Waiting anxiously for your comments at [email protected]. Please have mercy! My english isn't so good, cause I'm German. (At least I had great help). Thank you!

Captain Kathryn Janeway was sitting on her desk in the ready room, sipping on a cup of hot coffee, when she heard the intercom buzzing.
"Captain, please turn to your emergency medical channel immediately", the doctor's voice sounded.
Janeway frowned. She meant to hear a little panic in the doctor's voice. Then she moved over to the little screen on her desk and switched it on. The doctor's face appeared on it. Yes, he definitly was in panic.
"Captain, I was forced to do this. It's..."
"Fooorced", another voice sounded through the intercom.
Janeway shuddered. She hadn't heard that voice for years, but she recognized it. The doctor's image disappeared from the screen and another, smiling face came to view.
"Q!!!", she yelled. "What the hell are you doing on my ship?"
"Harsh words for the so long lost beloved one."
"Beloved one? That surely doesn't mean you!", Janeway responded.
"I missed you beyond imagination, Kathy!"
Captain Janeway saw a flashy light before her eyes and found herself, to her greatest disconcern, lying in Q's arms, who once again wore a starfleet captain's uniform. She wriggled out of the embrace and jumped one step backward to get away from the entity.
Q, grabbing Janeway's hand, turned to the doctor.
"Doctor, would you please leave the room. Me and Kathy we'd rather stay twosome."
"You'll stay!" Janeway barked. "Don't leave me alone with this... monster!"
"I'm a doctor, not a chaperon!" The doctor moved slightly backward.
"Doctor!", Janeway said.
"Doctor", Q said, rose his hand and snapped his fingers.
Within the next second the doctor appeared on the bridge. Chakotay jumped out of the commando seat with a puzzled look.
"Doctor! What are you doing here? Who transferred you to the bridge?"
The doctor looked around with horror in his eyes. "First tell me why I'm not disappearing! My holoemitter is in sickbay, together with the captain and Q!"
Chakotay grabbed the doctor by his shoulders. "Q? Q is on voyager?" He turned around. "Mr. Tuvok! To sickbay with a rescue team!"
Chakotay moved away from the doctor and barked his orders into the room. The EMH followed him and tried to catch the Indian's attention.
"Commander? Commander, would you please try to transfer me back to sickbay? The computer's ignoring my orders. Commander? Are you listening to ..."
"Doctor!" Chakotay grabbed the doctor's uniform shirt." "Don't you see I've got things to do???"
The doctor shrugged and sat down on the commander's seat with horror in his eyes.

It seemed like hours for poor Kathryn, she had to try to keep Q away, who chased her laughing around sickbay over and over. She drew a deep breath when she heard the sound of the doors sliding apart. Tuvok, his security team behind him, looked like a glorious saviour to her at this very moment. His eyebrow wandered towards his hairline, when he saw the scene before his eyes. Janeway couldn't fight the impression of seeing a slightly amused look on the Vulcan's face.
"You're late." Q's voice sounded reproachful.
"I hate to confess it, but I agree with Q, Mr. Tuvok", the captain said. "It took you quite a while to come here."
This time it was the security chief's other eyebrow being raised.
"I'm sorry, captain. but the turbolift stopped on wrong decks four times until I was able to reach sickbay."
Janeway casted a severe glance in Q's direction and placed her hands on her hips.
"So, Q, will you finally tell me what made you come here, apart from the longing for something completely hopeless?"
Q sighed deeply.
"Oooh, Kathy, heartless darling! What else could've driven me, if not seeing your lovely face again?"
"Maybe just to get us in trouble again?"
"Kathy, who do you think I am?" Q looked hurt.
"I bet you don't want to know", Janeway replied. "I hate saying things twice, but if you're not leaving my vessel immediately you'll have to take the consequences. And I don't think..."
Q smiled and snapped his fingers, and for a few seconds there was a big, quacking duck sitting on Janeway's place, flattering its wings.
"... I hope, we're understood!" With this Janeway turned around with a verve and left the room.
"She's a little whirlwind, isn't she?" Q addressed Tuvok, who stood still there trying to understand what he had just seen..

