Obviously, this story takes place just before the events in Nemesis unfold as the title would suggest. If you don't want to be spoiled for the new movie, this is a warning to not read it. For those, like me who love spoilers....enjoy.

Disclaimer: The characters and "event" in this story are not mine...Paramount owns them. Everything else, I've got dibbs on.


"The Night Before the Wedding" 

by Sarah K.

trylikeafool@gmail.com



She reached for the hair at the back of his neck. So quiet she had been that he didn‘t realize she had come out of the house into the cool Alaskan evening breeze. "Couldn’t sleep?"

He threw a glance over his shoulder, resting the cup of coffee he had been nursing on his knee as he sat in the rocking chair on the front porch. He saw that she had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders with one of her hands keeping it tightly closed and the other doing incredible things to his neck. "I haven’t been home in a long time," he said nostalgically. He had been remembering his times here while he stared at the sun setting behind the nearby mountain range. It had set long ago by now, however. Still, he found himself out here, alone, after his bachelor party onboard the Enterprise earlier.

"So, you’re losing sleep over it?" Deanna smiled down at him softly. He could only barely see her face with a lantern sitting on the rail in front of them being the only light other than the stars.

He returned her smile and looked away, back to his mountains. "You know that I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. I used to come out here and look at the mountains and somehow it would always calm me down." The intention behind his words was obvious to her. She was out here for precisely the same reason.

"You’re nervous?" she asked simply, yet sincerely already knowing the answer. She was nervous too.

"What can I say?" he shrugged nonchalantly, one might say he was embarrassed by his reticence. She knew he was. But she could hardly blame him.

"Is it working?" She saw his face look up at her in confusion. That look. Any look from him was one to treasure. The way he always managed to look like he must have when he had been a boy, running through the wide fields that went from the very porch on which they were occupying, right to the bottom of the mountains in the distance.

"What?" he asked tenderly in reference to her last question. Their eyes met and both felt there lips curl up slightly at the sides. The feelings were too remarkable to keep from showing with a smile or the light in their eyes.

Deanna smiled fully now at him, not being able to hold it in. Not taking her eyes away from his, she answered his question, "The mountains."

"Hardly," he exhaled almost with a nervous chuckle. He looked down at his coffee and remembered that he was still holding it. He took a sip and then gripped the cup a little tighter as if it would help ease the tension, albeit good tension.

Deanna picked up on that tension and she gracefully lowered herself onto his lap, curling up against him. Their faces were only centimeters apart, just the way they liked having conversations with each other. "Tomorrow is a big day." She gently began running her hands across his chest and shoulders. The smooth motions never failed to calm him down to a certain measure of degree. If anything, it aloud her to get is undivided attention. She smiled again at that. It comforted her to know that she knew this man as well as she did. He knew her too.

Will set his coffee on the wood floor beneath them and wrapped his arms around her. "For all of us." Their relationship had affected not only them, but also those around them. They were a family, a family that was going to say goodbye in some form or another tomorrow. It was a milestone in their life together and they were going to share it with their closest friends.

"Yes, but especially for you and me." Deanna acknowledged his thoughts but quickly pointed out that tomorrow was going to be their day. Hers and Will‘s. She wanted never to forget it. Tomorrow she was going to focus on him...her new husband.

Will looked at her intently and drew a deep breath as if he was afraid to speak. "I don’t know if I’m ready to say goodbye."

Deanna paused in thought for a moment and then looked out at her surroundings. "You left this place."

Will let out a snicker and shook his head slowly as he followed her gaze. "This place...is filled with unwanted memories. I was glad when I was able to leave it behind."

Deanna turned her attention back to him. "And yet you sit here tonight."

Will kept his gaze on the mountains. "A lot of things have changed since then."

She lowered her forehead to his and felt his focus shift back to her. "A lot," she repeated. "You like those changes and now you don’t want to change again."

"I have a family now. I didn’t then. It’s hard to let go." Will knew that this was sounding more like a counseling session than a conversation with his wife to be, but it was a part of Deanna that he had learned to accept a long time ago. Truth was, he kind of needed a counselor tonight. After all, he was getting married tomorrow. That alone was enough for any man to need a counselor.

