BaB: Took longer to update this time, sorry about that. Health issues, CT scans and all that goodness that comes with my having a crappy body that hates me. Anyway, read through, edited stuff, still might have missed a few things.

Seven is my favorite number, expect a surprise somewhere in the chapter, perhaps something you've been waiting for or something. Hooray, Halloween is tomorrow, I'm going to scare kids. Hope everyone has their own type of fun.

Chapter Seven

Somewhere in the middle of working on a report Lor fell asleep for a good forty five minutes before waking up with a gasp and softly promising herself that Scotty would never know. Although the nap had been very short it had still given Lor a chance to dream, it was a strange thing that her brain showed her this time. Not a nightmare or anything of the nature, but something different.

When she closed her eyes for that almost hour her mind traveled back in time to when she was just a child and her father was showing her the rooms around her own. It had been a warm dream at first, Lor's father picked her up and spun her in his arms before he placed her on the ground and she fell over from the dizziness. He was gone when she lifted her head back up to look for him.

It was dark again, just as it always was in Lor's nightmares but this time there was a faint light out in the distance, it was new, usually in the blackness there was nothing but the shadow of her mind. At first Lor walked slowly towards it until she felt the need to run. As she carried herself further her strides began to get longer as she grew older and older until she was the same age as her current self, chasing after a light that only faintly seemed nearer. The soles of her feet began to hurt from the ever present pounding of them on the dark ground; Lor almost forgot that she was dreaming as the light began to shine brighter in front of her.

When she was close enough to it her legs strode forward and she reached out to touch the light only to have her foot catch on a protrusion in the ground. Just as she was about to touch it the brightness vanished from before her eyes as she was now falling into darkness once more.

"No!" She'd shouted in her dream. "Please no!"

Looking back up as she fell Lor saw the light getting farther and farther away from her, all the running and hoping that this would lead her home, that it was something special were ripped from her mind. Suddenly the light was snuffed out completely and Lor woke from her dream with a jolt and a gasp, her heart thudded in her chest powerfully as she shook herself and went back to work.

It had been hard to get back into working after a dream such as that, it had been scary, the darkness, but not so much that she woke not wanting to go back to sleep. It had intrigued her, because never before had there been a light in the black that surrounded her, she kept wondering why it only appeared now. After so many years of going back to the darkness and being stuck in it why had the light never come and led her away, granted it had dropped her down a hole, but she'd woken up just fine.

Why now?

Finally Lor did manage to finish up all her work, save for one that she was saving for after breakfast when she could keep her eyes open a little better. Through the course of the night Lor had gone through the many stages of sleep deprivation.

There was the first step. Not being able to keep her eyes open to save her life and forgetting everything she read and looked at a few seconds later. The close and nod where she would repeatedly lean forward and pull herself out of sleep until she slapped her cheeks slightly aggravated.

Before she'd slapped her cheeks was when she'd gone on the light searching adventure in her dream before falling to her death and waking up.

Then she got to the point that everyone knows and loves, or possibly hates, about not being able to go to sleep. The point at which one is so tired that anything and everything is hilarious, misspelled words, funny planet names, the noise her chair made. Lor chuckled lightly at everything, even the idea of her previous dream was somewhat comical, and why the hell would she be running towards the light anyway?

At the moment as she walked down the hallway Lor glared darkly towards the ground as she made her way to where Scotty was. A few people tried to say good morning to her but all she wanted to reply was 'not when you don't sleep it isn't,' but she held her tongue, being mean so early in the morning wouldn't be very productive.

It had been a while since she'd pulled a complete overnighter; she didn't count the short nap as sleeping, and it was weighing down on her greatly. Sure there were plenty of nights when she'd woken from a nightmare and had fitful sleeping the remainder of her slumber, but even then she wasn't this dead.

"Look who's walking," Scotty's voice called to her. He was walking down the hallway quickly towards her; she didn't understand how he could pull an all-nighter.

"You fell asleep didn't you," Lor accused him before turning around and walking with him.

"I was going to say that of you," Scotty defended with a playful shout. "If you fall asleep for a little while, that's what makes you grumpy," he explained knowledgably.

"So what makes you happy?" Lor asked giving his shoulder a small shove.

"Energy boosts," he said widening his eyes. "And friends," he added thinking of how his friend would throw stuff at him when he fell asleep.

