As amusing as the hysterics were, the show is now over. You can all go home.

And Quinn thought life was terminally boring. Ha! I'm learning new things all the time.

For starters, I learned something about humans. I've known that compassion is one of the primary traits of the species since, oh, Farpoint at least. But I didn't know the extent to which this applies. Apparently, if you taunt people, put some of them on trial and then subject them to numerous tests, or woo them unsuccessfully and then drag them into a war zone... if they're human they'll *still* respond to you with compassion if you throw yourself at their mercy (well, metaphorically; not planning on doing it actually again anytime soon, thanks) and beg for help. (Or even if you don't beg for help and simply have hysterics.)

I shouldn't be surprised, but I am. I never expect this of humans. It's too... well, frankly, it's too weird. You people are as strange in your own way as the Vulcans are in theirs.

This is as alien a concept to me as the thought of asking for help in the first place, or getting it, but... well, when you're making use of a known trait of aliens you should probably respond in the way *their* culture demands, not your own... so, thank you. To everyone who responded for responding, to Picard and Data for putting up with my ranting in person, and to wes_crusher for helping Amanda with my kid. A planet full of ice cream? Sounds like he was relatively well behaved. Well, for him, anyway. No temporal anomalies, I hope?

I have some perspective now. Maybe. Hearing about how someone else tried the exact same thing I'm trying (different species, but the whole "reproduce for the first time" thing) and the kid *died*... well, there's a wake-up call to stop the pity party. At least being the parent of a Q leaves you reasonably certain *that's* not going to happen. (Well, unless war breaks out again or he grows up to torque off the Continuum really, really badly. Hopefully neither is very likely.) Maybe I will actually pull this off and maybe I won't, but I think I can avoid having complete nervous breakdowns again. Well, at least until he gets to the level of maturity I was when I first met humanity... which, considering his parentage, is a frightening thought, and I think I would rather not think that thought just now. Okay. Moving right along.