I opened my eyes slowly, I looked blearily up at the ceiling and it took me a few moments to register that I was in sickbay on Enterprise, we had gotten back safely. Jonathan had risked his life to save mine, maybe I was wrong about him, but I was not going to make it easier for him to clear himself. My thoughts were disrupted by Dr. Phlox poking his head around the curtain that surrounded my bio bed,

"Oh Captain! You are awake! Bless you!" the Doctor looked deliriously happy. I slowly propped myself up on some pillows with the doctor's help,

"How long have I been here?" I enquired

"Two weeks to be exact" Dr Phlox, looked towards the door of the infirmary and noticed that Captain Archer was standing there. "Oh, Captain, you are free to leave now actually, you're all better, however you still may experience dizziness and headaches, so I just recommend keeping warm and getting a few good night's sleep and I guess you would be more comfortable, in your own quarters."

"Yes thank you Doctor!" I was happy; I hated the sick bay beds. I got out of bed and got dressed, completely unaware that Jonathan was still standing at the door and the precise moment that I stepped out of the curtain, Jonathan came right up to me and pulled me into a tight hug.

"I'm so glad that you are okay, I was so worried about you" he murmured into my hair as he clung to me, after a few minutes I could feel my airways constricting, "Jonathan," I feebly whispered "Can you let go now, you're hurting me." He let go straight away,

"I'm sorry Rachel, I didn't mean to." he stepped back, straightened his jacket. We stood there for a moment looking at each other, and then I made to go past him to walk out.

"Rachel, wait!" he held me back "We need to talk about this."

I knew exactly what he was talking about, I my previous plan of making it hard for him when I realized that I was suffering more, tears formed in my eyes.

"What was I supposed to think when you said that about me at dinner? You have no idea how hard it is for me, being a female captain in a male dominated world. I fell in love with you Jonathan, and it really hurt me. It was really hard, ignoring you as I did, but it was the only way, the only way I could control myself." I turned away, not wanting to him to see me cry as the tears made tracks down my cheeks. Jonathan rushed up to me and gave me another tight hug

"Oh Rachel, Rachel, Rachel! This is what I have been trying to tell you, since you ran out of the dinning room, I didn't say I don't love you, I wasn't talking about you, all the senior officers can vouch for that!" he said half exasperated, half smiling.

I folded my arms, across my chest and narrowed my eyes, he never said that!

"What do you mean?" I said cautiously

"I love you Rachel, I absolutely do with all my heart, and I meant exactly what I said to you outside the room that night. Malcolm, Trip and I were talking about our old ships is all!"

I could feel my face going red; I cannot believe I didn't think of that, what he said all made sense now,

"I am so, so sorry Jonathan, I feel incredibly stupid." All of a sudden, I felt woozy and swayed on the spot. Jonathan grabbed my shoulders to steady me,

"Are you alright, honey?" Despite I felt like I would collapse any minute, my heart still skipped at the sound of his voice calling me honey

"I need to lie down," I said resting my head against his shoulder "I guess I'm not completely better yet"

"Okay let's find Dr. Phlox and a bed for you" he said, beginning to look around for the doctor.

"No!" I said "No, I want to go back to my quarters, besides, I have a strange suspicion that Dr. Phlox has been listening to everything we have been saying" I whispered, as I heard a scurrying behind some shelves which confirmed my suspicion.

"Alright let's go" he put his am around mine, to steady my walk, and we walked down corridor after corridor until we got to my quarters. Jonathan steadied me up and opened my door,

"I'll leave you to rest now Rachel, we will talk later." he gently kissed my cheek started to walk away.

"Oh Jonathan" I called, trying to maintain my balance as well as a seductive stance, leaning against the wall. He stopped and tuned to face me.

"Yes Rachel."

"I don't want to be alone right now, besides, I'm the one who almost ruined everything by jumping to conclusions" I smiled weakly at him and swayed once more. He rushed up and held me close.

"Forgive me Rachel, let's just put everything behind us and start over again."

"Agreed" I smiled at him as he led me inside my room and the door shut behind us.

