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Jean-Luc gazed down at Beverly, fast asleep. It had been a long, tiring day for her and a stressful one for him. Beverly had been caught in a warp time bubble Wesley had created and it had taken over ten hours to get her home. When she fell back through into their universe, he pulled her into his arms without thinking about what it would look like to Wesley, Geordi, or the rest of the crew working in Engineering. He just needed to touch and hold her. She had needed to touch him too. He felt it in the squeeze of his hand and the brush of her lips against his cheek. He had whispered into her ear an invitation for drinks after dinner in his quarters, and she had given him a quick nod before she went over to Wesley to check on him.
Jean-Luc had been invited to dinner with Beverly and her old friend Doctor Dalen Quaice. Of course, he knew Dalen from Beverly’s days stationed with the man when he used to visit her with Jack and Dalen had given him a few knowing looks while he watched the interaction between Jean-Luc and Beverly. Jean-Luc wanted to take Beverly’s old friend to one side and tell him “No, not yet” just to keep the questions off of his lip that he was sure Beverly would be treated to later. After dinner, he had dropped a kiss onto Beverly’s cheek and whispered “2200” before he had excused himself to allow Beverly to spend time with her old friend since she had missed a full day with him.
And here they were. Beverly had let herself in with her codes several hours earlier, kicked off her shoes, and accepted the glass of wine before she curled up in her usual spot on his settee. He had taken his seat next to her and they talked about her experiences while in the bubble. He had raised his eyebrows slightly when she revealed to him that the last person with her on the ship had been him and they had been wandering the galaxy on their own in the large ship and both appeared to be quite happy about it. He grinned and told her he thought he would quite enjoy travelling with her.
Over the course of the evening, and the bottle of wine, they inched closer to each other until they had laid down together on the settee with Jean-Luc’s back pushing against the back of the chair and Beverly pressed into him. His arms circled her waist and he had inhaled the floral scent of her hair. When she told him “this is nice”, he had kissed the back of her neck and invited her to spend the night. She had raised her eyebrows at the offer, but accepted as she wanted to be held and she had borrowed one of his shirts to sleep in.
She had kissed him chastely before cuddling against his bare chest and he wrapped his arms around her and watched her sleep. He had fallen asleep, finally, and Beverly had rolled over in her sleep. The loss of contact woke him, and he was now propped up on an elbow watching her. She was beautiful. He leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and she smiled in her sleep. Encouraged by her smile, he kissed her temples, cheeks, nose, and chin, moving his way down to her neck until her eyes fluttered open. “Hi,” she said just before her lips found his in a passionate kiss.