Q had been pursuing the captain for days now in his attempts to make her fall to his desires though she was far brighter than he might like to think. She knew he was hiding something, despite everything coming back to his desires to procreate with her Janeway knew it wasn't that simple. He wasn't after her because he was lonely and he wasn't looking to have a child with her because he only wanted a family. She had refused him around every corner, shut down his every attempt to win her affections. She wouldn't be some little toy on the end of a string he controlled like a puppet. Eventually Q would have to realize she wasn't going to play along with his game and he would just leave her alone. At least that had been her hope before he had transported her here to the continuum. Everything finally fell into place and made perfect sense. The supernovas, his puerile attempt at seducing her, even his little friend who had insulted her. The continuum was at war and it was Q's fault, her fault. She had assisted Quinn in his suicide even if it had been her intentions to keep him alive after giving him sanctuary on her ship. Now Captain Kathryn Janeway had to face up to her own mistakes and find a sensible way back to her crew and ship before the supernova's destroyed it all.

Q felt heavy in her arms while she pulled him away from the colonial styled home, his feet dragging behind her as she half carried him and half tried to encourage him to walk. With every step he was falling in and out of consciousness. The blood was running down his shoulder onto his chest staining the white shirt he had worn under his union officers uniform. For a time she had managed to hide him in the woods, or at least what Kathryn perceived as the woods. Once the Q's dressed in their grey uniforms had moved on and set the colonial home to flames she burdened the male Q's weight again and drug him down to what appeared to be an encampment for his own faction. She was able to carry him a little closer to one of the fires before letting him down. Brushing a hand over her forehead Janeway let out a sigh knowing she had to stop the bleeding in his shoulder. After everything he had done to her, chased her around her ship, disrespected her in front of her crew, taking her away from Voyager when they needed her Kathryn still had the heart to help a man like Q when he was down.

Kneeling down at his side she ripped her skirt up, luckily the natural fabric was weak and with even just a sharp edge of a rock could be cut up. Looking over the wound it seemed whatever weapon had been used on him had burned clean through his shoulder and left an exit wound on the other side making it much easier to clean up and bandage. Dabbing away the blood with a wet cloth from a bowl beside her she looked over at his face, his expression changing as though he could feel the pain. Pulling back on the pressure she applied to the wound Janeway couldn't help but smile a little, a small satisfaction to know that as all powerful as he might be he was still like anyone else. He could be wounded, he could bleed, he could feel pain, perhaps then he could express and even understand other 'mortal' emotions. That hope was the only thing she could use to return to Voyager and perhaps even find a better solution to ending this war other than having a baby with him. "Kathy." The sound of the mumbling voice pulled her from her thoughts while Q muttered her name and turned his head to the other side. For a moment she thought he had come to. "Kathy."

Grabbing his hand a feeling of sympathy overcame her, even Q an omnipotent being was reduced to this. "I'm here Q, it's alright."

"Kathy, I'm sorry." He whimpered almost like a bashful little boy and nearly rolled over onto his wounded shoulder. Grabbing him quickly Janeway rested him back against the ground and ran a clean rag over his forehead. Time passed while she worked on his shoulder and tied it off to stop the bleeding. With a final tug on the scraps of fabric to help cut off circulation to his injury Q finally woke up nearly flipping over the bowl of hot water beside him. "What, where are we?"

Ringing out the rag one last time she shook her hand and brushed the water from her dress. "One of your factions encampments. I hid you from the search party as long as I could when I saw what appeared to be your men retreating from the battlefield. I followed them here and from the looks of it you are not on the winning side."

Sitting up more she handed him a cup of water. "Maybe not the wining side but the right side and I'd rather be on the right side than the wrong side." Q took a sip almost choking on it before handing her the cup again. "So, have you made up your mind yet? Shall we end this war with our little union?"

Again he was pushing the subject and still she couldn't see why he felt having a baby now would help this war raging on in the continuum. "I'm sorry Q but I don't see how a baby is going to stop this war. Most of all why you would have even asked me. As you said you could have chosen anyone and yet you came to me. Why?"

A little smirk came to his face at her questions. Humans, always needing an answer, something to lead them to some truer meaning, to some hidden motive. The world wasn't so simple though, sometimes things were not as simple as they thought they might be. "Oh Kathryn isn't it obvious by now? You are after all involved in this more than any other human. It was your choice to take Quinn in, an act that lead to his death and the outrage in the continuum. Besides as I have said only a perfect union can change the continuum for the better. My omnipotence and your compassion, your love, your nobility. You have all the qualities I needed."

"So do other people, other humans, even others in my crew." Janeway spoke back tilting her head to the side as if she didn't notice the change of tone in his voice. He was still hiding something from her. Yes she might have been involved more so than others because of the situation with Quinn but how was a baby with her going to fix that? Or perhaps this was his idea of punishing her, seeing if her pants really did 'fit'.