When arriving on the bridge, Janeway's hairdo had to be called a "has-been". She obviously was in a rage.
The doctor moved towards her with a shining smile.
"Captain! Finally! Believe it or not, but I'm trying for a long time now to catch Chakotay's attention. I'm a little anxious, cause my emitter's not with me. I can't transfer myself back to sickbay anymore, and maybe you could..." He stopped when he saw the expression in Janeway's eyes.
"You really can't imagine, right?", she hissed and pushed him asides.
The EMH took a deep breath.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked the room, looking up again, angry. "Did I miss something? Are we back to the array once again? Am I just the emergency medical hologram and nothing more again? What about 'we are your family, doctor'? What's about?"
Suddenly there was this flash and Q appeared in front of the hologram, when he felt being grapped by his collar.
"It's you!" the doctor yelled into the entity's face. "Every time you appear, there is nothing but trouble for me!"
Q forced the doctor softly to remove his hands from him and smiled.
"Doctor", he said, putting a hand on the doc's shoulder, " I apologize. But I came to make a thrilling offer to you. Let's talk!"
Another lightning, and the two men were gone.
The crew looked at the place where both had stood. Harry Kim turned to Captain Janeway, his eyes darkened in horror.
"Ma'am, what was this? What's happening now? Is the doctor... gone?"
Janeway shrugged. "I've got no idea", she whispered.
"He was pretty angry", Paris considered. "I don't want to imagine what could happen, if Q's digging on that."
The captain opened her eyes widely. "You mean..."
Just like an answer, there was this flashing light again. No, there were two flashing lights. The bridge crew looked at two men in captain's uniforms. Q and ... the doctor.
"Doctor!" Janeway hardly could speak. "Please tell me it's not what it looks like!"
The EMH crossed his arms and grinned. "Well, captain, Q had to offer an opportunity to me I could hardly resist."
He snapped his fingers, and within the next second Janeway stood face to face with one gigantic christmas tree.
"Merry X-mas, captain!", she heard the doctor's voice through the needled branches.

Some time later the senior officers sat around the table in the briefing room. The crew watched Captain Janeway while she tried to pick the last needles out of her hair.
Torres frowned. "What you try to tell me is that Q transferred his abilities to the doctor?"
Everybody nodded.
"And the doctor agreed?"
Janeway leaned in. "Well, ladies and gentlemen, what we've got here is some serious problem we have to handle. There are two Qs. One of them probably needs some time to think, then he'll come back for reason. But until then I don't want know what'll happen. Anyway, we'll have to take this very, very serious."
This moment the intercom was chirping.
"Respond", Janeway said.
Neelix voice sounded through the briefing room.
"Captain", he gasped, "there's something very strange going on here! I stood there in my kitchen, when all the tyrelian eggs suddenly moved into the air and then flew straight into my direction!"
"Might it be", the captain considered, "that just this second the doctor was entering the mess hall?"
"Strange, you mention it", the Talaxian answered. "You're right. Ummm, and Captain? There's something You oughta know about the doctor's uniform..."
"I know, I know, Mr. Neelix", Kathryn interrupted. "At no case you should irritate the doctor at the moment. No matter what'll happen. He has got the might of a Q entity, and still we don't know what he's supposed to do. Janeway out."

Neelix deactivated his communicator and swallowed. Then he turned around to where the EMH stood, watching grinning the covered-in-yolk cook.
"Doctor!" Neelix smiled nervously. "Nice to see you! What can I do for you? Offer something? Coffee? A chair?"
The hologram said nothing. He came one step towards Neelix, rose his hand and snapped his fingers. Then he turned around and left the casino without one further look to the Talaxian, who tried desperately to get all the cooking pots and pans off his now magnetic body.

