Data and Tasha were among the last to leave the banquet room. Data had been determined to see the party to the end, and Tasha had felt inclined to wait for him. They walked from the turbolift to her quarters together.

"This whole evening has been so bizarre. It hasn't brought out the best in anyone," Tasha remarked.

Data was still processing the events of the pre-joining celebration, and his response was incrementally slower as a result. "I have not had much opportunity to interact with humanoids that are not members of Starfleet. It is a gross error on my part – the experience has been illuminating."

"You don't plan to emulate anything you've seen tonight, do you?"

"I do not have present need to, but I may have cause to draw upon these experiences in the future."

"I hope not." They had reached her door. "D'you want to come in?" Tasha asked.

"If I may." They walked in and Tasha immediately sat down on the sofa and pulled off her boots. Data sat beside her.

"When do you think the Tarellian ship will reach Haven?" she asked, rubbing one foot.

"They will reach transporter range at approximately 0500 hours tomorrow," he answered.

"What a drag. They could at least wait until a decent hour." Tasha smiled, but Data looked at her blankly. "Might as well try to go to bed now. Wanna keep me company?"

Data looked askance at this. "We both agreed –"

Tasha held up a hand. "I know what we agreed to, buddy. I thought maybe we could talk until I fall asleep."

"That would be acceptable. Have you given any more thought to my question?"

"Have I? I haven't been able to think about much else, and that's with a plague ship on an intercept course." Tasha stretched and began to undress. "Thing is, I think I'm more confused now then I was before I started thinking about it." Data watched as she slipped off the straps of her bra without removing her undershirt. She pulled it through her sleeve and snapped it like an elastic band to the corner of the room that held the cleaning processor.

"I concur. Especially in light of Counselor Troi's bonding tomorrow, I find the information I have on file to be inconclusive at best. It is a much more complex issue than I had originally imagined," Data said.

"Then, why is it so important to you?" Tasha pressed the lock of a drawer, pulling out a pair of pajamas for herself and throwing Data's at him.

He caught them with a deft motion. "It seems to be a part of my programming. I can only assume that it is for my protection."

"Protection from what?" Tasha watched with interest as Data changed.

"Perhaps from running afoul of human conventions. Marriage is the foremost conventional arrangement for two people who wish to join their lives together."

"How can you say that so casually? It makes my skin crawl just to hear the word. I'm too young to think about getting married someday." Tasha meandered to the bathroom with Data right behind her. She jumped a little, startled by her appearance in the mirror. "I almost forgot what Mot did to my hair."

"May I?" Data poked an inquisitive finger at the frozen yellow crest. "It defies gravity."

"Why can't my answer be, 'I don't know'? Isn't that enough of an answer?"

"It is insufficient for my purposes, Tasha. I am sorry." Data was tentatively touching a motionless pouf of her hair.

"Lay off! I'll wash it, okay? It'll save me some time tomorrow, anyway." She began unfastening her pajama top, and then turned to him with a speculative look as she shrugged it off of her shoulders.

Data raised a finger. "Do not ask me to join you, Tasha."

"Why not?" She stepped out of her pants and stood topless in her panties.

"It can only lead to one thing. You re-stated your awareness of our agreement mere minutes ago."

She put her hands on her hips. "Yeah. It could only lead to wet, slippery fun – can't have that." She reached for the nozzle of the standard shower and started the water. She shimmied out of her underwear and got in the tub.

Data had not changed expression. "I do not question the validity of your stipulations as you present them. I simply abide by them."

"Maybe not when I present them. You just save up your arguments until I'm not expecting them and then you bushwhack me." Tasha raised her voice to be heard over the sound of the shower.

"I do no such thing," Data rebutted calmly. "I present counterpoints after due consideration."

"Well, I have a counterpoint for you – define 'intimate relations'."

Data furrowed his brow. "I do not understand."

"You said we should suspend our intimate relations while we figure out our future."

"I said 'discontinue.' Your point?"

"What exactly are we discontinuing?" She was making whooshing sounds as she rinsed her hair under the shower head.

Data gave the curtain a puzzled look. "Sex – I thought that much was clear."

"What about everything else? You wouldn't even kiss me the other night. Who knows how long we'll be figuring this out? I'm human, you know. My feelings for you come with certain urges."

He took time to think before responding. "Are you negotiating?"

The sound of the shower stopped. Tasha poked a hand out. "Towel?" Data handed it to her and waited. She stepped onto the bath mat, the towel wrapped around her. "I suppose. I miss being with you already. Couldn't we make out, at least?"

Data cocked his head. "Define 'make out'."

Tasha began drying her hair. "It's the other stuff. From what I've heard, it's what adolescents do before they become sexually active."

Data's puzzlement increased. "You imply that you are unfamiliar with this practice."

"Well, yeah. Sex was as casual as a handshake on the colony. It was usually a straightforward affair. I didn't even know about the other stuff until I lived on Earth, in California."

"At the Academy?"

"In school, and at the Academy, yes." She ran her fingers through her hair and turned off the drying tool. "Better?"

"The laws of physics apply to your coiffure once more." Data looked at her expectantly. "Is that humorous?" She patted his cheek and shook her head. "I also began to experiment with sexuality at the Academy," he went on.

That brought Tasha up short. "How old were you?"

"Chronological age? I was four," Data replied matter-of-factly.

"My god. And I thought I was young when I lost it." Tasha put on her robe and unwrapped her towel, wiping behind one ear with it before she hung it up to dry. "Want to tell me about it?"

Data looked circumspect. "Four is far too young by human standards, but my programming did place me at adult maturity from the time of my activation. Several of my classmates at the Academy were curious about me. My first sexual experience was with a female classmate who was quite frank about her curiosity. She asked me outright if I would have intimate congress with her, and to my surprise, I found that I could comply. Once all of the criteria for my sexuality program had been met, I received a conscious internal prompt. I was able to then give an affirmative response to both it and her."

