The next morning, Data awoke before Tasha did. He just lay still in bed for awhile, looking at her tousled blonde hair spilling over her forehead and watching her chest move up and down, scarcely able to believe that she was really there with him. Finally he got out of bed and performed his usual morning rituals, and then called Picard on his comm badge and told him that he was taking the day off to care for Tasha.

A couple of hours later, Tasha yawned, stretched, and opened her eyes. She looked around her in confusion, then saw Data sitting by the bed and remembered.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Data smiled gently.

She laughed. "Better than I have in a long, long time. You?"

"Very well, thanks. Are you hungry?"

"Now that you mention it, I'm starving."

He brought her breakfast and sat on the side of the bed spooning bites of scrambled eggs and buttered toast into her mouth.

"I'll bet it's been way too long since you had any TLC," he told her.

"Longer than I care to remember, and you provide it so very well."

He laughed. "Thanks."

"You've always been so kind to me, Data. I don't know whether I've ever told you how much I appreciate it, but in case I didn't, I'm telling you now."

"You're a wonderful person, Tasha. You deserve to be treated well."

She smiled and blushed, accepting the compliment.

"So, what's it like to finally be human after being an android for so long?"

"Oh, Tasha, it's more wonderful than I ever could have imagined. Despite the pain of negative emotions, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. For me to be able to experience joy, wonder, and love is just as I imagine it must be for someone who has been blind his entire life to suddenly gain perfect vision."

"Geordi." She suddenly remembered him. "How is he?"

"He's fine, still in engineering."

"So tell me, how did it happen?"

"My transformation? It's a long story." He chuckled.

"Well, I'd like to hear it."

So he told her the whole story, how Shinzon had feigned peaceful intentions while planning to destroy Earth and thereby cripple the Federation, how he had sacrificed his life to deactivate Shinzon's thalaron weapon, and how he had returned and found himself inside B4's body.

"The final transformation I can in no way explain. Perhaps it has something to do with having been reunited with you."

"You and I are just alike, Data! Can't you see?" She sounded excited. "We both care more about the welfare of our friends than we do about our own welfare. We both sacrificed everything for our friends' freedom and safety."

"You are so right, Tasha." He smiled. "And I would do it again in a heartbeat."

"So would I."

For the next several days, Tasha had celebrity status aboard the Enterprise. Everyone was surprised and delighted to have her back, and she told her story over and over again. It was decided that she would become Worf's assistant as soon as her ankle healed sufficiently for her to return to work.

"Does that seem strange to you, to have your former roles reversed?" Data asked her.

"I'm just so happy to be back among my friends on the Enterprise that it doesn't matter to me at all what job I have."

He told her how he had been next in line for the first officer position after Riker left, and how he had felt after returning and finding Madden in Riker's former position.

"Oh, Data, I'm so sorry." She stroked his hair.

"It's all right. I suppose my turn will come eventually." She continued stroking his hair, and he closed his eyes and smiled with pleasure.

"You know, Data, I know we were only together that one time, but I never forgot how making love to you made me feel." Her eyes held a far-away look. "The Romulan general was so brutal. He was never concerned at all with giving me pleasure, only with receiving pleasure himself. He used to enter me while I was asleep, not giving me any time to get aroused, and that was very painful. Just like being scraped with sandpaper on the inside. I told him how badly it hurt me, and he only laughed."

He put a gentle finger to her lips. "Hush, Tasha, please. Don't say anything else about it. I can't bear to hear how he hurt you."

"Please love me again, Data. I want so badly to feel you inside me again like I did so long ago."

He did, and it was like nothing he had ever experienced before. In a human body the sensations were enhanced, and the love he felt for Tasha gave the act so much more meaning. It was as if he had reached deep inside her and touched her soul, and had been touched by it in return. For a time it seemed almost as if their two spirits had merged into one, the boundaries between them temporarily dissolved. When it was over, she was crying softly.

"What's wrong, sweetheart? Did I hurt you?"

"No, Data, you didn't hurt me. It's just that that was the first orgasm I've had since...since...since that first time with you so long ago."

"Oh, Tasha." Deeply moved, he held her close and kissed her tears away.

"I think we were meant to be together, Data. I think that's why in spite of everything that happened, we both ended up right back here on the Enterprise."

"I never stopped loving you and missing you, Tasha. Deep in my heart I always wished that there would somehow be a way to see you again. At the time it seemed utterly impossible, but I never stopped wishing it."

She smiled at him. "Maybe that was what brought me back. Your wishes."

"It doesn't matter to me how it happened. All I care about is that we're together now and I'm never letting you go."

"Just hold me, Data. All I want is to be held by you."

So he did.