Baby Come Back
Final Chapters
Chapter Twenty-Two
The next morning Beverly was up early and humming an Old Irish tune that was stuck in her head. She had already showered and dressed. Now she was putting the finishing touches on her hair before she went back to check on Wesley before work.
Jean-Luc stirred in his sleep. He tried to reach over for Beverly, but did not feel her there.
Suddenly he was awake and sitting up in bed. “Oh, Beverly. I almost thought it was a dream!”
“What was?” She asked him.
“Well, last night?”
“Whatever gave you that idea?” Beverly asked as she walked over and sat down on the bed beside him.
Picard smiled and shook his head. “Nothing.” Then he reached out to her and hugged her close. “You know you look radiant this morning.”
Then he kissed her. He would have made it a long kiss, but Beverly pushed him away. “Jean-Luc, I have to be on duty by 0800 hours. We don’t have time for this again.”
Jean-Luc whimpered as if he were an injured dog.
Beverly laughed. “You’re seem to be high spirited this morning also.”
“I am.”
“You know, Jean-Luc, we do need to talk before I go.”
Jean-Luc sighed sadly. “I know.”
“If I’m going to return to the Enterprise, I have to tell Starfleet Medical that that is what I plan to do,” Beverly told him. “The thing is, I have to give them two weeks notice, which means, since you are shipping out tonight...”
“Beverly, please don’t phase it that way,” Picard winced. “That sounds horrible right about now.”
“Well anyway I say it, it will sound horrible.”
“Oh, no!” Jean-Luc got out of the bed and grabbed his robe. “Let’s not start arguing over petty things like wording. Not now!”
“Then don’t start telling me how to phrase something like this!”
Jean-Luc laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. It's just so good to hear your voice this morning.”
“Well, hang on to that thought and remember this morning,” Beverly told him. “Last night too, if you like. Because you’re going to be missing it for almost a month!”
“A month?”
“Almost,” Beverly replied. “Three weeks at least.”
Jean-Luc nodded. “Two weeks notice and about week to catch up with the Enterprise by shuttle.”
“Yes. Give or take a little.”
“Ok, so what is it we need to talk about?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Beverly said thoughtfully.
“Well, I know one thing,” Jean-Luc stated as he hugged her close to him again. “I’m going to miss you! It‘s also going to be a long three weeks.”
“I don’t know,” Beverly replied. “If we keep busy, which I know I will…”
“Not too busy that you end up not taking care of yourself and the baby,” Jean-Luc caringly interrupted her.
“Well, by the time Wesley and I get back here, I’ll be almost sixth months pregnant.”
“What does that have to do with not over working yourself?”
“Nothing. I’m just counting the months,” she told him happily. “Before long, I’m going to feel like a beached whale before I get up in the morning. Then I’m going to feel like an elephant during the day while I’m on my feet.”
“Maybe, but you’ll still be beautiful to me,” Jean-Luc smiled at her.
“Oh, Jean-Luc!” Beverly said urgently.
“What?” Jean-Luc thought he had done something wrong with the way she had said it or something was wrong with her. He could not decide which.
“I have to go if I’m going to see Deanna and Wesley before I go to work.”
“Well, you can stop by Deanna’s before you leave.”
“No, I left her with Wesley,” Beverly responded. Then as an after thought she added, “Or Wesley with her. I don’t know which now.”
“Either way, she is in your quarters at Starfleet Medical.”
“Yes, and I have to get back now if I‘m going to visit them even for a few minutes before I have to be on duty,” Beverly stated. “Can you have the transporter room officer beam me directly to my quarters?”
“Deanna has to be on duty also by 0800, so I’ll have you beamed in directly.”
Jean-Luc hurried and got dressed so he could escort Beverly to the transporter room.
“I need her beamed directly to her quarters at Starfleet Medical,” Picard ordered the Transporter Room officer as he and Beverly walked into the Transporter Room a few minutes later.
