"Hello Irina, this is the Doctor," Irina suddenly heard her communicator and jumped, hitting her head on the ceiling of her quarters' electricity cabinet.

"Ouch! Yes, I'm listening," she muttered as an answer.

"Irina, are you alright?" The Doctor asked, concerned and now regretting his own impatience.

"Yes. Yes I am alright. I've just hit my head on the electricity cabinet."

"Do you want me to come over?"

"No. Wait... Yes, if you want. I'm almost done with the installation of the holo emitter. If you have time we can try it out."

She didn't receive an answer but she also had not expected one. In her minds eye she could already see him grabbing the mobile emitter and rushing towards her quarters. After captain Janeway had agreed to have a holo emitter installed in Irina's quarters the Doctor had not been the same. He was like a puppy that was urgently waiting to go for a walk in the park, constantly asking when Irina was about to start working on the holo emitter, how the work was going, if she could already tell how long it would take and so on. It came to a point where she even thought about deactivating her communicator for a few hours to work in peace.

She had not yet finished her train of thought when her doorbell rang.

"Come in!" she yelled and the Doctor entered.

"Hey. How is your head?"

"Oh, don't worry. Just a bump, nothing for you to take care of."

The Doctor nodded, still uncomfortable since he was the one at fault for her pain. "Can I help you with something?"

Irina got up and closed the electricity cabinet energetically. "No, thank you. Believe it or not, but I am done."

He watched her wipe the dust off of her uniform and was unsure what to say. He was nervous, very nervous. This moment seemed so short and so insignificant yet it was so incredibly important to him. From now on, his life would not be the same again. He opened his mouth to say something but instead Irina spoke: "So should we try it out?"

He just nodded and Irina put her hand on the mobile emitter on his arm.

"Ready?"

"Yes. I think so." He squinted as if he was expecting something unpleasant to take place, but when Irina took the mobile emitter off of him, nothing happened. For a second he stood there, carefully opening his eyes, then he looked down at his hands and his legs, making sure that his visual appearance was like it was supposed to be.

"It's working!" he stated, now feeling his torso and his head with his hands.

"Why does that sound so surprised? Didn't you trust my engineering work?"

"Of course I did! I suppose I can't yet believe that this is actually happening. I wasn't expecting that it would be so easy."

"Oh, it definitely wasn't easy," Irina sighed and plumped down on her couch. "I had to reroute the main power supply via the secondary fuses so that-"

"I don't mean just the technical details, I mean the whole process. We've asked the captain, she said yes, you did all the work and now I am here. I was never allowed to have my own quarters before but then you came and suddenly it all worked so well."

"I guess you just got lucky!" Irina smirked. "But why are you still standing there like a Vulcan? Why don't you sit down with me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I still need to get used to the fact that these are also my quarters now," he answered and quickly sat down next to her.

There was an awkward silence and Irina could still see the tension in his body as he was sitting on the edge of the couch, ready to jump up anytime.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I... I don't know. It feels so unfamiliar."

"I'm afraid you'll have to get used to it. Or do you rather want to leave?"

"No! Definitely not!" She could sense a hint of panic in his voice.

"Then try to relax a bit. You're not on probation here. Remember what you said to me on our first date? There's nothing you can do wrong."

Gently she put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the warmth of his holomatrix through the fabric of his uniform.

"Maybe switching to some more casual attire could help?" Irina suggested. "I am sure you have prepared-"

"I have prepared 14 different varieties of pajamas and other comfortable clothes, yes."

Irina smiled and shook her head. Just as she had expected. "Then try them on! What are you waiting for?"

He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Oh, are you serious?" she sighed. "Well, okay then. I will go to the bathroom and do some human things and you stay here and decide on an outfit. Is that alright?"

He nodded and seemed relieved. "Yes, very much. Thank you."