Chapter 21

"You've done well, you make a great team." Geordi smiled as he worked on the conduit.

"I…I didn't really do much sir." Reg protested.

"That's not what I hear. You helped rescue fifteen people and Spot."

"It…it was mostly Tar…the Tahedri and Emlyn. They did the hard work, and Barsha is a great systems engineer."

"How about the big guy?" Geordi asked.

"For a prince with a diplomatic background he's not afraid to work and get his hands dirty although he was less than thrilled when Spot gouged his hand. He's a nice guy too."

"Well, I have an important job for you Mr Barclay."

"Yes sir?"

"Haul your ass over to the conference lounge and get some sleep. They've got some cots set up for crew who lost their quarters."

"But sir?" Reg protested.

"That's an order Lieutenant."

"I…I can keep working sir. I know you think I'm not…that I can't c…cope like the other officers…"

"Reg, you have nothing to prove. I've already sent eight other officers for some shut eye and more will follow. The nearest ship is seventy-two hours away and we need to be prepared in case there's another attack. I need my people fresh and alert, especially you as I need you to take charge so I can get some sleep later on."

"Oh. Uh…thank you sir." Reg replied, genuinely touched by his superior's faith in him. "Is it true they were Orions? Not the Dominion?"

"It's possible they were both," Geordi stated, "but right now that's the least of our worries."

"Is it?" Reg asked dejectedly. "I…I'll be back in four hours sir." he stated and turned away.

"Barclay?" Geordi called after him. "Make it at least six." Reg nodded and turned away, his expression pained.

…

"I'd offer you a warm milk, but the Grand Nagus is still trying to get the replicators back online." Guinan told him as he sat at the bar, his head in his hands. "Trouble sleeping?"

"That's an understatement." Reg moaned. He'd spent the last hour trying to get comfortable on the cot in the lounge but it was lumpy and too short, someone was snoring loudly and his thoughts were filled with the woman who, right or wrong blamed herself for their predicament. He didn't head to the bar to drown his sorrows or bend the ear of the staff. He simply had nowhere else to go.

"Girl trouble?" Guinan asked.

"Bad news travels fast around here." he commented and looked up as a Ferengi put a bowl of stew in front of him with a small plate containing some flat bread. "Does this have bugs in it?" he asked with a sneer, fearing the reputation of Ferengi cuisine.

"No, vegetables and pulses. It's the best the Tahedri of the Caj Corsti's chef could come up with on a double burner out back you ungrateful son of a…" Quark threatened.

"I…I apologize." Reg said and tasted the stew. "This is really good." he said looking surprised.

"I'll send your compliments to the chef." Quark said indignantly and flounced off.

"He's not used to running a soup kitchen, or working in someone else's bar. The words Prima Donna spring to mind." Guinan looked at Barclay earnestly. "So is she bad news? She seems kinda nice to me."

"No she's lovely." he replied with a sigh. "She's perfect."

"So what's the problem? Aside from the fact she's a powerful woman that everyone is pinning their hopes on to turn the tide in the war."

"She's a one-hundred-pound girl who would happily work herself to death and she blames herself for everything that's happened."

"If you replaced the words 'one-hundred-pound girl' for 'six feet two engineer' you could be describing yourself there." Guinan stated. "It sounds like you have a lot in common. Any ideas what she has up her sleeve?"

"Not a clue, I'm not even sure she knows. She's frightened, I know that much. I'm not six two either. I'm six one." he added.

"Don't you believe in her?" Guinan asked as she poured him a glass of water.

"Of course I believe in her but she's not some kind of Messiah."

"Maybe she needs someone in her life to remind her of that." Guinan stated. "The kind of man who's so honest he won't misrepresent his height by an inch?" she added and left him to eat his stew.

"Would you like me to help you relax?" someone whispered in his ear as they massaged his shoulders. Reg nearly choked on his food and pulled away shyly.

