“Kid, if you weren’t feeling the best, then you need to get checked out,” Bennett growled at him, his hard look nearly as bad as the captain’s as he all but frog-marched Tav down the corridor toward sickbay. “No excuses.”

“I’m fine!” he squeaked, but it was walk or be dragged, so he walked faster, preferring to get to their destination under his own steam. “Honestly!”

“Really?” Bennett grunted and held up his hand. “How many fingers am I holding up?”

Tav squinted as he looked at them, but couldn’t focus and walk at the same time. He stumbled but Bennett’s hand was around his arm before he could hit the deck. 

“No fair!” he complained. “You were wiggling your fingers, that was all!”

“You keep telling yourself that, kid,” Bennett chuckled. “You had your bell rung good and proper. So you need to see Micheals. Like now.”

“But the captain didn’t get treatment yet!” Tav argued, then bit his lip. “And she’s kinda scary.”

“Well, the captain is bigger than you are, and knows his limits. He’s also probably had more concussions than you’ve had hot dinners, so he knows how to deal with them. But I’ll admit that you have a point about Micheals. She is kinda scary. But she’ll be even scarier if this gets worse and she realises that you were avoiding getting checked out,” Bennett said as they turned into sickbay, the double doors sweeping open. 

They stopped dead at the sight in front of them and Tav’s eyes widened. The captain had the Morningstar commander pinned up against a wall and they were—

“About face, kid,” Bennett ordered, his hand hard on his arm as they turned around. “Micheals ain’t here.”

“B-but—“ Tav stammered, looking over his shoulder as Bennett hauled him away. The captain had shoved away, standing a few feet away from the other commander. “Was that—“

“Private. That is most definitely private,” Bennett said, marching him down the corridor in the other direction toward the lounge where a secondary medical bay was set up. Tav blinked, managing to look the way they were going with effort. His head rung, and the lights were too bright, but…

“He kissed the captain,” he whispered, looking up at the big engineer. 

“Uh-huh,” Bennett’s expression was unreadable as he looked down at Tav. “Still private.”

“Will he be okay?” he asked, then shook his head. Okay, no. That had been a bad idea. “The commander I mean?”

“Huh?” Bennett frowned. “Why on Llanar wouldn’t he be?” 

Tav blinked as they reached the lounge and Bennett hustled him toward one of the loungers. 

“Well, I mean because… the captain. He’s… and… he was…” he whispered, dropping his voice as Bennett’s big hand on his shoulder made him sit down. “I mean like the captain is uber…the captain. And he was married. To a woman!”

“Ahhh…” Realisation and then amusement chased each other over Bennett’s expression. 

“Yes,” he said. “Raan… the captain was married. Probably still is until he signs the paperwork. But before that he was engaged twice, I think he’s married to one of them now. Sit still,” he ordered as a nurse approached. 

“Probably concussion,” the engineer explained to her as Tav gaped at him. “He was down there when some idiot dropped half a planet on them, he’s been ignoring getting checked out since.” 

“Still engaged?” Tav blinked as the nurse checked him out with a tricorder. “How… I mean, if he was… is married?”

Bennett shook his head. “Not every species has the same societal or cultural set up. Nor do inter-personal relationships always work the same as humans… you’re human, right? You’re going to have to get used to that, being in Starfleet.”

“Human, yeah…” Tav nodded, then felt sick again. Okay, moving his head at all was a bad idea. “And I know, I just did training on all that. But…”

Bennett’s hand landed on his shoulder. “No but’s, kid. Raan is kinda private about his personal life. You want to know more, you’re going to have to ask him.”