"Wow, look at her! Isn't she a beaut?" Will held his new trombone at arm's length to admire it properly.

"I'm so happy that you are once again the owner of a trombone," Soren said lightly. "I can see the change in you already."

"She and I will never part," Will declared with determination.

His remark made her think of Thomas.

"Does your father know yet about the existence of Thomas?" she asked.

"No, not yet." Will's expression immediately became much more sober.

"Why not?"

Will sighed. "The right time just hasn't come up yet."

Soren watched him in silence. She knew that there was more to the story than that.

"It's a long story, Soren. When I was fifteen years old, my father had a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized for a while. Eventually he was released, but I never heard from him again for fifteen years. He accepted a job far from Alaska and I finished high school on my own and then went to Starfleet Academy. Then all of a sudden, fifteen years later, he reappeared out of the blue to brief me on a new assignment on the Enterprise. He wanted to act like we could just pick back up where we had left off fifteen years previously. I was very angry and hurt and didn't want anything to do with him."

"So what brought you back around?"

"I challenged him to an Anbo-jitsu competition. It's a form of martial arts which we had enjoyed together when I was younger. He beat me by using an illegal move. It was the first time I had caught him doing it. He had done it many times before, which was why he had always won."

"Didn't that make you angry?"

"Of course it did. But then he started talking about my mother and how much he had suffered when she died. It was the first time I had realized how difficult it must have been for him to raise a child by himself and hold down a very demanding job as well. Then he told me that he loved me. It was the first time I had ever remembered hearing him say it, and it meant so much to me to hear it."

"So your reconciliation happened while Thomas was still stranded on Nervala IV, so he knows nothing about it."

"Exactly." Will looked sad. "I tried to tell him that things had changed between me and Dad, but he wouldn't listen. All that anger and hurt I had carried for fifteen years, Thomas still carries."

"That is so sad."

Will nodded. "I'm so glad that he is with Deanna now. I know that she'll be good for him."

"I miss her," Soren said.

"Do you? Well, I imagine she misses you as well." Will smiled.

"Really? Do you think Deanna likes me?"

"Well, of course." Will chuckled. "Why shouldn't she?"

Soren pondered his question, not quite sure how to answer it.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I sure am hungry for some authentic Cajun cousine, and there's no better place to get it than right here in New Orleans," Will said.

"I can't wait to find out what that's like," Soren said with a smile, thankful for the turn the conversation had taken.

"Nothing at all like food on J'naii, I can assure you." Will laughed. He put the trombone away and they left the motel.

So far Soren thought that New Orleans was the most exciting place she had ever visited. She loved the street corner musicians, the quaint little voodoo shops, and the atmosphere of gaity.

Soon the two of them were sitting at a table in Jerry's Cajun Cafe, looking at the menu.

"I'm going to let you order for me, since I don't have any idea what I would like," Soren laughed.

"Well, you can't go wrong with crawfish etouffee," Will said with a smile.

"Louisiana is certainly very different from Alaska," Soren remarked later.

"They are as different as night and day," Will agreed.

"And yet they are both part of the same country," Soren said.

"Yes, and Honolulu, Hawaii is completely different from both of them," Will said. "And those are just within the United States. Imagine how different all the other countries are from one another."

"Earth is truly an amazing planet," Soren said.

"It certainly is," Will agreed. "And regardless of the countless wonders of the universe, of which I have seen many, I have never lost my wonder of the breathtaking beauty of my own home planet."

Their food arrived then, and Soren got her first taste of crawfish etouffee. She thought that it was delicious.

That night Will took her for a walk along Bourbon Street. "You haven't really been to New Orleans until you've seen it's most famous street," he told her.

They walked past many entertainment establishments, until they came to a jazz club called the Bourbon Street Bar. Surprised at its name, Will led Soren inside. The inside of the club looked eerily familiar to him. He glanced around, expecting to see Minuet. Guiltily, he looked at Soren and tried desperately to think about something else. He knew that Soren loved and trusted him and would feel very hurt if she knew that he was thinking of Minuet.

To his relief, there were no women in the bar who resembled Minuet, so he was able to concentrate on and enjoy the music. He wondered whether they would have let him join in if he had had his trombone with him.

The next day they went for a ride around the city and saw some of the historical landmarks.

"During the War of 1812, the British tried unsuccessfully to take back the city of New Orleans for themselves," Will told Soren. "They were defeated by Andrew Jackson."

"During the Civil War, the Union army captured the city of New Orleans without a battle in the city itself, which is why so many of these magnificent old buildings are still standing."

Soren was glad that the nineteenth century plantation homes had been spared. They were unlike any buildings she had ever seen on Earth or anywhere else. She did have questions about the Civil War, however.

"Why did one part of the country want to break free and form their own country?" she asked.

"One of the main issues was slavery," Will told her. "The federal government wanted to free the slaves and the individual state governments wanted their citizens to be able to own slaves."

Soren found it hard to believe that slavery had existed on Earth as recently as the nineteenth century. She had always believed Earth to be one of the more socially advanced planets in the universe, and said so to Will.

"It was basically a cultural issue. The wealthy landowners of the southern states depended on the export of crops such as cotton for their livelihood and so believed that slaves were necessary for the efficient running of their plantations," Will explained.

"But for one human to own another human seems so totally against everything the Earth's leadership seems to stand for," Soren said.

"You wouldn't believe how much things can change over a period of five hundred years," Will laughed.

Another thing about New Orleans that fascinated Soren were the above-ground burial vaults in the cemeteries.

"New Orleans is below sea level," Will explained. "In the days before cremation became mandatory, bodies were interred above ground. Otherwise floods would cause caskets to float right up out of the ground."

"How gruesome," Soren said. She knew that cremation had become mandatory for North America in the mid-twenty-second century because the continent had completely ran out of burial space in its cemeteries, and there was no land available to designate for additional cemeteries. Eventually there would be no room left for urns in mausoleums either.

After three weeks it was time for Will and Soren to report back to the Enterprise. Soren had enjoyed her wedding and honeymoon, but she was glad to see her friends again. The first week back was rather hectic, as it was spent primarily moving her belongings into Will's quarters, which were larger than her own.

"At last I can consider myself officially moved in," Soren said with a laugh the day she brought in the last of her possessions.

"You women and your stuff," Will teased her.

"At least now it looks like someone actually lives here," she retorted.

Will put his arms around her and hugged her. "Welcome to your new home, sweetheart." He kissed the top of her head.

"Just a few steps away from my old home," she laughed.

"Oh, but what a difference it will make to have you sleeping in my bed every night," Will murmured into her hair.

"Mmm." Her hand caressed the front of his shirt and trailed down to rest on the slight bulge at the front of his pants.

"Someone sure seems to be in a frisky mood," Will chuckled.

"We might as well start things off right," Soren said in her sexiest voice.

"My dear, I couldn't agree with you more," Will said, gently carrying her to the bed.