug.