"I need a doctor, can you come right away?"

Sulu's voice had been dead serious, and in a heartbeat it had pulled Skylar's thought's away from the book she had been reading.

She had jumped into her shoes, rushed out of her cabin and ran to Sulu's door as fast as she could. Still panting, her chest heaving, she now waited for him to come and let him in. He sure took his time, and Skylar pressed the doorbell again. She was worried - was it necessary to use the emergency override to get in? But just as she was about to do so, the door finally hissed open and she saw Sulu's face - pale, tormented.

"What happened?" Skylar demanded, stepping in. She noticed he was barefoot, wearing his fencing practice clothes - and a katana still tied up in his back. "Did you hurt yourself in the exercise, or...?"

"Please, don't ask anything." his voice was tight as a spring. "Please… just give me something, anything that will calm me down. Or I swear I'll go and kill Jim Kirk."

Skylar was silent for a moment.

"Oh." She said then, in lack of a better word. "Yeah. Just give me a moment."

She had known him long enough to know he most likely wasn't joking. The doctor in her took over and she searched her bag for a syringe, and without a moment's hesitation gave a strong dose of sedative into his carotid artery. In just a few seconds, the sedative began to effect, and Skylar noticed his rigid position beginning to relax.

"Thanks." Sulu muttered, his voice suddenly drowzy.

"No problem. But give your Katana to me now, just to be safe."

Sulu nodded hesitantly, and with slow moves, his thoughts clearly elsewhere, took the sword and handed it to Skylar. He then turned his back on her, walked to the couch, his legs shaking slightly, and tumbled onto it. His eyes stayed on the window, staring into the endless void of space.

Skylar hid the Katana on top of a cabinet, hesitated for a moment, but then followed him, and sat down on the other corner of the sofa to face him.

"Now tell me what happened."

Sulu was silent for a long time, so long that Skylar already thought, he wouldn't answer at all. Finally, his words cut through the dark silence, and they had an almost blaming tone in them.

"You knew, didn't you? That Jim and Margot..."

Skylar nodded. "I knew."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I have a bad habit of keeping my word. As I have kept my word to you, not telling Margot that you're in l-"

"Don't say it!" Sulu snapped. "I do not want to hear it now."

"As you wish."

Skylar stood up and walked to the replicator, asked for two cups of chamomile tea. She handed the other one to Sulu, and he took it absent mindedly.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you." He said, after taking a few sips. "It was not your place to tell me... I should have guessed it myself. And I did guess, or at least I had a hunch. He's just her type, you know. But having a hunch is quite different as..."

"As what?"

"As seeing the woman you love, being fucked by someone else."

Skylar flinch. "Ouch. How on Earth…?"

"We were going to go fencing..." Sulu started, then shook his head, ran his fingers through his hair as if trying to find his lost thoughts. "What did you give me, Skylar? I can't feel a thing anymore."

"Is it not that what you wanted?"

Sulu nodded, then shook his head. He took a deep breath and tried to start over again. "Fencing…. So , I waited her there, but she never came. I got worried, you know how I am."

Skylar knew. Sulu worried about Margot all the time, he always had.

"So I went to look for her, thinking that something had happened to her. I went to her door, but no one opened, so I tried if it was unlocked..." his voice darkened, "Of course it was."

"Oh my God." Skylar sighed and rolled her eyes. "Is that woman ever going to learn how to lock the door!?"

"I doubt it." Sulu growled.

"So you saw...?"

"Yes."

"How Margot and Jim ...?"

"Yes."

Skylar didn't know what to say, so she simply said: "I'm so sorry."

She remembered all too vividly how it had felt to see her own boyfriend with another woman - Margot. And yet, she hadn't even been in love with that young cadette, not like Sulu was in love with Margot. What had happened then, had broken a friendship for three whole years, and now Skylar couldn't help but to wonder what would happen to Kirk and Sulu after today? Or to all of them.

Damn that Margot, and her slutty habits!

Skylar sighed - she was angry and sad, and she had been afraid of this moment for a long time. She saw his face in the dim light of the stars, it was like frozen, and the pain in his eyes cut through her heart like a spear.

"I thought I had already gotten used to being jealous, you know." Sulu whispered quietly. "But this time is different."

"Why is it different?"

Sulu shrugged. "Maybe it's because Jim is my friend."

"It does make this more complicated."

"There is nothing complicated in here." Sulu snorted. "She doesn't want me, she never has. I ought to know it by now. It was fool of me to think that something had changed during these past years, but..."

"I know." Skylar nodded. "It still hurts."

He sat up on the couch, to look at her straight in the eye, as straight as he could with the huge dose of sedative in his blood. "When Margot was not here, I missed her like crazy. I thought about her all the time. And yet, somehow it was easier. A part of me wishes she'd never come to Enterprise."

"You have been rather tense after she got here."

Sulu gave a sarcastic laugh.

"To put it mildly. Her being here is torture to me. It wasn't like this before, when we were younger… but lately, it's been really hard to be around her and not to be able to touch her. The away mission was just-" He stopped in mid-sentence, as if he had suddenly realized he had said too much. He sank his fingers in his hair, and inhaled deeply before continuing. "This is just more difficult than it used to be."

"You have to try and get over her." Skylar said, knowing as she said it, that it was a worthless piece of advice. "Or at least get someone else under you - that might help."

Sulu tried to laugh. "No, thanks. I'm no Margot."

"Then you should tell her the truth."

Sulu looked at him as if she'd gone mad. "I can't do that!"

"Why not?" Skylar demanded. "You should have done it years ago!"

And suddenly Skylar wanted to tell him all about the alternate reality she remembered best - the one where Margot had died on the mission in Tursan moons, three years earlier, and how Sulu had regretted the rest of his life, that he had never had the courage to tell her how he felt. He had finally gotten over the grief, but never of the fact that he hadn't spoken up when he still had the chance to do so. It had haunted him for the rest of his days.

Skylar bit her lip - she knew she wasn't allowed to talk about any of that. As far as she knew, Sulu had no idea of her time and reality travelling, and she knew better than to tell him anything.

"And who would then keep her safe? Who would take care of her?" Sulu responded to her claim. "Who? After she gets pissed at me, and kicks me out of her life for good."

"That's nonesense." Skylar shook her head. "She would never do that. You may not realize it, but she can't live without you. I knew it the first time I saw the two of you."

"So basically you're saying, that you know best - as always."

"Of course." Skylar said, and shrugged.