"Yes and that might be true but those other people are not you Kathryn. I could explain but I don't think you could follow so I'll leave it this way. You are a scientist and an explorer and what I am offering you is the world and all it's mysteries. Could you imagine, the universe would be the playground you and our child could explore together. To know what no other human can know, to see what no other human could see. One would think a woman like you would jump at the opportunity."

"I admit it's a tempting offer but I'm still the captain of Voyager and I have a duty to uphold."

Q laughed at her mention of duty, one of the qualities he admired about his dear Kathryn Janeway. "You know I could send you home if you agreed."

"No thank you, my crew and I can manage ourselves, without your help."

Again he smiled turning his head and laughing, "You are stubborn Kathy, a trait I admire in you just like your intellect and strength. You know when I first met you I could hardly imagine a woman with your 'spunk'. Just as bold as Picard but a little more, 'pleasing' to the eyes. That night I showed up in your bedroom and tried to bribe you, which I admit was a dirty trick, I had never known a woman, a being faced with the possibilities I had offered you to simply turn them down like you had. I had never been told to 'get out' of a bed either."

"So is that what this is about? I somehow bruised your ego?" She narrowed her eyes feeling that might be a typical move for him.

"No Kathy it wasn't my ego you bruised only my heart."

Now she was the one laughing at him. "Your heart, your lying." It had crossed her mind that he was, that he was playing with her again. She couldn't trust him but that almost hurt look on her face made her sit back and observe him once more in a new light. "Besides Q did you ever think about how I might feel to have a child taken away to be raised in the continuum?"

He jumped back quickly to defend himself and correct her misguided image of what would come to follow. After all with this current line of questioning it made him wonder if she was actually considering his offer now. "Oh Kathy I wouldn't dream of taking our child away from you. After all who would raise it then? Look after it? Teach it about your high and mighty Starfleet ideas? I wouldn't have time to chase the little tike around the universe. I'm a busy man."

"So your idea was to just abandon us then? You can't do that Q, you can't just abandon a child and you can't have a family without love. I don't love you Q and you know you don't love me. A baby would be a mistake, they don't just need DNA to become good people they need parents. Parents willing to teach them about that love and compassion you so badly want to have your child take on."

Maybe she was right, he was going about this the wrong way. Acting before he really took the time to understand the 'complex' dynamic of a human family. "So then you can teach me. Teach me to be the person our child would need."

Again she laughed him off, clearly his grasp at understanding humans was far less than he liked to believe. "I can't just teach you to be a good parent Q. You have to find that out on your own."

"Well then you humans have a funny way of going about courtship and mating." He grumbled and flinched as she tried to set his arm up in a sling. "And you were wrong Kathy, about me, not having shall we say feelings for you. Maybe I don't know what love is the way you humans understand it but take into consideration. I could watch the dawn of time and history, I could contemplate the meaning of of existence and factor out the outcome of thousands of new civilizations and yet I find since I met you parts of my mind bogged down by thoughts of you. Perhaps it's not the fast heart beat, falling out of control you humans experience but for a Q do I dare say this could be love?"

It was clear his confession hadn't reassured her as he wanted it to. It had frightened her. Almost in a panic she ripped another piece of her hemmed skirt off and held it up for him to see. "Well why you do that I am going to end your war. I am taking this white flag and marching over to that camp to negotiate..."

She was cut off when Q grabbed her hand. "I can't let you do that, I can't let you be a hero Kathy. If you walked over there they would kill you. I can forgive myself if all i do is make you dislike me, even hate me but if something happened to you. that Kathy I could never forgive myself for, especially when I could have avoided it or worse caused it. I'll take you back to Voyager if that is what you want. No more tricks, no more games. If I should perish in this war then I would hope you would remember a dying mans last wishes, remember me fondly and remember we will always have Paris."

"Paris?" She quirked a brow up a little confused what her pilot had to do with this.

"Yes, I like him. He's cocky." As much as she wanted to comment on him she just shook her head and smiled. If he meant to send her back to Voyager then she would be at least know Paris and the others would be alright. However that didn't stop what was happening here and the fact it was affecting her world as well.

"As much as I would love to take up your offer to go back to Voyager you are right. I'm involved in this war now and I can't just ignore it. It still has to end."

"And how do you intend to end it benevolent Captain Janeway?"

"Their must be another way Q." Perhaps work over some terms for surrender, each side could come to an agreement, they could discuss the current issues. Perhaps it wouldn't change over night but in time each side could be happy.

"I have told you Kathy, either we shake the continuum to it's core or I die. Those are my only options."

"Those may be your only options but they are not mine. You want the seeds of human compassion to send the ripples through the continuum. So lets start those ripples now."

"Right here, right now?" Q smiled and raised his brow with that cocky grin of his. "Oh Kathy and I haven't even bought you dinner yet."

"That's not what I am talking about Q, come on get up. We are going to pay the other camp a visit on a terms for peace."