INTO THAT GOOD NITE by Terri Stevens Time, this was not a word that Q was used to thinking about or even trying to understand. Afterlife what was time to someone who was timeless. Indeed there were many words that Q had thought were so amusing in the past. He was however all too quickly learning the concept of time, or the lack of it. And he wasn't laughing at it anymore. He had to find someplace *safe*, someplace away from the rest of the Continuum and he knew of only one haven to vanish to. This was, of course, the Enterprise and whether they would welcome him or not did not matter to him anymore. Like the ancient Elephants of Earth Q had to find a place to go and rest; a place to die. Dr. Crusher was exhausted and she fell into her bed with a welcome sigh of relief. It had been a busy day, busier than most and she was short handed due to a nasty Terlarien bug that was going around. She was luckier than most having dealt with this virus before she had build up a natural immunity to it. She closed her eyes and before she knew it she was sound asleep. Her dreams that night began in the Academy, she was seated at a table in a long conference room when suddenly she heard (felt) a knock at the door of her mind. "Crusher....help" a man said, obviously in some sort of pain putting the *Doctor* within her on alert. She rose and approached the door putting a hand against it when it did not sense her there and open for her. It was cold, as cold as space she thought to herself. "Let me in" she said out loud even as she understood that this door was placed there more to safe-guard her than him. "Help me....you can't....please try" she heard him moan, struggling with every word "Protect...you must protect." "Protect what" she cried back and with what sounded like his last bit of strength she heard him say ".....yourself." She awoke to a pounding at her door. "Dr. Crusher, are you in there?" she heard security say. Evidently she was sleeping so soundly she did not here the call come for her. Her first reaction was surprise, she never slept that deep, her training never allowed it. Her second reaction was directed at her hands which felt like they had been immersed in a bucket of ice. They even sported a blue tinge due to the lack of circulation during the night. 'The door' she muttered to herself 'it was so cold'. "Dr. you are needed in Sickbay....emergency" security called for her again and all was forgotten until she stepped into her office and saw the man on the table. She must admit that for an instant she did not recognize him for who he was. She had never seen Q with his eyes closed much less his mouth! "Q...Q can you hear me," she said as she rushed to his side immediately grabbing her tricorder and searching for life-signs. Of course she couldn't pick up any reading, she had to trust her eyes only. She watched as his chest rose and fell slowly, his lungs (lungs?) filling and emptying with air that he could not possibly need anyway. His eyes fluttered and opened suddenly, blazing into hers and in her heart and mind she heard the words spoken not long before "Crusher help me." He struggled to speak, to focus all his energy on his words "I'm home...please let me stay" he managed to blurt out with so much feeling Beverly Crusher didn't know what to say. "Of course Q, you can stay just tell me what is wrong" she said. Q lifted himself up until he was sitting and shook his head as if trying to clear it "What isn't wrong doctor, that is a better question. There is much to tell considering your universe is about to change forever and there is not a damn thing you or I can do about it." She stood back crossing her arms in front of her as if to say 'so what else is new'. Q couldn't help but grin, despite what lay ahead. He always found the good doctor amusing and intriguing, even in trying times. "You remember my son Trelane and what he did, don't you dear Beverly? Well, when he tapped into the Heart of the Storm he was not the only one to go mad. It seems whatever infected him has infected the rest of the Continuum as well. In fact my comrades have all locked themselves away inside the Continuum and thrown away the key for fear they would release this madness on the universe. Aren't we noble beings doctor, trying to protect everyone else when we ourselves have no hope of surviving...." A look of disbelief crossed her face, after all how can a creature who knows nothing of death suddenly be looking it in the face. "I still don't understand Q, how can the Continuum cease to be?" she asked. "To be honest doctor Beverly we are not sure, all we are sure of is that we are at an end." He placed a hand against the side of his head as if trying to soothe a wound "you see it is all in here, we seem to be suffering from the reverse of the human affliction called Alzheimer's disease. Instead of suddenly forgetting everything we are remembering everything, thinking everything at once. It is quite unpleasant and almost unbearable at times. The Heart of the Storm seems to have taken away our ability to keep things separate and in its place. I have watched friends go mad with this, have seen them disappear into true nothingness and no mind search on any of our parts can find them. They are as dead to us as the death you know and I am afraid I am just as afflicted as the rest." He dropped his gaze to the floor and she had a hard time resisting the urge to hold him, to comfort him in some way. He was so vulnerable and suddenly so innocent faced with things he could not possibly imagine. "Q, what can I do for you, is there anything I can do for you?" she whispered but he seemed to be more talking to himself than to her. "My son, my own child has done this to us...how could he, how could I have known this would happen....we knew that the Heart of the Storm contained dangers but we never imagined to what extent those dangers were. I had to come here, had to be with friends, you are my friend aren't you Beverly...the rest of the Continuum never understood my need to be around humans, I never told them, never told anyone....Beverly, my 'grandfather' as you would call it was