CHAPTER NINE:
MIRACULOUS RECOVERIES
The Q Continuum, sometime later
"Ares!" Called the furious Q as his hands clamped onto his hips and his foot began to tap, "show yourself, Q."
"What now!?" asked the wargod contemptuously as he appeared in a puff of blue light, "Whaaaat?"
"Why are you torturing that boy?"
"What boy?" came the innocent enquiry.
"Don't play games with me, Q. You know perfectly well what boy. Kim."
"Oh, you mean Harry."
"Yeah, Harry," confirmed the Q irritatedly, "explain yourself."
Ares shuffled as he looked sulkily at the ground. "He said I wasn't scary enough to be a god of war," he explained, "dammit, Q, I'm just trying to teach him some respect."
Q stared at his former colleague and his foot stilled, his expression losing its anger and turning to one of understanding. "Not scary enough!" repeated incredulously, "impudent young pup! How dare he?"
"Exactly," agreed Ares triumphantly and he smiled in victory, "now you see why?"
"Yes, of course," acknowledged the Q, "I quite see you had to teach him a lesson. But I think you've made your point now. He won't make the mistake of disrespecting you, or any Q, again, so you can stop now."
Ares looked up at him in amazement. "Stop!" he squealed, "but why? I've only just started."
"No, Ares, you've finished, and I've told you why. He's learned his lesson and he's had enough."
"Well, I haven't and I....." Ares stopped in mid-flow as understanding dawned on his face. "I see what this is," he announced, "your little redhead girlfriend got to you, didn't she? Really Q, they're such a primitive species, don't you have any self-respect?"
Making a great effort not to react with the full force of the anger he felt, Q merely answered with creditable calm dignity "let me put it this way, Q. You stop it now or I'll remove your powers and turn you into an Andorean amoeba."
Ares considered it for a moment but quickly realised this was no idle threat and scowled "oh, alright, Killjoy," as he disappeared in his blue puff.
* * * * * *
Sickbay, Starship Voyager, 2376 CE, two hours later
Young Ensign Kim groaned as he began to come round, bringing the doctor and the captain quickly to his side. "Take it easy, Harry" ordered the captain softly as she laid a hand on his chest in an unconscious effort to calm his increasingly frantic breathing, "you're safe and you're going to be OK."
"C...Captain?" came the weary, distressed whimper.
"Ssshh, Harry. Everything's alright now. Just rest."
Leaving the reassurance to Janeway, the doctor brought the hypospray to Harry's neck sending him into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Just as the officer slipped into his healing slumber, the door to sickbay swished open and the doctor and captain turned to find two exhausted, hobbling warriors and a quietly fuming bard entering. B'Elanna's eyes fell when they saw the captain there (despite her joy at finding her new lover right where she needed her to be) as all hope of keeping this from her fled, and she tried to straighten up despite the pain in her ribs. Kathryn rushed to her side, her hands reaching out shakily to steady the younger woman.
"Well, well, what have we here?" asked the doctor sarcastically as he moved toward his new patients, "sparring get out of hand again, Lieutenant?"
"Something like that" she acknowledged as he helped her to a biobed while Gabrielle eased her wife down onto the neighbouring one.
Both warriors had blood pouring down their faces from gashes in their brows. B'Elanna had some broken ribs and a long cut down her arm, while Xena had a deep Bat'leth gash on her right thigh and a severely bruised chest. "What the hell happened?" asked Janeway, her voice dangerously calm after her initial worry and fear over B'Elanna.
"They were sparring" infromed Gabrielle crossly, as if she were a child telling on her sibling, "and they turned off the safety proto...proto...thingies."
"Oh, did they indeed?" asked the Captain, her tone almost as petulant as Gabrielle's making her new girlfriend smirk quietly. The captin caught it however and, her expression making it clear she was not amused, moved slowly but threatening closer to her asking "you think this is funny, Lieutenant?"
"No, ma'am," came the automatic reply. Though the look that passed between them was one of utter love and Janeway couldn't help smiling, she returned quickly to her disdainful captain's mask and backed off a couple of paces.
