Chapter Fourteen :

When the security chief returned from his shift, he found Alexander in his room, playing a video game. After pausing his game, the boy turned to his father and said, "Hello father."

"Is Sok'cheim with her mother?" Worf asked.

"No. I think she's resting now. The doctor gave her some kind of sedative."

Knowing that his wife hadn't slept a good solid night in a few weeks, Worf hoped it was true.

"She's not very happy with you right now. Is everything going to be all right between you two?" The boy looked to his father pleadingly. "She's like a mother to me. I don't want to see you miserable, Father."

"I will do my best to make things right with Deanna," Worf promised. They had been so happy when they learned a baby was on the way. They should be growing closer now, not drifting apart.

He ordered his dinner from the replicator and ate while waiting for Deanna to wake up naturally. He was concerned about her health and worried that a potential argument between them might worsen her condition, but he couldn't delay speaking with her for too long. If he waited, he risked her accusing him of keeping his involvement in the plans for her go to Betazed with her mother from her--and perhaps, she would be right.

Riker's words right before Worf went of duty kept running through his mind, "It will be fifteen days before we can rendezvous with the Roosevelt. Perhaps you and Lwaxana should use those days to coax Deanna into accepting she needs a leave of absence." Worf knew there was an excellent chance that the baby would be born in the next two weeks. How would the wormhole affect his wife and child then?

Returning his emptied plate and glass to the replicator, Worf stepped into their bedroom. Deanna was sleeping with her back turned toward him. For several minutes, he simply stared at her, wishing she felt as peaceful when awake as she looked asleep. Eventually, he slipped into bed beside her and gently placed his arm across her protruding abdomen. For several minutes, he lay there feeling their unborn child stirring inside her. He waited for Deanna to come fully awake on her own.

"Worf," she said, actually smiling for the first time in a while. "Please, tell me you don't want me to go away."

He wasn't sure how to respond, fearing that no matter what he said, his wife would again become angry with him. Never had he felt so defeated! "Deanna, it's not that I want you to go away."

"Good, because I'm staying. And that is final."

"It will be fifteen days before the nearest starship can rendezvous with the Enterprise. Why don't you consider it? I am sure you would enjoy visiting old friends."

"There are a few people I'd enjoy seeing again, but Worf, I can't be apart from you just as our baby is about to be born."

What if when the baby comes, whatever is affecting you places the baby in distress? It does me no dishonor to admit that I am frightened for both of you!"

"I know. . . I know you are," she barely managed through her tightening throat. "But what happens to us if we're to be separated for so long?"

"A few months apart would never destroy what we have," he replied. He squeezed her tighter, belying his words. "I know I do not say it often enough, but. . .I love you. Please, go with your mother and I will join you as soon as possible."

"I'll think about it. Like you said, I have fifteen days, so don't pressure me. She nuzzled her head against his chest and they fell asleep together. She hoped her dreams would somehow ease her pain and help her sort through her feelings.

***

Floating in space, she still breathed easily. Although she wondered how she had left her ship, Deanna was not frightened. She identified more than a thousand minds in the ship behind her. They were her friends, colleagues, and patients, but she cared nothing for them at this moment. Her purpose lay ahead of her. Only there would she uncover the answers she desperately sought.

She swam through the vacuum of space toward the wormhole. Allowing herself to glide inside it, she suddenly become overwhelmed by the countless auras of lifeforms there before her. She did not sense any turmoil from them and yet they disturbed her.

Why was she still perceiving their presence if they were no longer here? Why did they evoke such strong emotions in her?

She wanted to scream. She wanted to fight her way out of the wormhole, but she couldn't remember the way to the exit.

She glanced down at her protruding abdomen and to her horror saw a swirling multi-colored mass in place of her stomach. "My baby!" she exclaimed, her words echoing throughout the wormhole walls. She brought her hand down to the aberration, and her fingers passed right through her abdomen to touch her baby, startling both of them. Before she could jerk her hand back, the baby miraculously pulled her inside.

Her eyes took a moment to adjust. As she began to focus, she saw her baby floating several meters away, still attached to her by the umbilical cord. The baby's sex was obscured by the cord as though mocking Deanna's wishes to wait until birth. It stared back at her, telepathically projecting its confusion toward her. Holding her arms out, she beckoned her child to come to her.

Sensing the baby's anguish, she realized it knew she had tried to wish it away earlier in Ten-Forward. She gently began tugging at the umbilical cord. If she could only hug her baby to let it know it was wanted! The infant was nearly at arms length when the cord suddenly snapped, sending the baby floating away from her. It began crying, and in her desperate, frustrated state, Deanna could not hold back her own tears.

"Why is this happening?" she screamed. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"Darling," Worf said, trying to gently coax his wife awake. "You are having a bad dream."

"I'm so sorry," Deanna muttered aloud before coming fully awake. She turned toward him, her sweaty hair clinging to her face. "Worf. . .Oh, my God! It's the baby!" Suddenly to Worf's surprise, his wife jumped out of bed and wrapping her housecoat around herself, rushed out of the bedroom.

"Deanna!" he called out to her as he got out of bed. He groped for his discarded uniform, cursing as he tried to slip into it.

