Haluites are the minor population of Mindar V," Phlox told me as we sat together over coffee and biscotti. "One of the first populations to work with the Andorians nearly two centuries ago. Humanoid for the most part, but with a particular biochemistry that evolved to keep the population stable. Most Haluites are careful about personal relationships and know when they've found a potential Bondmate through simple reactive chemistry."

"Swooning? Heart flutters?" I joked, but Phlox gave a thoughtful shrug.

"Something like that; it's not well-documented. Haluites rarely bond with beings outside their particular species but it does happen. Chef McGee's own family tree bears that out."

"But Justine's human, so why's she glued to him?" I asked, yawning. Sath and I had gotten together a quick team of cooks and while the meal issues were under control at the moment, I'd put in a lot of overtime to make it happen.

"Because thirty-two years ago her body chemistry changed when they bonded. His DNA—specifically the Haluite portion of it—merged with hers," Phlox replied. "Fascinating really. The strength of that bond, created through exchange of various bodily fluids was powerful enough to keep them linked for all these decades."

"Very romantic, yeah, but I repeat, why are they STUCK together?"

Phlox smiled. "Because they have a lot of lost time to make up for, as the saying goes. They will need to be on the same . . . wavelength and that will take contact and communication. I suggest we leave them to that in peace."

I left Sick Bay and headed for quarters, but when I got there, I couldn't sleep—not just yet. With Porthos in my lap, I turned on the computer and idly looked up someone.

More specifically Daniel Zindal of the Tavros Ore Company.

Tall, rangy and . . . thirty-one years old.

Shit.

I was still staring at his statistics when Jon came in; Porthos abandoned me for him and did the happy doggy thing while Jon petted him. They both wandered back to me, and Jon looked at the screen.

"Interested in mining now?"

"Miners. And not the underage kind although this one . . ." I trailed off. "Jon, I think he's Blueflower McGee's son."

Jon shot me an interested glance. "And? So?"

"Well he's Justine's as well. The timeline's right."

That's when Jon looked troubled. "So does Chef McGee know?"

"I dunno," I admitted, "but up until now I don't think so."

Jon sighed. "Franny, we need to leave it alone. Leave them alone to work it out. I told Phlox we can stay about six hours longer but after that we've got orders to move on and investigate an anomaly."

"An anomaly?"

He sighed. "Something hush-hush but important. I'm under need-to-know restrictions on that, so don't ask, okay?"

"Is it dangerous?" I returned, looking at him gravely.

"Anything and everything out here has the potential for danger, sweetheart. I'll do my best not to go into anything blindly or stupidly—that's as much as I can promise."

"Okay," I agreed with a sigh. "In the meantime, rub my shoulders?"

"Only if I get to rub other things later," he countered with a smirk.

-oo00oo—

By the next morning I fixed breakfast for the crew, laid out the prep for lunch and took a shuttle to the Fortitude, steeling myself for the worst. In all the time I'd known Justine I'd dealt with her strong personality as best I could, and I didn't see a whole lot of hope in her bending. Honestly, this was a woman who'd held out against a biological bond for three decades out of sheer spite, and at this point I had no idea what to expect.

I made my way to the galley and found it locked; curious, I knocked.

Heard some shuffling and finally the door opened, with Blue peeking out, long white braids dangling as he grinned at me. "Franny!"

"Blue . . ." I replied, startled at his good mood. "Ah, is everything . . ."

"Straightened out?" he rumbled. "I suppose so. Come on in."

As I stepped in I realized two things VERY quickly.

Blue was naked. Since I was looking at the backside of him I had time to avert my gaze, but as I did so I spotted Justine leaning against one of the far prep tables, coffee mug in hand.

Yeah, she was naked too.

"Uh, I can come back at another time . . ." I yelped, not sure where to look at this point. It dawned on me that while Blue and Justine weren't stuck together anymore, this mutual nudity wasn't much better—at least from my perspective.

"Naw it's cool." Blue was donning an apron now, so at least I was spared any further awkwardness, but my face was still hot enough to fry an egg on. Justine gave a sigh and a smile, completely unfazed by her state of undress—it was very hard to reconcile her in this moment with the hardnosed head of Starfleet Cuisine who'd grilled me at the end of my first mission, frankly.

"Morning, chef. Can I get you some coffee?" Justine asked sweetly.

