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Picard and Crusher's Valentine's Day-
A challenge story. Rated PG-13.
Details of Challenge:
The mission was to write a P/C Valentine's Day story that included the following, in any order: a big, heart-shaped box of chocolates, white lace, gold in any form, a cat, a bottle of Picard wine and a drunk man (of your choice) in Beverly's bed.
Picard and Crusher's Valentine's day.
Beverly was awaiting Jean-Luc's arrival. They had planned to have dinner together on this night.
It was a night of love. A night of romance. It was Valentine's day and Beverly was going to milk it for all it's worth.She knew Deanna had asked Will to marry her and she had decided to take a page out of her best friend's book.
She studied the band of gold once more. It was very masculine and had diamonds around it. "It wasn't too long ago that men's rings, such as this, were hard to find." She thought to herself. "But times have changed."
She placed the ring safely in her pocket and finished setting the table. For the final touch she placed a bottle of Chateau Picard in a bucket of ice.
When she had finished she went back to her room and put on a lacey white dress. She adorn herself with a stran of pearls and earrings. Finally, she applied lipstick and perfume.
As she admired herself in the mirror she heard a soft meowing from her closet. She turned with puzzlement, then went to open the door to her closet.
"Spot! What are you doing here?" She said as she knelt down to pet Spot. "You're suppose to be with Deanna and Will."
"Meow! Meow!" She strutted out of the closet and looked up at Beverly as though to thank her.
"You're welcome, but you need to go back home, little friend."
She tapped her combadge. "Crusher to Troi-Riker."
"Troi-Riker here." She hyphenated her name so that they and the crew did not get her and Will confused when they were paged. They were still waiting for Will's new ship and decided to stay aboard the Enterprise until the Titan was ready.
"It seems Spot has wondered off again and gotten herself trapped in my closet." Beverly informed her. "Don't worry, she's out now, but I thought I'd let you know she is with me."
Deanna let out an audible sigh. "Spot has been doing that a lot lately since Data died. She seems to be looking for him or something. She hasn't accepted Will's and my quarters as home just yet. I'll come down and get her."
"You don't have to. She's fine for now. She can stay with me if you're in the middle of something."
"You're sure you don't mind?"
"I'm sure. It's alright. You can come get her in the morning."
"Thanks, Bev. I'll see you in the morn. Troi-Riker out."
The connection broke and Beverly was once again alone with Spot. Spot rubbed up against her legs and purred happily.
Suddenly, she heard a loud voice. It was Jean-Luc's. He was due to arrive any minute, but from the sound of his voice he was worse for wear.
"When da moon hitsur eye, dats amore." He slurred.
She went to the door and opened it. "Jean-Luc! You're drunk!"
"No, I'm just feelin' very good." He said as he stumbled into her quarters, carrying a large heart-shaped box of chocolates.
"Are you alright?" She asked as she took the box from him.
"Beverly, I shudda asked you to marry me years ago. I'm a big fool." He said drunkenly as he threw his arms around her and held her tight.
"Maybe you should have some coffee instead of what I had planned for tonight."
"No, no. I'm fine." He hiccupped. "Oh, Sh sha-toe Picart. Fine year." He clumsily poured himself a glass and started drinking it.
"Jean-Luc, don't you think you've had enough?"
"I'm just gettin' started." He staggered to a chair and took a seat at the table. "Affer all, it's a celebration of love and I do love you, Beverly. I shudda asked you to marry me long ago."
"You've said that already." She reminded him as she tried to take the glass of wine away from him. "You've had enough. You can't even say the name of your family wine."
"I can too. It's sh, shat too Picart."
"Chateau Picard." She corrected.
"Meow." Spot said softly and rubbed her cheek against Beverly's leg.
"Spot, not now, please."
"Spos shere." He said and stood up half hazardly. He started to take a step over to Beverly when a loud screeching "Yeow!" filled the air.
"You stepped on Spot!" Beverly yelled and rushed over to pick up Spot.
