You're Still You
By Lorien

Disclaimer: All Star Trek:TNG belongs to Paramount. The song is called You're Still You, and it's by Josh Groban. If you really want to listen to some of his stuff, you should listen to To Where You Are first.

Can you believe he's only twenty-one??

Wow.


~

Through the darkness
I can see your eyes
And you will always shine
And I can feel your heart with mine
Your face I've memorized
I idolize just you


Deanna and Will sat across from each other, waiting for the other to speak, afraid that if one started they wouldn't be able to stop. They'd been through a lot these past years, alone, without each other.

The events that led to his capture didn't matter now. After being found by Starfleet, Will could barely contain himself. The visiting friends who brought tears to his eyes, and the child that he never knew extended a helping hand for a party thrown by one of his best friends. Everyone had grown and gone on without him.

His own son had been accepted at the Academy, now nineteen and almost a spitting image of his parents. Ian had grown amongst the hope, the trials and tribulations of trying to find Will, and nobody had stopped to notice the wonderful person his son turned out to be.

He had Will's eyes. Will never thought they were much, but Deanna always said that they were special. He had Deanna's hair, which was what Will had always thought was her best feature. Her hair was perfect, like her.

Ian ran around the house that Deanna had bought by herself, helping "Aunt B" with the fish, socialized with people he had come to love, people who told him what to do when Will wasn't there to tell him anything at all.

I look up to
Everything you are
In my eyes you do no harm
I've loved you for so long
And after all its said and done

You're still you
After all
You're still you


And then there was Deanna. From what her best friend had told him, Deanna hadn't shed one tear when news of his capture and disappearance had reached her ears. Even when they told her that they had found him, alive and kicking, she seemed too busy being happy to cry.

But now, as he stared at her from table they were sitting at, with Ian long asleep in his room Will still hadn't explored, he realized that he had forgotten how to tell her he loved her.

You walk past me
And I can feel your pain
Time changes everything
One truth stays the same

Of course, he could just tell her. A simple 'I love you' would do it. But Will wanted it to be special, something that would be able to tell her that he would still be there, as her best friend, as her husband, as if he had never left.

He could hear her starting to cry quietly and uncontrollably as he moved to sit next to her. The tears continued to fall as he took her in his arms, assuring her that he was her to stay, that he would never leave, that he was here to take care of her for the rest of his life like he had intended, and that he loved both her and Ian.

You're still you
After all
You're still you


She told him that she was Head of Psychiatric now, the house was a gift given to her by one of her mother's various "connections".

In the middle of her telling him of the funeral of the captain they once served under, Ian came down from upstairs with a blanket and a pillow, ready to "spend the night". Will held him in his arms, ready to hear what his family had been through while he was gone.

Although you never ask me to
I will remember you
And what life put you through
And in this cruel and only world
I found one love

You're still you
After all
You're still you


(End)