"Why the hell did you turn off the safety protothingies?" she asked, unable to keep the gentle tease from her tone, "were you trying to kill eachother?"
"No! It was just more of a test, that's all" explained the engineer.
"B'Elanna" sighed the captain gently as she moved back towards her lover and laid a hand on her shoulder, "we've been through this before." The concern was clear on her face and in her voice.
Suddenly the Klingon looked up, realising what her lover might think. "Oh, Kahless! Kathryn, I promise you this is not the same. I swear to you as my partner and as my captain, it was just to make it real and nothing more. I wouldn't..."
"Captain," interrupted Xena from the next bed, "it was my fault...again," glancing sheepishly at her wife, "I persuaded B'Elanna to turn off the safety whatsits. If you know you can't get hurt it makes you recless and a warrior should never be reckless, it can get them and others killed. I didn't want to get into that habit while I was here. This was more of a real test. I guess you can tell the difference but to me it would've been a pointless excersise. I'm sorry."
"Captain" came the EMH's impatient tones, "could you discuss this later by any chance? I have patients to treat."
Resignedly Janeway sighed "of course, Doctor, I'm sorry" and moved aside. Going to join Gabrielle, who had also been shuffled out of the way, she asked "did you know about ths?"
"No," replied the bard," not until they were already in this state. I found them.....what the....!"
Gabrielle watched in wonder as the doctor waved his regenerator over her wife's chest and the bruising visible above her breastplate began to disappear. When it had completely vanished he reset the little device and moved it up to her eyebrow, quickly healing the cut there, and then down to the gash in her thigh. Xena and Gabrielle watched silently and open-mouthed as it closed before their eyes, leaving the warrior without a mark on her in the space of about two minutes. "You're done" said the doc a little brusquely as he moved away to take care of B'Elanna.
"That's it?!" asked Gabrielle incredulously, "you're not going to check for infection or anything?!"
"That's the first thing I did, Your Majesty," he assured her frostily, "I assure you, if there had been any the scanner would've informed me and I would've treated her accordingly." Gabrielle bristled at the doctor's attitude, not sure whether she had imagined the hint of sarcasm in his use of her title, but kept her cool as she leant down to examine her lover's unmarked thigh. She ran her thumb along Xena's perfect brow and then her eyes fell to the metal-clad chest. Curling her fingers over the top of the warrior's breastplate and the leather battledress and shift beneath, she pulled the whole lot forward and peered down her wife's smoothe cleavage. "Gabrielle!" squealed the warrior, pulling away, her eyes darting around the room in embarrassment.
"Sorry, I was just checking" smiled the bard, realizing what she had done as their eyes met and they both burst into giggles.
"I'm fine, baby," the warrior reassured the bard, "I don't know how, but I am, promise."
Relaxing against her wife and letting her relieved head drop to the armoured shoulder, the queen sighed contentedly and they held eachother for a long, comforting while.
When they pulled apart, smiling sweetly at eachother, Gabrielle turned to the doctor and said "I'm sorry to question your professionalism, Doctor. I'm not used to your technology and I do worry about her." She could almost see the warrior's raised eyebrow as she heard the soft sigh behind her. Slightly taken aback to have his preconceptions about this couple being rude primatives challenged in such a way, the doctor softened his manner. "That's quite alright, Your Majesty," he soothed, "it's quite understandable."
"Please," sighed the bard, "it's Gabrielle."
"Very well, Gabrielle," smiled the doctor kindly, "I promise you your wife is completely healed from her most recent injuries. If she weren't, my tricorder scan would have informed me of the fact."
"Thank you, Doctor," smiled the bard in return, "I'm grateful for your patience."
When the two warriors were healed they eyed eachother across the gap and, silently seeming to come to the same decision, jumped down at the same time and, side by side, headed for the door. "Where do you two think you're going?" came the commanding voice behind them, stopping them in their tracks. "Uh....back to the holodeck?" asked B'Elanna tentatively.
"Oh no you don't" chided the captain, sauntering toward the pair, "I think you've had enough fun for today."
