They entered the turbolift and she called out their destination. Glancing sidelong at Jean-Luc, Beverly could see that his gaze was clear and his pose strong and upright. To her relief he looked relatively unaffected by everything that had just taken place on the bridge.

She slipped the tricorder into the pocket of her lab coat and placed a hand lightly on his arm, just needing to feel him warm and alive beneath her touch. She'd come so close – altogether too close – to losing him this time.

Jean-Luc's eyes met his companion's. "What happened?" he asked, his voice subdued. After years spent under the warm, subtle rays of the sun, the artificial lights in the turbolift seemed unnaturally harsh and bright and he found he had to restrain himself from shielding his eyes against the glare.

Riker and the others had told Beverly the gist of it when she'd reached the bridge. "Do you remember the ship encountering a derelict space probe?"

Yes, that sounds familiar. He slowly nodded.

"Well, it wasn't derelict. Data said it hit you with a nucleonic beam," she continued. "The probe used it to make some sort of connection with you that overloaded your cerebral cortex. He said it was hundreds of years old, but wherever it was from it was very –"

"Kataan," he murmured.

"Pardon?"

"The planet – was called Kataan."

"Kataan," she echoed. Yes, that was the star system that Geordi had mentioned. "Anyway, it somehow took control of your mind. You were completely non-responsive and we couldn't find any way to revive you. You were like that for about twenty five minutes and then it just seemed to stop and let you go."

"And now I'm fine," he assured her in what he hoped was a persuasive tone. He was fine, now that the dizzying sense of disorientation he'd felt on the bridge was fading. "There's no need to go to sickbay –"

She shook her head, hand tightening on his arm. "Jean-Luc, about ten minutes ago Data tried to reflect the beam away from you and back onto the probe. He succeeded, but –" She had to stop and take a slow, steadying breath before continuing.

"You underwent a massive somato-physical failure. We…nearly lost you." To Beverly's dismay she could hear her voice shaking as she said the words. But the enormity of what had just transpired was still far too fresh in her mind and heart to put behind her so easily. Especially that moment of raw, stark terror after the beam had been disrupted when she'd felt him slipping away from her and knew there was nothing she could do to bring him back.

But Jean-Luc was too preoccupied to register her rare show of emotion. Instead he was reveling in her light touch on his arm and desperately trying not to lose himself in her eyes. Beverly. He'd thought of her, dreamed of her, for years. Whenever he'd thought of the Enterprise, she was the first person who came to mind.

Managing to steady her voice Beverly added, "So I need to run a thorough check on you to make sure there aren't any residual problems."

Jean-Luc nodded absently, abandoning the argument as his thoughts drifted back to Kataan. For years he had charted the heavens, trying to determine the planet's location, trying to find a way to send a message that would reunite him with his ship and his crew. Until one day Eline had given him an ultimatum, and he'd finally, reluctantly relinquished his quest in order to focus on his life as Kamin.

And later, as the years went by and his family responsibilities grew, memories of his old life on the Enterprise gradually receded into the recesses of his mind. But he'd never forgotten. Not completely. He'd never forgotten her.

Gazing at her tall, willowy figure now, he couldn't escape the irony that thanks to a probe from a thousand years in the past he'd just had everything with Eline that he'd always wanted with Beverly. A constant companion, a lover, a wife – someone who shared his life, who loved him unconditionally, and who remained by his side through good times and bad.

Someone who – well, be that as it may. I am Jean-Luc Picard. I am captain of the Enterprise, and I'm back on my ship with my CMO and dearest friend. There is no place in the universe I'd rather be. And there is no one I'd rather be with.

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