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Second Movement She had blushed and hurried to put the cello away and tie her hair back when she finally noticed him.

This had given him enough time to pick his mouth up off the floor and remember why he was there in the first place.

"Yes?" she asked as she smoothed her uniform.

He stuttered for a moment or two before he got out that he had a report for her. She smiled and took the PADD from him and he made a quick exit.

That was the last time she had played. The Xindi came shortly after that and she no longer had the time or the want to play.

When the Xindi caught her, she would spend time wrapped up in daydreams of playing the cello again. When they injected the parasite to make her more pliable, she would hum little sections of her favourite pieces. While she remembered little of her time with the Xindi, she did remember that.

When she returned to the ship and well enough to go back to her quarters, she spent hours simply staring at the case. It earned some scuffs during the conflicts, a few dents, but no cracks. Nothing serious had happened to it.

"Play it for me," he said one night when he found her alone in the mess hall. She had stared at him for a long moment. "Come on, darlin', just a little."

She had sighed and begrudgingly agreed and they made their way to her quarters. He took a seat on the floor as she was in the only chair in the room.

He heard her heave a large sigh before she opened the case and another afterward. She fingered the broken string before she went looking for a replacement and found none. She stood for a long moment before he got up and walked over to her.

"Looks kinda like us, doesn't it?" he commented as he looked at it.

"I can fix that," she said quietly as she began to unwind the string from the pegs and the other half from the tailpiece. He watched as her small hands worked to tie the steel string back together. He watched as she tightened the knot and carefully restrung the cello.

She held her breath as she tightened the peg and tuned the string.

It held and she found her bow, tightening it and adding the rosin as he sat himself on the floor in front of her again and waited.