I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes, Ahhh; this is so much more comfortable than the sickbay beds I thought to myself. After a few moments I opened my eyes and noticed that Jonathan was still standing near the door, looking very awkward and unsure of what to do next, I looked up at him

"Jonathan," I called "What are you doing all over there by yourself, come next to me" I patted a spot on my bed next to me.

He slowly walked over to my bed and sat on it, lying down next to me. We just lay there for a few minutes, when I noticed Jonathan reach out and hold my hand.

"So Captain, what has been happening on the Enterprise while I was out of it?" I asked breaking the silence. Jonathan then launched into his story about how we were still on our way to Azati Prime and pretty much it had been smooth sailings.

"That's good" I replied when he finished talking "Don't know what you would have done in a crisis without me, since I did so well the first time round" I hoped he noted the sense of bitterness I felt at being so useless. Jonathan propped himself up on his elbow and faced me putting his hand on my cheek.

"Listen to me Rachel, and listen carefully, you were not useless, you did the best you could in the situation presented to you, I mean there's not much you could have done after being shot and held prisoner with an armed guard sitting with you, okay, and don't forget, who's tactical pattern destroyed the Xindi vessel, yours, so not another word on it" he said countering my unvoiced feelings.

"Thanks," I replied, smiling up at him, feeling physically unable to move as I realized just how close he was sitting next to me.

"Oh Rachel," he started, still with his hand on my face "There's something I wanted to ask you, and I have been thinking about ever since you told me. What exactly about me did you dream?" he smiled expectantly; I could tell he already knew the answer.

"Oh" I blushed, I had no idea he would remember that "Um, - I want you to guess, see if you can figure it out" I smiled playfully up at Jonathan, whose face was held in mock expression of being deep in thought.

Then, he slowly moved himself so that he was partially on top on me and leant forward slowly, looking deep into my eyes. I could feel my breath catching in my throat,

"You're doing okay so far," I whispered, then his lips connected with mine and pulled me up into a passionate kiss, we had both waited a long time for this. I moaned slightly as he moved both of his hands on my face and deepened the kiss. I gave in entirely to him leting his emotion wash over me like a warm blanket. He broke off slowly, savouring the last touch of our lips,

"Was that pretty close?" he whispered and his voice, husky. I looked up into his eyes once more

"Oh yeah, I would say that was even better that my dream, considering, in my dream we were more in a vertical position" I remarked. He quickly moved his leg off of mine and laughed nervously,

"I'm sorry, got a bit carried away there."

"Well, I wasn't actually complaining about it you know, besides, you were keeping me warm and the doctor said to keep warm and get plenty of rest. I would say being here with you, is pretty restful." I grinned at Jonathan, while slowly wrapping my leg around his. He grinned back, his eyes flashing mischievously.

"Well Captain, I think you are well over due for your physical, you can't evade the system forever you know." he slid his hand down from my face on to my neck and then, slowly undid the top button of my undershirt. I started laughing.

"You know you do a great impression of Doctor Phlox, buts it's not something I want to see now, if you get my drift." I raised an eyebrow at him.

Somehow I found the strength to sit my self up till I was eye to eye with Jonathan and then I leaned forward slowly and kissed him softly, then the strength in my lower back and arms just gave out and I fell onto Jonathan, much to his delight, He picked me up and placed me back on the pillows.

"Are you all right Rachel, you must be still pretty weak, I think its best if you limit your movement, however, my heart just doesn't want me to do what technically is right, this will only drain you physically and probably emotionally too." he grinned his gorgeous lopsided grin.

"Jonathan, I'm fine, I don't want you to leave or just sit there and do nothing. We can just take it slow, its fine, now come here and kiss me; I need to be kept warm." I held my arms out to him, and he came into my arms, slowly on top of me so that his face was directly above mine,

"Is this slow enough for you?" he asked smiling

I nodded, unable to speak now, just as he was an inch from my lips…

Bzzz Bzzz.

"Captain Robinson?"

Jonathan sighed with exasperation and put his head down on my shoulder.

"Yes who is it?"

"It's Lieutenant Reed, Captain"

"Hold on a moment, lieutenant." I quickly pushed Jonathan up off me. "Go sit on the seat make it look like you've sat there all that time" I quickly fixed my hair and my bed and then opened the door "Hi Malcolm."

