Beverly Crusher was somewhat relieved when the Commander left the sickbay with the little girl the next morning. It was inconvenient for her to listen, when Jean-Luc entrusted the custody of the little girl to the reluctant biological mother. More than inconvenient, but there was no other choice. It was hard to have a child on a starship, designed for combat, like the Stargazer. So there was no other solution, the Captain sacrificed the Commander. She had to take care of the child. The little girl thought of her as her mother anyway, and was only willing to keep quiet with her. Despite the little girl's trust, Beverly wasn't so sure that the nervous, tensed Commander would be able to care for a child. But - to her credit - the Commander was willing to carry out the order. So she walked out of the sickbay with the little girl.

Beverly leaned back in her chair, and began to read the reports, when Seven of Nine returned to the sickbay with a crying child in her arms again. The relief didn't last for minutes.

"She was running on the corridor, and tripped on the stairs and rolled down before I could reach her" she explained nervously. "I didn't mean to harm her."

"Don't worry, just a few bruises" Beverly tried to comfort her, while examining the child.

She asked one of the nurses to treat the girl, and turned to the Commander.

"Small children often have accidents, but almost never serious ones. If you want to protect the little girl, hold her hand as you walk down the hall" She told to the Borg, and gave her a notepad. "Here, read it. It is about basic childcare. Bring her to your quarters and give her breakfast. She is sure hungry now, she skipped dinner yesterday."

"Aye, madam!"

"I will send you Deanna, for help!"

Deanna Troi also wasn't in a good mood, when Beverly asked her to help Seven of Nine. She usually enjoyed the companion of the Commander, because she controlled her emotions very well. It made Deanna relaxed a bit. But when that control failed, and her emotions overflowed, it was stronger, than a bunch of Klingons.

And now, the Commander was definitely our of control. That child destroyed everything in her fragile soul. Beverly told Deanna, that Seven of Nine is experiencing jealousy, and desperate, that her love chose another woman, but the Counselor believed it or not. Love is a very beautiful emotion, but she wasn't able to imagine the cold Borg to fell in love. For this reason, she excluded jealousy from the possible feelings. There must be something else in the background.

Anyway, she arrived to the quarters of the Commander, and tapped the bell.

"Come in!"

The sight that greeted her was hilarious: everywhere in the quarters were plates with various food, and all of the food was also present on Seven of Nine's uniform. It seemed that not an atom of it went down the child's throat. They were sitting at the table, and the Commander tried to feed the girl.

"At least eat this!" the Commander offered a spoonful of sauce to the girl. "It is delicious!"

She somehow managed to push the spoon to the child's mouth. The girl was thinking for a few seconds (her expression strongly resembled that of the Commander), however, she ended up spitting the sauce right in the Commander's face.

Deanna tried not to laugh.

"She's probably not hungry..." the Counselor suggested.

"The Doctor said, that she missed the dinner, so she is definitely hungry" came the indignant answer.

"Maybe she doesn't like the food, you offered to her."

"It is quite obvious. But then what does she want eat? In the childcare book these are the favorite food of a child aged one and half."

"You can't learn everything from books. Sometimes you have to try" Deanna told to the Commander, but at that very moment, she realized, that she had been wrong. The Commander at least tried.

Seven didn't looked at the Counselor, she was watching the girl. The child was definitely hungry, because she put her fist to her mouth, and chewed that.

"How long does it take for a child of this size to starve to death?" she blurted desperately.

"You don't have to be so upset! Children don't tend to starve as long as there is food in front of them! I think we should clean up this mess and start over!"

The two woman started to clean the quarters, so the girl was getting bored, and stood up on the chair. She climbed to the table, which tipped off its balance and the Commander had to catch the little girl so she wouldn't fall down with the table. Seven of Nine sat trembling on the chair with the child in her lap for a while. The Counselor felt her fright, and tried to comfort her.

"Nothing happened to her!"

"I can not do this! This child would rather die in an accident than starve!" she cried, and tears were flowing on her face. "I am not suitable to take care of her!"

Deanna was about to say something reassuring when the little girl picked up the fork from the table and began to eat the Commander's breakfast in a nice peaceful manner. The two adults looked at her in shock. The girl picked up a little from the yellow steamed plant to her fork, and raised the bite to the Commander's mouth.

Seven felt like eating that food for the first time. She took the food in her mouth, chewed it and swallowed it. The girl peacefully ate almost the whole portion of the steamed plant, but gave a bite sometimes to Seven.

"Well, we already know that your tastes match" Deanna was watching smiling the eating mother and daughter.

There was something heartwarming about the way the little one fed the big one.

"I'm more surprised that the child is only willing to eat Talaxian food. Everyone on Voyager hated Neelix's cooking."