"The mission's over."

"I heard."

The captain had left sickbay looking entirely human and more than a little worried. Deliberately exposing a pre-warp society to both an alien and a starship certainly hadn't been part of the mission plan, but things appeared to have gone radically sideways. Still, at least the failure of Spock's disguise hadn't been the only thing to derail their plans for a subtle exit. Chapel had collected the relevant data and counted it as a win.

La'an hovered, impatient. Chapel toed at the nearest chair until it scraped back a few inches. "Sit down Noonien, have some dinner."

"I don't have time for this."

Chapel raised her eyebrows pointedly at the meal she had only just started eating. M'Benga was still down in sickbay, manning a stockpile of gene therapy vials. He'd watched her reset the captain's genome not half an hour ago. So if La'an was here, disturbing her statutory 40 minute meal break, it was because she wanted to be, not because she thought it would be efficient.

"Fine." La'an scowled, dropping into the seat.

Chapel had to forcefully suppress a grin as she turned back to her soup. It wasn't that La'an was fidgeting, her iron self-control wouldn't allow it. It was the deafening, almost militant way in which she was categorically not fidgeting. The only word for it was adorable. In her peripheral vision she watched La'an definitively not twitch. It had to be, hands down, the best thing she'd seen in months.

She tipped some grapes onto a plate beside the remaining half of her sandwich and pushed it towards La'an. "Here, at least eat something while you sit there."

La'an tightened, some of her calm façade cracking as she tapped her fingernails against the edge of the plate. "I'm fine."

And suddenly, it wasn't funny. What she'd done to La'an only hours ago was already going to give Chapel nightmares. Now they were sat here waiting to do the whole thing again. She dropped her spoon. The soup had lost its appeal.

"No, you're right. Let's just, get it over with."

Sickbay was empty. Chapel raised a hand at M'Benga in the office and pushed her mess tray onto the nearest free surface. "Take a seat." The case of little blue vials rattled as she slid it out of the containment field. La'an's was marked with a reference number she didn't need the computer to recognise. It was cold in her hand. The whole thing made her feel slightly sick. Just this morning she had been so proud of this achievement, so excited to see it put into action. Now she felt like some kind of budding Mengele.

She tipped the little vial between her fingers, watching the bubble slide up and down the glass. She should never have agreed to do this. She'd taken an oath, once upon a time. Meant it too.

"What's the problem?"

La'an had come up beside her, a deepening frown creasing her eyes. Chapel stilled, studying her face. That was why she'd done it. Not to save the mission, not to find their missing crew in time, but so she would have a chance at finding out what La'an looked like when she smiled. The buttoned up façade was irresistible, a mystery she just had to pick at. Like she always did.

She took a step back and tilted the vial so it caught the light. "This is fine, captain Pike's worked perfectly."

"But?"

"But I don't think I should be the one treating you. I'll ask doctor M'Benga to…"

"No."

Chapel sighed. "Listen, I should never have done this to you. I'm sorry."

"I asked you to."

"Yes. And that shouldn't have made the difference. But it did." Chapel watched La'an process that, her face momentarily blank.

"So now you're backing out."

"I'm handing the case over to someone who can be more objective."

"About what? Administering a hypospray?"

"About not begging you to take the sedatives this time. Because right now, honestly, I would get down on my knees if I thought it might change your mind. Which is entirely unprofessional, and shouldn't be your problem. So…" She gestured past La'an in the direction of the office.

La'an didn't move. "I'll take them."

Chapel blinked. "What?"

"I'll take the sedatives."

Well crap. Great job Christine. Way to not coerce the patient. "You don't have to do that." She said quietly, watching La'an's jaw tighten. "I'm not handing you off. You make whatever decision you want to make. I'll stay right here, whatever it is. I just want someone to talk to you who doesn't have a vested interest either way. And right now that clearly isn't me."

"And why wouldn't I want the person treating me to have an interest in the outcome?"

"Because your health is your decision. And my feelings shouldn't factor in to that."

"They don't."

"Then doctor M'Benga…"

"Just give me the sedatives Chapel." La'an snapped, brittle anger suddenly blowing through the cracks in her control.

"Wow." Chapel held her gaze carefully. "That's not convincing me there isn't a problem here." She watched for a second as La'an started to piece herself back together, putting the outburst back in its box. It wasn't going well.

