They had camped out around the planet a little longer than they had liked but for whatever reason Q wanted nothing more than to go down the the surface to see for himself. Maybe it was the curiosity that Janeway had, that personality he was now living with. Meanwhile Janeway could have cared less which made Q a little sad. She already knew everything about the planet, all that knowledge stored away in that impressive Q head of his or hers. Q stood at astrometrics looking at the planet longingly, wanting nothing more than to set foot on that surface and see for himself the spiraling gas giant that engulfed it. That swirling red sky that Tom Paris had been talking about with excitement. A small star trapped within the gas giant, rotating around the world and setting the sky on fire in the mornings and turning to a blood soaked atmosphere at night. Q had been so entranced in the beautiful image on the screen he hadn't even noticed Janeway walk into astrometrics behind him. "So, this is where you have been hiding." She stood there a moment in the doorway looking at him with his hands on his hips. The longer they stayed in each others bodies the more they started to become the other. It came to the point Janeway feared she would just have to be Q for the rest of eternity. He certainly had done a good job filling in her place. He walked on the bridge speaking with confidence now, he could take care of her crew, the girls, the dog, even found time once or twice a week to replicate dinner for the two of them, just like she use to. The more Q became who she once was the more she missed being that woman and the more she realized she had become an outsider looking in. Q didn't need her really, she...he was more than self sufficient. It made Janeway realize that Q might have felt the same, it was no wonder he caused trouble for her. He was trying to find a reason for her to need him.
"Isn't it beautiful." Q smiled turning back to her and walking closer to the image.
"It certainly is." Of course Janeway hadn't been talking about the planet but he didn't need to know that. Three days in this body and she was starting to feel it. Even starting to forget what it was like to be Kathryn Janeway a little. it made her wonder if he was feeling the same thing.
"Look at that asteroid field around the gas giant, this planet is easily twice the size of Jupiter you know and it has a star orbiting the planet inside it with three moons. Mr. Paris said at night the sky turns blood red making the moons glow with this eerie halo. I would give anything to go in there myself and see it. They found plant life and even primal animals starting to develop on the planets surface. Cambrian lifeforms, creatures like earths earliest species."
"In other words, bugs." Janeway spoke up. "Doesn't sound like a good honeymoon destination."
"Well, arthropods."
"So...bugs." Janeway added one last time. Stepping forward into the room more Janeway walked over to Q resting a hand on his back and looking down at his rather shapely figure. She couldn't help it, if ever she got back into her own body she was never going to get upset when he looked at her like that. It was almost involuntary. "If you want to go down there, I got shuttle two geared up with help from Tom."
Q spun on his heels looking rather excited. "You did? But we have to be out of here by 15:00 today."
Janeway moved her wrist seeing an old fashioned earth watch appear on her wrist. "And it's 12:00 right now so that gives us three hours if we leave now. I know it's not a picnic or a walk in the park or a candlelight dinner but if you want to look at a chunk of rock floating in gas then that's what my girl gets." Janeway paused furrowing her brow. "Or...boy..."
"That's right." Q responded having a strange sort of epiphany. "I'm you...you are me...I almost forgot really. That's still sweet of you because well, obviously you know I, you use to be a science officer." He even had vivid memories of going to Starfleet Academy, of growing up in Indiana, of his...her father dying, his funeral, of Molli, even of Mark and a few other men..not that he was upset. They were after all just his...her memories. He couldn't hold her past against her just as she couldn't hold his past against him. "You aren't doing this because you did something you shouldn't have did you?"
"No, I just wanted to do something nice, so you know how much I appreciate you for putting up with me."
Q laughed. "I'm still figuring out how you put up with me."
"You're easy on the eyes." Janeway shrugged with a little tilt of the head. "Who knows, you might even be easier on the eyes on a planet with a red sky." She joked raising her elbow so Q could grab hold of it like some old southern gentleman. "M'...sir?"
Q took her arm with a smile. "How, charming of you."
"Well not to bring back bad memories but you are still my southern bell if you let me be your Yankee General."
Q looked back at Janeway furrowing his brow. "Correct me if I am wrong but, I think you were the Southern Bell."
"That's right." This was going to get more problematic over time but then again would it? If they just ended up being the other completely? Was it going to make a difference? When they had gotten to the shuttle Tom had been waiting for them still. He nodded at Janeway still thinking of her as Q. Even after Q had gotten back his powers he remained close to Tom and Harry. The 'Three Amigos' could never be parted and honestly in the past three days Janeway had learned things about Torres she could have lived without knowing. Once Q was aboard the shuttle and in his seat Janeway stepped back out of the shuttle part way and whispered to Tom. "You put the you know what in there?"
Tom nodded his head with a smile. "I got your back buddy."
