Before You Sleep
A Life As A House/Imzadi crossover
By Lorien

Disclaimer: All things trek belong to Paramount, and Life As A House belong to whoever it belongs to. I'm just borrowing, and there would be no point in suing me because I don't even have a job.

Rating: R for language and drug reference.

~

It was hard to imagine the bitter, god-awful truth that revolved around Tristan's life. His mom and dad were divorced, and he was the only child. His dad lived just a few blocks from his mom, but that didn't mean he saw his father often.
Tristan himself looked like a wreck. He had been fascinated with the human culture since he had been introduced to it in elementary school, but more specifically, he was obsessed wit early 21st century, North America. He even wore the rebellious fashions of back then, contrary to his mother and even more against his grandmother's wishes. Not like they could do anything, Tristan was already smoking the drugs and wearing the fashions. He put his own blood scan lock on the door, which never bothered him, the pain was bearable and sometimes even soothing. Hence, the drugs.
Today was no different, Tristan rode the carpool transport to school, met up with his less-than-awake acquaintance, who gave him a fresh pod of death stars to smoke. The effect was beyond words. It was pure euphoria, and the effect wore down as the day went on.
Side effects? What side effects? There were no side effects from where Tristan was concerned.

~

Will was retiring today. He had decided he was too old for the shit he had been going through in the last couple of months. Half of his senior staff was gone, dead, and the other living half of his staff wanted to bury the ghosts of the last, unforgettable, failed mission and move on.
They wanted new posts.
So Will resigned.
Not like there was a big ceremony or anything, everything turned into protocol, there were a few grim handshakes and soon Will was home again.

~

He decided to pay his ex-wife a visit. They were still friends, even Imzadi. Sometimes Will really regretted divorcing her. Now that he thought about it, he was wrong in putting his career first.
Again.
It didn't matter, she remarried, to some human she met at the Academy. She never gave up her love for helping people with their problems. She rose the ranks, fast (almost as fast as Will himself did) and she became head of psychology within months. And she still preferred people calling her "Counselor" instead of "Captain".
Reaching her home, Will thought back to the day she left him. She was fuming ?ut still beautiful, as always. Deanna had thrown a tricorder at his forehead, which wounded him both mentally and physically. He never thought she would stoop to that level where she would actually throw something at him.

~

She felt him before he even stepped foot onto her front porch. Deanna had been working, when he entered the room she was comfortably seated in.
"What are you doing here?" She asked. "I would think you would go back to Valdez after your resignation."
Will was unimpressed. "My home is where my family is, Deanna."
Before Deanna could retaliate with some smarter, more articulate retort, Will added, "Where's Tris?"
"In his room." Deanna went back to work as Will began walking up toward his son's room.

~

He walked into the doors expecting them to open, but...
...ended up smacking his head into the double doors, nose first.
"What the hell?"
Deanna poked out from the study. "He locked the door."
"With what?"
From the room, an impatient Deanna exclaimed, "Blood scan!"
"Blood scan my ass." With a few button pushing, Will managed to make it so that anybody related to Tristan -who had half his blood- would be able to open the doors. The blood scan was quick and painless -to Will- and when the doors finally opened, Will managed to make out a room in the pigpen of a room his son lived in.
The speakers boomed loudly in the background, and a depleting pod of death stars sat gloomily at the mahogany red desk Will gave him for his birthday. Will took his phaser -the mini version, the one he carried around him at all times- and incinerated the pack of drugs. Tristan himself was sprawled over his bed, sleeping, completely unaffected by what just transpired in his own living quarters. His backpack was empty, filled with teacher referrals crumpled inside and out. He threw in down carelessly and set his phaser to low stun. He aimed, and of course, fired. The room's sound system slowly squeaked itself to nothingness.
And Tristan woke up as Deanna rushed into her son's room to see what the hell was happening under her roof.
Will faced her with a deathly rage bubbling inside of him. "Did you know that he was smoking?!"
"I'm his mother. Of course I know." Deanna pulled Will out into the hallway as their son leaped up from his bed, beginning his daily yelling "ritual."
"Who told you that we were allowed to come in?GET OUT!! Who told you," He pathetically and desperately ran to inspect the lock located outside his door. Deanna and Will stood outside, watching him run to and fro, a jumble of confusion and hate.
"When is he out of school for the summer?"
"Tomorrow. Will, I know what you're thinking. I promised him he could stay home."
"I don't care. He's spending the summer with me."
"No, I'm not!"
He definitely had the rebellious Riker gene in him that Will had when he was around Tristan's age. "Mother, please tell him!!" He faced Deanna, contemplating whether or not begging and groveling was a wise idea.
"I did promise..."
"NO! He's spending the summer with ME!" Will was going to get closer to his son and make up for all those times he wasn't there. Ironic, really. He vowed he would be there for every minute and every second his son was alive, but managed to screw that up when he and Deanna divorced.
"MOTHER! Tell him!!" Tristan's eyes had begun to water and drip with the salty tears Will never took pride in shedding. Seventeen and crying like a baby. But Will was adamant.
"Will, I did tell him..."
"I don't care! He can hate me! You can hate me! I. Don't. Care. He's staying with me for the summer." He made a chopping gesture with his hands, left to right. "That is the end of this discussion."
Turning back to his disconcerted son, Will, in a calmer tone, ordered, "Pack and get dressed."
Deanna could feel a rather large burst of anger bubbling inside of her son, but surprisingly, he took the high road (or something like it) and simply walked up to Will and said, (rather angrily), "I will hate you for the rest of my life."
And that was that.


