(Two or three years earlier.)
Data, in his quarters for the evening, answered the incoming call in a short amount of time.
"Data!", she greeted as she hopped into her chair in front of her display when her call was acknowledged. "I was promoted!" After graduation from the Academy, it had become a normal affair for them to keep in touch with each other at least once a month.
"Congratulations, Tasha. Full lieutenant, then?", he made smalltalk.
"Full lieutenant, Sir!", she saluted merrily.
"I am unclear," he furrowed his brow in mock confusion, "are you attempting to convey you are happy about this?"
She laughed in response, and then her eyes flitted down and her attitude changed slightly. "Lieutenant Richardson asked me out today, afterwards."
"You have mentioned before that you find him attractive. I assume you accepted his offer?"
"I did." He saw her fiddle with her fingers. "But I'm already nervous. You know, I haven't gone out in a couple years now. I guess I just need more practice at it.", she grinned. The grin looked sincere, but he wondered if it might have also been an apprehensive one.
It was their last year at the Academy, the night following their midterm exams. Tasha decided she'd worked hard enough to allow herself some personal time, just to get out and socialize. A few days earlier, she went to a cafe so she could study while getting a bite to eat, and there she had met a boy her age who was working as a server. After a few minutes of talking, he invited her out the night of exams, and Tasha finally took the suggestion a few friends had made a couple of times to her before and agreed to go out with the guy. Things didn't go how she'd expected, however, and it took her some effort and manhandling to get herself out of the situation. Only when she had gotten away, out the door, and onto the dimly lit sidewalk did she realize how shaky her feet were and how she could barely catch her breath. It certainly wasn't as bad as what she had to endure during her Academy entrance psych test, but it nonetheless dredged up those heart-pounding memories of her time on her godforsaken homeworld of Turkana IV. Maybe it was how she was comfortable and felt protected when she was around him, and maybe it was also because she knew he wouldn't judge her, but without thinking, she made a beeline to Data's dormroom. It was in that vulnerable state that she had revealed to him some facts about her life she had never talked about with anyone before or, to his knowledge, since - how her parents were killed in a bombing when she was eight, how she was left to try and raise her little sister on her own and had always fault guilty for believing she had let her down, and how she had, to no avail, desperately tried to avoid the everpresent gangs and their wide-ranging activities, including their more favorite pasttimes of rapes of young girls. For all she had been through, traumatized to such an extent and having had no formal education until the Academy, she had held up remarkably well, and to an outsider, she might seem perfectly well adjusted. But beyond confiding in him, he was unaware of her receiving any counseling, so he had always made the assumption she had never really recovered completely. He never made a reference to it, though, as he didn't want to seemingly needlessly upset her. There were, of course, indicators that what he believed was true: she had always kept herself busy and buried in study and work, and she rarely went out for recreational purposes. She had even admitted in a letter log to him not long ago that she had never been in a steady romantic relationship and, he was most surprised to hear, had never made love.
"Experience would no doubt be beneficial." Although he had in fact been listening, it may have been perceived as if he hadn't been for his lack of conversational input for a moment after she had paused. "I'm sorry;", Tasha interrupted herself, "I keep talking about me. How have *you* been?" She sat there with a smile. "Gone on any other fantastic adventures on that new starship of yours since we talked last week?"
He went along with her topic change. "As a matter of fact, yes, and your presence here today would likely have proved helpful if you had been here. We have left a planet called Angel One..."