"Thanks, I owe you one. You can take our holodeck hours on Saturday for that date with B'Elanna. I'll talk to Kathryn about it, i'm sure she will understand after this." Janeway gave him a pat on the back. So long as she was back in her own body by Saturday she wouldn't have to explain anything to Q. Stepping back into the shuttle she closed the door and took her seat as copilot of the shuttle. "Ready?" Janeway stopped quickly holding up a finger to let Q know she had something for him. Snapping her fingers she had a PADD materialize in her hand and passed it off to Q. "I sat down last night while you were sleeping and wrote that up. It was hard trying to think as Kathryn rather than as you but I figured once we have our own bodies back, whenever that might be, you might like to have it."
Q looked over the PADD with a little confusion. "What is it?"
"You asked me to tell you what my honest dream wedding was so I wrote up a guideline, flowers, dress, what I would want the boys to wear, of course trying to look back on it I never remembered having kids already when I got married but I improvised."
Q couldn't help but smirk a bit as he looked it over. "Wait a second, this says vanilla cake with white frosting, you like red velvet cake the most." He read it over some more. "What no coffee ice cream?"
"Hmm?"
"My memory might be a little fuzzy Kathryn but I'm surprised you forgot. You lived on coffee ice cream your second trimester, I think you went through a gallon a day almost. I was going to call together a meeting to talk about your addiction. Red velvet cake and coffee flavored ice cream is what we had at your birthday party because you love them both. We should have red velvet cake and coffee ice cream at the wedding, not vanilla cake and ice cream."
"You like Vanilla though. I figured...well, my dream wedding could include things you like."
Q shrugged his shoulders. "We could have, both." He went back to the controls on his side and put in the coordinates for the planet. "Thanks for thinking about me."
"I always do." She muttered under her breath a little as the shuttle took off through the shuttle bay. "I'm just not, as much of an expert as you are on showing it."
Sitting back in his chair a little he shrugged. "Well, I mean you replicate me dinner sometimes. But you also are busy all the time, it's crazy you find time to even do that." It didn't matter that Q didn't need to eat or that sometimes even when she did replicate something new her replicator acted up and it wasn't even something a human body could consume. It was the thought that counted. As they got into the upper layer of the gas giant Q got out of his seat and walked around leaning against her seat. "So, Cupid, he's an interesting friend."
Q crossed his arms over his chest pausing a moment to look down a little worried at first until he realized he was okay. "He likes to think he's the continums gift to humanoids. Well, to anything really, from what I can remember." Q furrowed his brow finding his old memories with Q were not as clear as before. In fact Kathy probably knew Q a little better than he did right now.
"Is it common practice for him to switch the bodies of couples?" Janeway raised a hand and shook her head. "You don't need to answer that actually, I know the answer already." Janeway was startled when the shuttle started shaking. "What's that?"
Q took his seat again quickly looking over the controls. "We are getting some sort of interference in the lower stratosphere of the gas giant. Our sensors didn't pick this up before." The shuttle shook again a little more violently. "Hold on, we are going to have a rough landing." Janeway went to snap her fingers but nothing happened.
"I have bad news for you, I don't know how to actually put the shuttle back on Voyager."
Q paused looking at her for a moment, of all the times she had to go and get performance anxiety on him it had to be now. Just when he thought she had near full control of those powers too. "Oh, fantastic. Just hold onto something then." The shuttle lurched again as it entered the atmosphere of the M class planet, fire licking up along the sides of the shuttle as as came down too fast. "Going to slow our decent so we don't get turned into a particle shower."
Janeway held onto the arm of her chair and nodded her head. "Well, you will be a particle shower, I'll..."
Q interrupted her, "Unless you know how to pull every molecule of your body back together you are coming down with me Kathy."
"Good point." The shuttle slowed down as Q used his 'starfleet' training to bring her in 'softly'. Or as soft as one could bring down a crashing shuttle. The nose dove right at the ground digging up a deep trench as it plowed along the grown, one of the side stabilizers tearing off when it smacked against a tree. "I just have one question, what is it with you and shuttle's crashing?" Janeway yelled over at him.
"Is that me? I thought it was you?" He went quiet at the nose of the shuttle hit another tree and made Q almost smack his head into the consul. "Whiplash." Q finally spoke up again with the shuttle at a dead stop. "I have such bad whiplash right now."
"I'm fine." Janeway replied, she still couldn't feel a damn thing.
"Good for you Q." Q caught himself saying and sat up with alarm. "I meant Kathy." Rubbing his forehead he looked down at his hand to make sure he wasn't bleeding. Kathy's curse of head injuries seemed to have been passed on to him. Maybe it was the fact that despite being a big scary Starfleet captain she was tiny little figure. What sort of woman who looked like she could be snapped like a twig could kick his ass in velocity and hover ball? "I think we landed safely."
"Really? I think we crashed." Janeway snapped back, at least she had caught up on his sens of humor or this was going to be a rough ride. Getting up from her seat she walked over to Q's side pulling him away from the consul and looking at his forehead. "You hit your head."
"No kidding, you don't say." He groaned grabbing his forehead again.
"It's only a cut, still look beautiful."
"Well, isn't that the important thing." He grumbled pulling his hand away again. "How about you just take us back up to Voyager. Tell them we cut our trip short."