"Ah shoot," Lor whined faking emotional hurt and pain. "I don't have any friends," she fake cried covering her eyes with her hands. Scotty laughed at her before they arrived at the cafeteria to see that there were more people than the night before, but not enough to point out anyone they knew. Lor got more orange juice, scrambled eggs, and some oatmeal, while Scotty insisted that a bagel was enough for him to be satisfied.

They ate in a comfortable silence for a while, Lor yawned a few times making Scotty curse at her for making him yawn as well, he was convinced she was planning on making him pass out early. She scoffed at him and growled about him trying to get under her skin and prove that she was grouchy even though she wasn't. Her mind wandered to her dream while Scotty gabbed about something that had happened during the night with his work, Lor was ignoring him, but doing a very good job of still looking interested.

Bones came in a little later and ragged on Lor for staying overnight when she was still recovering from being sick for so long, she got ready to glare at him before she yawned again and mumbled something about finishing her work.

"When you finish your work," Scotty started to say as Lor walked away.

"I'll come get you," she said turning her head over her shoulder to look back at him. "Then we can pass out together on the shuttle back to earth," she said in fake cheeriness.

"Did you make her stay overnight?" Lor could hear Bones questioning Scotty before she walked out of ear shot. She loved the man and his protectiveness, after all he was the only person whom she was sure worried about her, but sometimes it got a little old. No, no, she shouldn't think like that. The way Bones was, the way he sometimes spoiled her and treated her like a child, it was all she had ever wanted when she was little, for someone to care about her. Not a foster parent that was required to care, she needed someone like Bones to keep her in line and on task.

Walking into the med bay with a deep sigh Lor grabbed at the last bit of her work viciously, she was going to get the piece of crap done as quickly as she could. Then again with her current state of mind being so slow and inept it could very well take a few more hours than she had originally planned.

With a grunt Bones came into the room and dropped a bottle of water on his desk before looking at Lor and shaking his head disapprovingly. It was then that she realized that her eyes had been reading the same line over and over again for the past ten minutes while her mind was thinking about the small dream she had had.

"Did you at least finish all your work?" He asked gruffly.

"Almost," she said giving him a quick smile before turning back to her work. "Just one left," she grumbled glaring darkly at her desk.

"After you're done," Bones started talking to her before she cut him off quickly.

"Go home and go to sleep, get some rest, because I won't be able to snooze once we start our mission," she said in a bland voice before looking at him. He gave her a mocking grin.

"Like a chicken with too much feed," he growled before going off to do some work of his own.

"Did you just compare me to a chicken?" Lor asked with an angry laugh.

"Go back to work little hen," was his shouted response.

Frowning bitterly Lor turned back to her work, the man knew enough about her that he could easily get under her skin with very few words spoken at all. It was something she had not completely mastered over him yet and he knew it.

0-0-0

It was only an hour and a half later that Lor finished the last bit of her work and glanced around the med bay to see that there weren't too many people milling about. According to what she had told Scotty she still had quite a bit of time left before their agreed time of departure, perhaps she could shut her eyes for a few moments.

From the back of the room Bones watched as Lor lowered her head to her desk and ceased to move her head about anymore, he was wondering when she would fall asleep. Slowly going over to her he grabbed a blanket and draped it over her shoulders gently. Apparently she had some sort of thing going on with Scotty, no sleeping rule. The man had assured him that they were just taking the same shuttle to Earth, but it couldn't hurt her to get a little sleep.

Thus Lor was thrust into another dream this dream felt like it was moving in slow motion. As far as Bones was concerned Lor was only asleep for an hour, he wasn't aware what Lor was going through inside the dream.

Slowly the dream ended and Lor opened her eyes, lifting her head ever so slowly she stared off into space in front of her as she thought about her dream. It was another vision that she had never had before, and yet it was so familiar to her.

"Did you sleep well?" Bones asked walking past her.

"Sure," she answered without thinking about it.

There was an image in her head that she had to get out, of something she had apparently seen when she was a child, else why would it seem so recognizable?

"What's wrong?" Bones questioned her. He always noticed right away when something was off with her, when she didn't give him some sarcastic remark it meant that something was bothering her.

"Weird dream," she muttered grabbing her sketchbook from her bag and getting a pencil. She started with a faint sketch, stopped to look at it and then scribbled over it with angry dark lines.

