"Energise"

Will Riker materialised at the transporter room of the
Titan. "Welcome back, Captain" his First Officer, as
ready as usual, helped him with one of the small cases
Captain Riker had brought with him and both walked out
of the room.

"How’s my ship been doing?" Will took the keypad
Commander Ross was handling him and began eyeing it.

"That is the report of my 5 weeks in command of the
Enterprise, Sir. Hopefully, you’ll find everything in
order" the two men entered the turbolift.

"No need for making it right away number one, but
thanks anyway for taking the time of having it ready
before my arrival" Riker smiled at his First Officer.

"You can read it when convenient, Sir. Everything’s
detailed in there."

"I’ll give it a look this morning in my ready room,
thanks again Ross."

"You are welcome, Sir" Riker nodded "Sir, may I
suggest you something?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I strongly recommend you take the morning off duty
and rest. The bags under your eyes and your wrinkled
uniform are shouting for a rest, Sir, with all due
respect." Riker stopped to study his First Officer
with narrowed eyes for a while and laughed as they
walked out of the turbolift.

"I think you’ve enjoyed being in command and you just
can’t leave the damn chair!" the two new friends
laughed as they made their way down the hall.

"Well I have to say that’s true, but as we weren’t
expecting your arrival until 1400 hours, you can use
the morning to relax" they both stopped at Will’s
door.

"Yeah, Jim, I think you’re right" a broad smile spread
on Riker’s face as he took the cases and prepared to
enter his quarters after a 5 week mission to hell.

Will Riker took a deep breath to enjoy even more his
coming back home. He immediately recognised the
familiar scent he had learnt to associate with his
quarters, and took a look around the place. Definitely
home. The place where he could finally rest. Home.
There were his stuff and the small table decorated
with pictures, Will smiled with longing tenderness at
them. Finally being home, after a dangerous secret
mission felt very rewarding. Having Jim Ross as First
Officer was a very good help, it was the only way he
had felt comfortable about leaving his ship and crew
for so long. It was still quite early in the morning,
not even 0600 hours, Will yawned and stretched feeling
glad he still had the whole morning to just stay in
his quarters. Putting his luggage on the floor and the
keypad on the table, he headed for the bed room.

There she was, sleeping on his side of the bed as she
always did whenever he was away. She’d probably began
sleeping on her side and rolled in her sleep to the
other side, unconsciously searching for him. He smiled
thinking how much he loved her, and how much happiness
she’d brought into his life, especially after they had
admitted their feelings for each other. After he
decided to speak up for his heart. Will remembered the
times he’d had to return to his empty quarters and sit
alone thinking about her being next door, so close and
so far away at the same time. Walking to the bed, he
sat by her side and before he could do anything else,
he felt her getting inside his mind, that lovely
feeling.

"Imzadi?" she opened her eyes not trusting her
feelings and smiled when she realised it was true.
"You’re back! I can’t believe it. Oh thank God!" she
sat up and held him strongly in her arms.

"Imzadi, I love you. Oh, I missed you so, so much" he
kissed her one, two, three, ten times for all the
nights he hadn’t been able to kiss her and all the
days he’d begun without her.

She broke apart."Are you all right? You look slim!
Where you injured?"she began checking him as she
remembered the danger of the mission.

"Deanna, I’m fine" and he kissed her once more.

"Thanks God, I was so worried about you!" only she and
Cmdr. Ross had known the real reason for his leaving
and she was absolutely happy for him being back safe
and sound.

Will held her face in his hands and studied every inch
of it. She was just as beautiful as the image of her
that he’d seen every time he had closed his eyes, Will
told her. Deanna smiled at him warmly making him feel
so much at home. Will stroked her hair and leaned over
to kiss her, pushing her gently backwards. 5 weeks had
been quite a long time and he’d thought of her every
cold and lonely night, especially when he had been
captured, he had thought of her at every moment. But
now, he was safe in his quarters and the mission had
been successfully completed. He’d been distinguished
for his actions and had been able to return home,
where he knew, they would all be waiting for him.

Will was kissing the path down Deanna’s neck, ’the
path he knew by heart’ when someone jumped over the
bed making them both jump first and then smile,
"Later" she whispered with promising eyes.

"Daddy’s back!" The child got over Will’s back and
hung from his neck when Will sat up, while the second
child, less enthusiastically and more sleepy went to
cuddle up next to his mother.

"Honey, daddy is tired, get off him" Deanna smiled at
her elder son, but the child was too excited for
seeing his father back and he kept playing.

"It’s OK, I’ve missed them so much" Will laid on his
back pretending to fight with his elder son, the
youngest child joined his brother and Will pretended
to be defeated. "Ahhhgggg!" They all laughed together,
celebrating the family reunion. Will got out of bed so
he could get a small case he’d brought home "I got
these starfighters on my stop at Starbase 309"

"Cool!"

The two boys ran to grab a starfighter each and
started a space combat against a giant bearded space
creature. Rolling up her eyes, Deanna got out of bed
and out of the room leaving her three boys playing
together. The space battle soon developed into a
Klingon corporal fight on top of the bed with Grrrrrs
and Arrrrghs included and where Will allowed his two
small rivals to win the fight easily, he feigned that
he was not even really fighting.

"Breakfast is ready…" they heard from outside the room
after some 3 rounds of fights, but they kept playing,
"…chocolate pancakes!" was enough to add, and the two
boys flew out the room leaving Will alone sitting on
the middle of the bed with his hair all messed up and
saying, "Just like their mother!"

Some minutes later, when he had changed into his most
comfortable outfit, he came out of the room drying his
hair off with a towel and went to kiss Deanna once
more, taking his baby daughter from her arms and into
his, kissing her several times as he played with her.

"Hello, my little princess, daddy missed you so much!"
Deanna smiled tenderly at her husband and gently
pulled him over to the breakfast table.

Will watched his family all together at the table,
smiling when Deanna cleaned the remains of honey from
his second son’s face, and listening about the star
the eldest one got at kindergarten for his drawings
and how his little girl had learnt to say "papa" while
he was away.

After breakfast, Will didn’t feel like sleeping, he’d
had enough time to sleep during his journey back, he
just wanted to enjoy his family. He convinced Deanna
to let their two sons miss pre-school "just for today"
he’d said to her with those blue eyes that she’d never
been able to say no to, and made her re-schedule her
appointments for the afternoon.

They stayed home, playing with their children and
talking about the mission. He knew he could trust in
her, not only was she his counsellor, but also his
wife, and he could speak freely with her, as he’d
always had. Will read Ross’s report and even had time
to cook lunch for his family. When he was leaving his
quarters to resume his duties, he walked towards the
turbolift with a peaceful and rested smile displayed
on his face and feeling really good for having come
back home.

Fin