Janeway shook her head. "You know what, no. I brought you here so you could see this stupid planet so you need to get out of this shuttle and at least look at the stupid planet. Then I can take us back to Voyager." Q was about to say something. "No, not a word Kathryn." She paused. "Q." Taking in a breath she finally got it off her chest. "Listen, I know you can look after yourself and everything and I'm a jerk to you more than I should be but uh. I want to at least do something, anything for you to let you know...I'm there, I'm, listening. Most importantly, it's okay if you don't need me but..."
"Hold on Q...Kathy." Q sat quietly there for a moment. "I do need you, and not just for Amelia and Emily either." He sat there a moment looking away, who was speaking for who? Q felt like Kathy had just mentioned one of his fears and he had just answered that fear. "You might be all powerful but you don't understand the human heart very well do you. The metaphorical one, because I know you are well versed in the cardiovascular system. You don't have to...do things for me in order for me to need you. I just, do. You're the oxygen I need to breath."
Janeway went quiet for a moment. "And, I cause trouble around you a lot but I guess that's my way of working through things. It's not because I want you to necessarily suffer or cause you more headache than you already have. I'm just afraid...I'll never be good enough for you. Just look at Chakotay, he's a great guy and I'm just...well I'm omnipotent but that only gets you so far in a real relationship I found out."
Q took Janeways hand and looked up at him with a smile on her face. "That's the most human thing you have ever said." A strange gold spark moved up along both their arms from where their hands had met, like a volt or charge it hit them both in the chest making them jump a little. Janeway opened her eyes again looking over at Q, the actual Q. Letting his hand go she stood up from her seat running her hands over her body to make sure this was really hers.
"I have my body back." She seemed a little too excited before she realized she did indeed have whiplash and her forehead was killing her. "Oh, oh, pain. I almost forgot." Janeway sat back down in her seat.
Q looked around hearing her call out in excitement, glancing down at his own hands he let out a sigh and glanced over at Janeway. "You certainly do." He replied with a cocky smile. After living in his head for three days Janeway just smiled and leaned her head back, Q would be Q. She didn't need to try and change him or reel him in. She was just going to keep on letting him be Q and apologize for him if others got offended. "And your forehead is still bleeding."
She raised a hand up nodding her head. "I'm alright, it's just good to have this body back."
"Am...I still your oxygen?" He asked a little nervously.
Janeway looked back at him letting a tiny somewhat shy smile slip across her features. "I would say so, and in that case Q, I think I need a respirator right now."
He leaned in kissing her, "That better?"
"A little, I still hurt everywhere though." She pointed at him. "And don't worry, I'm not leaving you for Chakotay. Besides, I'm curious to know if you really have figured out it takes more that powers to make things work out."
"Well a good friend of mine said sometimes it's the little things that matter more." Q thought back to Chakotay's advice to him, or more so to Kathryn. Raising his elbow he offered his arm to her. "Still want to see the red sky."
Janeway looked at his arm and shrugged. "Such a gentleman." She reached up to him. "Carry me?" Q was practically beaming now at her comment. He didn't even wait to see if she had been serious about that before picking her up and pulling her close to his chest. Walking to the shuttle door he gave it a few kicks until it started to open. That was going to have to get fixed eventually. Walking outside he moved into a clearing where they could better look up at the sky. Tom had been right, it was red, like a sky on fire, the moons glistening under the radiance of the single sun like ruby's. "I thought there would be more bugs."
"Anthropoids." Q corrected her before realizing she had been joking, the two of them shared a good laugh together not just over the joke but the past three crazy days. "You know, I'm surprised you still want to wear white on your wedding day. That's sort of an old tradition, not to mention you certainly are not a virgin." He knew better, he still remembered the names of all those boys his dead little Kathy had broken along the way. She certainly had quite the interesting past.
"You shouldn't be talking, you have a few secrets of your own." She paused looking back at him with a spark of mischief in her eyes. "Loki?"
Q shrugged and tilted his head to the side. "Like you are surprised?"
"Well it certainly explains a lot." She laughed. "Certainly not a honeymoon location but, it's still beautiful."
"Speaking of honeymoon, you didn't mention that in your dream wedding rundown, what was that? A five point essay? I said give me an idea not a walk through."
"I'm the captain Q I don't have time for a..."
"Don't give me that, Chakotay can run the ship for a weekend so you can have a honeymoon Kathryn. You deserve a few days off anyways. I'll take you anywhere you want to go, no holodeck. Any planet, any time even."
"That reminds me." She tapped her fingers against his shoulder. "While I was you I had Tom pack a little something extra for us, we may have crashed the shuttle but...we do have three hours before Voyager leaves orbit and I had Tom give us a little champagne and a dozen white lilies. If they survived."
"Captain, are you asking me on a date?" He stopped her a second then. "Champagne? Really Kathryn?"
She raised her finger to stop him knowing very well where this was going. "Non alcoholic."
"Now if only you could drink decaf coffee." He teased back.