“You sneaking her back home, Sir?” The officer teased.
Picard frowned.
“Sorry, Sir. I’ll beam her directly there.”
“Beverly, it’s going to be a long few weeks.”
“I know.”
“You take care and take care of our baby.”
“I will.”
Jean-Luc gave her a quick gentle kiss goodbye. Then Beverly stepped onto the transporter platform.
“See you in a few weeks,” Picard whispered sadly as he watched her beam off the ship.
“Are we getting our doctor back, Sir?”
“I’m getting my family back,” Picard told the officer as he turned to leave the Transporter Room.
The officer smiled and went back to his duties.
Beverly was safely back in her quarters at Starfleet Medical.
“Beverly!” Deanna greeted her with happiness. “How did it go?”
“Do you have to ask?”
“No, you’re positively glowing!” Deanna smiled.
“Like I said, do you need to ask?”
“Mom!” Wesley exclaimed happily as he came out of his room. “So, tell us what happened.”
“Well, Wesley...” Beverly began happily. “You are going to be back with your friends on the Enterprise in a few weeks!”
Deanna and Wesley shrieked with joy.
“Just think, Deanna,” Beverly told her gleefully. “You will get to be there for the birth of your godchild.”
“What?” Deanna asked with surprised joy. “Are you serious?”
"Yes, I want you to be my child’s godmother and Jean-Luc wants Will to be the godfather,” Beverly told Deanna. “That’s is, if you two want to be godparents.”
“I can’t speak for Will, but yes!” Deanna replied with joy. “I would love to be the godmother of your child.”
“Hey! Don’t forget me!” Wesley stated. “I’m going to be a big brother. Gee! I hope it’s a girl.”
“Why?” Deanna and Beverly asked in unison.
“Because I always wanted a little sister.”
There was a round of joyful laughter in the room.
Then Deanna realized the time herself. “Oo! I have to get going. Sorry, Bev.” She hugged Beverly. “I’ll see you in a few weeks. You take care. Both of you.”
Then Deanna hugged Wesley.
“You take care too,” Wesley told Deanna.
“And make sure my husband behaves himself.”
“I will,” Deanna smiled. “Troi to Enterprise. One to beam up.”
Epilogue
Two weeks later.
“We’re going to miss you Doctor Picard,” said Doctor Teller. “Will you be coming back after the baby is born?”
“I don’t know,” Beverly replied. “It all depends on how things go on the Enterprise.”
“Are you worried about the baby? Because I can assure…”
“No, I might enjoy it too much,” Beverly said jokingly.
Doctor Teller smiled. “Well, you take care.”
“We will,” Beverly replied.
“Well, young man,” Doctor Teller addressed Wesley. “You ready to see your old friends?”
“You bet!” Wesley smiled. “There is this cute girl on the Enter…”
“Wesley!” Beverly scolded.
“Well, she is cute,” Wesley told his mother.
“He’s a normal teenage boy,” Doctor Teller commented. “And here I was getting worried about him not getting out much.”
“Well, I wanted to be sure my mother was alright,” Wesley stated. “I didn’t want to leave her alone for very long unless I had too.”
“He’s a good boy, Doctor Picard.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll go load the shuttle,” Wesley told them. He was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.
“He’s not too fond of being called a boy anymore,” Beverly told the other Doctor.
“Not too many teenagers are.”
“True, I guess we were all that way at their age.”
“Yes, I think we were.”
“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” Beverly said finally.
“You sure you don’t want us to keep your position for you?”
“I’m not sure when or if I’ll be back.”
“I know the job is stressful, but you must the head doctor of Starfleet Medical with the briefest tenure yet!” Doctor Teller teased.
Beverly chuckled.
“Well, take care, Doctor,” Teller told Beverly as he held out his hand for her to shake. “And that baby too. Don’t let me hear by way of the grapevine that you tried to play doctor on yourself.”
Beverly laughed. “You won’t hear that. I promise you, I’ll take care.”
