/Disengage/

The sound of her name seeped into her consciousness slowly, as if through molasses, and distantly she thought, Jack would never call me that. But that meant that Jack wasn't here (wherever here was), and if he wasn't here, then where—

She opened her eyes to see only white, and the faint hums and background beeps of an unfamiliar sickbay turned loud and insistent as the single frantic thought flooded her body with adrenaline: Jack?

"Hey." The voice spoke again, firm but reassuring, and recognition dawned as the medical arch obstructing her view with too-bright light was pushed away from overhead. "Beverly."

Not Jack, and not Jean-Luc, either. The weathered, bearded face looking down at her instead belonged to one of her oldest friends—or at least, he had been once. Beverly blinked to adjust to the lower light, lifting her head. "Will?"

Will Riker smiled, but his blue eyes were serious. "Long time no see, Doc."

She tried to smile back, tried to calm her heart from pounding against her ribs, but no matter how many years it had been she still knew him well enough to understand: something was wrong. Not least the fact that he was here at all. "Will," she said, quietly pleading, "my son—Jack—"

"Sir, you are agitating her. You need to leave now," snapped a white-coated Trill woman, and Beverly felt her alarm rising further. Starfleet.

Riker didn't spare the other physician a glance, squeezing Beverly's hand with a gentleness that belied his terse, efficient outline of the situation. "Jack's here. You're on the Titan. But we're in a tight spot. The nebula you brought us to is outside Federation space and we're outgunned and out of time. The ship that was after you is demanding we turn Jack over to them."

No, no, no. She braced her other hand on the biobed as he carefully helped her sit up. Everything hurt, though by quick assessment she could tell that the Titan's doctor had done good work on the worst of her injuries. There was no room for relief, though, as she swiftly absorbed Will's words. He wouldn't be telling her this unless there was a chance…She shook her head, distraught. "We've been hunted for weeks now. I thought Jean-Luc could help us. Why…?"

Riker grimaced. His improvised plan to rescue Beverly hadn't gone swimmingly right from the start, despite his and Picard's best intentions, and he regretted that he needed her help now instead of the other way around. But at this point, it was their only play. He caught her eye. "Beverly, I know, but Jean-Luc doesn't," he said meaningfully, and as she blinked and looked away he could see that she understood him. "He won't hear it from me. Captain Shaw is probably going to turn Jack over—unless you tell him. Can you walk?"

"Captain," protested the Titan's doctor, even as Beverly was already easing off the bed to test her balance.

"Yes." She drew a deep breath and met Will's gaze again with grim determination. This wasn't quite how she'd hoped her call for help would be answered, with the danger only heightened. But she had apparently bought them once more chance at reaching safety, and unless they were turned upon here as they had been everywhere else, she would take it, would do anything to keep her son from being delivered over to those brutal, faceless hunters. She just had to find Jean-Luc…

"Let's go." Riker wrapped an arm securely around her waist and guided her up the sloping corridor out of sickbay. Beverly had always been a deceptively strong woman, but Riker was still impressed by her fortitude now with the extent of her injuries. He remembered the phaser rifle scoring on the Eleos deck and wondered at what she'd had to face—and do—to survive that attack. Wondered, too, at what had happened before. He'd never been able to imagine the reason why she had disappeared all those years ago, until the reason why pulled a phaser and got the jump on him on a tiny little ship outside of Federation space, and then he knew: her son.

Her son with Jean-Luc Picard.

As his mother-in-law would say: Holy Rings of Betazed.

Riker could almost understand why Picard refused to accept the reality that had been so immediately evident to him; it was a shock to him, too. But Picard's denial was so stubborn it was going to get his own son killed. So no matter what the historical circumstances were surrounding the whole situation, Riker would be damned if he'd let that happen.

Beverly's hand was cold in his as they entered the turbolift, and he tightened his grip in support. The red pulsing of the ship's emergency lighting bathed her silver-streaked hair in shades reminiscent of its former hue. "Bridge," Riker called, then filled her in with a few more details. "Jean-Luc is there with Shaw. Jack is being held in the brig right now, but at least he should be safe there."

"Thanks," she said softly, and then hesitated. How could she even begin—?

He shook his head. "When this is all over, we can all have a drink at my place, and you can catch me up on everything," he promised, and a ghost of a smile crossed her lips.

A shipwide alert sounded and Shaw's voice broadcast in the turbolift: Prisoner escaped from the brig…may be armed…

Beverly paled again. "Will, he's going to turn himself over."

"We won't let him," Riker assured her, before the lift slowed to a stop and the doors opened to reveal the Titan's bridge humming with focused energy and tension, commands and reports and alarms overlapping. Then the voices ceased as the entire bridge crew seemed to pivot in unison to face them.

Beverly felt herself flush at the sea of faces suddenly turned towards her, but she didn't shrink back, stepping away from Will to the aft bridge railing. She searched the darkened bridge for the one face that mattered most. And then she found him.

How many times had she imagined this moment? She thought she'd been prepared, thought she would have been able to say the words she'd rehearsed—

(Jean-Luc, we have a son)

—but the jolt of electricity that shot through her when she met Jean-Luc's gaze nearly staggered her. He stared at her in wonder and astonishment for a timeless instant before posing the almost desperate, wordless question with his eyes, and Beverly swallowed and looked down, not ashamed, but overcome, and though she couldn't speak, it was as though she'd burst out the words across the bridge. Jean-Luc closed his eyes for a moment in absolute disbelief, and when he opened them again everything had changed. He snapped new orders to the crew with all of the authority he knew how to wield. Shut down the transporter…prepare to engage… The ship would fight to protect Jack, not surrender him.

From the captain's chair Shaw shot a furious, frustrated look at them both. "Why are you doing this?"

Beverly lifted her chin, and Jean-Luc met her gaze again and his voice was crisp as he said, never looking away from her, "Because he's my son."

We have a son.