Chapter 12: Locked Up

As the Captain strolled into the Brig later that afternoon, she watched for a moment as Q continuously poked the force field with his index finger. If she hadn't been so damned angry, it would have been amusing.

"I know you've been in a brig before." she stated, capturing his attention.

"Kathy! What am I doing in here? Chuckles threw me in but wouldn't tell me why."

She leaned back onto the console behind her, looking at him for a few long moments of silence before clicking her tongue.

"I want to play a game Q." her voice was perilously calm, "I need your help."

Q eyes widen with a hint of excitement. That was certainly a more appealing idea of how to pass the time rather than sitting alone in a dreary cell. However, with the body posture she'd just adopted, perhaps he should have been a little more worried.

"A game?" he asked, hoping he had heard correctly.

"Yes, a game."

Sitting up straight on the edge of the bed, Q waited in anticipation.

"Hypothetically, how would I go about playing a game called 'Black Hole Blockade'?"

With every word, his eyes widened and he slowly looked away. That alone made her feel sick. It was true. Everything Fred had told her was true.

"I… I wouldn't know."

"Really?" she questioned slowly, "Well, let me tell you the rules."

Shifting her weight, the Captain continued to stare at Q.

"First, you choose a habited system to blockade with black holes." she paused, "Then you watch which hole swallows up which planet." Her

Her breathing deepened. "Perhaps there's a point system, I'm not too sure. Sound familiar?"

Q refused to make eye contact. "You make me sound awful."

Breathing out silently, the Captain rolled her shoulders back. She felt horrendously sick. If she could have her way, she'd have left and never seen him again. He truly was a monster.

She broke away from looking at him, her skin was crawling. She'd been terrified when she'd learnt he'd taken advantage of her. Now all she felt when she looked at him was repulsion.

"Do you know; I was hoping Fred was lying. I was hoping that I wasn't wrong about you, Q." her voice was soft, "I knew you were trouble, a damned pain even, but I never thought you were a monster." she gulped, "You make me feel physically sick, and I ashamed to see you associated with that uniform."

Q felt himself grow still, looking towards the Captain as she spoke.

"I am ashamed to know you; to have believed in you."

It took a few long moments before she allowed herself to return to business.

She met his eye. "You're going to release the Perpetuani from the black holes and give them their planet back."

Q scoffed. "Never!"

The Captain felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand. "It's genocide!"

"I don't care!" he cried, "They'd destroy us!"

The Captain felt her breath leave her lungs. "So committing genocide's acceptable?"

Q sighed. "Kathy…"

"No." she cut him off, "You've just proved it, Q. You're evil."

She turned to leave, very much aware she was shaking. It wasn't because she was scared, it was because she was livid.

"Kathy, wait!"

She turned, aware his hand was held out but hindered by the force field. Or was it?

"No."

=/\=

Two weeks had passed and the Captain had given up with Q. She may have had two weeks left until her deadline but it wasn't bothering her, not anymore.

It was strange. It should have been terrifying her. If Fred's threat was valid, she had two weeks to prevent her ship's destruction. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that not all was what it appeared to be. Call it a hunch.

She'd just reached nine-month marker in her pregnancy and was beginning to show. Chakotay could easily see the difference, he knew her body too well. He knew she was self-conscious about it but in his eyes, she couldn't have looked any more breathtaking.

Much to his amusement, she still refused to wear a maternity uniform. Wearing it would have been her way of admitting something was changing and that was something Kathryn Janeway didn't like to do publicly. She really could be too stubborn for her own good.

"Kathryn?"

The Commander popped his head into her office. "Are you coming to eat now?"

She lifted her head and laughed lightly. She'd have called him impatient if he hadn't been waiting for over an hour. Besides, she needed a break. She'd been working for almost six hours non-stop and she still hadn't got anywhere.

Meeting his eye, she smiled tiredly. "Yes." she leant back on her chair to stretch out her stiffened body, "Give me a minute."

Upon leaving her office a few moments later, the Captain found her smile growing when she caught sight of how the table was set. A white lace tablecloth and candles – No wonder he'd been trying to get her to join him.

"I can see why you were anxious."

She turned to see him almost laughing, merely inches from her face.

"Thought you'd like it."

Her smile grew softly as her hands came up to his jaw. Without thinking, she pressed her lips to his, smiling into the kiss.

"Thank you." she breathed.

The following dinner passed with a calm ambience and general small talk – near enough perfection. It was certainly the welcomed break the Captain had needed and for once, there were no interruptions. She considered it a welcomed rarity. It ended far too soon for her liking because at 2100 hours, the Commander had to go on duty. With nothing more than simple kiss, he left their quarters with her still sat at the table looking over leftovers and used crockery. It looked as though the tidying was all down to her. Great.

It was a good few minutes later before she had the pleasure of watching the last batch dematerialised in the replicator, and only then that she allowed herself to relax in the subdued lighting. She really needed to get some sleep.

Stifling a yawn, she turned and lazily headed towards the bedroom. All the work she'd been doing all day was catching up to her and she wasn't afraid to admit that she was tired. Not only that, her next shift was only a mere seven hours away.

