AN: I am very much working on bringing back (and completing) my stories for anyone still interested in them (and for myself, alone, if nobody is interested).

I hope that you enjoy this chapter, if you're still reading. If you are, and you do enjoy, please do let me know!

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"We should have known," Chakotay said. "Who else—what else—could cause as much trouble as Q?"

"We had no way of knowing that he would bother interfering with us," Kathryn said.

"I still don't understand who—or what-the-hell a Q even is!" Daryl said. He sounded every bit as annoyed as Chakotay sounded when he spoke and, though they had plenty of reason to be annoyed, Carol also imagined that there was a fair amount of feeding off of each other's emotions that was naturally taking place as well.

"Q is something of a god," Kathryn said. "He's an omnipotent being."

"A puck," Carol said, recalling what Kathryn had said to her.

"Like the kind they use for hockey?" Daryl asked, no less confused than he'd been and, possibly, a great deal more confused.

"Like the kind that wreaks havoc and creates endless chaos for no reason," Chakotay said. "He doesn't care who or what he hurts, just to keep himself amused."

"So—you're sayin' he did all this shit to us because him and his god friends were bored?" Daryl asked, still doing his best to make sense of what Kathryn and Carol had told them about Q's little visit to Kathryn's ready room. Now, they were all closed in that same room, and Q was nowhere to be seen. Still, Carol had a feeling that he was somehow still there, just out of sight, observing them. If she thought about it too much, it made a shiver run through her body.

"Yes," Kathryn said. "Essentially. Though—there's a great deal more to it than that. I imagine there's far more than even what Q has said. He has a tendency to oversimply matters of the Q Continuum."

"Because we don't understand the things of the gods," Daryl offered.

"Something like that," Kathryn agreed.

"But he can't seriously think that he was going to show up, do all this shit, and then you and Carol were gonna just up and be like hell—that sounds like a great idea, let's both of us have a couple of half-god kids that you can just haul off to who-the-hell knows where?"

"Never underestimate what Q will deem reasonable," Kathry said. She sighed deeply and pressed her fingers to her forehead—a sure sign, Carol knew, that she had a headache.

Carol, herself, didn't have a headache, but she did have a general sense of unease.

"What do you think he's going to do?" Chakotay asked, directing his words to Kathryn.

She sighed again and shook her head.

"I have no idea," she said. "He believes that the continuum needs new blood—something to keep them entertained. Apparently, the Q are causing problems all over the universe, and it may be because they simply have nothing better to do."

"And a couple of half-god kids are supposed to solve that?" Daryl asked.

"A lot of people find a sense of purpose in their children," Kathryn said. "For some, the focus on the future generation is really what keeps them going. Their own lives aren't fulfilling in some way or…perhaps, they simply find more fulfillment in focusing on what's to come."

"It's also a hope for something better," Chakotay said.

"Regardless of why he thinks that it will help to solve the problems in the continuum, he's hoping for children," Kathryn said.

"And that's great and I wish him the fucking best," Daryl said. "But—not at the cost of my kid or putting any expectation on my wife. Why don't he just get him a little woman god or something, and they can make all the little god kids they want. If they're having trouble, maybe the doctor helps them out with the same process he's been talking about with us, if we wanna use it in the future."

"I don't know why he's looking outside of the Q," Kathryn said. "Except, perhaps, that old adage that variety is the spice of life?"

"One thing I do know," Carol interrupted, "is that—since he's been here, everything has stopped."

Suddenly, all eyes were on her. For a split second, she felt a bit too observed, but then she relaxed. She looked at Kathryn who, she imagined, had been so distracted by worry and the need to try to solve everything, that she hadn't really been "present" for the last little bit.

"The pain," Carol said. "It's gone." She pressed her belly. "I can't tell if she's a bit smaller—or I've just comfortably stretched, but my belly isn't hard. She isn't quite so bound up in there. I don't feel tension in my muscles. I'm having no cramps. There's no pain."

Suddenly, the attention shifted to Kathryn. She looked at Carol, first, with a furrowed brow. Her hand went to her belly. Slowly, the tension in her face relaxed.

"It's gone," she said, to none of them and all of them at once. She hadn't paid attention to it, Carol was sure, because she'd been so focused on everything else.

"The pain is gone?" Chakotay asked. Even though Kathryn had just said that, Carol imagined that it was something that he simply needed to hear again. After all, their lives had recently been consumed by everything that had been happening and, now, it was like a calm had descended over them all.

"The pain…the cramps," Kathryn said. "The tension. All of it. It's gone. I bet that—if I were to go to sickbay right now, the doctor would tell me that it's all stopped. Like Carol said, I feel…almost like the baby's growth is not even as advanced as it was."

"Like maybe the clock's been set back a bit," Carol offered. Kathryn met her eyes and nodded her head gently, like she agreed. It was a feeling that would have been impossible to describe—and even more impossible, Carol thought, before she'd come aboard Voyager and learned that nearly everything that she would have never believed possible seemed, at times, to somehow be possible.

She felt lighter, and she felt as though the baby she carried was at peace. She also felt that the baby was, somehow, even smaller than she had been even moments before. There wasn't the same kind of pressure anywhere in her body that there had been, even when Q had been in the room.

Carol could breathe, comfortably, and she imagined that Kathryn could, too.

"Proof that Q was behind it all along," Chakotay said.

"Why stop it now, though?" Daryl asked. He held his hands up in mock surrender when, suddenly, he was the one with the eyes of everyone upon him. "I don't mean that I don't want it that way. Hell, I'm as glad as anyone else that it stopped. Ecstatic. It's just that—I'm not sure it makes sense."

