CHAPTER TWO

Beverly sat in her office. She finished reading the PADD that she had been studying and then put it down. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and then put her head on her arms on the desk. She hadn't felt well in what seemed like forever. Lately she had had a lot of work; doing crew physicals, picking a new medical team, she was taking a new school course for biogenetics, on top of all of this she had spent every other moment with Jean-Luc. Sometimes they'd be together until three in the morning leaving her very little time for sleeping. She looked at the chronometer and shook her head. It was about this time everyday when she started to get a headache. There was a possible reason, but she had chose to ignore it. It didn't seem like it could happen… not at his point in her life.

Beverly looked up as the doors slid open and Captain Picard walked in. She smiled as he came into her office.

"Hello Love." He said quietly.

"Hi. What brings you to my office?" She asked.

He smiled "I just wanted to see how you are feeling?" He asked.

Beverly rubbed her eye lids. "I'm alright except I've got that damn headache again. No matter what I do I can not get rid of it." she said, exhaling roughly.

"Well have you tried to get rid of what ever might be causing it?" He suggested.

She looked at him "Well I'm not even sure what could be causing it. Probably stress… lack of sleep. I don't know. It will go away eventually"

Picard touched the side of her face with the back of his hand reassuringly. "Do you have a fever?" he asked as their skin came into contact.

Beverly sighed deeply "My temperature is slightly above the usual. But I am fine." she said

"Hmm…" Picard began "I think that the shore leave we've got coming up will do you well." he said.

She nodded and immediately regretted it since it made her head throb. "Yeah." She said, But then she got thinking, this may be the most stressful shore leave ever. She would have to explain things to him tonight.
"Jean-Luc, there is something we need to talk about tonight." said Beverly looking up into his eyes. She saw his confusion and concern, and he saw the importance in what ever she need him to know.

He nodded. "Sure. Bev, take the rest of the day off. Give yourself a break.. Just for today, you need it." He said

"Okay." she replied.

He leaned over and kissed her cheek, she kissed him back. Just as he was about to leave she said

"Jean-Luc, I love you."

He looked back at her

"I love you too." he said.

Beverly had never felt more worried that her world was going to collapse. She felt very nauseous as she was preparing to leave and decided that she should investigate the seemingly impossible reason for illness.

She felt even worse when the test results came back positive.