Chapter 6: Three's Company

"Beverly? Beverly, can you hear me?"

Beverly stirred and moaned groggily as her eyelids fluttered open, but although she could make out the sound of Jean-Luc's voice, she still couldn't focus on his face. The room was spinning and her stomach lurched.

"Don't try to sit up too quickly."

"What happened?"

Before he could answer, she gasped when she realized that the sound of her own voice was coming from her mouth. Her hands dashed from her face, to her hair, her breasts, and finally to her abdomen and she burst into tearful laughter when she felt soft movements of her daughter within her again. Finally unafraid to fully open her eyes, she looked up to find a circle of concerned faces hovering over her, including Doctor Selar, Will and Deanna.

"Doctor Crusher, you are in sickbay," answered Doctor Selar, who adjusted the backrest of her bed that she wouldn't have to sit up on her own. "You have been returned to your own body."

"And the baby?" she asked

"The child is in perfect health, as are Commander LaForge and Commander Data. It took you a little longer to regain consciousness, but I can find no indication of negative side effects."

"How do you feel?" asked Jean-Luc.

"Very happy to be back in my own body."

"Not as happy as I am to have you in it."

In a rare show of public affection, he took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles before reverently caressing her cheek and twisting his fingers into the waves of her hair. In her heart, Beverly swore to herself that she would never take the simple pleasure of those little gestures for granted as long as she lived.

"Welcome back, Doctor," interrupted Alyssa, "I thought you might want to see this for yourself."

Everyone gathered in to look at the latest scan of the now fully-formed baby girl, her tiny fingers flexing and heart beating rapidly through gossamer skin.

"My god, she's so beautiful."

"Oh Beverly, she's amazing!" choked Deanna.

"Yeah. She's got your nose, but definitely the captain's head," Will joked as Deanna jabbed him in the ribs.

"You just earned yourself a few watches on the gamma shift, Commander."

"Don't worry, Jean-Luc. I think a few nights of babysitting and diaper duty for Auntie Deanna and Uncle Will is going to be sufficient punishment. I just hope they can forgive us for not telling them about it sooner."

"There's nothing to forgive. Besides, I think that the gossip that this is going to cause once the news gets out will be sufficient punishment for you," she added with a wink. "I just can't believe that you were able to pull off such a big secret without me noticing."

"It wasn't easy, believe me. But surely you didn't think I stopped taking off my blue lab coat because it's so stylish and comfortable, did you?"

"No, but I'm just so used to seeing you in it that I never gave it a second thought. And that day I found you feeling sick in your office, you told me that someone from one of the away teams had exposed you to the Thelusian flu."

Beverly threw up her hands in defeat, laughing as she reached over and traced a finger across the image of her daughter on the screen. "I wanted to tell you sooner, but I think part of me still couldn't believe that she was real. And now I'm looking at her and feeling her move inside of me, and I still can't find the words."

Her eyes welling up again, Beverly looked over to Jean-Luc, who had remained quiet during the entire conversation with Deanna. His hand reached over and joined hers where it was resting on the image of the baby's face, and until Will spoke, she had almost felt as if they were the only ones in the room.

"Well, I just hope you're not going to keep the due date a secret. After all, I do have to get started on the baby pool." Jean-Luc raised a suspicious eyebrow as Beverly chuckled and watched Deanna pull Will away by the arm. "What did I say?"

"Come on, Commander. Let's give the three of them some time alone."

Deanna shared an understanding smile with Beverly as she and Will bid the little family farewell and headed out of sickbay while Doctor Selar and Alyssa made themselves busy in another corner of the room.

Before passing through the doorway, Deanna stole one last glance back and watched as Jean-Luc and Beverly wrapped their arms around each other, and then kissed slowly and passionately, as if they hadn't seen each other in ages. The wave of emotions besieged her empathic senses and she stopped halfway down the hall, bracing herself on Will's arm.

"What is it?" he asked, watching her eyes widen and mist up with tears. "What are you feeling?"

"Love, Will…love."

Five hours, ten minutes and forty-three seconds was how long it had been since that last flash of light that restored the away team to their original states. It took considerably less time for Data and Geordi to resume their normal routines once everyone was sure that all was as it should be.

Geordi had Data's head panel open and was doing a diagnostic of the android's positronic systems. "You know Data, it's nice to be back in my own body, but there's almost something I miss about being in yours. This diagnostic would have been done by now if I still had your brain."

"Geordi, if you still had my brain, we would probably not be proceeding with the diagnostic."

The chief engineer let out a hearty laugh and shook his head at how his friend had missed the point. "Yeah, Data, I guess you're right. But seriously, it was pretty interesting being in your body. You don't need to eat, sleep, are not interrupted by distractions, you have no real need for company. I envy you sometimes. Life can be very complicated for us humans."

"I am beginning to understand the validity of that statement. The situations I experienced while in Doctor Crusher's body were quite compelling. However, I find it unfortunate that although I have retained with perfect clarity the details of every moment, I can no longer adequately quantify the feelings associated with them. In fact, this entire incident is what has prompted me to consider installing the emotion chip. I wish to explore the concept of emotional bonding and the need humans have to be connected to someone in that manner."

Geordi paused for a moment as Data held the chip up in front of him. "Data, you should know that the feelings associated with human relationships are not always happy and positive. Doctor Crusher and Captain Picard are very lucky. A lot of people often go through life never having their emotional needs fulfilled. Are you ready to take that kind of chance?"

"For the past seven years on the ship, I have been performing my duties, and experimenting with personal enrichment hobbies. However, although they add to my knowledge database, the current parameters of my existence are no longer sufficient to fill my needs. I have learned all that I can in my current state and I cannot fully comprehend the significance of the knowledge that I have accumulated without emotion, which is not the same as analytical confirmation. Additionally, although the more time I spend with any given person, my neural pathways can become accustomed to their sensory input patterns, thus creating a sense of familiarity, it is not the same as really feeling friendship, Geordi."

"I supposed you're right. And ultimately, personal growth is the life-long goal of most sentient beings. Still, you're pretty lucky."

"In what way, Geordi?"

"Well, if you don't like how things turn out, you can always turn your emotions off."

Data turned to face him and stared for a moment as if he couldn't understand his friend's misgivings, and then handed him the clamp holding the tiny device. Geordi inserted the chip very carefully into its place and made a few last-minute adjustments before powering up the link.

"Are you ready, Data?"

"Yes. Please initiate the connection."

Geordi took a deep breath and tapped some commands on his computer panel. With a series of flashing lights, the emotion chip interfaced with Data's positronic nueronet and sent his body into a series of violent convulsions.

"Data! Can you hear me? Something's wrong…I'm terminating the link."

"No…"

Data reached out and stopped Geordi's hand from severing the connection.

As his positronic net and neural sub processors danced with newfound purpose, reevaluating everything that had happened to him over the past days, Data's eyes widened with realization. Twelve-five-point-three seconds was all it lasted, sending images flashing through his mind…Tasha, Lore, Soong, Juliana, Beverly's unborn child, and finally his own daughter, Lal.

"I love you, father."

"I wish I could feel it with you."

"I will feel it for both of us. Thank you for my life."

"Wow…"

With that, a single, yellow tear rolled down his pale cheek.