He looked into my room and noticed Captain Archer sitting there, with a cup of tea,

"Oh Captain Archer, good afternoon, I didn't know you were here." he said with a tone of voice that indicated that he wasn't surprised at all.

I led him inside and we sat down on the seats near Jonathan, and I looked expectantly at Malcolm, wondering what it was he wanted to say.

"I'm so glad to see that you are awake now Captain, we have been worried for the past two weeks, so much that we could barely concentrate on our work, I almost fired the torpedoes twice!"

"Thank you for your concern, Malcolm, I'm feeling much better now though still I'm a bit dizzy" I smiled at him, I realized how much more compassionate this crew was compared to my old crew. I loved it here.

"As soon as Doctor Phlox told us that you were awake and that you walked out in the arms in our good Captain here, we thought it was a time for celebration, we're holding a party in the mess hall in 2 hours so be there if your feeling up to it, ma'am." he stood up to leave, "Hope I haven't disturbed you two or anything, but I thought it would have been much nicer to invite you in person rather over comm. link."

"Okay we will be there, thanks Malcolm." I led him out the door and closed I breathed a sigh of relief, "Wow we made that in time, lucky we were taking it slow!" I joked.

Jonathan stood up from his chair and strode over to me,

"I hate being interrupted." He stated as he placed his hand on my lower back and stepped closer to me, pushing my legs forcing me to step backwards, until my back hit the door

"Am I really that worth it?" I asked playfully.

"Ohhh you have no idea…" he returned breathlessly as he leaned in and kissed me tenderly, slowly deepening the kiss to the point where it felt unbreakable. I began to feel myself losing my balance again, so I finally (with great effort on my part) broke out of the kiss, I placed my hands on his shoulders.

"Can you take me onto the bed, I'm feeling weak again, I think you're draining my strength out of me quicker than I expected." I smiled at him as he scooped me up in his strong arms and carried me onto the bed and placed me down gently. It was only then when it hit me how much, what had just happened was just like my dream.

"Did you know that…?" I waved my hands gesturing at the spot we were just previously by the door, "was EXACTLY like my dream, it was uncannily accurate."

"I guess it was fate after all" he smiled at me as he lay down next to me and we both just lay there, holding hands not saying anything. I felt warm inside at the thought that he would put my health above his own desires. I moved closer into his embrace, resting my head on his chest.

"Hurry up Rachel, we're going to be late," Jonathan called to me from my door, looking back to see me still trying to get up off the bed.

"Well excuse me Mr. I-haven't-spent-two-weeks-lying-unconscious!" I retorted, laughing at my own futile efforts to lift myself up. I looked up at Jonathan who was smiling dreamily at me and said "Honey, can you help me up here, otherwise I'm not going to make it."

He snapped out of his dream-like state and rushed over and helped me up, we walked out of my quarters and to the mess hall. I had one arm around Jonathan while his other arm was supporting my other side and half carrying me there.

We stepped into the mess hall with everyone bursting into applause when they saw me.

"Trip" Jonathan called out; "Find the Captain a seat won't you, she needs to sit down" Trip rushed over with a chair and helped me lower into it. I smiled weakly at the both of them

"Thanks guys, you have no idea how embarrassing this is looking so weak in front of all these people" Trip smiled sympathetically at me

"Well at least you have dear Cap'n Archer here to get your strength up" he laughed and dodged out of the way before Jonathan could clip him on the head.

We sat around there for the next two hours just chatting and eating food, I spent most of the time dealing with people asking how I was going and how I was feeling. I was beginning to get sick of it and looked at Jonathan purposefully who was standing with Travis and talking; he excused himself and came over to me

"What's up hon?" he whispered but the few people sitting near heard and started cat calling him. He turned around to them and said

"Shut up the lot of you or you'll end up in the brig!" That stopped them.

"I'm feeling really tired now, do you think it would be all right if we went?" I asked

Jonathan nodded and began to help me up when a young ensign came over the comm.

Bridge to Captain Robinson Jonathan pressed the button for me

"What is it ensign?"

Every body by this stage had gone quiet listening to the conversation that was commencing

"There is an urgent video communication from Starfleet on a secure line, its Admiral Forrest."

"Patch it through here" I replied

"Yes ma'am."