4Author's Note: "If you love something, set it free; if it comes backs it's yours, if it doesn't, it never was." ― Richard Bach
Disclaimer: I own neither this world, nor these characters; I come to them with naught save love.
He had let her go.
"Dear Bill," the communique began.
What had happened to 'Imzadi'?
By the time he'd finished reading Deanna's message, he knew what had happened to it.
She'd given up on him.
"Lieutenant Rivard invited me, and though I hesitated at first, I think I will go. There is no reason why I shouldn't, after all. You and I made no promise to each other, did we?"
Riker stared at the words, backlit on his computer screen.
He reached out with his mind. Imzadi?
No response. Nothing. A complete blank in his mind.
He couldn't even think.
Time passed, and he never knew how much.
He'd put her off for too long, and she'd grown tired of waiting.
Don't go.
But she was already gone.
He had lost her.
Imzadi, are you there? He felt again for the place she had sometimes been in his mind, but found only silence and emptiness. Either he couldn't find the place, or she was no longer there.
Only her communique was there, waiting to be answered.
"No, Imzadi," he said whispered. "We made no promise."
"Reply?" the intentionally artificial-sounding yet distinctly feminine voice of the computer prompted.
"Reply," he repeated firmly, as an affirmative.
"Go ahead," the computer invited.
"Dear Deanna," Riker dictated. "You are perfectly free to see whomever you wish."
