Nyota knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to introduce her into Joanna’s life, but she wanted to be a part of it. It crossed her mind that maybe it was early in their relationship for her to meet Leo’s daughter, but they already felt so comfortable with each other that it felt okay to at least talk about it. He’d told her about her daughter, she’d talked about the death of her mother. There was a lot of trust between them. There were a few things she still wasn’t sure how to bring up, but it wasn’t anything that would have any bearing on their relationship. It was just… her.

She closed her eyes as he pressed his forehead to hers. “Mpenzi, you know I love you. Nothing is going to change that. I’m sorry if I made you worry. That was never my intention, and the one thing I am sure about is that I want to be with you.” She returned the kiss, leaning into his touch. She almost protected when the kiss ended, but they still had things to talk about. “He knows,” she said softly. “I told him. Maybe we shouldn’t be spending too much time together right now, but I’m sure he’ll get over it and we can go back to being friends.” And that was probably enough conversation about someone else.

She looked at him seriously. “Leo, this attack has been really stressful for everyone. I know sickbay was completely chaotic. Are you… all right?”