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......