The BLTS Archive- Winning Hand: Games Lovers Play
by AdmiralTAG (althea@yahoo.com)
and 
Astra (astraplain@yahoo.com)

---

Third in the Winning Hand series

Another Astra/AdmiralTAG collaboration, but this one (surprise,
surprise) is not a resident in our House of Angst. Humor, parody, just
plain ol' silliness--you tel us! 

As always, feedback is craved. We're begging. (No, we're not on our
knees, but hey, ya never know...).

Standard disclaimer: Paramount owns the whole deck and we won't play
with it. Wanna bet? ;-)

---

"So we're agreed on this?" Jean-Luc asked.

"Right." Beverly sounded reluctant--very reluctant.

"Well, then we'd best start."

"Right." She trailed her fingertips up the length of his inner thigh.

"Beverly! We agreed to start tonight."

"And we will." Her hands busied themselves, trying to tempt him,
convince him. "We'll start--in five minutes."

He gave a low chuckle. "Five minutes?"

"All right--ten."

He turned her over onto her back, a hand running along the side of her
body. "An hour."

"I should be so lucky."

"You will be..."

---

The next morning, Picard called Riker into the Ready Room. "Number
One, we've received new instructions from Starfleet. In an hour we
will be taking aboard a passenger whom I thought you might like to
greet."

Will pretended innocence, though this mission had been his own idea.
"Sir?"

"Ambassador Odan."

"I see. And we will be taking--her, is it still?--where?"

"The Klingon Homeworld. She will be mediating a dispute between Qo'noS
and one of the planets along the border."

Will knew all this. It was he who had alerted Headquarters to watch
for travel requests from the Trill ambassador and try to assign them
to the Enterprise. Nothing like having an old lover appear to keep a
woman from pursuing a new one.

The only remaining question was how Picard would react to the woman's
presence. Now that he was a she, would the captain still be as jealous
as before? "Why not send Beverly to greet the ambassador? After all,
they were..."

"Are you questioning my orders, Commander?" The last time he had felt
such waves of anger rolling off the captain in his direction had been
when he hosted the Odan symbiont, when he and Beverly had sat,
sprawled rather, on the couch in this room, when Beverly had sat
there, in front of the man he was ordered to keep away from her, sat
in front of Picard with her hand stroking Will Riker's inner thigh. He
had thought, then, that if the symbiont hadn't come close to killing
him, Picard would gladly have volunteered for the job. Will had always
thought it took a great deal of graciousness on Picard's part never to
blame Will for hosting Beverly's lover, for making it obvious that the
night before Beverly had been in his bed, he in her...Don't think of
that, Will. It will only distract you from your mission.

Riker returned to the bridge. Odan was finally returning, and he had
to plot how the woman could fit into his plans. He would use her, as
he had used so many over the years, to further his own ambitions. At
least Odan would enjoy being used, unlike all the others he had hurt.
When this was over, when his command was secure, he would have to find
some means of recompense.

After seeing Odan to her quarters, Will asked her if there was
anyplace she'd like to go. She knew the way he thought almost as well
as he did--after all, she had been him for two days. "No," Odan said,
"I don't think I will stop by sickbay. There really isn't much point."

Riker stroked his beard. This wasn't going to be as easy as he had
thought. "You have nothing to say to Beverly?"

"I don't think Dr. Beverly has anything to say to me," she replied.

"Then you don't know her as well as you claimed to, Odan."

Odan bit her lower lip, a mannerism which must have been Kareel's,
since he didn't remember doing that when he was Odan. She started for
the door and stopped. Will nodded, and she left the quarters.

The next time Will saw Odan, she was being brought to the bridge by
Beverly. They walked just a bit too close to each other, leaned just a
touch into each other's space. Picard was glaring at the women. Riker
smiled--things couldn't have gone better.

"I thought I had assigned the Ambassador to you, Commander Riker." It
was amazing that the bridge crew didn't sprout icicles; the
temperature on the bridge dropped below freezing from the tone of the
captain's voice.

"You assigned me to greet Ambassador Odan," Riker tried to brazen it
out. "Which I did. After I got her settled, I returned here, sir."

"May we speak in your Ready Room, Captain," Odan interrupted. Picard
consented, and the two walked across the bridge. Beverly's eyes
followed them, and Deanna's eyes widened at the sudden blast of lust
eminating from the doctor. She stared at Beverly, and Riker, seeing
the expressions on both women's faces, smiled. Things were going his
way.

A half hour later, Picard escorted Odan to the turbolift. Beverly
hurried to join her guest, touching the Trill's arm lightly as they
stepped off the bridge.

That night, Will dreamed of his own command. It was a sweet dream, and
seemed once again within his reach. Just to be certain, he asked the
computer for Ambassador Odan's whereabout. "Ambassador Odan is in Dr.
Beverly Crusher's quarters."

"How long has she been there?"

"4.5 hours."

