His heartbeat was unusual. The first time she’d heard it, she’d been taken aback. He had caught her confused expression and chuckled.

“First time examining an artificial heart?”

She nodded, wondering just what had happened to the enigmatic captain of the Stargazer to warrant a full heart replacement. She would later hear the story of his encounter with a Nausicaan over some Chateau Picard.

—

The next time she heard his heart, it was a much more somber occasion. He’d shown up at her door and hadn’t needed to say a word. She knew just from the expression on his face.

“Take me to see him.”

They walked through the morgue, mostly silent, until they reached the person she was looking for. She thought she had been prepared, but she couldn’t help but let out a gasp when she pulled back the sheet. The tears came quickly and he just as quickly enveloped her into his arms. As she cried against his chest, she could hear the steady whirrs and clicks that defined his heartbeat. It was a comforting sound and she let it wash over her until the last of her tears faded away.

—

It was a decade later before she saw him again. He entered the sickbay of the newly commissioned flagship. She could tell he was anxious. He always was when it comes to examinations, but she couldn’t help but feel there was more to it than that.

“Captain, you can take this biobed here and we’ll get you checked out.”

She went through the standard physical examination. This time, when it came to checking his heartbeat, she was much more prepared for the sound. The beat was the same as it had sounded on that day ten years ago.

—

When his heart needed to be replaced, she wasn’t there to help. A confusing year had led to her taking a new position on Earth, but she had regretted it almost from the moment she’d left. His difficult surgery had made it even more painfully clear that she had made a mistake.

“Beverly?”

He had awoken and was looking at her with confusion. She gave him a small smile and patted his free hand.

“When the year is over, I’d like to come back.”

—

She was used to him being part mechanical, but not like this. As she painstakingly removed each and every piece of technology that the Borg had given him, she couldn’t help but think of what had happened.

”Jean-Luc!”

She’d known in an instant when she’d seen him. When he had turned to her, she hadn’t been prepared for the cold, soulless glaze in his eyes. It had frightened her, even more so than when they’d been kidnapped by the terrorist group on Rutia IV.

Looking at the monitor, she could see the steady pulse of his heartbeat. She continued to work, making sure that said heart would be the only part of machinery that would remain.

—

Jumping through the bright portal of light, she had braced herself for annihilation if she by some chance was mistaken. Losing everyone who meant everything to her had taken its toll and if she was wrong, she would have welcomed her own death if it meant somehow seeing them again.

“Beverly!”

She felt herself being pulled up off the engineering room floor. Opening her eyes, she saw the very concerned face of the last person she had wanted to leave her. Without a care in the world, she pulled him into a fierce hug. She could feel that same steady heartbeat against her. He was really here and she was not going to let him disappear.

—

A year later, she almost lost him in a different way. The strange probe the Enterprise encountered had latched itself onto him and had caused him to fall unconscious. They had managed to sever the link, but it had done more harm than good. She and her ever faithful head nurse worked frantically to save him.

By some miracle, the link had re-established and his heart returned to its standard whirrs and clicks. She slumped over, half in relief and half in frustration. He was alive and that was what mattered the most to her, but she still wished she could break him from whatever was happening.

—

“It was Q.”

They were in his quarters, sharing one of their customary breakfasts. He had been released from sickbay after a nasty chest wound had nearly ended with him flatlining on the operating table. She cursed inwardly at the omnipotent trickster for playing with his life.

“He showed me what life would have been like if I hadn’t ended up fighting that Nausicaan.”

She gently dropped the croissant in her hand onto her plate, interested in hearing more. Never had she contemplated him having a real heart instead of an artificial one. Not since she’d found out about the replacement.

“And?”

He gave her a small smirk.

“I didn’t like it.”

“Good.”

Her reply came much too quickly and he raised his eyebrows. She blushed a bit.

“It’s makes you, well, you.”

He chuckled at this and she smiled. Despite his near death experience and run in with Q, he was in good spirits. It lifted her mood significantly. She was always on edge when his life was on the line.

—

They were in her quarters this time. She had put all of her things back in the correct spots. He had come to see how she was feeling after the encounter with Ronin. She had been shaken up and extremely embarrassed by the whole situation, and had told him as much. He was turning to leave, when she spoke.

“I wouldn’t have broken away if you hadn’t come down. When he -“

She stopped. All she could think about was when Ronin stopped his heart. The heart that she had patched up so many times over the years. The heart that who’s beat had always calmed her in a strange, melodic fashion. The same heart that she had recently left broken when she’d found out that for twenty years, it had truly only beat for her.

Looking in his eyes with her tear-filled ones, she saw all the hurt, all the worry, all the pain that she had caused. Through it all, however, she could see the deep emotion that had been there when she had pushed him through the forcefield on Kesprytt.

Love.

The tears began to fall then. Like he had that day twenty years prior, he took her in his arms and she cried onto his chest. The same unusual heartbeat was still there, offering comfort. She held on with all she had until the clicks and whirrs eased her into a deep sleep.