"And you always have to draw what's in your dreams," he said in understanding. It was something she had done since he met her, at first he thought it was a little strange especially when she drew monsters and dead bodies. But by now he was used to it and didn't think anything of it.

"Just have to," she started drawing on a new piece of a paper and forgot about speaking for a few seconds. "Get it out," she murmured sketching a few more lines.

"You always do," Bones said sitting down at his own desk and getting to work.

Despite being excessively tired Lor was more than focused as she sketched out the thing that had been in her dream with such clarity. She didn't yawn nor did her eyes droop as she recalled exactly how it had appeared. Usually after taking a nap Lor was worse off than when she had fallen asleep in the first place, and so whenever someone suggested she take a nap and get a short moment of sleep she always huffed at them.

"Naps suck," Lor grumbled making Bones chuckle lightly.

0-0-0

At some point Lor looked at a clock and jumped to her feet quickly, quickly collecting her mess of papers and unsuccessfully shoving them into her bag before rushing out to make sure she had everything done.

"What the rush?" A nurse walking by asked her.

"I forgot about Scotty," she said with a morbid expression on her face. "Granted it's not the time we agreed on, possibly an hour earlier, but I'm tired," her voice got a little louder near the end. The nurse gave her a strange look that made Lor stop short for a second before continuing to stuff things into her bag. She then remembered as the papers fluttered to the floor that she had already closed it.

"You must be Dr. Finch," she said with a small smile.

"What does that mean?" Lor questioned wondering how her conversation and comments would reveal who she was.

"What about Scotty?" The nurse muttered going back to the subject of her friend to distract her.

"Right," Lor murmured looking towards the door. "Sorry about the mess, I'll clean it eventually," she grabbed her coat frantically and rushed out the door before poking her head in for a few seconds. "Bye Bones!" She shouted.

"He's not here right now," the nurse chided in. Lor was starting to dislike the nurse for the small fact that she seemed content on telling Lor that she was wrong and averting her attention away from the question she had asked her.

"Tell him I'll see him later," was all the nurse heard as Lor ran down the hall towards Scotty.

"Well, look who showed up," Scotty muttered as Lor meandered through the engine room.

"I'm actually early, it's not even five yet," she stopped herself short trying to remember if that was even the right time they had agreed on.

"Didn't think you would last this long," he laughed making Lor frown at him. "So, time to go home?" He asked looking at her slightly angry expression with a sheepish grin.

"I'm so tired I could fall over, stop being cheerful or I'll draw on your face when you fall asleep," she grumbled watching his eyes widen.

"What an escalation," he said going to get his bag. "Shall we?" He questioned motioning for her to go in front of him.

When they got to the shuttle a man told them that it would be another fifteen minutes before they left but the two of them were welcome to sit in the shuttle while waiting. Lor grumbled a, thank you, and added an, you're so generous, under her breath which made Scotty laugh and mumble that she was just tired and didn't mean anything by it. They sat next to each other and talked about the time when they had almost fallen asleep on the job before and what had happened afterwards, Scotty's stories were much better than Lor's.

"One time I was working on some machinery while we were in warp, a little ways up on a ladder," he started before Lor interrupted him with a disbelieving laugh.

"You didn't start to doze off on a ladder did you?" She shoved his shoulder gently.

"Fell right off it and onto a runner who was coming to give me some parts," he summed up with a sharp intake of breath. "He was not happy," he muttered recalling the event in his head.

"The only big thing that happened from lack of sleep to me was kind of bad," Lor murmured touching her head at the memory.

"It couldn't have been that bad," Scotty laughed. Lor gave him a challenging look that made him smirk and shove her shoulder back with his own. "What did you do?"

"So It's not that I pull all nighters like some crazy dude I know, sometimes I just don't sleep so well," her voice faded off slightly making Scotty's playful expression get a little softer. "Anyway, after a few nights of that, nastiness, I was helping Bones with some weird disease. We had been sitting down for about an hour or so, and you know when you suddenly stand up and it gets all kinds of fuzzy and light headed for a few seconds?" Scotty nodded his eyes a little wide.

"You didn't," he already knew what happened.

