"Hit me."

"I just…"

Grunting loudly in frustration, Isabel stepped forward shoving Wesley forcefully on the chest, causing him to lose his balance and stumble backwards. "Come on! Hit me!"

"Isabel…" He looked at the floor, hands on his hips, as he slowly shook his head in unwavering protest.

"Wes. This is part of training. Hit. Me." She looked at him pointedly. "Hard."

"I don't want to hurt you." He gave her one of his puppy-dog gazes, brown eyes wide with concern. "Plus, this is some crazy training drill you concocted, not one of the Starfleet sanctioned programs."

Rolling her eyes dramatically, she looked at him. "If you can beat the crap out of me, then you'll be able to face anything we come across out there." Even though they were in the safety of the holodeck, she gestured towards the wall – knowing somewhere beyond the thick tritanium was the vast expanse of the universe.

"Can't we just go back to training with the bat'leth?"

"No. No negotiating, little brother." She started to walk around him, as if stalking her pray. "You've already mastered the basics of that…now you need to learn how to fight dirty. We're not going to be able to carry a bat'leth around with us everywhere we go on this little adventure."

Without warning, she quickly lunged into his personal space and slugged him across the face, the sound of bone connecting with flesh echoing against the walls. Blood trickled out of his nose as he looked at her in utter disbelief. She raised her arms inviting him to respond in kind, but still he was hesitant.

Sighing, she dropped her arms and looked at him with as much love and kindness as she could muster in the moment. "Wes…" This time she was the one to look down and put her hands on her hips. Gathering her thoughts, she caught his eye. "Look. There is a real possibility we may be captured. If we are…you need to know what to expect. You need to know how to prepare – and trust me – what we are doing in here is probably nothing to what you would experience out there."

He looked at her.

She looked back at him.

"Come on, Wes! What is it? Are you scared? Scared because you know your sister can easily beat the crap out of you? What would Robin say if she knew what a wuss you were?"

Raising his eyes to look at her again, she saw they were now full of determination. Smiling, she widened her stance as he slowly stepped towards her. He threw a left hook, and she ducked to avoid the contact. As she rose once again, he threw a right punch to her gut, knocking the wind out of her lungs. Suddenly finding herself bent over, she kicked her leg out, causing his balance to falter, which bought her a moment to catch her breath.

Grinning, she nodded her head once, urging him to continue. "Come on, Mama's Boy. We all know Robin went out with Lieutenant Mitchell last night. How'd that make you feel? He is a lot bigger than you…"

At the comment, Wesley's features became dark and angry. This time, she willingly let him make contact.

His first punch caught her in the eye. The second in the nose.

"Is that all you've got, Crusher? What would your dad say if he were here? Oh, that's right. He's dead."

She wasn't particularly proud of the instigating she was doing – especially about Jack – but it was having the desired effect. Wesley was clearly infuriated and was taking his full aggression out on her as planned. Pinning her to the ground, he kneeled on her arms as he threw punch after punch across her face. The taste of coppery blood filled her mouth as her vision started to blur from the blows. She wasn't going to last much longer.

"Wes!" He stopped mid-punch, eyes focusing back on her. "Great job, little brother." She laughed, spitting up the blood she was currently choking on in her current position.

Quickly standing up, he pulled her to her feet and concern once again flooded his eyes. "Isabel…oh my god I'm so sorry."

Laughing, she steadied herself as she made her way over to the medkit they brought with them. "No, no regrets. That was great. If you can let that anger out on me, then you're in good shape, though you might want to talk to Deanna about all of that pent-up rage you seem to have." Laughing, she turned to face him, her mischievous grin fading into a sweet smile as she reached out to gently squeeze his arm. "I'm proud of you…and your dad would be proud of you, too."

He rolled his eyes and laughed as he walked towards her, taking the dermal regenerated from her hand. "Let's start with the hypo, okay? I think you'll need pain meds before we take care of everything else."

Nodding in agreement, she plopped down on the hard metal bench and let him tend to her wounds. They had been diligently training every morning for the past two weeks since the wedding. Sine the night she found out Drew was still alive. It was all still unbelievable to her. Everything had changed in an instant, and now they were all planning on using Jean-Luc and Beverly's honeymoon as a diversion as they really went on a mission to find the brother she believed had died almost a decade ago.

Wesley's soft voice cut through her thoughts. "Did Robin really go out with Mitchell last night?"

She looked up apologetically at him as he ran the regenerator over her skin. "No. I'm sorry for what I said. I was just trying to fire you up."

"I hate you." Shaking his head, he pursed his lips to keep from laughing.

"You love me." She beamed at him with a bloody smile. "I keep you on your toes."

They sat in silence for a few moments as he focused on healing her split lip. Taking a step back, he shot her a sad look. "You can't keep beating yourself up, you know. Your memories will come back, it just might take some more time."

