Author's Note: Although this isn't really a P/C scene, when I saw this episode I was struck by the abrupt cut at the end, as though there had been additional dialogue filmed and then edited out. So I've added some, hoping to shed some light on Beverly's feelings about Jean-Luc early on in the series.

"Everything said here is confidential, Doctor," Commander Remmick informed her with gratingly fake sincerity as they sat opposite each other in the briefing room. "You can be completely open with me."

"About what?"

"About how you feel serving with the man who is responsible for the death of your husband."

Dr. Beverly Crusher stared at Remmick for a long moment, speechless. If it hadn't been for the Captain's direct order to cooperate, she wouldn't still be sitting here listening to this man's wholly inappropriate questions. She blew out a breath and tried to swallow her ire. It took her a few seconds to formulate a response that wouldn't get her sent to the brig. "My personal feelings about Captain Picard are irrelevant to this investigation, and none of your business," she finally replied, as slowly and evenly as she could.

Remmick subjected her to a hard stare, and then looked down at his padd, clearing preparing to change tack. "It has come to our attention that there are significant discrepancies in the Captain's log reports."

"Captain Picard's? That's impossible." Beverly had to smother the laugh she felt bubbling up within her. Just when I thought this conversation couldn't get any more absurd. "You'd no more find a discrepancy in the Captain's logs than you'd find –" she searched for a comparable analogy, "an impurity in the warp core alloy."

He looked at her through narrowed eyes. "You seem awfully certain about that, Doctor."

Once more she felt her anger rising. Full cooperation, she reminded herself sternly. She forced herself to adopt a mild tone. "As I said before, Commander, I've known the Captain a long time."

"Then how do you explain our discoveries?"

She shrugged. That's your job, not mine. "Apparently your discoveries are wrong."

He frowned severely. "I assure you, Doctor, that they are not. Yet another explanation does come to mind. If the Captain didn't submit the faulty log reports, then perhaps someone here on the ship did it for him."

Beverly considered. It was very unlikely – she knew there were many levels of security that protected the official communications of the senior staff. But it wasn't impossible. Someone with a highly advanced set of computer skills could probably manage to hack in and alter the logs. Yet she couldn't image anyone on the Enterprise would ever do such a thing. "It's possible. But –"

"You yourself have access to the Captain's ready room, do you not?" he cut across her words.

She nodded, reluctantly, beginning to suspect where his train of thought was headed. "Yes. But only in emergency situations."

"And your son, Wesley Crusher, has an unusually high degree of technical skills for a young man his age."

"I don't like what you're insinuating, Commander," she said as calmly as she could, trying to force down the rage that was now burning through her. The thought that she might sabotage Jean-Luc like that was outrageous.

"I'm not insinuating anything," he said with a look of innocence that didn't fool her for an instant. "However, given the circumstances of your husband's death under Captain Picard's command, it would only be natural for you to want to see the Captain suffer a similar injustice."

Beverly's fists clenched spasmodically. Full cooperation, full cooperation, she repeated to herself like a mantra. "Commander Remmick, I requested this assignment on the Enterprise." And that's in the Starfleet record, she thought sardonically. "If I blamed the Captain in any way for my husband's death, I never would have done so," she finished in an icy tone.

She rose to her feet before he could frame a response. "Now, if there's nothing else, I have patients to see. Excuse me." She turned her back on the table and walked towards the door, hoping he wouldn't call her back.

Fortunately for him, he didn't.

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