In that very minute the senior officers had finished their briefing and rose from their seats. Janeway stepped to the bridge doors, that slid apart before her. When she saw what happened to the bridge, she moved one step backward and collided with Chakotay who was right behind her. The crew crowded behind Janeway to see what made their captain so speechless.
There still were the commando seats, but now they stood on white sand, surrounded by some coconut palmtrees. On the seats, covered in Hawaii shirts and bermuda shorts, lolled Q and the EMH, both of them holding exotic looking drinks with paper sunshades in it in their hands.
"Aloha, Kathy baby!" Q yelled and snapped his fingers.
Janeway started freezing. She looked down and noticed that she now wore a bast skirt and several flowered chains around her neck. Her crew looked the same way. She saw Tom Paris standing behind the commando seats with a palm fan. Harry and B'Elanna balanced big trays with some more drinks on their hands, and Chakotay and Tuvok found themselves sitting behind some huge jungle drums.
"Oh my God!", the captain gasped for air.
"You're still allowed to call us Q", smiled Q.
"Dr. Q, please", the doctor said and turned to Paris, winking. "There's still something missing, I'd say!"
"What do you want?", Q asked enthusiastically. "Some adventure? How about this?"
He snapped his fingers and moved his and the doctor's garment to neoprene suits. He held two surfboards and pointed to the viewscreen. Waves surged through the frame, and there was a salty smell in the air.
"Naw, that's not it. I want something more..." The doctor wrestled for words.
"I think I know." Q snapped again and the surfboards and the onscreen ocean disappeared. One more snap and there was a blond woman with enormous, ummm, wearing a red swimsuit. The doctor looked at her.
"That's better", the doctor murmured, "but far from being perfect."
He snapped his fingers. The next moment Seven of Nine appeared, where the blond women had stood, for a nanosecond wearing the red swimsuit, then reappearing in her usual garment, but sitting now on the doctor's knees. She was still holding some engineering tool in her hand and looked around puzzled. Then she noticed where she was.
"Doctor?" she asked. "If you request me to report to the bridge, will you please call me instead of..." She stopped. "Please explain why I'm sitting on your lap!"
"It's called romance", the doctor answered with a glance toward Tom, who watched the EMH with horror in his eyes. "Seven! No more long hours of trying to socialize! I can give you everything you want!"
He laid his arms around Seven's waist, but she wriggled out of his embrace and jumped up.
"This is not acceptable. I didn't ask for a mate yet!" Seven noticed Q sitting there, grinning. "You are Q, I suppose? "
"News travel by warp speed", Q answered with a little bow.
"You caused those changes to the doctor?"
"He's a very capable student."
Seven looked back to the doctor who stood up and took her hands.
"Seven! Don't look at him", he shouted vehemently." Look at me! I've been waiting for my spot for so long. The future belongs to me and you. You said you don't like the way your life is going. Well, I can change it. Do you want adventure? Wild romance? Love is war?"
Before Seven of Nine's eyes the ship's bridge turned to an ancient sailing ship. She found herself on the deck of that ship, wearing a flowing white dress, her hair open and she was lying in the doctor's arm. He himself wore some tight, black trousers, shining top boots and a wide open, red shirt, and held a giant saber in his other hand.
"I can save your life as often as you wish. Let me be the buccaneer of your heart!" he yelled heroicly.
Seven struggled in the doctor's embrace.
"Will you please let me go?!"
"Would this life be too thrilling for you?", he asked anxious. You love it calm and tranquil? Oh, I also can offer this to you."
The pirate's ship turned to a sunny, rural landscape. They stood on the veranda of an idyllic farm house. Seven was now wearing a long, old-fashioned dress. She took a look at the doctor. If she ever wanted to know what Huckleberry Finn looked like as a grown-up, there it was. The EMH was covered only in some old jeans slacks and wore a straw hat. He moved behind Seven, twined his arms round her waist and laid his unshaved cheek on Sevens.
"Isn't that wonderful? Just the two of us. Me and you. A nature boy and his love."
"That itches", Seven muttered and tried to turn her head away from him.
"Every evening you can sit on you rocking chair and watch the sunset."
"And you're smelling like a cow-shed!"
"I can even set the sun more than once a day, if you like it."
"Leave it!" the ex-borg barked.
"I know what you want ", she heard his voice on her ear. "You like it the naughty way, don't you?"
She opened her eyes wide and didn't dare to take a look at the doctor. She now was held by arms, wrapped in black leather, with some metal pricks. The short look she took was enough. His black and white face painting obviously should imitate the looks of a demon or something, and she never wanted to see something like that again.
"Will you please stop that with your tongue!?"
She finally managed to get rid of the doctor's embrace.
"Seven!"
She looked at him obstinately.
"What the hell do you want? Don't you understand me? I can give the garden Eden to you, if you want me to do!"
"Don't even think of it!", Seven of Nine shouted and turned her head away hastily, closing her eyes.
"Don't be afraid. There's a bush between us", the hologram replied grouchily. "I don't see nothing, and so do you."
"Get me back on Voyager, will you, please?", Seven asked emphatically.
She heard the EMH's sigh and opened her eyes again. They were back on the vessel's bridge, wearing normal attire. The bridge had changed to its normal, too.
When he saw them, Q rose from his seat, moved behind the both of them and laid his arms on their shoulders.
"We all wondered were you have been for so long. But I suppose you don't want to share it with all of us, do you?"
Seven shoved Q's arm from her shoulder and moved in front of the doctor, who stood there, with hanging shoulders, looking anxiously at her.
"Doctor?", she addressed him. "There's something I want to tell you, and then I want you to go. Take your friend with you, leave and never come back."
The doctor looked at her and his lower lip shivered.
Seven, her head down, started to talk herself in a rage. "When I came to this ship I was alone, and I saw in you another outsider just like me. When we started out with those social lessons, I considered you my best friend. When we were dancing and singing together, I even thought you could be much more for me. Yes, I really thought about you as a potential mate. But I wasn't sure about your feelings. Now that I know, I am disgusted with them."
She raised her head. Tears were in her eyes, and the doctor's heart seemed to break into pieces. They didn't see Tom coming. He turned to Seven of Nine.