"We don't have time, Wes. We're supposed to leave in two days." She let her head fall back against the wall, the dull thud of the impact reverberating across the empty space of the room. "I had one job to do to prepare for this mission…and I've completely failed."

"You haven't failed, and you have more than two days. You'll have time on the yacht too." He sat down next to her, handing over the regenerator. Accepting the device, she leaned forward to address his wounds. "Aren't the sessions with Deanna helping?"

"Yes and no. We've done everything we were supposed to do – followed the directions exactly how my mother instructed – but so far only little slivers of memories have returned. Once a new memory resurfaces, we talk it through and try to extract as many details from it as possible but so far I've only remembered bits and pieces of random memories. Not nearly enough to give us anything to go on."

"What about regression therapy? Can't Deanna take you back into the memory itself?"

Isabel shook her head. "We tried, but it's like the full memory isn't there – only the bits I remember. It's like I can't go back to explore the memory unless I can remember it when I'm awake. It's extremely frustrating."

"That's why you've been going so hard in training, isn't it?"

"What do you mean? Do you think I'm trying to hurt myself in order to trigger the memories?" Her brow furrowed as she glared at him.

"No. I think you are trying to punish yourself for not being able to remember." He looked at her pointedly, knowing he was right.

She sighed, deciding to let him win this one. "I hate you."

"I'll take that as a, Yes, Wes, you are absolutely right." Smiling, she rolled her eyes as he laughed. They were quiet for a few moments as she carefully healed the gash over the bridge of his nose.

"Do you think you'll make it tonight? From the response so far, I think it's going to be a great game." He shook his head, grinning from ear to ear. Laughing, she playfully shoved his shoulder. "Robin?" He nodded. "Please tell me you are taking her someplace romantic."

"She's actually making the plans for tonight. I'm just along for the ride."

"And I hope it's a great ride, Wes." She gave him a devilish look. "And here I thought you were going to die on this mission a bona fide virgin."

This time he slugged her in the arm. Hard. "I hate you."

She smiled at him as she rubbed her arm. "You love me." Standing up, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. "Come on. Let's go scrounge up some breakfast – I'm starving!"


"Oh my god, Jean-Luc!"

Beverly's climax rippled through her, tingling every extremity all the way to the very tips of her fingers. Eyes still closed, she felt him collapse gently on top of her, nuzzling his nose into the crook of her neck providing them both a few quiet moments to allow their heartrates to return to a somewhat normal cadence.

Rolling to his side, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her as close to his chest as possible. She loved his strong arms. Hard muscle under smooth skin. The feeling of security she felt when they were protectively wrapped around her. There was just something about knowing he could easily pick her up anytime he wanted to that always ignited a fire within her. Turning her head towards him, their lips connected and they shared another passionate kiss.

"Have I ever told you how much I love it when you yell out my name?" Smiling warmly at his comment, she snuggled deeper into the plush mattress, wiggling her backside into him suggestively as she did so.

"Hmmm, keep making love to me like that and I'll scream out your name as often as you'd like." She purred into his lips and felt him turn and smile into her hair as he laced his fingers with hers, gently playing with each of them in turn.

It had only been a couple of weeks since their wedding, but it felt as though they had always woken up like this – wrapped in each other's arms, slowly making love until the sun kissed the morning sky…then generally a few more times after that until the need for food or coffee consumed them both.

Gazing out of the large French doors that led to their private balcony, she smiled at the sight of the morning light streaming through the branches of the tall oak trees, appreciating the patches of brilliant blue sky that peaked through as well. Closing her eyes, she relished the sound of the birds chirping in the vineyard as she lay warm and protected in her husband's arms.

Oh, she going to miss these moments.

Today was their last full day in La Barre before heading back to the Enterprise the following evening, where they would stay before they headed to Risa in the captain's yacht, this time with both Wesley and Isabel in tow.

Once they had discovered Drew was alive, Jean-Luc had altered their honeymoon plans in order to use them as a cover for their mission to find him. Changing their destination from Pacifica to Risa allowed them a more central position in Federation space. Once on Risa, they would sign up for one of the archeological excursions offered, giving them the opportunity to charter another ship to…somewhere. While Jean-Luc had taken care of getting them safely to Risa and providing them with cover for their absence, both Wes and Isabel were working on the rest of their trip, based off the memories they unlocked from Isabel's mind.

Beverly still felt guilty for not being a part of the memory retrieval process with Isabel. She had every intention of going back to the Enterprise after the wedding, but both Isabel and Deanna had assured her that they had everything under control, and that they would reach out if anything of concern happened. They insisted she enjoy her honeymoon without any interruptions. While she was enjoying every single moment with her new husband, she'd be lying if she didn't admit she was looking forward to reconnecting with her children, finding out where the second part of their journey would take them, and hopefully finding Drew as well. She was anxious to know more about him. Did he look more like her or Jean-Luc? Did he still have a mess of brown curls?

