TO BE STRANDED OR NOT TO BE STRANDED
That is the question

By Rachel

Prologue

"Captain, Deanna and I finished here on Betazed, we are ready to beam
aboard." Will Riker stated to his comm badge. "Try as she might Lwaxana has
exhausted her reasons why we should stay."

"Then I take she feeling better." The Captain asked, forging concern to the
best of his ability.

Deanna rolled her eyes, causing Will to stifle his laughter, "Let's just say
the only thing Lwaxana was dying of is boredom. Seems being ordered
housebound has gotten to her."

"Very well, the Enterprise will be glad to have you back, two to beam up Mr.
Data."

Instantaneously Will and Deanna faded from Lwaxana Troi's living room.

"Ouch," Deanna tripped on way to being fully materialized.

"I've got you." Will grabbed at Deanna, but missed, and she went crashing to
the ground.

Disgusted with herself, Deanna pulled herself up and began to wipe at the
sand that had gathered in all the cracks and crevices of her uniform. "I
can be such a klutz sometimes."

"Dee," Will said distractedly, marveling at their surroundings.

"What?"

"I don't think we are where we are supposed to be." He marveled.

Deanna began to look about her for the first time. White sand was at her
feet and stretched out for miles and miles to the side of her and behind
her. To the front of her stretched the bluest water she had ever seen.
Light blue sky scattered with fluffy white cotton ball clouds laid out above
her head.

"Will, I've never seen a place so beautiful in all my life." Deanna sighed
breathlessly.

"Yes Deanna, but why are we here and not on the Enterprise?"

CHAPTER 1

“Riker to Enterprise.” Will hit his com-badge. Silence.

“Deanna does you badge work?”

Deanna, who had wandered over to the water to test the temperature, looked back at him and shrugged, “I don’t know.”

Will rolled his eyes dramatically, “Could you maybe TRY it please.” He retorted sarcastically.

“Deanna to Enterprise.” She called into her comm-badge. Silence.

“I guess not.. .sorry.” She shrugged her shoulders and returned her attention to the water.

“Deanna this is serious, I think maybe you should talk your hand out of the water so we can do a little exploring and try to figure out where we are.” Will demanded, crossing his arms and standing rigidly in place.

Deanna took her hand out of the water, turned to face him, and gave him a mock salute, “Yes, sir Commander.”

“Deanna!”

“Will, you need to learn to relax. Obviously someone punched the wrong coordinates in the transporter, which is really no big deal to fix. Once it is realized that we are not coming back they will recheck the coordinates, find the error of their ways, and presto we are on the Enterprise. Therefore, until then, I assume our best plan of action is to stay calm and wait.” Deanna deducted logically, “Now why don’t you take your mind off of disaster mode and come here and feel this water. It is really warm.”

Will walked over to Deanna, bent down, and ran his hand through the water. To his surprise, the water was actually as warm as she had boasted.

Deanna smiled at him in her “I told you so” kind of way, sat back into the sand, and began to take off her boots.

“What are you doing?” Will asked, astounded by her carefree attitude she was expressing.

“I am going swimming.” She responded matter or factly, “care to join me.”

Within moments Deanna had her boots successfully off and began to tug at her uniform.

“Dee, what are you going swimming in?”

“Oh nothing.” She said, batting her dark eyelashes innocently , “I mean Will, besides my mother, you have seen me naked the most. I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”

Without further hesitation, she stripped out of her uniform and dived into the water. Gracefully she emerged from underneath the water moments later, glistening from water drops that formed to her body, “Are you sure you don’t want to join me? I don’t bite?” She teased

“I might.” Will muttered to himself, upset by inability to suppress his sudden urge to strip down and join her.

“What you say?” Deanna asked confused.

“I said enjoy your swim, I’m going to look around and try to figure out where we are.” Rachel Olin -

CHAPTER 2

While Deanna enjoyed a swim, Will walked off into a group of palm trees, to explore and to sulk. He wasn’t quite sure why, but Deanna’s freeness had set him in a bad mood.

He found himself feeling a twinge of jealously towards Deanna and her stripping down naked and freely jumping into the water. He knew this was stupid of him, considering the fact that it appeared there was no one on the island but the two of them, and because he and Deanna were crew mates, best friends, and nothing more.

Finding a particular shady spot underneath a palm tree, Will sat down and laid his back against the trunk. Maybe Deanna was right, he was not going to be able to contact the Enterprise from this location, so he might as well enjoy this tropical paradise. He leisurely closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. * * * *

“Will get up.” Deanna whispered, “you’ve been sleeping for at least two hours.”

Begrudgingly Will opened his eyes, “I thought you wanted me to enjoy myself.?”

“I do, but I also an getting kind of hungry, and well I just assumed being deserted on an island with Mr. Alaskan fisherman himself, that maybe I could convince him to like carve a spear or something and catch some dinner.”

