DAY 2

Picard sat in his ready room, PADDs scattered across the desk. He had to send a report to Starfleet and didn't know how to describe what had happened. He also needed to read more about the mediation assignment he was to go on the next day. Then there was his CMO left in custody on Clairmont and the girl in sick bay. The door chimed, taking him away from his racing thoughts.

"Come," he ordered

In came Commander Riker and Counselor Troi. Riker walked over to the captain and gave him yet another PADD.

"This is the report sent by the Clairmont investigator. Dr. Crusher will remain detained until we return with the girl and the situation worked out."

"Thank you, Number One."

"Dr. Selar has taken over sick bay until Dr. Crusher's return. I am going to work on the changes in the duty shifts. Dr. Crusher was scheduled to be on the bridge 3 nights this week and Dr. Selar's schedule must be changed to accommodate her new responsibilities. If there is nothing further…"

"No, thank you." And with that Riker left the ready room. Deanna had told him that she needed to talk to the captain alone before they went to see him and Riker had agreed to keep it short and leave. He really didn't want to be the one to deal with the situation since it involved maintaining relations with someone Starfleet wanted to add to the Federation. That was much more difficult a situation to deal with than their usual investigations for recommendation without the added bonus of an attack from their part to the situation.

"Counselor, how is the girl?"

"She is stable, and will make a full recovery."

"Will you see that proper arrangements are made once she is ready to leave sick bay?"

"Of course, sir."

"I assume you want to talk about Dr. Crusher?"

"Yes, sir. Did you notice anything strange about her during yesterday's briefing?"

"Yes, she seemed anxious. I don't see how that is related to the incident, it was hours before we left and she seemed fine when we beamed down."

"That is true, but her anxiety began as soon as you said 'Clairmont Academy.' She just about panicked. She had been fine before the briefing even began. Then she purposefully avoided me from the moment the briefing was over until we were in the transporter room. Also, when we entered the ballroom and she saw the girl, she became very happy, very excited. Her change to anger was very quick and sudden. Too quick for it to have been natural."

"What do you mean?"

"All emotions are a response to the situation surrounding the person experiencing them, hence, 'emotional response.' When you see someone you love, for example, you feel happiness after seeing them, not before or as you just spot them. Beverly felt happy after she saw the girl. She was feeling this when suddenly her emotions started becoming erratic, from sad to angry. I could feel that she was fighting an internal struggle but it happened too fast for her to resolve or for me to react to it. I do think she was going to approach the girl but I don't think she was going to attack her. There was nothing there to change her feelings. Captain, I do not think she was in control of her actions."

"Did you tell this to the investigator?"

"Yes, but he said he wanted nothing but the facts so I don't know if he put it in the report."

"So our guest in sick bay knows Dr. Crusher?"

"I will speak to her as soon as she is released. For now she is being kept sedated until all her injuries fully heal. She will probably be released tomorrow."

"Thank you, counselor. I will include your findings in my preliminary report to Starfleet."

Troi left and the captain took a deep breath as he picked up one of the various PADDs on his desk and began reading. His thoughts on the situation would have to wait a little longer. There were no immediate lives in danger and his primary responsibility at the moment was the delicate mediation assignment at hand.

* * * * * * * * * *

Beverly didn't sleep well at all. She had no idea what time it was but she didn't want to try to sleep anymore. She went over to the computer to see if she could remember how to bring up something to read. She was surprised that she actually remembered how and decided to read about their history. She didn't know how much time had passed when there was a knock at the door. She looked up and a young lady came in, much younger than the man from the previous day. She was likely a teenager. The girl gave Beverly a smile and said, "Good morning."

"Good morning," Beverly responded.

"Can you please stand up?"

Beverly did as she as told and stoop up besides the desk. The girl took out a small devise from a pocket on her sweater.

"Stand still, it won't hurt at all," she said and pointed the devise at Beverly. A beam of light came out from it and scanned her. The girl looked at the devise once she was done scanning then looked at Beverly. "Come on," she said happily and Beverly followed her out the door.

"My name is Elise," she said as they walked down the hall, "I'll be taking care of you until Jarred comes in, he is running late." They stopped at the door to the restroom. "I can't do as much, just get you stuff, but he won't be long." And she opened the door to let Beverly in. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, there is no hot water. Well, not literally. The program that lets you control the water temperature is corrupt or something like that. They just discovered the problem last night and they are working on it. If they can't fix it soon then you will probably be taken somewhere else to shower by tomorrow, unless you like cold water."

