Beverly Crusher put a hand to her mouth to unsuccessfully stifle a yawn. Though it had been nearly a week since she had returned to the ship after her away mission, she still felt exhausted. Unfortunately for her she never slept well anyway, not for many years, not since her husband Jack had passed away. On the nights that the emptiness of her bed felt overwhelming, she’d be lucky to get only an hour or two of rest before she had to be up to start her day. But a smile crept across her lips as she thought about her nights in her room in Liliputia, and how, instead of desperately wishing for sleep there, she’d found herself craving the opposite.

Another yawn came unbidden as she leaned back in her chair, ignoring for a moment the piles of work that had begun to accumulate on her desk in her absence. She swore that sometimes it felt like she was the only doctor on board the whole Enterprise. Thankfully no one had noticed today when she’d actually nodded off briefly during the senior staff meeting. Normally Deanna might have said something, but the Counselor seemingly had other things occupying her thoughts. Jean-Luc had been very kind to let her take an extra day to rest, but she didn’t want to abuse his friendship. She took a sip of her tea, frowning to herself when she found it was cold. Just as she was about to get up and use the replicator, Deanna Troi graced the door of her office.

“Oh! Deanna! I actually didn’t think you’d come so quickly, but thank you.”

Deanna smiled self-consciously. “Yes, of course. Thank you for reminding me to stop by. It’s just been… such a day. May I speak to you privately?” Troi came in and sat in one of the chairs facing Crusher’s desk.

“By all means,” Beverly answered, pressing a button on her console to close and lock the door to her office. “Can I get you some coffee, or tea? I’m just about to have some myself. I’ve been so tired lately.”

Deanna looked up as the doctor got up to use the replicator. “No, thank you, Beverly.” She sat for a moment in thought, wringing her hands as she tried to choose her words.

Crusher looked at her visitor with concern as she turned with her tea in hand before taking her seat. “What’s the matter, Deanna? I’ve never seen you like this. Did something happen?” She looked at her expectantly, a hint of a smile on her lips.

“There’s been an accident! On the holodeck!” Troi finally blurted out, gripping the sides of her chair anxiously.

“What’s happened? Should I have a medical team beam directly there?” Beverly began to get out of her seat, suddenly clear-headed and all business. Her hand hovered near her chest, ready to tap her comm badge to summon help.

“No! No, Beverly, I’m sorry. Everyone is okay… mostly. There’s no need to send anyone, please.” Troi’s cheeks reddened as she looked down at her hands in her lap.

“Counselor, what is happening with you today?” came Crusher’s flustered response. She paused for a moment as she took her seat again. Taking a deep breath, she tried changing her tone, attempting to put her friend at ease. She casually took a sip of her tea. “Come on, Deanna. Just tell me, please.” 

“I’m sorry, Beverly. It’s just… I’m not really used to being on the other side of the desk, you know?” She smiled uneasily. “Maybe… maybe it’s easier if I just show you.” Troi stood and turned, facing away from the doctor as she fiddled with the front of her uniform.

“Deanna…,” Crusher said uneasily.

“No, it’s fine,” Troi said quietly, seemingly in response. But Beverly became increasingly curious as she continued. “No, come out! Come out of there! I told you we’d have to show her or she wouldn’t believe us. Ugh! Fine!”

Troi finally turned around with something in her hand, and the scoop neck of her uniform still slightly open. At first, Beverly smiled as she thought some suspicions she had were confirmed, but she quickly realized that the person sitting in Troi’s hand looked very familiar. But it couldn’t be. Could it?

“Oh my god, Commander Riker?!” Beverly finally blurted out, nearly dropping the cup of tea in her hand. “What?!”

“I know, I know, Beverly,” said Troi reassuringly. “But yes, it’s really him. Kind of.”

“Deanna! I thought… that you had smuggled someone off of Liliputia. When I scanned you in the observation lounge I detected a miniature body in your… well, it was very close to you, let’s put it that way. But I… how did this even happen? Wait…” A thought dawned on her. “Will… was at that meeting. But if he was… in you too…” Beverly just stared at the little Riker in front of her in utter confusion.

