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Horatio pushed open the door to the jewelry shop and stepped into the Louvre. His jaw dropped.
“I’ve always loved France.” said a voice from the corner.
“Who are you and what is going on?” Horatio demanded.
“Now now don’t get pissy.” The voice answered as a man stepped from the shadows. “You can call me Q.”
“Q... I want some answers.” Horatio said seriously.
“It would take so long to truly explain. I can play with time.” Q snapped his fingers and the sound of a waltz filled the hall.
“Q! I demanded...” Horatio began but found he could no longer speak.
“It’s so much easier this way. Besides your no Jean-Luc.” Q sighed. “I’m giving you the chance to change the future. In fact you have to change it. Q messed up a time line I care very much about.” Q saw Horatio's confusion and clarified. “Not me Q, a different Q. In just a few seconds some one very important to me was about to be wiped out of existence.” Q ignored Horatio's obvious anger and continued speaking. “He’s my lover, not that Jean-Luc knows that yet, but he will. He can’t resist me for ever.” Q snapped his fingers again and the music disappeared. “I’m going to send you back just before you entered the jewelry shop. You keep that scruffy friend of yours alive, tell him you love him, and adopt a kid together. Your grandson can fall in love with a french girl and move to France. 300 hundred years from now Jean-Luc will be born and I can get back to torturing him in the name of love.” Q nodded at Horatio. “Simple really. What do you say?” Q waited a moment and then laughed before releasing Horatio so that he could talk.
“I think your insane. Or really I’m insane and in a coma.” Horatio stared once more around the hall. “I know why you picked the Louvre, your precious Jean-Luc, what I don’t know is why I picked the Louvre, or how I came up with you at all.” Horatio shook his head.
“I don’t have time for this. Well actually I do. I have all of time.” Q laughed. “I, however, was actually getting somewhere with my stubborn captain when he winked out of existence and I’d liked to get back to it. So I’m just going to send you back. Just remember what I said. I’d hate to have to got through this again.” Q snapped his fingers and the Louvre disappeared and Horatio along with it.
Horatio stared at the jewelry story. “Speed call for back up.”
Picard woke up in a feather bed with silk sheets to find he was only wearing a silk lounging robe, nothing else. “Q!”