Hello, lovely people! Thank you for sticking with this story as long as you have, and if you're a newcomer, welcome! I'm usually really good with replying to reviews but have been slipping as of late. If you're still around, drop me a line and let me know and I will definitely offer you endless thanks for taking a chance on my writing, and my haphazard update schedule. Enjoy the update!

Twenty Seven

"A poker game?"

"A poker game," confirmed Jim. Victoria rolled her eyes and returned to her microscope, but Jim poked her shoulder incessantly. "It'll be fun, Tori."

"You seriously want me to join you and your friends at a poker game?" Victoria asked disbelievingly. "I can't do that, Jim. What part of secret identity do you not understand?"

"It's only me, Bones, Spock and Uhura. Hell, I'll even invite Sulu. They already know who you are."

"You're all senior staff. I'm not. It looks weird."

"Who the hell has to know it's happening?" demanded Jim. "I'm not sending out a memo; we're all off-shift, and so are you. It doesn't matter how we spend our free time."

"Jim, I don't know…"

"The last time we played poker, you made Spock bet his watch and you won it. Do you know how many people have beaten Spock at poker, Tori?"

Victoria sighed. "I assume not many?"

"Try no one!" Jim looked at her like she was crazy. "You have to come, Tori. I need him to lose again!"

"So now I'm just invited because I can beat a half-Vulcan at poker?"

Jim groaned and leaned against her desk, arms folded across his chest stubbornly. "Fine, I didn't want to bring this up, but remember when you won Spock's watch? What else did you do that day?"

Victoria frowned. "What do you mean? I beat you too."

"You also woke up extra early and got cosy with a certain doctor," said Jim pointedly. Victoria turned red and returned to her microscope to hide her blush. She hadn't realised Jim knew about that, but it shouldn't have surprised her; Leonard and Jim were friends, and Jim was nosy as hell. "You're turning red," Jim sounded delighted. "I had a feeling that would get you interested. Bones is going to be there, you know."

Victoria cleared her throat. "Jim, I don't know why you've got it into your head that I have a thing for Leonard –"

"Leonard!"

"– but we are just friends, and he's my doctor," said Victoria firmly. "I'm not looking for a relationship. Or a fling. Or a one-night stand," she added, when Jim still looked ready to argue. "I actually like him, Jim. I'd also like to not have to avoid him in the halls when he's on the list of the very few people I can interact with freely on this ship. Okay?"

"I think you're being dumb," shrugged Jim. "I've seen the way he looks at you too, you know."

Victoria rolled her eyes. "If you don't know the difference between having feelings someone and being attracted to them, Jim Kirk, I have clearly failed at raising you."

"I know the difference, Tori. I also know you need a bit of both," said Jim. He didn't sound like he was teasing anymore, but Victoria didn't answer. He groaned. "Fine, if I let the Bones thing go, will you come?"

"Honey, it's really sweet of you to try and include me like this, but it's not necessary," she shook her head. "I've been alone for a long time, and I'm used to it. One more evening won't kill me."

"You're not alone on my ship, Tori," finally giving up all semblance of professionalism, Jim wrenched the microscope away and didn't flinch when Victoria glared at him. Fortunately, the lab was empty, so no one was around to see if she decided to punch him. Which was a very tempting thought. "Look, I know you did things a certain way before, and I know you're more comfortable hiding out in your quarters and only interacting with the crew when you need to, but it's not necessary. My senior officers know about you, and they're not going to rat you out; everyone you interact with on the ship likes you; and I miss you," he tacked on at the end, causing Victoria to roll her eyes again. "C'mon, Tori, I've wanted you on my ship since I got command, can you blame me for wanting to spend time with you now that you're here?"

Victoria sighed, her shoulders falling in defeat. "That's not fair," she muttered. "You can't play that card with me, you know I won't say no."

"I know," grinning like a twelve year old, Jim kissed her cheek and ducked before she could hit him. "Thursday, nineteen hundred hours, my quarters. And don't bother being in uniform, it'll just depress me."