Troi smiled uneasily. “He was! He was at the meeting, but he was also… well, you know. You saw your scans. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Crusher laughed, relieving some of the tension she felt. “What would I have said, Deanna? ‘Who is the Liliputian between your legs?’ Honestly!”

“Beverly —,” Deana started to protest.

“Counselor! Doctor!!” Riker interrupted in frustration. “No to make this all about me, but,” he gestured down at himself, his point obvious. 

“Right!” Beverly stood and set down her tea. “Um, yes. I have… I have a few scanners and other equipment that we’ve used for some of the pets aboard the ship.” She looked down at Riker and gave a little smile. “Sorry, Will. I hope you don’t mind. Excuse me.” She went to the door, tapping a panel to open it before leaving the room.

The couple sat in silence for e moment. “I think that went well,” Deanna said finally.

Riker rolled his eyes, pulling at the little shirt he was wearing to try to cool himself as he turned to face her, his body still hot from being stuffed between and beneath her ample chest. “At least I convinced you to replicate me some clothes. Though I wish you’d listened to me when I told you I wanted to be carried in a bag, or something. But I think you liked this idea more.”

Troi blushed. “B-but, I don’t normally carry a bag, and that would’ve drawn more attention than having you, you…,” she looked down towards her cleavage guiltily.

“Pfft,” Riker snorted. “Come on, Deanna. Just admit that you liked having me in there. Even after we had our talk in the bath. Did it turn you on when Dr. Crusher said she was going to have to use pet scanners on me?” He crossed his arms and glared up at her with all the anger he could muster in his little body.

“Now look here,” Troi said, gently pushing her fingertip against his chest. “I really did think that it was the best place to hide you, and it’s not my fault that, even in the 24th century, fashion designers still can’t design women’s clothes to have functional pockets.” Her pressing finger started to softly stroke the front of his shirt. “But don’t pretend like you didn’t like it too, Imzadi. I could feel you poking the underside of my breast, and I know it wasn’t your knee.”

Will let out a soft exhale before giving her a little smile. “Okay. Alright. You know I’ve always been a boob man… and you know how much I’ve always loved yours in particular. Maybe I’m just feeling a little… frustrated… about today. Everything has gotten me so worked up, and…” He looked up into her big eyes and brought his hands up to hold onto the finger she still held against him.

“I know, sweetheart, I’m so sorry about that. I’ll… make it up to you, I promise.” Her finger moved slowly down his body as she looked at him playfully. He let out a long sigh as the giant digit settled against his crotch, leaning himself back against the fingers of her cupped hand, his legs splayed on either side of her wrist.

At that moment, Crusher came back into the room carrying a tote full of equipment. Deanna quickly moved her finger away, leaving little Will to readjust himself on her hand, drawing his legs up so that his feet rested on the heel of her palm. But Beverly seemingly hadn’t noticed a thing, her movements concentrated on clearing away the pile of tablets on her desk and setting up a small scanning bed in their place.

“I know this isn’t ideal, but I think these instruments will give us better readings than just using a medical tricorder.” She looked over at Will as he sat in Deanna’s hand. “And you’re just slightly too small for a standard biobed.” She winked at him before taking her hands away, revealing a small square table just a few inches thick, its sides a few inches longer than he was tall. Small velcro straps hung down limply from the corners as small lights blinked along its black surface.

“Okay, Deanna, you can put him down on my desk,” Crusher said as she withdrew a handheld scanner from the tote. “Will, just hop up there when you’re ready.”

Troi’s hand lowered, letting him slide off onto the surface of the desk next to the scanning bed. “Hmm, hopefully we won’t have to use these,” he said with a laugh, picking up one of the straps before climbing onto the bed and laying down.

