2379 was not shaping up to be a good year in certain regards for Captain Jean Luc Picard. In some good news, Riker and Troi were now married, with Riker now finally accepting his own command it almost felt like Picard was a father watching his children leave the nest.
On the other hand, the Enterprise E was in such a state, repairs were estimated to have her out of service for far longer then the captain felt was acceptable. Some of the higher ups were already considering decommissioning her, after all they reasoned, there were plenty of letters left in the alphabet.
Then there was the death of Data. Something Picard didn't want to dwell on right now. His almost newly minted first officer had made the ultimate sacrifice, saving both Picard, and the Enterprise and her crew.
Of course this did mean Picard now how to select both a new first officer as well as a second officer. Worf was by far the most suitable candidate, which was something Picard would have almost scoffed at back in their first year of working together. That would mean selecting a new head of security and chief tactical officer.
It was something of a command level headache, the prudent thing would be to just move every officer up by one post, but who would take over as counsellor since Troi had jumped ship with her new husband? Still, at least that meant Picard would never have to meet Troi's mother again.
Very unlikely he'd meet her again. After all the galaxy wasn't a small place. What was it Captain Sisko had done to make sure Q never bothered him again? No, no, on second thoughts, that would have just created a major diplomatic incident. Or she would have turned out to be into that.
A headache like this required medical attention. He pressed the intercom on his desk in his quarters.
"Picard to Doctor Crusher, could you report to my quarters with your tricorder?"
"On my way," came the reply of his chief medical officer and long time friend. He could still recall the day he first met her as she and her husband Jack Crusher had beamed up to their ship and he'd greeted them both on the transporter pad. She still looked as beautiful as ever, and Picard wondered what her secret might be there. Or was that just his eyes and heart and mind playing tricks on another?
The door chime broke his train of thought.
"Come," he beckoned and Beverly breezed through the doors with the same air of casual ease she'd had for years, tricorder at the ready, medical kit strung over her shoulder.
"Jean Luc, what is it?" as she stood opposite him at his desk.
"It's my head, Bev, looking over all these reports have left with with a throbbing pain."
"Well, let's just hope it's not the Ferengi again," Beverly joked as he started her scans, moving a little closer to the captain to get a better result. "Well, we can rule them out, this looks like a tension headache. I can easily sort that out." With that Bevs hands started to rub around the base of Picards neck, moving upwards to his skull and back down.
"What? No hypo spray?"
"We don't always need drugs to solve all our problems, Jean Luc, sometimes all that is needed is the gentle touch," she cooed as she continued the massage. "Besides, the last time I wound up using the medicine meant for this, it was on Will and it had a side effect that..."
"Yes?"
"Well, it meant he and Deanna were up all night and they both came in to sickbay rather sore the next day."
"Merde! Are you sure no one had been messing with the replicator?"
"It wasn't replicated, it was in storage, something we'd traded after that Borg attack."
"Had it gone off?"
"No, it came from Risa."
"Ah, that might explain a thing or two." A thought entered Picard's mind. "Do we still have any left?"
"Quite a bit, quite a bit."
"Any repeats of Wills performance?"
"Not that I'm aware of, not officially that is." Picard looked at his medical officer in dismay.
"You haven't?"
"Well it certainly beats waiting around for another man, or a ghost in a candle. Besides, if you are thinking of using it, you don't need it."
"What makes you say that?"