Chapter Eight: Inevitable as the Niagara River's Fall

As an elementary school teacher, Lilly was accustomed to compartmentalization. She couldn't be preoccupied about rent payments or a tough phone call from a friend and still teach a room full of boisterous first graders effectively, after all. So when Riker essentially slammed the door to his quarters, Lilly gave herself thirty seconds to cover her face in her hands and scream soundlessly at her body's reaction to him before getting their plan into motion.

Her first job was to wait for computer access. Ordinarily she would be nosy and look around at least a little when in someone else's room, but Lilly felt overwhelmed by Riker already. She could still feel the ghost of his hands in her hair, and if she closed her eyes too long, she could relive the shock of how good his lips felt on hers.

"No. Nope! Nope nope nope," Lilly said out loud. She stood up from the computer desk. Clearly, sitting and waiting would let her mind wander. She looked around at Riker's quarters. There was a glass table in one corner, a few wall decorations and knick knacks throughout the room, and, most surprisingly of all, a trombone resting on a display stand.

Thinking of the severe-faced Riker playing an instrument seemed absurd, but of course, he was hardly ever severe-faced, not with everyone else. He was a charming flatterer, too. That Riker could definitely play music. What kind of music would a trombone player like?

She thought about the musical she'd enjoyed so much. That had trombone in it, didn't it?

"Computer, do you have leisure functions available? Can you play Hadestown for me?" she asked, half expecting to hear a fail chime or no reply at all.

"Playing Hadestown, Road to Hell," the computer said.

After a few bars, Lilly laughed out loud. "Definitely a trombone. That's crazy!" She didn't want to think about a trombone-playing Riker right now, though. "Computer, skip ahead to the song, 'All I've Ever Known?'"

Without the computer's voice responding, the music changed. Lilly felt herself finally starting to relax. She sat back down at the computer desk and listened to the love song duet, tapping at a few places on the console that would reveal the list of programs she could access.

Right as the song ended, the list suddenly doubled, then tripled, extending off of the screen. The plan was falling into place.

Twenty minutes later, Lilly had texted (or whatever they called it in the 24th century) back and forth with the youthful version of the captain, cementing the movements that would draw their Ferengi guards into positions of vulnerability. It turned out that, with Ro, Keiko, and Guinan involved, Lilly wouldn't need to leave Riker's quarters at all, but there was a question about whether Alexander would be quick enough not to be caught. Keiko asked whether she would be willing to sneak out and hide near where Alexander's assignment was, just in case she was needed, as long as she didn't let Alexander know she was there. No one wanted to imply to the young Klingon that he was not brave or fast enough to help.

Lilly had been shocked and delighted to know that Worf had a son on board. She couldn't wait to talk to him about Alexander- he was right around the same age of the children she used to teach, back home.

Picard was able to send a diagram of the route she'd follow to hide near where Alexander would be. He'd told her how to transfer it to the PADD in Riker's room. When she picked it up, the display woke to sheet music she could actually understand, and she felt an odd sense of camaraderie with him from across the centuries that separated their musical endeavors. Lilly had taken piano lessons for years before her family had needed to stop because of the cost.

She had three minutes before she was supposed to leave, and Lilly took that time to check herself in the mirror. When she did, she groaned.

Her shirt was a bright, eye-catching blue.

With such little time left, she didn't think she had time to replicate a darker one. She hadn't quite learned the correct words that told the computer how to create something in her size. Lilly walked out of the bathroom, meaning to head for the replicator anyway, but as she walked through Riker's bedroom to the living room space, she saw his closet. It was full of black shirts, among other colors.

Ordinarily she would have rejected the idea, but while she didn't know him very well, she did know he cared a great deal about the ship and its crew. That meant he wouldn't begrudge her this choice, she decided. Lilly rushed over to the closet and slid hanger after hanger aside. Riker was a tall, broad shouldered man and his shirts would be comically large on her. She stripped off the blue shirt she was wearing and finally came across a black tank top. She grabbed it off of the hanger and slid it over her head. The armholes came down past her bra, but since it was black and she knew how to tie slip knots, she decided it would do.

