Author's Note: The dialogue at the end of this scene was written by Melinda M. Snodgrass.


"I may have to kill him."

Finn's words burned in her mind.

Beverly stood in the cave at the back of the rebels' hideout, watching Jean-Luc as he gazed at the drawings in the sketchbook Finn had given her.

She wondered now how she could ever have thought the Ansata leader might be able to claim the moral high ground. His unprovoked attack on the Enterprise plus their conversation just now – and his ominous threat to kill her captain – had made it abundantly clear that Kyril Finn was no Jean-Luc Picard. Finn may not want her to fear him, but nonetheless he was a fanatic and a cold-blooded killer.

Whereas Jean-Luc was both an extraordinary leader and the most extraordinary of men. Everyone knew it – from the Enterprise crew to the President of the Federation to the rawest cadet at Starfleet Academy.

Right from the first moment they'd met she could see that he was marked with greatness. She and Jack used to joke that Jack had hitched his star to the hardest act to follow in all of Starfleet, and that Jean-Luc was surely destined for the Admiralty if the politics didn't kill him first. And nothing that transpired down the years – not Jack's accident, nor the loss of the Stargazer – had shaken that belief.

Until now.

For if Finn got his way, Jean-Luc's life could end here. The innocent victim of a cruel power play, in the midst of an endless, senseless conflict with which Starfleet was only trying to help.

And she would never have the chance to tell him…so many things. Things that had been building within her for some time now, beginning when she and Wesley had joined the Enterprise nearly three years ago.

First of all, she needed to make sure he knew that she'd never held him responsible for Jack's death. Even all these years later they'd never actually spoken about it directly. But earlier, when she'd spoken of Wesley's role models on the Enterprise, she could see Jean-Luc was thinking of Jack, and she recognized as clearly as if he'd spoken aloud that he still felt guilty over his best friend's demise.

Beverly had always presumed that taking the CMO post under Jean-Luc's command sent him a sufficiently clear message that she didn't condemn him for the accident on the Stargazer – but perhaps she needed to tell him more directly that she didn't blame him and that it was time he stopped blaming himself. Jean-Luc was very good at taking all the responsibility onto his own shoulders, but life was too short for him to continue carrying that sort of burden.

Beyond that she wanted to more fully express her gratitude for his mentorship of Wes – especially after such an inauspicious start. After their awkward first encounter on the Enterprise bridge she never imagined that Jean-Luc would let her son set foot there again, much less make him part of the crew and allow him to share in the responsibility of piloting the ship. That experience was making Wesley into a very fine man, and she'd meant every word she'd said to Jean-Luc about her son having good role models.

Finally, she wanted to tell him how grateful she also was for their renewed friendship, which had been rekindled over the past few months and was becoming something she considered a rare gift, one that she cherished.

What she didn't dare tell him was how much she cared for him. As a leader – and as a man. One day, she hoped, there would be a time for that, for exploring the possibilities that lay between them. In particular, the possibility that their friendship might one day grow into something much more intimate.

But not now. Not today. Not sitting here as prisoners in a rebel hideaway where anyone could overhear. If Finn found out how I really feel about Jean-Luc… She shuddered at the thought. Setting her jaw, she forced her mind back onto its objective.

Frankly, getting across all she did want to say to Jean-Luc now was going to be difficult enough. For, although he accepted criticism with an open mind and a keen desire to improve himself in response, he accepted gratitude with far less grace. Still, this was too good an opportunity to pass up. With his hands literally tied, he was just going to have to sit there and take it.

If she could get his attention, that is.

"This might prove to be an advantage to us," he noted as she tossed Finn's drawing pad aside.

It might, but she needed him to stop thinking of escape for one moment and listen to her. "Jean-Luc," she began, and then paused as she realized how forcefully the words had left her lips.

Breathing out an apologetic sigh, Beverly slowly lowered herself to sit beside him. "There are some things I want to tell you."

He went still, his attention fully on her at last.

Finn's voice, his threat, sounded in her head again. Jean-Luc could die here. We both could. Because somewhere in the past few minutes she had made an unconscious but irrevocable decision. I'll be damned if I'm going to let him die alone. "In case we don't get out of this –"

And right then, with impeccable timing, the lights cut out and everything went black.

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