Author's Note: There is a small section of this portion of the story that's kinda architecture-y and I kinda did it without any research, so if I wrote something wrong, I'm sorry!

Will's house was a different story. He bought one which was built in 1984, and lived in the garage. Yes, that's right. The garage. He told Deanna -when they bought it- that he would tear the house portion down and build a new one they would plan together. It didn't seem like such a chore seventeen years ago. They had originally finished the planning and even began to tear certain parts of the house down, but then Tristan was born, Will was offered a captainship, Deanna and Will divorced, and Will never got around to finishing the house.
"We're staying here?!" Bags in hand and frustrated to a point where he could throw his bags into the ocean which surrounded one side of the house, Tristan dropped his bags and continued to point out all the negative traits the house carried. "What the fuck is your toilet doing in your kitchen?! And you bed!! This place is a dump! I am not staying here!"
Tristan was over-reacting. Will's place wasn't that bad...was it? He had lived here on and off for seventeen years, why couldn't his son?

~

"The house is heaven without Tristan around don't you think?"
Deanna didn't answer. She chose, instead, to concentrate on preparing the salad she knew her husband liked. Kevin had come home early, which meant he was in a good mood, which meant he wanted more than just a peck on the cheek tonight. Deanna found herself wondering if she should or not. But it wouldn't work. Will was Will, and no matter how many times Deanna said it to herself, there was no one who would replace him.
Sighing, Deanna brought up an old subject. "Do you think its odd that Tristan never talks to you? I mean, yes, he is your stepson, but we've been married for a pretty long time now." She tossed the salad gently as she continued. "He doesn't show any emotion when you're around." Deanna took the salad out of the replicator in their kitchen as Kevin took her in his arms as she spread the Italian dressing -his favorite- on it. He kissed the back of her head and replied, "He doesn't show any emotion when you're around either, so there's nothing to worry about."
"Yes he does."
"Well, he's angry most of the time. He's only nice when he wants something." Tired of playing this game of who was right and who was wrong, Deanna walked out of the kitchen as Kevin called out in vain, "If you want me to attempt some bonding, I will, if you want me too!"
But Deanna was already long gone, upstairs to her own wonderland.

~

The next morning, Will was up at dawn, demolishing what was left of the house. Tristan was still sleeping on the futon Will had prepared ahead of time, and going on what his son had yelled the other day, he didn't try to wake him up.
He had consulted with an architect friend of his, and he had explained to Will that he couldn't tear the house off with new technological tools, he would need to replicated the same tools used during the time the house was built, and then they could use whatever tools necessary to build the house. The entire house, including the floor frame would collapse and fall in ruin.
So there he was, using the black mallet to knock the rusty, moldy walls down By lunchtime, Tristan had woken and gone swimming in the surprisingly calm ocean. Since Will didn't exactly have a shower, the Pacific was the only way to go.
For lunch, Will replicated two hearty bowls of pea soup, hoping it would bring back good, family-rich memories of his son's childhood.
"Tristan, lunch." Fully immersed in the PADD he was reading, Tristan walked with his eyes unflinching. He blindly took the bowl in one hand and gave it a smell. Curious, he finally took his eyes off the PADD and gave the soup a taste.
"What is this?"
"Pea soup."
Tristan dropped his soup in the bowl and put it down. "I hate pea soup."
Will, remembering back, asked, with a hint of confusion, "I thought you loved this stuff! You couldn't get enough of it when you were little, if I remember correctly."
"Well you remember wrong! I've never tasted anything more disgusting in my life!"
"Okay...well what do you want?"
"Nothing. I don't eat lunch."
"No? I..."
"No I don't! You would think that you would know that!!"
"Well I don't."
"Fine!"And he went back to his PADD.

"What are you reading?"
"None of your fucking business."
Will was about to retaliate when Deanna walked into view, bright radiant among the gloomy desperate backdrop of the home they once shared.
"Having trouble?"
Will glared at her, not needing the sarcasm. "You could say that."
Deanna looked around, taking in the sight she had been promised a rounded twenty years ago. "You're finally doing it. I've waited a long time for this."
"Really." Will retorted, trying to pretend he was more interested in his green soup than her.
Deanna herself gave him a stare. "Yes, really. I never really liked it."
"Hey!" Will swallowed the spoonful he had in his mouth. "You said you liked it!!"
"I did, when we were still married. But then you took the Titan and," Deanna looked him in the eyes for the first time since she arrived. "things changed."
Will decided to change the subject. "You know, I was tearing down the wall we used for hanging Tristan's baby pictures on when I realized something."
"What?"
"I'm happy, Deanna, like I was right before I took the captainship."
Deanna cringed at the words "took the captainship" and changed the subject. There was no dodging it now, but she could pretend she had something better to do than relive memories she wished never took place. Besides, tears were starting to swell and she didn't want Tristan to see.
"I have to go. I'll come back tomorrow."
"Alright," Seeing the tears, Will called after, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" Deanna exclaimed as Tristan walked up, taking the pea soup.
"You haven't been happy for sixteen years?"
And walked away, taking in his lunch like a vaccum.

