AN: Here's another piece to this one.

I hope you enjoy! If you do, please do let me know!

111

"I've got you," Jean-Luc said, holding tightly to Beverly's arm as she climbed up and over the mess that had fallen and blocked the door to one of the cargo bays. In the collision, everything had been tossed and had shifted. Things were broken and turned upside down all over the ship. In many places, the integrity of the hull was compromised, and he imagined that many of the inner supports were also compromised. In other places, oddly enough, it looked as though the ship had barely done more than be turned on its head a time or two—nothing was greatly destroyed.

From time to time, the ship groaned like a whale crying out with something of a death cry. It creaked and moaned, and there was the occasional sound of metal scraping metal. If he closed his eyes, he could believe that they'd been transported to some other time, entirely, and the ship was haunted.

Jean-Luc knew it wasn't haunted, though. It was compromised.

The Enterprise-D was in her final resting place. Unless she was, somehow, towed out of here, or dismantled and moved out piece by piece, she wasn't leaving this spot.

Still, Beverly and Jean-Luc could salvage a great deal from her with time, patience, and team-work. The latter was especially necessary, because it was obvious that some of their efforts would be dangerous.

At the moment, it was easier for Beverly—limber and athletic as she was—to climb over some of the mess and gather supplies, than it was for them to try to move everything.

Beverly didn't need Jean-Luc's help, really, but having his support made her feel more secure as she scrambled over things that could easily shift and collapse, possibly injuring her in the process.

"Take this," Beverly commanded.

"Don't move," Jean-Luc countered back with his own command. She stayed still on her precarious perch. He let go of her long enough to take the sack she offered and the axe. It was a fire axe, and one of the few blades on the ship. They preferred the neater plasma tools for cutting, but the fire axes were kept around for emergencies—similar to the one they faced—where an exit may be required after a ship had entirely lost power.

Jean-Luc put their spoils to the side, along with the few other things they'd already salvaged for the moment, and returned to where Beverly was still hanging onto the pile of stuff.

He could sense that she was tired—of course she was. He hadn't even thought about it until now, but he'd had her doing most of the heavy lifting—proverbially and literally. He got his footing, again, on his side of the little mountain, and he slipped his arms under hers, when he felt secure enough to do so.

"I've got you," he said. "Just relax. It hasn't shifted yet."

She laughed as she finished climbing over.

"As if the fact that something hasn't happened yet has ever been an indication that it wouldn't," she said.

Still, she made it over with ease and, as soon as she was over her side, Jean-Luc was able to help lower her to the floor of the corridor with nearly no effort from herself.

As he held her, making sure her feet were firmly planted on the floor and she was steady, Jean-Luc felt his pulse kick up at the closeness of her body and the awareness that he could fully feel the warmth of her through his clothing.

He tensed and paused, wondering if she could feel it too—if her pulse felt a little irregular. He cleared his throat, offered her a tight-lipped smile, and released his hold on her.

"Excellent work, Beverly," he said. "These things will certainly be helpful."

"We should try to make our way back to our quarters," she said. "And—Worf's quarters."

"Worf's quarters?"

"Blades," Beverly said. "The phasers we're finding will hold a charge for a little while longer, but…it's going to be the blades that we can really depend on. I'm sure we'll find several on the ship, but we already know that Worf had several ceremonial pieces."

Jean-Luc smiled at her ingenuity.

"I'm certain he won't mind loaning them to us," he said.

"Now if only we could get some power back," Beverly said, starting to gather up what she would carry of their first load of salvage.

"We need to be smart about that," Jean-Luc said. "I've been thinking about it, and if we manage to get any power restored, we know it's going to be very limited. We need to plan ahead, so that we make the best use of what we get."

"I've got paper in my room," Beverly said. "I like to do a bit of old-fashioned journaling. If we can make it there, we'll start making a list."

"I would say lead the way," Jean-Luc said, teasing her a little, "but I believe it will take both of us to find it."

111

"The tricorder says there's water," Beverly said. "Potable, according to the readings."

"An underground well?" Jean-Luc asked.