Deanna‘s thoughts turned to Beverly and Jean-Luc. It was going to be very hard. "For me too. But tomorrow, you and I become a family. A true family." She felt his heart soar at those words. Hers chased his into the galaxy of stars above them.

Will then realized that she was right. His family would no longer truly be the officers he‘d served with over the past fifteen years. It would be him and her. "And, everyone else become simply our close friends?" he asked quietly. It almost sounded cruel to him to say that. But it was the truth. They would always be like family, but not his family anymore.

"You’re going to miss the Captain," Deanna attributed this to the father-son relationship that Will and Jean-Luc had forged over the years, particularly in the past couple of years.

"You’re going to miss Beverly," Will countered.

Deanna did her best to ignore his last comment, knowing it would only move to upset her if she dwelled on it. Instead she turned the conversation back to him. "You see him as the father you always wanted."

Will looked her square in the eyes. "And you see her as a link to your humanity, someone that you could share with, like you and Chandra did," he managed to throw back at her.

They both stayed quiet for some time, giving in to the tender and true observations both and just made. "And then there’s the Enterprise," Deanna said delicately, not wanting to shatter whatever it was hanging between the two of them.

Will‘s eyes softened as he thought about his ship. It was what he had wanted for so many years. It was one of the reasons he had turned down his own command so many times. "The flagship. Our home for the past fifteen years."

Deanna pushed against his chest slightly, deciding to dwell on what was in front of them. "The Titan is a good ship, Will. Galaxy class. I heard that it greatly resembles the D."

Will had been studying the specs on the Titan for many weeks now. He knew it almost as well as the Enterprise. "It does. I’ve seen specs and pictures. It’ll have families and children aboard. We’ll deal with a lot of diplomats like we used to. Our quarters will be bigger." She smiled at that. She remembered the shock and disappointment that they all had when they first came aboard the Enterprise E at the size of their quarters. It was smaller than the D and it had taken a while to get used to it.

Deanna leaned into him again. "You already know your first officer and chief of security. And you’re taking quite a gamble with Reg, but I’m sure he’ll work out just fine."

Will shot her an incredulous look. "Thanks. That made me feel much better."

Deanna smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders. "He’s so excited. Chief engineer is something that he’s deserved for a long time. He may be a little shy and imaginative at times...but that’s why I’ll be there."

"I hope that’s not the only reason." Deanna felt his lips begin a slow dance on her neck just below her ear.

She tilted her head somewhat to allow him better access. "Well, I’ll have to live with my husband to keep him happy. Other than that...Oh!" Will pulled his lips away from her and playfully pinched her stomach. She immediately covered her mouth with her hand and hit him on the chest.

Will did his best to cover up his laughter. "Shh. You’re going to wake everyone up and we’ll get in trouble." The entire senior staff and wedding party were lodged in his house for the night.

Deanna dropped her hand from her mouth and eyed him suspiciously. "Why? Because it’s after midnight?" she said in a lower tone.

"Exactly," Will spread his hands to emphasize his point.

Deanna cocked her head at him and a grin began to grow on her face. "Please tell me you don’t believe in that superstition."

Will tapped her nose with his finger. "Tradition, not superstition. Besides, you’re the one that found me out here and we‘ll just leave it at that." They did exactly that.

Deanna buried her head in the crook of his neck and shoulder, and wrapped her arms tightly around his midriff. "We’ve come so far."

Will sighed and tightened his hold on her. "We still have a long way to go. The universe is a big place."

Deanna felt herself relaxing. She wasn‘t nervous anymore and she noticed for the first time that neither was he. "Mmm. A lot of things can happen."

Will felt an involuntary shiver from her. He looked down and pulled the blanket snug around her. "Cold?"

Deanna shifted slightly to get closer to him, if it were at all possible. "I thought you said Alaska was warm in the summer."

He heard Deanna yawn tiredly and he smiled at the picture of her in his arms, imagining that the next fifty years was going to be filled with many more just like it. "It will be when the sun rises. Everything will be fine when the sun rises."

The End.