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Imzadi: My Version
Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen
Chapter Thirteen
Will stood at the Troi door waiting for someone to answer the bell. He was not sure how Mrs. Troi would receive him, but he tried hard not to let past incidences between the two of them get to him. Nor the fact he knew Lwaxana had been intimidating her daughter into avoiding him.
The door finally opened and to his surprise it was not Mr. Homn who answered, but rather Mrs. Troi. "Good evening, Mrs. Troi." He greeted her.
Lwaxana forced a smile. Although Will had some sort of sense that her smile was not one of true nicity. "Lieutenant," she addressed him. "I want you to believe me when I tell you this is not easy for me."
Will was a little confused. "What isn't easy?"
"First, I have a moral obligation to thank you for rescuing my daughter from a dangerous situation. For that you have my gratitude and I will remember that when I think of you in the future."
"Thank you." Will replied. However, he had a feeling she was not finished.
"Because of that, I am not using my considerable influence with Starfleet to see that you are severly reprimanded."
"I beg your pardon?" Looking quite puzzled. Then he thought, "She knows."
"Of course I know." Lwaxana stated, letting Will know full well that she could read his thoughts. "Your actions with my daughter were completely out of line. You took advantage of her in the situation."
Will was getting very irritated. "Mrs. Troi." Will said firmly. "What happened between your daughter and myself was completely mutual and our business. Now, I would like to see Deanna."
Lwaxana did not move and was in no way about to let him into the house to see Deanna. "So help me, Lieutenant, I will press charges if you try and set one foot in here for trespassing. I do not care what obligation I have to you or other wise, you will not be seeing my daughter ever again. Is that clear?"
"I want to see Deanna." he said in a more forceful
voice.
"And do what? Screw her again?"
Will cringed. "Mrs. Troi!" Will was not only upset with Lwaxana, but was extremely shocked. He tried to tell himself that he should be use to her behaviour by now.
"What do you have to offer her? Besides further dilution of her purpose and changes in the philosophy that she grew up with?"
Lwaxana goes on about tradition, obligation and all the other dictates of Deanna's life. She finally concludes with, "Her whole life has been mapped out for her. Her education, her career, her place in Betazoid society. And you will not interfer with any of it."
"Planned by you." Will said tonelessly. He could not believe how unbelievable this woman was. She was a power mongrol.
"Yes by me. It's my obligation and I accept it. I don't like it, I assure you, Lieutenant."
Will thought, "Yeah, right. You thrive on it."
Lwaxana ignores his thought and continues. "Deanna accepts it all too, including her future and it's a future you do not fit into because you have no understanding of Betazoid society and our ways. Now, if you don't mind I have completed my obligation to you and have spoken my mind. Now, Deanna and I would appreciate it if you would leave now and stay out of her life."
"That's for Deanna to decide." Will said with an icey gaze of anger.
"Oh, really?" she said with evil sarcasm. "And where is that decision going to lead? Her bed? Your bed? Are you going to give up your career and life for her? Somehow, I really doubt that. And you are certainly not going to be in her bed."
"I want to speak to Deanna." Will said firmly.
"And where will that lead to? Your seducing her to sleep with you again?"
Will was so furious by this time, that he could hardly speak. Lwaxana was fixated on one thing and that was hardly his intent. Then he spotted Deanna in the hallway behind Lwaxana.
"Deanna!" he shouted to her.
She shugged in helpless resignation of what her mother was saying and doing. She would have thought sent to him, but she knew her mother would hear it. There was nothing she felt she could say or do.
"Tell him, Deanna." Lwaxana ordered.
She did not want to say the words her mother was insisting she say. She wanted to say what she wanted to say. She wanted to say, "I love Lieutenant William T. Riker. He IS my Imzadi and I want to be with him." But she knew she would not get away with it. She kicked herself for not standing up to her mother and staying her little girl.
"Deanna." Will said. "Imzadi."