"That's ok, thanks."

"I'll be back in just a second."

"I won't go anywhere" Beverly responded and went inside. The door closed behind her and she began grooming herself as best she could. She brushed her teeth with the same brush she had used the night before and washed her face. Her hair had several tangles and she tried to comb it as much as possible with her fingers. There was another knock on the door and Elise came in.

I wasn't sure what to replicate for you. I doubt you'd want to wear a uniform," she said looking down at what she was wearing. Indeed, it was not something she wanted to wear. The only place she had ever seen uniforms like that was on the holodeck. She wore a white collared button down shirt, a pleated plaid skirt down to her knees, knee high white socks, black mary janes and a Red sweater with the words "Clairmont Academy" embroidered in blue on the upper left side. "I hope you like it," Elise said, handing Beverly a garment, "if it doesn't work for you just let me know, no hard feelings."

Beverly took the garment from her hands and extended it in front of her. It was a blue dress, the same color as her uniform. It was long sleeved and had a V neck. It was long, probably down to her ankles and the fabric had tiny stars on it of different colors.

"I figured you might want to wear a familiar color. Oh, and I thought you might want these too" and handed her a pair of panties. Beverly blushed lightly as she took them. Elise laughed a little, "I can't imagine if Jarred had given them to you what colour you might have turned." And stepped out.

Beverly began getting dressed and was thankful for the girl's kindness. She had not expected that, especially after attacking a student. She thought about the embarrassment of being handed your undergarments by a stranger and what other humiliations came with being held in custody for an extended period of time. And who is Jarred? she thought. She finished getting dressed and looked down at her feet. She had not been barefoot for too long in years. Only in her quarters, usually she was going to bed or in the shower. She went outside and Elise was waiting for her. Elise took her back to the room, only commenting on the dress, and told her she would return with her breakfast.

Beverly sat on the bed and waited. A few minutes later Elsie returned with a tray of food. She expected her to simply put the tray on the table and leave. But she didn't. She put the try on the table and pulled it back towards the chair. Beverly stood up and went to the table. It was oatmeal, toast, jam and orange juice. To her surprise, Elise jumped on the bed and sat with her legs crossed in front of her.

"You're not afraid of me?" Beverly asked as she sat down to eat.

"Nope. Why should I be?"

"Because of what I did," she responded, feeling her stomach turn at the verbal admission of what she had done.

Elsie looked at her for a long time, making Beverly feel uncomfortable. "If you had really wanted to hurt her you would not have cried all night."

Beverly looked at her surprised. How did she know? she wondered.

"There is a reason you don't change your clothes in here," she said looking up over the door. Beverly followed her gaze and was surprised to see a small device with a yellow light. She had not noticed it before. "It only gets turned off when Jared is in here."

"You stayed up all night watching me?"

"No, students aren't allowed to do night watch. I read the report before coming in."

"Oh, I see." She was silent a moment before asking, "How old are you?"

"17" she answered. Then she looked at her again for several minutes again. "You know her from a long time ago, don't you?" Elise asked.

Beverly turned bright red.

"I won't tell if you want to keep it a secret, but it's quite obvious. Well, to someone who knows her very well it is."

"You know her personally?"

"Oh, yes! She's one of my closest friends and our team captain. We spend a lot of time together."

There was a knock on the door and in stepped the man from the previous day. "I see you've made yourself comfortable," he said to Elise. Elise stood up and said to Beverly, "Nice talking to you" then turned to the man and said, "I'll see you later." and left. Beverly had eaten enough, she wasn't very hungry.

The man looked at her for a moment and asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm good, I guess."

"I just realized that I have not introduced myself. I've always known the person in detention. I'm Jarred, and I'm the detention counselor. I always know in advance if someone might come in, what they've done, and I meet with them before they are put in their room. Detention is for the students here, I specialize in adolescent psychology. So, you see, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with you."

"I see."

"I'm also a Betazoid."

"Just my luck!"

"You were planning on lying?"

"No. Our ship's counselor is half Betazoid. She has a habit of making me talk about things I don't want to talk about."

"I've been accused of the same." He walked over to the bed and sat down. "I already read your side of the story. Do you want to talk about it?"