“Carve a spear? Catch some dinner? Who do you think I am?” Will asked incredulously, looking away quickly when he realized she had yet to put back on her uniform. “Don’t you think you should get dressed.”

“Does my nakedness bother you that much? I mean you have seen me naked before? As well as many other living, breathing, naked female-forms.” She sat down against the tree next to Will, close enough for their arms to brush up against each other.

Will felt a sweat break out when he silently noted how amazing she looked after a day in the sun, her cheeks rosy and her skin a healthy bronze color. “Dee, what if we beam aboard and your . . .you know . . .naked.”

Deanna stared at him in amazement, causing him to nervously fidget under her gaze, “Will, you humans are really way to uptight. If I wanted to, I could walk around Betazed fully nude and nobody would think a thing.”

“Dee, we are here, alone, and you beam aboard naked. What would the Captain do? Say? Think?”

“The Captain would say nothing, due nothing, and think what a lucky guy you were to be deserted with such a hot looking babe like myself.” Deanna said, internally smirking at the shocked look on Will’s face. “Will, he hates being put in personal situations, so he would avoid confronting that scenario like the plague.”

Will found himself laughing at the mental picture that brought to his mind, “Yeah, I guess he would. But don’t you care what Worf, Beverly, and the rest of the crew members would think?”

“Will if I did, would I be sitting here naked? Now come on, we are two smart people here, let’s think about dinner.” CHAPTER 3

“Will right there . . .your going to miss it.” Deanna screeched, jumping up and down in the water.

“Deanna, hold still you going to scare them away before I even attempt this.” Will muttered. Both of them were standing in knee-deep blue water, Will holding a make shift spear he and Deanna made from a piece of driftwood.

“Right there Will,” Deanna impatiently tugged on his arm, “now are you going to act or am I going to have to take it from you and do it myself.”

Throwing the stick down in the water, Will groaned as the fish swam away unharmed.

“Damn it.” he angrily threw the stick thirty feet away from them in disgust.

Deanna, disturbed by his overt attitude, turned to give him a dirty look, “Will, what was the point of that?”

“This is stupid. The Enterprise should have realized by now that we are not there, and they should have found us. Something is wrong, and I don’t like it one bit.” He began to angrily stomp his way back to shore, each footfall ending with a tremendous splash of water.

Deanna looked longingly at the stick and then back at Will, wondering which one was worth going after, ultimately deciding Will and running after him.

“Will, you know your right, let’s damn the fish. I mean really, they could be poisonous and not worth our time anyway.” she smiled warmly and made her way past him. She stopped a few feet ahead of him and gave him her wackiest face, “So why so glum chum.”

“Deanna, you aren’t the least bit disturbed that the Enterprise hasn’t found us yet? We’ve been here for almost six hours.”

“Will I place my fullest faith in Captain Picard and the rest of the crew. I know they will be retrieving us as soon as they can, and if they are detained then they are detained. It is our job to survive and psychological statistics have found its easier for disaster victims to survive when they take a positive look to things over a negative look to things. Therefore, I plan to keep my positive outlook.” Her dark eyes narrowed and she dramatically flung back her hair over her right bare shoulder, “However, knowing you as well as I do, I know that something else is bothering you. Are you going to fess up? Or. . . ,” an evil grin spread across her face, “Am I going to have to tickle it out of you?”

“Dee, please.”

“Okay Mr. Riker you asked for it,” she came towards him with her arms outstretched and her fingers twinging.

Will seeing the look of determination on her face began to back up, “Dee, you can stop . . .I’m fine . . nothing is wrong.”

“You are an AWFUL liar.” she said, inching closer and closer to him in the knee deep blue water.

“Dee,” Will took another step backwards. His step landed him on a patch of slippery muck, and sent him falling backwards. On pure panic impulses, he reached for Deanna’s hand to stop his fall. Only Deanna, being several pounds lighter then Will, instead of stopping him fell head first with him under the water. Kicking legs and flailing arms followed, as the two attempted to detangle themselves from each other and stand back up in the water.

A mixture of a cough and a laugh flew out of Will mouth first and Deanna, feeling the laughter a bit contagious soon followed.

“I guess I should take you more seriously,” Will laughed, attempting to wring out the wet uniform on his body.

“Have I earned the right to know what’s been bothering you?” she asked, grabbing his sleeve to attempt to help him wring out the excess water build-up.

“Dee, it’s petty and I don’t want you to make fun of me.”

“Will, I would never make fun of you. What is it.”

“Deanna, it’s you.” <denise@rwwfp.com>

CHAPTER 4

“Me? I’m causing your sour mood.” Deanna shook her head in disbelief, “and people say men are impossible to understand. What did I do? What can I do to ratify the wrong deed I’ve done.” Deanna asked as she pulled him from the edge of the shore to the sand.