"Leba! I've told you this isn't that kind of establishment. You just need to serve food and clear the tables." Quark barked as he emerged with a tray piled with covered bowls. "Could you take these to Sickbay for me please?" The green handmaiden nodded and took the tray. She flashed a smile at Reg as she passed him and Quark watched her go. "Those Green Women." he smiled. "I bet that girl gives fantastic oo-mox."

Reg decided he didn't want to know what oo-mox was, particularly while he was eating.

"Of course my favourite is the Girl Tahedri… those ears? Ooh!" he exhaled sharply. "I've always had a soft spot for a Vulcan woman and she's green too. Now she's really something. Her power excites me. Her money excites me and I bet her ta-tas are enough to make a priest from the monastery at P'Jem weep."

Reg didn't like to hear her spoken about like that but the sight of said ta-tas indeed made him whimper the first time he laid eyes on them. "Thank you for the food." he said and wiped his mouth as he stood to leave.

"You're welcome Lieutenant." Quark stated as he watched him go. "So that's her type. No accounting for taste." he muttered.

"Barclay has hidden depths." Guinan told him. "He belongs in a whole other place. If only he'd realized it years ago."

"Do you have a Bolian option?" a representative from the Gorn Hegemony asked Quark.

"Bolian option? Yes, we have a Bolian option. You can fuck off." Quark replied. "It's vegetable stew or nothing." The huge archosaur walked away looking affronted. "Bolian option, don't people know there's a war going on?" he moaned indignantly.

…

"Commander!" Reg called as he shuffled through the bustling officers still at work.

"I thought I gave you an order Reg." Geordi stated.

"I know, I'm sorry sir." he panted, out of breath from running. "I need to know where she's working."

"Who?" Geordi asked, feigning ignorance.

"Taryn…the…the Tahedri."

"Oh…her, now where did I send her?" Geordi smirked. "She went to look at the bone fusion units in Sickbay."

"Thank you sir." Reg said and sprinted away.

…

"What's the matter? Are you alright?" Taryn asked as he ran into Sickbay. She had just closed the unit she was working on and was retuning tools to the kit she had borrowed.

"No, I'm not alright. I'm in agony." he stated and took her hand as she went to call for a doctor in alarm. "I kissed my lover goodbye and when I saw her again everything had changed but not the way I felt. You keep saying things aren't simple, well they are. It doesn't matter if the entire universe shifts around us as long as we're together. I really want to marry you and we can sort out the stuff like who resigns later. I don't even care if we both quit and just start someplace new after the talks but I have to be with you."

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him frantically.

"There are things we should discuss," she said breathlessly between kisses as they embraced in the turbolift, "if you're serious about getting married?"

"Like what?" he panted and sighed, kissing her deeply. "I'm extremely serious about us getting married." he told her as he came up for air.

"Do you want children?" she asked as he kissed her neck.

"Yes, do you?" he replied nibbling her ear.

"Yes, but I'm not sure I can have them. I'm…oh!" she bit her lip as he found a sweet spot on her neck, "I'm a hybrid and they think I'll have problems conceiving naturally. Oh God." she moaned and kissed him hungrily. "How do you feel about adoption if fertility treatment doesn't work?"

"Love the idea." he lifted her and pressed her against the wall, her leg wrapped around his. "How we get our family isn't what's important."

"That's exactly how I feel." she whispered. They stopped frottaging and jumped apart as the doors opened and calmly walked along the corridor, pretending nothing was going on to passing crewmen despite the fact he looked flushed and they both looked ruffled.

"I'm not sure you'd want my babies anyway." Reg whispered.

"Why would you say that?" she asked with alarm.

"My genetic chemistry is a little odd and I have at least one dormant gene."

"Is it a problem? I mean, you're not ill or anything?" she asked with concern.

"No, I'm fine, but a while back Dr Crusher gave me a synthetic T Cell to fight a flu Humans should be immune to and I caused everyone on the ship to de-evolve into lower order life-forms."

"What kind of lower order life-forms?" she asked, looking amazed.

"Well, Counsellor Troi turned into an amphibian, Nurse Ogawa turned into a monkey, what Worf turned into baffled everyone and I turned into a…spider."

"What was it like?" she asked with interest.

