Author's Notes: This chapter and all following chapters take place 10 years after chapter 2. Think the Insurrection look for them, except Riker has a beard, cause I never liked baby face RIker much. This is all I have ready for publishing so far, but I am already working on the rest. Whether you love it or you hate it, please leave a review! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything or anyone, and still having fun with Imzadi-ness!

*****

Captain William Riker looked around the transporter room he’d just beamed into. Ten years…ten long years he’d spent in deep space on his own ship. He was glad to see some things never changed, so far at least. He had been expecting a senior crew member to meet him, however looking around the room again, the only face he saw was a young Ensign he didn’t recognize.

“Welcome aboard the Enterprise, Sir. The captain asked me to inform you that he apologizes for not having anyone here to meet you, but that they are all in Ten Forward waiting. If you like, I can show you the way,” the young ensign offered.

Chuckling, Will shook his head. “That’s alright Ensign. I know the way.” As he walked through the corridors, reacquainting himself with his old ship, his thoughts drifted to his departure ten years ago. It was almost ironic that practically everyone had shown up to see him off, yet no one had shown up when he returned. Well, not everyone had seen him off; she hadn’t been there. He wondered how she would react to him assuming command of the ship with Picard’s retirement. He knew she was still the counselor on the Enterprise; he had made it a point to triple check when he was offered the command. In fact, aside from the fact that he was being offered the ship of his dreams, her presence was the major reason he had been so quick to accept. Stepping off the turbo lift, he couldn’t help but wonder how much she may have changed in ten years. Moments later he had his answer.

The party in Ten Forward was in full swing as the new captain stepped into the room. He was immediately greeted by his old friends, all eager to welcome him back. He went down the line greeting them; first, Picard…then Data, who would now become his first officer, Geordi, Worf, Dr. Crusher and her son Wesley, who had definitely grown up. He was now the officer second in command of engineering on the ship. Then he saw her…and he was speechless. She was more beautiful than he remembered. She’d changed her hair, he noted. It was shorter, straighter and a tad lighter. But she still had what he was sure could be classified as the most amazing body in Starfleet, quite possibly the most amazing body in the entire universe.

“Welcome back, Will,” Deanna said with a small smile when it seemed as though the man forgot how to even breathe.

A slow grin spread across his face. “Deanna,” he finally found his voice and responded. His blue eyes darkened slightly with desire; she was gorgeous, and even better, she was talking to him despite how upset she’d been with him when he left ten years ago. He watched as she walked away then, seemingly uninterested in any lengthy contact with him. He realized then that perhaps she was simply being polite welcoming him back. Maybe she was still upset with him after all these years. He was determined to find out.

His eyes never left her as he made pleasant conversations with the remaining group around him. When he was finally able to politely excuse himself and try to make his way over to her, he was abruptly cut off by the last woman in the world he wanted to see: Lwaxana Troi.

“Just where do you think you are going, Captain?” she asked, clearly in the mood to play mother hen and thwart any and all attempts he might have at upsetting her daughter.

Will gave her a polite smile. “Lwaxana Troi. How good to see you again. What brings you to the Enterprise this time?”

Laughing, Lwaxana shook her head. “Oh dear boy, did you really think I would miss Captain Picard’s farewell party?” she asked. Of course the party was also to welcome Riker back, but Lwaxana wasn’t happy he had returned. The only reason she had to be there concerning him was to make sure he didn’t go anywhere near her daughter.

“Of course not. If you’ll excuse me,” he attempted to move around her, his eyes going back to Deanna. When she cut him off, he tried going the other way, only to be stopped again.

“You’re quite the dancer, Will. However, no amount of fancy footwork is going to get you anywhere near my daughter this evening, or any other evening if I have anything to say about it. I don’t care if you are the new captain of this ship. You’ve hurt her too many times; now just stay away from her,” she informed the man, making it obvious that as long as she was around, there was no way he was getting anywhere near the beautiful Betazoid.

Sighing, he ran a hand over his beard. “Mrs. Troi, I have no intention of hurting Deanna. I simply want to talk with her. We’re good friends, and I haven’t spoken with her in ten years. I’ve missed her.”