human" The look on his face was enough to make her believe, now she understood Q more than anyone did, she understood why he visited them so often and why, too, he felt the need to act indifferent towards them. Showing too much compassion towards them would show his vulnerability, his 'humaness" and that is something he never wanted anyone to see. Now however there was no time for posturing and pretending, he was who he was and he needed her acceptance. "Q, none of this matters. You are welcome here no matter what" she told him. "Don't you understand Beverly, without the Continuum there will be no one to protect the universe from opening the Heart of the Storm again. And don't believe for a moment that this mystery will be left unsolved. There are too many life forms out there who are way too curious for their own good and that curiosity will be their end, mark my....." Q suddenly bolted from the table and ran into the center of the room looking lost and confused, his eyes darting from side to side "Where...what....no, oh no not again" he reached up and grabbed his head with his hands as if he could hold in everything that was filling his mind. Dr. Crusher rushed towards him only to feel invisible hands shove her back roughly. "No, no Beverly don't come close...too dangerous, much too.....no please make it stop...I am Q I am Q I am Q, TRELANE, TRELANE why why why...." and with that he collapsed to the floor. When he opened his eyes he found himself back on the table, the concerned face of Dr. Crusher hovering over him. "Beverly, this is wrong, I should never have come here I cannot trust my thoughts or my actions, I am putting you and this whole ship at risk" as he said this he rose to his feet and seemed to be concentrating very hard. "I will need to take one of your shuttle crafts doctor, it seems my ability to vanish at will is gone" he said with some sadness. "No Q, I realize you are concerned for us but you are in no shape to go flying off somewhere else" she said "let me try to make you comfortable." She reached out to him and took his hand, something she never would have done in the past. His skin vibrated under her touch, not unlike the subtle hum of the Enterprises engines at warp. It was not unpleasant and in fact excited her in a way that surprised her. He was warm to touch, his temperature slightly higher than a humans, in fact if he was human he would have been sweating by now. "Thankyou Beverly, you are very kind" he thought to her, without saying a word. Her action surprised him as well but even as he was enjoying the contact he was also fearing it. He suddenly recoiled from her, pulling away from her touch "Don't Beverly, my mind cannot handle all this, you need to distance yourself from me physically" "Nonsense Q, what you need now more than anything is a gentle touch" and she reached for him again not realizing the danger. He let out what sounded like a growl and grabbed her painfully by the wrist. "LEAVE ME ALONE....." he cried, his mind throwing her body back against the wall. The force of his anger left her bruised both emotionally and physically as she leaned against the wall. Q jumped down and scrambled into the corner, cowering like an animal. "No no no mustn't think, keep in control" his hands tore at his hair, his head banged the wall in torment. Beverly found that she could not move, she was pinned against the wall by the force of his will. "Q!!!" she cried helplessly and at that instant she drew his attention towards her and his thoughts rocketed in an uncontrolled storm of emotion her way. She felt him enter her mind and then her body, unseen hands touching her roughly, grabbing her flesh. There was nothing she could do but submit, there was no one else here with them and she was unable to cry out. She caught a glimpse of his eyes staring at her, leering at her, heard his voice in her head saying "This is what you want isn't it" over and over and over. She had experienced the Vulcan mind meld before but this was nothing like it. This was rape in its most violent form, her mind beaten into submission along with her body. She could feel his heat, his anger, his power forcing its way through every cell of her being. Suddenly, in her mind she could sense a weaker voice rising up "oh Beverly I am sorry Beverly, I am so sorry, no NO NO MORE" and as quick as it began it was ended and she fell to the floor like a rag doll. The only thing she sensed as she came out of the fog was the sound of sobbing. It was not coming from her though, it was coming from Q. She didn't know what to do, whether she should go to him or not. She was also torn between anger at him and pity. Deep down she knew it was not his fault, it was the sickness within him. She began to crawl towards him and he looked her way. His face was such a mask of pain and its scars were the line of tears coursing down his cheeks. For the moment he was himself again and he knew the horror of the act he had committed. He wanted so to reach out to her and comfort her but he knew that his touch was probably the last thing she wanted right now. He curled himself into a ball and continued to weep. She left him alone there as she collected herself and regained her composure. She had never experienced anything like that attack and yet the doctor in her had seen madness in many forms before and understood that this was just another manifestion. She realized that in order to keep her own sanity she must view this in a very rational manner. He was her patient and although there was really nothing medicine could do for him so must try to make him comfortable. Besides there was something about him that was different than the Q of the past, or at least he seemed to be more human now than before. She found herself afraid for him and so wanted to hold him in her arms despite what had just occurred. She could hear him breathing loudly, trying to regain his composure. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him stand to face her so she turned towards him as well. "Beverly" he said "please understand that I would do nothing to hurt you, I will not hurt you again, not even in my final moments inside this body will I allow it to happen again." She looked into his eyes and nodded her head. "Q, these are like seizures you are suffering from and they seem to come at random, I understand that you are not in control of yourself at these times and yet somehow I do believe you that you will not do it again." What a wonderful woman, he thought to himself, afterall I have caused her she still stays here by my side. If I had only seen her through these eyes sooner...well...who knows. He was saddened to realize that it took such a horrible moment to open his mind to possibilities he never dreamed of. "These seizures as you call them seem to be increasing in frequency I think" Q said "and it is getting harder to recover from each...." She noticed his eye begin to twitch slightly, a warning sign she had seen before in other patients suffering from seizures. His hand began to shake and he looked down at it as if it was not a part of himself. He looked up at her and his fear was a living thing filling the room. He dropped to his knees and cried out to her to leave the room quickly but she could not, would not. Instead she ran to him and in what seemed like the most right and loving thing to do, she wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. Q, in his mind was fighting a losing battle. His thoughts were so badly jumbled that they were not thoughts anymore, just a billion stars exploding in his head threatening to rip his very essence in pieces. He felt himself spiralling upwards, out of himself, oh how he wanted to be free of the pain but he could not escape no matter how he ran it was there with him. Suddenly he felt Beverlys arms around him and something strange happened. She grounded him, made herself into an anchor for him and he hung on to her presence like a drowning man to a raft. Slowly, ever so slowly the attack passed and when he opened his eyes she was still there holding on to him with all her might. He knew that she saved his life, for the moment anyway and he felt an overwhelming need to do something he never thought he would do; he wrapped his arms around her and held her back. She felt his arms go around her and was not afraid. There was a tenderness about his touch that took all her fear away, so much so that all her tension seemed to fade and her body melted against his. She looked up into his eyes and his gaze nearly took her breath away. She saw everything that could possibly be seen, in those eyes. Light, dark, sadness, joy, desire, passion - all the universe poured from them into her own. She reached up to touch his face and felt the wetness of a tear. She never imagined he could feel so 'real', so human. He smiled at her and for the first time she noticed the fullness of his lips and how inviting they were. His arms pulled her close and he could feel her heart beating wildly against him. What a wonderful thing her heart was, he thought to himself, overcome with feelings he had never experienced. He put his hand against her chest to feel it and heard her gasp. He moved his hand across until it rested under the fabric of her jacket and rejoiced at the smoothness of her skin. Beverly, for the most part was lost in his arms. Sparks seemed to fly from every pore of her skin that he touched, his hands were that electric. She had had many moments when she had been close to other men like this but none of them made her feel this way, none of them. She reached up and placed her hand behind his head, pulling him down towards her until he was lying above her, his mouth hovering inches from hers. His lips brushed hers lightly, as his hand moved against her breast, loving her movements, her softness, her entire being. He did not know nor understand the power behind this passion, only that it was more than he could bear. He brought his mouth down onto hers and his tongue parted her lips. She wrapped her hands in his hair and returned the kiss with equal fervor. Suddenly, his hands and his mouth seemed to be everywhere at once, their clothes having mysteriously vanished into the air. She ran her hands over him, feeling how hard and tight his body was, making him shiver at her touch. "Beverly, what is this...what am I doing" Q said rising above her momentarily needing a reason for his actions. His answers came to him as she guided him inside of her and wrapped herself around him. An ancient instinct took over replacing thought with action, reason with desire. He moved deeply into her, filling her more than she thought possible. Her body rose to meet his powerful thrusts, her hair entwined in his fingers, his lips against her ear whispering her name and saying "this is the power, this is yours....." The wonder of Q enveloped her spirit and bound it to him and she could feel as well as see all the stars in the universe cascading over her like a wave and it was too much. She went over the edge with a cry of passion, her release matching his. She felt his essence flow into her and instantly knew he had impregnated her. He moved off her, knowing this moment together was all there would be. "Q...."she spoke his name softly and in wonder and he answered without words in a silent whisper inside her mind telling her all that was, is and will be. She reached for him when she saw his eyes close and knew she couldn't hold his spirit to her any longer. With a cry she laid her head on his still chest and knew he was gone. She longed for him but understood that he was somewhere beyond all of her comprehension. And yet, during those nine months she knew he was there watching over her. When her son was born, he came into the world crying loudly and all she could do was laugh thinking about how he seemed to be just like his dad, making the world stop and take notice as if to say "Look at me!!! I am here!!!." She didn't know if he had the power of the Q until he was almost 5 earth years old but wise beyond his years. He looked at her and for a moment she saw the stars in his eyes....right before he kissed her on the cheek and vanished. He had a job to do, you see, he had to keep us all safe from the Heart of the Storm......