Imzadi: My Version

Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen

Chapter Seventeen

Deanna and Chandra walked acrossed campus together. Chandra had been out of the Medical Facility for a few weeks now and had just gotten back to her normal routine. Physically she was much better, emotionally she was still shaken and had not yet return to the museum. Deanna had been encouraging her to go, but today was different.

It had been six weeks since Will had left for the Hood and Deanna missed him sorely. Oh, they had communicated via subspace and all, but had not seen each other in person for as many weeks. Deanna had wanted to see him so badly, but she could not get away from school at this time due to all the tests she had to take at this time of year.

"Oh, Chandra, I do miss him so much." Deanna confided in her friend.

"You know, Deanna. You have not told me much about him, except that you miss him." Chandra informed Deanna. "Why don't you tell me about him. I mean, I was still in the Medical Facility when he left, so I really didn't get to meet him."

"Well, what do you want to know?" Deanna asked. "You have an idea what he looks like because you saw him at the wedding."

"Yes, but I want to know what he's like."

Deanna got a dreamy look about her. "Well, his eyes are as blue as the Betazoid sky."

"No, I mean what's he like to talk to?" Chandra asked. "How was he when he rescued you from that brutal Sindareen and stuff like that?"

"Well, as far as talking to him, I feel as though I can tell him anything." Deanna told Chandra. "We talk about everything and anything. Well, almost." Deanna got a look of worry upon her face, but she did not say much more to her friend. Chandra did not miss the fact her friend was worried about something, but Deanna continued before she could inquire about it. "As for as the Sindareen leader goes, he was determined to get me safely back home. He never back down from that man and in the end, well, you know the rest."

Chandra continued her questions, "So, you were alone in the jungle with Will for days. What all happened?"

Deanna blushed slightly, "What do mean?" She asked not wanting to devulge a lot of details to her friend.

"Well, what happened?"

"Chandra, please." Deanna pleaded. "I really don't want to talk about all the details."

Chandra's eyes got wide with surprise and fascination. "Deanna!" she smiled. "I want deatails!"

"Chandra, really." Deanna said. Chandra looked at her with a face that begged to know what happened. "OK, I'll tell you this much, Will and I are getting married after I finish getting a degree and have my career started."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Chandra exclaimed. "I wish I could have met him before he left. There's nothing more you want to tell me? I'd love to hear more!"

Deanna looked all directions to see if there was a place she could talk to her friend where there was not a lot of people around. She spotted a quiet looking secluded place a few meters away. It was a corner spot in the well trimmed shrubby. "Come over here with me."

Deanna dragged her friend by the hand over to the corner and said, "Chandra, can I tell you something and you keep quiet about it, at least until I tell you it's ok?"

Chandra had confused concern about her friend. "Of course, Deanna. What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure yet, but.." Deanna's voice trailed off and Chandra could barely hear the rest of Deanna's sentence.

Chandra's eyes got wide, "Surely, I didn't hear you right?"

Deanna finally sent her concerns to Chandra's head. Chandra's eyes got even wider, or so it seemed to Deanna, and her mouth dropped to the ground in surprise.

"Deanna!" Chandra exclaimed in her head. "I don't know whether to be happy for you or what!"

"Well, I don't know for sure yet."

"You haven't had any confirmation of what you think it might be for sure?"

"No, not yet." Deanna informed her friend. "I don't know myself how I feel about this yet, to be honest."

"Well, I'm going to be late for class." Chandra informed Deanna. "Do me one favour, Deanna, let me know when you have more information."

Deanna sensed her friend's sincerity and said aloud, "I will, Chandra."



On the bridge of the Hood, Will had drifted off in thought. He enjoyed speaking to Deanna, via subspace last night. She was just as beautiful as ever. They talked for almost three hours about everything and anything. Then Will thought, "I miss her. God, how I miss her! Holding her, how she smells. Everything. I do hope she's right about being together again soon. It's just the waiting that's hell."

"Well, Riker?"

Will shook his head to get his mind back to where he was. "I'm sorry, sir. What were you saying?"

"I asked if you were going to the concert this evening?" Captain Desoto said.

"Well, I wasn't planning on it." Will informed him. "I have other plans in mind, unless it's mandatory, of course, that we all go."

"No, no." affirmed his new captain. "If you have other plans, then by all means attend to them."

Will did not have big plans. He just wanted to write a letter to Deanna, even though he just talked to her last night. He did notice she appeared to have something on her mind that she was not saying. He had no idea what was bothering her. He thought maybe a letter to her could get her talking about it. "Couldn't hurt." he thought.