"Get out of my lab, Kirk," she waved him away, but he knew she'd be there. He sauntered out, the picture of confidence, and Victoria sighed. It would be nice to spend time with people who knew her real name, people she didn't need to hide from, but it still made her uncomfortable. She had always thrived in crowds, but it had all changed after her mission in the Laurentian system. Now, she cringed when there were too many people in the room, and threw herself into work to avoid having to confront more than one person at a time. And normally, when it was just one person, she was at ease; Uhura joined her for coffee all the time, Jim was constantly in her quarters to annoy her, and even Hikaru tried to see her at least once every couple of days. And then, there was McCoy…

Leonard, she corrected herself automatically in her head, and then felt like punching herself for doing so. He was just a friend, despite Jim's suggestiveness, and there was no reason for her to be thinking about him as much as she did. Of course, he was good-looking and charming and his smile made her knees go weak in a way that they hadn't in years, but that was beside the point.

And what was the point, anyway? Huffing, Victoria pushed her microscope away, officially giving up on the sedimentary deposits she had been analysing. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back and rested her neck against the headrest of her chair. She had a meeting with Spock in two hours, and spending that time thinking about Leonard McCoy was the exact opposite of what she wanted to do, but her brain had other ideas. It had been too long since she had been even faintly interested in a man, or even had the time to think about one she wasn't related to; she was convinced that was why the feelings were hitting her harder all at once. It was also no wonder she flirted with him shamelessly and acted like a schoolgirl whenever he talked to her in that damned accent of his. It was frankly embarrassing, and she was glad he was too much of a gentleman to make fun of her.

But despite it all, Victoria enjoyed talking to him. She had thought she would be awkward and uncomfortable after revealing everything that had happened to her the other week, but she felt the opposite. It was a relief, knowing there was at least one person on the ship who not only knew everything, but understood it as well. Leonard was a doctor, so he hadn't needed extraneous details the way Uhura and Jim had; and he seemed to have a knack for knowing when she didn't want to elaborate on something, so he had bit back any questions he had clearly wanted to ask. He would ask them later, she knew that, but at that moment he had simply let her tell the story at her own pace, on her own terms. There had been no pressure, and any outrage he had felt seemed to be on her behalf, rather than at her. How long had it been since Victoria had been able to tell her whole story without a single interruption? Even Jim had interrupted her constantly, anxious to comfort her but not knowing how. Meanwhile, her father simply refused to acknowledge what had happened other than to give orders every few months. But Leonard had been different. Talking to him had been, for lack of a better word, therapeutic.

Victoria scowled as the word entered her mind. If she didn't know better, she'd think he'd done it on purpose so she would consent to counselling. That was the real reason she was reluctant to go to Jim's poker night – she didn't want Leonard to corner her and bring up therapy again, because she didn't want it. Ever. Talking about her feelings had never, ever gone well, and she refused to indulge in it now. She was thirty-four years old, she had earned the right to bottle up her feelings and repress her emotions. And there was no way a doctor with a sexy Southern accent was going to convince her otherwise.

!

Uhura was just about to knock on Jim's door when Victoria turned the corner.

"I had a feeling he'd rope you into coming," greeted Nyota. "And you look great; being out of uniform definitely suits you."

Victoria smiled and accepted a hug from the woman, whom she hadn't seen for weeks now. They rarely interacted when on-shift, since Victoria spent most of her time in the labs on the Science Deck and Uhura was always on the Bridge. They had met for coffee and meals a few times though, along with a few of Uhura's friends, and Victoria liked them. She particularly liked the Communications Officer, however, and was relieved she didn't have to walk into the room alone.

"I see we had the same idea," said Victoria, spotting the bottle in Uhura's hand. Uhura grinned at the similar bottle in Victoria's hand, though without a label. "Jim's easy to buy gifts for, after all."

"I always forget you have all the juicy childhood stories about him," giggled Uhura. "I'm almost afraid to ask."

"You shouldn't be," Victoria smiled. "I think it would embarrass him if I told everyone just what a good kid he was. He's never even sassed me, and I've known him since he was three."

"He doesn't strike me as someone with a respect for authority," commented Uhura, rolling her eyes.

Victoria snorted. "He isn't, but that came later. Usually, he'd listen to me if he got cake in exchange. So, my child-rearing secret is basically bribery."

Uhura laughed again, and the door slid open to reveal a grinning Jim Kirk. If possible, his smile got wider when he spotted Victoria standing next to Uhura.

"You know, I've had dreams about this," he said teasingly. "Opening my door only to discover two beautiful –"

"– unavailable –" added Uhura.

"– uninterested –" supplied Victoria.

"– stunningly intelligent women," finished Jim, as if neither of them had spoken. "And with alcohol too! Are you sure I'm not dreaming, ladies?"