Lwaxana looked at him with fire in her eyes. "Don't EVER use that word with my daughter again!" Then she turned to Deanna again, "I said, tell him."
She wanted to cry, but she stuffed her feelings and looked at Will in his eyes, and said, "She's right, Will."
"No! She's not!" Will stated. "Deanna."
Unable to keep her feelings inside her any longer, she turned and ran out of the room, while Will thought at her, "Imzadi."
He felt hurt and angry. Not angry with Deanna, but with Lwaxana, who was forcing Deanna into this situation.
Deanna had ran to her room, threw herself face down on her bed and was crying. She hated her mother. She hate the stupid traditions. She was even starting to hate Betazed and wanted to be as far away from there as she could possibly get.
Will looked at Lwaxana. There was no triumph in her eyes, which he thought was odd.
"No, it's not odd." she replied to his unspoken
thoughts. I'm not an orgress. All I want is what's best for my daughter. Sometimes, with responsibility comes pain. I do not relish what I have to do here, but it is in the best interest of my daughter. We do what we have to do. I know and accept that and so does Deanna. Now, Lieutenant, I think it is time you should leave. Good day."
She shuts the door, leaving Will thinking, "Like hell she does." Referring to Deanna accepting what Lwaxana said. He turns and walks back to the Embassy.
When he got back he noticed a message from Starfleet. There was an opening on the Hood. Will thought, "It would get me the hell out of here. Then maybe I could forget all that's happened here." Will knew better, though. He knew his heart was with Deanna, but there was nothing he could do.
He returned the call and agreed to take the position.
Meanwhile, Lwaxana and Deanna sat in the study. Deanna was
silently furious with her mother, but she sat at her desk
pretending to study. Lwaxana was in her favourite chair reading and totally relaxed.
"What are we studying, Little One." Lwaxana suddenly asked.
Deanna did not respond.
Lwaxana turned and noticed Deanna was staring out into space. "Deanna." she tossed into her head. "What are you studying?"
"Oh, a... Human Dysfunctions."
"Well, we've certainly had plenty of that around here today. Haven't we?"
"Not funny, Mother." Deanna sounded like she could kill at her mother's statement.
"You know you may be able to get some use out of your extended contact with him. A clinical case study in Obsessive Behaviour. Don't you th.." She paused and noticed Deanna getting up. "Where are you going?"
"Out. I'm going out, Mother."
"But it's late! You can't go out this time of
night."
"I'm a little old for a curfew, Mother." Deanna stated sounding very perturbed with her mother.
"You're going to see him, aren't you? And don't bother lying to me."
"Yes, I am." Deanna said defiantly. "And you are not stopping me. I am a grown woman, Mother. I think it should be my choice who I see and don't see and when ever I want to see them."
"How dare you talk to me that way, young lady!"Lwaxana said with anger. "You are a daughter of the Fifth House and you have obligations."
"And I'm tired of hearing about them." Deanna said. "I don't care about them either. I want to make my own decisions in life. Not have someone dictate them to me."
"I don't care what you want!" Lwaxana's voiced echoed in Deanna's head sharply. "You do as I say!"
"You don't, do you? You don't care about what I want or feel. All you care about is that old moldy clay pot and tradition."
"I care about what's best for you."
"NO YOU DON'T, MOTHER!" Deanna said with a
powerful force right into Lwaxana's mind.
Lwaxana was shocked. She staggered from the force and shock. Then sent, "How dare you think at me that way!"
"For years you have done whatever you wanted to do. Thought whatever you wanted to and even made your own decisions. While I had to do whatever you said and thought as I was told to think. You keep telling me it's for me, but in reality, it's all for you. You've never once asked me what I cared about, what I wanted or how I felt. You've never cared. You just assumed I would embrace all those stupid traditions just because you do and said you said so. Well, you can make windchimes out of those damn rings for all I care!"
Lwaxana was shocked. "I would have sooner died than talk to my mother that way!"