"Ssso ssorry, Spos." He slurred as he tried to reach out and pet her, only to be slapped with claws. He pulled his hand back quickly. "Ouch!"
"Let me see your hand." Beverly ordered. "It's only a slight scratch. Here." She grabbed one of her dermo-regenerators and healed the wound. "There. Good as new."
"Good." He smiled a drunken smile. "I shudda married you a long time ago." He tried to lean toward her to kiss her, but she ducked out of his way.
"Yes, so you keep saying." She was upset with him for he had gotten completely plastered on the night they were going to have a Valentine's dinner together. "Guess my proposal is shot to hell, now." She thought to herself.
"Oh." He moaned. Then he stumbled towards her room and fell into her bed.
She walked over to the door of her room and saw him out cold. "Great!" She groaned. "So much for dinner too."
The chime to her door rang. "Now what?" She said to no one in particular and walked over to the door to open it. "Deanna!"
"I decided it would be a good idea to come and get her tonight."
"Come on in. I'm not doing anything tonight except babysitting a friend."
"What happened, Beverly?"
"It's nothing."
"Beverly." Deanna drowled. "It's me. Deanna the empath."
"I'd rather not talk about it."
Suddenly a loud grunt came from Beverly's bedroom. Jean-Luc stirred in his sleep as he rolled over in her bed. Spot, on top of it all, jumped onto the table and stoled some food. Beverly gave an exasperated sigh.
"Am I interrupting something?" Deanna asked as she tried to peer around Beverly and look over towards her bedroom.
"Actually, no, but I wish that were the case. He's the one I'm babysitting."
"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
Beverly look like she was about to cry. "Really, I'm alright."
"Some how I sense you are very upset."
"I had this nice meal planned for the two of us and I was going to ask him to marry me." She sobbed as she pulled out the gold band with diamonds.
"It's very nice and handsome looking."
"I thought it was. Anyway, he came over drunk and passes out on my bed!"
"Why was he drinking before he came here?"
"I don't know. He kept saying he should have married me years ago, but never gave a reason as to why he was drinking himself into a stupor."
"I'm sorry, Beverly." Deanna sympathised. "Why don't I just take Spot home and let you get some rest."
"Rest where? I have a stone cold drunk in my bed! I'm not about to sleep with the smell of alcohol!"
"I wasn't suggesting that. Beverly, you're upset right now. I understand that, but regardless of the situation, try and get some sleep tonight. Even if it is on your couch for one night."
"Alright. I will."
"I'll talk to you in the morning. Then I'm going to see what I can do for the captain. Sounds like he needs the ear of a good counselor."
"Or a swift kick in the pants by a good doctor."
Deanna scooped Spot up into her arms. "I'll see you tomorrow. Get some sleep."
When Deanna had left, Beverly began cleaning up her quarters. "What a waste of a good meal and a night."
When she had finished cleaning, she checked on Jean-Luc. Seeing that he was still sleeping off a drunk, she grabbed a pillow and went to stretched out on her couch. She was so angry with him, but she did not have a clue what she would say to him in the morning.
Finally, she fell into a fitful sleep.
The next morning Beverly made breakfast for Jean-Luc. He had not awaken yet, but still she decided the best way to wake him was with a breakfast he would never forget.
"Jean-Luc, time to wake up!" She shouted.
"Hum." He said as he grabbed his head. "Oh, Beverly. My head. Please don't talk so loudly."
"That's not all I'm going to do." She replied still rather loudly as she set breakfast before him. "After last night I'm not a woman to be reconned with."
Jean-Luc took one look at what she had served him and a wave of nausea came over him. She sat before him two sunny side up eggs and the greasiest bacon he had not seen since his mother was alive, along with buttered toast.
His mother cooked from scratch and never used a replicator in her life. So, everything she cooked came out different from replicated food.
"Um. I can't eat this, Beverly. I'm sorry."
