This must be the afterlife or at the very least some type of purgatory. In all the years she'd known him, which weren't very many but were very impressionable, Q was never quiet. Yet here they were in her ready room going on an hour of silence.

Junior had fallen asleep in her arms. It hadn't taken long after his emotional outburst, he'd worked himself into exhaustion. After coercing him Q had taken a seat right next to Junior. He just stared at the boy and she couldn't blame him.

She had at first assumed Junior was trying to avoid conversing with his father when they sat and he'd burrowed his head into her neck. His slow, even breathing was what clued her in. Thankfully Q had seen her look of panic at having a teenaged boy draped across her.

The father grabbed his son's torso and gently lowered him onto the couch. She couldn't be sure it wasn't a mistake or on purpose when Junior's head remained in her lap.

She'd complained at first, mostly in her mind for fear of waking the boy. But now… now..

She couldn't begin to express these emotions. She'd never experienced anything like this before. She couldn't keep her hand from running through Junior's hair, she'd even caught herself humming slightly.

She had been staring at Junior's sleeping face too long, yet she couldn't stop peeking every so often. He was so calm and so peaceful. Something inside of her ached to keep him near. But why? She didn't care this much before, surely? She never longed to touch him, never worried over his health.

Now she felt like a monster, angry and agitated, whenever she recounted what had made Junior so upset. Speaking of which, she looked towards Junior's feet to see Q.

Q was staring out the window, watching the stars pass by at warp speed. He seemed on edge but still just as silent. Katheryn looked around her and spotted a small PADD lying on her table. It wasn't any necessary information, if she remembered correctly it held her personal library of books. It was here merely for recreation.

A smile crept up her face, "Perfect" she thought.

One quick flash and she'd grasped hold onto the device, she quickly glanced at Q but he was still transfixed in place looking at the stars. It was as though someone had stunned him with a phaser.

She threw the PADD and smirked when it landed on its mark, his left temple. Even after the satisfying thumping sound it made, Q only barely registered the event.

He looked away from the window with eyes as big as plates, only to blink a few times out into the empty room. Kathryn sighed before, as quietly as she could, she cleared her throat.

Q's eyes snapped to her slightly pinched face, he looked from her and then towards the floor where a PADD lay. His brow furrowed as he processed these events.

"Kathy.. did? Did you throw a PADD at my head?" His voice was filled with such bewilderment Kathryn couldn't keep her irritation in place. A smile broke through as she answered,

"Yes, Q, I did throw my PADD at your head."

He barked out a laugh before she hissed out for him to be quiet. Junior twitched slightly before his breathing evened out once more. Kathryn let out her breath she was holding and then turned towards the boys father once more.

"I was trying to get your attention, Q, to ask what we are going to do about Junior?"

She gestured towards the sleeping boy in her lap for emphasis.

She thought she heard him mumble, "lucky boy" under his breath but she chose to ignore the comment.

"Do you mean your current entanglement, or Junior's emotional requirement?" He was leaning slightly towards her, trying to keep his voice lowered.

Kathryn deadpanned and whispered back, "Both."

Q nodded slowly before turning to face the ground.

"Tell me what you're thinking Q" she tried to not make it sound like a demand.

He startled and looked up into her face, a small twist of his lips as he considered her words.

"You don't know how refreshing that is." His shoulders seemed to drop and he rested back against the couch.

"There are no secrets in the continuum. Everyone always knows exactly what you're thinking." He closed his eyes for a moment and she worried she may have to deal with two sleeping Q's.

"What were you singing to Junior?" Kathryn startled.

"Excuse me? I don't see how this matters in the current situation we're in." She guffawed at his blatant lack of interest in helping her get out of the situation. And if her hand had started weaving through Junior's hair again, that was neither here nor there.

"You asked what was on my mind, what song were you singing?"

Curse him.

I wasn't singing. I was humming." She felt a little awkward, she hadn't meant to humm, staring at Junior brought back memories. Memories she'd all but forgotten. Why did Junior make her feel so sentimental?

"Alright then, indulge me Kathy, what were you humming?"

"...It was a song my grandfather would sing to us as children. He would sing it for me whenever there was a thunderstorm."

She didn't feel so uncomfortable now. This strange lightness had permeated the room. Maybe she was just tired? She could be experiencing delusions. That must be why she wasn't telling Q to keep his distance.

"Thunderstorms? I didn't think there was anything the great, strong captain Janeway was scared of?"

Kathryn met his eyes, her hands stilled against Junior and when she opened her mouth she strained to speak above a whisper.

"Only fools have no fear. There is no anomaly more frightening than a thunderstorm on the plains"

Q seemed taken aback by her words. She leaned her head back against the couch, she really was tired now that she'd thought about it.

"What are the plains like?" Q's innocent voice caused her to chuckle

"I thought you were all knowing?"