She was out in the corridor and almost onto the turbolift before he caught up with her. "I have to get to sickbay!"

"Are you in labor?" he asked as they stepped onto the turbolift. "Sickbay," he instructed the computer. Noticing she was shaking, he placed his arms around her to offer her warmth.

"I don't know," she replied through chattering teeth. "But something isn't right!"

Dr. Aaron Meyers was the physician on duty during the gamma shift. As soon as Worf and Deanna entered the room, he came to their aid, helping Deanna onto a biobed.

"How long have you been in labor?" the doctor asked.

"I'm not sure that I am in labor," she replied. "But I'm afraid that something is wrong!"

"Okay, just lie down and relax while I examine you and the baby." Meyers opened up the patient's housecoat before picking up a medical scanner and running it across Deanna's abdomen. "Try to stay calm," he told her. He glanced at a middle-aged nurse several meters away. "Nurse, get me ten milliliters of tricordrazine."

Deanna moaned with the agonizing thought of losing her baby. Worf clutched her hand, feeling every bit as frightened, she sensed. "Will the baby be all right?" he asked the doctor.

"We're doing everything we can," Meyers replied as he accepted the stimulant from his nurse and pressed the hypospray against Deanna's abdomen. He waited for a beat and then again ran the medical tricorder over her abdomen. "It worked." He sighed with obvious relief. "The baby's heartbeat is stabilizing." He smiled reassuringly at Deanna. "You were fortunate that you came to sickbay as quickly as you did. A few more minutes and I don't believe we would have been able to save the baby."

"What caused the baby to go into distress, Doctor?" Worf asked.

"I'm not certain."

The Klingon turned to look at his wife. "Deanna?"

"I was having a bad dream. . . about the wormhole," she explained. "I think the baby was having the same dream."

"Is that possible?" the doctor questioned.

"Well, it's actually quite common between full Betazoid females and their unborn child, but a bit unusual in someone such as myself, who is only half-Betazoid, and my baby who is only a quarter Betazoid."

"Klingons are not known for telepathic abilities," Worf added.

"Well, at any rate," the doctor said. "I think you better remain in sickbay at least through the night. We'll attach a neural scanner to your abdomen so we can monitor the baby's condition for the next several hours."

"Worf, I need to tell you about my dream," Deanna said as the doctor attached the scanner to her.

"Darling, that can wait," he replied in a soothing tone.

"No, it can't. I realized something very important about the entities, or aliens, or whatever you want to call them."

"There are no lifeforms inside the wormhole, Deanna. Commander Data conducted a thorough lifeform scan. The wormhole is totally inorganic."

"I realize that now. It isn't what's in there now; it's what has passed through it. Whatever aliens have used the wormhole somehow left an empathic echo, and the baby and I are unconsciously picking it up."

"Now that you know what it is, can you tune it out?"

Deanna furrowed her brow in deep concentration before shaking her head. "I don't think so. I've never experienced anything as profound as this before. Now I really know how Tam Elbrun felt all those years."

Worf turned toward the doctor, who was just finishing some adjustments on the scanner. "Maybe you can give her something that--"

"I wouldn't recommend it," the doctor broke in. "An empathic suppressant may place the baby in distress again."

"Of course, you are right."

Fortunately, the baby's condition remained stable. After a while, Deanna fell asleep, while Worf stayed vigilant at her side. She appeared to sleep comfortably with no more bad dreams. He noticed the baby stirring more than once, but Deanna slept through the commotion, thoroughly exhausted.

What was his baby feeling? Worf wondered. What was causing it so much pain to put it in distress? Why could the fetus not rest even after its mother had succumbed to fatigue?

Although both mother and baby continued to show good physical health over the next several days, both continued to feel agitated. Deanna spoke to her baby, sang to it, rubbed her belly to ease its pain. Nothing she tried lifted the melancholy that drenched her and the baby. Though Lwaxana and Worf continued to dote on her during the final days of her pregnancy, Deanna could not lift her spirits.

***

Thirty-six hours before the Roosevelt's was scheduled arrival, Troi felt the first agonizing labor pain. She was a week shy of ten months pregnant, a normal gestation for Betazoids. Worf rushed her to sickbay, and although Dr. Selar administered an anesthetic, it did not completely ebb Deanna's pain. Holding her hand, her husband spoke softly, words of reassurance. She didn't want reassurance; She wanted someone to wrench out the little monster torturing her!

*Deanna, sweetheart,* her mother said telepathically, as she stood on her daughter's other side. *I hate to see you in so much pain. Concentrate on my thought, Little One. Allow yourself to float away from the pain.*

Despite twenty-fourth century's technological ability to hasten births, her labor continued for nearly six hours.

By that time she hated everyone in the universe.

Then the baby came and as the nurse wrapped the little girl in a blanket and handed her over to the new mother, Deanna cooed with delight, all her pain and anger completely forgotten. "Worf, isn't she beautiful?" she asked in a lilting tone. The infant had skin slightly darker than her mother's and a prominent set of ridges from her Klingon father. She was a big baby, too, at nine pounds, two ounces and nearly

twenty-two inches long.

