Scrapes and cuts and bumps and bruises are part of her life now, and she wears them with more pride than she ever wore her bronze in gymnastics. But this time it's a jagged gash in her skin, a little bit more painful and larger than usual. It's a parting shot from a creature that her Doctor had swiftly defeated, his mouth set in a thin line of rage, after he heard her yelp of pain. He brings her to the med bay right away, his hand firmly on her arm to both steady and lead her. She grabs ahold of his arm for support, and because digging her nails into his thick leather jacket makes her all that less likely to wince in pain.
Arriving in the med bay, she realizes that she needs to get out of her clothes now, and she removes the jeans she'd saved up for months to buy from her first job out of school with a slight bit of reluctance. They're ruined anyway with a large tear, and caked with the bright red of her own blood.
This is the first time he's ever had to clean her up like this, and she turns her face away. She's used to alien technology by now, but the dermal regenerator is huge and not unlike the pincers on the creature that put her into this state to begin with. Even so, from the corner of her eye, she can see its blue electric current reaching out to her skin, tingling and zapping her skin cells, knitting them together back into health.
It turns off abruptly and she looks at him, waiting for his reaction. He's hunched down over her bare hip, eyes scanning over it from all angles, and he runs a finger over the healed wound. She suppresses a shiver.
"Perfect," he says, and if he were a human bloke she'd tease him, ask him flirtatiously if he really thought so, and tell him he's not so bad himself.
Instead, she nods back at him, and he grins, the broad grin she's grown to love.
"All set then," he says, and this time, for whatever reason, she can't resist.
"You know, back home on Earth, they say you're supposed to kiss it better."
His eyes flick up to hers, and she's positive he's going to make a comment about stupid ape traditions. She holds her breath as he holds her gaze steadily, and resolutely, and slowly brings his lips down to her bare flesh.
She lets herself shiver then, but before she can raise herself up, tug on his leather lapels and bring his mouth to her own, he gives her that quicksilver smile again, and turns on his heel, talking about other healing traditions on other planets that someday – someday – he promises to take her to.
She sighs. Someday, indeed.