She never could pinpoint exactly what had attracted her to the Captain, all those years before. Perhaps it was the way that he spoke; his voice confident and calm, even during the worst crises they had faced. Perhaps it was his vision; the way that he never lost faith in the goals he'd originally set for himself, no matter how much he had to compromise those goals for the good of mankind. Perhaps it was just the way he looked in the Starfleet uniform.

Or perhaps it was the way that he always seemed to swoop in whenever she needed rescuing, like some kind of avenging knight in tarnished armor; a little worse for the wear, perhaps, but still the dashing, daring hero of her girlhood dreams.

Of course, she mused as she lay beside him in the darkness, his fingers tracing lazy circles on her back as they drifted off to sleep, it could just be the way he touched her.