Feather-light kisses along her neck pulled her thoughts back into the present. Smiling, she turned in Jean-Luc's embrace so she could stare into his warm hazel eyes.

"Already, Captain?" She smirked at him as she slowly slid her leg over his thigh, pulling him closer to her.

"Just trying to keep up with you, my love." Running his fingers through her hair, he pulled her face towards his and kissed her deeply. His tongue continued its mission to memorize every inch of her body, tracing her bottom lip before making its way down her neck, stopping at a particularly sensitive spot on her clavicle.

Moaning at his touch, she ran her hands seductively up his chest, gently pushing him onto his back as she straddled his hips and began trailing little kisses down his chest. "You're in trouble, Jean-Luc, because I don't think I'll ever get enough of you." He laughed as she continued to kiss down his stomach as her fingers lightly scratched through the hair on his chest.

"Insatiable." He guided her back up to him and captured her mouth once again with his own as his hands roamed down her back to her backside, where he took the opportunity to pull her closer to his arousal.

"Only for you."

"I should hope so."

"Mmm…you know we're going to be late." Despite the warning she continued peppering his jaw and neck with kisses, not really wanting to get out of bed herself.

"To hell with punctuality. We're on our honeymoon." Wrapping his arms around her back he flipped them in one quick movement. Reaching her arms above her head in a cat-like stretch, she moaned in delight as his fingers began slowly roaming down her body.

After all the time they had been together his fingertips were still fire against her skin. One touch and she melted right into him, never wanting to part. Suddenly needing more contact, she reached up and grabbed the back of his head, bringing his lips down to meet her own as she simultaneously wrapped her legs around him. Jean-Luc didn't hesitate. He joined their bodies together slowly, allowing them both to enjoy every second of their coupling.

As always, they quickly found their rhythm, something unique to just the two of them. Thinking of that always made her smile. Never in her life had she experienced such an effortless connection, not even with Jack. She and Jean-Luc just fit together, as though they were two halves of a whole. Every time they were together was simply perfect, and she was grateful they had finally found their way to one another after so many years.

Feeling playful, she took him by surprise and sat up, forcing him to sink back onto his heels. He made a faint whimpering noise as he slipped out of her, but she kissed it away as she quickly climbed into his lap, joining them together once again. Leaning back on her hands, she steadied herself as he grabbed her hips and took charge, leading them both into the bliss of another release.

Collapsing on the bed once again, they both looked up at the ceiling as they allowed their breathing to return to normal. She felt him reach over to grab her hand, entwining their fingers together as they quietly enjoyed the high from their coupling.

After a few minutes Jean-Luc turned his head towards her. "So, where are we going and when do we need to be there?"

Catching his eye, she raised her eyebrow in question. "Oh, Captain, you're slipping." Shaking her head, she allowed herself a quick giggle as she turned towards him, propping herself up on one elbow as she drew lazy circles on his chest. "We're going to meet a man about a ship, remember?"

"Ah, yes, that. Very important." He reached up to run his fingers through her hair. "When do we have to be there?"

"In forty-five minutes…and we still have to shower…and you know how long that usually takes us these days." Flashing him a mischievous smile, she bent over to place a quick kiss on his lips.

"Indeed." Sitting up, he grabbed her hand once again and gently tugged her out of bed. "If we start now, I think we can get one more round in before we absolutely have to go."

Smiling wickedly at him, she pulled him towards the bathroom. "Promises, promises…"


"He's bluffing, Isabel. Don't buy it."

She quirked an eyebrow towards Ensign Rodgers on her left in acknowledgement of his comment, as she tilted her head to the side, pretending she was deep in thought regarding her next move. She knew the Lieutenant wasn't bluffing based on the twitch of his ear, though she was certain no one else was aware of his tell, perhaps not even the man himself. They were the only two left standing, and she knew he had something but wasn't certain it was enough to beat her hand.

"I bet twenty." Her chips hit the growing pile in the middle of the table with a satisfying clink.

Mitchell caught her eye and didn't hesitate. "I see your twenty…and raise you fifty more."

Copying his move, she didn't break eye contact as she reached for her chips, adding to the pile. "One hundred."

"I see that, and two hundred more."

Throwing additional chips on the pile, she curled her lip as she continued to hold his gaze "Okay, hot shot, let's see what you've got."

Dramatically tossing his cards on the table, he grinned smugly. "Three of a kind."

Pursing her lips, she looked down at the trio of tens on the table. Nodding as if defeated, she shrugged her shoulders and flipped her cards. "Same…though I'm partying with Queens tonight." She smiled as his expression changed into one of complete shock.

Cheers and laughter erupted from those at the table with them. Rodgers chugged the little beer left in his glass and point accusingly at Mitchell. "You know what this means, dude!" Turning to Isabel, he continued. "What's it going to be?"

