Again-Thank you so much to royalpinkdogs for being a great Beta for me! And thank you to all the new followers and those reviewing :) Hopefully I am doing the characters justice!

Chapter 7

The first week into uncharted space was uneventful for the crew of the Enterprise. Leonard was fine with that. The less excitement they came across, the safer the crew was. In fact, things were going surprisingly well for him at the moment. Besides a few minor bumps and scrapes from a couple of ensigns that had gotten into a rather heated boxing match in the ship's gym, he had few patients. While Jim was always a handful, he had been manageable so far and they had even been able to return to something of their lives as friends rather than as Captain and CMO twice after their shifts since they had left the space station. And his professional and personal relationship with Carina was advancing. They worked well together. Her concern with the psychological health of the crew and his concern with their physical health overlapped in more ways than he would have expected meaning they worked together quite a bit more than he originally anticipated. Not that he was complaining. She was a fascinating woman. Although she still was very quiet about her life before Starfleet, he had learned quite a bit about her life since her enlistment. It turned out she too had joined because she didn't have anywhere else to go (why that was, she wouldn't say). She had excelled in her courses and had graduated top of her class. She was also trained to be a tactical officer as well. This was surprising to him as she preferred to be addressed as a counselor when in fact she was a Lieutenant. She had explained it as her heart was in psychology rather than a tactical position on the Bridge.

They had had dinner together at least three times in the last week; they would jog together on the track in the ship's gym whenever they met up there; he even had convinced her to watch a holovid with him in his quarters. He smiled a little to himself as he thought back to how they had started on opposite ends of his couch but by the end of the movie, she had stretched out her legs so her feet were tucked under his thigh. She had promptly left after the movie finished but it was a start.

He was on his way to her office when the alert came over the communication system.

"Counselor Sela report to the bridge." Frowning he reached Carina's office just as she stepped out. Seeing him standing there, she smiled.

"Hey Leonard. Sorry, going to have to reschedule lunch it seems like." She turned to head toward the turbolift. He followed her.

"I'll go with you to the bridge. See what's going on."

As they stepped out on to the bridge Carina could see a smaller ship floating around on the viewscreen. She recognized the markings on the side. Her stomach dropped.

Kirk turned to see his counselor and CMO walk in. He quirked an eyebrow at that but decided not to comment.

"Counselor, we came upon this abandoned ship and wanted to know your thoughts on it. Do you recognize it?"

"It's Romulan." Leonard turned to look at Carina. She was staring straight ahead at the ship, although he wasn't sure that was what she was seeing.

Carina snapped out of her thoughts and brought her attention back to her Captain. "It looks like an old trade ship."

"What do you think it's doing out here?" Kirk asked her.

"I don't know, Captain. It's definitely at least 20 years old. This was the type of ship that was prevalent on Romulus before I left there at age 10." Leonard was shocked she had so freely given that information as it had been like pulling teeth to get her to open up to him at all.

Kirk nodded at Carina's assessment. "Scans aren't showing any life signs. Let's assemble an away team to beam over to the ship and check it out. Counselor, I'd like you on the team since you have more intimate knowledge of how Romulan ships may operate. Plus you have tactical experience, right?" She nodded. "Great. Commander Spock and the doctor will accompany you. The three of you will be able to analyze the situation and possibly provide us with some answers."

Carina nodded at the Captain and turned toward the turbolift in a trance. She was going back on to a Romulan ship. She hadn't been on a Romulan ship since she had escaped from her personal hell on Romulus. It wasn't until they were about to beam over that she returned to reality and paid attention. Spock and Leonard were on either side of her on the transport pad. As the white beams began to encase her body, Carina took a deep breath.

Then she appeared on the Romulan ship. It looked deserted. She looked around and took in the general derelict look of the ship. Nobody had been aboard in a very long time.

"Counselor. Do you know how to start up the systems on the ship?" Spock had turned to her and was indicating a control panel in front of him.

"I can try." She walked over to the panel and started pressing buttons to see if she could get the system to respond. While the engines wouldn't fire, she was able to pull some crew and tactical information that was stored in the system. Spock took over for her from there, uploading some of the information into a PADD he had brought with him. Carina decided to explore the cargo bay of the ship to see what it had been transporting. Not wanting her to be by herself, Leonard went with her.