“And you young man,” Teller said to Wesley as he stepped back out of the shuttle to get the last of the bags. “Take care of your mother and your little brother or sister. You hear?”
“I will, Sir.” Beverly and Wesley borded the shuttle to return to the Enterprise.
It was almost a week later and the shuttle was entering the shuttle bay of the Enterprise. Picard, Deanna, and Will were waiting for the travellers inside to disembark from the shuttle as it slowly came to a stop.
The door to the shuttle seemed to open slowly. Then Wesley exited the shuttle with some of their bags. “Hi Will! Hi Deanna!” Then with some uncertainty he addressed the captain. “Captain.”
“Hello Wesley,” Picard greeted him. “How are you?”
“Fine.”
Jean-Luc had spent the last few weeks talking to Deanna. He was hopeful he would do better this time. He was just glad Will was there to keep him from making an ass out of himself before he even had a chance to have his second chance with Beverly.
“Where’s your mother?” Jean-Luc asked Wesley curiously.
“She’s coming. I told her not to worry about them, but she’s trying to bring some bags…”
Before Wesley had a chance to finish his sentence, Jean-Luc and Will rushed into the shuttle to assist Beverly. This left Deanna behind to giggle about the way the two men were acting.
“What’s so funny?” Wesley asked.
“You’ll understand when you are older, but even then you may not.”
“What?” Wesley asked with confusion.
“I said I could handle at least one bag myself!” Beverly insisted indignantly as the three of them climbed out of the shuttle. “Just because I am pregnant doesn’t mean that I am a helpless invalid!”
Jean-Luc sat the bags he was carrying down on the floor and offered her a hand as she climbed off the shuttle. Beverly graciously took his hand for assistance out of the shuttle.
“Beverly,” Deanna addressed her with a smile. “Just let them have their ego boost.”
“Deanna!” Beverly greeted her happily, forgetting the bags as she rushed over to Deanna. “I’m so glad you came down to meet me.”
“I had to,” Deanna admitted jokingly as the two of them hugged each other. “If I didn’t, the three of you would be arguing about who carries the bags.”
Then the two women laughed. “You are probably right,” Beverly told Deanna.
A few hours later...
“Well, it seems the two of you made the trip just fine,” Doctor Selar said flatly as she examined Beverly.
“Well, that’s good.” Beverly replied. “I was feeling a little cramped after almost a week in that shuttle.”
“There is one thing I do not understand,” Selar stated with no emotion.
“What is that?” Beverly asked curiously.
“I do not see what your logic was in not telling me that you were pregnant.” Selar was very stoic about her statement, but Beverly felt that deep down the Vulcan may have felt insulted. “If you wanted to keep the baby a secret, then I of course would have been the most logical person to come to, so that your baby would have the best prenatal care in its earliest stages.”
“My baby was fine!” Beverly insisted. “I made sure of it.”
“Still, it would have been better off with another doctor taking care of its mother.” Selar insisted.
“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings because I did not come to you,” Beverly replied sarcastically.
“You can not hurt my feelings.”
“Oh, I forgot,” Beverly continued to be sarcastic as she stepped off the exam table. “Vulcan’s don’t have feelings.”
“No, we have simply learned to control them,” Selar stated impassively. "Even when our hormones are out of whack due to pregnancy."
Later that night, Beverly and Jean-Luc were having dinner in Ten-Forward.
“You know, this is the first time in almost three month that Guinan has let me back into her Ten-Forward.”
“What did you do to upset the calm, cool, and collected Guinan?” Beverly asked jokingly.
“No, I’m serious,” Jean-Luc stated. “She really didn’t allow me in here, except for when we were hosting special guests and that was only twice. She wouldn’t let me drink anything stronger than club soda even at those times.”
Beverly put her fork down on her plate. “Alright, what did you do?” she asked with all seriousness.
“Beverly!” Guinan greeted her happily. “Glad to have you back.”