“Then perhaps you should have thought about that before you left her again.”

Will had to bite his tongue. The woman in front of him was infuriating, but she was also right. It had been his decision to leave, not Deanna’s. His missing her was his own fault. Rather than make a big scene, he nodded his agreement and backed off, stopping by the bar to get a drink before retreating to the opposite side of the room.

“That was quite unnecessary, Mother,” Deanna stated as her mother took a seat next to her. She’d watched as her mother intercepted the man, and although she hadn’t heard what was said, from the expression on Will’s face, Deanna knew it had been a less than pleasant exchange.

“I’m only trying to protect you and Thomas, Little One,” Lwaxana stated, defending herself.

Cringing inwardly at the use of the nickname, she sighed. “Thank you, but I don’t need protection from Will; neither does Thomas. We’ll be just fine with the new captain.” At least she was hoping that everything would go smoothly. She suspected once Will found out about Thomas he would be a little upset he hadn’t been told, but she believed she knew him well enough to know that once he got past his initial reaction, he would understand…hopefully…and they could go about repairing their friendship.

“Are you planning on telling him?”

Sighing, Deanna finished the water in her glass and placed it lightly back on the table. “Of course. He’s on the Enterprise, Thomas and I are on the Enterprise. Even if I wasn’t planning on telling him, Will is a smart man; he’d figure it out. All he has to do is take one look at him…Thomas looks just like him.” She wasn’t exactly sure when or how to tell Will about him, but she was definitely planning on it. He deserved to know. She had kept it from him for ten years; she couldn’t keep it from him any longer, especially having to look at him every day.

Watching her across the room, Will emptied his glass as well as he only gave half of his attention to Captain Picard. He picked up most of Picard’s dialogue about how he would miss the ship, the crew, the missions and exploring in general, but he was going to fully enjoy spending time with his nephew and taking over the vineyard after the passing of his brother. He politely nodded and made a few answers, but his eyes never left the counselor.

Picard noticed the woman who currently had his former first officer’s attention and smiled slightly. Will was in for a huge surprise when he finally got to talk to her. “She’s yours now, Will. Take good care of her. Otherwise, I’ll have to come out of retirement to properly handle the situation.”

Assuming the captain was referencing the Enterprise, he nodded. “I will. Don’t worry, the ship is in good hands.”

“The Enterprise isn’t the only female I was referring to,” Picard patted his friend’s shoulder before walking away, leaving the younger man to his thoughts.

Will watched as Lwaxana finally departed the party, following the captain out to harass him one last time. He took a deep breath, gathering his confidence and started to make his way toward Deanna, his face falling as she too got up and left before he had the chance to get close enough to get her attention. He left then as well, knowing he had only a small timeframe to find Deanna and talk to her before the captain found an escape from Lwaxana. The computer informed him that the counselor was now in her quarters, and he began the familiar trip, stopping after a moment and thinking to check to see if she was still in the same quarters. It had been ten years; maybe she’d moved. Hearing that her quarters had indeed moved, he made his way to the new destination and rang the chime, waiting patiently for her to invite him in.

Hearing the chime, Deanna took a deep breath. She knew who was standing on the other side of those doors, and quite honestly, she wasn’t sure if she was ready to deal with him. Of course she knew she had to sooner or later, but she wasn’t sure what to say to him after ten years, not to mention how she was going to explain Thomas to him. “Come in,” she finally called. She watched as he stepped inside and could tell from the desire radiating off him that he was interested in trying to reconnect with her on a more intimate level.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you again. I’ve missed you, Deanna.” He almost called her Imzadi, but then decided that using that term after ten years apart may make her more angry than anything else, and he really preferred to not start things out by ticking her off and having her deck him.

She gave him a small, yet still very genuine, smile. “I’ve missed you too. Ten years is a long time. I’ve changed, though…you should know that.” The last thing she wanted was for him to come strolling in and assume things could just pick up where they had left off; too much had changed that he didn’t know about yet.

Will moved closer with a smile and lightly brushed her cheek with his hand. “Come on, Dea…things can’t have changed that much in ten years. You’re still you, I’m still me…we’re back together, just like old times,” he grinned. “Although I must say that you are much more beautiful than I remember.”

