A/N: Hi. It's been a while, huh? Almost two months :/ My grandpa was sick and passed away a month ago, and I emotionally just couldn't write what I had originally planned for this chapter. And then, two of my family members that I lived with got Covid, so I've been taking care of them and my other two elderly family members. But we're over the hump now, hopefully, and I have enough brain space to write. I re-read this story and all of your lovely comments, and it gave me the motivation to finish up this chapter. I'm working on the next chapter :) Hope you enjoy!

"Or did I imagine it?"

Elle pressed her hand to Geordi's back, rubbing lightly. "You didn't imagine helping Data plan Lal's room. I was there, so was Deanna. I promise."

"Okay." Geordi rubbed a hand over his face. "Sorry."

"No worries," Elle said, biting her lip. "You just got unbrainwashed, it's okay."

He glanced at her, his un-visored eyes still landing on her face. "Hey," he said. "You don't have to blame yourself."

"I should, though," she said. "You got kidnapped by Romulans, and I didn't even remember."

"You remembered early enough to get Data to stop me," he said, reaching out to catch her hand. "That's good enough for me."

She squeezed his hand. "Your head still hurt? I can get Dr. Crusher."

"No, I'm fine. Just the usual." He slipped the visor back on and sighed. "Okay. Remind me, where were we?"

Elle shook off her own guilt and returned to the list. "Walls painted, check. Area rug, ordered. I have bribed Requisitions with lemon bars, it'll be there by tomorrow. Why are we getting a bed if androids don't sleep?"

"Data says that having a bed in the bedroom gives a sense of normalcy," Geordi replied, "and they're nice to sit on."

"They are nice to sit on," Elle agreed. "So we need to either steal a bed or make one. Has he figured out any of Lal's preferences?"

"No, he's letting them choose."

"Okay, but how are we supposed to decorate without a theme?" Elle complained. "Kids love a theme."

"Oh yeah?" he grinned. "What was your theme?"

"Space with sparkles, duh."

Geordi laughed. "Silly of me to think otherwise."

She nudged his shoulder. "You nervous?"

"About Lal? No. Data knows what he's doing, and we've worked out the emotion chip. Lal won't have any cascading failures."

"Good, that's awesome, but I mean, your best friend is having a baby." She checked the chrono. "Due date is in sixteen hours."

Geordi blew out a deep breath. "I'm gonna be an uncle."

"Yeah, you are." She nudged him. "Uncle Geordi. Great title."

He groaned. "Now I'm nervous."

She laughed at him.

After she met with Geordi about the baby shower (android shower?), Elle had a meeting with Guinan, who was in charge of the Picard/Crusher engagement party, which would take place in two days, on Friday. "Mini croissants, check," Guinan said. "I went ahead with the cream cheese and raspberry filling because I didn't trust people not to steal the chocolate ones wholesale."

Elle laughed. "Good choice."

"Do you have what you're gonna wear?" Guinan asked.

"Yup." Elle checked the clock. "And I'm gonna call Wesley about fifteen minutes before so he can get his pre-speech jitters out."

"Good plan. And how are your speech jitters?"

Elle grinned. "I don't have any. The captain has stolen them all."

"Oh?"

"He's terribly nervous about what I'm going to say," Elle said. "I'm not gonna embarrass him, though. Too much."

Guinan hid a smile behind a hand. "I'm sure he appreciates that."

Elle smirked. "He better." She took one of the mini croissants off the platter and munched it happily. "Just pray you-know-who doesn't show up."

"He'll stay away if he knows what's good for him," Guinan promised.

"On that slightly concerning note," Elle said, sliding off the barstool, "I have to check with Moira about the playlist. I don't trust Commander Riker to have put anything else but Big Band on there." She went to find a corner of the Rec Deck where she could play the music.

Tyler found her there half an hour later. "Are you entering your Paris girl phase?" he asked, dragging a beanbag over and throwing himself on it. "This is very 'eating tiny pastry and wearing a large scarf.'"

Elle scowled at him in exasperation. "Okay, but for the party?"