"Smooth, Kirk," rolling her eyes, Uhura pushed the bottle into his hands and walked into the room, making a beeline for Spock. Victoria giggled, but kissed Jim's cheek and handed him the bottle she had brought as well. His eyes lit up when he saw what it was, and she laughed again.

"If you finish it all tonight, you'll regret it tomorrow," she reminded him.

"I never have regrets, Tori, you know that," throwing an arm around her shoulders, he led her into the room. Jim's quarters were the biggest on the ship, and he took full advantage of that by making sure he never had to spend two consecutive free shifts alone. The poker game was the most tame of all of Jim's parties, but Victoria was glad he had never tried to get her to come to any of the others. "Well, you ladies are the last ones here, so let's get started," he said, steering her further into the room. "But first, drink?"

"I got it, Jim," said a familiar voice behind them. Victoria fought to keep her face neutral even as Jim squeezed her shoulder pointedly. McCoy came into their line of sight, two glasses in hand. Jim held up both bottles to him in offering, and his eyebrows shot up. "Thought you said you weren't gonna let him sneak alcohol onto the ship, darlin'."

"I did say that," said Victoria. She smirked at McCoy's raised eyebrows. "That one's mine."

Leonard chuckled. "Should'a known, I guess. May I?"

"Well, looks like you're taken care of, Tori. I'll get myself another glass," said Jim with an exaggerated wink. Victoria rolled her eyes as he darted off, but fortunately McCoy didn't seem to notice. She took the extra glass from him and allowed him to fill it with a decent amount from the bottle, but raised her eyebrows when she saw that his glass was already full.

"What's that?" she asked curiously.

"Bourbon," said Leonard. Seeing her curious look, he offered her his glass. "Ain't no home-made hooch, but it's alright."

"A Southern gentleman who drinks bourbon," murmured Victoria. Accepting his glass, she took a sip and tried to ignore the way his eyes were most definitely staring at her mouth. Of course, he was staring at her mouth – she was drinking from his glass, after all. At his own request. "You sure you're from this century, Leonard?" she teased, hoping to break the sudden tension.

It worked. His eyes immediately snapped up to meet hers, and they were twinkling. "I could ask you the same thing," he said. She hummed in reply and had another sip; the man had good taste in whiskey, after all. Reluctantly, she handed him his glass back and accepted her own, forgoing all semblance of politeness and swallowing the liquid in it in one gulp. The taste made her wince, even as she held out her glass for a refill. Tipping some more hooch into her glass, she noticed that Leonard's eyebrows were lost in his hair – which wasn't gelled back like it usually was – and it made her giggle.

"Bourbon deserves to be savoured. This doesn't," she explained. "Trust me, the aftermath is way more enjoyable than the taste."

"If you say so, darlin'," he said slowly. "You ready to kick my ass at poker again?"

"Only for you to swoop in at the last minute and take all my money," she snorted.

"Ah, you remember that," he said amusedly. "I ain't gonna apologise. You told me not to take it easy on you."

"I appreciate that," she laughed. They clinked their glasses together and headed to the table, which was already set up. Jim liked to play poker the old-fashioned way, with a deck of cards and the plastic chips they used to hand out at casinos in the twenty-first century. Victoria was so used to the multiple screens and gadgets that they used in casinos last time she had been on Earth that she was surprised. Her old housekeeper, Mrs. Cope, had played solitaire with a similar deck of cards all through Victoria's childhood; she smiled a little as her hands grazed the top of the deck.

"Somethin' funny?" asked Leonard. He had sat down next to her, and was close enough that their arms brushed when Victoria suddenly turned to face him. Inwardly, she was glad she had worn a full-sleeved sweater with jeans, because the last time his bare skin had touched hers she had probably thought about nothing else for a week. It had annoyed her to no end, until she had seen him stare at her legs when she had worn her heels last week. No matter how much he insisted it was because he was worried she was going to injure herself in them, it had been extremely satisfying to know he was at least a little attracted to her, if not as much as she was.

"Nothing special," she lied smilingly. Spock and Uhura sat down opposite them, and Hikaru came to Victoria's other side, giving her a side-hug and a kiss on the cheek. Before she could ask him anything, however, Jim appeared and clapped his hands together gleefully. Victoria winced at the look on his face, because she knew whatever he was about to say next would make at least one person want to throw their drink at him.