Lilly grabbed the PADD and snuck out of her room, sneaking into the turbolift and setting the tablet on the floor as she tied a knot in the excess material of each arm hole. She probably looked ridiculous, but she wouldn't stand out anywhere near as much, she hoped. Grabbing the PADD, Lilly followed the path it showed and hid. It turned out she didn't have to do anything. Alexander was fast, clever, and brave all on his own. She was glad she'd come out, though. Worf would get to listen to her tale of his son's adventure, when the ship was back in Starfleet hands.

8888888888

Will walked into his quarters completely and utterly exhausted, emotionally as well as physically. He'd stayed up until every one of the one thousand and thirteen crewmembers made it back onto the ship, until the responsibility he felt in being the one thousand fourteenth had drained away into satisfaction. Doctor Crusher hadn't even needed to tell him that she expected him to sleep and debrief the senior crew the next day.

He was so tired that he had managed to forget Lilly had been in his quarters until he went to change out of his uniform and found her blue shirt in a heap on the floor. Further investigation led to finding an empty hanger in the closet. Will picked up her shirt and sat down on his bed, staring at it.

She must have needed to leave the room and decided her top was too conspicuous, he decided. Will set the shirt on the bed and went looking for his PADD. There would be footage of her if she had left his quarters, and he intended to watch it. If the captain had asked her to do anything dangerous, he'd find himself in a meeting with Will first thing in the morning.

His PADD was missing. If she'd needed to use it, that made sense in retrospect. She wouldn't have been able to get back in to give it back. Will brought up the images on the computer at his desk, instead.

Will's shirt hung down on Lilly almost like a dress, but the fabric was stretchy and it clung to her curves. He scrubbed a tired hand across his face. Either he went to bed now and lay awake worrying about what she'd encountered before the Ferengi were trapped in the transporter room, or he watched everything and grew more obsessed with watching her wearing his shirt, after he'd called her his and got to kiss her. He paused the video and looked around the room, curious to see if she'd touched or moved anything he could detect.

"Computer, did Miss Picard play any music while in this room?" he asked, feeling foolish but asking anyway.

"Affirmative. Lilly Picard played two songs from the musical Hadestown."

Will glanced over at his trombone and grinned. "Play the same songs, please."

The brassy tone of the first song rang out. Somehow, it was soothing, as if he could trace her thought patterns. He was certain that she'd seen his trombone and asked the computer to play that song to confirm a trombone really did start the musical. Will watched the rest of the footage and saw to his relief that at no point was Lilly in danger. She seemed to have left in order to watch out for Worf's son, something that, in retrospect, was exactly in her character to do.

A huge yawn prompted Will to turn off the computer and head to bed. When he pulled the light blanket up onto his chest, with it came the shirt Lilly had left behind. A gentle love song had started playing-Will had forgotten that he'd told the computer to play music, that was how out of it he was.

The young female lead's voice gave way to a young man's, and he listened to the lyrics, expecting to fall asleep before the song ended.

I don't know how or why, but who am I that I should get to hold you?

I knew you before we met

-and I don't even know you yet!

"Computer, end music," Will said in a choked voice. He lay in complete silence, adrenaline pumping through his veins. As a musician, he'd always appreciated the way music could reach across the lines of class, planet of origin, and time itself to touch the hearts of listeners. That song, though… that song sounded like it had been written just for him, so much so that Will wondered about its origins. Hadn't Lilly said it was from the year 2006?

Had Lilly shared her experience with the composer? And if so, what did that mean about how she felt about him by the time she returned?

Was this yet another sign that he shouldn't, couldn't avoid her?

Just fourteen hours earlier, Will had woken determined that he would continue to keep Lilly at a distance. He would watch out for her safety, maintain a cold, distant demeanor that hid his feelings for her, and above all else, he wouldn't allow those feelings to consume him.

That was almost the complete opposite of the way his day had gone. In reality, everything that had happened cemented her importance to him. He'd gotten her to smile at him. He'd watched her puzzle her way through a problem, think on her feet, and outwit their enemies. He'd protected her, held her, tasted her. It felt like the Fates -another set of characters in the musical- had chosen a path for him that led straight to Lilly.

