When she speaks, her patients listen. That authority is something that can’t be learned as easily as morphology and syntax, and whenever Nyota ends up in the sickbay (which is more often than she’d like) she’s entranced by how deftly Christine gets everyone in line, even Dr. McCoy.

One day, after she’s back on her feet, she takes a moment to work up her courage and quietly says, “I love to hear you talk, you know.”