"Well, I guess since first watch is over, and your replacement is here." A nice looking young woman approached him, "Are you sure you don't want to go to that concert, Lieutenant Riker? Perhaps with me?"

This particular young woman, also a lieutenant, had been trying to seek out Riker's attention since he came aboard. So far, Will had declined her advances. He kept reminding himself of Deanna and their promise. "Lieutenant, I think you should know, I am promised to another."

"Promised?" she repeated. "What exactly does that mean?"

"I'm engaged, so to speak." Will boarded the turbolift.

"Well, have you set a date?" she asked as she board with him.

"No, not for a while, yet."

"So, then, it's not definite, is it?"

"Well, it is, but we just haven't set any date or made plans for any wedding yet." Will informed her. "It's a long story, ma'am and I really don't want to discuss my personal life."

"Well, if there's no date or anything, why not dinner at least?"

Will felt the urgent need to get out of the turbolift and was wishing it would hurry to his deck a little faster. It finally opened to his deck and he said, "Well, I really do have plans for tonight. I'll see you tomorrow on the bridge."

He walked off the turbolift and headed to his quarters. Once inside his quarters he sat down with a padd and started to write a letter to Deanna. At the same time he was so glad to be away from that woman. "What's her name? Rosair, Rosairo, Rosatto. Damn! I have to work with her and I can't even remember her exact name!" he thought.

He decided to let it go and sat down to write Deanna. However, he had no idea what to say to her or what to ask her. Even how to ask her. "If she wanted to talk about it she would have." he thought to himself. "Maybe she'll mention it next time we talk and I should just let it go for now."

"I could call her, but we spoke last night. It might be a little too presumptuous of me." he thought. "Maybe I was reading too much into it."

He put the padd aside and decided to fix himself something to eat and just spend the evening getting sometime alone with his thoughts. "Maybe turn in early or read a good book." He thought.

He was begining to feel things, without Deanna, were getting a little mundane. However, he did not know what to do with his free time unless he was calling or writing her.

He ate his dinner and found a good book to read for the evening. Then he thought, "Well, her semester is ending soon, maybe I could invite her to come for a visit." he thought with a smile.

Chapter Eighteen

Will had been gone for seven weeks now and Deanna felt she could not stop thinking about him. She wanted to talk to him about something, but she had no idea what she would say or how she would say it. In reality, she did not know if she really had anything to say at all. Maybe it was just a desire to be with him. She just was not sure. She was not sure of anything at this point.

She just finished taking a test that she felt was the biggest test of her life. She waited to find out how the test turned out. She felt anxiety over it, but yet she also felt some hope about the test. She had so many mixed emotions over this test that she could hardly contain herself. She just had to know what the outcome was, so she waited around for the final analysis, instead of waiting for the information to be sent to her later.

Finally, she was going to find out what the results of her test were. "I don't want to know." she said to herself. "But I have to know."

The results of her test were positive for her and she was trying to figure out what she was going to do next. "Well." she thought. "I think I'll hunt down Chandra and see what she is doing for the afternoon. Maybe I could drag her to the museum."

She found Chandra sitting in the middle of campus reading a text padd.

Deanna spoke to her, "Would you like to take a break from studying or do you have another test this afternoon?"

"Well, actually, I'm done for today as far as tests go." Chandra respond. "What did you have in mind?"

"I was hoping to drag you off to the museum this afternoon." Deanna informed her. "It would do you good to go back."

"You're not going to let this go are you?"

"No, I'm not." Deanna replied. "I assure you, you will be OK."

"If I participate in your submersion therapy, will you let it go?" Chandra asked with sarcasm.

Deanna smiles, "Yes."

"OK. I'll go." she said gathering up her text padds and placing them in her bag. Chandra rose and they headed off to the museum.

"Well, I got more information." Deanna informed Chandra by thought sending.

Chandra smiled. "And?"

"Well, I'm not sure what happens next or how I feel, but yes it was." she informed Chandra with a smile.

"Oh, Deanna! That's wonderful!" Chandra exclaimed elated. Then her statement changed. "I think? You said you weren't sure how you felt."

"Well, I'm not sure. I have so many mixed emotions about it all."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out." Chandra stated encouragingly.

They arrived at the museum and Chandra was getting a little anxious. "Deanna, maybe I should go back to my studies." she said aloud with panic in her voice.

"Oh, no! You'll be OK." Deanna insisted giving her a little nug.

Chandra started to turn around in panic and ran right into Deanna. She backed up a little and said, "This isn't a good idea."

"Oh, Chandra, get in there and don't worry about it so much. It's OK." Deanna reassured her firmly.

