Chapt. 5

Unlike Will Riker thought Deanna was anything but peacefully sleeping. Her mind was being assaulted by distressing images of her children. One moment they were sitting on her lap, the next they vanished into thin air. She saw them as they were crying out for her, standing only a few yards away, they're hands reaching for her. But
no matter how hard and how far she ran she couldn't reach them. Their cries were tearing her heart apart and at the same time encouraged her to keep running.

In her sleep Deanna trashed her head from left to right, all the while murmuring encouragements to herself and her children. A frightening feeling that something was terribly wrong wrapped itself around her heart. With a start she awoke, already realizing what, or rather who, was missing.

"~NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~" The cry of despair slipped from her throat without her even realizing it and at the same
time her mind cried out to anyone who would listen. Her voice remained confined to the Captain's Ready Room, her thought however not and reached telepaths many light-years away. Not to mention the human sitting just a few feet away.

On the Bridge Riker nearly doubled over by the intensity of Deanna's telepathic cry. Without knowing she forcefully pushed all her anguish and fear in his mind and it took him every string of strength not to collapse under the force of it.

Overcome the initial shock he flew out his chair, almost sprinting to the door of his private office. When he was halfway there the door opened and an ashen faced, visibly shaken Deanna Troi walked onto the Bridge. Her black eyes were wide with fear and pain and brimming with tears. Will noticed how disheveled her hair suddenly was and how her dress was wrinkled and had been slightly repositioned on her body. Naturally her appearance was the last thing on Deanna's mind now.

"Deanna." He tried to lock his eyes on hers but she refused to meet his gaze and instead haunted glanced around her.

"I can't sense them. Where are they?!" At loss about what to say he decided to stay silent, trying to coax her mind into believing what her heart already knew. "They're gone aren't they?" His heart writhed in his chest. The pain and despair in her eyes were tangible, her voice tentative and trembling and to him she looked damn adorable.

"I have to see." She mumbled and then in the blink of an eye she passed him and disappeared in the Turbolift. Will waited two minutes before going after her, knowing she needed to see that they were indeed gone with her own eyes.

Deanna nearly ran through the corridors that would lead her to the quarters she's called her home for almost three years. Her surroundings were nothing but a big hazy blur to her and her mind was focused only on finding her children. Having to loose Worf, her husband was bad enough, but to have to loose her children as well was
unimaginable...and scaring.

The two security guards posted outside her family's quarters stepped aside as she approached and the doors slid open before her. Abruptly she held still, only millimeters before the change in carpet. She wasn't sure she was ready to walk in there because if she did there'd be no escape for her, no way to fool herself into believing that Eric
and Shannara hadn't disappeared. Could she enter? Did she have the courage? If Worf were with her he would have told her about Klingon courage and honor and she would've crossed the invisible barrier. But Worf wasn't with her and she wasn't Klingon. She was Betazoid and more important, she was alone.