"Oh, you can't eat what I serve to for breakfast the day after Valentine's Day, but you can come to dinner on Valentine's Day drunker than a skunk!"
"Beverly, please don't shout. There's no need."
"No need! After last night! You collapse in my bed smelling like a still and you expect me not to be upset. You'll eat my breakfast and as far as I'm concern you can just suffer from that damn hang over! I'm not getting you a hypo for it!"
"Beverly please! About last night. I'm sorry. I should not have done that to you."
"You're certainly right about that. I ended up sleeping on the couch, because not only could I not stand the smell of you, I could not stand the sight of you! Coming here drunk when we were suppose to have dinner together!"
"I'm sorry." He restated grabbing his head from the pain of the hang over.
"You're going to be more than sorry before today is over. I gave orders to my staff to just let you suffer!"
"That isn't fair!"
"Isn't it? I made a nice dinner and had all kinds of plans for last night and you ruinned it!"
"I don't know what else to say. I was wrong for doing what I did."
"And what's this about, and I quote, "I should have married you sooner."?"
"It was nothing. Honestly. It was the alcohol talking."
"Really?" She said, getting even more upset. "Then I guess I might as well discard this if what you said was nothing."
She pulled out the engagement ring she had gotten him and showed it to him. Then she tossed it across the room.
"What was that?" He asked.
"A man's engagement ring, but it's nothing. Really."
He looked completely shocked. "You didn't have to throw it across the room."
"Didn't I? After all, it's nothing. Our relationship must be nothing too, especially if you can come by on Valentine's Day drunk as a skunk, pass out on my bed and totally disregard our evening together."
"I didn't mean for it to turn out that way."
"If you didn't, then why did you do what you did?" Beverly asked in anger. "I was hoping for and expecting more than a drunken man in my bed last night. Now, eat your breakfast. Or does that mean nothing too?"
"I really can't. Just looking at it makes me feel sick to my stomach."
"You deserve it after last night."
He took another look at it and thought he really should try and eat the food. Then the waves in his stomach got worse. He suddenly tossed it aside and ran for Beverly's bathroom.
She heard him wretching, but she was not about to give him the hypospray that would relieve his hang over. She was too angry to aleve him of his discomfort.
When he walked back out of her bathroom she said, "Serves you right. You should have just stood me up! I still would have been upset, but it would have been far preferable then babysitting you."
She turned to walk out of her quarters.
"Where are you going?" He asked.
"I'm going to work. I'm tired of watching over you. In the meantime, I suggest you clean up the mess you made all over the bed from tossing breakfast aside."
With that, she was gone. Jean-Luc at the discarded remains of breakfast. The yokes had broken and turned the covers yellow.
"Ugh!" He said and grabbed his head once more, before preceding to clean up the mess.
He felt awful. Not just physically, but emotionally too. He felt like he had blown it with the woman he loved. He had no idea why he had gotten drunk on Valentine's Day of all days, but he was envious of Riker. He had Deanna and they were now married. He loved Beverly very much and wished he had done the same long ago, but he let guilt get to him.
The guilt of ordering Jack Crusher to his death. He had loved Beverly from the day he met her, but instead, he let her go and she married Jack. Then, Jack died due to a mission he sent him on and he had carried the guilt secretly for a long time after that.
He spied the ring on the other side of the room. He walked over and picked it up from the floor. He admired it closely. Looking at it made him feel even more like a fool for what he did last night. It was a wonderful ring, but his guilt and shame over the night before made him drop it back to the floor.
The chime rang and he debated whether or not to answer it. It rang once more and reverbarated through his aching head again. He could not stand the pain any longer.
"Come."
Deanna walked into Beverly's quarters. "I hear you had a bad night last night."
"Does the whole bloody ship have to know?"
"Actually, I was here when you were passed out on Beverly's bed."
"Oy!" Was all he had to say.
"Spot slipped out again and I came to get him. I sensed Beverly was very upset as I arrived." She explained. "If it had not been for those two things I would not have known."