They eased deeper into the cavernous area that they'd found. Their almost immediate surroundings boasted a forest of sorts, a sparser wooded area, a slightly rocky and expansive spread that boasted decent soil, despite the small rocks, and what appeared to be the base of a rather large mountain range with cliff-like fronts facing them.

"It has to be," Beverly said. She sighed. "I'm going to reserve the power."

"That's the best idea," Jean-Luc said. He would reserve the flashlight's power, but they wouldn't be able to see anything. "Stay close…we don't know what's in here with us."

"The tricorder readings registered life, but nothing humanoid," Beverly said.

"Sometimes, the humanoids are the least of our worries," Jean-Luc said with a laugh. He kept his hand firmly wrapped around Beverly's wrist. He hoped she wasn't offended, but he was afraid of losing her in the darkness. Even with the flashlight, it felt like the blackness around them was all-encompassing.

"It's freezing," Beverly said, her musing giving voice to what Jean-Luc was already thinking.

"We certainly won't take shelter this far back in the cave," Jean-Luc said with a laugh. "I think we'll be better suited to sleep near where we left our supplies."

"Agreed," Beverly said. "My teeth are starting to chatter, and I can't stop shivering."

"I hear the chattering," Jean-Luc said. "I only hope the sound doesn't stir up too much local wildlife. Do you smell that?"

"I don't smell anything," Beverly said. "I smell—clean—for lack of a better way to say it."

"My point exactly," Jean-Luc said. "We seem to have lost some of that…that earthy scent that I could smell back toward the entrance. It smells clean here."

"I hear that," Beverly said, suddenly. Jean-Luc smiled.

"I do, too. Look…"

His flashlight beam hit the water trickling down the front of one of the rocks near them and glittered. He let the beam follow the water, and they followed the beam.

"Careful, it's wet here," Jean-Luc said, purposefully walking in front of Beverly. He carefully stepped over the slick surface. She'd slipped her hand into his, now, to free her wrist. He tightened his hold on her fingers instinctively.

He felt an almost overwhelming sense of relief when they found the water. There was bound to be more on the planet—especially with as lush as the plant life around them seemed to be—but at least they knew there was one location where they could find something to quench their thirst.

"Water, food, shelter," Beverly said, her voice practically vibrating with the excitement he felt.

"And as soon as we get back," Jean-Luc said, bringing around one of the portable water jugs he was wearing hanging against his back, "we'll start working on that fire. Let's get started filling these."

111

"I have to hand it to you, Beverly, you really know how to prepare rations," Jean-Luc teased.

"They're almost edible," she said with a laugh.

"They're much better than some I had back in my Academy days," Jean-Luc said. "Do you remember the survival camps?"

"Once I was camping with a Vulcan cadet," Beverly said with a laugh. "And she put herself in charge of the food. These are practically gourmet in comparison. Before that, I'd never really imagined having to convince myself that lizards—barely cooked, since she didn't want to risk having much more than warm sticks at our camp—were palatable."

Jean-Luc laughed at Beverly's story.

More than her story, though, he found that he was focusing on the way she looked, sitting next to him in the firelight. Her eyes glittered. The light from the flames seemed to almost ignite her hair in the way of some kind of mythical forest creature.

He might have blamed his slight shortness of breath on the atmosphere, but he knew that the air was perfectly breathable.

His pulse became erratic, again, as it had several times that day, when she stopped talking. Her eyes locked with his. Her smile fell slightly, but not in an entirely worrisome or disapproving way. He realized that he'd forgotten to listen to the last part of her story. He forced a nervous laugh, hoping it covered things over.

Nobody—not a soul in the entire galaxy—had ever been able to unnerve Jean-Luc the way that Beverly Howard Crusher could.

"Jean-Luc…what's the matter?" Beverly asked.

"Nothing's the matter, Beverly," Jean-Luc said.

"You just seemed so—distant for a moment," Beverly said.

"I suppose I was thinking…" Jean-Luc said.

For one brief moment, he considered how much he should tell her about what he was actually thinking. The adrenaline—and, perhaps, something else—of gathering wood and preparing a fire for her, and for setting up their little camp and walking the area to try to make sure that they would sleep safely, had stirred up something in him. He wondered if it was enough to come clean about the thoughts he was having now, and the ones that he'd been hiding since, essentially, the first moment that he'd seen her.

