Of all the things Dr Beverly Crusher, commander and Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise D, expected to see when Captain Jean-Luc Picard beamed aboard from his shuttlecraft after encountering a spatial anomaly, this was certainly not it.
"Oh my god," she said in horrified awe under her breath.
"Beverly, what's going on? What's happened?" She heard his thoughts in her mind. "I can't move!"
"Stay calm, Jean-Luc," she implored of him. Scanning him with a tricorder, the only problem she could find were that some of his strings were tangled. There was no precedent, no historical papers she would be able to find to help her now. She would have to go where no doctor had gone before. "As of yet, I have no idea how, but you seem to have been transformed into a marionette."
The large green eyes in his wooden head opened impossibly wide, moving from left to right in shock. "What do you mean a marionette?!" he cried out in her head.
"Adorable, don't you think?" Q said, his eyes shining as he gazed upon the marionette Picard.
"Q!" Beverly voiced as Jean-Luc shouted the thought. "Change me back, this instant!" he went on.
"Temper, temper, mon capitan!" Q chided.
"If you're not going to help, explain what's happened or get the hell out of my sickbay!" Beverly reached for a laser scalpel, brandishing it at Q menacingly.
Q shrank back. "Doctor, I assure you, I did only what I had to for Jean-Luc to survive," Q said sombrely.
"So you admit you did this? Turned me into a puppet?!" Picard demanded. It seemed Q could also hear his telepathic speech, at least what Jean-Luc wanted him to hear.
"Yes, I did, Jean-Luc, and I admit it proudly!" Q proclaimed. "Anything to help a friend."
"Then change him back," Beverly said curtly. Q looked to her in surprise, as if he hadn't noticed her. "Change. Him. Back." Her voiced had dropped into a tone that would have sent shivers down Jean-Luc's spine if he'd had one in his present state.
"I'm afraid I can't do that, doctor. He'd be dead before you could get him to surgery."
"It won't be the first time I've had to revive him," she said, suddenly icily distant. Jean-Luc could feel the wave of cold pass over him. How many times had she revived him, he wondered. Clearly it had left its mark on her memory. Perhaps that was why she was so hesitant...
"But it might be the last time you get to try," Q said, almost threatening with the lowness of his voice. Beverly stared him out.
"You say you are omnipotent and all powerful," Beverly admonished, with a hint of scorn. "So what if we did a deal?"
Q moved closer to her. "I'm listening."
"Beverly, what are you doing?" Jean-Luc thought.
"Change Jean-Luc back, living and well," Beverly said.
"I can't do that, doctor," Q said.
"So you're not all powerful then?" she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I am, it's just that there are rules, and right now with how I stand in the Continuum, I can't break them," Q elaborated.
"Change him back, and let me revive him," Beverly said. "And, you'll pull whatever cosmic strings you must for him to survive."
"That I can do," Q agreed. Beverly breathed a small inward sigh. "What do I get in return?"
Beverly looked back to Jean-Luc on the biobed. "Don't do this, Beverly, please don't," he begged her. As much as she could read his thoughts, somehow whatever connection they'd been granted also let him see a whisper of her mind.
"I'll resign Starfleet," Beverly said, her eye holding Jean-Luc's. I'm doing this for him, to save him, she told herself.
Q grinned. "And why should I care if you did? Human like you, what do you matter?"
Beverly turned on Q with a sneering glare. "You've hated me more than any of the others! I'll leave and you can enjoy your merry times with Jean-Luc. I won't be in the way, but it won't change anything."
"Please don't, Beverly," Jean-Luc whispered in her mind.
"Jean-Luc, I'm doing this for you!" She kept her eyes on Q as she said it.
"But, doctor, I may not care about your being in Starfleet," Q said coyly.
"If so, you certainly fooled me," Beverly remarked. Once again they stared each other down.
"Oh, Beverly! You've known it all along!" Q spontaneously broke out in a theatrical manner. She raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Don't tell me you haven't been the tiniest bit curious," he added in a more conspiratorial manner. He even had the audacity to go and almost put an arm over her shoulders. But he recoiled it at the last second.
"Curious about what?" she asked, struggling to keep her patience.
"Me." He grinned devilishly.
Maybe that's who he is, Jean-Luc thought.
No, he'd be much worse, Beverly responded to his thought.
"Here's the deal," Q said. "I restore Jean-Luc to his pitiful human form, and pull some strings to make sure he survives his injuries." Beverly nodded. "And in return..." She froze. "... I get to show you something."
She balked. "What in the world would you even want to show me?!" she exclaimed.
"Time and space, every plane of existence, every dimension," Q said. "One trip is all I ask. And after that, you can choose to either remain there, or I will restore you back to the Enterprise with less than a second having passed."
"Don't do it, Beverly," Jean-Luc thought. "Don't trust him."
Beverly looked at his marionette form. Only his eyes could move. "Jean-Luc, I don't think I have any other choice.' I always knew there would be someday when I couldn't fix you.
"Is that a deal?" Q inquired.
"On the condition," Beverly said. "That I can scan Jean-Luc befor you take me. So I know he is okay and you have kept your word."
Q considered this a moment and nodded. "Very well." Jean-Luc disappeared and reappeared on the biobed.
"Beverly," he breathed, taking her hand as she went to his side.
"I'm right here, Jean-Luc," she assured him, getting out her tricorder. She scanned him. "You're fine," she sighed with relief.
"A little dizzy, but he'll be back on his feet strutting around the Bridge in no time," Q said. "Now, shall we?" He vanished.
"Beverly, don't go with him," Jean-Luc pleaded in a whisper, his grip tightening around Beverly's hand.
"Jean-Luc," she breathed, her eyes widening as if she was surprised to see him. "I'm here." She lowered her head until her hair was brushing against his chest. "I'm here." Gently, her lips touched his cheek. He could feel tears fall against his face. "I'm here."
A/N: I wrote this a while back when I decided making a marionette of Jean-Luc Picard with string, paper, tape and glue was a good idea. This was because I wondered how characters would react to him as a marionette. Hope you all enjoy! Still working on the middle part, but I do have an ending of sorts. It does work without the middle part (Beverly's experience of where Q took her). Sometimes mysteries are best kept mysterious. After all, if we knew everything, what would be left to wonder about, to imagine, to debate?