Deanna was afraid to stop for fear she would never get it all said. "I want to make my own priorities and my own
decisions. My own choices! MINE! Not yours! All my life I have tried to please you. Everything I've done was what you wanted me to do. Not what I wanted to do. So when do I get to make my own decisions, Mother? When I'm dead?"
"When you're married to Wyatt and have kids of your
own."
"I can't believe you said that! I think I have the right to choose who I want to marry and it's NOT that Wyatt Miller, either!"
Lwaxana was speechless. She did not say a word. She just stared at her daughter in shock.
"Generation after generation, women have not been able to think for themselves. Well, it stops here, Mother!"
"It's that Riker, isn't it? He put those thoughts into your head!" Lwaxana said with the sound of shock still in her voice.
"No, Mother. They were there all along. You just haven't bothered to listen. And what's worse, Mother, is you knew I was unhappy. You just wanted an obediant daughter to fulfill your needs. A daughter who was dutiful and nothing more."
"I knew you would understand when you were older."
"Well, you're wrong, Mother." Deanna said flattly and walked around her mother to walk out the door.
"You'd take him over me?" she said, sounding very hurt.
"YES!" Deanna said, defiantly. "I want to be with him."
"But what about your studies, your duty, your destiny?"
"I was wrong to let you intimadate me into submission. I was wrong to let him walk away. I love him, Mother and I will be with him. I won't live anymore lies for you or anyone else. I will do what I decide to do."
"What are you going to do? Marry him?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. But whatever I do, it will be because it's what I want to do." she said. "I've thought about Starfleet for years, now. There's more out there than what I have here and I want to experience it. There's a galaxy full of possibilities, even for a daughter of the Fifth House. Maybe I'll be a geologist or maybe paint myself blue and become a naked dancer or even a dabbo girl. But what ever I do, it will be my decision. Not yours!" Then Deanna headed for the door.
"If you go out that door, don't you dare come back!"
Deanna walked out the door. She was gone and Lwaxana sat down in her chair totally distraught. "My baby's gone." she cried to herself. "What am I going to do without her? I need her to carry on. What am I going to do?"
Chapter Fourteen
Deanna entered the Embassy, which was quiet since it was after hours. She stumbled across several security men that she remembered from the rendezvous point.
"Evening, Miss." greeted Sommer and he nodded slightly, much like an old time southern man would.
"Hello, I'm here to see Lieutenant Riker." she said with a smile.
"Yes, miss. I'm sure you are. You know where his quarters are."
"Oh, yes." Then Deanna went on her way to Will's
quarters. Heart was pounding with excitement, but yet it had also skipped a beat, for she was not sure if Will would be glad to see her or not. Especially, after what happened several hours ago at her home. She was thinking Will would be proud of her once she told him she had finally stood up to her mother.
She arrives at the door to his quarters. It was adjarred and she could see Will was scurring about, gathering his things and packing them. Her heart sank, but she softly knocked at the door.
Will looked up to see who was there. "Deanna." Will said.
"You're leaving aren't you?" she said with sadness in her voice.
"I thought... I mean... your mother..." Will stammered. "Deanna, please come in."
She enterred his quarters and asked, "You're leaving because of me and what my mother said?"
"No, Deanna." Will said opening his arms to hug and reassure her. She accepted his embrase and tears started to run down her face. "I got a transfer. I don't have to leave until the day after tomorrow though. I'm just finding something to do with my time tonight. Get a head start."
"Take me with you." she said with urgency in her voice. Tears started to trickle down her face.
"Oh, Deanna." he said softly and gently. "Your mother would not stand for it. You know that. She'd have my butt. Probably drum up some stupid charges of abduction or something."
She pulled back just a little without letting go of him. Looked up to him and said, "You could stand up to her. Besides, she maybe bluffing."
"Why don't you? Personally, I don't want to chance it." he asked. Before she could say another word he continues, "You know, a while back you said you didn't think we had a future together, because I didn't understand your people's ways? Then you taught me this concept of RaBeem."
She nodded and waited to say what she wanted to say.
