I Home

William T. Riker (now in his late twenties) stood in the middle of a room of the house he spent most of childhood in, swimming through his memories, trying to remember a time when his life had more purpose and sensibility. The whole house was completely empty and silent, from the smallest sheds in the great backyard, to the master bedroom his parents once shared. The furniture was still there, covered by sheets thick with dust that had collected over the years. Everything was dark, gloomy and the wood creaked in places that Will knew hadn¡¦t done that when he¡¦d been here last many years ago.

The house was getting old, settling down in the roots that had been laid way before Riker¡¦s time.

He went from room to room slowly, reliving his recollections, trying to pinpoint why his father had decided to sell the home in the first place. He hadn¡¦t even had the courtesy of calling Will and telling him. He just moved, leaving Will in the cold, unsurprisingly, like always.

Finally moving to the first room upstairs, Will stepped foot into the room he had spent the most time in as a child.

~

Will¡¦s mother, who died when he was eight, had lived in the room Will now stood in during the last days of her life, where, even though she was so sick, mustered up the energy in her terminally ill body to teach her only son to read and write properly. It was something she had loved to do.

Will bought the property from a bankrupt businessman a couple of months ago, when his monthly cut of the profit he made from his latest best-selling book had finally arrived into his hands. This house was the first and only thing he wanted to buy.

Today was his first time stepping foot into the house alone. The last time he had seen it was when he had moved out of it when he was fifteen, running from his verbally abusive father and moving into an apartment on the other side of town, where his father never found him. Either he never tried or never wanted to try, was how Will saw it.

Might as well start here.

Will began the chore of cleaning everything, the sheets, the windows, moving furniture around to suit his elevated size and began a mental list of decorative items to suit his evolved taste. He started with the window of his mother¡¦s room, shaking the dust off the drapes, using a damp rag to wipe off the thick-as-blood dust.

Through the window, he saw a sight that made the gap in his heart grow bigger.

¡§Willy, you see the mountain over there?¡¨

Eight year-old Will nodded in response.

¡§Someday, when I get better, you, me and your father will go climb that mountain.¡¨

Tears threatened to spill over as Will brought himself back to reality. Of course, his parents never took him on that trip.

~

The man, brown, thinning hair, Starfleet uniform and all, stepped down on one knee and brought out a black velvet box the woman had seen in his quarters.

¡§Deanna Troi, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?¡¨

The couple¡¦s friends and everyone else in the lounge watched and waited for the exciting moment when she would say yes.

She held her hand to her chest as she realized her worst nightmare had come true. It wasn¡¦t that she was afraid to take the commitment and it wasn¡¦t that she didn¡¦t like the man looking up at her; Deanna adored David and loved working with him side by side more than anything in the universe. And as the ship¡¦s first officer and counselor, they were the two most highest-ranking officers on the USS Enterprise-D. But Deanna had had other plans. And she didn¡¦t want to humiliate David by saying no to him in front of everyone who would most likely be invited to the wedding.

¡§David, ¡¨ Her throat suddenly seemed so parched. ¡§David, my dear, I love you.¡¨

¡§But?¡¨ He had already gotten the point. It was one of the reasons that had attracted Deanna. He was so empathic at times, and yet, he could also be so frustratingly and infuriatingly human.

¡§But I need some time to think about this. It¡¦s a life altering decision and I just want to make sure that I make it right.¡¨

David was obviously crushed with the hurt school-boy look he scrunched his face into, simultaneously snapping the box that he had asked the ship¡¦s CMO ¡V Deanna¡¦s closest friend ¡V to help him pick out. He looked up at her.

¡§How much time?¡¨

Deanna wished she could keep their conversation between the two of them, but since the room had gotten so silent, it was impossible. The first reason that Deanna considered adding onto the con side of her ¡§pro¡¦s and con¡¦s¡¨ list was the fact that David and Deanna never shared an Imzadi bond that her mother and father had shared. She had always admired that element of her parents¡¦ relationship, and still remembered it to this day. It was rare but not unattainable in Betazoid society; as soul mates, they would be able to speak to each other like no one else would.

¡§I don¡¦t know. But you¡¦ll be the first one to know, I promise.¡¨

¡§Alright.¡¨

And the night was over.

~

Will had barely been able to sit when the doorbell rang. Through the glass, he deciphered the figure as his father -by the graying hair and the proud way he always chose to stand.

A thousand and one questions and insults ran through Will¡¦s mind before he finally opened the door. His father stood there, looking for some sort of forgiveness in his son¡¦s dying expression.

As Will opened the door and Kyle Riker heaved a small, inaudible sigh of relief.

But he wasn¡¦t out of the woods yet.

~

The two ¡V father and son ¡V sat in the newly tiled kitchen.

¡§Why¡¦d you sell it?¡¨ Will, too immersed in his grief and reminiscence to be earsplitting, looked to the floor where he leaned onto the island in the kitchen.

Kyle was too nervous and too old to be nervous. ¡§Will, you have to understand my point of view. I couldn¡¦t find you. The last I had heard from you was the letter that you had written me. You were thinking about joining Starfleet, and then you had just disappeared. No peep came from you until the man I had sold the house to called me to tell me that the house wasn¡¦t in his name anymore.¡¨

¡§Did you even try to find me?¡¨

¡§No, but I knew that you would be able to take care of yourself. You¡¦ve always been able to.¡¨ A flash of anger and a bolt of insanity ran through the towering youngest of the two.

¡§I gave you Andy¡¦s number didn¡¦t I? Did you not try there? Did you even try??¡¨

¡§Son...¡¨

¡§Don¡¦t call me son. I was never your son.¡¨

¡§Please, Will...¡¨

¡§Get out.¡¨

Anger began to bubble inside of the senior Riker. ¡§You¡¦re kicking me out of my own house?¡¨

And Will blew up. ¡§It¡¦s MY house!!! MINE! I bought it with my own money!¡¨ He pointed to the lobby of the house and yelled, ¡§GET OUT!¡¨

Kyle left as Will instinctively retreated into his own creative world.

~

¡§Deanna?¡¨

¡§In here.¡¨

David cautiously walked into his other half¡¦s meticulously decorated bedroom. He watched her as she packed a month¡¦s worth of clothes, some PADD¡¦s, a book or two by a new author she had discovered and her COMM badge. She had asked for an extended leave of absence to clear her head and decided whether or not she really did want to take David in sickness and in health. It was a great decision for her and her family, since her mother, Lwaxana Troi never approved of David in the first place, and since Deanna began enduring the receiving end of the sinking suspicion that she would be better off alone for the rest of her life than with David Adel.

¡§I¡¦ll miss you.¡¨

Deanna had no idea whether or not she would miss David. It was another risk she was taking in leaving, if she did indeed miss David, then it was another thing to add to her pro list. If not, it belonged to con.

She decided to lie. For David¡¦s sake. ¡§I¡¦ll miss you too. I¡¦ll send you a subspace everyday.¡¨

¡§Promise?¡¨

Deanna cringed. Her con list was growing.