Special Deliveries

Chapter One

It was the middle of the night and Deanna was wide-awake. She felt labour coming on.

"Will", she said and then waited for a response.

Nothing. "Will, it's time."

"Huh?" Will muttered.

"It's time" she restated.

"For what?" Will, said half asleep.

"The babies. They're coming."

Will was now wide-awake. He jumped out of bed. "Let's go! You have to get to sick bay!" He quickly got to the COM and called, "Sick bay."

"Will, there's no rush. They won't come that fast."

"The doctor and nurse?"

"No, the babies."

Will was so excited that he pulled on his uniform without zipping it up and started to walk out without his boots.

"Sick bay here."

"It's OK." Deanna responded. "Your Captain is overly excited because the babies seem to be coming."

"I see." said the doctor. "I presume you're on your way down?"

"Yes. We're on our way if he can calm down. Counselor out." Then turning to Will, "If I were you I'd zip up my uniform and put some shoes and socks on. I don't think it's very becoming of a captain to be dressed that way." Deanna was smiling.

Will looked down. His jacket was untucked and unzipped showing his sexy chest and his pants were wide open. His feet were also bare.

"I know that me being pregnant, I can just slide my shirt and pants on, but you need to tidy up a little hon. And calm down, there's no fire and the ship is not being attacked. Although you are more calm in those instances.

Back on Betazed, Lwaxana sensed her grandbabies were coming. Was it her sixth sense, her link with her daughter, or mother's intuition? What ever it was she got Mr. Hohm and they boarded the next ship heading toward her daughter's ship.

Finally, in sick bay, Deanna was sitting in the birthing chair.

"Oh, GODS!" she screamed. "I NEED something for freakin' the PAIN!"

"right up." informed the doctor.

"Deanna, who needs to calm down now?" Will commented.

"Shut up!" Deanna barked.

"Only you could get away with saying that to the captain." he stated with a smile.

"You try pushing a fuckin' watermelon through your penis and see what all you say and do!" Deanna was not very comfortable and in labour big time.

"I'm sorry. I'm not much help to you am I Imzadi?" Will said to help calm her.

"Sorry! You should be! You put me in this condition!" she kept screaming, "You had the easy part, which was completely painless! OOOOO!!!!! Doctor! DRUGS! Please!"

"Betazoid female physiology." stated the doctor. "I'll never get it. Labour is longer than human females and they complain of more pain. Sometimes, I even think they also have more of a personality change than human females in labour." Then he injected her with a painkiller.

"I'm not fucking complaining! I am in paaaaaain!" Deanna screamed. "I'm NOT giving birth to two babies! The other can stay in me as long as it wants to! I'm not doing it! Why the hell did you do this to me, Will!"

Will just ran a cool cloth over her head. Suddenly, in a burst of pain, Deanna grabbed him by the collar and roared "Answer me!" She held on tightly to his collar.

"Well, I..." he stammered, "It's nature?"

"Oh, do shut up!" Deanna released him, rolled her eyes and laid back against the chair again.

Four hours went by. The first dose of pain medicine had worn off and she was shaking like a leaf in a March wind from the pain.

"GO!" she yelled at Will and pointed to the corner of the room. "PAIN!"

"It shouldn't be much longer." stated the doctor. "Your dilated 7 centimeters."

"SHUT UP!"

"I do believe it's time for more pain medicine. Maybe an epideral?" the doctor said.

"Oh really? What the hell ever gave you that idea?" Deanna said with lots of sarcasm.

Will was now sitting quietly in the corner Deanna had sent him to, not saying a word. "Only my pregnant wife can do this to me." he thought.

"Captain, we have a visitor beaming aboard. A Lwaxana Troi."

"Figures" he said to himself. "Send her on down to sick bay."

"AW!" Deanna screamed.

First the captain is taking orders from his pregnant wife and now his mother-in-law comes." he thought to himself.

"I heard that!" the two Troi women said in coincidental unison.

Suddenly all heads turned to see Lwaxana in the doorway.

"Mother!" Deanna said in surprise.

"Yes, Little One. I'm here."

"I'M NOT LITTLE WAW!" she screamed in another wave of contractions.

"OK. Time to push." said the doctor.

"Breath dear. It makes it so much easier." Lwaxana informed.

"Right! Humm!" Deanna said straining.

"OK stop." the doctor said.

Deanna gasped for air and panted.

Another hour pasted.

"Will, please come here." Deanna requested tiredly.

He walks over and says,"Am I out of the corner now?"

"I'm sorry, Imzadi."

"It's OK, Deanna."

"One more push." the doctor encouraged.

"I can't."

"Yes you can dear." Lwaxana couched.

"No, I can't." Tears came to Deanna's eyes.

"Push." Will commanded. Deanna pushed and then laid back.

"Waaaaaaa!" came the sound of their first baby.

"It's a girl! At 0458 hours!" announced the doctor and handed her to the nurse.

"Hu!" Deanna said exhausted.

"Now make sure you clean her off well." Lwaxana told the nurse. "Be gentle with her!"

The nurse gave Lwaxana a dirty look and said, "Stay out of the way Mrs. Troi or you'll have to leave."

"AHHHH!" Deanna screamed.

"Don't talk to me that way." Lwaxana snapped at the nurse.

"Once more." The doctor announced.

