Chapt. 37 (Epilogue)

Leaning against the bulkhead Riker watched his wife sleep in their bed, her dark curls were fanned around her head, creating a halo of black silk around her disturbed features. As happened more often than he could count since they were married, all the love he felt for her bubbled in his throat and made him want to scream out loud.

Deanna stirred in her land of dreams and awoke slowly, her eyes fluttering beneath closed lids before she opened them and gazed at her husband, love brightening the saddened black depths when she recognized him. "You're back" she whispered hoarsely, attempting to sit up, but failing. "how long?"

"A couple of hours."

"Why didn't you come to bed?" She wondered; she could have used a night in his arms; the beauty of his mind chasing away the memories that hunted her.

"My place was taken." He replied quietly, shifting his gaze from his wife to their twelve year-old daughter and ten year-old son. They might not have their empathic abilities, but they had been empathically aware of their parents since birth and knew as well as he did that their mother had needed them at her side. He could see by the lines in Deanna's face that the past weeks had been tough for her, she seemed but a ghostly appearance of her usual, vibrant self.

They had moved to Betazed five years ago, having lived in space for two decades and being married for one of them they had encountered one too many battles, too many losses of friends and had decided to move planet-side for the safety of their children as well as for the sake of the grey streaks in his beard.

Deanna rubbed her puffy eyes and climbed out her bed, nearly slamming herself against her husband's chest. He managed to guide her out the room and close the doors before her first sob wretched itself free.

~Shh Imzadi, it's all right, I'm here~

~She just left! How could she leave?!~ Deanna clutched his uniform which he hadn't taken off since completing the special, two month assignment he had just returned from. The first assignment away from home he had accepted in the last five years and just in the middle of it Lwaxana had decided to surrender herself to the Kutarui –death. He had been able to feel his wife's sorrow and pain thousands of light-years away and to make matters even worse, tomorrow was the twentieth anniversary of the disappearance of Worf, Shannara and Rozhenko.

It was dawn by the time Deanna stopped crying and the married couple became aware of two small bodies pressing themselves against them. Yalithë looked up at her mother with her big black eyes and hugged her closely. The two falls of black curls mingled into one, to be separated a moment later as Yalithë turned to her daddy to welcome him home.

Tommy took his cue to hug his mother and as Will was released by his daughter, his son turned familiar blue eyes on him and give him a hug as well.

Both children were perfectly aware what significance this day had; both had been raised with full knowledge of their mother's first husband, as well as the three children she had lost. "I'll pack the picnic basket" Yali exclaimed cheerfully, pulling her brother along as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Will lifted Deanna's chin by placing a single finger underneath it. Her eyes were sill clouded by tears of sorrow, but he could see that love was already chasing away the bad weather. ~I'll be fine~ she assured him silently, letting him know that she had passed the first and most difficult stage of her grief and that, like everything life threw at him, their love with conquer all.

Their lips met in a healing kiss of love and understanding and when they reluctantly broke away he wrapped his arm around her waist, noting absently that she had lost a little weight. Linked together they walked into the kitchen, where the children had already finished packing the basket. Their minds reaffirmed the link between them, their family was back together, save for the hole Lwaxana's presence had left behind.

But his family was still together, and together they would conquer whatever life threw at them. For now, and for the rest of their lives.