Resistance Is Futile - Pt 29

Just as Q had predicted, Guinan called Picard.

"Captain, I'm sorry for not calling sooner," she said. "But...did he show himself to you?"

There was never any mistaking whom she meant when she said it like that. "Yes, he did. If you were speaking with Virginia like he claimed, I quite understand why you didn't call sooner."

"I was."

"Is she...no, wait. Are you able to meet with me in my Ready Room, or would you prefer for me to come down there?"

"I'll be there in a moment, Captain."

Picard paced his Ready Room as he waited for Guinan. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to discuss with her, but from the way Q had mentioned it, that being clearly expected the two of them to talk. It felt like it took Guinan an extraordinarily long amount of time before she arrived, though in reality it was less than five minutes.

The smoothly sliding doors slid open to admit the hostess, and quite unlike her she sat in one of the chairs. She waited for the captain to retake his seat before asking, "What did he say?"

Picard was not offended by her brusk manner, and had in fact been expecting it. She had told him the night before that she didn't want to see Virginia hurt...and yet he had done exactly that. "He felt the need to drop in to let me know that he's watching. That Virginia is going to need him soon, for something that she's planning, and that she knows this, even though she hasn't accepted it yet."

"Did he say what she's planning?"

"No. Though he told me that she's been planning it before I hurt her this morning."

Guinan was silent for a moment. "I wasn't sure you aware of that."

"At the time, no. I had only just realized my error before Q appeared."

"Your error?"

"I know that sounds cold, but how would you like me to describe it?" Picard sighed. "I called her by Beverly's name...at the most unforgivable moments."

"The two of you need to talk."

"I plan on it, shortly. Q also said that Virginia isn't to know that he's been around."

Guinan nodded. "I felt that when I felt his arrival."

"Why? Shortly after Virginia arrived, she made mention that she knew Q before he had been named Q, when he was still known as Ian. And when he spoke of how I had hurt her...the look in his eyes...Guinan, what is their story?"

The dark skinned woman hesitated. "Jean-Luc, it's not my story to tell, but I will because I know that neither one of them will ever tell it." She folded her hands in front of her, taking on the air of a storyteller. "He started out as her Teacher."

"Her teacher?"

Guinan nodded. "Yes. Gandraleayians aren't born knowing how to use the powers they are born with, they need to be taught. Some never learn how to go beyond the basics, simple telepathy - such as shielding their thoughts. There are different Talents and different Skills to be learned; there are also moral and ethical lessons taught. Hybrids, it turns out, such as Virginia, cannot...easily...be taught by full-blooded teachers, but by other hybrids...and they learned this by trial and fire. And most hybrids can learn a great deal without a teacher. Virginia went through seven different teachers before Ian entered her life when she had just turned sixteen."

"Q isn't full-blooded?"

"No. And he wasn't trained to be a teacher. At the time, he was a Special Ops agent for the Orion Council, and he was undercover looking for missing Rogues. The two of them connected right off...she claimed that God had told her he was to be her teacher...and he was amused at her precociousness. He was after all, is, her senior by almost a hundred years. He received permission to try to teach her. The Council honestly didn't know what else to do with her and were willing to try the experiment. I don't know what the ususal method is, but he linked minds with her and showed her what she needed to do. Afterwards, she learned quickly.

"One night, her boyfriend at the time, took advantage of her while she was sleeping. He had been eavesdropping on her dreams, and replaced the man in her dreams with himself. He could do this because he was also Gandraleayian. Ian and another Special Ops agent heard Virginia's mental cry for help and rescued her before the boy could finish. Ian was more strongly gifted in Healing than this other agent, and he was the one who Healed Virginia's physical wounds. But he couldn't fix her emotionally. She ran away in less than a weeks time."

"Ran away? But wasn't she a teenager in the midst of the Eugenics War? It wouldn't have been a good time for a teen to be on her own in any country."

"No, it wasn't, but she knew enough to defend herself. One thing that she learned on her own before Q began to teach her was how to disable an attacker by an electrical discharge. She learned how to Hide herself, and managed to cross the American nation from one coast to the other."

"Is that when she met Marcus?"

"Yes. She was married by the time her people had found her again. They weren't happy that she had married a human, but they were also unwilling to Break the Bond between them. Ian returned to the role of her teacher, though there are some who claimed that Ian had known her whereabouts for far longer than he'd admit. Aside from being her teacher, he was also her friend. Virginia and Marcus were married a long time, and were very happy. If she could have Marcus back, she'd would. But her Bond with him only slowed his aging...it didn't stop it. When Marcus died...she was devestated. It damaged her psyche so badly, that for a time she actually forgot who she was.

"She disappeared again, and somehow managed to land herself in a Sancuary Disctrict. She'd been there a year before Ian found her. I'm not sure where he took her, she's never shared. But he had a secret base somewhere and he kept her hidden from their people until she had had enough time to heal and regain her strength. And she seduced him."

Picard wasn't sure if he was amused or startled by this revelation. "She seduced him?"

Guinan smiled at his disbelief. "Yes, 'Q' is seducable, but to tell you the truth, it wasn't that hard. He's loved her from the beginning, Jean-Luc. They were teacher and student for over a year before she ran away, and that's more than enough time for something like love to grow and make itself known. He fought it, he even tried ignoring it with another relationship. But he couldn't fight it any more than you could have stopped yourself from calling out Beverly's name. When she went missing after Marcus died, Ian was beside himself. When he found her...he vowed that whenever she needed him, he'd be there. He wasn't able to hide from her his feelings for her, and Virginia has a way of picking up on a man's interest. She denies that she has any feelings for him beyond friendship, and that the reason she seduced him was purely physical."

"But?"

"But...I believe she loves him. I know they're Bonded, because they were intimate with each other and they were both sober. And I think it was that Bond that overrode the one with Jayden and drove him mad." Guinan sighed. "I know she was furious with the Council when they exiled Ian and put him on the Rogue Q list...far too upset for her feelings to be platonic. She denies it, as he tried to. But, every single time she's ever needed him, he's kept his word even though it's against the rules...and she's never turned his help away. In fact, I think she even calls out to him when she needs him, whether she realizes it or not."

"Every time?" inquired Picard. "What about after Jayden killed himself? I saw how much that still upsets her."

"He came then, and she accepted his comfort. He didn't stay long, as I was there, and Virginia had told him that she wasn't going to send me away. It made him angry and he left as soon as he was certain she was going to be ok."

"Guinan, what is it between you and Q."

Her brows lowered, and pain crossed her face. "That, my friend, is another story."