Elle woke up with small feet in her ribs. These are not my quarters. Those are not my own feet stabbing me in the ribs. "Oh, Great Bird." She was still with the creepy kids. She slid out of the bed and tried not to trip over any of the pairs of shoes.

She almost got to the doors when Ray asked, "Where ya goin?"

Elle cringed. "Breakfast," she said, turning around. "I'm hungry."

"Wait for us!"

Elle resisted a sigh. "Yup."

They ate breakfast under the watchful eye of Chapel and Dr. McCoy, and then they went back to their quarters. "Okay," Tommy said. "Elle, you and me are going to go to the bridge and try and convince captain Kirk to take us to Marcos Twelve."

"You can't do that," Elle said. "Non-essential personnel aren't allowed on the bridge."

"Fine, then you go. And if they don't listen to you, you can get the Gorgon to convince them."

"How?" Elle asked suspiciously.

"You just get them to do it, and if they don't, then you just make a fist, and make them." Tommy squinted his eyes. "And they just do it."

Elle blinked at them. "Okay," she said.

"The Gorgon will help you," Tommy said. "It'll be great. Get us to Marcos Twelve."

Elle walked out of the quarters, gave the two security guards a smile, and walked to the bridge, feeling like someone was watching over her shoulder. Was the Gorgon watching her? She'd have to play it by ear.

She walked onto the bridge and the feeling of being watched intensified. Her previously-enjoyable oatmeal and strawberries felt like a kettle bell in her stomach.

"Good morning," Kirk greeted her. "Sleep well?"

Elle's eyes widened. "Uh, more or less?"

He frowned sympathetically. "Worried?"

"Nope," Elle said, with as much cheer as she could muster. "Nothing like a good night's sleep to be able to play all day." She raised her eyebrows at Kirk.

He looked alarmed. "Feeling okay, Elle?" he asked.

"Just peachy," she chirped, and internally winced.

Kirk and Spock exchanged a glance. "Uh-huh. How're the kids?"

"Oh, they're fine," Elle said, waving her hands in a 'no' gesture across her neck. What would tip them off even more? "Hey, so, Timmy said they all have relatives on Marcos Twelve, and the best thing would be to go directly to the colony to drop them off. You know. So they can be with their relatives. And all those millions of people. Bigger community. To play with." She gave them a Cheshire cat grin. "Plenty of powerful people to guide them. Protect them. Watch over their shoulders. Keep them in trouble, I mean out of trouble."

"I see," Kirk said slowly. "So they have relatives on Marcos Twelve?"

"Uh-huh," Elle said, in the most unconvincing manner ever.

"I see," he said again. "Unfortunately, we have orders to take the kids to the starbase. If they have relatives on Marcos Twelve, what relation are they?"

"I don't know," Elle said. "Tommy wanted to come up here and convince you himself but you know, he's not allowed on the bridge in case kids are, you know, distracting."

"Okay," Kirk said, giving her an equally false smile, "if you'll give me a bit, we'll contact Star Fleet and ask to be redirected to Marcos Twelve."

Elle gave him a thumbs-up. "Neato!"

"You wouldn't happen to, uh, have relatives on Marcos Twelve?" Kirk asked casually.

Elle blinked. What? Oh. "No, no, none that I know of," she said, giving a nervous smile. "I just know that they're there, you know? Just waiting."

"Okay." Kirk gave her a hug and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Go on, I'm sure you have classes to get to."

Elle sighed in relief. "Yes, sir."

She went back to find the kids on the rec deck. They clustered around her. "What'd he say?" Tommy asked.

"Uh, they have orders but he's going to check back with Star Fleet to redirect the Enterprise to Marcos Twelve," Elle said.

They cheered. "Yes! Good job!"

"Now you can play with us!"

Elle shook her head. "I have to go to my classes."

Don made a face. "No you don't! You don't have to do anything they tell you."

"But I like learning new things," Elle said.

"No," Ray said. "You have to stay and play with us."

"No, I've really got to go to class," Elle said gently.

Mary's face crumpled. "You're just like them! They only wanted to work, work, work-"

The other kids picked up the chant. "Work, work, work-"

Elle backed off a step. "Whoa, guys, chill out!"

"-Work, work-"

"I broke them," Elle said frantically, looking around for a nurse. "Chris! Ensign Mai!"

No adults in the area.

"What'd you do with the ensigns?" Elle asked Tommy.

He sneered at her.

She grabbed his shoulders and shook him lightly. "What did you do with the ensigns and Nurse Chapel?" she demanded, terrified.

"We don't need them," he scoffed. "They're all work and no play, just like you. We don't need you either! We don't need no Star Fleet." He grinned at her. "Go away, or we'll make the Gorgon eat you up."