“Thank you, Guinan” Beverly warmly replied. “I hear you have taken good care of my husband while I was gone.”
“Oh, yes,” Guinan said in her soft voice as she served them their drinks. “I had to or he would have fallen on his face. Ginger ale for the captain.”
“Ginger ale?” Picard asked curiously.
“Thought I’d give you some variety,” Guinan replied sarcastically.
“And a lemon lime soda for the mother-to-be,” Guinan offered with a smile to Beverly.
“Thank you, Guinan,” Beverly replied as she returned the smile. Then she asked Guinan, “So what did he do?”
“I suggest you have him tell you,” Guinan stated impassively. Then she quietly left the two of them alone.
Beverly turned back to her husband. “What did you do?” she demanded to know.
Jean-Luc felt as if he was now on the hot seat. He squirmed in his chair as Beverly pressed him for details about what had happened while she was gone. He finally gave in and told her.
“You didn’t!” Beverly replied in shock.
Three Months Later.
Beverly was now eight months pregnant.
“There’s your baby!” stated Nurse Ogawa as she showed the Picard‘s their baby on a view screen during a regularly scheduled prenatal check-up.
“She’s beautiful!” exclaimed Beverly as they watched their baby move.
“It’s going to be a girl?” Jean-Luc asked with excitement.
Beverly and Ogawa looked at each other as though they were asking each other, “What do we do now?”
“We really aren’t sure, because of the way the baby is laying,” Ogawa explained quickly.
“I think calling the baby a ‘she’ is better than calling the baby an ‘it', Beverly commented at the same time Ogawa stated her reply.
Jean-Luc was not sure, but he was thinking they were trying to cover up the fact that they had slipped and told him the sex of the baby. He knew full well Beverly knew what she was looking at on the screen.
“That’s my…” Wesley started to say, but his mother interrupted him.
“Sibling.”
Jean-Luc sighed and shook his head. “We do need to start thinking of a name for our baby.”
Another month later.
Beverly walked onto the bridge only to overhear Will telling Jean-Luc that a certain away mission could be too dangerous. Especially now that Beverly was about to deliver.
“Jean-Luc!” Beverly warned.
“Oh, Beverly,” Jean-Luc said with surprise. “I wasn’t aware that you were there.”
“Listen to your first officer!” she demanded.
Will grinned. “You’d better do as she says.”
“Alright, Will.” Jean-Luc relented. “You may go instead of me. I won’t argue with you, this time.”
Beverly took Deanna’s usual seat to the left of the captain, since Deanna did not have Bridge duty at the time. Instead, she was going on the away mission.
Jean-Luc sat in his customary chair as he asked his wife, “What brings you to the Bridge at this time of day, especially when you are suppose to be resting and not backing up my first officer?”
“Well, I thought that since we are to help a warring planet with their peace negotiations, = I would check on you and make sure you didn’t go on this away mission when your wife is exactly nine months and four days pregnant.”
Jean-Luc did not know if he wanted to laugh or take her seriously. In fact, he did not know how to take what she was saying. “Beverly, I understand that you do not want me going on dangerous away missions because you don’t want to have to put me back together if something happens,” Jean-Luc said to her. “But what I don’t understand is what nine months and four….”
Jean-Luc stopped before he had finished his sentence. It finally dawned on Jean-Luc what Beverly was trying to say to him and he became wide eyed.
“The contractions are approximately twenty minutes apart.” Beverly informed him.
“We have to get you to Sickbay!” Jean-Luc exclaimed and stood up quickly to help his wife out of her chair to go to Sickbay.
“Jean-Luc, calm down!” Beverly insisted without accepting his hand for assistance. She stayed seated as she added, “We have time.”
Will, Data, Deanna, and Worf all went on the away mission. Which meant that Geordi would have to be in charge of the Bridge soon.
Geordi overheard the two of them talking and informed them he was ready to take over the Bridge at a moment's notice.