Crusher laughed. “Oh no, those are for disobedient pets. I don’t think we have any of those around today. Do we?” She looked up at Troi’s face with a little smile. Deanna only blushed and shook her head no.

The lights on the scanning bed started to blink and pulse with activity, a display lighting up in the corner with a reading of Riker’s  heart rate, temperature, respiration, and blood oxygen level, among other data. Crusher brought up the scanner, a small magnifying lens with a light on one end, and looked into Will’s face. Her free hand scooped her mane of red hair back over her shoulder so that it didn’t fall over him. He squinted up to see her big green eye, magnified even bigger through the lens, gulping as he felt like a science experiment. He almost protested, but Crusher spoke first.

“So do you want to tell me why there’s a miniature Commander Riker here on my table while a full-sized one is sitting next to the Captain on the bridge?” Beverly asked Troi as she looked into the magnifying glass.

Deanna shook her head again. “I - I’m not sure exactly why, or how. This morning, Will and I set up two holodecks running almost the same program simultaneously, except in mine I was my normal size, and in his I was… well, I was the same height we were to the people on Liliputia.” She looked at Crusher a little embarrassed. “He was interested in seeing what it would be like to experience me from their point of view, and the holodeck seemed a good way to show him.”

Dr. Crusher nodded, putting away the magnifying glass and bringing out a wand-like device that had green lights along its length and let out a soft hum as she moved it over his shrunken body. “Well I’d say he’s gotten more that he bargained for. Though I can certainly understand the fascination. But that doesn’t explain how he got off the holodeck like this.”

“So, erm… Well, one thing led to another and I… I had him… inside of me, as you know,” Deanna explained, growing more embarrassed by the minute. “So I — I left the holodeck like that, thinking that on his end the program would just end and he’d find himself in an empty room. A-and I think that must’ve also happened, since there’s a big Will out there, too. But for him,” she gestured down to the little man on the table. “Well, somehow he came out with me. I don’t know what happened.”

Beverly pulled out yet another scanning device, making Will even more uncomfortable as she continued to probe him. “Do you think…,” the Doctor began distractedly. “Do you think it had anything to do with the subspace disturbance in the Neutral Zone this morning?” 

“Maybe… I’m afraid the last time I studied holodeck technology was during an applied sciences class back at the Academy. But that was years ago.” She cleared her throat. “Beverly, we haven’t actually told anyone else, even if they might have a better idea of what happened. We don’t know who to trust… who’s not going to treat him like he’s a lab rat, or their ticket to a lifetime’s worth of new scientific papers.” Deanna looked a little nervously at all of the equipment Crusher had brought to study little Riker before continuing. “We came to you because you’re a doctor, but also because you’re a friend.”

The doctor paused, smiling as she understood the meaning of Troi’s words. She slowly put down the scanning device and looked up at her friend’s anxious face. “Well you came to the right person, I assure you. I’m very honored that you thought of me that way, and that you’ve entrusted me with this secret. I promise that the knowledge of his existence will not leave this room without your permission.” She looked down at the tiny man on the table and nodded, giving him her attention. “Both of your permissions. As far as I’m concerned, you are Commander Riker just as much as the man on the bridge. Alright?”

Will looked up relieved, and nodded. “Thank you, Beverly. We appreciate that.” He looked back over to Deanna before asking, “In your medical option, Doctor, how do I look?” 

Crusher smiled and sat back in her chair, reaching over to take a sip of her lukewarm tea. “Well, despite being a fully grown adult human who’s small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, I’d say you’re perfectly healthy. In fact…,” She tapped at a few keys on the corner of her desk, illuminating a screen on the wall next to her that had two almost identical side by side health readouts. “Your scans here are nearly exactly the same as the ones I ran during your annual physical last month, with one obvious difference.” She sat up, scooting her chair forward and resting her elbow on the desk, her torso looming over Will as she smiled down at him. “I’d actually like to keep you a while longer for further observation. There are a few more tests I want to run — nothing you won’t like, I promise. I just want to be sure you’re healthy and safe.”