The cargo bay was filled with large shipping trunks of Romulan exports. There was even one devoted entirely to Romulan Ale. Leonard shook his head and closed the trunk wondering how they would keep that locked up from some of the Enterprise crew. When he turned around, Carina was no longer beside him.

"Carina?" he called out. There was no answer. He started looking around for her, worried at her sudden disappearance. He found her kneeling down in front of an air grate in the wall of the cargo bay. She looked a million miles away. He knelt down next to her and placed a hand gently on her arm. She jumped and turned to look at him.

"I was just double checking it to see if there were any crew members inside. Maybe doing repairs or something when….whatever happened to them happened." She turned back to look at the vent again. "It's empty."

Leonard continued watching her with a concerned look. Her eyes had looked so sad when she'd turned to him. She was remembering something not particularly pleasant.

"Have you been on a ship like this before?" Leonard knew he was prying but he couldn't get the image of her eyes out of his head.

"Yes."

"Did you hide in an air grate?" He pushed his luck.

She turned back to look at him. Thoughtfully, she looked down at his hand, which was still on her arm. As she looked back up, she opened her mouth to respond. Her communicator went off, making them both jump.

"Counselor and Doctor. Have you found anything?" Spock's voice rang out as she opened it.

Clearing her throat and standing up, Carina answered, "Looks like their cargo haul is still in here. Not sure what everything contains yet but it might be good to transport it back to the Enterprise. No crew members have been found. It is as if they vanished on route to wherever they were going."

"Very well. I have finished with the ship's systems. We should beam back to the Enterprise."

"On our way."

That evening, Carina was finishing up her report on the trip to the Romulan ship for the Captain in her quarters when the computer chimed she had a visitor. Putting her PADD to the side, she turned to the door as Leonard entered. She smiled at him.

"Hey. I wasn't expecting you."

"I thought you might want some dinner." She noticed he was carrying some containers of something that smelled delicious. "Plus we missed having lunch together today."

"Yea. We did." He set the containers down on her table and opened them. They contained a combination of some grilled shrimp, fried chicken and grilled vegetables. Carina hadn't realized how hungry she was.

"This looks fantastic. Thank you Leonard." She smiled again at him. He smiled back at her.

"It's some of my favorite food from back home." They dug into the food in front of them while enjoying a comfortable silence. When Carina had finished she sat back and placed her hands on her belly.

"That was amazing. I'll have to remember to ask for grilled shrimp and fried chicken more often."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." She had turned and was sitting perpendicular to him on the couch so he pulled one of her feet into his lap and began to rub it. She tensed at first at the sudden touching but began to relax when he started rubbing.

"Mmm." She closed her eyes and tilted her head back. He watched her silently. The cares of the day that had been written across her face when he had walked in melted away. She looked younger and happier. He knew he was going to spoil the moment but it had been eating at him the whole day.

"You were going to say something in the cargo bay before we came back to the Enterprise." She opened her eyes and looked at him. He pulled her other foot to his lap and started rubbing that one.

"Leonard…" Her eyes were guarded again. She sighed and looked down at her hands. "I left Romulus when I was ten on a trade ship identical to the one we found today. I wasn't a passenger. I hid in an air grate. It took me a year but I managed to barter my way to Earth where I survived until I could apply for Starfleet." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she looked up at Leonard.

He had stopped rubbing her foot when she had started talking. When she looked up at him he just shook his head and lowered it. She tilted her head, confused at his reaction. She had expected pity or an apology or…something. But all she had seen was sadness in his eyes.

Pulling her foot from his lap, she leaned forward and touched his arm. "Leonard? Please don't tell anyone." He opened his eyes and turned to look at her. Shaking his head, he put his hand on top of hers.

"I would never. Thank you, Carina." She gave him a small smile and leaned her forehead against his. She closed her eyes and relaxed again.

Leonard couldn't believe she had opened up to him. It wasn't the whole story but it was a helluva lot more than he had known this morning. They were sitting very close now. He could smell her shampoo and felt the softness of her skin against his. Reaching up he ran the back of his hand against her cheek. Her skin was so incredibly soft. Her eyes opened and met his. Then he leaned in and gently kissed her.