Tasha's eyes danced. "Fascinating. How was your first time?"

Data scanned with his eyes as he accessed the memory file. "By turns, it was interesting, astonishing, disconcerting, and in many ways, indescribable. Knowing the facts of human coupling pales in comparison to experiencing it. I am afraid that the young lady was somewhat put off by the experience, however. I had not yet developed a facility for emulating appropriate facial expressions for any given interaction. I believe the word she used to describe it was 'ghoulish'."

Tasha bit down on her smile and tried to look sympathetic. "Oh, no. Trust me, you've improved since then."

"Thank you," Data replied modestly. "It was not my last experience of that type at the Academy. The various feedback I received on my performance did, in time, improve."

Tasha finished in the bathroom, and they both walked into the bedroom and sat on the bed. "My first time was strange, too. I was very young, and I convinced a boy I liked, he was a few months older than me, to do it with me, so it wouldn't be rape the first time." Data looked at her with concern. Tasha looked away and went on. "It was a fact of life for us, as real and omnipresent as our hunger and our poverty. The gangs ruled by intimidation and terror tactics, and rape was their most powerful tool. They recruited soldiers that way – the same men who terrorized us at night offered us protection during the day, if we'd join them. I wouldn't give in, no matter how they tried to brutalize me."

"Tasha." Data tried to take her hand, but she pulled away.

"Anyway, once I hit puberty, I tried to hide the signs, but I was growing like a weed. I was becoming a target, and I just knew it was only a matter of time before the odds went against me. So, I decided the first time was going to be my choice. I ran around with this kid, I liked him well enough, and I talked him into doing it with me. It was okay. It lasted under a minute – it took us longer to figure out the condom than to do the deed. We both felt embarrassed as all hell, but we took care of it, and it wasn't frightening, and no one forced us. I mean, I was scared when I bled, but I wasn't afraid for my life." Tasha met Data's eyes. "Don't look at me like that, Data. I don't need your pity. It's in the past. I'm here now, and I'm safe."

He made his expression more benign, but continued to ponder. Though it was impossible for him to forget the facts of Tasha's past, he did not always take them into consideration when he dealt with her. Tasha projected such an image of strength; what she had had to overcome to achieve that strength was not as readily evident. Finally, he spoke. "Tasha, why did you choose me?"

She took her time before answering. "I liked you from the moment I met you, Data. I didn't know what to expect when I read your file, and found out I'd be serving with the only sentient android in the universe. I definitely didn't expect you to be so cute, or so kind, or so gentle. And then, I thought that the Farpoint mission forged a bond between us."

"I, too," Data remarked.

She nodded. "And now that I know you better, I guess I find comfort in the fact that you choose to be with me intellectually, that it's not my looks or my body that makes you choose me. It's myself." She took his hand. "When I look at myself, sometimes I see that grubby, frightened girl staring back out at me. But when I see me through your eyes, I see . . . someone brave. Honorable, even. Worthy." They had locked eyes, and neither one shied away. "It makes me hopeful."

"Hopeful for what?" Data looked at her with intensity.

"I don't know – the future. For who I might become. For my potential. For a happy life – maybe a happy life with you."

Data took her other hand, and they sat like that in silence, side by side, looking into each other's eyes, Tasha squeezing Data's hands so hard, her knuckles were turning white.

He broke the silence after a long while. "Perhaps that is enough."

Tasha squeezed his hands impossibly tighter. "Enough for what?"

"Perhaps it is enough to know that you see me in your future, to assuage my ethical difficulty. We have much to learn about each other as individuals, and as a couple. I believe there is potential in our relationship."

A flicker of a smile lit Tasha's face. "You do?"

"Yes," Data replied, his face still neutral.

"Then we're back on, like, really together?"

"Yes." Data gave her a hesitant half-smile.

Tasha broke into a grin. "Well then, aren't you going to kiss me?"

"I was hoping you would ask." He leaned forward and gave her a chaste peck on the cheek.

"That's it?" Tasha asked, open-mouthed.

"It was an attempt to be humorous," Data said. "Was I successful?"

Tasha took him by the shoulders. "Data, one of these days, you have got to learn a thing or two about timing." She pushed him down flat and jumped on him with a happy whoop. She put her forearms on his chest and held her nose a centimeter from his. "Thank goodness that's over. I wasn't going to get a wink of sleep with you here, otherwise."

"What about your earlier suggestion?" Data was taking in the close-up details of her face that he had not seen for three days: the translucent down on her cheeks, the almost invisible pores of her skin, the variations of pale pink color to her lips.

"About making out? Seems like a waste of time, now." She was edging closer, her nose close to his cheek, her lips hovering above his.

"But we have never done it before. It could be interesting. How would we proceed?" He had dropped the volume of his voice considerably.

"As I understand it, you keep your clothes on, and you fumble around like teenagers, and you get very frustrated." Her eyelashes brushed the side of his nose, but she still maintained an infinitesimal distance from his lips.

"But it would be something different."

"I'm too impatient. Maybe some other time." She barely brushed her lips against his, prolonging her suspense, feeling electricity swim through her like a school of tiny fish.

"Yes. Some other time." He flipped them over with an arm around her back, looking down on her now, and passed his other hand inside the lapels of her bathrobe, his legs between hers. "I do not think that there is any need to hasten the development of our relationship."

She relaxed her knees apart and rocked a little against him. "It's hard to talk when you do that."

"Do you wish to keep talking?" Data asked politely.

Tasha held his gaze and shook her head slowly from side to side.

"Very well." He closed the distance between them and kissed her, a serious one this time.