Riker looked over at Troi uneasily before she spoke. “Actually, Beverly, I think that we’d just like to return to my quarters for now. Maybe tomorrow we could —“

“Picard to Counselor Troi,” came the captain’s authoritative voice over the comm.

Troi frowned before responding. “Troi here,” she said with a little sadness.

“Counselor, I trust you’ve had a chance to get some good rest. I’m afraid I need your presence in my ready room at once. Our meeting with the Romulan high command is imminent, and I need to discuss the details with you immediately. I’ll see you in ten minutes. Picard out.”

Troi looked from Riker to the doctor with wide eyes.

“It’s okay, Deanna. Just leave him here with me,” Crusher said softly. “That way you don’t have to worry about him all alone in your cabin, or… hiding him on your person, again.” She raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I’ll have a chance to run those tests and then i can bring him by your quarters when I’m done with him.”

Riker and Troi shared uneasy glances, both of them worried about being apart from each other for the first time since the incident that morning. But neither could think of a better idea, and the Captain was waiting. Troi sighed, standing up slowly.

“Alright, Beverly. Just… be careful with him, please.” She stood for a moment looking at him there on the table, freshly amazed at just how small he was.

“I’ll treat him like he was my own, Counselor,” Beverly said warmly.

Troi glanced down at Riker and smiled. He gave her a thumbs up and a smile of his own. “Don’t worry, I know I’m in good hands here,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Thank you, Doctor. For everything,” Troi said as she turned to leave.

Crusher tapped at her desk to open the door, giving Deanna a little wave before closing it and locking it behind her.

There was silence in the room for a few minutes, the only sounds the occasional beeps and boops of the medical equipment on the desk. Beverly’s fingers tapped at buttons on the bed under little Riker, her nails softly brushing against his thigh.

“It’s really remarkable,” she said finally. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were born on Liliputia. Their anatomy is strikingly similar to our own. So much so that Aiden theorized that his species and humans may have had a common ancestor, as impossible as that sounds.”

Riker perked up a little bit. “Oh? Is Aiden someone you met on your away mission?”

Beverly chuckled, sitting back in her chair again as she grabbed her teacup. Her fingertips played over the rim as she sat for a moment thoughtfully. “Yes, I’m sorry. Of course you wouldn’t know, I never mentioned his first name in my reports, if you’ve read them.” She rose, going to the replicator and refreshing her drink. “This teacup was a parting gift from him, actually. No small feat when it’s almost big enough for him to bathe in.” She smiled to herself before taking her seat again.

“It was the second night of the mission when I met him,” she began wistfully. “I’d asked my concierge for something to help me sleep, and Aiden showed up with a cup of tea and an offer to tell me stories about boring studies he was running on cellular mitosis.” Her smile broadened. “He was the doctor assigned to the night crew, part of the group of little people that kept our visit running smoothly. Of course I didn’t get any sleep that night, or any of the other nights he visited me, which thankfully was nearly every one. He made me laugh harder than I had in years, and touched a piece of me that I though had died along with Jack.”

Beverly drank her tea and sat for a moment, looking down at Riker. “I was so sad leaving him, but of course I couldn’t stay. And until today I thought it would be crazy to try to live with a little man onboard the Enterprise. But seeing you here, like this is, well… stirring up a lot of feelings I thought I left behind on that planet. Aiden and I are still talking whenever we can, but without anything my size in view behind him on the monitor… well, he just looks like an ordinary, normally-sized man.”

“What’s wrong with being a normally-sized man?” RIker asked curiously, sitting up to look at her.

“Ah, ah. I’m still running scans on you, mister,” Beverly said with a grin, her giant index finger reaching over to push against his chest until he was once again flat on the bed. She left her finger there, rubbing along his chest and tummy, enjoying the smooth fabric of his shirt against her fingertip. “And nothing is necessarily wrong with a normally-sized man, I suppose. They just don’t make me feel the same.” She sighed. “I’m sure Deanna understands.”

