Kathryn walked into her ready room seeing Q cuddling Amelia on the sofa. The little baby was trying to smile at her father as he sat up and tickled her belly. She brought a smile to his face, every second he spent with her was worth a million lifetimes and yet he couldn't shake the sickening dark feeling that had struck him since Captain Amelia Janeway arrived on the ship. "I thought I left Tuvok in charge of her." Kathryn looked for the Vulcan but he was no where to be found. She had trusted him to guard Amelia until this assassin was found and dealt with.

"It's alright Kathy, I'm looking after her right now." Q smiled at at his lovely fiancee. "Daddy won't ever let anything happen to you." He paused letting Amelia's words sink in. He hadn't meant to ease drop on the conversation but after she had attacked him, looked at him with such hatred in her eyes he had to know. He had to know why his daughter had grown up to loath him. "I promise Amelia, I promise I won't let anyone ever hurt you, or your mother." He spoke to the baby hoping she understood every word of it. Whatever future Captain Amelia remembered she wouldn't go back to it. She was going back to a world where her father, where Q had done something. Damn the continuum, if they tried to stop him. This baby girl and that woman standing there with her hands on her hips watching him, they meant more to him than unlimited power and immortality. What was immortality without his two favorite girls? Leaning forward he kissed baby Amelia on her cheek and smiled as she reached up for him.

"Are you alright?" Kathryn asked. "You have been avoiding Amelia, I mean the other one." She had to specify since Q had been spending even more time than usual with baby Amelia.

Q shrugged. "Can you blame me? Yesterday when she saw me she practically had venom dripping from her fangs. I never expected her to hit so hard either, she looks like such a charming girl." Q could still feel the pain in his jaw even after the doctor had treated him. "I, I heard what she said Kathy, about what I did. That's not me, you know that's not me and though I'll make no excuses for myself, the version of me she knows I would rather die than let that happen. You know that." He looked at her holding back his own feelings over the situation.

"I know." She agreed, it wouldn't be like him to just abandon Amelia but that was why he had to tell the girl. He had to tell her what he had just said here. "You love her."

Q looked back at his baby girl grabbing one of her hands and holding it lightly in his own. "More than I could ever imagine, and it's because I love her that I want this Gaveris to pay for what he did to her. She may be a big girl, she may not be my little baby anymore but she's still my daughter. All grown up and hits hard but still Amelia is my little girl and what that monster made her go through." He paused taking in a deep breath. "I hate him for it."

"You should talk to her." Kathryn urged him to speak to Amelia, even if she had been bitter towards him he was still her father. "She needs you Q. You are still her father, no matter how she feels about you."

Q looked back down at baby Amelia. "But this one is so much easier to deal with, and she doesn't hit as hard." He poked her nose making her flail her arms excitedly. "But you are right, I have just been trying to avoid it. In the future you are dead, that must be difficult to face but in the future...I let you die. For me, that's impossible to face."

"The future isn't set in stone Q, it can be changed." She reminded him, as a Q he of all people understood that. Amelia's future, that didn't have to be their future and he would make certain of it.

Letting go of Amelia's hand he stood up watching her carefully so she didn't roll off the sofa. "Is she still in the shuttle bay fixing Pegasus?" Janeway nodded her head as Q conjured up the courage he would need. "Alright." Walking over to Kathryn he kissed her on the cheek and gave her a quick hug. "Any advice?"

"This time consider ducking." She smiled. It was sound advice, just not the sort he had been looking for.

"Fair enough."

Amelia was inside Pegasus, panels pulled off the insides as she tried to get the shields fully operational. "Shields offline, weapons offline." The male voice spoke up as she switched over one of the circuits.

Slapping the board Amelia growled at it. "I know Pegasus, I shut them off." She rolled her eyes at the shuttle, YES, AT the shuttle. "You know Pegasus, I wish Thomas was here."

"Me too." the male voice responded making Amelia crack a smile.

"I know you do, if he was here you would be repaired already. He takes after his mother you know...maybe I should have her take a look at you if she is as good as he says she was."

"Fathers mother, what does that make her?"

Amelia paused a moment, it was a little weird that her only 'child' with her ex was a talking thinking shuttle. So they hadn't had a traditional marriage and a traditional family but they both put a lot of love into this shuttle and perhaps took part in a lot of love when they shut the AI down for the night. "Grandmother?" Amelia shrugged.

Q walked up the ramp into the shuttle, his hands held behind his back as he paused looking over at Amelia. "Captain Janeway, you have a guest." Amelia looked up from the panels and instantly became hostile.

Standing up she dropped one of her tools to the ground rolling up the sleeves of her blueish grey undershirt. "I thought I told you to stay away from me."