"I don't actually remember but I dream about it sometimes I think. I suppose instinct describes how it felt. Instinct and nothing else really. You know, you're the first person to ask me that." He flashed her a brief but genuine smile.

"Do a lot of people ask you about it?"

"Mostly doctors and scientist. Get a disease named after you and it makes you something of a celebrity among biology nerds."

"They named it after you?" she asked with an amazed smile.

"Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome." he replied uneasily. "I…I have a confession to make…"

"You're married aren't you, there's someone else." she froze.

"No, nothing like that." he assured her and turned to face her. "It's…I'm a holo-addict… a recovering holo-addict." he added quickly. "I found it really hard when I first got here and I felt isolated, I didn't fit in so…I made friends, not in the real world. A photonic crew and it got out of hand. I nearly… lost myself." He lowered his eyes. "If it wasn't for Commander La Forge and Counsellor Troi I'd probably still be in there or in some kind of secure facility."

"It's brave of you to tell me that." she took his hand. "I suppose I should tell you I'm aquaphobic. I nearly drowned when I was little. I don't even like taking a bath."

"I'm transporter phobic, but I've been working on it for a while now. desensitization therapy, you should try it. It really works." he told her. "…and I'm a bit of a hypochondriac." he looked guilty. "Actually a lot of a hypochondriac." She stretched up and kissed his cheek tenderly. "We need to get to your quarters right now." he whispered breathily, gazing into her eyes. She nodded earnestly.

"My father is the Judge Advocate General." she whispered as they resumed walking, faster than before.

"So? My mother is with the Office of the Inspector General." he replied.

"He's not with the office, he's THE Judge Advocate General. Admiral Prior." she explained as they shot into her suite and fell into each other's arms again, kissing frantically.

"Don't mind me." Barsha said as she sat reading in the lounge and Laika lifted her head and watched them pass.

"At least your name isn't Taryn Barin." he whispered as they staggered into her bedroom. "I'm all dirty," he said, "have they got the sonic showers working yet?"

"No and I'm all dirty too, who cares?" she replied as he unfastened her coverall and she pulled off his uniform jacket, followed by opening his turtleneck. "How many layers are you wearing?" she said impatiently as she pulled at his t-shirt.

"What's wrong with your hair?" he asked as he pulled it free of the band holding it back. It looked lop sided.

"It got singed off on one side. I'll get it cut later." she replied dismissively as she undid his pants and he peeled off her filthy jumpsuit, pausing to look at her scars. Two patches of mottled discoloured skin, one on the back of her shoulder and spread across her deltoid, the other on her forearm near her elbow. "Dr Selar said they may fade in time. I'm not really bothered though. My Human Grandad used to say scars are like tattoos with much better stories behind them." she grinned.

He could tell she meant it. She'd worked all day in an overall that you could fit three of her in and was covered in carbon and muck with her hair a mess and didn't care at all. She didn't have a vain bone in her body. Her clothes that he'd seen so far were all practical and comfortable rather than the clothes, or lack thereof he'd seen the other delegates wearing. In fact all the Barin delegation seemed to buck trends. None of the crew knew there was any such thing as a Grey Orion before they met Barsha and it was most unusual for an Orion male to have hair. They were either bald or shaved their heads, no one was certain which. Nareev was large and muscled but lean and rangy rather than a musclebound hulk. As for Emlyn, he wasn't a delegate. He was just hitching a ride back home to Earth following a visit with his sister and cousins. Reg supposed it was possible the Orions that came into contact with the Federation weren't representative of the entire species of course, but so little was known about their culture the stereotypes were very much ingrained within the Federation. "I thought they would be much worse from the state you were in. Do they hurt?" he asked as he gently touched her scars.

She shook her head. "They didn't really hurt at the time although around the wound margins was painful and my face was agony. These were deeper burns, I must have lost nerve tissue. It regenerated well though. I have full sensation now." She smiled as he ran his fingers through her hair, or what was left of it.

"You could get your hair stimulated if you want to keep it long." he said as she grabbed him and they fell back on the bed naked in each other's arms.

