Deanna slowly became conscious of her surroundings. She could feel the soft silk of bed sheets over her skin and the warm heat beneath her. She let her hand explore carefully, not sure where she was, and not really care. Her hands brushed over soft hair- a feeling vaguely familiar.
Slowly, her eyes fluttered opened to find herself lying on top of Will. Her check was resting on his chest and her arm had wrapped around his waist, a position she had often woke in when they had first met.
She smiled as her mind sensed him stir and emerged from sleep. "Good morning, Imzadi," she whispered with a playful smile, putting her chin where her head had been resting.
Riker smiled, her mind still slow and groggy as said, "Mornin'."
Deanna kissed his bare shoulder and put her head back the way it was before, to avoid looking him in the eye. "Thank-you."
"For what?"
"This." Riker nodded, not needing any more of an explanation to understand what she meant.
The door chime rang, startling both of them out of their content moment. "Computer, time," Riker called.
"The time is 0646 and 32 seconds."
"Who would come here at this time?" Deanna asked. Riker shrugged and reluctantly got out of bed. He ran a hand through his hair, pulling on his shirt as he walked into the living room. He hit the release button, not bothering to call out, and was shocked to see Dr. Crusher standing there when it opened.
"Beverly?" He asked, very confused.
"Will, do you know where Deanna is? The computer says she's in her room but there's only her communicator."
It took Will a moment to recall that Deanna had spent the night with him, having not worn her comm. badge with her. "Oh, uh… she came here last night. She… wanted someone to talk to. I guess she just forgot it. Is something wrong?"
Crusher hesitated before saying, "It depends on how you look at it. Is she still here?"
"Yeah, come in." He let her in, walking into his bedroom. "Deanna, Beverly wants to talked to you." By then, Deanna was up and seemed to be waiting for Riker's return.
She nodded mutely, walking with him out to the living room. Will hesitated just before walking out the door, saying instead, "Um, I'll just go…take a shower. Let the two of you talk."
"Actually, Will. I want you to stay, this… involves you." Will and Deanna looked at each other, both confused, but he shrugged doing as she had requested.
"I have the results to the tests I ran before," she began, pausing to let them sit down. "The fetus is, by all medical standards, one month old. But… the stress on your body would indicate that it's only been two weeks."
"What are you saying?" Deanna asked, worried that her fears were coming true.
"The fetus seems to be growing at a rate twice as fast as normal. Besides that, your baby is completely healthy." Deanna at least took some comfort from that, but it didn't change how strange- and how similar- the events were to that of Ian Andrew's birth.
She closed her eyes, blocking her fears from the other two. "Were you able to determine the father?"
Beverly nodded, "Your child is three-quarters human and one-quarter Betazoid. I cross-referenced all the human males' DNA on the Enterprise, just in case… and the only match I found says that… Commander Riker is the father."
Will froze, stunned beyond belief. His mouth flapped a moment, his mind trying to put words to his feelings and thoughts. Finally, all that managed to come out was: "M-me?"
"Yes, Will." Deanna and Will looked at each other again, this time just as afraid as they were confused. Deanna felt his shock, a shock that mirrored her own. But, looking into his eyes, she saw that he was no less committed to her.
"Do you know the gender?" Riker asked, reading Deanna's mind.
Beverly looked at Deanna and she nodded. Then the doctor smiled, "It's a girl." She let them take that in and said, politely, as she stood up, "I'll leave to let you talk about this."
When the door closed, Riker was able to speak again. Saying, "I bet she'll be as gorgeous as her mother." Deanna blushed, flashing a smile at Riker.
Then she stood and walked over to the window, Riker following her with his eyes. After a minute or two, she said, "Do you want to be the father, Will?"
"Of course. Deanna, I promised myself to stand by your side through all of this. Now I definably won't walk away." He stood up and walked up behind her. "I think the question is more, do you want this child?"
She turned and looked him in the eye. "Yes. Of course I do."
"Commander Riker! Where are you? Your shift started half an hour ago! And Counselor Troi is not here either."
Riker cringed at his Captain's angry voice, remembering with sudden clarity that he had a shift early that morning. "Sorry, Captain. We… have to talk to you," Deanna responded, having tapped the badge placed on Will's chest.
"Counselor? Very well, I want to see you in my Ready Room in five minutes."
"Yes, sir. Riker out."
"I guess that shower of yours is out, huh?"
"Oh, yeah. We should get dressed." Riker said.
Deanna nodded and then thought of something. "I guess I won't be wearing my normal attire in a few months, will I?" Will just smiled.