Beverly looked at him closely, she was not sure if she could trust him. What if he twisted what she said and it worked against her?

"What we talk about stays between us unless you are planning on harming someone else or yourself."

"OK" she responded.

"So you know Bevy?"

"Yes, you can say that." Does everybody know?! She thought, not remembering he had read her version of events the night before.

"How do you know her?"

Beverly fell silent. She looked him straight in the eye as she remembered giving birth to a beautiful little girl. Tears started spilling down her face as she told her story in her head. She was ready to let him know but did not want to say those words out loud. Maybe it was a good thing he was a telepath. Jarred stood up and walked across the tiny room towards Beverly and pulled out the table in front of her. He took her hand and guided her towards the bed. She sat on the bed and he sat next to her, holding her hand tightly as she cried.

"I understand what happened, why you brought her here. I don't understand why you attacked her."

"I don't know. That's not what I wanted to do. I tried stopping but it was like I was not in control. How is she?"

"I don't know. Our doctors could not treat her so the Enterprise took her. The last we heard was that they would be able to treat her."

Beverly was relieved; she had full trust in her staff's ability to treat her. She suddenly fully understood what her being on board the Enterprise meant and felt herself going into a panic.

"There is nothing you can do about it, it won't help to panic."

"I know," she said plainly. Her reaction had been more instinctive than actual worry. Picard finding out was the least of her worries. She was being detained on an unallied planet and talking to a child psychologist. She had to remind herself that she had to tackle one problem at a time.

"You said it felt as if the emotions were being thrown at you." She gave him a puzzled look; they had not talked about it. "I read it when I was helping you, remember?"

"Yes. Sorry, I forgot about that."

"Describe what you meant by that."

"I don't know how else to describe it. It was almost like something was in me, controlling me."

"You think some sort of entity possessed you?"

"I'm not sure, but that is a possibility."

There was a soft beep and he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small devise. "Yes?" he said to it. A voice came from it and said, "Someone's science experiment exploded at the house again."

"I'm on my way," he responded and turned to Beverly. "I have to go take care of that, but I will be back tomorrow." He rubbed her back a couple of times then stood up and left.

* * * * * * * * * *

Kayleen Lampson sat in her office feeling very upset. She had requested information regarding Dr. Crusher from Starfleet for her investigation and they had denied it. Apparently, they had just received the Captain's report and needed to go through it before responding to her. She was also told that absolutely no official was allowed to talk to her until she received her legal counsel, which would be days away. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

In walked Jarred. "Good evening Ms. Lampson, how are you?"

"Very frustrated with Starfleet!"

"They are not cooperating?"

"No. What can you tell me about her?"

"You know that our conversations are confidential, Ms. Lampson."

"I know, but there are exceptions to that confidentiality."

"She does not plan on hurting anyone else or herself."

"That's all you can give me?!"

"There is something more that happened yesterday. I am going to ask her if she will allow me to talk to you about it. Kayleen, I know that what she did was horrible, but she is not a horrible person."

"Just tell me one thing, is violence in her nature."

"Not as far as I can tell."

"Thank you Jarred. You have given me some peace of mind. I'm having a hard time believing that someone could attack without provocation."

"You are welcome."

"Then I will just wait until her ship returns to figure out what happened. Thank you for stopping by. You may go."

"Good evening. I will see you again if she allows me to." Jarred left the office. Kayleen put some things on her desk away and decided to go home. She usually cleared her desk completely, leaving only the computer on the desk, but she was in no mood for that. The only items she put away were those she would not be using the next day. Everything else was just left as it was and she took out some of her frustration on the door, which she slammed on her way out. The building was now empty and she knew no one had heard the door.

* * * * * * * * * *

Captain Picard was reading something on his computer screen when he heard his door chime.

"Come." It was Riker. "What can I do for you, Will?"

"Captain, we will be arriving at the planet in 13 hours, at 0900 hours." Riker said, and looked down at the captain. Picard knew what that look meant.

"Thank you, Will. I will go get some rest as soon as I finish this last article."

Riker smiled and left the ready room. He sat on the bridge in the captain's chair and began reading a PADD. 20 minutes later the Captain left his ready room and went to the turbo lift. He waited until the doors swished in front of the captain then he stood up and said, "Data, you have the bridge." Data stood from his chair and took the captain's seat as Riker went to the turbo lift. It was time to call it a night.