There was a fairly strong breeze outside and Jesa could hear the leaves rustling in the trees. It wasn't quite late afternoon yet, and a good amount of light still came in from the windows. She gave a soft sigh of contentment, lying against Buck in their bed, her arm draped across his chest. Her hair was fanned out behind her on the sheets. She had her head laid against his shoulder and for the moment felt at peace with the universe, and oddly enough, herself. She hadn't really been able to come up with the words to describe, or even think about what she had experienced with him. So for the moment she was just content with holding him and being near him.

Buck smiled down at her, thinking a hundred things that could not be put into words. She had finally let him into her mind... What he had found there humbled him - that she could think so highly of him, yet so little of herself. And he knew now that she needed him, and that he would never leave her side. Knowing she was awake, Buck tapped a few instructions into the padd on their bedside table. The room's music system gently began to play the Andante from Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E... It was a beautifully solemn piece - beautifully solemn, just like the peace in which he now found himself. Gently, Buck kissed her hair, and relaxed back against the bedhead.

Jesa smiled softly, cuddling up closer to him, unashamed of her nakedness. She closed her eyes and rested her head against him, closing her eyes. "I love you," she whispered.

Buck gave her a lopsided grin. "I know."

And, for the first time, he did. He had seen it - felt it - on a level that normals could never truly comprehend. He squeezed his arm tighter around her. "I love you, too."

He honestly did not know what to say. The usual humanoid small-talk post-sex was fairly redundant when you experienced the act from both perspectives simultaneously. You knew, on a very basic level, exactly 'how it was' for the other party.

She smiled, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder gently, recounting the moments in her head. Jesa didn't really feel the need to understand it, but shivered a little at certain memories. She had felt his mind, how he viewed things, how his view of the world differed from hers. It was quite strange to her, something she never would have thought she would get the chance to experience. 'At least... No, I won't think that...' Jesa added, letting the thought vanish from her mind.

Jesa understood what he felt for her, now, and it gave her a great deal of peace and security. She told herself she would have been perfectly content not knowing in this way, but having this understanding... was definitely nice. Then she remembered disbelief, and curiosity at two things in his mind she hadn't expected to find. First that he had doubts about his adequacies as a husband for her and secondly that he believed, firmly in his inner-most being, that he was to be subordinate to her.

It didn't make sense to her. She had always assumed his submission was a show for the crew, or at least stemming from the difference in rank, and she had thought it always disappeared when they were alone together. Did he really feel he needed to place himself below her? That was the furthest thing she wanted. Jesa knew Betazoids tended were a matriarchal society and that most females tended to be rather controlling towards their partners, but since Buck had also deviated from the stereotype in other matters, she didn't think he was that much under the influence of the culture. She viewed marriage as a partnership between equals - sure that caused a lot more fights, but any other way felt wrong to her.

It just felt wrong.

"Buck?" she murmured softly.

"Yes, my dear?" Buck smiled, turning the music off instinctively. "What's wrong?"

She sat up, tucking her legs beside her and looked at him. "Do you really think that you should be subordinate to me - always and in everything?" Her brow furrowed slightly with the question.

Buck paused. His smile remained, but his face seemed to pull away from it, leaving it a very lonely smile indeed.

He had never thought about this side effect... Buck wanted Jesa to know everything about him - even the parts he did not wish to know himself - but this was something that would just upset her. Still, she knew now... His head lowered, downcast. The respite was over; the voyage across cultural boundaries had begun again.

"It's our way, Jesa... It always has been."

Her instinct was to rebuff him for the thought and set him 'straight' as she saw it. She smiled slightly, that would have been a rather normal Betazoid-female attitude to have. And she really didn't want to insult what obviously considered important by just dismissing it and attempting to plant her values in their place. That wouldn't respect him much as a person, and she did respect him. Gently she reached over and slipped her hand into his. "Help me understand," she said finally, looking at him.

Buck nodded. The reasoning was relatively simple, and in many ways a lot more sensible than the more traditional Patriarchal structure.

"Women bear children - men cannot. To that end, our culture is built around the preservation and honor of our womenfolk. The men went off to die in wars at the command of women because we are less essential to the continuation of the species. Since we were subservient in that arena, it was simply a natural anthropological progression for us to become subservient in the others." Buck paused, not sure if she was understanding or simply nodding to get him to continue. "It's the perennial debate - is it genetic conditioning of the psyche, or psychological conditioning of the species - either way, it's there. It's my duty - and, in many ways, my privilege and honor - to protect you and venerate you..."

Buck stopped. It sounded silly, put into Federation Standard - there were times he really wished the Universal Translator was more versatile.

Immediately Jesa wanted to argue on matters of logic, but she stopped herself, wondering what good that would do. It was obvious she didn't exactly follow the stereotype - she couldn't have children, she was admittedly hardier than he was in physical standards, but he already knew that. Gently she touched his cheek, stroking gently looking into his green eyes. "I just don't want you to feel inferior to me. That bothers me. You have as much right to having your needs fulfilled in this marriage as I..."

"And if one of those needs is to see you on the pedestal you deserve to be placed upon?" Buck smiled.

She cringed, visibly. She gave him a somewhat playfully pained look. "Depends on what that entails... I guess..."

Buck chuckled. "Hey, I'm a progressive. It's not as if I walk three steps behind you, or expect you to come home every third Saturday with a new toyboy to experiment with. I'm just not as... Not as independently minded as my father on that score - I still believe that you are the wife, and I am the husband, and it's my job to protect you and serve you to the best of my abilities." His eyes met hers, earnest in every word...

Jesa smiled a little, "I think I can live with that - on one condition."

Buck smiled, kissing her cheek. "And what is that, dearest dove?"

She caught his lips as he moved back away from her, kissing him gently. "Don't let your needs go unmet because of some inconvenience to me, please? That would make me very... unhappy."

"Well, the last thing I would want..." he returned her kiss, warmly, then pulled away, "Is for you to be unhappy."

Jesa leaned back towards him, kissing him teasingly then pulling away with a soft smile. "Well, I will be unhappy if you don't tell me what you need," there was definitely teasing also in her tone now.

Buck grinned, wanly. "That's easy - I need to get dressed, because Jelly is coming up the garden path, and I honestly don't think I could bear for her to walk in on us like this." He sniggered.

She growled playfully and put her hands on his shoulders, pinning him back against the bed headboard. "And, what if I refuse to let you go?"

"Well, then, of course, I would yield to your feminine superiority." Buck flashed her his signature, lopsided grin, and wrapped his arms around her, all thoughts of Jelandra's impending arrival forgotten.

Until eight minutes later, when a tiny voice in his head said, "Ewwwwwwwwwwwww - there are some thoughts a sister should never have to read!"

Buck blushed beetroot, pulling away from Jesa and shaking his fist at the air. For a moment she was confused, then she remembered what he had said a few minutes earlier. Jesa grabbed Buck by the shoulders and pushed him back against the bed and sat up herself. "Jelandra," Jesa yelled through the door, "If you're going to make insinuations about what we should be doing up here, then you should give us some privacy to do it! Sheesh!"