When he came to, every part of his body aching with ferocity, Picard found Beverly hovering over him, distressed. "Come on, come on," she was whispering, hand cradling his cheek. A hypospray clattered to the wooden floor next to him.
Though everything was only just coming back into focus, he could see in her eyes that she was fighting through the anaphasic energy influence; the clarity that had been missing before was now present in her distraught gaze. Thank God, it's you. He swallowed, wanting to assuage her worries about him, finally managing to speak: "I'm all right." But La Forge, Data—they would be in danger like him, if Ronin wasn't stopped. Picard wasn't sure he could move at all yet, but if she could make it to the cemetery, warn them somehow... "Beverly, go after him."
She wavered, searching his face for reassurance, before nodding with emotion and turning to rush out the door.
Still lying on the ground, Picard reached up to touch his communicator but heard nothing from it. Groaning, he willed himself to roll over and pulled himself up with difficulty, looking around the ground floor. Felisa had to have a computer here somewhere. He spotted a desk across the room and painfully dragged himself over to it, fiddled with the personal communications unit he found there until the indicator light glowed to show the connection.
"Picard to Enterprise," he rasped.
There was a delay, no more than twenty seconds though the wait felt agonizing, while the hailing communication was routed properly. Then: "Riker here. Are you all right, Captain?" Picard heard the alarm in the younger man's voice. He must sound worse than he thought.
"Hit by the anaphasic energy," he explained. The pounding in his head made it difficult to focus on speaking. "Dr. Crusher needs help. She went to the cemetery. Data found the source there." He wasn't sure how much sense he was making, but he trusted his first officer would understand.
"She just called, sir. We're shutting down the plasma vents in the weather control system."
"She needs help," he repeated, sweating. Had he made a mistake in sending her after Ronin? What if it attacked her again? Shouldn't have let her go alone. He wasn't in any shape to have accompanied her, but he felt a stab of guilt along with his rising anxiety. He'd been overconfident in coming here alone, even if he hadn't known Ronin's nature yet. He'd just wanted to persuade her to return...
"Yes, sir. Data and La Forge aren't responding. We've got a team on the way down there right now."
He slumped against the desk, still anxious but now at least relieved that the Enterprise would resolve the situation soon. And Beverly would come home.
"Captain, hold on just a minute. I'm going to have you beamed to sickbay."
He nodded, though of course Riker couldn't see it. "Thank you, Number One." A few moments later, he felt the familiar tingle of the ship's transporter envelop him, and the solid walls of the Howard home dissolved before his eyes.
Beverly's quick intervention had made the critical difference, and under Dr. Selar's efficient ministrations, Picard was feeling much better soon after returning to the Enterprise. As the Vulcan was giving him direction only to rest for a little while, Will Riker entered sickbay with a two-person engineering team and the away team beamed back all at once. The formerly quiet ward was now awash in purposeful activity as an unconscious Geordi La Forge was lifted to a biobed and Data's prone form was surrounded. Picard tensed in concern for his officers, though he knew they would be well taken care of by their respective teams and there was little he could contribute to their efforts.
His gaze was drawn to the other figure who'd materialized. In her bare feet, nightgown, and robe, tousled red hair spilling in waves over her shoulders, Beverly looked disheveled and distressingly out of place in her own sickbay. Picard was struck by a sudden desire to pull her away, to shield her from the curious eyes of her staff until she could have a chance to collect herself...but given everything that had just happened between them, he wasn't sure if she would appreciate his sentiment or not.
As if sensing his attention on her, she looked up, her red-rimmed eyes catching his anxious ones from across sickbay. She blinked several times and he could see her struggle to contain her emotions. He slid off the biobed, intent now on going to her side regardless of his reservations—but she quickly averted her gaze again, turning away to find a tricorder to assist in treating La Forge.
He stopped, pressing his lips into a thin line but otherwise maintaining an impassive expression. After watching her a moment longer in the midst of the flurry of activity, he took a breath, squared his shoulders and turned his attention to his first officer. "Report, Number One."
She was home now. There would be time enough to talk later.