"Seven, I think I should say something, too. I'm afraid this wasn't all his fault. I told him to impress you, to..."
"Mr. Paris, don't!" The doctor placed one hand on the young pilot's shoulder. "She's right. I hoped I could overrun her with my feelings, now that I've got the might to do as I like. I'll leave. That's inevitable."
He turned to Captain Janeway. "Captain, I left a copy of my original program in the holobuffer. So you will be having a doctor for the last part of the voyage. The least thing I can do is to bring you back home."
He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. On the screen a bluish planet appeared in some distance. Harry gasped and jumped to his console pushing some of the buttons and controls.
"Captain! Earth!"
Q jumped to the doctor and grabbed his wrist.
"That's not the bet!" he hissed. "Charity is something for the ordinary mortals!"
He snapped. The screen displayed the old constellation of delta quadrant's stars. The doctor looked into his eyes, and without any sound, he freed his arm and snapped again. Earth re-appeared on the screen. Another snap from Q - the delta quadrant. Harry Kim kept looking at the displays, shaking his head in horror.
"Stop it!", he cried.
Snap - Earth
Snap - the delta quadrant
Snap - Earth
The changes went on and on, faster and faster. Soon all the crew could see was a black and blue whirl of colors.
Snap - Earth
Snap - the delta quadrant
Snap - the delta quadrant.
The doctor looked puzzled to the screen and snapped again. Delta quadrant persisted to surround the vessel. The EMH looked back to Q and frowned. The entity grinned.
"I told you, didn't I? You're ungrateful. I gave to you the most exceptional gift of your whole wretched life, and you've got nothing to do but to stab a knife into my back. I thought you'd be better than those humans. I was blinded by your promising arrogance. You are as useless and inferior as those ridiculous creatures. You are just like them."
He snapped again, and the doctor's captain's uniform jacket fell from his body and dropped down to the floor. The doctor's looks went through Q, when the entity threw a last glance in the round and disappeared, yet in another flashing light.
Captain Janeway moved a few steps towards the doctor. He looked at her with blank eyes.
"Doctor?"
"I'm human."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Human. He made me human, as this is the biggest punishment he can imagine. Spend life as a human being.Vulnerable. Mortal." He shivered.
Tom had stepped behind the doctor and pointed a tricorder at him, looking at the display in disbelieve.
"He's right, Ma'am", he announced. "The tricorder is reading flesh and blood, brain patterns..."
"That's what I always wanted to be", the doctor said quietly. "Just for one reason..."
Janeway turned her head to seek Seven of Nine. She found her in a corner of the bridge, leaning against the wall, watching the scene with indifferent looks. Then she looked to Harry, who made hasty signs to her since a few moments.
"What is it, Kim?"
"The ship, Ma'am!" His voice sounded terrified. "The hull structure became instable with all that back and forth they did with the vessel! It's collapsing!
"Red alert! Build a force field around it", Janeway yelled. "Life support systems down to minimum. All energy to the force fields, till we can stabilize the hull. An extra force field to protect the warp core! Quick!"
The red lights flashed hysterically, and the alarm sirens screamed. The crew was running around, pushing some buttons, rushing their fingers over controls, yelling. In all that chaos the doctor still stood at the same point. His and Seven's eyes met for a second. They were about to die, that was for sure. It was all his fault, he knew. Seven cried. She did the most human thing she ever did, and it should be the last one. He wanted to go to her, he wanted to apologize and hold her to take her fears during death. But it was too late.
"DOCTOR!"
He turned around to find out who was yelling. Tom Paris stood on the other side of the room and looked at the viewscreen with horror in his eyes. The doctor turned his head to where the young pilot was looking to and saw that the screen just in front of him sparked and burnt. It was about to explode, but he couldn't move a foot to get away.
Seven watched the fire and shivered. She saw the doctor looking and not running. She jumped forward to push him away. In this second the viewscreen exploded, and debris were tossed all over the room. One metal fragment hit the doctor and shred the heart he had owned only for a few minutes. The ex-borg fell to her knees and reached out her hand helplessly, when she saw him breaking down, bleeding, without any sound. She touched the doctor's wound and she looked shaken at the blood on her hand. She cried. She yelled. She roared. Crewmembers appeared behind her to get her away from the burning viewscreen, but she resisted. She crawled nearer to the doctor's body and held him in her arms. Then she lifted her head.
"Q!!!", she roared. "Look what you've done! Come back, you bastard! I know you're out there! Do something! Are you listening?! Do something!!!"
Everybody stood still and held their breath. Seconds of complete silence followed.
"Humans!" A loud off-body voice sounded through the whole ship. "Always such ado about this silly thing..."
The air around Seven and the dead doctor turned into a bluish gleaming. Then the doctor's holomatrix sparkled, when the metal fragment moved through his chest and fell on the floor with a clank. The gleaming disappeared, and so did the fire and the debris.
The EMH opened his eyes and looked up to Sevens bust. She left him out of her embrace hastily and he sat up and he glanced around with a puzzled look in his eyes. Then his brown eyes met Seven's.
"Something wrong?"
"No", the former borg answered quietly after a little pause. "Everthing's working within normal parameters." She watched her toes.
The doctor stood up and offered his hand to Seven to help her up. She accepted.
"Am I still needed here?", the hologram addressed Captain Janeway, wondering why every one was looking at him with anxious eyes.
Janeway held his arm and looked into his eyes.
"Are you okay?"
The doctor frowned. "Of course I'm okay. It was only... my matrix. It was a little unstable. No need to be sorrowed."
He moved his arm out of the captain's grip, and glanced at Seven. She tried to smile, but he noticed that her eyes were filled with tears. He had to get out of here. He hadn't the slightest idea what had happened, but he wanted to get out. Hide in his own privacy of the sickbay and think... He smiled back to Seven, then quickly ran to the turbolift. Seven watched him leaving and suddenly she began to shiver, like a big, invisible giant would shake her. She couldn't fight it, it just came over her. Janeway moved at her side. She laid her arms around the ex-borg and whispered "Everything's will be fine, Seven. Just wait and see..."