"Stood up, everything went black," she laughed lightly at the memory. "Hit the ground like a rock, cut my head open," she touched the scar on her head absentmindedly. "Yeah, Bones was not happy," she remembered the rage that followed her around for weeks after she was up and walking again.

"Does that happen a lot?" Scotty asked faking a grin. He didn't want to show her the worry that had bubbled up into his gut.

"Every so often," she commented as if it was nothing.

Scotty frowned at the knowledge, he liked to think that he knew Lor pretty well, but after hearing about this it was like a whole road stretched out in front of him. Everything he didn't know about Lor was written as road signs all across the road, and the road behind him was very short, including signs that had her name and the food she liked.

"Do you have nightmares?" He pushed her further. He liked Lor, so it was only right to get to know her more, even if she had various things wrong with her, he was willing to help. That's what you do for the people who are your friends and even more so for the people you might love.

"All the time," she said it while shrugging her shoulders. "But it's not something I like talking about," she explained with a softer voice. "If you're really curious about them you can ask Bones, he knows some of them," she muttered slumping against his shoulder tiredly. "Just tell him I said it was okay and he should spill at least one of them," she yawned before dropping her head on his shoulder.

"Well if you ever wake in the middle of the night and find yourself bored just call me, I'll be up," Scotty said trying to say something viable to the conversation.

"Thanks," she replied gently.

"Don't mention it," he smiled softly. "But really don't, otherwise Jim will come looking for me," he said trying to lighten the mood. Lor laughed and lifted her head while stretching her arms out in front of her form.

"I know he will," she said with a grin.

The shuttle started moving a few minutes later, Lor and Scotty delved into a conversation about how Jim had caused many troubled in their lives and in the lives of many other people. The topic shifted many times as Scotty walked Lor home when they got to Earth. Since it had started on sleep it only seemed right to end the conversation on sleep as it seemed they were both going to pass out as soon as they got home.

Lor only worried faintly about John being at the apartment when she got home, she was having so much fun talking and hanging out with her friends at work and with Scotty that John left her mind. It was only as they got nearer to her domain that she insisted to Scotty that she would be alright to get into the elevator by herself. He tried to walk into the building regardless and Lor finally said that she was on her period and needed to change her feminine stuff quickly.

Never before had she seen a man turn so red, it was a lie of course she just needed to get him out of here before John decided Scotty might want to join the whole ordeal. He kindly muttered something about it being an awful time of the month and hurried away with a shout that wished her to sleep well.

With a sigh she got into the elevator and went up to her floor, when the doors dinged open Lor was not surprised to see that John was sitting on her couch looking through another one of her files.

"I thought you'd read all of those by now," she grumbled making a bee line for her bedroom.

"Your friend seems nice," John said standing up and going over to her bag that she'd dropped carelessly on the floor.

"Really?" Lor questioned him as he opened her bag. "There's nothing exciting in there, and yes," she muttered stopped short when she saw the bathroom. She could at least wash her face before smashing it into some pillows for a while. "I actually really like him, and I do have to admit that the accent helps," she laughed feeling that perhaps her conversation with John was a little too casual.

Turning on the water Lor thought she heard John say something but it was lost in the rush of cold liquid that she was splashing onto her face. The water felt good on her skin, she hadn't even realized that after an all-nighter and napping on her desk a few times would mess up her hair and make her face oily and disgusting.

Walking out of the bathroom Lor glanced over at John to see that he was holding her newest drawing of the dream she had had earlier that day.

"What's this?" He asked her with a stern tone.

"I don't know, something I saw in a dream today," she hugged herself lightly at the memory of it. "I think it's from when I was a child, it was probably on the ship where my father and I lived," she murmured before turning towards her bedroom. "Do you think you'll be gone in the next few days? Because the mission is right around the corner," she yawned turning to look at him.

"Impractical," he muttered turning away from her and taking the paper with him. "What was the dream about?" He questioned her without turning.

"Sleep now, talk later," she called from her room.

"Loralie," his voice was stern as he turned towards the direction of her voice.

Walking out of the room Lor gave him an exhausted look as he gazed at her form up and down, she'd changed into a short little nightgown that was a soft off white color. With her legs and shoulders bare to his eyes John felt the rush of need rise within himself again, he'd felt it a few times when he was around Lor, but never this strong. Perhaps it was heightened by this new discovery or the simple fact that she had been with another man, but he felt that he had to have her. This time it was not enough to merely force the feeling back into his throat.