"In what way?" Chakotay asked.

"If his whole goal was what the hell he said it was—get the babies out so he could put some in that he wanted, then why would he stop? Take it back, even, so that they ain't as advanced even as they were this morning?" Daryl offered.

"He wants us to think about it," Kathryn said. "He wants us to consider his—well…I don't know that you can really call it an offer. His proposition. Q doesn't need to worry about whether he takes these pregnancies forward or backward—or forward and backward a dozen times over. He's all-powerful, from what we know. In a moment, he could change everything for us, and then change it all again. He wants us to think about what he said, though, and he knows that we're not going to think about anything but the babies as long as we're worried about them, and about the pregnancies."

"You think he's giving us relief so that we'll consider doing what he wants?" Carol asked.

"I do," Kathryn said. "Think about it for a moment. I don't know about you, but…I feel immensely better, all of a sudden. Relaxed."

"Peaceful," Carol agreed.

Kathryn laughed to herself.

"Maybe a touch euphoric, even," she mused. "And I believe that every bit of it has been orchestrated by Q to get us to think seriously about his request."

"A request to mate with him and produce offspring," Chakotay said.

Kathryn reached for him, and he wrapped his arms around her. It was the first time they'd touched since Daryl and Chakotay had arrived in the ready room. Carol realized, too, that she and Daryl hadn't touched since their arrival. It had all been so overwhelming that nobody had thought of anything beyond simply trying to understand what was taking place and what it might all mean for their future. Carol reached her arms out in Daryl's direction, and he didn't hesitate at all to embrace her. She closed her eyes and rested her head against his shoulder.

With the relief from the pain and the slightly euphoric feeling that had come over her, there also came an exhaustion that Carol felt all the way to her bones. She felt Daryl tighten his hold on her, though she was in no hurry to go anywhere.

"We're not mating with him," Kathryn said.

Carol pulled out of the embrace with Daryl, but she stayed close to him, and he kept an arm around her, as though he could read her mind and knew that's what she wanted from him at the moment.

"Of course, we're not mating with him!" Carol said.

"I do wish you would reconsider…"

All of then jumped when, rather unexpectedly, Q appeared in the room.

"That's who the hell's after you?" Daryl asked.

In almost the same second that he asked the question, he lunged toward Q, and Carol wrapped her hands around his arm and tugged him back.

"Stop, Daryl!" She barked. "We don't know what he can do."

Q smirked.

"That's right," he said, looking amused. "Stop, Daryl. You have no idea what I can do."

"Leave them alone, Q," Chakotay said. "They aren't even from this time."

"I'm fully aware of your little accident with the Auralians," Q said. "I could send them back, if you like—I could send you back to be with them. Are you hoping for a little trip? A chance to—relive history?"

"Leave them alone," Kathryn said. "Leave us all alone, Q. We're not interested in mating with you, and we're not likely to become interested simply because you try to manipulate us into doing what you want to save our lives."

Q huffed.

"I don't want to manipulate you," Q said. "If I wanted to force you, Kathy, I would—I could. There's nothing stopping me. But—that's not my interest. If you want me to send them back, I'll send them back."

"We don't wanna go back," Daryl said quickly.

"Please," Carol added, not sure if the being responded better to politeness.

He looked at them and she thought that his features softened a great deal. Either that, or he was putting on a performance for them.

"You humans…" He mused. "You're so interesting…intriguing… with your fears and your morals. Your…beliefs. Your dedication to those beliefs. Your bonds…such a strong sense of loyalty. None of these things are unique to your species, of course. Everything in your species can be found in dozens of other species…"

"Then…why don't you go an' mate with one of them?" Daryl asked.

He wasn't exactly violent about it, and Q looked at him without any kind of anger or frustration. If anything, he looked amused—maybe even appreciative that he was being addressed.

"Because you amuse me," he said. "And even though each of these characteristics can be found in dozens of species, it's the combination of them that makes humans so very…specific."

"We want you to stop hurting our children," Chakotay said. "We want you to stop hurting Kathryn and Carol. We want you to stop advancing the pregnancies and threatening the well-being of everyone involved."

"It's been done," Q said. He waved his hand and Carol felt a sensation that she couldn't explain. It wasn't entirely pleasant, but it wasn't unpleasant, either. It wasn't painful. It reminded her of being raised up very high—like in some carnival rides that she could vaguely recall from a life that seemed so distant that it might not have even belonged to her—and dropped suddenly, free-falling but stopping before her feet got anywhere close to the ground.

She hadn't moved at all, but she was very quickly aware that her body had simply been erased of a great deal of the trauma that it had suffered since Q had mettled in things. She rubbed her hand over her belly—much smaller, now, than it had been, though surely more pronounced than it had been when she'd first entered the holodeck simulation where all of this had seemed to get its start.

"Oh—they're fine," Q said. "You can stop worrying. Nothing has happened to your precious little human offspring. Now can we focus on what's most important? I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. If something doesn't happen soon, the Q will tear apart the very fabric of the universe—and then nothing will matter, because everything will cease to exist…even your all-important little families."

"A case of boredom can't be that serious," Daryl said. "Not even for gods or whatever…"

"I can see you're not going to take my word for it," Q said.

And then, suddenly, Carol felt a very different sensation—like television static in her brain—and everything was darkness followed by a burst of light like a thousand stars all twinkling at once in front of her eyes.