Rolling her eyes, Deanna shook her head at his attempt to charm her with flattery. He was quite good at it, she had to admit. “Thank you, but a lot has happened in ten years, and before you come rushing back in here, ready to sweep me off my feet and try to restart our friendship like no time has passed, there are a couple of things I need to tell you.”

“Why? Nothing you say is going to change how I feel about you, Imzadi,” he said softly, using the term of endearment to make his point. “Imzadi is forever; you taught me that.”

“You may want to hold off on that until you hear what I have to tell you,” she informed him. She loved that he was so sure nothing could change how much he cared for her, but there was no way even in his wildest dreams he would consider what she was about to tell him as a possibility.

Will held her face in his hands with a smile. “I’ve missed you, Imzadi,” he whispered, past the point of paying attention to what she was trying to tell him. He stepped closer and had barely brushed his lips against hers when he heard a young voice and looked up, seeing a boy of about nine or ten with blue eyes and dark hair.

“Mom?” he asked, looking a bit confused at the sight of his mother in the arms of a man he had never seen before.

Deanna shot Will a look, pushing away from him and moving to stand behind the boy. “Thomas, this is William Riker. He’s the new captain. Will, this is Thomas…he’s my son.” She watched the look of shock on his face and felt incredibly guilty. “Thomas, why don’t you go back to bed? I’ll come check on you in a bit, ok?” she suggested to the boy. The last thing she needed was to cause a huge scene in front of her son. He didn’t know who his father was, and she could only handle one explanation at a time.

She was about to try to begin explaining things to Will when he beat her to it. “You’re married?” he naturally assumed. “You have a kid? And you didn’t think to tell me?”

Deanna again was about to respond when her mother entered without bothering to ring the chime to announce her presence. She’d heard Will asking about a child, and naturally assumed that he was reacting to her daughter telling the new captain that in addition a new ship, he was also a father. “See, Deanna, I told you that you shouldn’t tell him! I told you he would react like this. Not all men are cut out to be fathers; just because you shared one night of passion and he’s the biological father does not mean you should have told him he has a son!” she vented.

“What? The boy…Thomas…I’m his father?” Will asked, in a completely new state of shock.

“Thank you Mother. I hadn’t told him yet, but you certainly solved the problem of how,” the counselor sighed. This was not how she wanted him to find out they had a child together. Of course she hadn’t wanted him to find out by seeing the child either. None of this was going how she wanted it to go.

Lwaxana sensed she had really put her foot in her mouth this time. “You know, I think I’m just going to say goodnight to Thomas and go to my quarters.” When she caught the look from her daughter, she changed her mind. “Or I could just go to my quarters. I can see my grandson in the morning,” she said, making a very quick exit. It was quite possibly the first time she had ever really been sorry about opening her mouth. She may be nosy and interfere, but even she knew that this particular subject was off limits.

Taking a deep breath, Deanna bit her lip, preparing herself for the onslaught of questions and accusations she suspected were about to be fired her way now that her mother had made her abrupt exit. She didn’t have to be Betazoid to sense the anger, hurt and confusion coming from the man standing across from her. “Will…I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

Will was quiet for a long time, digesting the news and trying to understand why she hadn’t told him. He also remained silent because he was afraid if he opened his mouth, he might say something in anger right then that he might not be able to take back later and would end up regretting. He loved Deanna, but he couldn’t remember a time he’d ever been so angry with someone in his life, and he found it strange that it was his Imzadi who was the focus of such anger; she had been right when she said she had changed, things had changed. Things had seriously changed. He finally took a deep breath and released it slowly. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” he finally felt calm enough to ask her.