Deanna did indeed come the next day, although she brought her Betazoid cat with her. Still distraught over loosing the one she had when she was little Deanna found a stray one and brought it to Earth with her. But now, it kept getting in the way. When Will wanted to sit, Ben was there first. When Will wanted to nail something or set something somewhere, the Ben was there.
By the end of the day, all that was left of the house was the wooden bases and the garage. Tristan even helped, but took a long break and came back curiously happy.

~

"Tristan! I need help!"
"You sure do."
Will wasn't amused. "Very funny. Will you give me a hand with these controls?"
"I'm going out." He disappeared into the garage and came back with his pants in his hands just as Thomas chose to walk by.
"Hey."
"Did you go through my pants?"
"Hey Thomas." Noticing Will's uncharacteristic appearance, he added, "A little skinny there bro, have you been eating?"
"Why did you go through my pants?"
"No, haven't had the appetite."
"What did you do with them?!"
"Oh."
"I'm serious! Don't ignore me! What did you do with them?!"
Fed up with the yelling, Will answered the youngest of the Riker's. "I flushed it down the trash chute." Tristan, knowing that the chute emptied into a pipe which strayed into the Pacific, blew up.
"No!"
"Uh...maybe I should go Will."
"Yeah. See you later Thomas."
As Thomas left, Will returned to his temper-tantrum throwing son. Eyes flashing and full of fire, Tristan continued.
"I've been using since I was twelve!!" But it didn't stop there. YOu never cared, so why fucking start now? Why now? Just give up on me! I don't care! I hate you all!!" His eyes began to water and his head began to frantically race for a way out as Will decided he had had enough. He took his distraught son by his shoulders and dragged and pushed him onto the futon in the garage.
"Computer, seal garage door." Will commanded as Tristan hopped up. "SIT!"
"No!"
Will took his son by the shoulders again and pushed him -hard- onto the bed.
"SIT!"
With his panting breaths and flashing eyes, Tristan was finally beginning to get a little scared. Even though he had gotten to be so skinny, his father still had a lot of strength.
"That's child abuse!! I'll tell mother! She knows people! I'll tell mother!!" Ignoring everything his son managed to spit out, Will began.
"Let me tell you something."
Tristan reverted to the previous almost long-forgotten issue. "I was holding it for someone."
And Will ignored it.
"My Dad used to yell at me when I was a little younger than you are now. I swore he actually liked telling me all the time that I was worthless and that I'd never amount to anything." Will paused as Tristan swallowed the lump forming in his throat. I thought I would hate him for the rest of my life. Call it a family tradition." He laughed airily. "But he came to me one day knowing he had been wrong at the end. Your mother told me something that made me realize I had been wrong in hating him for so long. Throughout everything we had gone through as father and son, I still loved him."
Father let son absorb the words alone as he left. The tears came without anything to stop them as Tristan replied, "Fucker..."

~
Deanna came again the next day with a somber look. Will could still feel her, her excitement and her surprise, but mostly the excitement.
"Kevin left me."
Will dropped the piece of wood Tristan had been helping him with, which he caught in time.
"Why?" If he had hurt her in any way...
"No Will, its not like that. I actually saw it coming, surprisingly. I never thought he'd go through with it."
She had his full attention now.
"What?"
"I remember him saying that one day he wouldn't be there and then I'd regret not appreciating what he did for me, which is ironic." Deanna saw Tristan look her way. She smiled and he smiled back. He never liked Kevin, but she always hoped that they would get along, one day.
Will shuffled to attention. "So what do we do now?"
She smiled, turning to her two men.
"We build our house."

"Do you guys ever wonder, you know, if we had stayed on the Enterprise, would we still be here today?"
Beverly stopped tickling Tristan to answer.
"How could we forget? People still manage to give me the same looks and the same point fingers when I walk by."
Deanna agreed.
Tristan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
And Thomas sucked up the rest of his lunch.
Will still managed to remember the very intricate details of every plant and every speck of the arboretum, the corner and cracks of the Bridge, and most of all, the people. He remembered the Ensign who thought he was Canadian, the nurse who helped him heal all those Pareesi Squares injuries, and of course, without a doubt, Will remembered the man he called captain for more than seven long and joyous years.


The new senior crew had just arrived. Deanna and Will were packed, Tristan was just a tiny newborn, Bev had already left for Starfleet Med, and Jean-Luc had just received a message from Starfleet about Romulus.
The Riker family left and a week later, they received news that the Enterprise-E and its crew had been destroyed. Will and Deanna had finished planning for their house and then he was asked to captain the Titan.

~

A few weeks later, Deanna and Tristan moved out their house and into the home they built with the lost member of their family. Every week or so, a get-together was arranged between Beverly and Thomas, discussing the week? events or remembering the distant past.

The End.