And it did.

"We are not playing strip poker, Kirk," said Uhura, her tone final. "Play the game with normal rules, and just try not to go broke by the end. Okay?"

Jim rolled his eyes, but sat down between Spock and Sulu without complaint. Victoria giggled, automatically exchanging a look with McCoy, who was smirking. Finishing her drink, she tried not to think about why she had decided to look at him in the first place and picked up her cards.

Having played with the crew before at Yorktown, Victoria was familiar with most of their tells. It was a secret she was keeping to herself, no matter how much Jim tried to watch her face every time someone spoke. His tell was the easiest, and so was Uhura's: both of them seemed incapable of keeping eye contact when bluffing, which was amusing considering the stories Victoria had heard of their escapades on the Enterprise in previous years. But poker was different, and Mrs. Cope had always said it didn't matter if you were a good liar in real life if you didn't have a good poker face in poker. It was also why Spock was easy to figure out: being a half-Vulcan, he was able to understand the enjoyment behind poker, and therefore the need to bluff, but lying was against his nature, and so his eyes always narrowed for a brief second before he decided to commit to it. Victoria was sure no one had noticed it yet, since Spock watched all of his crew-mates through narrowed eyes anyway, though that was normally out of suspicion or annoyance. She was a little proud of herself, and it had taken all of her self-control not to do a happy dance when she had won his watch from him last time – she planned to give it back, of course, but not just yet. And then there was Hikaru, who usually ended up drinking too much at the beginning of the game and therefore laughed every time he was about to bluff, but enjoyed the game itself too much to try and cover up his lying. Overall, Victoria was pretty confident she could wipe the floor with them, but there was just one problem.

Vicoria couldn't tell when Leonard McCoy was lying.

Normally, she was excellent at picking up tells. She had been playing cards for years, and had swindled more than a few men in college, and then later at the Academy, because she had always been the type to agree to a persistent date, flutter her eyelashes and pretend she had no idea what was going on until they suddenly realised they were out a good chunk of money and she had embarrassed them into leaving her alone for the next few months. But none of her usual tricks seemed to work on Leonard, who had the best poker face she had ever seen, and whose voice didn't shake no matter how high the stakes got, or how much bourbon he drank. It had annoyed her the first time they had played, but she had chalked it up to too much alcohol and the fact that his accent became stronger the more he drank, which in turn distracted her every time he spoke. She wanted to believe she was a little more immune to it now, but two minutes into the game she realised she was kidding herself, and every time his smooth voice sounded from next to her she had to physically stop herself from shivering delightedly. It was ridiculous to behave this way, because she had been attracted to men before that she had been able to resist easily, but this was… a bit much.

"Tori, you're killing me," groaned Jim. Victoria snapped out of her daze and smirked as she reached out to grab his chips. She had been bluffing. "Your freaky superpower still works?"

"Shut up," said Victoria, the same time as everyone at the table demanded to know what Jim meant.

"Tori always knows when people are lying," explained Jim. "Even if she loses a game at the end, she'll empty your pockets halfway through."

"It's just luck, and good observation," said Victoria modestly, though she continued to smirk. "Also, I tend to drink less than the rest of you."

"Except Bones," pointed out Jim.

"Except Leonard, yes," agreed Victoria. "But I can't tell when he's lying anyway," she added without thinking, and then snapped her mouth shut.

Jim sat up straighter in his chair, eyes lighting up. "Really?"

"What?" asked Leonard, sounding amused.

Uhura rolled her eyes. "I know! McCoy has the best poker face ever."

"High compliment, considerin' who you're datin'," said McCoy, holding up his glass in Uhura's direction. "I didn't know you were that good at pickin' out liars, though," he added, turning to Victoria.

She heard Jim snort and engage Uhura and Spock in conversation, leaving her and McCoy to talk. She wanted to throw something at him, but Leonard was watching her with those warm hazel eyes that made her heart rate pick up to just the right speed, and she smiled sheepishly.

"It's just good observation, honestly," she said. McCoy raised an eyebrow, and she sighed. "Fine. Uhura and Jim can't keep eye contact, Spock squints, Hikaru laughs, and I –" abruptly, she stopped talking and shook her head. "Nope. That's all I'm saying, sorry."

"You know your own tell?" demanded McCoy. "Oh, you gotta tell me, darlin'. I'm crap at pickin' out liars."