"No. I can't! I won't!" Deanna whined.

"Not much of a choice, Counselor." said the doctor.

"No. Can't he wait, so I can rest?" she whined again. "AAAAH!"

"Push!" Will couched.

"No." said Deanna.

"Push!" he commanded again.

Fifteen minutes later:

"Waaaaa!" came the sound of their second child.

"It's a boy. At 0513 hours." informed the doctor.

"Careful with him." Lwaxana said to the doctor this time. "They're precious and beautiful." Lwaxana was holding the girl and was looking down at her when she said the last.

Deanna had fallen asleep quickly, so Will got to hold his baby boy first.

"So," asked the doctor, "have you two thought of names for these little darlings?"

"Yes," said Will smiling. "William Thomas Riker Jr." looking down at his son. Then raising his head and tilting it toward his daughter, who was still in Lwaxana's arms, "Kestra Sue Riker."

Lwaxana smiled. "That was Deanna's sister's name."

"We know." Will said with a big smile.

Chapter 2

Hours later Deanna awoke to see her husband holding their daughter and their son was in an incubator beside him.

"You still here?"

"Yes." Will said gently. "They're beautiful." He rose and handed Kestra to Deanna. "Just like their mother." And he kissed Deanna.

"I am so sorry, Imzadi." she apologized.

"For what?"

"For how I treated you while I was in labour."

"It's alright. Just don't do it again," he said smiling and softly pushed a stray hair out of her face, while continuing, "I love you, Imzadi." And he kissed her again.

Just then Lwaxana strolled in and the doctor stopped her.

"Visiting is at six."

"I'm the grandmother!"

"So you can wait."

Appalled Lwaxana said, "Do you know who you are talking to? I am Lwaxana Troi. Daughter of the fifth house of Betazed. Holder of the sacred chalice of Riix."

"Yeah, yeah." the doctor said.

"Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed!"

"You can still wait."

"If that's the case why is he here?" Pointing at Will.

"He's the father."

"Well then in that case, I have every right to be as the grandmother."

"Ma'am, rules are rules."

"Oh, bosh." And pushed him aside. Then she sent to her daughter, "Why aren't you using your telepathy to talk to them? They need to start young if they're ever going to develop any skill."

"Mother!" Deanna said aloud, "They're just babies."

Looking back and forth at the two women in confusion, Will asked, "Did I missed something?"

"Oh, no. Mother is just insisting on honing their telepathy early."

"Huh?" Will was still confused. "I thought that didn't develop until puberty?"

"Oh, it does." Lwaxana confirmed, "but cultural training can never start too early. Deanna, you remember what your grandfather said?"

"Yes, Mother." Deanna responded rolling her eyes.

"Talking aloud is for the feeble minded and those who don't know any better." Lwaxana quoted.

Will was wide eyed and in shock.

"Mother please!" Deanna said.

"We must start training them in Betazoid ways very early."

"Mrs. Troi." Will said.

"And it's never too early." Lwaxana continued looking at Will.

"Yes, well." started Will.

"Earth culture is too vulgar and primitive for them to learn."

"Mrs. Troi!" Will demanded her attention. "I'm Terran.

"And your point being?" she retorted.

"We thought we would raise them with our values and they will include a little of both. If they end up being empathic, like Deanna, or not, like me, that's fine with us."

"Well, I never! Neglecting their heritage and training! That's! That's! There are no words for it! I'm appalled!" With that she stormed out of sick bay.

"Good riddance." Will said.

"I heard that!" Lwaxana responded angrily.

"Will, you shouldn't be so hard on mother. She doesn't know any differently."

"Deanna!" sent Lwaxana, "How could you say that about your mother!"

"Stop listening to us from a distance, Mother." sent Deanna.

Twenty-four hours later, Deanna and the babies were sent to their quarters to rest. Lwaxana, however, kept nagging Will and Deanna about how her grandbabies should be raised.

"You really should raise them on Betazed and not this bucket of bolts."

"Mother, this bucket of bolts, as you call it, is Will's ship."

"And a nice bucket of bolts it is." Lwaxana returned. "Oh, Deanna, I only want what's best for them."

"And we don't?"

"You two need some guidance in parenting two children who are part Betazoid."

"I assure you, Mother, we will muddle through, like every other parent."

"Yes, but you don't have to. You have me to help." She said picking up her crying grandson who just awoke. "Oh, he's hungry."

"I'll get his bottle." Deanna said.

"What!" Lwaxana was shocked and she followed Deanna to the replicater. "You mean you're not going to breast feed them?" Just then Kestra awoke hungry.

"That's why, Mother. And since you know all about raising Betazoid children, you tell me how I breast feed two babies at the same time and not feel like a cow at the same time?" Then she handed Lwaxana a bottle and picked up Kestra from the crib to feed her.

"Well, I..." Lwaxana stood silently holding the bottle in one hand and a crying baby in the other.

Deanna was now couching her mother. "Well, don't just stand there, Mother. Put the bottle in Little Will's mouth."

Lwaxana, still stunned, stammered, "Oh, yes." Then started to feed Will Jr. when Will walked in.

"Ah, feeding time!" Will stated with a smile and took Little Will from the still stunned Lwaxana Troi. "It"s better than diaper changing time."

"Twins are a lot harder than one, Mother." Deanna sent with a smile.