"Oh, for the party, it's fine." He held up a hand. "It's also fine if you are entering your Paris girl phase because those croissants you made that one time was amazing."

Elle grinned. "I know, right? The captain's sister-in-law taught me how to make them."

Tyler stared at her. "Elle. Your life is really weird."

"Yeah, I know."

"Really weird," he reiterated.

"Tyler."

"Sorry."

Elle went to plead with Requisitions to replicate tablecloths, and afterward, she finished off her engineering homework. Once that was done, she had dinner and went to watch My Name is Nobody, which was playing in the Enterprise's movie theater. She fell asleep halfway through.

-/\-

"Or did I imagine it?"

Elle pressed her hand to Geordi's back, rubbing lightly. "You didn't imagine helping Data plan Lal's room. I was there, so was Deanna. I promise."

"Okay." Geordi rubbed a hand over his face. "Sorry."

"No worries," Elle said, biting her lip. "You just..." She paused. "We've had this conversation already."

He blanched. "We have? I don't remember it."

Elle stared at him fixedly. "No, I mean. We had this conversation, this exact conversation, yesterday."

"Sorry," Geordi said again. "It's the brainwashing." He sighed, slipped his visor back on. "Remind me, where were we?"

Elle shook off her own feeling of deja vu and returned to the list on her PADD. "Walls painted, check. Area rug, ordered. I have bribed Requisitions with lemon bars, it'll be there by tomorrow. Why are we getting a bed if androids don't sleep..." She stalled again. "I already said that, too." She rubbed at her eyes in consternation. "Geordi, I think my memory's got problems, too."

"Seems to be going around," he said.

They finished the conversation, "space with sparkles, duh," and Elle went to see Guinan. Talking to Guinan would get her head back on straight.

Guinan started off with, "Mini croissants, check. I went ahead with the cream cheese and raspberry filling because I didn't trust people not to steal the chocolate ones wholesale."

Elle frowned at her. "Guinan, we've already had this conversation."

"No, we haven't," Guinan said. "Yesterday, we were leaning in favor of chocolate."

"Okay, but-" Elle shook her head. "Never mind."

"Do you have what you're gonna wear?" Guinan asked.

Elle frowned at her. "Are you guys playing a joke on me?" she asked, glancing back at Geordi, who was not paying attention to them at all.

"Why?" Guinan asked.

"Because you've both asked me the same things twice," Elle said.

"No we haven't," Guinan said. "How's Wesley's speech coming?"

"...fine," Elle said cautiously. She left Ten-Forward and went to the rec room. "Moira? Can you pull up the music playlist I made yesterday?"

"I don't have any playlists registered for yesterday," Moira said.

Elle frowned. "Okay, how about the music for the captain and Dr. Crusher's party?"

French cafe music began to play softly.

"This is the same stuff as yesterday," Elle said, seriously weirded out.

"Elle, we did not have a conversation about music yesterday," Moira said patiently.

Elle closed her eyes, silently praying. "Moira, what's the date?"

"Stardate 44900.3," Moira said promptly.

Elle winced. "It was 44900 yesterday."

"No," Moira said. "It wasn't."

Elle checked her personal schedule. Meet with Geordi, meet with Guinan, check music, get tablecloths, finish homework. "Moira, what's playing in the theater today?"

"My Name is Nobody," Moira said.

Elle groaned. Then she groaned again for good measure. "This is stupid," she decided and went to the bridge.

"Elle, what brings you by?" Picard asked genially.

"Captain, what's the date?" she asked.

He frowned at her. "44900 point 3, I believe?"

She sighed. "What if I told you that 44900 was yesterday, sir?"

"Is it?" Picard asked, glancing back at Worf.

Worf shook his head. "It is 44900."

"Data?" Elle asked.

"It is stardate 44900," Data confirmed.

Elle frowned. "And nobody was messing with me yesterday, trying to make me skip a day or something?"

"No..." Picard said slowly. "That sort of prank is unacceptable on a ship where temporal anomalies happen too often. Why?"