Cast out fear. The thought popped into Elle's head out of the blue. "No," she said simply, and folded her arms. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm the oldest, so I'm in charge. And the Enterprise is my house, so that means I'm double in charge. Those are the rules to this game."

The younger ones stopped chanting. "What game?" Mary asked suspiciously.

"The game called, uh, Psy-pop."

"How do you play?" Steve asked.

"Uh, like this," Elle said, frantically rattling all her brain cells to try and shake something out. "You have to go through your memories, and you have to remember the last time your parents sung you a lullaby."

"That's a dumb game," Don said, but he was shushed by Ray and Steve.

Elle gestured to the computer. "You guys have video files of your parents, so you can look through those. I don't have any pictures so I have to think really hard. First person to find a lullaby gets a prize."

"What's the prize?" Ray asked.

"A bag of candy."

That convinced them. They crowded round the computer terminals and started clamoring for their computer files. "How do we get them?"

"Uh, we need an adult to help us figure it out," Elle said. "Where's Nurse Chapel?"

"Over there, sleeping," Tommy said, waving to a reading alcove.

Elle sped over and found Chapel slumped sideways in the chair, fast asleep. "Chris," Elle said, tapping her shoulder. "Christine? Nurse Chapel?"

The nurse jolted and sat up straight. "The children!"

"Everything's okay," Elle said, holding out her hands. "I made up a game to help them look at their parents, we need your help accessing the files."

Chapel put on her child-handling smile and followed Elle back to the table.

I really hope this works...

They searched through the video files and one by one, they found the 'ulllaby incidents'. It didn't seem to have any effect on their moods, except their relative happiness in being in first place or second place, etc. Elle was last place.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" Mary asked, staring at Elle with wide eyes.

Elle shrugged. "I haven't seen my parents in a year and I've had to adjust to a lot of different things. I don't remember the last time my mom sung me a lullaby. Maybe when I was four? Five? A little younger than you."

Don blinked. "That's really sad."

"Yeah."

"I miss my parents," Don said.

Chapel and Elle exchanged a glance. Could this be it?

Mary, who'd won the last round, tugged on Elle's sleeve. "Let's play another one!"

"Okay. Uhhhh, next person to remember when was the last time you played catch with your parents gets a new toy!"

They scrambled for the computer consoles. Chapel looked over at Elle. "When was the last time you played catch?"

"Well me and Chekov calculated baseball vectors for math class one day so I think that counts," Elle said. "We weren't a very sporty family."

Chapel put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her in silent comfort.

Steve was the last one to have played catch with his dad, at a picnic on Triacus. He stared at the recording of the picnic and tears started to well in his eyes. "I miss my parents," he said, and started to cry.

Chapel moved over to the wall comm. "Chapel to Captain Kirk."

"Kirk here."

"Sir, we've started making a breakthrough on the children. You'd better get down here."

"On my way."

Elle watched in horror as the rest of the kids began to cry, one by one, like sympathetic yawning but with more snot. A green glow suffused the room and the Gorgon began to coalesce. "Uh-oh."

The Gorgon scowled. "My friends, take heart! These grownups are weak like your parents were, this false friend as well!"

"No more weak than you," Elle said.

"I am not weak! I am strong!"

"You were shut up in a cave for thousands of years, you don't sound very strong," Elle pointed out. "And if you're so strong how come you need little kids to do your bidding, huh? How come you need a starship?"

Tommy wiped at his face. "What are you talking about?" he sniffed.

"What is the Gorgon, really?" Elle asked. "Look at him. Is he going to play catch with you? Is he going to give you a hug when you get scared? Is he gonna be able to feed you sandwiches and ice cream?" She barely noticed as Kirk, McCoy, and two security guards came in. She glared at the Gorgon. "He's nothing but a giant ball of hate, wrapped in a weird robe."

"You have strong emotion," the Gorgon said, giving Elle an oily smile. "You could be stronger."

Elle scoffed. "No thanks."

"Then you will be weak," he said.

Elle blinked, and everyone was gone. They were all gone. She was alone, on a strange featureless plain- no. She jerked her head, hard. "No," she said aloud, "I'm not there, I'm not alone, I haven't died." She rubbed at her eyes, trying to dispel the illusion. "I'm not alone." Cast out fear. The Gorgon fed on fear. "I'm not alone," she repeated. "But even if I was, I'd be okay. I've been trained. I'm okay. I'm not weak, I'm not helpless." She scrubbed at her eyes again and started hearing voices.

"-Elle, Elle, can you hear me? Elle, honey, it's not real-"

"-Don't be afraid. Look at him. Without you children, he's nothing. The evil remains within him."

Elle blinked, blinked again. Captain Kirk? He was here? She wasn't alone. She wasn't alone.

Reality snapped back into place. The children were crying, the Gorgon was fading away, Chapel was holding Elle's shoulders. "Elle?"