"That's not the kind of stimulation on my mind at the moment." She smiled up at him and they shared a sweet tender kiss.

"This is for keeps right?" he asked as he stroked her hair out of her eyes. "No more back and forth."

"Definitely for keeps," she replied and he sighed, buried his face in her neck and kissed it softly, "but some back and forth sounds exactly what I need right now." she smiled as he laughed against her shoulder.

"Oh, I love you." he whispered.

"I love you too." she told him. "Reg?" she whispered with a frown, noticing he seemed rather relaxed all of a sudden. She was answered by a snore. "I said you were tired." She smiled and cradled the back of his head in her hand, shifted position slightly to get more comfortable and kissed his cheek. "Sleep well my sweet man."

…

She was smiling sweetly in her sleep when he awoke in her arms. He gently stroked her cheek with his finger, she looked beautiful and tranquil and she was his, all his. She stirred and a broader smile spread over her lips.

"Good morning." he whispered and kissed her softly with a smile, then horror dawned on him. "Oh boy." he whispered. "I fell asleep on you didn't I?" he asked with a concerned expression.

"Yes, literally in fact." she giggled.

"I'm really sorry." he said guiltily and rolled onto his back. "Trust me to nod off while making love to a Green Woman." He rubbed his face distractedly and sighed.

"I'm just glad you finally got some sleep." she said as she snuggled up to him.

"I wonder if they've got the replicators back online, or the showers. No offence but you stink." he chided playfully.

"I know, it's unavoidable with my physiology." she replied. "You're no rose garden yourself."

"So am I going to become hopelessly dependent on your excretions?" he asked.

"Yes, until you become delusional, aggressive and try to kill anyone who so much as looks at me funny. I know we said for keeps but that may become a problem for us."

"No, we'll find a way." he assured her, toying with her hair idly. "I'm never letting you go."

"What time are you back on duty?" she asked, rubbing his chest gently.

"About," he craned his neck to look at the chronometer, "twenty minutes ago." he said and reluctantly got up. He went to her bathroom then came out minutes later shaking his head. "No showers and the head won't vaporise waste." He pulled on his shorts and t-shirt and picked up his uniform. "It's going to get a little ripe around here."

"That uniform could stand up by itself." she told him. "It's a biohazard."

"I know, Ashby bled all over it, Spot crapped and peed on me...there's soot and I don't know what on it." He pulled a face, stuck his communicator on his chest and removed his rank insignia from the collar of the turtleneck.

"I wish you'd told me that before I dry humped you in the turbolift." she said with distaste as she got up and grabbed her work out clothes, pulling them on.

"I'm going to find some coveralls or something." he said bending to kiss her, which turned into a more heated embrace. "I have to go." he pleaded with a smile, taking her hand from his neck and kissing it.

"I'll come with you." she stated. "No fiancé of mine is roaming the ship in his underwear without a chaperone."

…

There were wolf whistles as he walked into auxiliary engineering. He ignored them, grabbed some overalls from one of the lockers and pulled them on.

"Reg, I'm gonna get some sleep now you're back. Here's a list of who's assigned to work where and I made up a roster for rest breaks." Geordi handed him a padd. "Rom just got the replicators back online at Guinan's and I just set your girlfriend and her pal Barsha to work getting power to the showers and waste disposal starting with Sickbay. I said I'd take her a pair of coveralls." he grabbed the smallest pair but they'd still be massive on her.

"She's not my girlfriend anymore." Reg stated distractedly as he looked at the padd.

"Sorry Reg." Geordi commiserated.

"No," he smiled, "no, I mean we're engaged, she's my fiancée."

"Well, Reg. I think you're rushing into this a little fast. Maybe you were right, I mean, she's a Tahedri and you're just a Lieutenant." Geordi said earnestly.

Reg looked devastated. "Maybe you're right…"

"You should wait until Captain Picard makes your promotion official to tie the knot."

"M…my…promotion?"

"Seems that's what you get for carrying a wounded man to safety in the middle of a battle, along with being recommended for a commendation." Geordi grinned.