"Yeah . . ." I weakly agreed, "Um . . . you two . . . okay?"

Blue's hand was bandaged but he was pulling out ingredients that I recognized would eventually be bread: flour, eggs, yeast. "Better'n okay. We are Resolved, but I'm guessing you knew that. Just my love, can you bring over the salt and butter?"

She moved to do so. "Yep. So yes. We um, talked, and got a LOT of issues worked out between us." Within minutes I had steaming coffee and a warm blueberry muffin in front of me while Blue had his ingredients, all efficiently measured out. Watching the way he and Justine worked around each other was like watching perfectly geared cogs in smooth action, which for every kitchen is the goal.

"Yeah," Blue sighed happily. "Cleared the air. Gonna get hitched once we talk to our kids and get a common date."

"The kids," I echoed, shooting Justine a look.

She glanced at Blue and then at me. "Yeah, he's the father of my kids. I knew Daniel was his for sure, and then when I turned up pregnant twice more without any sex . . ."

I stared. "Say WHAT?"

"Not immaculate conception; that Haluite thing. Semen gets stored until conditions are right," Blue rumbled, trying not to look smug and failing. "Tried to tell the tiny terror here about it but she was too worked up about me bein' a married man back when we were at Estrella De Amor."

"Married?" I was lost now, looking from one bare-assed chef to the other, my coffee getting cold.

"Yeah, I was the third in a poly-union with this Denobulan couple," Blue rattled off. "A legacy from my brother, kinda complicated but pretty much in name only. Never Bonded with either of them, nice as they were. Butter?"

"Here. So yeah, I had Daniel, and then a year later, Evelyn. I was freaking out of course," Justine sighed. "My obstetrician didn't believe me when I told her I was celibate and I gave up the argument eventually because both kids were absolutely normal. I had Pauline a year after that."

"You had three kids . . . without intercourse?" I don't flabbergast easily but this was freaking me out. I couldn't imagine turning up pregnant three times with no sexytime preceding it.

Justine pursed her mouth. "I did. I had . . . suspicions but no proof, and I was still so hurt and angry with Blue that I refused to try and find him. But I did get a job with Starfleet, and in the course of work and research there, that's when I realized the love of my life might not actually be all human."

I took a deep breath. "Oookay, so what—how- are you going to tell the kids?"

"We did a vid," Justine replied, flouring one of the marble counters and shifting part of the dough that Blue had mixed up. "Gave them all the facts and reassured them that all was well."

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to not to picture Blue and Justine blithely filming away in the nude; trying not to picture the looks on their kids' faces at receiving an incoming message like that.

The hell of it was that Justine was so calm now, so utterly relaxed and comfortable, even in the buff. She worked part of the dough, kneading it expertly with even pressure, her focus complete. Blue moved to lay out pans, humming quietly.

Teamwork.

"Franny . . . I won't be going back to the Enterprise," Justine glanced up at me. "I can't. I've already sent messages to the captain and to Starfleet. Captain Thalix is willing to take me on for the duration of this trip, and after that Blue and I will negotiate for another contract for the next trip. I'm sorry . . . I was really getting to enjoy the position but this . . . kinda takes precedence."

I cocked my head. "Yeah," I agreed. "I get it. I'm going to miss you though, believe it or not."

She laughed at that; a genuine chuckle. "I'll miss you too. For the record I was jealous of your success and experience in space, but having come out here I'm learning it's a lot of work as well. You're gonna do fine, Franny—just make sure the captain takes good care of you for the rest of your lives, okay?"

I was halfway through hugging her when I stiffened and pulled back. "Oh, yeah, and I meant to ask-"

"-The nudity?" Justine finished for me. "Big part of the Resolution. We're going to be like this for the next couple of months. Another reason I can't go back to Starfleet."

"Yeah they're big on uniform codes," I agreed.

-oo00oo—

When I got back I went to take a nap, stretching out on the bed in my quarters, Porthos joining me. The fatigue was hitting hard at this point and I knew better than to ignore it. I was happy for Justine and I wished her and Blueflower well but I also knew I'd have to bring Fog up to speed in terms of prep as soon as I could.

"Space is weird," I told Porthos, who thumped his tail at the sound of my voice before snuggling closer against my hip. "Here's hoping we get some nice boring mission where all I have to worry about is feeding people, okay?"

The pup made a little 'whuff' of agreement and we both drifted off.