Even though she feels comforted by the new technology that allows her to read the emotional responses of non-communicative (humanoid) patients, Dr. Crusher knows in the instant that she takes off the patient's insignia, the rank of a Bajoran Colonel proudly displayed above her right breast, allowing her fingers so linger ever so slightly over the sleek cool fabric of the Colonel's uniform that a line has been crossed.
Colonel Kira knows it too.
It is one of the only things that she knows for certain. The wormhole that she'd been sucked into had left her disoriented and so far the two things that she knew for certain were that one slender strong hand had grazed her uniform in a less than hostile way and that she couldn't move. Restraints? No...
She'd established a baseline of responses so she is somewhat comforted to see that the Colonel's response is far from displeasure. But she was surprised by her response to the Colonel. Dr. Crusher had already broken one of her rules that night. She had not restrained her new mysterious patient. When she had been carried into the Sickbay by one of the orderlies Beverly could not help but notice the strength and delicacy in her neck and shoulders. She could tell that her new patient if aroused could pose quite a physical challenge. Pushovers do not become Colonels; especially women. Yet seeing her lying there in the orderly's arms and then on the table after the orderly had left, so (odalisque)... unyielding she decided to forgo the restraints.
No... she simply could not move. Thinking back, the Colonel remembers Bashir saying something about the various effects that the wormhole can have on the body. She remembers hearing him describe how he once treated a patient who seemed to be in a coma, and that the affect lasted a couple of hours and when the patient regained mobility he'd said that he was conscious of everything that had happened and that indeed his tactile senses had been heightened, but that he could not respond.
"That must be what has happened to me," she thinks noting that she could feel the warmth of the Doctor's hand through her uniform. A pulse of heat radiated out from the spot the Doctor's fingers had left.
Beverly held the stranger's pendant in her hand. She turned it over and over and stroked it plush-hard edges with the tips of her fingers. She had the sudden urge to put it in her mouth. How many times did she have to stop Wesley from putting objects into his mouth as a baby? And every time she'd said, "Wesley, you just can't go around putting everything that you find floating around in space in your mouth." Beverly laughed aloud, she looked over at the patient who hadn't so much as blinked (such... lovely dark eyes) and smiled "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess." She slipped it into her mouth. The back side was unlined and smooth and the weight of it on her tongue was surpassed in pleasure by the fullness of it in her mouth. She could feel the curved lines on the roof of her mouth. She took it out and slowly edged her tongue in the soft crevices. Slowly traced the gentle arching and swirled the tip of her tongue around and into the shallow concaves in the center, eyes closed at first and then open, admiring the stranger, around and into the beautiful symbol of Bajor.
When the doctor laughed, she knew at once where she was. She was in the office of Dr. Beverly Crusher. The wormhole must have taken her back in time. Bashir had studied with her when he was at the Academy and he would often imitate her laugh. He did not do it justice but still she could recognize it anywhere. And here it was alive and warm and vibrating within Kira. Opening her. Kira had heard rumors about Dr. Crusher from Bashir. Rumors. But the rumors never once mentioned how vibrant her blue eyes were, the fierce elegance of her shoulders, the thickness of her wavy red hair or how well her blue Medical Officer's uniform fit her. The rumors never mentioned how soft her lips looked and when Dr. Crusher slipped her pendant into her mouth, Kira wanted the rumors to be true. More than that, Kira wanted to be the pendant; want to be engulfed in the warmth of her mouth, turned over and explored, caressed ever so slowly by the beautiful doctor's pink tongue.
Dr. Crusher was amused by the deliberate flush that accompanied the thought, "Time for a physical check up," as she crossed to the examination table. After all, her bioscan wasn't detecting anything wrong with the patient, yet obviously something was amiss. Obviously she needed to do some old fashioned hands on investigation. The emotional monitor bloomed into colours of pleasure as Dr. Crusher toyed with the pendant and blossomed again, vibrant, willful as Beverly approached the Colonel.