"Yes," her husband replied, leaning over to kiss her. "I am pleased that we have a daughter." He held out an index finger and slipped it inside Shannara's tiny hand. The baby clutched it reflexively and began whimpering as she tried to adjust to the new sights and sounds around her.

You've made me the happiest grandmother alive, Lwaxana sent telepathically to her daughter before slipping out of the room to leave the proud parents alone with their new daughter.

For a while, Deanna and Worf stared in silence at the life they had created together as the infant stared back at them.

"You're name is Shannara," Deanna told her daughter. "In Betazoid, that means 'sunshine.' I'm sure you'll bring lots of that to our family." She glanced up at Alexander, standing in the doorway. "Come Alexander. Have a look at your new sister."

Eagerly, the boy approached them and held his hand out to gently clutch his baby sister's fist inside his.

Several minutes later, Riker stepped into the room to pay the new Rozhenko family member a visit and to congratulate the proud parents.

"You are very lucky," he said, smiling at the newborn. Deanna sensed in Will feelings of joy mixed in with a little sorrow that he did not have any children of his own.

"Would you like to hold her?" the new mother asked.

He hesitated, glancing toward the new father. Worf nodded his approval. "Yes, perhaps for a moment." He leaned over to accept the infant from her mother. He no more than pulled Shannara away from her mother when she let out a long wail. "Oh, please don't cry," Riker said soothingly with no effect.

"Maybe I should give her back to you." He returned the baby to her mother's arms, but still, Shannara continued to cry. "Now, I really feel bad."

"Don't," Worf said. "I have heard that babies cry--a lot. Sometimes, for no apparent reason."

"All the same, maybe I ought to leave and give Deanna a chance to rest." With that, he turned and left Sickbay.

Shannara behaved nothing like her namesake, crying almost continuously even after just having been fed and changed. Deanna or Lwaxana would walk her around the quarters, singing to her, but the child would only pause in her screaming long enough to catch a breath. Shannara seemed only to quiet a bit in the evening, while her family sat around the dinner table. Worf showered her with attention and to

Deanna's astonishment (and a tad bit of annoyance, too, she had to admit) Shannara appeared content in her father's arms.

Alexander was particularly fond of his little sister, though she didn't openly return the gesture. He voluntarily paced with Shannara at times when the adults needed a break, relentlessly rocking her and patting her on the back even as she continued to scream in his ear.

***

"Captain," Lieutenant Berlitz said over the commlink, "the Roosevelt has just arrived."

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Riker replied from in his ready room. He tapped the commlink on his desk console and said, "Commander Worf, report to my ready room."

The Klingon appeared in record time, though he had been off duty. "Sir, I saw the Roosevelt approaching."

"And you were already on your way?" Riker leaned slightly back in his chair trying to project an ease he did not feel. "Has Deanna agreed to make the trip to Betazed yet?"

"I am afraid not, Captain. She plans to remain on leave of duty for about six weeks, but she insists that she will not leave the Enterprise."

"It's up to you Worf. I can order her to disembark the Enterprise if you want."

"Dr. Selar has examined Deanna and assures us that she is not experiencing any physical side-effects caused by the wormhole." Riker could hear the unspoken implication in the Klingon's tone. They were both worried about Deanna's mental health.

"What about the baby? I heard about her experiencing distress before she was born?"

"Dr. Selar has assured us that despite the fact she continues to cry a lot, Shannara is perfectly healthy; she shows no ill side-effects from the distress."

"I'm glad to hear that. But what about Deanna's melancholy? We both know that it's a little more than postpartum depression."

Worf nodded. "I am at a loss, sir. Both Lwaxana and I are doing all we can for her. We have tried to convince her that she needs to spend some time on Betazed. An extended visit to her homeworld could be the medicine she needs. Yet she won't even consider it!" The Klingon growled lightly with frustration. He was obviously angry, but the captain could also see the anguish in his chief of security's eyes. After only a moment, Worf composed himself. "Thank you for offering to order her to disembark, sir, but--that would probably cause even more hardship. If you approve, Lwaxana will be remaining aboard as well."

"Deanna needs her. Of course. Understood, then."

Riker couldn't help feeling a little disappointed by Worf's decision. Deanna needed time away from

a Starfleet environment--even if she had to be forced into that realization. She needed to go somewhere where she could be pampered and rediscover her innerself. If she remained on the Enterprise, the strain on her might cause a total emotional collapse.

The captain leaned forward. "I'll inform the captain of the Roosevelt that there's been a change in plans and convey our apologies for having inconvenienced them.

As he returned to his quarters, Worf thought about turning around and telling the captain that he

had changed his mind. He wanted nothing more than to send Deanna and Shannara to Betazed where they would be completely safe! But that would mean breaking a promise he had made to Deanna. She had

agreed to remain off duty and relax as long as he did not press her into go to Betazed. In addition, he had insisted that Lwaxana remain aboard to help her. The irony of his asking his mother-in-law to stay did not escape him.

Though he could not completely convince himself that he had made the right decision, Worf knew that he had made the only one that would give him and Deanna a chance at remaining happy together. He did not wish to lose her.