"But, Kathryn," came the Klingon's slightly whiney complaint, "we still have another hour booked."
"Save it for another time, Lieutenant" ordered the captain, a hint of warning in her voice.
Stifling a sigh, B'Elanna looked contritely and pleadingly into her lover's cool gaze and watched her struggle manfully to keep it from softening. "What if I promise faithfully to keep the safties on?" she asked sweetly, smiling as Kathryn's eyes closed in rye acceptance of the fact that she could deny her lover nothing. "Promise?" she asked resignedly.
"I swear to Kahless."
"Oh, alright then, go on" sighed the redhead.
A bright smile broke over the Klingon's mouth as she stepped forward to plant a soft kiss on her lover's cheek. "Thanks" she said simply, gazing lovingly into Kathryn's eyes for a few seconds before turning and joining Xena, who was already waiting by the door in the full expectation that her friend would be able to get around the captain. She winked at the bard before the two warriors ran off excitedly, like two children let out to play in the first snows of the winter. As she stood shaking her head at herself she heard the bard's voice in her ear, "You are sooooo whipped."
"I know," laughed the captain, "funny thing is I don't seem to mind."
Walking down the corridor to the messhall the queen made a decision and turned to her companion. "Kathryn," she began, "I know what it's like to be afraid for the person you love, blieve me I know, but B'Elanna's a warrior and a Starfleet officer, and that means her life is dangerous. It's natural that you want to keep her safe but you can't protect her from everything and if you try she'll resent it."
"I know," acquiesed the captain with a sigh, "but it's just hard sometimes. As her captain I'm responsible for her safety, even if I have to order her into danger. But I can order her not to put herself in unnecessary danger, if I have to. As her lover I want our relationship to be one of equals. I still haven't quite made the adjustment."
"Well it's bound to take a while. In effect you now have two relationships with her. Your personal relationship has changed completely while at the same time your trying not to let your professional one change at all. Naturally it's confusing and you can't get it right over night."
"No, I suppose you're right."
"As far as putting herself in unnecessary danger goes, I think you have to try and understand where she's coming from. She's a warrior, Kathryn, and a Klingon warrior at that, danger and excitement are in her blood. I think you and I are pretty alike, just as B'Elanna and Xena are. Like you, I'm a pretty handy fighter when I need to be, I can fight anyone, anytime and have more than a good chance of winning. But I'm not a warrior, not by nature, I only fight out of necessity. In the heat of battle you may not be able to tell the difference but there is a difference. Fighting and violence, they're not in my blood or my heart or my soul. I think you're the same. You're a Starfleet captain, a scientist, a leader; you can fight like a warrior when you have to but it's just a skill you have, something you do, it's not who you are. Xena and B'Elanna are different; they're warriors, body, mind and soul. Oh they're a lot of other things as well, but fundamentally they're fighters. It's in their blood, it's what makes them who they are. And we love who they are, don't we? We might not like it sometimes, we might not understand it, it may even scare us, but we have to accept it."
"Even if it gets them killed?" asked the captin quietly, her voice unsure and a little shaky.
After a short pause for thought the bard answered with a sorrowful sigh "yes, even then."
* * * * * *
"What do you mean he's a hologram?" asked Gabrielle crossly, "you mean he's not a real doctor?!"
B'Elanna smiled indulgently as she began to explain. "Of course he's a real doctor, he's just not made of flesh and blood, that's all." Patiently, the engineer explained the EMH's nature, character and history, until she was sure the Greek couple had grasped the concept. "I can understand the idea may take some getting used to for you," acknowledged the Klingon, "but I promise you, organic or not, he's the best doctor in this quadrant. He's saved my life more times than I care to think about and if he says Xena's fine, then she's fine, OK?"
"OK.....I suppose" agreed the bard a little reluctantly, making Xena roll her eyes.
"Bri, look at me," she ordered gently, smiling as her wife's eyes turned on her trepidatiously, "I made a promise to you a long time ago that I would never lie to you about my state of health and never try to hide any injury, remember?"
"Of course I remember, Xena."
