A/N: KendraPendragon wondered if there would be any sort of flashback...and the answer is yes and here it is! :) Enjoy!

Previously (Enterprise Sickbay)

She wasn't the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on, by far. Nor the most graceful; Khan's eyes tracked the young doctor's slender, petite form as she stumbled over a piece of medical equipment and nearly sprawled on her face. One of the nurses, a young man with wiry red hair and a host of freckles covering nearly every inch of exposed skin, laughingly steadied her, and she grinned her thanks at him, the two of them unaware they were being observed.

No, not the most beautiful or the most graceful, but her scent…ah, her scent. His nostrils twitched as the overpowering scent of Omega filled them. How had it happened, how could there be an Omega female existing in this sterile Federation he'd been awakened to? Earth had long since eliminated any of the genetic enhancements that had been surreptitiously made their way into the general Human population three hundred years earlier, or so he'd believed. Yet here was living proof that somehow, somewhere, the unintended side-effect of the Augmentation process that he and his loyal crew had undergone at the hands of Doctor Noonian Soong and his associates had somehow survived the frenzied, short-sighted attempts to stamp it out.

It was all he could do to keep himself still, to remain seated on the biobed, knowing that the manacles that had been placed around his wrists could easily be destroyed by him, that the first unbonded Omega female he'd seen or scented in over three centuries was close enough to taste. But now wasn't the time; if things worked out as he planned, he would find a way to take her away with him. The female members of his crew were either lifebonded, like his best friend Joachim and his Omega wife Maria, or Alphas like himself, making for far too volatile a pairing for more than brief, physical couplings. Satisfying enough in the moment, but ultimately leading to an empty, sterile existence.

Dr. Hooper's smile faded as she caught Khan staring at her, her brown eyes widening as she took in the sight of him. He'd assumed she was one of the junior medical officers serving under McCoy, and was both pleased and surprised to hear her referred to as the cynical CMO's second in command. His already heightened interest in her skyrocketed at the revelation, and he bit back a wolfish grin. The Omega female wasn't merely intelligent, but must be truly remarkable to have gained such a valued posting at the young age of – his eyes raked her form from head to toe and back again before once again steadily meeting hers – twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

He continued to hold her gaze while his guards remained vigilant at his side and the rest of the medical staff warily went about their business. He ignored them all, hyper-focused on her and only her, his mind sifting through the various scenarios that might come to pass in the near future, and how he could best fit her into his plans, and ultimately, his future. The thought brought a blaze of satisfaction through his body, although he only allowed himself to show it in a slight quirk of his lips.

As if that small movement had broken some sort of spell, Dr. Hooper – Molly, he heard one of her colleagues call her – gasped and turned away from him, busying herself with a handheld data padd…but not before he saw her cheeks pinkening.

His smile subsided, but his satisfaction continued to rise. If things played out as he expected them to, he would eventually have the opportunity to see if her blushes went only as far as her neck, or extended down her torso and beyond.

The Present

Molly Hooper looked around nervously as she materialized on the transporter pad of the massive dreadnought-class starship Khan had commandeered. She knew that the Enterprise was entirely at this man's mercy, and yet she still felt a thrill of excitement at the thought of seeing him again. It troubled her, because normally she wasn't one to fall in lust at first sight, as her Deltan roommate would have put it, but from the moment she first laid eyes on 'John Harrison' she'd felt a pull toward him like no man she'd ever dated.

Part of it was that he just smelled so damned good, and she couldn't even explain why. Certainly a man who'd been hiding out in an abandoned city on the Klingon homeworld wasn't going to be splashing on aftershave, yet there was a crisp, woodsy smell about him that practically made her mouth water, and she was at a loss to explain why.

After that unsettling meeting with him in Sickbay, Molly had studied everything she could about Khan Noonien Singh. She discovered some interesting personal information, such as the fact that he was the first successful Augment, and had been named after the two geneticists who'd secretly created his kind during the bad old days of the mid 21st century, when Earth had been wracked by war after war with seemingly no end in sight.