He was so fucked.

8888888888

By three weeks after the attempted Ferengi takeover, Lilly had settled into a new routine that she truly enjoyed. She, Worf, and his son Alexander had met for dinner and a walk in the Holodeck a couple of Thursday evenings.

Because Worf had been raised on Earth by human parents, he wanted Alexander to know more about his human heritage. Lilly had offered to show Alexander some of the physical wonders of Earth, and Worf decided to do the same, but from Q'onoS, the Klingon home planet. So on their first outing, Lilly had fed them hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, and milkshakes, and shown them the Grand Canyon. When it was Worf's turn, he told Lilly that Klingon cuisine was definitely one of those things that humans called 'an acquired taste,' but that there were a few dishes that he considered similar enough to be a bridge between what she was used to and the real thing. He told her he hoped to share Rokeg Blood Pie with her, the next time he could get some authentic enough to qualify. Alexander had whispered to her that it was his father's very favorite.

Worf and Alexander weren't her only social interactions, though. Lilly had gotten her hair cut at the ship's salon, taken there by Deanna, and she'd had a long talk with Beverly about healthcare in her time. She and the captain were deep in discussions about King Lear, and she enjoyed the random conversations she had with Data and Geordi when she encountered them in the halls or in Ten Forward. Lilly felt like she probably spent too much time in Ten Forward for one certain officer's tastes, but that was why she made sure to do so during Alpha Shift, when that certain officer was busy on the bridge.

At first, Lilly had chosen to hide in her room, sending messages to the various friends she knew would worry about her like Deanna, Beverly, and Worf. The captain had stopped by and told her that his first officer had shared with him what she'd offered to do when Picard was trapped in his younger body. He was so deeply touched and grateful about it that Lilly had ended up keeping her frustration with Riker for breaking her confidence. She'd specifically told him not to tell Picard what she'd offered to do unless it became a possibility!

Lilly freely admitted to herself that she was magnifying her anger in an attempt to forget other, more physical memories of Riker.

It was mostly working.

What didn't help was that she had basically no experience being romantic or physical with anyone beyond the kinds of truth or dare 'kiss Felix for thirty seconds' moments that really didn't count for much in a spaceship hallway at gunpoint by a Ferengi. Which had made Riker… essentially her first real kiss, and it had been pretty fantastic. Something she was never, ever in a million years going to tell him about.

He would undoubtedly gloat, she was sure. Probably right after chastising her for having been in the situation in the first place.

"You're doing it again," Lilly said to herself out loud. She set down her empty tea cup and looked over at the replica of Monet's lily pad that she'd hung over her computer desk. It was soothing, with its calm greens that reminded Lilly of Earth and home.

A chime went off on her PADD, and Lilly saw that she had a scheduled chunk of time in the Holodeck in five minutes. She planned on scouting out a perfect place to show Alexander Niagara Falls. Data had told her that the Holodeck had special safety precautions for dangerous locations like Niagara. The instant that anyone in the Holodeck touched the water, the program would cycle down the power of its flow, so that by the time a minute had passed, the water would be still and calm. The falls themselves would lower into a flat landscape that would be safely unhazardous, though unrecognizable as the Niagara river anymore.

Even with that knowledge, Lilly wanted to scout ahead so that they could feel free to delight in the beauty of the location. She knew that Niagara might possibly not exist anymore in the 24th century, and that it would certainly look very different from what she remembered. That didn't matter, though. She was going to show Alexander her Niagara.

Lilly decided to leave the PADD behind, and she went to set it on the small table that stood near the door to her quarters. The table was already occupied by a folded black tank top, though. Lilly frowned at it. She'd wanted to give it back, but she hadn't been brave enough to bring it anywhere to hand to someone who could give it back to Riker, and she felt like it would be disrespectful to simply leave it, folded, in front of his door. So, she'd left it next to hers, and frowned at it when she came and went, just like today.

Lilly set the PADD down on top of it and stuck her tongue out at the shirt before tapping the door console to open it. She made it three steps down the corridor before she turned around, tapped to open the door again, and grabbed the shirt out from under her tablet. She'd drop it off if she could.