"Anyone would have done the same." Reg argued shaking his head.

"Plenty would have left a man that badly injured. You risked getting left in the Drive Section by saving him. The Captain calls that conspicuous gallantry and so do I." Geordi offered him his hand. "Congratulations on your engagement Lieutenant Commander Barclay." Geordi hugged him and slapped his back. "It's high time we had some good news around here."

"Thank you sir." Reg smiled shyly.

"A lot of the EPS power grid is still down but we have impulse engines, shields, weapons and subspace communications. Considering we're less than half a ship we're in pretty good shape." Geordi explained.

"Is there anything you'd like me to focus on?" Reg asked.

"We've had some complaints about the smell with all the Orions on board and no showers. I know, it's not their fault but some of the male crew are getting distracted and the females are complaining of headaches. Also Dr Crusher and Duncan have noticed a… well, it's almost a reverse empathy. Their emotional states are contagious. Get a big group of them and the mood just gets amplified. It's not telepathic though. It's biochemical and it seems to be caused by males as well as the females. No wonder their parties swing but I dread to think what a funeral would be like. You know, I'm surprised you haven't been more affected by her influence." Geordi added remembering Reg's obsessive scavenger hunt through Bastion when they first got together in his timeline.

"She's careful about what she says around me and it's not like she tries to make me jealous. Most people treat her with deference anyway." Reg explained. "We've talked about it. It may be a problem in the long term but we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it."

"I heard somewhere that mating with a Vulcan can make you immune if you form a mating bond. She is a quarter Vulcan, might be worth investigating?" Geordi suggested. If they were stuck in this timeline their relationship deserved a fighting chance.

"Thank you sir, I'll look into it." Reg smiled.

"Anyway, if you could try and increase the scrub and recycle on the environmental controls it might help, they're already at maximum and we have fights breaking out."

"I'll take a look sir."

…

"There's my Commander." Taryn smiled at him as he entered the corridor outside Sickbay holding a tricorder.

He smiled coyly, "It's not official yet." He crouched and looked in the panel she was working on. "We're lucky we didn't lose life support, let alone the showers." Reg grimaced as he inspected the damage.

"Mostly secondary systems are affected unless a blowing conduit took out something else. I think there was a massive power surge in the secondary grid and if the conduit didn't blow the system at the end of the line got fried." Taryn replied as she finished completing the power tap from the lighting system.

"I think you're probably right." he agreed as he watched her patch the connection to the power feed for the showers and waste management system. The lights dimmed momentarily in the corridor then returned to normal as the system picked up the slack. "I have a favour to ask?"

"Anything for my hero." she replied.

He smiled and scanned her with the tricorder. "Thank you." he kissed her cheek and stood, then began to walk away.

"Hold your horses Commander Barclay." Taryn stated. "Explain?"

He turned and faced her. "I'm trying to adapt the environmental system to filter out Orion pheromones and I needed a sample. Of course I could have asked Leba…"

"Leba?"

"She's working at the bar, she seems really...friendly. She's from the Caj Olvid I think." he teased.

"I know who Leba is. Everyone knows who Leba is, everyone with a penis anyway." Taryn said tersely.

"There's still no power to the shower units. There's another blown relay somewhere." Barsha said as she stepped into the corridor. "Am I interrupting something?" she said as she folded her arms and leant on the wall watching them both with her cybernetic eyes. A wry smile on her face.

"You're a Grey Orion right?" Reg asked.

"Your new consort is observant." the Grey woman said acidly.

"May I take a scan of your pheromones?" Reg asked.

"No." she replied flatly.

"It would really help," he turned to Taryn, "and joking aside I could use a scan from one of the Olvid females…Ruddy obviously, not Leba. I…I was just teasing about her." He flashed an embarrassed smile.

"Glad to hear it, but you can't scan her pheromones because she doesn't produce them. Not psychotropic ones anyway. Only Green Orions do." Taryn explained. "We're different species."

"Really?" Reg asked. "I didn't know that."