"Aren't you supposed to know when patients are lying? You're a doctor!"

"Also divorced," snorted McCoy. "Would'a made my life a hell of a lot easier if I could tell when my ex-wife was lyin'."

Victoria frowned and opened her mouth to ask what lying and divorce had to do with each other, but Jim interrupted them. "Are you two done? Tori, you better not be telling him how to beat me!"

"Of course not," she lied quickly. Under the table, she kicked McCoy's chair so he'd play along, and heard him stifle a laugh behind his glass from next to her. "Let's keep playing."

And as the game went on, the trash talk started to escalate.

For the most part, everyone was behaving, but the more they drank, the worse it got. Uhura had gone from merely rolling her eyes at Jim's comments to responding to them in various alien dialects that nobody except Spock actually understood, but her tone and his expression told them nothing she said was polite. McCoy had threatened to deck Spock twice and had actually lunged for Jim once, but Victoria had reflexively grabbed his arm before he could cause any damage. Hikaru tended to laugh at everything when he was drunk, which Victoria already knew, so it didn't surprise her when her brother-in-law started finding everything she said funny. Even when she was trying not to be.

"If you punch him, I get to stop you," muttered McCoy, as Victoria kicked Hikaru under the table for the fourth time in ten minutes.

"Don't tempt me," whispered back Victoria. Uhura said something again in a language nobody understood, which made Hikaru nearly fall off his chair laughing. She rolled her eyes. "Is it just me, or is everyone here more drunk than us?"

"I have better tolerance than these jokers," said McCoy. "Got at least ten extra years of practice on 'em."

"That explains it," she sighed. "Can you believe we have to call him sir in the morning?" she jerked her head towards Jim, who was holding his hand out and daring Spock to arm-wrestle him. To his credit, the half-Vulcan was steadfastly refusing, but something in his eyes told Victoria he wanted to say yes, if only to shut Jim up.

"Makes you question your life decisions, don't it?" snorted McCoy.

"Oh, I do that regularly with no help from Jim," said Victoria. She emptied the bottle she'd hidden from the man in question into her own glass, and threw it back hastily. As she wiped her mouth on the back of her hand, she realised McCoy was watching her again. "You're lucky you can blame the alcohol on the staring this time, Leonard," she said dryly. "Unless I have something on my face?"

"Funny," said McCoy. "Fishin' for a compliment?"

"I don't need to fish," Victoria winked, and was only slightly satisfied when McCoy's lips twitched up. He returned to staring at his cards and she did the same, and the game continued.

Twenty minutes later, however, Victoria gave up. "Right, you're going to bed," she said to Sulu, who was squinting at his glass suspiciously. "You're going to have the mother of all hangovers tomorrow, Hikaru."

Her brother-in-law protested, but his words were slurred and Victoria was stronger than she looked; in a trice, she had pulled him up and folded her cards, waving goodbye to everyone as she helped Sulu out of the room. As they paused to let the door open, Victoria felt more than saw someone hold up Hikaru on his other side, and peered over his shoulder to see who had come to her rescue. It was Leonard.

"I'll give him somethin' for the hangover," he said, when Victoria raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. "Don't have the energy to keep playin' with those jokers, if I'm honest."

Victoria smiled. Together, they managed to haul the pilot across the corridor and into the turbolift. Once inside, Hikaru groaned and leaned against Victoria, his voice whiny as he complained about the jostling of the lift. Leonard raised his eyebrows and made to shift his weight off her, but Victoria waved him away smilingly. Gently, she patted Hikaru's back as though soothing a child; everything in her movements told Leonard this wasn't the first time she was helping her drunk brother-in-law to bed, and he didn't know if that made him want to smile, or ask her what in the hell she'd been doing for the past three years that this was second nature to her.

The turbolift's door's opened before he could make up his mind, and they continued with their task. Fortunately, Hikaru wasn't heavy, and was already close to falling asleep. McCoy's room was down the hall from the pilot's, and he took a quick detour to grab the emergency hangover-cure hypospray he kept on hand at all times – usually for Jim, but often for himself as well. When he returned to Sulu's room, Victoria was trying not to laugh as she pulled the covers over the man in question, who was out cold on the bed already.

"What'd he say?" asked Leonard curiously. He side-stepped Victoria and quickly injected the hypospray's contents into Sulu's neck. The pilot didn't even stir.

