I do not own Star Trek.

A/N

I realised that of 110 K-T rated stories starring Khan I'm topping (though only, one is tied) faves, followers and reviews... that's just... wow... seriously... so to celebrate I'm releasing the first chapter of the Sherlock fic I've been gradually working on! What can I say, I'm a bit of a Cumberbitch :P

I've had a few questions about the others (especially Scotty) coming back at some point... I don't think they will in this story, but once I've got the augments settled I can certainly see them being sent to discuss a peace treaty in a sequel. There sure seems to be enough people interested to warrant one :D

A/N end.

Mahalia lay in the cosy warmth of her blankets, letting the memories of the night before play through her mind. She wasn't convinced they were real, perhaps being a dream. Dreams had a tendency to fragment when you stood and moved, so she stayed still, focusing on the thoughts rather than anything else.

They had played three games, she had won two of the three, though she thought Khan had let her win the first one. She had still been more than a little shaken during that game and she didn't think she'd been paying enough attention to have truly beaten Khan. That spoke volumes in itself, the man was a soldier, he didn't surrender lightly, certainly not willingly. He had won the second game, as she became more herself, but it was the third game that had been the real battle of wits. It had been close, achingly and beautifully close. His mind was devastatingly brilliant. The memory of the look in his eyes when he realised his check of her had swiftly and decisively changed to her checkmate of him sent a shiver through her. It had been deep and full of appraisal, almost heated.

He had spent time with her, time he could have spent elsewhere. He had come to check on her after Aldur... She squashed that thought, not wanting it to impinge on her current happiness. He had checked that she was okay. He had seemed concerned, seemed to care. It was... unexpected. A delightful surprise. One she had dreamed about. Reluctantly she opened her eyes slightly, the chess set sat on the table where they had left it. This time it wasn't a dream.

Slowly she crawled from the bed. She was still wearing the starfleet uniform she had worn the day before. Part of her wanted to get rid of it, the tear across its chest reminding her of Aldur, but then again this was the outfit when Khan had first seen her, truly seen her, as a person. Taking it off she folded it carefully, tucking it under the bed to deal with later and headed for the sonic shower.

Her stomach rumbled as she made her way to the galley. Thankfully it was empty, aside from an unpleasant burnt smell. Taking the overheated pan off the rings her nose wrinkled... Satisfying as it might be emotionally knowing Kati had to handle the cooking, it seemed unlikely there'd be any satisfaction for her palate in the arrangement. With a small sigh Mahalia made up more of the broth she had used for her newly awakened family, splitting it between two slow cookers she pulled from the back of one of the cupboards. They were underrated appliances, Mahalia had made sure there were some on board. She left one as it was and added noodles to the other to bulk it out a little, adding peas and sweetcorn. It was quick to make and could be left there warming through for a few hours without any harm, hot and ready when people wanted it. In the meantime... Well there were a few food synthesisers on board, and while it was less energy efficient than the food stores her complaining stomach led to her guiltily punching in the code for pancakes with syrup. One she had memorised during her time on the ship while working on programming the computers.

"Mind if I join you?" Jahl asked from the doorway, smiling when Mahalia nodded. "So I heard what happened... sort of, not sure how reliable a source Kati is... She was bitching about you knocking out Aldur? How it was some kind of trick, and that Khan was impressed? Are you okay?" A smile quirked at her lips as Mahalia imagined one of Kati's rants.

"I'm fine. I sedated him with a hypospray." Jahl frowned in confusion as he took the fork Mahalia handed him. "It's the new technology for injections, more reliable than carrying a needle around and hoping you don't press the plunger." She quipped, fishing it from her pocket to show him, she had pockets today, which was handy, why the uniform didn't have them was anyone's guess. She preferred having at least half a dozen pockets when possible, it ended up looking lumpy but she was able to keep things in easy reach and her hands free. "As for Khan... he... he came to my quarters last night." Jahl gasped.