"Because today already happened," Elle said. "Yesterday. I talked to Geordi, I talked to Guinan, I did my stuff, I watched a movie, and I fell asleep. And then I woke up, and I was talking to Geordi. About the same thing we talked about yesterday."

Everyone on the bridge sighed. "Scan for temporal anomalies," Riker ordered. "Data, check the computer logs. Worf, send a ping to the nearest starbase, make sure our dates line up."

"You say you've just restarted the cycle?" Picard asked. "You were talking to Geordi when?"

"Lunchtime, like an hour ago."

"And you fell asleep, when?" he prompted.

"Uh, sometime during the movie?" Elle said.

"It's scheduled for 2050 hours," Riker said, looking at the ship's social calendar. "That movie's three hours, so, the loop is what, eight to ten hours long?"

Picard grimaced. "If this is a loop, that is very brief."

"Does anyone else remember a loop?" Troi asked.

"Geordi didn't, neither did Guinan," Elle said. "Neither did Moira."

"Put the question out," Picard ordered.

Troi tapped her comm badge. "All hands, this is Counselor Troi. If anyone is experiencing extreme feelings of deja vu or trouble correlating dates, please report to Commander Riker. Troi out."

Nobody commed back immediately, to Elle's displeasure. She paced in a tight circle. There were two thousand people on this ship, it took a while for the request to filter through, for people to think back. "Please tell me someone else remembers," she whispered, staring at the comm board hopefully. "Anybody? A scientist? Please?"

Worf checked again. "All departments report clear," he said. "No one else is experiencing similar events."

Elle groaned. "Why me?" she asked.

"Anything on sensors?"

"No."

"What about the starbase?" Elle asked.

Worf frowned. "We are at a four hour delay from the nearest base. We won't get an answer back until eight hours from now."

"That's not enough time," Elle said. "Not unless the loop really is ten hours."

"We'll just have to wait," Riker said. "And in the meantime, we'll check if any of our mad scientists were running temporal experiments."

"That's a lot of mad scientists," Elle said doubtfully.

Picard patted her on the shoulder. "My ready room," he said. "Come on." He ushered her inside and gave her a cup of hot, strong black tea with sugar. "All right," he said. "There are protocols for people who are aware they are trapped in time loops."

"How do we know it's a time loop though?" she asked. "What if I'm in a weird bubble universe and it's my hallucination?"

"Step one," he said firmly. "Don't panic."

She took a sip of tea.

"Step two," he said. "Determine how long the time loop is, as precisely as possible." He grimaced. "After that, it depends on what causes it. But mostly, the point being..."

"Don't panic," Elle said.

"Precisely. You're not in a rush, the time loop isn't interrupting anything major, you have us for support, and if you're stuck in this longer than five days, Ambassador Spock will probably break you out himself."

"True," Elle said, snickering.

He grinned at her for a second and then sobered. "So. Next time you go through a loop, comm me immediately. Code Mobius. What is it?"

"Code Mobius," Elle repeated.

"Tell me that, every loop, and I will believe you," Picard said.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," he confirmed.

She relaxed slightly. "Cool." She sipped at her tea. "What if we can't figure it out?"

"Then, heaven forbid, we'll try yelling for Q," Picard said wryly. "He's got a soft spot for you."

Elle was comforted, even though she probably shouldn't be. If it did come down to Q, would the cure be worse than the problem?

-/\-

Answers slowly trickled in over the course of the afternoon. No temporal anomalies detected. Nobody working on temporal experiments. Still no one had felt the time loop, not even Guinan. No ships or lifeforms in the vicinity. There was still an hour before a message from the nearest starbase would come back.

"One more hour," Riker said encouragingly. "Maybe we'll get something."

"If it lasts another hour," Elle said, with a sigh.

Troi squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. "Even if the only thing you get from this loop is the length of time, that's still forward progress, Elle."