When the doors of sickbay closed behind the doctor, he nearly broke down. He knew it was impossible, but his holographic body felt weak and tired. With a deep sigh he laid down on one of the biobeds and stared to the ceiling.
"Computer, play program "doctor alpha three" ", he commanded and closed his eyes.
Soon the room was filled with the tranquil sound of a 20th century electric guitar. The doctor listened to the rough voice of the singer, and he could feel every word deep inside.
 

You've turned my world into a dark and lonely place like a planet lost in space, my light is fadin' I'd cross the universe to be right where you are But I'm right in your backyard And I might as well be on mars

Would he have been a human, he would've said he was fallen asleep, when he started up as a shadow fell on the biobed he lied on. He blinked into the light, though he knew it wasn't necessary for his optical sensors. Seven of Nine was standing in front of the bed and looked down at him.
"We have to try this song together some time", she said with a smile only in her eyes.
"There are better songs to sing as a duet", the doctor growled and pushed his upper body up and glanced at Seven. "Can I do something for you?"
She watched him with a little grin appearing in the corner of her mouth.
"Please don't." She paused. "You really don't know it, don't you?"
The hologram sat up and sighed.
"To be honest, I don't have any idea what happened, but I suppose I acted like a jerk."
"I am not sure what humans mean, when they call someone a jerk, but I guess you're right."
Her blue eyes met his. He was wrestling for words.
"Seven, I don't want to know what I did, but I beg you pardon." He turned his head away, and his voice was barely hearable. "Seven, I think, I love you."
She crossed her arms behind her back.
"So you mean you've developed romantic feelings for me?"
"I just wanted you to know." He turned his head away.
"That's the only thing I wanted to hear", she laughed and took the doctor's face in both hands, giving him a hearty kiss on his mouth.
He gasped and looked at her asking. Then he softly held her chin and pushed his lips on hers, pulling her nearer with the other arm. She laid her arms around him and cuddled him. This felt better than everything she had ever experienced before. If this was the thing they called to become human, then it was everything she wanted. She returned his kiss even more tender and deeper.
"I'll do everything for you", he whispered.
"Dare it", she answered.

Some time later Captain Janeway reached sickbay to see how the EMH was doing. When the doors opened she noticed, he couldn't probably do any better. She persevered a few seconds and smiled. They chose definitly the perfect soundtrack for this picture.

And I will love you, baby

Janeway tiptoed backward. The doors closed.

Always
And I'll be there
forever and a day
Always...