"Your super secret quarters that you haven't even told your best friend where you hid them this time?" He was shocked, of course he would be, but the level of shock in his voice was definitely exaggerated, as was the hurt when he continued. "I am still your best friend aren't I? You haven't replaced me?" He pouted, she thumped him playfully on the arm.

"He found it by himself. He designed the schematics he could tell when a room had been re-designated." Though why he'd bothered to look through them to find it... bothered to come and check on her... "I'll have you and Gryn over sometime soon, don't worry, there are SO many movies that have come out while we slept that I want to watch with you two. I missed you."

"I know honey-bun. I would say I missed you too but I slept through it." He grinned, teasing. "So, dish, what was he like in bed? He's my one you know? The one that if he ever decided to swing our way and suddenly told me 'I want you now' in that rich yummy voice of his I could and Gryn wouldn't be upset with me, jealous of me maybe. He's Gryn's too... oh what a threesome that would make... I'd die happy." He sighed and Mahalia cleared her throat slightly to regain his attention, her face covered in amusement, that swiftly shifted to something like embarrassment.

"We, uh, we didn't... we played chess." Jahl raised an eyebrow as if to say 'is that what they're calling it this century?' She looked down. Part of her wondered if she should have slept with him, she thought perhaps he wanted to, and goodness knows if he'd be interested again, but after Aldur... Was it so wrong to want someone to appreciate your mind as well as your body? She knew she often wanted more than a runt should dream of, but his eyes... "The way he looked at me when I won..." She realised she had said that bit aloud when Jahl made a quiet hmm of encouragement. "I just feel like for the first time yesterday he actually saw me. Not the runt, or the girl who plans for defeat or the weakling who cares if humans get hurt... me. He called me Maya."

"Maya, be careful." The soft teasing slipped from Jahl in a thrum of concern. "Slow down."

"I told you we just played chess." She protested, her eyes narrowing.

"That's my point. If you'd jumped into bed together, you've slept with men before, willingly and otherwise..." He frowned, not wanting to bring up matters both of them had silently agreed not to discuss more than necessary, but then he pressed on. "And even with the worst of it you've survived. I've held you while you cried, you found better hiding places and you survived. But that he came to find you without sleeping with you, that you played chess and actually won, rather than hiding your skill... Maya even as the weakest of us your body can take a lot, I've seen you relocate your own shoulder without passing out, but your heart... You're the most caring person I've ever met, it lets you forgive things I couldn't even pretend to, it lets you do things most augments wouldn't even consider, but it... it hurts you too. I don't want you to get swept up in this and get hurt."

Mahalia considered the night before, going over it carefully. She thought he seemed interested, seemed to care, but Jahl was right, that made everything more dangerous not less. More confusing and less predictable as well. She let out a small sigh. It had been so simple the past year, for all that it had involved lying about herself to all her work colleagues, setting up a false identity in the federation databanks, smuggling frozen family members out of one set of cryotubes and into another set. Okay it had been complicated too, but she'd always known how to deal with it, what the people around her wanted and how to get the right result. But since meeting back up with her family... everything was different. Emotions, sometimes they were tougher to deal with than a fleet of admirals and warships.

The first step, she supposed, was finding out what Khan actually thought about her, not just wild speculation. Easier said than done as he tended to keep sentiment hidden unless it was useful. Then again perhaps she should start by figuring out what she thought of him, or even what she thought of herself... those questions were simpler, but not by as much as might be expected.

Khan... she had the hugest infatuation with him for as long as she could remember. And that's what it was, before, an infatuation. She had been in love with the idea of him, their brave, strong leader, so powerfully commanding. He was beautiful, brilliant, the midnight velvet of his voice like a caress and his pale blue eyes chillingly intense. But it wasn't real. It was a wonderful dream. Shallow as the film of a bubble and equally innocent and, ultimately, hollow. Before they slept he had been like a panther, mysterious and deadly, wild and unreachable and utterly without compassion. Something had changed.