"We have as much in common as you do with Pan troglodytes," Barsha stated, 'Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus or Pongo abelii." Barsha stated.

"A Neanderthal would be a better comparison," Taryn argued, "You are another great ape I suppose but chimpanzees and orangutans aren't hominids. With Orions three species evolved and became sapient."

"That's very unusual isn't it? I thought normally one species would naturally become dominant and edge the other out." Reg commented.

"It looked that way for a while," Taryn told him, "the Ruddies were dominant, but they kept Greens to do their bitch work and Greys because they were clever. They enslaved us and herded us like livestock."

"Seriously?" he asked incredulously.

"The Greys are all but extinct now, and the reason we are all afflicted has been lost." Barsha stated. "We're treated as an untouchable caste and quarantined on many Orion worlds."

"The Greens were traded as a commodity and by the time they realized their 'Green Animal Women' had enslaved them with their pheromones it was too late for the Ruddy slave masters. It's a tactic still used by pirates and traders on unsuspecting Captains."

"Can't anything be done to help the Greys?" he asked with a concerned expression.

"Our noble and forward thinking Tahedri is doing all she can." Barsha stated and hugged Taryn with an arm around her shoulders. "I'm going to try and track down that relay Taryn." she said and Taryn nodded with a smile.

"She's very informal with you." Reg commented.

"We've been friends for as long as I can remember. I spent a month every year on Barin Prime as a child and Nareev and I used to sneak off and play with the children at the orphanage she was raised in. His little brother Lural used to tag along too. We were a terrible influence on him." She grinned. "Edara eventually made Barsha her ward and paid for her implants personally. She suffered with awful headaches from her VISOR before that."

"So did Commander La Forge." Reg commented. "Your grandmother accepted your friendship with her, even though they were considered untouchable?"

"Edara never held such…cold-hearted ideas. She set up a trust for the education and healthcare of all the orphans on Barin Prime, whatever their colour, as soon as she came to power. She established the Dushara Children's Home. It's not like Dotheboys Hall or the Workhouse… It's nice there, homely." she replied indignantly.

"I wasn't being judgmental, I'm just trying to understand." he stepped closer and rubbed her upper arms.

"I know. I'm a little touchy about it. I've been defending Edara all my life, including to my parents and siblings. She was very Orion in some ways and extremely tolerant in others. Everyone forgets she mated with a Vulcan and bore his daughter, much less appointed her quarter Orion granddaughter as her successor, not that there was a choice." At Reg's expression she added. "I was her only female descendent and the Barins have been an open matriarchy for generations. Normally the Tabadi is the power behind the throne anyway, particularly in Green Caju but it's not publicly acknowledged."

"What about your mother?" Reg asked. "Did something happen to her?"

"She went on the lam decades ago. I've no idea where she is. She didn't even bother to finish gestating us."

"It could be worse, she could have stuck around like mine did." he said sadly. "I'd better get back to work, but I'll see you later if that's okay?" he asked tentatively.

"Of course it's okay." she smiled warmly at him. "Try and stop me."

…

"Oh God that feels good." he threw back his head in rapture.

"I hope you're not playing with yourself in there Mr Barclay?" Taryn shouted through the bathroom door.

"I'd forgotten what it feels like to be clean." he shouted over the hum of the sonic shower. With power in limited supply replication was strictly limited to emergency rations and vital equipment. Showering with replicated water as he preferred was deemed a waste. "Are you sure it's okay for me to stay here?" he asked as he emerged wearing a bathrobe that clearly belonged to Taryn. Not only was it short but it was silky and about as feminine as a robe could be.

"Why wouldn't it be okay?" she asked with a frown. She was lying on her stomach wearing a long loose nightdress, propped up on her elbows reading. Beside her on the bed lay Laika.

"Well, your reputation…"

She snorted with laughter. "Are you serious?"

"W…what? So I'm just another one on the list?" he asked plaintively.

"No, exactly the opposite. History has yet to record a title for me but 'Taryn the Chaste' is currently a front-runner. Believe me the list is short and not at all distinguished. I just meant that it isn't an issue in Kolari culture."