The sound of a subspace transmission coming through pulled her attention from the game. As she rose to cross the room, she turned back and smiled wickedly. "Pants." She chuckled to herself as more laughter and teasing continued. "Hey Rodgers – take over for me for a minute, okay – and don't lose!"

Reaching the small desk across the room, she sat and accepted the call without paying attention to who it was from, as Ensign Wheeler shoved a fresh pint of beer in her face. "You're slipping, Picard!" Nodding her thanks, she took a long swig of the amber liquid. Wiggling her nose, which was now numb, she made a mental note to slow down after this glass. Being docked at McKinley had its perks…one of them being easy access to real alcohol.

"Isabel?" Twirling back towards the screen, she was surprised to see both Jean-Luc and Beverly starting back at her, a look of utter confusion plastered across their faces.

"Hey!" Taking another sip, she put the glass on the table and gave them her full attention. "I wasn't expecting to see you until you came back to the ship tomorrow. What's up?"

Beverly opened her mouth to speak, but the eruption of cheers from across the room cut her off. Furrowing her brow, Beverly shook her head. "Are you having a party?"

Waiving a hand to dismiss any concern, Isabel glanced around the room as she casually turned the music down from the control on the desk. What had started as a small get together for poker had absolutely turned into a party. "Just a few folks getting together to play a few harmless games of poker. It is Tuesday after all."

She glanced at Jean-Luc's face, which was now sporting a disapproving frown. As she started to change the subject, a shoe unexpectedly sailed across the room, flying behind her into the wall knocking a picture loudly to the floor.

"Isabel!" Closing her eyes and sighing, she took a deep breath as Rodgers bounded his way across the room. "I uh…kind of lost. They want your shirt."

Rolling her eyes, she pulled the light green sweater over her head, revealing a white tank top underneath, and threw it at him. "Tell them when I'm done, they're dead…and that includes you too."

"That's enough!" At the sound of Jean-Luc's disapproval of the situation, she gave her attention once more to the computer as Rodgers scampered back to rejoin the game.

"Don't worry, Pops. It's fine. Everything is fine. We're just having a little harmless fun."

"First of all, please do not call me Pops. Secondly, I do not see how playing strip poker is a good use of one's time, especially when I know for a fact people are expected to report for duty tomorrow. Further, it is not appropriate for the Captain's daughter to be hosting such events."

"Is that Wesley behind you?" Beverly squinted as if trying to see better. Isabel turned around to follow her gaze.

Seeing that, in fact, Wesley had snuck in at some point, she started laughing as she realized he was sitting on the couch with Robin, ignoring everything around them as they quietly made out on the couch. "Ah, he made it! Hey, Wes, come here!" Realizing he couldn't hear her over the noise of the poker game, she stood and marched across the room. "Hey Romeo, can you pull your tongue out of your girlfriend for a moment? Mom and Dad called."

Wesley's eyes widened at the news as Isabel forcibly pulled him off the couch. Dragging him back to the desk, she plopped him down in the chair, standing behind him. He wiggled uncomfortably as he noticed the two pairs of disapproving eyes glaring at them.

Isabel put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "So, what can we help you with?"

Jean-Luc sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, as Beverly reached over to put a supporting hand on his leg. After a few moments, Jean-Luc finally spoke. "We wanted to discuss the outstanding needs for our trip before returning to the ship, but I can see neither of you are in a current state to do so. To say I am utterly disappointed in the both of you is an understatement. We will discuss this further tomorrow."

Feeling Wesley tense under her hand, she squeezed his shoulder gently. "Look, don't be made at Wes. The poker game was my idea, and it's my fault it turned into a party, but…" She leaned in closer to the screen so she could whisper. "…I just wanted to have a little fun before we leave on what could end up being a very dangerous mission. I'm sorry. I'll start to clear people out."

Jean-Luc nodded, still visibly angry at what was transpiring on his ship in his absence. "We'll talk about this further tomorrow. Good night."

Before either of them could reply, the connection was terminated. Sighing, Isabel leaned back against the desk, squeezing the bridge of her nose just as Jean-Luc had done moments ago.

"Why the hell did you answer their call, Iz?" Wesley stood, shaking his head as he looked to Robin and smiled, signaling he'd be back momentarily.

"Clearly, I'm a little tipsy and wasn't paying attention?" She looked at him, not entirely sure why she had answered the call without more caution. Realistically, it could only have been Beverly and Jean-Luc.

"Well, I feel for you. You're about to feel the wrath of this Jean-Luc Picard for the first time. Good luck!" He patted her back hard and grinned as he walked away.

"Thanks, little brother." Sighing once more, she made her way back to the poker game. If she was already in trouble, then there wasn't any harm in continuing the fun for just a little while longer.