"Believe me you did, you made it abundantly clear you wanted nothing to do with me but if you are my daughter then you know by now I don't listen to anyone." Q argued with her. She seemed to be just as stubborn as her mother but if this Amelia was his child then he was as much like him as she was like Kathryn. Q looked at her a little closer, narrowing his eyes as he studied her. "hmm."

"Hmm what?" Amelia growled.

"Nothing, I'm just trying to see if you look like Chakotay at all." He narrowed his eyes again as Amelia shook her head not at all pleased by his comment.

"I'm clearly your's by blood if you can call it blood. I would show you what I inherited from you but you convinced the continuum to take away my powers after you let my mother die. To be honest I think you were afraid of me."

"I can see why, you are certainly your mothers daughter, but you are also mine." He reminded her and crossed his arms.

"Chakotay, isn't that the name of the man mother married after you?" Q looked shocked and a little concerned, his heart racing when he found out Kathryn fell for that Neanderthal. Then just like that Amelia turned to him, a hint of mischief in her eyes. Touche little Q, touche.

"So, you are my daughter then. Good to see you inherited my gift for mischief." He paused. "In the future, were we still together?"

"Don't talk about mom." Amelia warned him. She didn't want to talk to him about her mother, he didn't deserve to know. Amelia walked over to her seat and sat down crossing her arms, her back turned to Q now.

Walking up behind her Q pulled out the little stuffed doggy he had given to Amelia as a baby, not the exact one since he couldn't take Amelia's puppy without her throwing a fit but it was a perfect replica. Pressing it's nose against her face he made a whimpering sound before tossing it onto the controls. "Your mother told me some dog ate it." Amelia didn't move, she didn't speak, she just continued to sit their quietly. "You must not have remembered I gave that to you the night you were born. I must have sat there with you all night watching over you, afraid that if I walked away or closed my eyes something was going to happen to you. I must have almost fallen asleep standing up thirteen times. I was afraid you would stop breathing again, and I just kept saying over and over again how happy I was to have you in my life." Amelia slowly reached over grabbing the little stuffed dog and looking it over. It brought back all her happy memories.

"You two were still together when she died." Amelia paused. "In case you wanted to know." She hugged the puppy close to her chest resting her chin on the top of it's head. "That's what made it so much worse, you pretended to love her, to love me...you still let it happen." She turned around, that look in her eyes making him hurt more than the hate she had felt for him. It was a look of someone who had been betrayed by someone they loved.

"No." Q shook his head. "I may not have been able to save her, to come help you but pretend to love you, no." He wasn't from her time so he could not say what had prevented him from saving them. Even if the continuum, had said no he would have ignored them and risked execution to save Janeway and his daughter. Would they have locked him away to keep him from saving his family? But why? There were so many questions, all he could do now was insure that never happened. "I love you Amelia, more than you can ever imagine and your mother, I don't have words for how I feel about her. You two are my world, my reason for living. You two showed me what love was, something so simple and yet so powerful. I didn't think it existed, that it was only simple chemical reactions but the first time I saw your mother, the first time I held you in my arms, I knew love was very real."

"Then why is my mother dead?"

Q let his shoulders slump, he didn't have the answers for her. "Because I failed her, not you, I was the one who failed and I won't fail again." Amelia looked up from the stuffed dog, her fingers picking at it's face. "She meant the world to you didn't she. She means the world to me too and looking at you I can see a lot of her in you." Q paused. "You might hate me for what happened Amelia, and I don't know how I will change the future for you other than to do my best to keep her safe." He paused. "And you." He patted her shoulder before turning to leave.

Amelia turned around in her chair holding the stuffed dog in her arms and placing it down on the chair beside her. "When I was a little girl, you use to sing me this song to help me sleep at night. Whenever I felt lonely or afraid, even as an adult I sang that song to myself. It made me feel comforted. It got me through some of the worst fights I have ever seen, it helped me when members of my crew died, when I fought the Borg. I sang it to myself while they beat her, I sang it to myself in sickbay after Voyager rescued me and then you showed up and put your arms around me like I was a little girl again...and you sang it to me." Amelia quickly brushed her sleeve over her eyes. "I spent thirteen years of my life angry at you, I couldn't forgive you for not saving her but I knew you loved us both. I just couldn't understand why. Why someone who claimed to love us as much as you did couldn't help us. I was so angry with you I wanted you to suffer as much as I had but you did. Thirteen years I have wanted to scream at you, I have wanted to put you in her place."

"If I could have traded places with her I would, I will if th..."

"I forgive you." Amelia looked back at the controls. "And when I get home, we are going to get mom back together. Everyone says I am my mothers daughter but they fail to understand I'm not. I'm my fathers daughter, I was never that good at following the rules either."