---

The trip to Qo'noS was a short one, and the reason Odan hitched a ride
on the Enterprise was a mystery known only to Will Riker. The
ambassador would brief the morning staff meeting more as a courtesy
than anything else. Odan slid into the room with seconds to spare, and
Beverly rushed in at 0700 hours exactly. "I missed you at breakfast,"
Picard whispered, but Riker managed to catch the exchange.

"I had an emergency," Beverly answered, with a distracted air. Riker
remembered that air quite well, but forced his mind away from
recollection and back to the conversation he was not supposed to be
overhearing.

"Lunch?"

"Odan."

"Beverly!" Picard protested, then relented. "Dinner?"

"Tonight?" Riker knew that the Enterprise was scheduled to reach the
Klingon homeworld at 2100 that night.

"Bring Odan. If you must." From the tone of his voice, Riker guessed
that only a woman so in the grasp of passion as to be oblivious would
consent.

Beverly smiled. "That would be lovely. We'll see you tonight, then."
It was all Riker could do to keep from getting up, going to the
replicator, and getting himself the fourth pip he was earning.

The meeting began. After making her presentation, Odan left, and both
Picard and Crusher stared after her, albeit with very different
expressions on their faces. When Riker went to check in on Beverly
later in the day, he found Odan in the CMO's office, locked in a sotto
voce, intense discussion. A single red rose was in a vase on the
doctor's desk.

At 2055 the Enterprise reached orbit around Qo'noS. At 2056, Riker
went to meet Odan and Beverly in Transporter Room Three. The
transporter chief was standing outside the room. "They said they
wanted some privacy," she informed the first officer.

He strode into the room, and caught Odan placing a delicate kiss on
the inside of Beverly's wrist. "I will never forget you, Dr. Beverly,"
she said.

Riker cleared his throat, and the two women separated. Odan mounted
the transporter pad, keeping her eyes on Beverly the whole time, as
the doctor's were on her. Riker handled the transport himself,
watching the two women watching each other. He suddenly realized,
watching these two beautiful women whom he had known so intimately,
how long it had been since he'd allowed himself to get close to
anyone. After the transport was complete, he took himself to
Ten-Foward with his trombone, looking for a pretty young ensign to
assuage his lonliness.

In Picard's quarters, Beverly and Jean-Luc were sharing a cup of tea.
"How did your visit with Odan go?" he asked.

"It was wonderful. It made me remember why I fell in love with Odan in
the first place." Beverly took a sip of her tea.

"Oh?"

"Stop being so jealous!" She raised the cup of tea to his lips, and he
took a drink. "Besides, it was your idea for me to spend all my time
with Odan, and lay Riker a false trail."

"I know, but...You didn't...Did you?"

"When would we have had time?" Beverly asked. "I was here last night
so she could sleep in my bed and fool Riker. Poor fool, he checked on
her whereabouts, but never thought to ask where I was." She giggled,
then continued. "We spent all day in Sickbay, talking, in case Riker
came looking. And after dinner we stood in the transporter room,
waiting to impress Riker with our kiss."

"So two beautiful women spent all their time together trying to outwit
one Commander?"

"You know we did--your conversation with her before she came aboard
only confirmed things she suspected when Will hosted her. She was not
at all happy at having, even unwittingly, been a party to a plot to
hurt me. She was only too happy to get a piece of our revenge, even if
it meant pretending to be my lover again."

"Poor woman," Jean-Luc sighed dramatically before returning to the
previous topic of discussion. "Two women devoting all that thought to
one man. I should be so lucky."

Beverly leaned across to deposit their teacup on the nightstand. Her
bare breasts brushed against Jean-Luc's chest. "You'll just have to
make do with one woman."

"I don't think I could handle more than just you."

Afterwards, Beverly lay beneath him, caressing his back, her hands
slipping lower. "Besides, we wouldn't have."

It took Jean-Luc a while to realize that she was picking up the thread
of an earlier conversation. "You wouldn't have made love? Because of
me?" he asked, rolling onto his side.

She laughed. "You are arrogant, aren't you? No, not because of you,
not really. Did you know that Kareel is Odan's first female host?
She's finding she quite likes the attentions of men. Oh, of course she
still loves me, but she was more interested in giving me a running
commentary on the attributes of the male crewmembers. She says that
Geordi's cute, in a 'younger brother' sort of way, that Data's just
too mechanical to move naturally in bed, and Will could stand to lose
a few kilo."

"Did she..." She could hear his unspoken question.

"Uh-huh." She took pity on his masculine curiosity. "And she says you
have the most incredible ass she's seen in 300 years." Beside her,
Picard began to preen. "Don't get so worked up over it, Jean-Luc--it's
not like she's been checking men out for that long."

He frowned, and Beverly's eyes gleamed. "Besides, she says your bulge
is even better than your butt."

"Beverly!"

She shrugged. "I can't help what my former lovers think."

"Speaking of which, what do we do next to Commander Riker?" he asked,
but got no reponse. Beverly was too busy demonstrating that Odan
wasn't the only woman who could appreciate a well built man...

---

The End