It didn't take long to generate what she wanted to see in the Holodeck. To her surprise, the computer asked her if she would like to lock the door under an 'emergency only' code. That meant that no one could come in without her being notified, which made sense, she supposed. Distraction would probably be dangerous, here.

She set Riker's shirt down by the control panel and stepped out onto the concrete of the viewing platform. Any time she'd ever been to Niagara Falls, this particular section had been full of people. It was eerie for it to be empty. The view here was amazing, and as much as she'd love to see what it looked like without all the tourist infrastructure, Lilly suspected that she wouldn't actually be safe to get that close without the concrete viewing platform.

After a few commands and adjustments of her physical location along the Niagara River, Lilly decided she had the perfect planned route for her walk with Alexander and Worf. One of the things that was never pictured with the falls themselves was the amazing, roiling surface of the river itself. It was every bit as dangerous as the falls, but the question on Lilly's mind was whether the riverbank was safe enough at a distance of a few feet. She didn't want Alexander to have to think about the human infrastructure around the falls and the river, she wanted him to appreciate the beauty and power they displayed.

"Computer, remove fence and concrete path, please?" she called out. Beneath her, the sidewalk changed to scrubby grass, and the fence disappeared. Lilly walked forward cautiously, wanting to know what the actual shore looked like, whether it would be solid enough to walk up to, or if the boundary was unstable and unsafe.

With one foot stretched out in front of her tapping at the ground for each step, Lilly approached the river's edge. The water a foot away was rushing past, flying up in curling waves when it hit underwater obstacles. She was quite close, now, her toes tapping an inch in front of her planted foot. Lilly was in the process of stepping very close to the water's edge when she heard a man's voice shout.

"Stop! What are you doing?!"

Lilly's leading foot slid down, surprise causing the step to be larger than was safe or intended. Instinctively, fear of what might happen if she landed in the river made Lilly turn her body toward the bank as she fell, and the combination of movements wrenched her ankle even as it was submerged in the water she was trying to avoid. Her torso never reached the ground; she ended up nearly performing a push-up along the shallow angle of the riverbank. She looked up to see Riker running toward her, his face angry, mouth open, hands outstretched.

Resentment and anger welled up in her. This was the exact reason the Holodeck had allowed her to lock the doors, and yet here he was, probably angry at the injury she just experienced even though he was the reason it had happened in the first place.

"Don't. Stay back!" she said.

Behind her, the rush of water had slowed, and Lilly started to pull herself up, unsurprised to find that she was now missing a shoe. Adrenaline was kind, and she was able to stand with her injured foot pressed up against her other foot, sock-covered toes touched to the ground for balance. It didn't hurt… much.

Riker still looked wild-eyed. "What do you think you are doing? Who authorized-"

"The Holodeck has failsafes, one of which has already kicked in. The river's on its way to a flat calm!" she interrupted. "You seem to have completely disregarded the other failsafe! What the hell makes you think you should burst in on someone who locked down the room?"

"Lockdowns are rare, and Sick Bay gets notified. Doctor Crusher asked me about it when she saw your name, asked me to check it out," Riker said defensively.

"And you couldn't use the comm?" Lilly asked, raising her eyebrows. When he opened his mouth to say something else, she waved him off. "Oh, never mind." She gestured to herself. "See, I'm fine, it's just a little mud and leaves, nothing to worry about. You can go back to your regularly scheduled Commander-ing."

She was surprised to see that Riker took a few more steps forward and looked her over, seeming to genuinely check to see if she was all right. His gaze focused on her shoeless foot.

"You're telling me to leave, but can you put weight on that?" he asked shrewdly.

"Of course," Lilly said, lifting her chin.

"Show me."

"You really are a demanding asshole, aren't you?" she said.

"You're deflecting," he said confidently. Then, with what had to be false concern in his voice, he said in a more gentle voice, "What were you planning to do if you can't get to Sick Bay by yourself?"

"Easy. I'll call Worf to help me. I know his schedule, he's not on duty right now."

The look of betrayal on Riker's face was inexplicable, but his words were even more so.