Captain's Ready Room
"Captain," Deanna and Will greeted Captain Picard simultaneously, walking off the bridge and into his personal office.
"Now you said you had something important to tell me?" Picard was right down to business, catching the two slightly off balance.
"Right." Riker cringed slightly. "Um, sir. I don't know how to say this but…" Riker trailed off, seeming to frustrate Picard- who seemed quite upset with the both of them.
"Yes, Commander?"
"Sir, I'm pregnant. Will is the father, but…" Deanna looked to Riker for help, already beginning to sense his mind reworking her statement.
"Pregnant, Consoler?" His words bore his surprise- something Deanna was beginning to get used to- as he continued to think over what she said. "That's… wonderful!" By the way they were looking at him, or more exactly not looking at him, he could tell they didn't see it that way.
"Captain, the way this child was conceived, wasn't by conventional ways. If you get my meaning."
Picard nodded; it seemed it was another intriguing mystery onboard the Enterprise. "Then how?"
"We have no idea, Captain."
"Thank-you, Deanna, for telling me."
"Yes, Captain. I should go." Deanna could sense- not only with her abilities but also with common sense- that he wanted to talk to Riker alone and so she excused herself.
"Will, I would like to talk to you as a friend and not your Captain." Riker nodded, taking a seat, and let him continue, "What are you and Deanna going to do about this?"
"Well, we are keeping the baby, sir. We've already agreed on that. But that's not what you mean is it?"
"No, Will." Riker sighed and Picard added, "I know that you and Deanna have had a relationship before and that you have remained good friends aboard Enterprise. Now, I have no problem with your relationship, but I do realized that this will put a strain on it. Whether it's for better or worse, I wouldn't know."
"Captain…I don't know. I guess we'll just find out as it happens," Riker shrugged.
Ten Forward
Riker sat alone in Ten Forward. He spun his synthehol lazily in his hand, half musing and half celebrating what he had found out that day. In one day he found out that his best friend…no, his Imzadi, was pregnant with his daughter and neither of them could remember how. It was frustrating to say the least.
"Now here's a man that looks like he could use some companionship." He heard Guinan's as she walked over to his table. He looked up to see her taking the empty seat beside him, without his permission or invitation.
"Yeah, maybe."
"So… you want to tell me what's up or do I have to start guessing?" Guinan looked at him the way only this El-Aurian could. It was the look you could immediately trust, one filled with compassion and empathy.
"Deanna's pregnant and I'm the father." Again, he was back to starring at the synthehol, watching it splash and ripple with the slightest of his movements. "Two weeks ago, something must have happened but…it didn't."
Riker rambled on and Guinan listened to every word, as she always did. She smiled at him, but had no advice to give for it was not her place. She knew that he merely needed to get it all off of his chest before he drove himself insane with his thoughts.
Then suddenly, as if connecting certain dots only he could see, his head popped up, an idea shinning in his eyes. "Two weeks ago, we were on an away mission to a deserted settlement. That's when I started to have these weird dreams and insomnia. When this all started."
"And you think there's some sort of connection between the two?" Guinan pushed him along in his thought process.
"There could be. Thanks, Guinan, I have to go talk to Dr. Crusher." Riker hopped up, a new bounce in his step. Guinan just shook her head and went to wait on other customers.
Sickbay
"Dr. Crusher!" Will called out as he entered Sickbay.
"Oh, hi, Will. How can I help you?" Crusher said with a polite smile.
"Um, I was wondering. If someone had somehow taken my DNA… they could have used it to… impregnate Deanna, right?"
"Yes."
"And they would need like hair or a skin sample or something, right?"
"Yes, basically. Will, where are you taking this?" Crusher asked, completely lost.
"I… I keep having these dreams. And in one of them, this huge needle just… injects me right- right here." Riker lifted his shirt and showed her the scar on his stomach he had found. "I don't remember hurting myself at all. Especially cutting myself like this."
Crusher shifted her stance, looking down at the scar before scanning his stomach with her tricorder. She found nothing except that it was old; something that must have healed years ago. But, even as she scanned it, her tricorder came up with conflicting reports- it seemed that it was also two weeks old. She looked up at him, telling him what she found.
"This could have been where they took the DNA, if that's what happened. Do you remember where you two were two weeks ago?" Crusher asked.
"Yeah. Deanna, Geordie, and I were on a tropical planet. We were looking for… an abandoned settlement. That's when this all started."
"Maybe you should talk to Geordie about this, find out what he knows."
