Rated PG
Set in the near future.
The Other Side
I watch him move across the bridge, his bridge. I study him,
completely fascinated by his Capitan persona, marveling at how
different he is then when we first met, or even when we first
married. The crew responds as they always do when he is around,
their backs straighten, their minds focus. I wonder what he would
think if he knew that their feelings for him are not very different
then his feelings for Capitan Picard. They respect him; he is their
rock, their port in the storm, their leader.
He is all those things to me as well, but he is also much
more. He is my friend, my husband, the father of my child, the man I
share my world with. The crew does not see that side of him though,
that half is only for me. Only I know the whole man, only I see his
strength and his weakness, his courage and his fear.
Only I know that he cried when he found out I was pregnant,
and cried even harder when our son was born. Only I know the man who
allows his self-control to slip away as he enters me body, mind, and
soul. The man who reads me Betazed poetry just because he knows I
love it. The man who considers me his rock as they consider him
theirs.
The others have this half of him, this self-assured pillar of
leadership, but only I have all of him, as he has all of me.
He is smiling at me now; he knows what I am thinking.
"I love you," I hear him whisper in my mind.
"I love you too."
Yes, only I see the other side and that makes it all the more
special.
End