"I know." Elle watched the chronometer tick over to the next minute. She used a ballpoint pen to draw a flower on her wrist. That was something, too. Would the flower come with her? Would her clothes? Would the pen? "Oh man, I'm gonna have to spend a couple loops just testing this stuff, huh?" she asked. "Quick, pass me a PADD, I'll write myself a message-"

"Or did I imagine it?"

Elle gaped at Geordi. "2117 hours," she said aloud. "It was 2117 when I looked away. What time is it now?" She looked around. "1307." She raised her voice. "Computer, what's the date?"

"Stardate 44900.3," was the placid reply.

Elle exhaled heavily. "Okay. Eight hours, ten minutes." She stood up. The pen drawings on her arm had vanished. "Geordi, I'm really sorry, I gotta go tell the captain something."

"Uh.. okay?"

She left him there, staring in bewilderment, and booked it to the bridge. "Captain!" she said immediately. "Code Mobius."

He stared at her for a second. "How many?" he asked.

"This is the second loop. Third time it's been 49900."

He nodded.

"Sir?" Riker asked.

Picard sighed. "It seems Elle has found herself in a time loop."

"You're kidding," Riker said.

"I'm not," Elle said. "It's from 1307 hours to 2117. Eight hours, ten minutes. Worf, can you send a ping to the starbase? Last time I waited too long, a message couldn't make it back."

"Message sent," Worf said.

There would be a leeway of ten minutes. Not good, but not the worst. If nobody replied, that meant the temporal loop was localized, and the Enterprise was cut off from the rest of the universe. If the starbase did reply, that meant what? That Elle was alone in her loopiness? That it was affecting the entire galaxy?

Elle dropped that train of thought as unproductive. "Okay. We gotta find the anomaly this time."

Still nothing turned up on the scans this time around. Elle was about ready to pull her hair out. "Why couldn't it be something easy, like translating an ancient computer with directions on it?" she asked plaintively.

Riker blinked at her. "You think that's easier?"

"Yeah," Elle said.

"I think you've been spending too much time with the captain," he finally said.

"Lies and slander," Elle retorted. She pulled her legs up into the chair with her. "If it's not something external, then something internal? Somebody on the ship causing it?"

"We've already checked. No one's running temporal experiments."

"Not on purpose," Elle said pointedly. "But this is the Enterprise."

"Really? I hadn't noticed."

She poked him in the arm. "Commander."

He smothered his grin. "You're right. Work with Georgi, figure out if someone's lab experiment is doing something hinky."

"Hinky," she echoed. "I think you've been hanging out with me too much."

"Not possible," he said solemnly and ruffled her hair for good measure.

Six hours into the loop, there was still nothing.

"There's no obvious cause and effect," Elle said. "Nothing logical, nothing sensible. So I've gotta start looking at the illogical, the nonsensical." She frowned. "Where do I start? Sci-fi? Fanfiction? Sci-fi fanfiction?" She started to grin. "Yes."

Geordi's eyebrows went up. "Elle, that, no."

"Think about it," Elle said. "Every conceivable time loop plot has already been invented by somebody. I just have to look, and compare circumstances. Something'll click eventually."

"Elle, there are over a thousand worlds, with thousands of years worth of sci-fi, let alone fanfiction. That's not possible."

Elle grinned. "Not for me. I can look through all the episodes I've watched in my memories. But I also have four friends who can hook directly up to the Federation database."

"Data is the only one who can do that," Geordi said.

"Nuh-uh," Elle replied. "Alexa, Moira, and Commander Stabby are perfectly able to do it."

Geordi gave her a look. "The vacuum?"

"Yup."

"Elle, you only have two hours left in this loop. They're not gonna have time."

"Okay," Elle said. "And information doesn't transfer over. So I'm going to have to remember where they stop each loop. That's, uh, that's a lot."

"First, you have to memorize the initial conditions on the Enterprise to be able to match it to a scenario," Geordi told her.

Elle grimaced. "Ah. Good point."

The last two hours, Elle spent figuring out her attack plan. "One minute," Data said, glancing at the clock.

Elle grinned at Geordi. "See you in a minute."