Dinner Date

Logan was in his quarters preparing for the arrival of Rahel so they could start their dinner date. The Leviathan was still a couple of hours from Tarn Vedra and so far no-one else had been killed. Logan had released Stefen Moss from the Brig under the watchful eye of Commander Rashad and the two of them were busy looking into the body in the morgue of a Lieutenant T'Val, who according to both Starfleet and Stefen Moss had died four years ago.

Logan hoped that the dinner would take Rahel's mind of the recent events, that had been the plan when they had arranged the date. The door chimes rang and Logan rose from his seat to open the door.

As he did so, he found Rahel standing there in an exquisite dress. He'd never actually seen her in a dress before, she'd always been in either her Starfleet uniform or during their time on Mirisam V, some clothes borrowed from the colonists.

"You look great." Logan finally admitted, knocked out by the sight before him.

She smiled brightly, as she green eyes sparkled. "Thank you." She replied. "Thought I'd try a change of pace and dress up. I'm glad you like it."

"Come in." Logan said. "Take a seat at the table, the food almost ready."

"Almost ready !" Rahel announced. "What exactly are we having ?"

"I decided I'd try and cook something rather than use the replicator." Logan admitted. "I used to do it all the time when Lana was a kid, but stopped when I returned to Starfleet. Convenience I suppose."

Logan brought the food across from the portable stove where it had been keeping hot and placed it on the table. He took his seat and looked at the food and then Rahel. Rahel sensed that something was troubling Logan.

She looked at him. "What's bothering you?" she asked. "I can feel it, you know . . ." She added with certainty. She felt it as if they were her own feelings. "Tell me about it ?"

Logan was quiet, realising that there was no way he could hide anything from Rahel.

"Is it Lana ?." She asked.

"I'm not worried about Lana." Logan said confidently. "She'll be fine as soon as we arrive at Tarn Vedra."

The statement made Rahel puzzled. She sensed from Logan that he was confident that what he had just said was true. But Rahel knew the Jem'Hadar better than that. A group of escaped Jem'Hadar weren't going to be too bothered with killing a few Starfleet officers.

"I don't understand . . . Okay . . . So then what's bothering you?" she asked. "If it's not Lana then what is it?"

"I'm worried about you." Logan finally admitted. "With everything that's going on at the moment, especially our enhanced Romulan in the morgue. If we had a counsellor onboard, I'd be suggesting you go and see them. But all you have is me."

Logan knew that Rahel would eventually make a connection between the Romulan and herself. Both had been through extensive DNA modification, only Rahel didn't know the whole truth. But Logan knew that one day she'd break and want to know.

She nodded and sighed, looking down for a moment, her green eyes clouding with darkness. "I'm not going to lie. It hasn't exactly been a walk in the park. But then again, a walk in the park, for me, isn't even a normal walk . . ." For a moment, she allowed herself a gentle smile. "Did I tell you why I checked the DNA and didn't trust the scans for the body that now sits in the morgue? All the scans said it was Jessica West-Moss . . ."

"How ?" Logan asked. "Some kind of false readings, generated by that device you removed from the body ?"

"Most likely yes." Rahel admitted. "Did you noticed the Commander's reaction when I showed her the device, as if she'd seen something like it before. You used to be in Intel, have you seen anything like that ?"

"No." Logan admitted. "But you're right, she did take it off you rather sharpish as if she didn't want anyone else to examine it."

"She knows what it is and what it can do," Rahel replied. "She's not a stranger to it. But I just couldn't believe I was able to see the field the device created and I could hear it so clearly . . . That's how I was able to find the device." She sighed. "I don't know . . . I don't know. My mind is on so many things. Some things it shouldn't be on, I suppose."

Logan was very quiet for a while, eating some of the dinner he had prepared. Although he said nothing. Rahel could sense that he was in turmoil over something. Rahel decided to follow Logan's lead and continued to eat. Finally he swallowed and spoke.

"I think you should find out the truth." Logan admitted. "Get it over with once and for all. It will be one less thing for you to worry about and it may even give us a clue. But I think I should be there when you do, for moral support."

Rahel sat shocked at what Logan had just said. He'd always been opposed to Rahel testing her own tissue to find out the truth, now he had changed his view around.

"You're serious ?" She replied. She could feel the truth about it and yet, she could still feel that he had reservations. "Not that I can't say that I haven't been fighting the urge . . . a lot . . ."

Her mind began wondering when she should do the test, if they did this.

"I don't want you to do it right away." Logan said. "Fools rush in and all that.. But I also can't bear to see you hurting so bad and if finding out the true will easy that pain, then how am I to stop you."

"I don't know if it will ease the pain…" She replied. "It just might open a door to new pain. But sometimes it's better to know the truth than to live an illusion. Especially when that illusion has started to dissolve."

"At least you won't go through this alone." Logan admitted. "I'll always be there for you, to support you, as will Lana and Ash I'm sure."

Rahel took a deep breath before speaking again. "Logan, there's something you should know. I recently discovered that Lieutenant Dare is somehow related to me as well. I'm not sure, but from the basic DNA samples I took, he's either my brother or my cousin. Either way we're closely related and I think that his birth mother and mine were sisters."

Now it was Logan's turn to be shocked.

*The arrival of Zack Dare couldn't have been a coincidence.* Logan thought to himself. *Question is, could he be trusted.*

"I know I can trust him, Logan." She replied. "But there's a chance of finding my sister . . . and he's part of my family! The first tangible evidence that I have genetic matches out there !"

Her eyes shined for a moment, but just as quickly they clouded a bit. "I don't want anyone to worry and yet . . . I keep worrying myself. Wondering just what I'll find when I finally do the final analysis on my DNA . . . So many 'what ifs' come to mind. The greatest, of course, is what if I *am* genetically engineered ? But I won't know anything until I cross that threshold." She sighed. "At least I know I won't be doing it alone." She smiled. She stood up from her seat and went to him, slowly sitting down in his lap as he sat back from the table. She draped her arms around his neck. "Thank you . . ."

Tenderly, she kissed him.

It was getting late and they agreed to talk more about when and how to go about the next stage. They'd also talk some more about Zack and whether to include him in the testing. In about an hour, they'd be arriving at Tarn Vedra to who knew what.

Rahel finally rose from Logan's lap and headed for the door. Logan followed her and as they stood on the threshold, they kissed passionately. Luckily, no one was in the corridor and Rahel headed off towards her own quarters. Logan headed for his own bed and almost immediately fell asleep. He was woken less than an hour later by Captain Taybar on the comm channel.

[Lieutenant McQueen.] The Captain said. [We're approaching Tarn Vedra and we've got more than we bargained for.]

"On my way Captain." Logan replied.

Quickly Logan changed into his uniform and headed for the Bridge. It sounded like the plan was not going as expected.