Will continues, "Well, until you learn to stand up to your mother yourself, instead of getting angry and running off everytime, I don't think we have a future together either. Until then..." He trails off.
"Will, I love you." she said, tears still in her eyes."I want to be with you."
"And I you. However, I understand you are intimadated by your mother. Hell, who wouldn't be with how she acts and
all." Deanna lets out a small giggle at this last that Will said. "I can't make the decision for you on how you should deal with your mother. I can, however, support you in whatever decision you make."
She was still looking up at him. She smiles with tears still in her eyes and sends to his mind, "Oh, Imzadi! You have learned what I have tried to teach you."
"Yes, I have." he smiles. "Trying to anyway."
"I have to tell you, though" she started to say.
"Mother and I had it out tonight. I told her how I felt and expressed a lot of things to her."
"Did you two work anything out?" he said a little
surprised.
She releases him, turns away from him and says, "No, not exactly."
"Does she know your with me this time?"
"I told her I was coming here and she's not very happy about it." Deanna informed him. "But she's not going to tell Starfleet anything."
"Are you sure about that?" Will said. "I mean, Deanna, I just got transferred to the Hood and I really don't want my career ruined..."
She turns with tears turning to anger and asks "Is your
career all you think about?"
"Hey, Imzadi." Will said. Then he reaches out to her and pulls her close, then softly says, "No, it's not, but right now, I feel that's all I have."
She looked at him and said, "But Will, you have me. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. Besides, I can't. Mother told me not to come back if I walked out the door."
With considerable concern Will pushes her back to arms lengths, but left his hands on her shoulders. "Deanna, you have to go back and make amends with her."
"No, I'm not going to allow her to dictate my life
anymore." she stated firmly.
"Deanna, it may not have to be that way, but if I let you come with me and you don't make amends with her, then you'll never be happy with yourself. That won't help us any." He said. "I know you love your mother and we would never be happy if you were to leave things with her this way."
"You're right, Will." she agrees. "Just... let me have one more night with you before you leave."
He sees the urgency in her eyes and her desire to be with him just once more before he departed. He pulls her back in close and she softly starts to weep again. He kisses the top of her head and softly agrees. Then he looks up and notices the door was still open and says, "But I do think we need to shut the door."
She let's out a chuckle, while Will walks over to shut the door. Tang was outside and had over heard the last and says, "Oo! Lieutentant, we're getting lucky tonight aren't we?"
"Tang, Shut up!" Then he shuts the door, but not before hearing Tang say, "Shutting up, sir."
Then Deanna walks over to him, wraps her arms around him and
kisses him. Will then says, "Well, I guess I'm not going to be needing that bottle of Scotch tonight after all."
With a seductive smile on her face, Deanna says, "Why do you need Scotch, when you have me?"
"I don't." he said with a smile. "You're all I need." Then he returns her kiss, but this time they did not part until they felt the need for air. Will continues, "You are so beautiful and I am such a lucky man."
"Well," Deanna began. "It is getting late and you have a nice soft bed here. Why don't we try exploring each other like we did in the Jalara?"
"You must have read my mind." Will said with a smile, picked her up and took her to bed.
As he laid her down she said, "No, I just confirmed what was on both our minds."
Will laughs and says, "Deanna Troi, shut up and kiss
me."
"Gladly." she said with a smile.
They spent the night together repeating their passionate
experience they had in the jungle. Only this time, there was no holding back. They freely made love to each other. Their need for exploration had past and this time they made love as two passionate lovers, who had known each other forever. They had hoped this night would never end, but they made love to each other as though it were their last time. The kisses were not soft and sweet this time, but of urgent longing to make this night one to remember. The fever of the jungle was within them and primitive lust was released.
Will devoured every inch of her within his mouth, as if it would keep her with him forever. Deanna in turn enveloped him within her mind and soul. Then, once again, they became one, in body, mind and soul. At the climax of their passion, there was still the promise of forever and only one word between them. Imzadi.