“Deanna it’s stupid and I’ll get over it. Really. I think we should probably take advantage of what daylight we have left to look for food, shelter, and clean, salt free drinking water and leave little William Riker’s personal problems for another counseling session.”

“Nope. I’m pulling rank here, as ship’s counselor, and demand that you cease and desist from doing anything but sitting down and spilling your guts. Mentally, you are the poorest crew member I have run into all day, so I feel it is my duty to give you my fullest attention.” She sat down in the white sand, looking as professionally competent as she could, and motioned for him to do the same.

“Dee, you can’t be serious? I’m the only crew member you have seen all day.”

“I know, that is why you are my poorest. Now are you going to cooperate or not?” she asked, her dark brown eyes staring up at him from her position in the sand.

“I will cooperate when you put back on some clothes, otherwise the thoughts that will be running through my head won’t be of the therapeutic nature.” Will finally reasoned, plopping himself next to Deanna, fully proud of himself for turning the tables on her.

Deanna blushed, “I’ll be right back.” She stood up and started to walk back to her uniform.

“Actually I guess they would be kind of therapeutic thoughts.” He teased at her disappearing form.* * * *

“Ughhh! You really go to extremes don’t you.” Will gasped at the transformation Deanna had undergone in the two minutes she had disappeared.

“What? Didn’t you tell me to put back on my uniform.” She looked quizzically down at her outfit.

“I was referring to the bun thing you’ve done with your hair. It kind of reminds me of something my grandmother would wear . . .very mature looking.” Will cringed.

“You told me you wanted me to look professional. And considering were on an island, I just figured this was a stab in the right direction.” Deanna said self-consciously, nervously fidgeting with her bun.

“Dee, naked is unprofessional, uniform is professional, bun is . . . your mother.”

Deanna quickly pulled at the rubberband holding her hair in place, causing in to fall in long romantic ringlets down her neck and back. “Better?”

“Much.” He sighed.

“Good, now quit stalling and tell me why am I causing to put you in such a foul mood today.”

“Deanna, you didn’t put me in a foul mood, you just . . .excited me today. Feelings reawoke today that I have been able to hold back successfully.” Will started, embarrassed by the confession running freely out of his mouth.

“Excited you?? Excuse me.” Deanna looked at Will with a hint of disgust.

“No, not just physically, I mean emotionally and mentally as well. Deanna I think . . .no I know, I still love you.”

CHAPTER 5

“Oh my, this is definently a surprise.” Deanna stood up, brushed the sand of her uniform, and began to walk away from Will and down the beach.

“Crap,” Will got up and ran after her, “Did I upset you? Because if I did, we can rewind this whole conversation.”

Deanna didn’t answer for awhile, but chose to walk the length of the beach in silence. Will followed right beside her, fearing that he might have lost his most beloved friend he has ever had for his uncontrollable impulses.

“Dee?”

She turned her head from the water and intently gazed at him, “Will are you serious? I mean, what you said back there wasn’t emotions brought on by the fear that I may be the only woman you ever come in contact with for the rest of you life, was it?”

Will ran in front of her, turned around to face her, and laid his arms around her neck, “Deanna Troi, I am not fearing the idea of being stranded on this island for the rest of my life with you, I am praying to be stranded on this island for the rest of my life with you.”

Deanna smiled, inched closer to him, stood on her tiptoes, and placed a long lingering kiss on his more then eager lips, “Well, that was definitely the most productive counseling session today.”

Will smiled, bent down, swooped her into his arms, and stood back up, “Well now it’s your turn to lay back and let me show you all my little maneuvering tricks that have made me a successful First Officer. I mean, I think it’s my turn to . . .shall we say . . .go to work.”

Without a word of disagreement on Deanna’s part, Will happily carried his Imazadi off.* * * *

“You’ve locked on their coordinates Mr. Data.” Captain Picard asked.

“Yes sir, I should be able to transport them back immediately.”

“Well then make it so. I’m sure both the Commander and counselor are worried sick.”

Data nodded and began the transporting sequence. Within moments, the materialized shapes of Will Riker and Deanna Troi appeared, naked, and locked in a passionate embrace.

“Oh my,” Captain Picard said nervously, clearing his throat.

Deanna and Will broke away, and looked at the captain sheepishly.

“Glad to see you two are okay, I will be at the bridge.” The Captain said quickly, before turning out the door and making an abrupt exit.

“Deanna, I just told you this was going to happen.” Will whispered in her ear, his head buried deep in her hair to avoid the stares of his crewmates.

Deanna just smiled, took him by the hand, and led him, fully nude, off the transporter. Turning to the group of crewmembers she smiled “Well, it’s really been great seeing all of you again. But the Commander and I have some unfinished business to attend to in my quarters.”

The End