This story is a little post-ep for the S5 episode "Disaster." It is A/U in assuming Picard and Crusher are in a relationship already, following the events of my story "How Good It Is to Sleep" - but it's not necessary to have read that one first. Story will be posted in two parts. Reviews are kindly welcomed.

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"All right, young man, your turn. Have a seat over here. You're Patterson, right?"

Bouncing nervously on his feet, the dark-haired boy nodded and kept his eyes downcast as he made his way to the indicated chair.

Beverly Crusher smiled at him and displayed her tricorder to indicate it was harmless. "I'm Dr. Crusher," she reminded him. "I'm just going to check you out and make sure everything's okay. Is that all right?"

Another reluctant nod. As the tricorder hummed, Beverly glanced across the ship's elementary school classroom and saw Deanna Troi engaged in animated conversation with another group of children. She and the counselor were tag-teaming today to do a quick check on the schoolchildren's physical and emotional health following the Enterprise's damaging encounter with a quantum filament. The rush of major and minor injuries that had afflicted the crew when the filament hit had mostly been taken care of over the past three days, while the ship limped along to the nearest starbase for extensive repairs. But as life aboard the ship slowly returned to normal, Beverly and Deanna had thought it prudent to check in on the children after an experience that had placed many of them in frightening situations.

The six-year-old in front of her now, she knew, had actually been stuck in a turbolift with the captain and two other children when the filament hit. She'd heard a brief version of events from Jean-Luc a few days earlier: how they'd had to escape the disabled turbolift and painstakingly climb up the turboshaft, despite Jean-Luc being hampered by a broken ankle, in order to finally escape to an open deck before power was restored. But she found she was curious to hear about the story from the children themselves. Patterson's two companions from that day had gravitated over now, along with a few others, to wait for their own turns to be checked, so she took the opportunity to pry gently.

"So, I heard you had quite the adventure this week," she said mildly as she turned her attention back to a few readouts displayed on her instrument.

"Mmhmm." Stopping his fidgeting as he was distracted by a new thought, the boy studied her for a moment, then blurted out, "You're married to Captain Picard, right?"

"Well, not yet," Beverly said, unruffled. She'd lived on a starship long enough to understand that few personal details could remain confidential for long among its small community; she was hardly surprised that information, however imprecise, trickled down even to the youngest crewmembers.

"Oh. Well, he was little scary."

"Patterson!" Marissa Flores, a shy nine-year-old with a long blonde ponytail, chided her classmate with a pained look. "That's not nice to say."

"He was," Patterson insisted.

"He's only like that because he doesn't have any kids," she explained to the younger boy in an exasperated tone that implied it should have been obvious.

Beverly raised an eyebrow in silent amusement, wondering what Deanna's take on that particular bit of analysis would be.

"But then he was nicer," Marissa added diplomatically.

"I agree." A serious blond boy—Jay Gordon Graas, Beverly remembered—spoke up from beside Marissa. At Beverly's questioning look, he explained, "He wouldn't let us visit the battle bridge. But he did make us officers."

"I was officer in charge of radishes!" Patterson announced, straightening up proudly on his seat.

"Ah. That's a very important job," Beverly agreed solemnly, while wondering, Radishes?

"And he sang a song with us," he continued, brown eyes animated with enthusiasm.

"Really?" Beverly struggled to keep the incredulity out of her voice. It appeared there were quite a lot of details Jean-Luc had left out of his own recounting of this story. She couldn't even imagine what songs he would know, much less sing to children.

A vigorous nod. "It was Frère Jacques."

Jay Gordon chimed in again with his earnest demeanor. "It helped us to be brave when we were climbing in the turboshaft. He was a good captain."

"He certainly is a good captain," she affirmed. "Well. I'm glad everyone got out of the turbolift all right. And now you're all done, Patterson. See? All good." Beverly smiled warmly at the children as she showed the younger boy her tricorder.

"Okay." He furrowed his brow as he studied the readouts, pretending he could understand them, and then started to hop away, but not before turning around to add brightly, "But Captain Picard is still a little scary."

"Patterson!" wailed Marissa.