He laid awake for a long time, holding her as she slept.
He realized that he would do anything - anything - to be able to hold her every night as she slept in his arms. He had loved her from afar for so many years. One reason he kept himself from getting involved with her over the years is because he knew that once their personal lives were bound together, their professional lives would be inextricably intertwined.
But, weren't they already? From the guilt years ago when he loved his best friend's wife, to his reluctance to bring her on board the Enterprise, to the year she had been at Medical and he secretly pined for her. And then their awkward dance around each other for so many years, followed by the lonely months when he tracked her whereabouts on the Pasteur. They had been intertwined for years, decades, and now, they were together, and she was asleep in his arms. But their time in this cabin, away from the universe, was finite. He needed to end his tour on the Enterprise and join her on Earth as soon as possible.
He leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. "I will love you forever, Beverly," he whispered into the darkness.
As he climbed out of bed in the morning, he turned to see her reaching out for him in her sleep. Quietly, he padded out to the kitchen and began clearing the dishes from the night before. He was thinking about how she was asleep in his bed, after all of these years. And it had taken a parallel universe to make them come to their senses.
Eventually, the kitchen was cleared and coffee was started, and he scrolled through the replicator menu, searching for croissants. Sounds from the bedroom (our bedroom, he thought to himself) alerted him to a rising Beverly.
He sipped tea while she held a mug of coffee, and they sat in front of the picture window and watched the snow falling softly.
Her voice was soft. "Now what do we do?" He turned and looked at her and noted the tousled hair skimming her shoulders, the sliver of skin revealing that she most likely was not wearing anything else under the blue silk robe, the bright eyes that looked more rested than they had in months. He opened his mouth to speak - and stopped. He didn't know what was next. Perhaps he should simply not return to the Enterprise, go with her to Earth...
A distant chime distracted him, and he glanced over to where he had left his padd on the counter, by the wall as he swore under his breath in irritation. He had deliberately selected a cabin with a minimum of intrusion, but he had brought a padd, loaded with literature and reading. And now it was intruding upon their solitary existence. With a regretful glance, he got up, refusing to put down his tea, his calm mood vanishing.
The padd's display showed a message; he was being recalled to the Enterprise, to investigate the anomalies. A wave of anger rose up within. He didn't want to return to that life. He wanted to be with Beverly - he looked back over at the chairs, and she was gone.
"Beverly?"
If his padd was chiming, it had to be urgent. And she had been out of communication with Medical for two days. While he was scrolling, she got up and went back into the bedroom. The only thing that the Federation would contact him about while he was on leave would be urgent – something that cut across divisions.
Something like the anomalies.
She knelt down by the bed, went through her swingpack and pulled out her padd. The muffled chime rang through the air once it was free of her uniform, nestled near the bottom of the pack. Resting back on her heels, she unlocked the device and began to read the waiting message.
He found her sitting by the bed, tapping on the surface of her device. She glanced up at him momentarily. "You're being recalled to the Enterprise. Everyone is being recalled to their ships. The anomalies are causing rifts in space."
He looked down at her in surprise. "How did you know that?"
"Because I'm being recalled to Medical to investigate the effects." She gazed up at him, sitting there on the floor in the robe he replicated for her, eyes bright blue in the morning sunlight, and she sighed and patted the floor beside her. "We knew this cabin, this time away - it was too good to be true. Duty calls."
He sat down beside her, inwardly groaning at the movement. He was a bit sore, still, and she seemed more comfortable on the floor than he was. Still, she was down there and he wanted to be beside her. "I don't have to leave for another day," he said, and his words sounded mournful to his ear.
"Me neither."
She leaned over and rested against him, and his fingers slid into her hair, playing with the strands as she continued to read. She flipped over to a set of medical charts, reports, nothing he could even hope to decipher, and she sighed again.
"I need a bath, Jean-Luc. It helps me think. You should come and join me." And she kissed him softly on the cheek.
The bathtub was certainly large enough for the both of them, and the air jets eased his sore muscles. He watched as she read her padd, holding it above the water. Occasionally, she let out a little hum, or tapped a note of some sort. He simply observed her, enjoying the familiar expression on her face that meant she was mulling over a challenge.
This was the first time he had seen that expression on her face when she was naked in a bathtub, covered in fragrant bubbles. She looked deliciously studious.
Finally, she set the padd down and looked over at him. "We have another day before we need to leave. I can't move forward on the research until I have access to Medical's facilities. So. Now what do we do?"
He reached out and grabbed her ankle, caressing her calf with his thumb. "We shall have to make the most of our day together, then."