1 After Insurrection 3

Wesley Crusher watched his mother from his unseen vantagepoint.

"I miss her." He said.

"I know." Replied the traveler.

Beverly was bustling around her office tending to an ensigns hand laceration, a security officers bruises, and William T. Rikers pinched nerve. Once all were discharged, pronounced healthy and send back to whatever dangerous exercise had injured them in the first place Beverly sat down in her office and ordered a cold drink.

Beverly then remembered she was late for her favorite duty. She rushed from sickbay and headed to the turbo lift.

"Deck 8." She barked.

Quarters doors slid open and immediately Beverly was apologizing. "I'm sorry I'm late I,"

"It's alright, Will told me how swamped you were, especially with your two most experienced nurses on sabbatical, but if you would have been 10 minutes later Liandra would have to have been my consulting psychiatrist." Deanna said jovially, raising her baby girl above her head just to hear her giggle.

Beverly smiled sadly. Deanna sense Beverly's melancholy and asked, "Still no luck?"

"No, I don't really want to talk about it right now though." Beverly replied as she held her arms out.

Deanna placed her precious bundle in Bev's arms, but not before kissing her cherub on the cheek and saying, "Now you be good for Aunt Beverly." To which the baby just gurgled happily.

"Look how she hurts." Wesley commented to the Traveler.

"It's not your place to interfere." Traveler said sounding sagely.

"She's my mother! If not me who?"

Picard sat in his ready room staring at his fish tank, more through it really, when suddenly a he saw a flash and Q was sitting on the chair directly across from his desk, toting full Admirals pips. Jean-Luc didn't even blink.

"What? No words of scorn or questioning?" Q asked.

"No point in asking, you're here, you'll stay as long as you want and do what you want whether I know about it or not." Picard replied still vacantly staring in the direction of his fish tank.

"Could you really find those fish more interesting than moi?" Q asked pompously.

Picard sighed, "Q I have more things to worry about than another appearance of yours."

"Like the fact that your poor wife is barren and you have no son to carry on your name?" Q said smiling irritatingly.

Picard broke his gaze to stare at Q, "Get out." He replied with such a quiet ferocity that it even shook Q.

"Touchy Mon Capitan, and here I was just going to offer you a way to solve all that." Q sniveled.

"There is no way I would ever take you up on a 'favor' Q." Picard's voice dripped with malice.

"Not even for your poor wife, who right now cries at the sight of Will and Deanna's little pup?" Q said pouting.

That caught Picard off guard, could he make this decision for both he and Beverly, he knew Q was never to be trusted but if he could give them a child, Picard thought to himself.

A month later..

Picard could see his wife's depression had worsened. She refused to see Deanna or her child, it becoming too painful for her to bear. The hollows around her eyes spoke more about her condition than she did, her voice barely being heard then to answer a question. Picard mulled over Q's words, only telling Riker of his visit from the Omnipotent being. As Jean-Luc saw his wife become firmly entrenched in her sorrow he knew he had to do something. All known medical treatment had been researched but to no avail, they just could not have children. What made it worse was that Beverly had put the blame squarely on her own shoulders.

"Q." Picard said his head drooping in his hands.

A flash appeared and a moment later there he stood.

"You called?" Q replied with a flourish.

"What do you want in return for giving us a child?"

Q smiled, extremely delighted he would have a new toy to play with.

"No, I can't let this happen!" Wesley exclaimed, his voice echoing through the uncountable plains of existence.

Wes made himself appear back in his home, the Enterprise. He was in his mothers quarters, she was in bed, like usual. He didn't wake her but he put his hands on her stomach lightly and whispered, "I'm here to give you a gift mom, something that you deserve."

"Wesley, you can't do that." The Traveler urged.

"Yes, I can." Wesley stated in a cold confidence.

A faint glow surrounded Wes's hands as his visage began fading in and out of the world.

"You'll be blinked out of existence!" The Traveler yelled.

And Wesley said the three wisest words he knew, "So be it."

Beverly awoke with a start, breathing heavily. She felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She touched her stomach and a then, suddenly, Beverly knew she was pregnant. She had been holding her breath when she finally gasped out, "Wes." As a flood of emotion was ripped from her body and she was racked with tears. She cried tears of sorrow for her lost child whom she knew she would never see again, and tears of joy for her new child, that lived within her and she would be able to look upon in the next couple months.

The Traveler shed a lone tear. "His sacrifice must mean something."

Picard was just about to let Q do whatever he wanted to give Beverly the child she do desperately wanted when he heard a voice whisper, "No, first go to your wife." It was very faint, and Picard knew not where it originated but it gave him pause enough to pull his hand back from Q's before it had been shook in a binding deal.

10 years later…

"Is this a picture of me mom?" Renee asked his mother as he looked through the video family album.

"No sweetie that's Wesley." Beverly's aged face smiled.

"He looks just like me." Renee smiled his eyes shining with wonder.

"He was my miracle, and you were my gift."

The End