When All Q Breaks Loose

Chapter Forty Seven: Waiting

The morning seemed more than a little tense as the intrepid heroes and their guests waited on events. Thanks to some counseling from Deanna, Fred and GoGo had a nice chat with Wasabi, who was now at least more willing to admit Fred hadn't completely lost his marbles. Honey felt better about the situation all around, though she still wondered if there might be some repercussions from recent events.

James had regained consciousness and was returned to his holding room. Everyone involved thought it would be best to leave him alone for a while to cool down. He'd woken in a mood no one wanted to deal with. It had taken both Data and Worf to return him to the room he'd been sequestered for the previous night. He was less likely to get into trouble that way. Baymax had confirmed this was probably the best course of action as he didn't feel it would be wise to sedate the man in his current state.

Q decided to intrude on Baymax's territory and parked himself on the spare cot he'd used to sleep on the night before. He'd refused to move when confronted. And, after some consideration, Picard ordered Worf to leave him alone. He wasn't hurting anyone. In fact, he seemed content to just stare at Hiro, who still remained unconscious on the examination table, all the tubes and wires making him look smaller than he actually was.

Picard, for his part, decided there wasn't much they could do until Hiro's condition changed, so he returned to the library to finish his book. He didn't know if he'd be given any other chances to do so and wanted to take every advantage possible. After all, he wouldn't be able to take the book with him when all was said and done.

And Honey went to work with her chemistry set. It at least gave her something to do as she worked on perfecting her various formulas. That and it kept her in close proximity to the medical room in case Baymax or Data needed her assistance. She couldn't help but feel a need to keep checking in on Hiro, like if she didn't he might disappear on them or something. Or she'd miss something important.

The two Doctors had disappeared into one of their TARDISes to try and figure things out. One of them kept muttering about finding a way to collect the energy without hurting the vessel, though why he said that was beyond any of the heroes. There were still too many unanswered questions and no real way to find the answers. They both suspected things but weren't ready to voice them just yet.

In this state, the morning turned into afternoon with little change. Except that James seemed to calm down enough for the counselor to get some semblance of sense out of him, enough to understand how Q's energy had come to him in the first place. However, any explanation of what happened after that became impossible as James seemed to snap back into a less stable mental state, almost as if he'd been pushed past his limit. Perhaps he had.

Thanks to some contacts through Heathcliff, they decided it would be best to transfer James to a mental facility where he could be more closely monitored. The head psychologist there was friends with the butler and promised to relay any information that might be helpful. That way none of the Heroes had to worry about their identities becoming compromised. And since Heathcliff had performed similar services for Fred's father, no one suspected it had anything to do with his son.

The afternoon slowly ate away the time and those gathered at the Whitmore Manor became understandably more anxious as time went by. The Doctors still had not emerged. Picard grew bored of his book. Fred and GoGo returned from a long drive, only to hit the gym with a vengeance. Wasabi opted to join them, along with Worf. Q stayed in the medical room with Baymax and Data, with the addition of Counselor Trio. To say the tension was mounting would have been an understatement.

"Vitals remain stable," Data announced. With only one patient, things became much easier on the two medical attendants. The unfortunate thing was that not much had changed since the morning. Hiro's brain waves remained steadily active, despite the proprofol running in his system. The only difference was there were occasional dips in activity, potentially signaling either the completion of a memory integration or a period of mental rest for the youth.