The crew was excited to finally receive some word from home. After sending their 'SOS' through the alien communication network they finally got a response. Letters from home, Harry Kim naturally was going on and on about what his parents were probably going to write to him. Janeway was somewhat excited herself to get a letter from her friends and family but more than that she was interested in the coded message from Starfleet. She had Seven working around the clock to get as much information as possible before the signal degraded too badly and they lost it entirely. She had just come back from checking on Sevens progress and was handed a letter of her own, a letter from her family and even one from Mark. Seven had put them together after the current download. She walked into her Ready Room with the PADD in her hand and smiled when she saw Amelia crawling towards her. "Hello Amy." Janeway crouched down to pick up the baby and looked back over at where she had left her on the other side of the room. Since she had figured out how to crawl there were few places she couldn't get to now. "Do you want to help me read some letters?"
Kathryn sat down on her sofa holding Amelia in one arm and the PADD in the other. Her daughter wasn't as easy to carry around as she use to be, she had gotten fairly big and very strong. When he held onto Amelia you had to keep a good grip on her or she was going to worm her way out of your arms. Resting Amelia in her lap Janeway smiled as her daughter grabbed for the PADD in her hand. "Amelia, let go, mommy's got to read this." Janeway fought against the little girl for a while. The kid had one hell of a grip, once she had something in her hand it was only fifty fifty you would be getting it back. After a few more tugs Kathryn freed the PADD from Amelia's grip and held it up over the baby's head so she couldn't get a hold of it again. Despite it being out of her reach Amelia continued to reach up for it, whining once she realized she couldn't have it. "Well, if you would just be patient I could read it and then you can have it." She leaned back a little more and laughed as Amelia grabbed onto her shirt and tried to use her mother as an anchor so she could stand up. For her age she had figured things out quickly, standing was the next challenge she was tackling and doing a fairly good job at it. So long as Amelia had something to hold onto she could stand up but the second she lost her anchor she was down on the ground again.
Kathryn grabbed onto Amelia just in case the little girl realized she wasn't as sound on her feet as she would have liked to believe. "Look at this, we got a letter from your grandmother." Janeway smiled finally getting to hear from her mother after four long years, knowing her mother had finally received the good news that her daughter hadn't died. Janeway read on hearing the text in her mothers voice as the woman explained how much she had cried the day they told her Voyager and it's captain was still alright, just far from home. Her mother went on saying she had faith if anyone could bring Voyager back that it was Kathryn who could do it. Some news really surprised her then, her younger sister was engaged. A lot had really changed since Voyager had gotten trapped out in the delta quadrant. "Hmm, what do you know, I guess my sister's getting married." Amelia looked up at Janeway as she sucked on her fingers, her big green eyes studying her mothers face. "Don't give me that look." Janeway paused running a hand through her daughters locks. "I'm working on it myself." She had discussed the wedding quite a bit with Q lately but they hadn't decided exactly when they would do it. Then Janeway got to the point in her letter she had been nervous about, so they had told her mother about the baby and Emily.
Janeway smiled again after reading more of her mothers letter and looked down at Amelia. "Your grandmother says hello Amelia." She would have said that her mother was likely dying to meet her but the last few lines of her letter didn't seem to sit well with her. "Amy, are there other trips your father has taken you on outside of Voyager?" She looked back at her daughter as the little girl smiled at her and giggled a little. "I thought so." After reading her first letter from her mother she moved onto the one from Mark, the beginning of it an update on Mollie and assurance that all the puppies went to good homes. Part way through Marks letter Q appeared in the corner of the Ready Room and brushed off his shirt looking like he was covered in dirt.
"I'll be the first to tell you Kathryn, giving Emily those riding lessons has been my living nightmare. That pony hates me. I think Tom has been tinkering with it's personality matrix. "Don't worry about me, Emily managed to get that little demon under control just in time. I shut the program off and sent her to astrometrics. She wants to see what all this fuss is about and help Seven out." Q paused looking at Kathy with the PADD in her hand and little Amelia standing in her lap. "Oh, I see you got your letters already." He walked over and sat down beside her placing a hand on Amelia's back and watching as the little girl finally lost her balance and fell forward into her mothers shoulder. "Anything interesting."
"Mark's getting married." Janeway sighed, she knew he was going to move on eventually, she was happy he had moved on, after all she had been forced to move on.
"Well...congratulations to him?" Q put a hand on her knee and leaned a little closer. "So are you if you remember." He motioned over to the ring on her hand. He could understand on some level though, Kathy had loved this Mark fellow. She was suppose to have ended up as his wife but a lot could happen in four years. Especially four years being alone. Q looked back at Amelia as she reached out for the PADD in Kathryn's hands again. Grabbing the baby from Kathy's lap he bounced her lightly hoping it gave the girls poor mother a chance to finish reading her letters.
"You know, my mother said something rather interesting in her letter. Something along the lines of Amelia looking a lot like i did at her age. Curious how she would know since Starfleet couldn't have given her a holoimage." Q was about to say something when Janeway stopped him. "You took Amelia to meet my mother didn't you." Oh, she didn't sound too happy about that.
Q stopped bouncing Amelia and instead held the baby up like a meat shield or a means to distract Janeway a little. "You know, now that you mention it Amelia does look so much like you." She shot him another sharp glance making him hug Amelia a little tighter. After all Janeway couldn't hit the man who was carrying her child right? "Maybe I did take Amelia to meet her grandmother but it seemed to bother you knowing that your mother might never meet Amelia. I wish I could have taken Emily too but the other Q's are not certain what to make of her just yet. If ever they count her in with Amelia and myself she will be the next to go." Q tried not to look at Kathryn in case she was angry with him. Despite having his abilities back he was still a little fearful of her.
Instead of being yelled at and scolded however Q turned to face her only to have Kathryn kiss him. He hadn't expected that at all, it was much nicer having her kiss him than yell at him. "Thank you." Had he done something right for once? Did he do a good thing? Q smiled back at her.
"You're welcome." He smiled giving her knee a squeeze and looking down at Amelia as she was attacked by the hiccups. For a Q offspring who had few enemies hiccups seemed to be Amelia's only real nemesis. Especially from the look she got on her face every time she had them. Might as well have frightened the poor child with a jump scare. "I'm sorry Amelia?" He raised a brow and patted the baby on the head not that it improved her current dilemma. "Maybe you should just hold your breath." Amelia looked up at Q attacked by another hiccup and seeming rather bothered by this uncontrollable spasm of the diaphragm. "Aside from the signal degrading are you having any trouble from your reptilian friends yet?" Q asked looking back to the Captain. "If so, I might be able to help."
"Not yet but we expect trouble eventually." She smiled when Q offered his assistance. "I thought you couldn't interfere with the natural order of things."
"Well, I can't use my omnipotence but I can shove people into the right direction, pick up a weapon and accidentally let it fire off when aimed at primitive being, or pull my daughter out of harms way, maybe it just so happens in a panic I took her mother with me."
"I couldn't ask you to do that for me, though it's charming you would offer. When things get precarious you know more than any that Voyager needs her captain."
"Then I might just have to stay by her side and make sure she makes it through the fight." Amelia was able to hold back her hiccups long enough to blabber on at her father. "Not you little one, you would have to go someplace safe. You are too young the be a brave starfleet captain just yet." He laughed at her. It seemed funny now but if she ever followed in the footsteps of the Amelia he had met from the future then his daughter was going to be one hell of a fighter and just as stubborn as her mother. "But don't fret little Janeway, your time is coming."