She spoke, though, before he'd settled on a decision.

"I'm worried, too," she confessed.

Knowing that she feared something stirred something else up inside of Jean-Luc, and he dropped his initial train of thought.

He reached and took her hand. He meant to offer comfort, only, but he had to admit, at least to himself, that touching her fingers sent something of a jolt through him. He immediately rubbed her hand between both of his.

"You're cold," he said.

"The temperature's dropping," Beverly said.

"Yes, with the sun gone…" Jean-Luc said, agreeing. "I hope it won't get much colder before morning. Certainly not enough to freeze."

"We have blankets," she said. "And the fire. And thanks to you, enough wood to get us through the night and the morning. We won't freeze."

"Still—I might recommend moving our pallets close together," Jean-Luc said. "The shared body heat and what have you, you know. If you feel that you're getting too cold in the night, promise me that you won't hesitate to move closer."

She smiled at him and turned her hand, squeezing his.

"I promise," she said. "And—if you get cold…"

"I'll stay close," he assured her. "Besides, it's better for safety, too. We don't know enough about our surroundings to make assumptions."

"Where do you think we are?" Beverly asked.

"I admit that—I don't know," Jean-Luc said. "Without sensor readings, it's hard to tell. I'm not even sure we're still in the Alpha Quadrant."

"Starfleet may never see that beacon, Jean-Luc," Beverly said.

"Or they may be here before we rise," Jean-Luc countered. "Please, try not to worry, Beverly. Tomorrow, we'll venture out a bit further, now that we have some feeling for how the time works here. We'll see what else we can find—maybe we'll even encounter an intelligent species that can tell us something about the planet. Who knows? We may simply be on the uninhabited side of a planet like Creton III."

Beverly smiled at him.

"Creton III doesn't have any uninhabited spaces anymore, Jean-Luc," she offered. "You're thinking of ages ago."

He smiled at her.

"Maybe I'm reliving my cadet days a little too vividly," he teased. "However, the sentiment remains the same. Enjoy your meal, Beverly. Try to sleep as well as you can tonight—as free of worry as you can. I'm sure that, tomorrow, Starfleet will find the beacon and send someone to rescue us."

"And if they don't?" Beverly asked. "It's a very real possibility, Jean-Luc, and one we can't ignore."

"Then—we'll take it one day at a time," Jean-Luc said. "Tomorrow, we'll do a bit more exploring, see what we can do about restoring enough power to the ship to get replicators temporarily online, and we'll salvage some more supplies. Tonight, however…let's just try to get some rest."

"We ought to take turns watching out for threats," Beverly said.

"Excellent idea," Jean-Luc said. "I'll take the first shift."

Beverly laughed quietly.

"How do I know that you'll wake me for my shift?" She asked.

"I'll wake you when I'm tired," Jean-Luc assured her. "Until then, I want you to sleep as well as you can."

She smiled and sighed. She nodded her agreement gently. She sat the mostly-empty ration pack to the side, where he'd put his. There wouldn't be enough of a scent, he hoped, from the mostly-empty containers to draw up any kind of wildlife.

Jean-Luc followed her lead and got up. He helped readjust their sleeping pallets, and he got situated with her next to him, so that he could offer her some body heat as she slept. She drew very close to him, and he moved to put an arm around her.

"Is this too close?" She asked.

His whole body screamed to tell her it wasn't even close enough and, yet, it was too close—because he could only think that his imagination running away with him would leave him in a condition that would require some embarrassing explanation—or, perhaps not, given that she was a doctor, among other things.

He cleared his throat and tried to clear his mind.

"Perfect," he said. "You can move a bit closer, if you're still cold."

"I'll be warmer when I fall asleep," she said with a laugh.

"Sleep, Beverly," he said. "And—try not to worry."

She sighed deeply.

"I'll try not to," she said. "I'm in good hands, after all. I know that, Jean-Luc."

Jean-Luc was surprised by how much he was warmed by the words alone. He didn't say anything else to her with his voice, but his heart cried out to her that she was in the best hands that he could offer her—and that would always be true, no matter what they were facing together.