The flash of a bright white light caught her by surprise. With a gasp, she shot around back towards the replicator and found herself frowning. The alien who she saw stood before her wasn't the alien she'd expected.

"Fred?"

"Captain Janeway." he hissed.

"Security to Captain Janeway."

She hit her combadge in response. "Yes, Ensign?"

Her eyes never left the sudden visitor but her brow did crease.

"Q just disappeared, Ma'am."

"Acknowledged."

She ended the communication abruptly and straightened her back, all signs of her surprise gone and replaced with a deadly state.

"What did you do him?"

Fred frowned in response. "Nothing."

The Captain examined him closely. He looked as though he was being sincere but something wasn't adding up.

She took a step closer to him. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see if you'd gotten through to Q yet."

The Captain couldn't help it, she scoffed and begun to smirk dangerously. The last time she'd seen him, he'd threatened her with destruction. Now he wanted to chat about the being whom he planned to destroy her ship over?

"I didn't think you'd care whether or not I'd got through to him." her lips toyed with her smirk, "You seemed pretty clear that all you cared about was your revenge against Q. Why bother acting concerned now?"

Even in the dim light, she saw the alien swallow as his confidence began to mirror her own.

"I don't want to destroy your vessel." he paused, "I'm not a monster, Madame Captain."

She felt her head drop slowly, her eyebrow raising. She'd have described him as cocky to a point of no return if that particular name hadn't made something click.

She stopped, dead. For a few moments, her brain went into overload but finally, after all of her work and research, things were beginning to fall into place.

"Of course."

Her sudden change in posture made his frown deepen as much as his face allowed. She'd gone from being poised to her shoulders dropping and her head shaking slowly side to side.

"Captain Janeway?"

Again, the Captain found herself scoffing. In all honestly, she felt a little stupid, and she was angry. Damned angry. It wasn't just at herself either for being so slow, it was the entire situation. She really couldn't believe it had taken so long to work it out. She was slipping.

She didn't bother to excuse herself from Fred's company. She didn't even wait for him to say anything more, she just left. She had somewhere she needed to go.

=/\=

It was mere minutes later that the Captain found herself entering the Brig. The junior officer on duty stood to attention abruptly the moment she did – clearly he hadn't been expecting a visit from the Captain at that time of night.

Taking barely two confident steps inside, she signalled for the young officer to ease before coming face to face with the bored omnipotent being trapped behind the forcefield. It was only when she fell back to lean against the console that Q looked up and saw her.

"Kathy!"

"Don't!"

Her voice chillingly cold and in an instant, Q silenced himself. He'd once described her as angry when she was beautiful, now she was simply angry enough that he daren't think about her in any other way.

"I'll admit, it took me a while to work out but enough is enough, Q." her jaw was tight, "I'm tired."

"Kathy?" his voice was soft, uncertain.

Her stare remained deadly. "You're a good actor. You missed your true calling."

"I don't understand…"

"I said, don't!" she took a moment to pause, mostly to keep herself composed, "I've worked it out, Q. I understand everything now."

For the first time that he could remember, Q felt genuinely intimidated.

"Understand what?"

"Who Fred is… He's you!"

Immediately, Q's uncertain features fell into a frown.

"Kathy, don't be ridiculous." he tried to reason.

"Unfortunately, I'm not. I wish I were." she shook her head disbelievingly, "I can't believe you've done this."

"Look, I don't know what you think you've worked out, but…"

"Q, stop! You're not human and you never were. You never lost your powers."

Q just stood before her, unsure what else to say. It was clear she was no longer convinced.

"If you want to keep pretending you are, how about we try something?"

The tiniest hint of a smirk on her narrow lips filled the omnipotent being with a sense of dread he found her really didn't like. He'd never seen this side of the Captain before.

"Computer, remove the oxygen from behind the force field of Cell 1."

Q's eyes widened. Her tone had indicated she was going to do something rather illogical.

"Kathy!"

She shook her head as he began to gasp for air. She wasn't buying it.

"I'm tired, Q." she confessed weakly, her earlier confidence quickly being overtaken, "I'm tired of the lies, of the games. You never lost your powers, you were never stuck here. So stop, please."

She heaved a large sigh. "I don't need this at the moment… I can't deal with this at the moment."

Despite the fact that her voice had broken, despite the fact that she no longer had the dangerous aura irradiating from her body, Q was aware of only one thing. She was serious.

Sighing deeply, he straightened his back and met her eye, clearly having no problem despite the lack of oxygen in his surrounding atmosphere.

The young officer behind her was shocked to see how the events had unfolded but the Captain wasn't. She wasn't happy at all and she definitely wasn't looking forward to the I told you so she'd receive from the Commander later on. He'd been right from the very start.

With a snap of his fingers, Q appeared at her side outside the cell with all the power having shut down. It hadn't taken him long to use his powers after being found out.

"How did you know?" he asked.

The Captain did her best not to scoff. "I followed the trail of lies." she sneered.

