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A/N Back On the Riker/Aurelia Ship train! All rights to the owners of star trek I only own Aurelia!
Quietly, Deanna had entered Aurelia’s room and she spotted Aurelia sitting at the desk she had and she was clearly engrossed in a book.
“Will isn’t doing too well right now.” Deanna’s voice had broken through the silence and clearly broke Aurelia's concentration. Aurelia looked up and straight at Deanna with a puzzled expression before it registered in her mind what she had said.
“Is he okay?” Aurelia asked to double check as normally this wouldn’t happen.
Deanna shook her head and Aurelia could see that her eyes were full of sadness. “He rushed straight past me and he barely said a word to me but I know it wasn’t anything personal.”
Aurelia placed her bookmark in her book and she closed it and she stood up. “I’ll go see him. Thank you for letting me know Deanna.”
Deanna just nodded as Aurelia slipped on her slippers and her dressing gown before she made her way to Will’s quarters.
When Aurelia arrived everything in Will's quarters was dark. Silently, she snuck through the space to the bedroom and she saw the man lying on the bed, the sheets covering him. When Aurelia saw this her heart broke slightly.
“Will?” Aurelia whispered, unsure if he was awake or not, so Aurelia took an extra step into the room. That was when her sensitive ears heard him sniffling, to anyone else it may have sounded like the sniffles someone got when they had a cold or seasonal allergies; but Aurelia knew those were anything but, even without Deanna's inside knowledge of his state right now.
Aurelia ended up sitting on the bed infromt of him and she carded her fingers through his hair gently and he leant into her touch. Aurelia just sadly smiled before she asked the question that was on her mind.
“What’s wrong?”
Will pushed himself up in bed so he was sitting upright, Aurelia shuffled down the bed a little and she then noticed his eyes were red rimmed, clearly it had from crying. “I feel like I let a lot of people down today.”
Reassuringly, Aurelia placed her hand on his knee. “I am sure you did anything but. If you want to talk about it though you know I am always here to listen.”
“I made some wrong calls today, I made a fool of myself in front of some new Ensign’s. It was a total lapse in memory and I could tell the captain was disappointed.”
Aurelia’s copper eyes just looked into Will’s eyes. He had stopped sniffing now but she noticed that his eyes were still shiny and red “Did you cause anyone any harm?” Aurelia asks
“No.” He answered as he shook his head very slightly at the same time.
“Did you cost anyone their job?” aurelia asks again as she did her head tilt which got a smile out of Riker for a moment
“No.” Will answered
“Will, you have nothing to worry about. Everyone makes small mistakes and In all honesty the ensigns are probably too in awe at the size of the Enterprise still to even know what you said was wrong. You are not the first officer for no reason Will. You have that title for a reason.” Aurelia explained.
The man was quiet for a second as he mulled over his own ever changing thoughts. “Yeah I suppose you are right. It still doesn’t feel great though.”
Aurelia knew what he was going through and she just took his hand into her own and she gave it a soft squeeze. “I know and I am not saying you have no reason to be upset, you do and you are allowed to be upset. But you need to think about some of the positives no matter how small they are, so the weight of the bad things does not weigh you down so much. The little bit of weight you can get off the anchor means you are closer to moving again, no matter how small.”
Aurelia paused for a moment and she laughed at what she had said. “Did that even make any sense? I am not sure if it did.”
Will chuckled and he felt a true smile form on his face, Aurelia’s analogy was somewhat true and it was certainly making him feel better. “I do not know what I would do without you Aurelia. Truly.”
Aurelia just gave his hand a squeeze as she stood up. “Honestly, I have no idea what I would do without you too Will. I do have an Idea for now though why don’t you pick out a movie and I will go replicate us some food?”
Will Riker just smiled, nodded and he then adjusted himself into a comfy position as he watched Aurelia walk away. He really did appreciate her and he was almost certain that without her he would have sunk a long time ago.