"alright then. If you can't trust the doctor, trust me. You know my body pretty well but...." after pausing to smile at the blush creeping up her bard's neck she continued, "no one knows their own body better than a warrior and I promise you, I'm fine, OK?"
Relaxing considerably and smiling self-depricatingly the bard leaned in to give her wife a quick but tender kiss. "Alright," she smiled as they pulled apart, "I'm sorry." ('And after that lecture you gave Kathryn about being over-protective too', she silently chided herself.) Turning to a grinning B'Elanna she apoligised again but the Klingon waved her off. "It's OK, Gabrielle, I can see this technology may seem fantastical to you. I suppose we just take it for granted."
"That's a useful little device he has too," said Xena, "pity we can't take one back with us, it'd certainly come in handy in our line of work."
"I'll say," agreed the bard, "but we can't so that's that. I guess you'll just have to keep putting up with my sailor's hands."
"Guess so," smiled the warrior as she leant in for another kiss, "somehow I think I'll manage."
* * * * * *
"Doc?" groaned Harry Kim as he came round once more, "wha....what happened?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you, Mr. Kim," the Doc informed him, "I have no idea, but you seem to be fine now, I can't find anything wrong with you."
"I....I don't understand," moaned the young man as he tried to sit up.
"Easy, Harry. Wait until you regain some of your strength. I'm afraid I honestly don't understand it either, and I want you to stay here for a couple of days to be sure, but I believe you'll be fine now."
A whooshing sound and a sparkle of blue light made him turn and he found himself confronted with a muscular, leather-clad wargod, hand on hilt. "Don't worry, he will be," boomed Ares with a scowl that indicated he wasn't too pleased about it. "You!" growled the doctor, "I might have known you'd be involved."
"You might have," confirmed Ares sarcastically, throwing the Doc a look as he strode twards the supine ops officer. Harry shrunk against the bedhead in horror as Ares approached him. Suddenly, however, the deity found his way blocked by a scowling EMH, arms crossed in front of him. Ares frowned and reached out to brush the annoying doctor aside, only to find his beefy arm passing through thin air. His frown deepened as he tried again with the same result.
"Ares!" said a voice behind him and the god spun around to see Q glowering at him, "you've made your point," he avered, "now enough is enough, or else, understand?"
Ares looked sulkily at the frightened young man on the bed, then back at Q. "Alright" he acquised moodily, "I understand, it's over," and then suitably chastized, he disappeared in a shower of light.
"I must apologize, Mr. Kim," said Q as he moved up to Harry's side, "for my former colleague's ill manners. I can assure you doctor, this is over and it will not happen again."
"I don't understand why you don't just strip that maniac of his powers" sighed the doctor."
"Oh, believe me, I'd like to, but unfortunately it would have too drastic an effect on the history of humanity. There's no way around it, I'm afraid. The gods are too deeply ingrained in the human psyche, as it were. So we just try to contain them."
"You call this contained" gasped the doc, indicating Harry, who was only now starting to control his trembling.
"Oh, I promise you," sighed the Q, "it could've been worse."
* * * * * *
"How do you feel?" asked Gabrielle as she brushed the strands of hair from Xena's face.
"Gabrielle," sighed the warrior gently, "for the tenth time, I feel absolutely fine." Leaning down to place a soft kiss on her wife's lips she crooned "in fact I feel a little.... you know?" adding a wiggle of her eyebrows for effect.
"You do?" smiled the bard as she let her hand fall to the warrior's shoulder, "well, well...." she teased, her voice trailing off as she moved in.
Over the next five hours, Xena proved to her wife just how well she was.....over and over again. When they lay happily exhausted and finally sated in eachother's arms, the warrior mumbled "I still think it's a pity we can't take one of those little healing gizmos back with us. It could save us a lot of trouble."
"Oh no," giggled the bard, "if you felt this good all the time I don't think I'd survive."
"Hmm," smirked Xena smugly as she began to drift off, "I'm serious, Bri."
"So am I" came the dreamy reply as the bard joined her wife in sleep. Half an hour later they were rudely awakened as a jolt of energy violently rocked the ship.
End of Chapter Nine