"You…I mean you get that I expect us to be exclusive…monogamous?"

"Of course I do. Reg, are you having second thoughts about us?" she asked earnestly.

"No of course not, but your culture is very different." he explained, wringing his hands and pacing.

"I'm more Human than anything else." she argued and sighed. "I'd step down right now if these talks weren't so important. I told you that."

"I know, and I'd resign my commission if the ship wasn't in pieces out here. But, like I said earlier…I…I don't find it easy to make new starts and…"

"Come here, sit down?" she asked him gently and moved to kneel behind him, her arms around his shoulders. "What happened to the man who all but said the Universe can go to hell as long as we're together?"

"He's wondering what you get out of the deal." Reg sighed.

"I get the most loving, intelligent and sweet man I've ever met, who looks adorable in my robe, if a little silly." she admitted holding him tight. "I get a considerate lover who likes to cuddle after and doesn't seem to fall asleep immediately after shooting his load…."

"That's a good thing?" he asked innocently.

"God yes."

"From a Human point of view or an Orion one?"

"Both. Human females cherish intimacy during the afterglow and Green Orion women adore to talk to their men after mating. It's when they're at their most pliant and receptive to suggestion. As I was saying, I get a man who respects me and loved me even when he thought I was a serving wench."

"I thought you were a dancer." he commented. "Or a courtesan."

"Oh you did, did you?" she chided playfully, nuzzling his neck. "Sorry to disappoint you."

"Nothing about you disappoints me. You're perfect." he said as he rubbed her wrist.

"I love your ears," she whispered as she applied a soft, tongued kiss to his earlobe, "and the way your hair curls behind them." he shivered as she caressed his neck with her tongue.

"That tickles…" he smiled and turned, grabbed her and laid on the bed pulling her on top of him, kissing her for all he was worth. He felt another tongue in his ear and briefly marveled at how clever she was to have two. Then his eyes snapped open with realization and he saw two bright blue eyes and large white teeth.

"Laika, out. Go on." Taryn urged. "I'm not sharing him with you. He's mine." She gazed into his eyes as the door opened and the wolf padded away. She sat back, straddling him with her hands on his chest. "You look freaked out. Do you want to stop?"

"No." he replied and grabbed her, resuming kissing her with intense passion.

…

"Taryn, Taryn are you okay?" he asked as she stirred fitfully beside him. "Oh boy, you're burning up." He reached for his communicator. "Medical emergency, Guest Quarters 5." He pulled on the robe he had borrowed and knelt beside her as she panted and writhed on the bed.

"What happened?" Dr Crusher stated as she ran into the room and rapidly scanned her.

"I don't know; she was like this when I woke up. She's feverish and she's unresponsive." Reg wept.

"I can't make sense of these readings, there's no bacterial or viral infection…" Dr Crusher froze as she pushed her hair from her face and noticed her ears. She changed the settings on her tricorder and scanned her again, then emitted a chuckle.

"This isn't funny!" Reg shrieked. "She's sick!"

"She's not sick, and if you're going to have a long term relationship with her you'll need to get used to this particular seven-year itch," the doctor smirked, "and handle the fact you're the one who needs to scratch it."

"Seven y…" Reg's alarmed expression turned to one of puzzlement. "Seven years? But she's only a quarter Vulcan?" Taryn snarled and grabbed at his robe, pulling him closer.

"I think you're best qualified to handle this emergency Reg." Crusher advised him and picked up her medkit.

"Well, what do I do?" he asked as the doctor headed for the door.

"You're a big boy. You work it out." she replied as she left the room.

Author's Note.

Dotheboys Hall is from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. Taryn's reference to scars was inspired by a comment I read on facebook somewhere and Quark's 'Bolian option' line was paraphrased from the stand up Frankie Boyle on Mock the Week. One of my favourite quotes from him along with "If you don't think I'm a nosy bastard why did you write it in your diary?"

As always comments are more than welcome, even if you don't like the story.

25/09/2016 Edit - Rogue reference to Riker removed. Apologies