He looked away briefly, a sigh being the only noise he made for a few moments. He needed to decide what to say next – his intention was to try and not create another war. He'd already been responsible for one far too recently.

"I'm sorry." he finally said. He didn't know if it would help but it was a start.

The Captain couldn't stop herself from scoffing that time.

"Sorry." she repeated harshly, "Because that makes everything okay, doesn't it?"

Q moved away, ultimately falling against the far wall. While her eyes never left him, she was more than grateful for the distance he'd put between them.

"Why did do this?" she asked after a moment, "What possessed you to do this?"

"Kathy…"

"You made yourself look like a monster, Q!" she cried, "Why would you do that?!"

Q sighed. "I'm sorry…" he tried to apologise again.

"That doesn't change anything, Q!" the Captain snapped, her jaw clenched as she spoke, "You put my ship and crew in danger, threatened to destroy us. Why?! I don't understand why you'd do that! Am I missing the point?"

"I can't explain." he confessed. There was no point even trying.

The Captain felt herself deflate. It was all too much. Not only could she not understand him, she was tired, both physically and mentally. She couldn't deal with it for the moment. She hadn't got the energy.

Q was suddenly yet genuinely concerned by her sudden silence. It was a complete change in character that he wasn't used to seeing. Suddenly, she didn't look like the Captain Janeway he knew.

"Are you okay?"

It was laughable – what a ridiculous question. Of course she wasn't okay.

Any other time she'd have gone right back to arguing her point, asserting her authority with an alarming tone. She was the Captain, she was good at that. She guessed if there were more people around other than just Q and the junior officer, she'd have forced herself to. However, in the privacy of the Brig, her image would survive if she allowed her character to slip for a few moments.

The look she shot at him made him frown. He for one hadn't failed to notice the way she'd changed over the past few human months. Her behaviour towards him was nothing if not unusual. He assumed that too is what had led to her current unusual behaviour toward him.

"Kathy, what's wrong with you?" he pushed himself off the wall and took a couple of steps closer, "What have I done?"

The questions gave the Captain a small, needed shot of confidence. It was enough to make her laugh dryly at him.

"You know exactly what you've done."

"No, I'm not about this thing with Fred… It started before." he met her eye, "You seem… different with me. You have for a while… Why?"

The Captain found herself tensing her back. Was he really that arrogant, that conceited?

"You know." she felt her voice drop dangerously low, "You know what you did to me."

"Honestly Kathy, I don't know what you're talking about."

The Captain shuddered as he closed the space between them.

"You impregnated me…" she stated barely above a whisper before finally snapping, "You impregnated me even though I said no! Countless times, Q, I said no!"

"I know, I didn't…" his face was crumpled with obvious confusion, "I didn't do anything. It didn't work, I…"

Q froze immediately, his voice pausing. He hadn't realised.

His silence made the Captain's deadly stare return. He'd just unmeaningly admitted it.

"Oh, my…" Q felt a deep guilt flood through his body, a feeling he had never properly experienced before, "Kathy, I am so, so sorry. I…"

"Sorry isn't good enough, Q."

"Kathy." he tried to object.

He made one critical mistake as he said her name, he touched her shoulder. Her entire body tensed painfully when he tried to lightly grip the said joint.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed, pushing his hands away roughly. Whether or not he was as innocent as he claimed, it wasn't going to change the way she felt about him.

Q stumbled back. She'd never been aggressive towards him before. However, he supposed it made sense. After all, in her eyes, having him touch her shoulder after apparently violating her was like salt to a wound. It was a natural reaction to his touch.

"I… I guess I deserved that." he confessed, regaining his balance, "But no matter what the circumstances are, Kathy. This is still my child. My baby. I should help you through this… I have the right."

She flinched at the thought. She didn't want him anywhere near her or the baby.

It was as the silence fell over the room that the Captain realised that the young officer was still present and hearing every word. Turning around, she dismissed him by a simple nod of her head. He wasn't stupid; he left immediately. It was only after the doors closed behind him that she turned back to Q.

"You may be the biological father of this baby but you will never be the father."

"Kathy…"

The Captain simply shook her head. "I don't want to hear it, Q."

"Look, despite what you think, I am truly sorry about how all this has happened."

She didn't care. "It's not good enough, Q."

She was right and he agreed with her. He may not have intended for anything to happen but it had. It had and there was no way he'd be able to easily talk his way out of it. There was no denying, he'd really messed up.

He looked down at her body was able to notice the slight bump under her uniform. It was his child growing there, a child that for now he couldn't do anything about. He needed to give her time before approaching the subject again.

He looked up and met her eye. It was clear he'd definitely outstayed his welcome.

"I'll leave now."

"Yes." she agreed with a nod, "I think it's well past the time you get yourself off my ship."

Not daring to apologise again, Q went to snap his fingers. However, his action was interrupted by the sudden hail.

"Sickbay to Captain."

"Yes, Doctor?" she broke away from Q and looked up towards the ceiling, "What is it?"

The sound of his voice haunted her, so did his following words.

"We've lost Naomi."