She had awoken to a strange new world, full of new technology and new challenges. She had grown and changed and adapted, and she wasn't sure she quite fit the role that she had before. It was like trying to fit a tree back into a bonsai pot after having left it in the ground for a year.

Khan had grown too. Fear that he would remain alone in a sea of humanity, that he would never regain his family, it had left a mark on him. It wasn't anything you could see, he still looked as perfect as before, his voice still sent a thrum through her. The change was there though. It was in the determination he'd fought for them all with, the fury towards Admiral Marcus, and the self-control to contain that fury. He wouldn't have been able to restrain himself before. She was proud of him, of his development. She shouldn't be, he was his own person, he could be proud for himself, but she was still proud of him.

The way he had looked at her, had spoken to her, since he had slid almost to her feet in the hangar bay. It was different. Even when he had kicked her across the room he had seemed more aware, more focused on her than ever before. The bad with the good, she wasn't wallpaper any longer. She just wished she knew what he really thought about her, what he felt, whether it was just surprise and the afterglow of having thought his family lost to him forever, or if he genuinely felt anything for her, only her. She almost thought he might, but was she just fooling herself. Her thoughts went round and round.

"He's different than he used to be." She finally commented, aware that Jahl had been waiting for a while for her to comment, letting her sort through her thoughts as he stuffed his mouth with pancakes. She needed to get more. Sliding from her seat she got a second stack from the synthesiser. "I am too, more independent, self-aware." She smiled wryly. "At least I think I am."

"More confident too." He responded cheerfully, digging his fork into the top pancake to steal it before she'd even set the plate down. "There's just... a glow about you that wasn't there before. No. It was but you couldn't see it properly. It's like the difference between a crescent moon on a cloudy night where there's just enough light to see where it is and a gibbous moon on a clear night, nearly full and sharing itself so freely."

"This is why I shouldn't speak with you when you've been eating syrup, you always get poetical when you've had syrup. Did you notice the bottle in the bottom drawer of the bedside cabinet?" She smirked, glad that she could tease him a little too. "I'm sure Gryn will appreciate it. Once he's all warmed up." She winked. "Just imagine drizzling maple syrup all over and slowly..." She cut off as the door opened to show Khan, Mahalia flushed red as Jahl burst out laughing. Khan frowned deeply, presumably in confusion, though he seemed to glare slightly at Jahl before his face smoothed. Why he should dislike Jahl was anyone's guess... unless... did he think they were...? Well she supposed they were eating from the same plate, sitting closer than most people would... She straightened awkwardly. "Good morning Khan."

"Good morning Maya, Jahl." Was she imagining the subtle warming in his tone when he said her name, and the coldness when he said Jahl's? The tension in Jahl's body language and the slight shift away from her suggested she might not be. Jahl's eyes were low.

"Greetings Khan." He stopped eating, waiting as Khan strolled around the kitchen. He sniffed the burnt pan with disgust before lifting the lids on the slow cookers and nodding approvingly at the smells from them.

"Is there some problem with the food provided?" He asked, gesturing to the slow cookers.

"The one with noodles will be better in an hour or two, when they have softened fully, the other is intended for our brothers and sisters when they wake. It is gentle on the stomach while warm and soothing." Mahalia commented, not moving. Khan nodded slowly. "I used the food synthesizer... I thought it would save time." She was a little spun by his continued silent prowling. Usually when he entered the eating area he would seat himself fairly quickly, nobody else would eat while he wasn't, but then usually Kati would have brought him food, something Gryn had already prepared... They'd have to sort that out when everyone was awake and on regular meal patterns. "Do you want me to make you something?" He looked surprised for a moment before nodding and sitting, at one of the other tables. He didn't make any suggestion, so she tried to recall what he had eaten before when she had been in the mess hall at the same time as him. It usually featured meat quite heavily. A full English breakfast should do, and she'd set the code for that one to be very easy to remember, the last thing people needed was trying to remember something tricky first thing in the morning. 5663. If you turned it upside down it spelled eggs.