"To hell with Worf!" he said, starting toward her. Lilly stood frozen in surprise until Riker leaned over and hooked her knees with one hand, the other supporting her back. "Put your arms around my neck," he commanded.

"I can't believe you said that!" Lilly said, her eyes wide. Inside, she was a jumble of emotions. It didn't seem to take him any effort at all to lift her up, and he wasn't daunted by the fact that she clearly did not want his help. Her heart had unhelpfully started to race when he'd touched her, because it was only then that she understood a possible explanation for what he'd said about Worf. He was jealous.

Somewhere deep down, a part of her delighted in that conclusion. It was the same part of her that sometimes relived the kiss they'd shared. She shoved that thought down.

"Computer, create replica of Counselor Deanna Troi, authorization Riker Omega Two," Riker said. Immediately, a stone-faced representation of Deanna appeared a few feet in front of them. "Deanna, put her arms around my neck for me?"

"You are certifiably crazy," Lilly said in astonishment. "Besides, Deanna is too short. Didn't think of that, did you?"

It was childish, but Lilly kept her hands clasped together under her chin, even as Riker stood holding her like a bridegroom prepared to carry his new wife over the threshold.

Riker actually smiled at her, one of his charming ones that sent her heart skipping. "Watch," he said.

Computer Deanna walked forward, assessed Riker's height, gestured at the ground out of sight, and then started walking up the platform of stairs that must have appeared beside him.

"That's cheating!" Lilly said, staring. Soon, gentle but inexorable hands reached for her, and Lilly found that she didn't feel right struggling against Deanna, which had to be precisely the reason Riker had chosen her. "I could just move my hands back again, you know," Lilly said, hearing the petulance in her voice and hating it.

"Please don't," Computer Deanna said. She turned around to walk back down the stairs and then disappeared.

"You are pure evil, do you know that?" Lilly said, leaning over to say it into Riker's ear. He turned his head swiftly to look at her, and her heart stopped. His face was less than an inch away. She felt his breathing quicken against her and watched his eyes dilate as he looked into hers. "That was-" she started to say, meaning to say something cutting, but as soon as she spoke, his eyes moved to her lips, and all of her words deserted her. "...brilliant," she said instead. That startled a smile out of him, and she was grateful for the change of his expression, because it broke whatever spell he'd cast on her. "Damn you," she added.

"There you are," he murmured. He looked away from her toward the door of the Holodeck and started walking toward it.

Lilly blushed. This was new, and she wanted to say she didn't like it. With her arms around him (unwilling or not) and his arms holding her up, she could feel him surrounding her to an almost overwhelming degree. Then he had to go use his brain to outwit her. 'If he were any other man, you'd be in danger of falling for him,' a voice in her head said. 'If I were any other woman, that wouldn't be a problem,' she said inside her head to that voice.

"Is that my shirt?" Riker asked, pausing to look down.

She didn't look at him. "Yes. I thought I would drop it off at your door or something. I'd been meaning to for a while."

"Computer: send an Ensign to pick up this shirt and deliver it to my room, authorization Riker Omega One," he said.

"As simple as that?"

He turned his head, and it was almost as if she could feel his eyes on her. "I'm surprised you didn't think to do the same, rather than hand it to me personally. You seemed to be avoiding me."

She would rather live the rest of her unnaturally extended life right here than look up at him, Lilly decided. "I don't have the authority to send them into your room, which is what I assume your code was. There must be levels of it-you used level two to conjure up Deanna."

"You're right," he said. He hadn't started walking again.

"Can you please put me down? I'm on flat ground now, I'm sure I can manage," Lilly said plaintively.

That got him moving again. "It's not the first time I've carried you to Sick Bay," Riker said, deftly avoiding knocking her feet against the doorway. "Of course, last time you were unconscious, so it was at least quiet."

The humor in his tone was thick, and Lilly finally looked at his face with a glare as strong as she could muster.

"Your crew is going to wonder how you keep getting into these situations," she said, settling her head down on his shoulder. Her injured ankle was brushing against her other leg, and it was starting to really hurt. The adrenaline was wearing off in favor of outrage, which had no pain relieving properties.

"Just lucky, I guess," Riker said cheerfully.