She ought to go get M'Benga. She ought to step away from this. She had already made the wrong decision once today. But standing there, watching La'an struggle, it was impossible not to make another. "Ok." It was only a few steps to the panel that toggled the privacy screen up. La'an tracked her as she went, but relaxed markedly as the barrier engaged. "We're going to sit here." Chapel slid to the floor against the cabinets and patted the space beside her. "And you're going to take a breath."

"I know how to breathe." La'an muttered darkly. But she sat anyway, closer than Chapel knew she would have under better circumstances. "Sorry." She sighed after a moment.

Chapel shifted so their shoulders bumped and felt a little more of the tension leach away. "We're good. It's been a rough day."

La'an huffed what might have been a laugh.

"Speaking of which, I appreciate how you didn't break my hands this morning. I don't think I thanked you for that."

"Figured you might need them."

"I am quite attached to these metacarpals." She wriggled her fingers in the air, watching the skin stretch over the back of her hand. "I'm going to give you some options, ok? If you don't like them, we'll come up with something else."

Beside her La'an nodded.

"Option one, we do exactly what we did this morning, after which I sign you off for at least 24 hours, which is the minimum time it's going to take you to recover from that. No arguments. Option two, you go get at least 6 hours sleep, then we do the reversal procedure tomorrow. It won't hit as hard by then, you should be able go straight back to work. Option three, I give you the sedatives and we do the procedure now. That one involves explaining to me how I haven't coerced you into a treatment you don't want."

"You really believe you could?"

"I don't know." Chapel studied the vial in her hands, turning it over in the light. "My performance today hasn't been great, ethically."

"I asked you to give me the treatment." La'an insisted. "Now I'm asking for the sedatives. I can think for myself."

"I don't doubt that. I just don't understand why. On either count. They don't exactly match." La'an had been resolutely against even taking the edge off her experience this morning. She'd sat through ten minutes of agonising metamorphosis next to a dose of sedatives that would have taken seconds to administer, and never so much as wavered.

La'an flexed her fingers over her knees. She was quiet for a second. "I didn't know what you were going to do."

"I would have explained."

"People lie."

"True."

"Anyway, it hurt like hell. I really don't need a repeat performance. And as for this…" She held up her hands so Chapel could see the tremors that occasionally twitched through them. "I really don't need any more of that either. It's getting in the way."

"Once you get some sleep a lot of that should fade."

"Should." La'an repeated. "You use that word a lot."

"Well, people are different. Bodies are different. There's still more stuff we don't know than stuff we do. That's what makes it fun."

La'an glanced at the vial tipping over and over between Chapel's fingers. "You don't look like you're having fun."

"I was for some of it." Chapel shrugged. "Turns out torturing people isn't great for the soul. But everything else…" She turned to face La'an, taking in the subtle crinkling of the ridges above her eyes, the slight iridescence of the markings where they faded into her skin, the beautiful, delicate tinting she'd effected around the iris. It was one hell of an achievement. She smiled. "So, much as this suits you, do I take it you're choosing option three?"

"Please."

La'an made no move to get up as Chapel pushed herself to her feet. Instead she tilted her head back against the cabinets, eyes closed. Well, the floor was as good a place as any for this, Chapel wasn't in any position to complain.

"You'll feel it, but it won't hurt." She squeezed La'an's shoulder while she administered the injections, knowing the dissonant signals would help mask their slight sting. "It takes a little longer to change back. The details matter more."

"There aren't any details." La'an ran a finger over the markings that were starting to fade from her hand.

"You'd be surprised. There's all kinds of stuff you can't even see. Did you know humans glow?"

"They do not."

"Absolute fact." Chapel got up to fetch her PADD and brought the dinner tray back with it, handing La'an her sandwich as she pulled up pictures of human bioluminescence. "We're brightest late afternoon."

La'an scrolled through the images while she ate. "This is ridiculous."

"Gotta love biology."

"Why do I get the feeling, given half a chance, you're going to go all mad scientist on us at some point during this mission?"

Chapel grinned. "That's what I signed up for."

"Great. Remind me to keep my phaser handy."

And there it was, just the hint of a smile, transforming La'an's face in a way no amount of gene therapy would ever be able to achieve. Chapel took another mouthful of soup before she could be caught staring. It felt like more of a victory than anything else she'd managed to do today.