In spite of his loyalties, Will found a part of himself enjoying the feel of her touch on his little body, reminiscent of the way Deanna’s finger had been there not too long ago. He squirmed a little under Crusher’s finger, his hands coming up to try to push it away, but of course not even budging it.

“Mm-mmm, what did I say about disobedient pets, Commander?” she asked with a wink as she shook her head. “Put those hands down or I’ll have to start my scans all over again.”

“Beverly, please,” Will pleaded uncomfortably, reluctantly lowering his arms so that they were back at his sides.

“These clothes are nice,” she said, ignoring his pleas with a leering smile as her fingertip made increasingly wider circles around his torso, just grazing the waistband of his tiny pants. “Did Deanna pick them out for you?”

“Y-yes,” he replied, trying not to move too much, completely unable to avoid her huge, insistent digit. A flush arose in his chest, and he worried that his now rosy cheeks would give him away. “I didn’t have any clothes on when I came out of the holodeck, so I asked her to replicate me something.”

She laughed. “Figures that you had to ask her to clothe you, but it’s also very much like Deanna to put you in something that shows off so much of your chest.” Her finger rubbed along the deep v-neck of the shirt, plunging underneath it to stroke his hairy chest.

“Doctor!” he yelled up at her in surprise and annoyance. “W-what are you doing? This doesn’t have any scientific value, does it? T-touching me like this?”

Crusher leaned down until she was so close that he could feel her breath against his belly, a strand of her red hair falling against his legs. Her finger left his chest, sliding down beyond his waistband and over his crotch as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

Will let out a soft moan. After the events of the day he was so starved for touch that Crusher’s huge finger against his chest had aroused passions within him that he desperately wanted to remain buried. But when that sensation extended further south, it tipped him over the edge.

Beverly watched in fascination as his nascent erection started to tent the fabric between his legs, a smile spreading over her face. “‘No scientific value’?” she asked with a laugh. “Look at that circulatory response!” She tapped a few buttons on the bed, then her desk, lighting up the screen on the wall. “All of your readings have… risen.” She giggled. “Look for yourself.”

Her finger returned to his pants, rubbing softly along the seam, a blush rising to her cheeks as she enjoyed watching him grow under her touches. She glanced from him to the rising graphs and numbers on the screen, enjoying how her actions caused the readings to change.

“That’s it!” she said breathily. “Take off those little clothes. I have to see more, for, for… science!” She laughed.

“Absolutely not!” Riker bellowed, finally finding his voice. “Beverly, this is… highly inappropriate! I am your commanding officer, and I… I…” He moaned as he squirmed under her touch, wanting both to stop her and to encourage her to continue. His little body desperately ached for release, clouding his mind.

She could only watch and laugh at his tiny torment. “You have no power in sickbay, Commander. Doctor’s prerogative,” she said sarcastically. “Now take off that cute little outfit or I’ll rip it off you. You know I could do it so easily.” She softly drummed a few fingertips against his body before lifting her hand and waiting.

Will found himself taking off his clothes, letting his shirt fall above his head before kicking off his pants onto the desk below his feet. His little hands came down and did their best to cover his cock and balls as he looked up at Beverly nervously.

“Tsk, tsk, Will,” she said as she grabbed one of his wrists between her thumb and forefinger, lifting it above his head before fiddling with the velcro strap there. “I told you what would happen if you didn’t obey.”

Riker struggled with all of his might as she secured his hand tightly under the strap at one corner of the bed. She easily grabbed his other wrist and did the same at the other corner. In a few moments she had strapped down his ankles as well, leaving him spread eagle and naked, completely exposed, his little shaft swaying as he struggled to escape. He looked up at her, wide-eyed in fear and arousal, almost wishing for a voice to come over the comm to interrupt what he knew was coming next.

But one never did.

Beverly stood up, literally towering over him as she licked her lips hungrily, her face flushed.

“God, I love little men,” she growled.