She met the nurse's concerned gaze. "I'm here. I'm okay," she assured her. "I'm okay."

Chapel enfolded Elle into a hug. "Oh, thank goodness."

McCoy moved in to scan the kids, his blue eyes concerned and empathetic. "You did it," he said.

"I want my mommy," Mary sobbed.

Kirk picked her up and rubbed her back soothingly. "Shh. It's all right, Mary. It's all right. It's all right, isn't it, Doctor?"

"Yes, it's all right," McCoy said gently. "We can help them now."

A small fleet of nurses appeared and took over. Kirk transferred a teary Mary to Nurse Chapel's arms, and stood with Elle and Spock in the rec room.

"You all right, Elle?" Kirk asked.

She leaned against his side and he hugged her. "I'm okay."

"What did you see?"

"I was alone, on this plain, it was just me and dust." Elle shivered. "But I knew it wasn't real."

Kirk pressed a kiss to her hair. "I'm very proud of you. You were very brave."

"Thanks." She turned slightly to look at Spock. "So it's gone?"

"It si gone," Spock confirmed.

Elle shivered again. "Good."

Kirk smiled down at her. "I think you've earned an early night, Elle. Why don't you go get some rest?"

She shook her head. "No. I don't want to be alone."

Kirk smiled at her sympathetically. "Understandable. C'mon, sweetheart, you can give me the full story over some custard pie and we can follow Spock around his labs all night, how's that?"

Elle managed a grin. "Sounds good."

Spock raised an eyebrow. "I have no work scheduled after 1900 hrs," he said.

"Then we'll play chess," Kirk said.

"Agreeable."

Elle gave them her version of events for the record and spent the rest of the day on the bridge as the Enterprise headed for Starbase Four. Afterwards, they had dinner with Chekov and talked about Dostoevsky.

Elle fell asleep with her head on her arms sometime in between Kirk's second win and Spock's retaliatory gambit.

-/\-

"Elle, right on time! The kids need a real tour of the arboretum and the rec decks." Kirk beamed at her.

She shook her head at him, wide-eyed. "No way, are you kidding? These are real normal kids, not even creepy ones. I don't do kids!"

"You are a kid," he reminded her. "And besides, they like you. They're glad you helped them see the truth. C'mon, Lt. Anderson's really in charge, you just have to join in for a bit."

She groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. "Don't give me the puppy eyes, captain-"

"Pleeeeaaase?" Kirk asked, hamming it up and turning on the charm, even fluttering his eyelashes at her.

Elle groaned again and collapsed into giggles. "Fine! I'll babysit."

"Good girl." He tugged at her ponytail. "Go on. They're already on the rec deck."

-/\-

"Elle?"

"Yes?"

"Did you cry a lot when you lost your parents?"

Elle glanced over at Ray. "Yes, I did."

"Do you still cry lots?"

"Sometimes. It depends on how I feel."

He wiped at his eyes with a sleeve. "I don't wanna keep crying. It makes me tired."

She held out an arm and stiffened when he dove into her ribs, burying his face in her shoulder. "Um. That's what crying does. But, yeah, it makes you tired, huh?" She patted his back awkwardly and gave Lt. Anderson the 'help me' Look.

Lt. Anderson coaxed Ray into a hug and took him to another alcove on the observation deck so he could have a little cry in private.

Elle heaved a sigh in relief. It turned into a hiccup of alarm when Tommy flopped down beside her. "Um."

"It was our fault our parents died," Tommy said.

She stared at him. "No it wasn't."

"Yes, it was. We let that, that monster get to us." Tommy sulkily wiped at his eyes.

"You're kids, you're easy targets for super-powered energy beings," Elle said, which in hindsight, wasn't very comforting.

"It's not fair," he sniffed miserably.

"It's not fair," Elle agreed.

"Where'd your parents go?" he asked.

Well, misery loves company. "I'm from another planet. My parents are still there. I'm the one that got transferred over here."

"Oh. No way to get back?"

"Nope."

"Oh." He rested his chin on his knees. "Does it get better?"

"Yeah." She mirrored his gesture. "It gets better. It helps if you have things to do. If you help other people."

"Oh." He glanced sideways at her. "I'm sorry I said the Gorgon was gonna eat you."

"You were kinda brainwashed. Let's call it good if you stay away from creepy cults, okay?"

"Okay."

-/\-

When they reached Starbase Four, Elle waved goodbye with mixed emotions. Mostly though, relief. "I'm never having kids," she told McCoy.

He laughed. "That's your decision," he told her. "You're not going to miss them?"

Elle sighed. "I mean, maybe a little. We promised to keep in touch though, over email, so it'll be fine." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm tired of playing dress-up though."

"So you're not going to keep the toys we replicated?" McCoy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Elle picked up one of the model ships. "Well, I didn't say that..."

He laughed.