“Because I know you. You’re a good man, and you would have given up everything you dreamt of to do the right thing. You’ve wanted to be a Starfleet captain since before I met you. I didn’t want to be the anchor that weighed you down; I didn’t want to make you feel like I trapped you; and most of all, I didn’t want you to end up resenting me or the baby because you gave up your dreams for us. You made your priorities clear to me on two different occasions, Will. I knew if you stayed, it wouldn’t have been because of me, and no woman wants to be a man’s second choice. Your main priority has always been your career…I have always understood that. I wasn’t going to be the one who stood in your way,” Deanna explained. She didn’t expect him to understand and be okay with everything right then, but she hoped that after a couple of days when the initial shock wore off, he might understand her point of view and be a little less upset with her. “Besides, by the time I found out I was pregnant, you were already in deep space and settling in. The last thing I wanted was to add to the stress of taking a new command.”

“That wasn’t your call to make! It was my decision; I had the right to know. I had the right to be the one to decide whether or not to give it up and come back. My priorities could have changed with that news, but you didn’t even give me the chance. This is something I would expect from your mother, but I never expected something like this from you. I guess you’re like your mother after all,” he shot back angrily.

Comparing her to her mother was a low blow. Deanna loved her mother, but she did not want to be like her at all. “I’m sorry. I did what I thought was the right thing,” she once again apologized. “I didn’t want you to feel obligated. I knew how important getting your own command was to you. And be honest…you weren’t exactly looking to become a father. It would put a damper not only on your dreams, but on your way with the ladies. I wasn’t going to ask you to change your lifestyle on something that we didn’t plan for.”

“Ten years! I sent you messages, and I never got one back. You could have told me, I would have abided by your wishes! Damn it, Deanna, I deserved to know I was a father! I deserved to at least get to see him born or even pictures. I deserved to at least have the option to be there, whether or not you wanted me in his life. You owed me at least that!” he yelled at her, finding it increasingly difficult to control how angry and upset he was at having this huge secret kept from him, and of course hearing it from her mother on accident wasn’t helping matters any either.

She followed and understood his angry comments until he said she owed him. She let the rest of his comments slide because she knew he did have the right to be upset. But claiming she owed him something when everything that happened was a result of his choice to leave caused her temper to flare. “I owe YOU?! It was YOUR decision to leave, it was YOUR decision to take a deep space command, it was YOUR decision to make your career your priority on more than one occasion with me. What the hell was I supposed to think you wanted? What the hell was I supposed to do? You made it clear you wanted to be captain more than you wanted a relationship with me, or anything else for that matter. So don’t you dare start talking about me owing you a damn thing!” she responded hotly, stepping toe to toe with him. Deanna didn’t get angry often, and it was even rarer she was angry enough to use profanity, but him claiming she owed him something after the way he left her, not just once, but twice, had her seeing red.

Will was caught off guard by her sudden flare of anger. He swallowed hard as she stepped that close to him while she yelled at him. No matter how angry he was, he found himself quite turned on by how incredibly sexy she was when she was that hot with anger; he’d never seen her that angry, but he kind of liked it. He had to remind himself that he was angry, she had kept a huge secret from him; otherwise he was going to let the fact that he was a man take over and grab her, push her back against a wall and get reacquainted with her in a very intimate way.

Sensing the desire and pure lust radiating off him just as the anger was radiating off her, Deanna’s eyes narrowed and she got angrier. “Don’t even think about it. You are not getting anywhere close to me right now. This is your biggest problem…you’re a man whore and think only with the head in your pants!” she said in a low voice.

“You didn’t seem to have a problem with it ten years ago when I gave you what you wanted before I left,” Will shot back in the same low voice, staring straight into her dark eyes. When he saw the look she was giving him, he realized that if he hadn’t already crossed a line, that one statement alone had just done it. He was still angry with her, of course, but he knew that after the things he’d just said to her because of said anger that she had just as much right to be angry with him. So he clenched his jaw and simply left without another word. He knew one of them would seek the other out in a few days to clear the air, but if either of them said or did anything else then, their relationship and friendship could quite possibly be damaged beyond repair.

Deanna watched the doors close and took a few very deep breaths to calm down once Will had gone. She was willing to admit he had every right to be angry and upset with her, but some of the things he had said had gone too far. Of course she had never seen him quite so angry before, and she was hoping once he had a chance to calm down they could both agree to apologize for things that were said when things got a little out of hand. She ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head at the mess she’d made of things. Who was the counselor supposed to go to when she needed some counseling?