Q's brow furrowed, apparently he didn't find the humor in her words.

"I was raised in Indiana. The plains are breathtaking. Endless crops as far as the eye can see. When I began school at Star Fleet I used to compare the San Fransisco coast to them. Of course it's ridiculous to compare the ocean and my little patch of grass, but it seemed just as limitless to me."

She turned her head to look at Q, he has a small smile and a glazed look in his eye. He probably wasn't actually listening, but it felt nice to speak of home. She missed it. She may never see it again.

Her heart thumped painfully at that thought. She couldn't lose hope, she had a family waiting for her. Her mother and father, Phoebe, even the plains would welcome her home. They would dance with the wind upon her arrival.

"Junior should've been raised on Earth."

His eyes were stilled glazed over, but his words were as firm as she'd ever heard them before.

"Q?"

Q finally seemed to return fully and he tried to plaster a smile for her. It never went past his mouth. His usual smiles filled his entire being with energy. The man before her seemed haggard. She reached out and took hold of his hand.

Q returned her reach, perhaps more than she should allow but she didn't stop him as he intertwined their fingers. His thumb brushed against the back of her hand.

"We gave up so much in our quest to be omnipotent beings. At what point did we forget emotions?"

She didn't completely understand where he was going, what he was feeling, but she could hear the pain in his voice. She could be a listening ear, a friend.

"Junior deserves a real existence, one filled with laughter and light, from a real sun. He deserves to make mistakes that won't cause planetary doom because he snapped his fingers. Junior deserves to be human."

She felt shocked, how many times had Q come to them insisting he was the better being, the supreme being? And yet he now professed he wished Junior could be given a mortal, flawed existence.

"Is everything alright in the continuum, Q?" She squeezed his hand, trying to offer some comfort. He seemed to get a mixed signal as he raised his other hand and gently caressed her cheek.

"The continuum is a beautiful lie, mon beau capitaine."

She felt odd where his hand touched her face, it was soft but demanded all of her attention. She wished she could tell him to stop, but her face felt so relaxed. It was taking a great deal to not lean into his touch.

"What do you mean it's a lie? I thought it was your paradise?" She forced her mind to listen and understand his words, her eyes were feeling heavy.

"It is a paradise, but much like your lovely holodeck, it will never be real."

She frowned at this, Q had the power to create matter, she had seen it. Why wouldn't he just take himself to the places he so longed to be?

"Where would you go without the continuum?"

Q didn't seem to understand, he seemed so saddened when he responded,

"That's the trick, isn't it? We have nowhere to go. No one would want the Q."

"Earth would take you, so long as you behave." She shouldn't be offering her own home to a wildly power hungry race. She was proud her exhaustion had let her throw in her last warming of behavior.

Q chuckled and suddenly she felt hot breath against her head. Her eyes snapped open, she was greeted with Q's chest so close to her face that for a moment she assumed the breath had been her own.

She felt the pressure against her scalp and a shiver coursed down her back as she understood that Q had placed a kiss to the top of her head.

She jumped in shock and Q pulled back to look down into her eyes. She felt the reprimand building inside of her dissolve on her tongue as she stared into his eyes. Why had she never realized how brown, how deep, how sad Q's eyes were?

Junior shifted in his sleep and Q snapped his fingers. Kathryn looked down as the teenaged boy's body shone like the brightness of a star. In his place was a toddler, no older than 3. The mess of brown curls, the same red star fleet uniform, the way he wormed his way closer to Kathryn's stomach for warmth and protection and love.

She knew this was still Junior, and the little something inside of her seemed to ache even more at the sight of his small body. She reached her hand out and touched his soft, down, baby hair. He gave a soft coo and a smile took over his sleeping face.

Q gave a squeeze to the hand she still held and her attention returned to him. In the span of a moment it took to turn her attention to Q, that was all he needed to whisk them away.

No longer were they in her ready room sitting on her red couch. Now the pair were sitting back against a headboard to the most luxurious bed she'd ever seen. Their uniforms were exchanged for silk pajamas. Kathryn looked once around the beautiful room before her gaze was drawn towards the bay window beside her.

Outside lay miles and miles of green grass hills. She gasped and turned to Q, she knew this wasn't real but why did she long for it?

Q leaned down and whispered in her ear,

"This..." he gestured to the sleeping babe, the bedroom, the window, and even to Kathryn herself, "This is what the continuum could never give me."

Kathryn blinked once more and it was gone. She was now alone in her own bedroom aboard the Voyager. Her own star fleet issued sleepware adorned her body and all was quiet and dark.

For a moment she tried to pretend none of it had happened. To tell herself Junior was in his guest quarters sleeping and she had simply woken from a confusing dream.

She laid her head down against the pillow and tried not to think about the ghostly image of Q and their imaginary family in Indiana.

A single tear fell onto the pillow.