With or Without You

Star Trek TNG Fanfiction
Title:	With or Without You
Author(s):	Atara Stein
Date(s):	1997
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Next Generation
External Links:	it was posted in four parts: part one, Trekiverse
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With or Without You is a Star Trek: TNG Picard/Q story by Atara Stein.

Series

• She Moves in Mysterious Ways
• With or Without You
• Until the End of the World

Summary

"On the Enterprise-E, Picard struggles with his own vulnerability and physical attraction to Q, and how to balance this new relationship with his duty to his crew and ship."

Author's Notes

This is the sequel to "She Moves in Mysterious Waysand will make much more sense if you read that first. I wasn't originally intending to write a sequel, but a series of events prompted me to: 1) several people who read the first story asked me what happened next, 2) Alara described the ending of "Mysterious Ways" as a "maidenly fadeout," and I certainly couldn't let such an aspersion go unanswered :-), and 3) Ruth wrote "The Forfeit," which provoked in me an irresistable desire to get Picard naked again. If you want the PG-version, ask me about "Qstruck." As we all know and acknowledge, the characters belong to Paramount, and I'm merely borrowing them for my own dishonorable purposes. Comments are most welcome, and I should note that there are four parts and the section breaks are entirely arbitrary and are dictated by technical, not artistic, considerations.

Reactions and Reviews

In this second story, the focus is on Picard's increasing ambivalence and anxiety concerning his growing surrender to Q and his own dark desires - not to mention his increasing avidity for the pleasures that come with having an omnipotent lover! At the same time, Q is struggling with his own seeming dependence on such a paltry mortal creature, and the addictive pleasure of getting physical with a certain starship captain.

Here two strong men (using the term loosely for one of them, perhaps) are battling each other and their own feelings, troubled by the changes going on within themselves. The question of who is in charge is seemingly never in doubt - until the scene where Picard finds himself taking years of built-up frustration and hostility out on the surprisingly accommodating immortal, and Q willingly submits, knowing that this is necessary to Picard's well-being. Their growing mutual need is disturbing to them both.

Q is particularly well portrayed in this story, showing an insight into Picard's psyche, and a compassion for his lover that seems to both please and unsettle Q himself. He shifts back and forth from playful to dominating, compassionate to arrogant This is an increasingly complex series, where the issues of control, power, strength, weakness, and the nature of love are worked out on the surface - and sometimes avoided - by sexual means. *Lots* of steamy scenes slowly advance the increasing struggle between the two, as they try to come to terms with mutual dependence and fears of loss - loss of control, and focus on his duty on Picard's side; loss of control and independence on Q's.

One of the things that is always fascinating about P/Q stories is seeing how different authors deal with what seem to me two very similar characters - strong-willed, commanding, stubborn, intensely private and reserved. Yes, I said reserved, even Q, with all his bluster and bravado, since I often feel that his very blatancy and in-your-face attitude is a smokescreen for his weakness and vulnerability to anything that gets too close.

This series does a good job exploring this dynamic, with increasingly strong characterizations, a playful and yet confrontational style between the protagonists, and a good measure of emotional confusion and plain old-fashioned lust.