Another chapter, Yeah! Hope you like it!

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She ate the lunch against her better judgment because she was so hungry, and because it was so conveniently located right there at her desk…and it smelled fantastic. It tasted even better than it smelled, and somehow Q had replicated the perfect glass of wine to go with it. She even drank the wine….while she was on duty.

I must be loosing my mind, she thought incredulously, finishing the wine anyway.

She was almost done reading crew evaluations at 1600 hours when her COM badge beeped.

"Neelix to Captain Janeway,"

"Go ahead Neelix,"

"Captain, someone has broken into the food pantry and used the cooking area without permission."

Kathryn winced.

"What was taken?" she asked, even though she was sure she already knew the answer.

"Well Captain, there's a fillet of meat missing, several vegetables…" Neelix replied. Kathryn growled slightly in frustration.

"I'm sorry Neelix, I'm afraid Q is your culprit. He made a surprise lunch for me this afternoon. I will speak to him," Kathryn's tone implied that she would do much more than "speak" to Q.

"Thank you, Captain…" Neelix seemed to hesitate.

"Was there something else, Mr. Neelix?" she asked.

"Well, Captain, will you need anything else for the afternoon? Coffee? Perhaps I could bring you some dinner?" Neelix placed a seemingly unintentional emphasis on the word dinner, and Kathryn smiled. Neelix always got jealous when anyone else catered to her needs.

"Thank you Neelix, some coffee would be lovely."

"I'll be right there, Captain," The Talaxian said cheerfully, and she heard the COM line close.

Kathryn sighed and leaned back in her chair, pinching the skin between her eyebrows. Q had only been aboard her ship for one day, and already she was ready to kill him. Three weeks of this? She thought. I don't know if I can stand three more days

At the end of her shift, Kathryn was more than ready to stop working. She strolled out onto the bridge, and noted with some amusement that Tom Paris was multitasking, both piloting and trying to finish his portion of crew evaluations.

"Mister Paris," she said, walking up to the helm and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I know Captain, I'm just finishing it now…" from the tone of his voice, Kathryn could tell that he was nowhere near finished. She chuckled to herself and shook her head.

"Tom, I'll give you until tomorrow afternoon to finish that report, but I want a favor in return…"

"Name it," Tom said, almost cutting her off and setting his PADD down immediately.

The Captain grinned almost evilly and motioned for the bewildered Lieutenant to follow her back to her Ready Room.

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Kathryn should have known she could count on Tom Paris to come up with pranks rival to the pranks of any Q…although it did help that the Q in question was currently human. With more enthusiasm than she'd ever seen him show for the majority of his duties, Tom somehow managed to tie the transporters into the sensors to form an interior proximity alarm; it was a brilliant algorithm that ordered the computer to perform a site-to-site transport on Q whenever he came within 10 feet of her. One minute, he would be looking at her from across the bridge, and the next minute he'd be transported to whatever habitable portion of the ship was farthest away from her at the time.

Kathryn couldn't stop herself from chuckling as Tom put the final commands into the computer.

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She went to the Mess Hall for dinner, partially because she felt she'd be safe from Q there, and partially because she was hoping to avoid another lonely night in her quarters. She wasn't disappointed; it seemed like everyone was in the Mess Hall with the same idea. The result was a rather impromptu social event. Kathryn eventually found herself seated between Neelix and Tom, drinking a glass of wine and trading war stories. Everyone was laughing and having a good time, and Kathryn sighed happily; she wished there could be more times like this, more times when they were a family instead of Starfleet officers.

She heard the doors of the Mess Hall whoosh open and turned to see who it was. Her stomach dropped when she saw it was Q.

"What's this? A party?" he cried, walking towards them. The Captain and Tom exchanged a swift, secret glance. "How lovely! May I join you?" He was almost upon them, when suddenly Kathryn heard the whine of the transporter. Q began to dematerialize. The look on his face was priceless as he disappeared, and as soon as he was gone, Kathryn couldn't help but chuckle. Tom had a huge grin on his face, and the rest of the crew was staring at the two of them with enigmatic expressions. Tom looked to Kathryn for approval before letting them in on the joke. He told them about the algorithm he'd written, and exactly what it did.

"Good one, Tom!" Harry grinned, nodding in approval.

"Serves him right!" Neelix cried, laughing.

Kathryn was smiling as well, but she felt a small stab of guilt inside. She knew how desperate she'd been for companionship this evening. She wondered if Q, recently human and without friends on this ship, was feeling the same way. As much as he annoyed her, Kathryn wouldn't wish loneliness on anyone.

The banter continued between the crew, but Kathryn found herself looking at the door, wondering if Q would try to return, and wondering if she was willing to watch him be transported away again. Suddenly, the prank didn't seem so funny anymore.

Moments later, the door whooshed open again, and Q reappeared, looking a little testy. Everyone turned to look at him, and Kathryn was a little repulsed by the expressions of anticipation she saw in their faces.

"It appears the transporters are malfunctioning," Q said, making his way towards them once more. He looked directly at Kathryn, and she felt gooseflesh rise on her skin. "Kathy, might I have a wor…"

The transporters hummed once more, and Q began to dematerialize again. The look on his face was one of pure frustration as he disappeared. Kathryn felt a stab of pity, made even worse by the fact that several people around her began to laugh. After the mirth had died down, and people resumed their conversations, Kathryn regretfully excused herself, thanking them all for their company, and went to find Q.

"Computer, locate Q," she said, trotting briskly down the hallway.

The computer gave her the coordinates and Kathryn was on her way.

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