Troi sighed before hitting play on the video message from her mother. "Well, little one..." Lwaxana began, but stopped herself mid-sentence. "I'm sorry, I know you asked me to stop calling you that. I'm trying, Deanna.
"Anyway, I'm glad that you have your powers back. I can't imagine what that must have been like," she said, sounding strangely empathetic. "And I'm really proud of you, saving the ship like that."
Troi stared at the screen, almost disbelieving what she was hearing. Her mother was rarely this supportive.
"You'll have to tell more when we talk again in person, dear. Oh! That reminds me, there's a simply delicious young man that you absolutely must meet..."
There it was. The counselor paused the video.
Her door chimed; Troi got up to manually open it. Commander Riker stood in the doorway.
"Did you forget about poker night?" he asked with a smile.
"Oh, no, I just lost track of time," Deanna said. "I was listening to a message from Mother."
"And did she have anything good to say?"
"Surprisingly, yes," Troi said, before adding, "And also no."
Riker shook his head. "Sounds about right."