The Floral Countdown
Disclaimer: I don’t own TNG, nor anything related to it, but this story and a few others. The characters and other belong to Paramount.
Note: Takes place sometime between Insurrection and Nemesis.
--------
Will lie on his back with his arm around Deanna and her head resting on his bare chest. “It’s only for two weeks, less than two weeks,” he reassured her.
“One day less than two weeks,” she retorted. Deanna wanted to spend as much time as she could with Will before he left, and the Captain was sending him on an away mission.
“I know Deanna, but I have too. This is one thing that I have to do before . . . Before I leave. Think of it as a final request from Captain Picard.”
“I know,” she sighed, “there’s nothing I can do.” Knowing there was nothing she could do didn’t make her feel better at all. She didn’t want Will to leave. She had wanted good things for him but she didn’t want him to leave her. As days went by she feared more and more what she would do once he was gone. The absence of an answer was what scared her the most. She didn’t know what she would do next. She didn’t know how she would survive without him.
He kissed her forehead, and smiled to himself. “I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” She wasn’t at all reassured, but he was trying. This made her feel a little better; the fact that he was trying to make her feel better. She pulled herself closer to his face and kissed him. She smiled at she stared into his eyes; she found herself staring into his eyes a lot recently, as if she was trying to capture them so she would not forget. He smiled back, but his eyes remained cool, calm, and soothing.
This made her feel better.
--------
Two Days later—The first day after Will left on his away mission
“So you woke up this morning and there was a dozen Gladiolas on your table?” Beverly clarified.
Deanna was smiling, “Yes.”
“Wow. Will’s sweeter than I thought,” the Good Doctor joked.
Deanna lightly pushed Beverly. Deanna had not stopped smiling since that morning.
“I’ve never seen you so happy.”
“I know.”
“Why do you think he sent them?”
“I wasn’t that keen on him going on this away mission, you know, because he’s . . .” she took a deep breath. “He’s leaving in a couple of months.”
“And you want to spend more time together?” Beverly offered.
“Hey, who’s the counselor here?” she playfully remarked gesturing both of them. “Anyway, he said he’d make it up to me.”
--------
Deanna got out of her bed. She rubbed her eyes and stretched. She folded her arms and walked stiffly through her quarters and smiled when she saw Oriental Lilies on her table. She smiled as she picked them up and moved them to the view port sill. She noticed that there were eleven. She recalled that yesterday there were a dozen Gladiolas.
She counted the flowers twice and wondered if there was something wrong. The fact that there was one flower short of a dozen bothered her all day, but she was still excited.
--------
Deanna woke up to a very familiar fragrance and remembered walking through a field of Golden Karens on Betazed with Will. She got out of bed and briskly walked into the main room of her quarters.
She counted ten. ‘This is not a mistake,’ she thought to herself. ‘This is a countdown. But to what?’
--------
“Gladiolas, Oriental Lilies, Golden Karens, yesterday’s Birds of Paradise and this morning there were eight Lilies of the Valley in your office?”
“Yes, wonderful, isn’t it?” Deanna didn’t think that smile had left her face for five days.
“What’s he counting down to?”
“I don’t know, that’s what’s so fun.” Deanna giggled, and then her mind jumped, she was slightly taken back by her own actions. Deanna was not accustomed to giggling like a school-girl; it made her somewhat angry that she was being so childish. This anger did not at all dishearten her spirit; she was excited until the countdown was over. She wanted to know what happens next.
--------
Deanna walked into her quarters after a long day and found seven Betazoid Lake Orchids on her table. Lwaxana always kept seven Lake Orchids on their table at home. Deanna picked one up, smelled it and remembered her home in the country.
Will was sure making things up to her.
--------
Over the next three days she was greeted by White and Yellow Roses on day, Calla Lilies the next and Weeping Canyon Flowers on the third.
White Roses were her Grandmother’s favorite flower and yellow roses were her Grandfather’s. Deanna didn’t even remember telling Will that. She wondered for a moment where he had found that out and finally settled on she had told him over a stain pillow one night at just forgotten since then.
Deanna did remember telling Will that her favorite Betazoid constellation looked very similar to a Calla Lily, and every time she saw those flowers she thought of home.
The Weeping Canyon Flowers were especially important to her because they were very rare even if you knew what part of Betazed to look on.
--------
“Three Peruvian Lilies. I love Peruvian Lilies.” Deanna was showing a soft, delighted smile on the tenth day.
“Charlie always brought me Peruvian Lilies when he came back from long trips,” Beverly reminisced.
The two women sighed, propped up on their elbows on Beverly’s desk in Sickbay.
--------
On the eleventh day Deanna was shaking with excitement. Two Pieces of the Sky were today’s gift. The Betazoid flowers were sky blue, fabled to have fallen from the sky during creation. Deanna remembered when her mother had told that story to Will once on one of their vacations together. Deanna suddenly became very aware that Will was putting a lot of effort into this and he was the one leaving. Deanna felt a little sour about this, but the feeling passed every time she looked around her quarters at the garden before her.
--------
The final day was less exciting than Deanna had planned. She had a terrible afternoon with patients who ran long with unusually difficult problems. The floral countdown had slipped her mind. All she wanted to do was sleep away the day.
She typed in the key to her quarters and stopped dead in her tracks with eyes wide open.
Will was on one knee in a finely tailored black tuxedo holding a small dark blue velvet box in one hand and a single long-stem red rose in the other.
She covered her mouth with her hand and stepped inside allowing the door to close behind her.
Will smiled. “Deanna Troi, will you marry me?”
Deanna held both of her hands over her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes.
He could see her smile under her hands and he stood, walked to her and kissed her passionately. He opened the ring box and slipped the gleaming ring on her finger.
Will held her waist and spun her around, happier than he ever had been.
Deanna giggled again.