Resistance Is Futile - pt 31

Q could have kicked himself. He had forgotten that alcohol didn't tamper with the Pair Bond, though he hadn't remembered until he had been watching Virginia stargazing and when she ran out of the room once they had started 'singing'...the realization hit him hard. He'd been invisible, and Hidden, but that hadn't stopped her from sensing him.

He'd been a fool to talk with Picard...the initial event that had tipped her off to his presence. She was probably looking for him now, though he could sense that she hadn't lifted her end of the Muting on their Bond. But the conversation with Picard had been a must. Hadn't it? Perhaps it had been an action born of jealousy and anger, like Picard suspected.

It had been all he could do to hold back when Jayden had been in the picture. Q could tolerate Virginia having lovers, because he knew that she wrestled with her love for him, but Jayden had been bad news from the start. That man had maniuplated her until he had gotten what he wanted...Pair Bonded to the Daughter-Heir of the Gandraleayian throne...but she was already Bonded to another. Virginia hadn't been able to see Jayden's true motives even after the shaky Bond was in place. It was a wonder that it hadn't driven all three of them mad. Instead, to Q's surprise and delight, Virginia had drawn strength from him through the Bond, she had actually reached out to him...and he had embraced her likewise, which in turn had strengthened him...which is how they had been able to survive the ordeal...and amazingly, it had strengthened the Bond itself.

He hadn't meant for it to happen. Any of it. Before, when he was allowed to go by his name, Ian had been sent to the Freedom Fighters group that Virginia's parents were leading. Virginia being the only reason why the Gandraleayians had gotten involved in Earth politics in the first place...someone had to keep an eye on her. There had been a rumor circulating that someone in the group of Gandraleayians safeguarding Virginia had been someone about ready to'turn rogue' and it had been his job to find him...there had actually been a small cell.

He'd been in the underground complex for maybe half an hour, talking with a young Gandraleayian lad when Virginia had walked up and invited him to dinner with her family, actually snubbing her boyfriend, the lad he had been speaking to. What Ian/Q had felt then was amusement, but an instant liking. Even at sixteen Virginia had had a commanding presence about her...she'd been cocky and naive, indeed, who wasn't at that age? The night of the dinner with her family, and she'd hit him with the request to be her teacher at God's say so, and he'd found himself agreeing, he had impulsively warned her not to fall in love with him, she had lifted her eyebrows and told him that perhaps it was he who had better not fall in love with her.

Before long, Virginia had somehow talked him into watching the stars with her in the evenings. It had been an escape for her, from her turbulent family, from the politics of the world she was growing up in. And it was on those evenings that she revealed her insatiable curiosity. Once she had found out about her alien heritage, she had been full of questions. For him, the stars were commonplace. He had seen them from countless worlds at countless angles and he had even traveled through them. But with her, seeing them through her eyes, her innocence had brought them alive again. Teaching her, being with her, had brought him back to life again.

The night the stars sang...he'd almost lost all control. They had been teacher and student for almost a year, friends for nearly as long. She'd always been beautiful, even as a clumsy and gangly teenager, but it was her he'd been drawn to, had always been drawn to. She had trusted him so completely in that moment...even though she hadn't understood...especially when he'd abruptly ended the mind-link...but it had been that trust that had stopped him from kissing her, because it wouldn't have stopped with kissing. He had known then, that he felt far more for her than friendship. And that he could do nothing about it.


Q had panicked when she had run away after Michael raped her. She'd given him no warning. But...her foster father Luther had noticed the warning signs and had actually caught her as she was leaving...and he'd let her go. Virginia must have suspected that Luther would catch her, had maybe even planned for it, because she had left a letter for Ian with him. He had long ago lost the actual letter, but he had never forgotten the brief message. "Ian," she'd written. "I'm sorry for leaving like this, but I cannot stay here ... not right now. What Mike did...I trusted him...but he lied to me, even about who he was. I trust you completely, but I don't trust the rest of our kind. I know you lied about not knowing why the stars sing when we're together, but it's the only one you've ever told me so I figure you must have a good reason. Perhaps it means I'm unstable and you're afraid to tell me. Please don't look for me. I will contact you when I can. Your friend, Virginia"

So, he had trusted her and waited. He had daily stilled his panicked heart, endured the correction and discipline of his superiors, endured the doubting questions when they asked if she'd tried contacting him. She'd called him almost a year later. Alive and well...and in love. It had hurt that he wasn't her first love, but even then he had loved her enough to want her happiness above his own. She had asked him to come to their wedding, so long as he didn't tell anyone. He hadn't and he had managed to go without being found out. Marcus had been so right for her that he had never been able to jealous of their relationship.

He had tried fighting his feelings for Virginia, he had even married. Rebecca had been a sweet girl, and he truly had loved her...but not enough. She had been human, a little older than Virginia. But the Pair Bond had never happened between them. It was supposed to take place the first time a couple was physically intimate with each other, but it hadn't with them. And when he hadn't mentioned it to her, and asked if she wanted it, she had said no. He should have known then that their marriage was doomed. And doomed it had been. Rebecca had eventually realized his feelings for Virginia and had allowed jealousy to eat at her. He had offered to Bond with her, to show her that no matter what his feelings for Virginia were, it was Rebecca he had loved enough to marry. For some reason he never understood, she refused again. While she had loved him, Rebecca had never been comfortable with Ian's alien powers. It would have solved so many things, she'd have known that he was telling the truth for starters. But she didn't want it, and had left him less than a year later for another man who had ended up killing her.

Inconsolable, Q had taken a leave of absence from Special Ops and had isolated himself. Virginia wasn't even able to find him...and he knew that she had looked. He had felt numerous Quest Pulses bounce of his shielding, but Virginia's was the only one he recognized. He came out once in a while, but it hadn't been often and it had often been angry. Marcus had been the one to speak some sense into him, a memory he had never consciously shared with Virgina, though how she could have been unaware of her husband's conversation with him, he didn't know.

"Ian," Marcus has said late one night after Virginia had gone oot bed and the two were just sitting and talking. "Virginia is hurting for you right now, because she doesn't understand your anger."

"What's to understand?" he'd replied angrily. "My wife left me for a psychomaniac who killed her. Seems pretty cut and dried to me."


"Perhaps I mispoke. That part of your anger she understands. But she's aware that it goes deeper than that, she just doesn't realize that your anger stems from the fact that you love another man's wife. For all that my wife senses, she misses a lot, and I think you hide it from her rather well."

It had taken Ian a long moment to asnwer. "You know?"


"Ian, I've always known. And I want you to know, when I die...I'd appreciate it if you took care of her. She already adores you, and trusts you, so it shouldn't be that big of a step for her to fall in love with you."

"After your gone," he'd replied woodenly, unbelievingly. "You can't be seriously saying what I think you are."

"I'm very serious." Marcus had seemed amused. "I'm going to die someday. I know this, and I'm ok with you being there with her afterwards."

"If you know, how is it Virginia doesn't? You're Bonded."


Marcus chuckled. "Because Virginia lets me keep secrets from her. Every woman likes to be surprised by her husband at least twice a year, her birthday and their anniversary. When she senses one, she doesn't press. She trusts me to tell her when she's ready to hear it."

The conversation had ended shortly afterwards, and they had never spoken of it again. And apparently Marcus had never shared anything with Virginia, because not only had it been a big step for her to fall in love with him, it was one she still wouldn't admit to have taken.

Q knew that a lot of it had to do with the fact that the Council had exiled him and added his name to the Rogue Q list...but he also knew that she had a deeper issue with it.

He just didn't know what it was.