A/N: Yay, thanks so much for every review! So excited to see you guys following along. To my new followers, a huge thanks and welcome! :-) WIWJ-I had just taken a sip of Sprite when I read your review and...well basically...that was a bad idea lol. Sprite through the nose! I swear that was an accidental innuendo. Apparently, I do that a lot haha. Cubbiesfan1-So happy to see you! This is actually going to be a short little series of events from Carmen's universe, focusing on her parents. It will stand on its own, so you can definitely read this one before reading the other stories :-)

"Would you like some tea?" Captain Jean Luc Picard gestured towards a tray that sat on the desk between him and the young Starfleet officer. Will politely accepted, picking up one of the steaming hot glasses and blowing across its surface.

"Now then…" Jean Luc settled into his padded seat. "It seems that I've been asking all the questions today. But did you have any for me?"

"Yes, sir. Just one." Will took a tentative sip of tea, but it proved too hot still. So he set the cup down on his lap and drew in a breath. "Why me, sir? The Enterprise will be Starfleet's new flagship. And you would choose me over...better men?"

"Better men?" Jean Luc arched an eyebrow. This Riker fellow hadn't struck him as particularly humble.

"Well...more experienced men."

Jean Luc's smile softened with understanding. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the edge of the desk while holding his cup of tea aloft. "These are not the best of times, Mister Riker. To join the Federation is to inevitably join war. And so men with ambition run towards the ranks of Starfleet, crying for battle. But men with families...they have fallen quiet. They know something we don't."

"Sir?" Will found himself utterly intrigued-as well as utterly confounded. This captain was certainly not what he expected. He spoke of peace, yet prepared for war. He praised men with families, yet lived alone. And, perhaps strangest of all, he had chosen an inconsequential lieutenant from an inconsequential ship to be his first officer.

"You, Mister Riker, strike me as both types. You are ambitious, but your ambition is a different breed than theirs. And if I am not mistaken, you are a family man?"

"Yes, sir. I have a wife."

"No children yet?"

"No, no. No children, sir." Will waved one of his hands in a gesture that bordered on defensive. "Let's just say...I want to leave something for all those better men."

Picard's face shone once again with a smile. "Still," he said. "I'm hoping that one day, you'll know something I don't."

One year later...

"Dr. Crusher!"

Beverly Crusher, a woman with flame-colored hair and the shrewdest of blue eyes, looked up from her patient. She recognized Oliveri and his perennial scowl stalking towards her. "What is it?" she called from afar.

But he waited until he was within closer range to reply. "It's him again." Oliveri jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "He's asking for you specifically. That's the third time today, you know. How are we supposed to get anything done with Commander Riker underfoot?"

"Why don't you take over for me here," Beverly offered. "And let me handle the commander." She imparted Oliveri with a brief set of instructions and then, putting on her most patient smile, walked towards the man waiting just inside of sick bay's entrance.

"Hello there, Will," she hailed the commander.

"Doctor!" His face flooded with relief. "I'm so sorry to bother you again. It's just-"

"Is she sick again?"

"Well, yes. I think it's because of all the scrambled eggs she's been eating. That's the only thing she ever wants to eat anymore, you know. And she doesn't even like scrambled eggs!" He shook his head wearily. "But anyways, that's not why I came. I'm here because she's insisting on taking a walk through the arboretum later. Do you think it's a good idea? Shouldn't she be resting?"

"Nonsense! Let her go. She's pregnant, not an invalid." Beverly planted a fist on her hip. "And didn't I tell you this morning that her cravings are perfectly normal?"

"Normal?" Will scoffed, scrunching his face together. "Nothing about this seems normal."

"Well it is. You two have nothing to worry about. Deanna's healthy. The baby is healthy. And before you know it, she'll be here!" The doctor's blue eyes glimmered wickedly. "Then the worrying begins."

Will's shoulders sank with a sigh of despair. Beverly had just begun to turn back towards her work when she paused. She was accustomed to Commander Riker, the intrepid first officer of the Enterprise. Not this hopeless, weary, and worrisome soul that stood before her now. "Will, look…" She walked over to him and laced a reassuring arm around his back. "It's okay to feel scared. It's okay to feel...inadequate. Lots of first-time fathers go through this."

"This was never really part of the plan," he admitted. Maybe it was his exhaustion. Maybe it was the doctor's comforting touch. But whatever it was, Will could feel his chest filling with confessions. He took a deep breath, ready to let them out. "I mean, even captains and commanders get a break from their duties every once in awhile. But fathers? There's no end in sight for them. What if I scar my kid for life? What she grows up to resent me?"

"You mean the way you resent your father?"

"Yeah." Will swallowed hard. "I guess...I guess I'm afraid that after all this time, I really am just like him."

"But you're not. Don't do that to yourself, Will. This little girl...she's going to look up to you. And-" The glimmer returned to her eyes. "If she's got your taste for danger, then I'm the one who won't get any breaks!"