She tucked him into bed that night. Having just gotten off from her first job, she popped in long enough to make dinner.

"You're off tomorrow?" He asked this, sitting up in bed as she picked a ratty looking book off the shelf. In the final days of her life, they had settled in Celadon.

They lived in an abandoned apartment that was both cheap, but falling apart. Management cared very little for it. (Considering the last tenet died two decades prior.)

"Sure am." As she sat down beside him, she winced in pain. She'd been sick towards the end, very frail. Doctors kept telling her to get help, recommending certain specialists, but it was never in the budget.

Even with her frailty, there was a grace to her. Her smile could light up a room and her long, black hair always hung to her back in thick waves. He'd often play with it when he sat in her lap, tugging at the ends as he rested his head on her shoulder.

She was hardly ever around, due to work, but even as a boy, he understood. She'd come home from a sixteen hour day and still find the energy to take him to the park, help him with school work, whatever she could to be with him.

He'd tell her she never needed a boyfriend because he would protect her instead. She always laughed at this.

"Auntie will be over in the morning." That final night, she read him his favorite bedtime story, kissed him, then paused in the doorway to watch as he dozed.

The next morning, he found Auntie crying at the kitchen table.

The phone's shrill tone startled him, causing Riker to jump.

"What?" He answered before the fog cleared, not catching the first words spoken. "...What...the copter?" It took a second for reality to hit him. "Oh...no Arlia's taking it...yeah, she's taking Breccia off island...keep an eye out and tell me when they return." He hung up then, framing his face in his hands. There was a kink in his neck and a dull ache in his back. Turning to the cup of coffee he poured but forgot, he took a gulp.

He had almost forgot what it was like to dream. As of late, he'd usually pass out and wake the next morning with no recollection.

Before he had the chance to fall into a puddle of self loathing and contempt, Donna came in without knocking. (To date she was only person allowed to do so).

She had that look on her face...that look. The same one Riker got as a child before every whipping. "What is this?" She demanded, holding up a tupperware dish.

Riker sighed, placing his palm against his cheek. "A bowl."

Ms. Moore clenched her jaw before taring the lid off. "It's the lunch I made you yesterday. You left it in the mini fridge."

Riker rolled his eyes. "Donna please."

"Don't you roll your eyes at me mister." She dropped another empty dish down on his desk. "And I saw Arlia licking this one clean when I came in last night."

"You saying she can't eat?"

"I already made a bowl for her. Is my cooking not good enough any more?"

"For the love of-" Riker inhaled, trying to talk down his temper. (He knew better than to snap at his secretary). "Could you not today? Please?"

The tone of his voice must've tipped Donna off. She frowned, crossing her arms. "What's wrong honey?"

"Nothin-" The lie caught in his throat when common sense tapped him on the shoulder. Lying to Donna was a death sentence. "...Nothing you can do much about." He wasn't sure how to explain what he saw when his eyes were closed.

It would seem Donna had her own idea of what was the matter. She sat on the edge of his desk, brushing a strand of bangs from his forehead. "You know he wouldn't have chose you if you weren't right for the part."

Riker pursed his lips. "Yeah."

Ms. Moore chuckled. "Where's your little friend? The one you're always talking to?...Brenda?"

"Breccia." There was a pause. "And she isn't a little friend. I'm an adult Donna, not a child in need of a play date."

"I know." His aunt sighed. "It's so hard not to picture that little boy...had to have the same bedtime story every night."

Remembering that last story his mother told, the last time he saw her alive, Riker winced.

What would she think, seeing him where he was now?

Wasn't this what she was trying to escape? She worked herself to death, literally, to provide a better future for him.

"Do you think..." He began, thinking whether or not to continue. When Donna glanced over to him, he realized there was no point in stopping. "Do you think she'd be proud...seeing where I am?"

Donna didn't need to know who. There was only one woman Riker ever spoke of. "Sweetie...She'd be happy-" Her voice faded, as if her thoughts were interrupted. "She'd...She wanted you taken care of. After what happened, this was the only option for you. I doubt she'd be angry."

Riker rubbed the bridge of his nose when another headache splashed across his forehead. "She didn't want me here."

"Honey, she'd already reached out to your grandfather before she...died. It's true, she never planned on him actually getting you-" His aunt sighed. "-but I was already too old back then. As long as you didn't end up like your father, she was fine."

He resisted the urge to end the conversation then and there. "Angry and bitter..." Coffee cup still in his grasp, Riker clenched into it. "How am I any better when every mention of him sends me into a rage?" His heart beating in rapid succession, he tried to swallow his anger. He knew saying such words was an insult to those who raised him.

"Would you hurt those you love? To get even?" Donna asked, saying it at a near whisper. Instead of a vocal answer, she received a shake of the head.

Stroking the side of her nephew's cheek with the back of her knuckles, she smiled. "You're nothing alike sweetie. Try to remember that."

When she left the room, she did so in silence. The quiet that followed stretched for a while after. It was palpable, as if Riker could reach out and touch it.

He lost track of how long he was sitting at his desk, doing nothing save for picking at the dinner left behind.

When his phone rang once more, he took notice of the time that passed.

"Yeah." With a mouth full of ramen, he struggled to swallow. "What?"

'Sir?' The grunt on the other end sounded nervous. 'You mentioned Arlia took the copter?' The grunt on the other end sounded nervous.

That didn't take long. "Yeah, she and Breccia back already?"

'N-no sir. We've lost contact.'