Captain-Mandated Spa Day

T'Pren was more than willing to be manipulated in any way. She was quite malleable now, and fairly content even when a tear or two strayed down her face. At the first touch of the sponge, though, she started laughing. Apparently T'Pren was a little ticklish. She got it under control with some regulated breathing, though, and soon smiled beatifically back at Lorelei. "Why didn't I come here sooner?"

"Because you didn't nkow what you were missing," Lorelei suggested with a giggle, tipping Pren back to wash her hair.

"I think I just became a regular customer," breathed the half-Vulcan, closing her eyes again.

Lorelei chuckled above her and massaged her scalp and hair until it was clean and fragrant. After that, she washed Pren off with fresh water, helped her out of the tub and vigorously rubbed her dry with a towel. "Now I will apply the moisturizing cream - are my bare hands still alright?" she asked.

There was something exceptionally delicious about being treated like a very spoiled child. T'Pren grinned helplessly as she was rubbed down with the towel, and the next time Lorelei touched her, she'd get a little flash of a young, naked Pren, running wild and laughing on a beach on Betazed's Opal Sea, chased by a ruddy, stocky human man who was clearly her father, who held out a towel to catch her in like a net. He was laughing as well, and beyond them was a reedy Vulcan man smiling despite himself as he tried to concentrate on a sketchbook. It was a love-filled, happy memory, and it surfaced without sadness for once.

But Pren blushed when she realized what had happened. "If you don't mind that."

It was startling, but the memory washed pleasantly over Lorelei. She looked up at Pren, folding her hair into a towel turban. "No," she said simply, without inquiring further about it, and led the half-Vulcan to the massage table. She lay her flat on her back, uncovered, and picked up the lotion. Her hands ran over Pren's skin smoothly and easily - they were soft, yet surprisingly strong.

It was becoming more and more apparent to T'Pren as she adjusted to life on DS15 that touching was a thing she not only relished and needed, but something she had desperately missed more than she'd realized.

She closed her eyes again and let out a soft, audible exhale, neither embarrassed nor uncomfortable no matter where Lorelei's hands ventured. The half-Vulcan just let herself be soothed.

Lorelei checked in with Pren as she went, then helped her turn over onto her stomach and did the same thing to her back, preparing her for the massage. "I've prepared some hot oils - don't worry, not too hot."

T'Pren grinned a little drunkenly into the massage table. "I wasn't worried." About anything. At all.

"Good," Lorelei replied, very pleased that her magic - or, more accurately, her hard work - was paying off. She carefully poured the hot oil into the groove of Pren's spine and began to massage it into her skin, increasing strength and pressure as she went.

T'Pren's Vulcan side meant she handled heat well. She was built to handle it, in fact. It. It seemed as though every new thing Lorelei did peeled away a layer of tension and as the lieutenant exhaled slowly out, the hot oil was another step closer to whatever was being protected at her core.

Lorelei's strong hands moved over Pren's body, kneading the knots out of her with effort that turned Pren into putty. The lieutenant definitely needed this, Lorelei mused as she worked out a particularly stubborn shoulder knot. She also wondered what had happened between Pren and Rai that the commander himself should go through the trouble of making Pren take the time off when the station was so busy, and fitting her into her own busy schedule. Rai took care of his own, of course, it was not unheard of for officers to work themselves into states of such exhaustion that their superior officers had to take charge of vacation assignments, but even so. She cleared the vague thoughts from her head - hardly mattered, this was strenuous work and Lorelei was happy to take the edge off the one doing it.

At first it probably seemed like those tremors T'Pren had mentioned when her shoulders and upper back began to shake, but soon it became fairly obvious that the young lieutenant was starting to sob. And just as Lorelei cleared her mind, in came the flood. It was not quite as much of an onslaught as Rai had received, since Lorelei wasn't psionic, but it was definitely there, flashes of the half-Vulcan's teen years with the Cardassians, of being held down and stuck with massive needles, having vital fluids pulled from her, of exam tables and bright lights, of the hospital smell of sterilization. It wasn't anything concrete; there was no obvious timeline or understandable sequence. Just a wash of horrible procedures from the years when touch was a thing that brought terror and pain. And then a stronger memory, a Cardassian ship firing on a much smaller one, T'Pren's fathers shoving her into an escape pod--

And then T'Pren slammed down an emotional wall and sat up in horror, shoving her hands across her face to clear her eyes of tears so she could make sure Lorelei was okay. "I'm sorry," she blurted. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't stop it in time...please tell me you're okay."