She set the plate down in front of Khan. Standing, she wasn't sure if she should sit back where she was before, with him, or just go to the cargo bay and begin work for the day. She glanced between the two of them briefly. She had eaten enough by now... "I'll go start on my work... if you don't need anything else?" Khan hadn't started eating and Jahl wouldn't until he did...

"Some company." He gestured to the seat opposite, somewhat awkwardly she sat, watching him as he ate a mouthful of scrambled eggs. She sent a puzzled glance to Jahl who shrugged before continuing to eat. "Unless you would prefer not to?" Khan raised one of his eyebrows but his eyes were cold, assessing, watching her reaction.

"No, they've waited three centuries, they can wait a little longer." She frowned slightly in confusion but settled into her seat a little more. It was nice that he wanted her to sit with him but it seemed... forced. Like there was another message, like he was staking a claim on her time and attention by pushing Jahl out. She smiled apologetically to Jahl, who just winked saucily back while tipping more syrup on his pancakes. Which made her blush as she hid a laugh before turning back to Khan, who seemed upset. She tried to figure out what it was that might have caused his frown. "So... did you sleep well?" Perhaps it was that she hadn't opened the conversation yet, or... "Oh, do you want something to drink?" He smiled slowly, but again it didn't feel right, it felt like his victory smile, proudly satisfied rather then genuinely happy. It made her fidget a little.

"The bed was comfortable, if somewhat cold." He smirked and heat dived to her stomach at the same time as it flashed across her cheeks. His voice had been almost sinful in the depth of suggestion it held. She shivered and his grin widened as he stared into her eyes, she thought perhaps he could tell the effect he had on her. She dropped her eyes to the table, before standing a little hurriedly. It wasn't that she didn't like his interest. The things she had thought about doing to him... but he was so possessive, so sure. She liked confidence, and her heart beat a little faster, but she had learned to value her independence now, her choice over her own life. Her time among the humans had at least taught her that though she may be ordered around or considered less, she was still a person, not something someone could claim. She was no dog toy for them to growl over. Much as she could rise to his suggestiveness, she was not just a bedwarmer. Jahl was right... emotions hurt. Not that she hadn't known that already.

"Tea is always good for warming you up in the morning." Mahalia said brightly as she headed for the synthesiser, resisting the urge to look back at him as she punched in the code. She knew what he had meant, he knew she knew, but she refused to respond, deliberately taking the sentence at face value. "Or I could see about getting you a thicker blanket from the cargo bay, or adjusting the temperature controls?" She offered innocently setting down a cup next to Khan and sipping a cup of tea of her own, she had eaten but there was always room for a cup of tea and it was less awkward than just watching him eat. It also gave her something to hide behind a little. "I might have a spare hot water bottle if you want me to look? I find it helps if I find my bed a little chilly." Her tone was carefully innocent, though her face still held traces of colour she was fairly sure she'd managed to school the muscles to smoothness, but her eyes, she was certain her eyes were full of heat as she met his gaze through the steam from her cup.

She wanted him. There was no use even pretending to deny that. But she wasn't an animal, unable to control herself. She wanted lots of things. She wanted to dump Kati on an Orion moon so she could be sold to the highest bidder, she wanted to castrate Aldur, she wanted to grab Khan and snog him senseless just long enough to give Jahl time to flee the room before clothing started to come off. But doing any of those things would leave her hating herself afterward. She didn't just want him right now, or even for a night or two, or when he got lonely or horny... she wanted him. And she wanted him to want her the same way. He gave her the same look he had when she had taken his queen the night before, one that promised renewed attack, not surrender. A look that sent desire spiking through her.

"Kati told me the best hot water bottle is another person." She met his gaze as he purred the statement, and the staring grew only more intense, though she kept her face placid.

"I'm sure she would know." Mahalia responded. That drew a snicker from Jahl, who had almost been forgotten, and a raised eyebrow from Khan. "Does it matter who or will any warm body do?"