Picard started to nod, but thought better of it when his brain recoiled. "Oh, Counselor. I really blew it this time."
"I don't know about that."
"Yes, I have. She was so irate with me this morning and had no compassion on my pain."
"I don't think it was a case of no compassion. Anger yes, but she cares very deeply for you."
"Then why did she try to insist I eat sunny side up eggs and bacon if she cared?"
"Captain, she was really upset, but not uncaring. Did you know she was going to propose to you?"
"I got that impression this morning."
"She was, but she couldn't ask you in the frame of mind you were in last night. Then she became worried about you. However, that didn't keep her from being upset with you. We often get upset when we see the ones we love making mistakes."
"I made a big one this time." He said looking back to where the ring laid on the floor.
"Why don't you pick the ring up and take it to her. Talk to her. Maybe it's not as bad as you think."
He walked back to retrieve the ring again. "It is a very nice ring."
"Did you look on the inside of it?"
Jean-Luc looked inside and squinted to read the engraving. "To Jean-Luc, with all my love. Beverly."
He allowed a single tear to fall. "I feel like a real heel."
"I suggest, instead of feeling sorry for yourself and berating yourself, that you go down to Sickbay and try to make amends with Beverly."
"Maybe you're right, Counselor. It's time I start acknowledging our relationship and stop thinking about past mistakes."
"Would you like me to come with you?"
"No, Counselor." He sighed. "This is something I need to do on my own. I've already faced the firey temperment of the red head I love already today. I think I can do it again, if I have too."
The two left Beverly's quarters and went their separate ways. Jean-Luc had no idea what to say to Beverly, but he knew he had to say something. Sorry alone was not going to cut it obviously.
He walked into Sickbay and spied Beverly. She also saw him and started to walk the other way.
"Beverly, I know sorry isn't going to cut it, but I have to talk to you."
"I think everything that needs to be said has been said." She said still angry.
"No. It hasn't. Beverly, I love you very deeply. So deeply that it pains me greatly. I want to marry you and spend the rest of my life with you, but I have spent the last several years in fear of asking. Now, you were about to ask and I ruin all your plans to ask me. I can't tell you how badly I feel about that, but I do feel very badly."
"And as well you should."
Jean-Luc pulled the ring from his pocket and held it up for her to see. "Doctor Beverly Crusher, I accept this ring and your offer of marriage. That is, if you'll still have an old fool to be your husband."
Her mouth dropped at the sight of the ring and his words. She had no immediate response to what he had just said to her.
Jean-Luc nodded. "I guess that means you don't want this old fool after what I did last night."
He laid the ring on a counter and began to walk out of Sickbay.
Beverly looked at the ring briefly and then reached for it. "Jean-Luc."
He turned back around to face her. Then he waited for her to say something. Anything. The silence was killing him as he watched her slowly approach him.
Once she was close to him, she showed him the ring, reached for his left hand and gently slid it on his finger.
"Jean-Luc Picard, will you marry me?"
His stomach did sommersaults. He thought he was going to throw up again, but he did not.
"You'll have this old fool?"
"Yes." She replied as a tear began to trickle down her face. "I don't know what I'd do without you in my life and another day of living life the way we have been would just kill me. No matter how angry I get with you, I still need you in my life, Jean-Luc."
"And I need you, Beverly."
Jean-Luc did not care who was watching. For once in his life, aboard the Enterprise as captain, he let himself go and hugged Beverly tightly.
"I love you, Beverly."
"And I love you, Jean-Luc." She sobbed into his shoulder.
The medical staff had stopped with their duties and watched the scene. Once they heard the couple state their feelings for each other they clapped with joy.
Jean-Luc did not feel embarrased or ashamed at the fact he was hugging Beverly in front of everyone. He had the woman he loved and she was going to marry him for better or for worse.
He kissed her full on the mouth. When he broke off the kiss, he said, "Happy Valentine's Day, Beverly."