“So, what do we do in the meantime?” Jean-Luc asked his wife.
“We wait until they are about ten minutes apart and then head down to Sickbay.”
Wesley turned from the conn excitedly. “How long will that be?”
Four hours later.
“Oh, God!” Beverly screamed with labour pains.
She was now in the birthing chair in Sickbay. Her contractions were now very close together.
“I think the logical course at this time would be to give her five cc’s of…”
“No!” Beverly screamed at Doctor Selar. “I’m not taking anything for the pain!”
“I believe you are being illogical.”
“Shut up!” Beverly snapped at the Vulcan doctor as another contraction hit.
“Humans!” Selar exclaimed.
“Breathe, Beverly.” Jean-Luc coached.
Selar checked Beverly. Then she informed Beverly laconically, “You are now dilated ten centimetres. You may push when the next contraction comes.”
“Oh!” Beverly screamed as the next contraction hit. When the contraction subsided, she growled, “Remind me not to have a stoic Vulcan help me give birth next time.”
It was not very long after she said that, that she felt another contraction. “Oh Gaaaaawd!” ,he screamed again.
“Push, Beverly!” Picard encouraged her.
“Even a Vulcan female giving birth would see the logic in taking something for the pain,” Selar quipped as she waited for the baby to make its appearance.
Ten minutes later.
“You have a brand new baby girl!” Ogawa announced happily as Selar handed her the baby to clean off and wrap in a warm blanket.
“I knew you two knew what she was!” Jean-Luc accused excitedly.
“Well, you said you didn’t want to know,” Beverly said exhaustedly.
“Yes, well...” Jean-Luc replied with a smile. “The cat’s out of the bag now.”
“I’d laugh if I wasn’t so tired,” Beverly replied weakly.
“So, what are you going to name her?” Ogawa asked joyfully.
“Felisa Yvette Picard,” Jean-Luc announced happily. “After Beverly’s grandmother and my mother.”
“Pretty name,” Ogawa complimented them.
Wesley and Deanna came in to welcome the new member of the Enterprise.
“She’s beautiful!” Deanna exclaimed with happiness. "And it looks like she may have your hair, Beverly."
“Can I hold her?” Wesley asked excitedly.
“Sit down with her,” Beverly cautiously told her son.
Wesley sat down in a near by chair and Ogawa handed him his baby sister.
“Wow! She’s so perfect!” Wesley exclaimed excitedly. “Hey, Little Sister. What do you think of your big brother?”
There was moment of celebratory silence as Wesley held his new sister. They had smiles on their faces as they watched brother and sister get to know each other.
“I think it’s time you let your mother hold her,” Jean-Luc said after a few minutes. “Your sister may be hungry.”
“Not before her godmother gets to hold her,” Beverly stated happily.
“Oh, no Beverly. You should hold her next,” Deanna insisted.
Jean-Luc retrieved his new daughter from his stepson for his wife. “She is beautiful. Five fingers on each hand. Five toes on each foot. Perfect. Simply perfect,” He whisper with tears of joy in his eyes as he handed his wife their daughter.
“Hi, Felisa,” Beverly greeted her daughter.
“Hey! I hear I am a new godfather!”
“Will!” Beverly greeted him with surprise. “You didn’t have to come down here.”
“I wanted to welcome my goddaughter into the world,” Will replied happily.
With all the excitement no one saw Guinan slip into Sickbay to greet the new member of the Enterprise. They had no idea she was there until she spoke.
“She’s beautiful!” Guinan said in awe of the new life that Beverly held in her arms.
“Guinan, I didn’t know you were there!” Beverly said with surprise.
“Miracles never cease,” Guinan said softly with a smile and then departed as quietly as she had entered.
Not only was Beverly a happy mother, but Jean-Luc felt as he had received a new lease on life. He had his wife, daughter, and stepson. He finally had a family that he had once only dreamed of and good friends to go with his family. He felt he needed nothing more.
Finis