Lorelei could only keep her composure up so much in the face of such visceral misery. She had let go of Pren just as the woman had sat up as if the touch had suddenly burned. There was a slight pulsing headache at her temple. The Risan cleared her throat. "I am. It's ok," she added soothingly - the client's needs, especially this client's, were foremost. She pulled the fragrant sheet around Pren, careful not to touch with bare skin just yet. "Why don't we take a break for just a moment... I am going to get you something to drink, ok?" She smiled reassuringly at Pren, then left the room.

In the adjacent room, Lorelei composed herself while she went through the routine of fixing a tray of calming Valerian tea. Well, that explained a lot. She was not gone long, and when she came back, it was as if nothing happened - or rather, that what had happened did not in any way affect their rapport. She set the tray down beside the massage table and poured Pren a stoneware cup. "It's a mild valerian infusion - nothing to make you groggy or sleepy, just a soothing drink," she explained, handing Pren the cup.

"I'm so sorry," T'Pren repeated urgently, even after Lorelei said she was okay. The little halfie knew what her reaction to those memories was, so she was doubly worried for someone who hadn't experienced them before. Her eyes were leaking tears, but at least she wasn't sobbing at the moment. She was much too concerned for Lorelei.

When the lieutenant was left alone, she pulled the sheet around her like a protective cocoon, trying to calm her breathing and guilt and occasionally wiping her cheeks on her covering. Strangely enough, she noticed that she felt surprisingly good, considering what had just gone through her, so that she managed to be quiet and compliant for Lorelei when the other woman finally came back in. "Are you okay?" she asked more earnestly this time, accepting the cup and immediately putting it to her lips like a good little client.

"Yes, I am. I promise. Are you?" Lorelei asked.

Before she accepted Lorelei's promise, T'Pren studied her carefully to determine whether or not it was actually true. "I think..." she ventured with a touch of surprise in her voice, "I think that actually helped a lot. I feel...lighter somehow." The lieutenant made an apologetic face. "I really am so sorry to put you through that."

"Honey, it's what I'm here for," Lorelei replied. She was thoroughly in control once more - jarring as it was, similar things have happened with clients in the past, after all. She was there in those moments to provide support, even if she had to do some self-care and decompression afterwards. "Don't apologize. How's the tea? Not too bitter?"

T'Pren made a mental note to check in on Lorelei later, just in case it crept up on her after their session. "The tea is perfect," the half-Vulcan said, taking a long sip to show just how much she liked it. Of course, after the memory flood, Lorelei could have handed her a cup of battery acid and T'Pren would have told her it was delicious if it seemed to be what was wanted. "If you need to stop, I completely understand."

Lorelei looked at her, cocking her head and narrowing her eyes. "Remember when I told you this was about you?" she chided gently, then patted the table. "I think for both our benefit, we should finish up with the gloves - it's just as well, feel how soft they are. They are soaked in lavender essential oils, which will be a very nice finish."

"Yes, but that was before," T'Pren replied a little cheekily, offering a tentative smile along with it. She obligingly touched the gloves, but really she was looking at Lorelei with something between gratitude and affection. She shifted to lay back down as she was told, but just before she did so, leaned forward to plant a soft, platonic kiss on Lorelei's cheek. Only then did she reassume her earlier position.

Lorelei smiled, surprised. She pulled on the massage gloves, and, once Pren was lying down again, resumed her ministrations. Her touch was gentle again, her palms smoothing themselves over the lieutenant's body. The lavender was soothing, and Lorelei's touch was pleasantly cool after the hot oils. Soon, she was finished, and she let Pren rest there while she tidied up her supplies. "Make sure you finish your tea."