Chandra finally went into the museum. Deanna got her friend to walk through the museum and Chandra actually forgot her fear and started enjoying being in the museum like old times. They listened to the music and looked at the various artworks, until late afternoon and decided it was time to return home.

As they left to go home, Deanna asked, "Now see? That wasn't so bad, was it?"

Chandra smiles and says, "No, it wasn't. Thanks for dragging me out here." then Chandra hugged her friend and they went their separate ways.



Deanna arrived home and was thankful to find out her mother was not home. She checked the time and thought, "Maybe I can call Will and talk to him, now."

She put the communique through and finally got Will on the view screen, "Hello, Imzadi." she said with a smile.

"Deanna! Imzadi!" Will replied with a smile. "I am so glad to see you."

"Yes, a week seems like such a long time, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does, but we can talk now." he smiled.

"How are you doing?" she asked trying to keep from rushing to her question.

"I'm great now!" he said with a smile. "What about you?"

She smiled back at him. She couldn't resist his smile. It made her heart flutter the way he smiled at her. Then she responded with a slight change in her statement, "I fine. I've missed you and just had to call you."

Somehow, Will started to get the feeling she wanted to ask him something. "Deanna, is there something you want to ask me?"

The smile on Deanna's face left and turned to one of uncertainty. She did not say anything at first. She wanted to ask him with the right words. Finally, she said, "Will, we need to talk."

Will's smile dropped and he asked with some confussion, "About what?"

"I'd rather see you in person to talk to you about this." Deanna informed him. "Is there anyway you can get permission for me to come aboard next week to see you?"

"Well, yes. I'll see what I can do." Will said with ambiguous excitement. "Deanna, I must say, this is not only a surprise, but I'm thrilled you want to come aboard and see me."

"I'm rather excited to pay you a visit too." Deanna told him and broke a smile again.

"I'll call you as soon as I get an answer." Will said.

Deanna smiles. "I guess I'll let you go so you can talk to your captain and get permission."

Will smiles back and says, "OK. I hope to get back to you with good news."

"Me too, Imzadi." she said still smiling and looking into his blue eyes. "Until next time." she said.

"Until next time." With that she closed the comm channel.

Her mother walked in about the same time and said, "Oh, Lit..." she stopped. It was becoming a habit for her to rephrase how she addressed Deanna.

"Well, at least she's trying." Deanna thought.

"Of course I am!" Lwaxana sent. "You know I am! Now, what was I about to say? Oh, yes, Deanna. I have to go on a delegation trip next week and guess who's ship I'll be on?"

"Unbelievable!" Deanna thought. "This may make getting permission to come aboard easier, but somehow I have this feeling I may not get any privacy with Will."

"What was that, Lit.. Deanna?"

"Oh, nothing, Mother." Deanna said. "I had just got done talking to Will and I happened to have been making plans to visit him."

"Well, why didn't you say so!" Lwaxana said with joy. "You can go with me. Well, now that you have that settle..."

"Really, Mother." Deanna said. "Will's going to ask permission for me to come aboard."

"Why bother when you can just come with me?" she said with her hand waving through the air as though to push away Deanna's idea.

"Well, at least I know I will be seeing him next week." Deanna said with a smile.



Later that night at dinner Deanna was quiet in thought, but not wanting to share her thoughts with her mother. Just not yet at least. Lwaxana studied her. She really wanted to know what was going on in her daughter's little head. "She looks so serious in thought." Lwaxana thought. She did a gentle mind brush, but Deanna refused her mother inquiry.

So Lwaxana asked aloud with concern, "Deanna, You're so quiet tonight. Is there something wrong? Actually, you've been like this a lot these past two weeks."

"No, not really." Deanna replied a little uneasy. Then said with a look of sadness. "I don't know." she shrugged. "I guess I just miss Will a lot."

Deanna had let her guard down for a brief moment and Lwaxana caught a quick peek into Deanna's thoughts. "No!" Lwaxana just sat there with shock, from what she sensed, written all over her face.

"Mother," Deanna started to reassure her mother. "It's really not that bad."

"Not that bad! Not that bad!" Lwaxana exclaimed. "No wonder you want to go see him, I would to and I just may pay him a visit, too!"

Deanna stood up suddenly, quickly moved to her mother's side of the table, and looked directly at her mother pointing her finger at her, "Mother! You promised you would stay out of our relationship, except to help plan the wedding when we decided to make our final arrangements. Now, please. It's nothing Will and I can't deal with and work out ourselves."

Lwaxana was starting to calm down a little and said, "Well, OK, Little One. If you're sure."

"Yes, Mother. I'm sure." Deanna said, trying to ignore her mother's momentary regression of her name. "Now where are those brownies for dessert?"

Go To Chapters Nineteen and Twenty

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