"Later," she grumbled turning away from him and walking back towards her bed. "Jeez," she murmured.

John followed her, watching her long silky legs moves as her toes sank into the carpet from her light weight as she moved away from him. The way the fabric about her hips swayed ever so gently as she walked through her door and into the area that was her room. Without noticing John behind her Lor moved her hair over to one side of her head, exposing her neck for the man behind her who was about ready to pounce on her.

The soft skin of her neck made him remember all the times she'd shivered as his breath had grazed her form, and the feel of her shaking body that he had felt beneath the skin of his palm that one night. Lor must have finally realized that he was behind her because she stopped walking and waited for him to stop right behind her like he'd already done a few times.

"I guess I can tell you right now," she sighed letting her shoulders fall a little.

As soon as she turned to face him John lost his control and went right for her lips. Forcing her back against the closest wall he heard her squeak in surprise before he silenced any further complaint with a bruising kiss. Lor pushed against him with as much power as she could muster but he didn't budge, if anything he pushed his mouth against her more as his tongue pressed at her closed lips. When her hands reached to grab something that might help her he pinned them against the wall with one of his own hands while the other traveled up her shirt towards her breast.

Gasping shortly John's tongue dove into her mouth quickly while his other hand made it to her breast; she'd taken off her bra as it was uncomfortable to sleep in but now regretted it. His fingers grazed over her soft skin and made her shiver visibly beneath him. Lor's thoughts raged through her mind quickly, she couldn't focus on anything, with John's mouth attacking her own and his hand exploring her chest she was at a loss.

Opening her eyes Lor was met with John's own powerful gaze as he successfully dominated her form, this was what he had wanted ever since the first tinge in his chest had bugged him wasn't it? Lor was a beautiful human, definitely someone that many men would fall over themselves to sleep with; even if he wasn't human it still affected him. The feeling of her smooth skin beneath his fingers, the way he could make her shake beneath him, it was very tantalizing.

Tightly closing her eyes Lor raged back at him suddenly, biting his tongue she tore her mouth away from his as he reared back angrily. She glared at him darkly from the corner of her eyes and took a swing at him when he released her hands while backing away. He caught her fist easily and jerked her body towards his before she swung her leg at him, to which he simply pushed her backwards forcefully. She landed on her bed slightly surprised before rearing to get on her knees and taking a defensive stance. Breathing deeply Lor snarled at him as new hatred blazed in her eyes.

He looked at her disappointed, there was no way he could feel something for someone as weak as a human, even if she was beautiful. Though he wouldn't call the creature in front of him right now human, what with the way she was glaring and snarling at him and the feral look in her furious eyes. Again John noticed that Lor was more of a wild creature than anything. He'd gotten excited and jumped to conclusions because of what he found in her bag today, but he shouldn't have let his feelings get the better of him. There was no reason for him to take action until he knew all of what had happened to her in the past, he didn't even know the truth yet, there was no reason to jump the gun.

"Next time no excuses, just answers," he stated bitterly before wiping a bit of blood off his lip. "That was just a warning," he sneered at her.

"Fine," she spat out at him.

"Go to sleep," he demanded of her before stalking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

As soon as the door closed Lor let her loathsome expression slip away from her as she fell back onto her bed defeated, he had just been warning her? It sure was one hell of a warning then, she was scared now, and yet she could still feel the burn of his lips on hers and the cold skin of his on her chest.

All her life she had had such a clear goal there had never been any time for relationships, Jim always made fun of her for being a virgin, not that she had ever cared. But no one had ever touched her like that before; just the feeling of another person's tongue in her mouth had been shocking. She'd kissed men before, but never like that, no one had ever been forceful with her, if they ever started to Lor was quick to get away. But with John she wasn't strong enough and there was nothing she could use against him.

Now, even more so than previous days, Lor was wishing she could depart for the new mission early, just to get away from such a man as John Harrison.

BaB: Ooohhh no he didn't. I was wondering when to put kiss, kiss, love, love stuff in, and figured seven was as good a chapter as any.

What did you think? Moving too fast for you? Don't worry, I have plenty of other stuff to work out in the rest of the story.

Thanks for reading, give me a review?

Pretty please as a Halloween happiness gift?