Disclaimer :: I don't own anything Star Trek. Or Data... though I wish I could... But Starfleet ruled that he is sentient and, therefore, not property.

Dialogue 4

Troi's door buzzed.

"Enter."

The door whooshed.

"Data, good morning." Data stepped in and the door whooshed closed behind him. "Aren't you usually asleep at this time of the morning."

"Yes, Counselor." Data nodded.

She saw the expression on his face - one of almost misery. "Data, what's wrong?"

"I..." Data blinked. "I had a nightmare. I wish to talk about my experience as it seems to have... disturbed me, somehow."

Troi went to the sofa and sat, patting the seat beside her. "Come sit down then, Data. I don't have any appointments for at least an hour."

Data moved and sat on the sofa to her left. "Where should I start?"

"How about at the beginning."

"I was swimming. I could feel the water on my skin. I saw movement off in the darkness and swam toward it. She came out of the gloom and began kissing me... it was... wonderful... I wanted to stay like that forever. I pulled away to look at her - her hair was swimming about her face in the water. I dropped my feet to position my body vertically and kissed her again with my hands cupping her jaw. Our bodies met and pressed against one another. I... I turned my head to change the kiss... and we began to rise through the water... When I broke the surface, I was alone. She was gone. And I was in a thunderstorm, out at sea, in the middle of the ocean. I yelled for her... and there was a lightning strike... I yelled again... and then there was the thunder, like an explosion..."

Troi listened carefully, watching Data's face contort with emotions. She could feel their mild tinglings too... the emotion chip never having been fully restored, it didn't hold the potency it had for Lore... But it was there, clearly - sensations of pleasure, joy, and then panic... and fear...

"The thunder woke me up. I was breathing heavily, and when I got up, I felt as if my body was... wrong..." Data looked up at the Counselor, "I felt heavy... mechanical... as if the body of flesh in my dreams was my real body. I could not feel my sheets on my skin or the carpeting under my feet... and..." Data shook his head, looking lost.

Deanna touched his hand, hoping it wouldn't upset him further. "Data what you're feeling is called anguish. Your dreams make you long even more so for your goal of humanity to be fulfilled, don't they?"

"Yes." Data's voice was so low.

"What did you do after you got up?"

"I stood in front of the mirror and stared at myself. And it was my body... my face... and hands... and torso... and the feeling went away. I felt like myself again. But it worries me that I have had an experience like this. I do not wish to experience it again. So I came here."

Deanna smiled. "I understand your desire not to feel so badly again. But there's a high likelihood that you will."

Data's shoulders slumped.

"The key here, Data, is to learn how to cope with these feelings. These are things that all human beings feel at one time or another. I assume this is the first time this has happened?"

"Yes." Data nodded.

"I also wonder if your distress might not have more to do with *her absence at the end of your dream. That the thunderstorm may have been caused by her disappearance?"

Data looked at her and blinked. "I had not considered that. It is certainly a possibility. Perhaps, the storm refers to my feelings of distraction during my waking hours? I regularly find myself looking forward to the night's possible sensory inputs."

Deanna smiled. "Data," she began cautiously, "have you considered that maybe you have fallen in love with this woman?"

"I have tried not to think about it, actually. The idea is... quite painful."

"That the first person you really learn to love is not real?"

"Yes, Counselor." Data's voice nearly broke.

~.oOo.~

AN :: mmm...another short one... i'm glad i'm managing to get this up this weekend. what a week! i'm having some emotional issues with my computer... -_- reading through this again, some of the dialogue doesn't flow quite as smoothly as maybe it could... but neither does a lot of the dialogue in the show either. :) next chapter just needs the ending smoothed over/layed out, so! if all goes well and i don't melt into a puddle within the next week, there will be more heartbroken androids in the very near future!