"He apologised profusely for getting drunk and making me take care of him, again," Victoria rolled her eyes, but she was still smiling. "The last time this happened was at his wedding. Ben went to bed and we stayed up drinking and talking. I kept telling him to slow down that day too. I don't know why men think they can outdrink me, I keep telling them I'm not a lightweight."

"You'd think they'd know better by now," snorted McCoy. Making sure Sulu's breathing wasn't restricted by the pillow, he indicated for Victoria to precede him out of the room. "You headed to bed?"

"Paperwork, then bed," nodded Victoria. They stood opposite each other in the corridor, and she smiled when he clearly hesitated. "I'm two floors up, and you're across the hall."

"I'll walk you up," he said immediately. When Victoria giggled, he frowned. "What?"

"You won't lose points if you don't walk me home, Leonard. We're in space, not in Georgia."

Her teasing tone made him laugh, and Victoria tilted her head to the side in amusement. Leonard McCoy had a nice laugh, a rich baritone that made her pulse quicken just a little, like the way it did when he leaned in too close, or rested a hand against her back to guide her out of a room. It was purely innocent, of course. He had no idea what he was doing. He was just being nice; it wasn't his fault he was naturally the kind of charming that Victoria found irresistible. Inwardly, she was glad they had both been drinking; it made her slightly delayed reactions to his words, and her not-so-sneaky dreamy glances in his direction a whole lot less embarrassing.

They talked about nothing in particular on their way up to her room, and Victoria relished in the sheer mundaneness of their conversations. Leonard complained about M'Benga and how he was always late to start his shift; Victoria complained about Homer, and how he kept asking for her help but often ended up taking credit for her work. They both shared their frustrations with Spock, though Victoria heard a degree of respect for the half-Vulcan in Leonard's voice that made her tone down her own complaints. The walk didn't last longer than ten minutes, but by the time the turbolift door's opened on her floor, Victoria was trying hard not to smile like an idiot. Again, she chalked up the warm feeling in her chest to the alcohol, even though she knew it was a feeling that seemed to manifest whenever she spent too much time with Leonard McCoy alone. It was stupid, she reminded herself for the hundredth time, because there was no way she could get involved with someone considering the mess her life was. The only way to keep the people she cared about safe was to stay away from them; how was she supposed to reconcile that logic with what she was feeling now, for a man she probably had no chance with anyway?

They reached her door, and despite her inner misgivings, Victoria couldn't resist teasing him further. Leaning against the wall, she folded her arms across her chest. "Well, you got me here," she said amusedly. "Maybe if we were in Georgia, I'd invite you in. Would that be the appropriate thing to do?"

Leonard quirked an eyebrow and mimicked her stance opposite her. Victoria cursed him silently for making even a nonchalant stance look good. "A gentleman never kisses and tells, darlin'."

His answer threw her off, and it took her longer than it should have to laugh. She was blushing now, and the realisation that he had embarrassed her only made her blush harder, which seemed to amuse him even more. Rolling her eyes, she nudged him aside and inputted the code to unlock her door. "You wish you had something to tell, McCoy," she shot back. He chuckled, and she promptly hid her smile behind her hair. "Thanks for walking me back. You should get to bed."

"In a second," Leonard said. Leaning against the wall next to her door, he raised his eyebrows at her. "Tell me somethin'."

The door opened, and Victoria stepped into the doorway so it wouldn't close, but kept facing Leonard questioningly. "Sure. What?"

"Did you really think this flirtin' thing would keep me from askin' you what I needed to?"

Victoria's blinked. "And what's that?" she asked before she could stop herself.

"We gotta talk some more about that file, darlin', and what we're gonna do about it."

Oh. He meant her medical file. Of course he did. What had she thought he meant, anyway? Cursing herself, Victoria plastered a fake smile on her face as her door opened. "We can talk about it tomorrow," she said, knowing that by the time tomorrow came either he'd be busy and forget, or else she would skilfully avoid him until he did forget.

Leonard saw through her plan in a second. "You can't hide forever," he said pointedly. Victoria merely waggled her fingers in goodbye and stepped into her room. He didn't try to follow her, but a quick glance over her shoulder showed that he looked a little exasperated, and also a little amused. The closing doors muffled his last words, but she heard them clearly anyway. "This ain't over! I've got all the time in the world!"

Victoria smiled at the closed door and shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Time would be nice," she murmured. "Good night, Leonard."