Fourteen hours. Damn the Klignons, he was fourteen hours realigning the warp coil. "Who am I kidding?" he thought wearily. "If we'd done the repairs right in the first place, I wouldn't have spent the last fourteen hours cleaning up mistakes." He knew he'd been giving less than his best lately. "Dammit, this is why I left in the first place!"

Trip was bone tired, and just wanted to get some rest. Too many sleepless nights and too many days spent constantly on edge were really taking their toll. He shuffled his way over to his bed, working on getting out of his uniform along the way. With a deep sigh, he kicked off his shoes and gave up, laying himself cat-cornered across the bed. "I'll just lay here for a minute, and then I'll get undressed," was the last thought that passed through his brain.

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He was definitely sound asleep. She could tell by the regular, but slightly uneven way his shoulders rose and fell. His bare shoulders. She stood, gazing at him appreciatively. He was on his side, his arm draped over the sheet, curled up slightly in front of him. Even in sleep, the muscles in his shoulders and bicep were taught with tension. She yearned to touch him, to sooth away that tension and watch his face relax the way that it used to.

He shifted slightly, rolling over towards his front. She could see his back now. The muscles were more pronounced than she remembered, rippling with every slight movement as he shifted around. She thought idly that he must have spent a lot of time lately on workouts. It didn't occur to her to wonder if she was the reason why.

The bed was bigger than it should have been. This wasn't where he usually slept, of course. No one on board had sheets like those. Their soft sheen reflecting light from an unseen source, first drifting and falling as his chest rose, now disappearing completely only to emerge anew in another spot. Her eyes followed the line of the top seem where it tucked under his arm and slid its way across exposed planes. The soft folds gently caressed several ribs, and snaked downward at his lower back. The inky shade stood out in sharp contrast to the tone of his skin, but mimicked the smoothness. Her fingers itched to touch both of them, to run her fingers along the slick fabric and feel the change in texture as she made her way to dampened skin made moist from exertion. The desire was so strong that she stumbled forward a step.

She was still staring at his back as the imagined sensations coursed through her. Her stare intensified as she spied the far side of the bed, where the sheet had slipped even further than his lower back. Mesmerized, she inched forward, trying to steal a closer look without waking him. She could not quite tell, but she was almost certain that the line of skin was unbroken.

He wasn't wearing anything under that sheet.

She started to think of the soft satin caressing his skin all over and almost closed her eyes at the sensation of how it would feel on her own skin. She'd moved even closer and was standing close enough to feel his breath drift softly across her hand. She hadn't been aware that she'd moved at all, let alone that her musings had stirred him as well. He was wide awake.

She only became aware of his changed breathing when he rolled onto his back to see her better. The sheet no longer rose and fell with each breath, though she could hear them coming harder now. The black cloth had fallen further with his movement and hung precariously now, exposing the full expanse of his chest…his stomach…his navel, and on a little further from it's rim, along the dark trail that ended somewhere just below the hem.

He didn't say anything.

He didn't ask why she was there, or comment on what she'd been doing. There was no wry smile or knowing grin. No chastisement in his eyes, either. He wasn't surprised by her presence, nor even pleased at the way her eyes had explored him. He simply reached for her hand. She was almost certain he'd been expecting her.

"I should go," she said, too quickly, her voice harsh, surely from lack of use.

"Oh, no. This one is mine, and we are definitely going to do this my way." That said, he grasped her hand as he lifted the top sheet.

She was vaguely aware that any clothing she'd had on had become insubstantial and was just…gone. She didn't give it a second thought as he brought her down beside him and closed his mouth over hers.

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Trip came awake slowly, feeling like he'd gotten the best sleep of his life and no sleep at all at the same time. His mind still fogged with sleep, he rolled over, attempting to snuggle a little closer for that one last minute before he fully awakened. There was no one there.

Sighing he sat up and ran his hand through his hair. It was time to get up anyway. Time to get in the shower, and better make it a cold one this time. It was going to be another very long day.

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Author recommends new readers skip to Chapter 4 – Redux for continuity with the show's storyline.