She had plenty of time to study more about him and the Augments after he and Captain Kirk had apparently shot themselves like human missiles at the looming enemy vessel (hard to think of a Starfleet ship as the enemy, but Admiral Marcus appeared to have gone completely off his trolley). Khan and his Augments had disappeared before Zephram Cochrane's historic first Warp flight and the introduction of the Vulcans, a footnote in history written in very confusing and conflicting accounts. Some accused them – and the geneticists who'd created them – of wanting to rule the world; there were even some accounts that claimed they'd been the ones to start the wars in the first place, although Molly easily discounted those, since the timing just wasn't right. She'd heard the saying "history is written by the victors" many times, but this was the first time she'd seen such clear evidence of such bias.

And now she was about to see Khan and his crew up close and personal again, this time helping to unfreeze them from their cryotubes in exchange for the lives of the prisoners Khan held hostage. Technically she supposed she now fit into that category, but she tried not to allow her fears to overcome her. She was a Starfleet officer, a medical doctor, and was posted on the flagship of the fleet not because of some political machinations but because of her skill and dedication.

Those skills and that dedication would be put to the test today. She stepped off the transporter pad and headed for the door, wondering at the fact that no one was there to either greet or escort her. Then she mentally smacked herself; of course no one was there! Captain Kirk and the others were prisoners, the Augments were still frozen, which meant the only person awake and free on this ship at the moment was…

"Khan," she breathed as the transporter room doors opened and he appeared in front of her as if summoned by her thoughts.

He was still clad all in black, his dark hair a bit mussed and the expression on his face stormy at first, but rapidly clearly as a pleased smile flashed across his lips. Molly could have sworn it was sincere, that it reached his otherwise icy blue-green eyes, but it was there and gone so quickly she began to doubt herself. Especially as he said nothing to her, simply reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, tugging to ensure that she followed along.

She didn't bother trying to pull free, telling herself it was because there was no point; he was physically superior in every way and she was just a normal human, but the rapid beating of her heart had as much to do with the (purely physical) attraction she'd felt ever since first laying eyes on him as it did with the (rightly justified) fear she was feeling.

But God, did he smell good, even better now that they were in such close proximity to one another. The crisp woodsy smell was supplemented now by something smoky and dark and exotic and entirely distracting. It was enticing, that smell, made her want to push him up against the nearest bulkhead and run her tongue along his throat.

"Pheromones."

Molly jumped a bit at the sound of his voice. She'd been so lost in her own confused longings that she hadn't realized he'd been studying her as they walked. "Sorry, what?" she asked, glancing up at him sidelong.

"Pheromones," he repeated, eyes straight ahead as he continued to pull her along at break-neck speed. "Your reaction to me…my scent, in particular," he added, eyes darting to meet hers briefly before returning to the corridor ahead of them. "I have the same reaction to you," he added, only deepening her confusion.

She knew what pheromones were, of course, but humans generally couldn't smell them on a conscious level. Yes, Khan was a genetically-altered Augment, but that didn't explain why she, a normal human, was reacting to his pheromones. Unless of course it was simply that he emitted them more strongly, and as someone who'd always had a sensitive nose, she was able to smell them. A simple biological explanation, although why he would admit to having the same reaction to her made no sense. Or did it? Was that scent part of the reason he'd selected her for this mission, rather than the much more experienced Dr. McCoy? Did he find her…attractive?

Molly quashed that thought as quickly as it crossed her mind. Not only was it inappropriate on a professional level – she was here as doctor, after all – but it was all kinds of wrong on a personal level. This man was a terrorist, who was responsible for the deaths of dozens of people back on Earth. And if the historical records could be trusted at all (which she still doubted, since those times had been so chaotic and war-torn), he'd been responsible for thousands if not millions of other deaths three hundred years ago. In no ways a man she should feel any sort of connection to.

And yet…

She did. And nothing that could be explained away by something as simplistic as a physical reaction to pheromones, either. Something she would like to explore if she ever had the chance.

But not today. Today she had a mission. She would revive Khan's seventy-two crewmembers, see that they were in good health, then leave with Captain Kirk, Chief Engineer Scott, and Dr. Marcus, return to the Enterprise and very likely never see Khan or his crew ever again.

She spent the remainder of the journey to the flight deck trying to convince herself that that was exactly what she wanted.