Have a tissue ready for this part, guys. Have many tissues ready. This chapter
is dedicated to Cheile, who bugged me and bugged me and bugged me and bugged
me to write it! Well, Cheile, here it (finally) is!

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
Part Six
By: Lauren Taylor

Naomi Wildman slipped her left hand through her mother's hand, and, with her
right hand, clutched the mug of hot chocolate that she'd just gotten from the
replicator in the mess hall. It annoyed her a bit that she had to get
replicator cocoa, Neelix made it so much better, adding a peppermint candy to
it, and putting it in a pretty mug. But Naomi hadn't been able to find Neelix
in a week. She didn't understand what had been happening this past week.
People kept mentioning words like 'murder', 'arresting', and 'innocent', words
she didn't quite understand. And her mommy had been acting different lately,
sad and quiet. Not to mention that, no matter where Naomi looked, she couldn't
find Aunt Kathryn, Aunt Kes, Uncle Harry or Uncle Neelix. And people changed
the subject when she asked about what had happened to Uncle Tom when she had
seen him being taken through the halls by Tuvok and other people in the yellow
uniforms. Her mommy walked up to Aunt B'Elanna and called her name out.
B'Elanna turned around and said hi quietly. Naomi took a sip of her hot
chocolate, and listened to what they were talking about, all while trying to
figure out what had just happened in the mess hall where everyone was getting
up and talking about the people she couldn't find.

"Listen, B'Elanna, I agree with you that Tom's innocent, and I'd like to do
anything I can to help prove that." Samantha told her. There it was again,
that word, 'innocent'. People had used that a lot lately, usually in the same
sentence as Tom's name.

B'Elanna swallowed, looking like she was about to cry. 

"Thank you, Sam. That means a lot to me. Why don't you come to my quarters
later, we can work on this mystery." B'Elanna told her, with a smile on her
face. That was a new word for Naomi, 'mystery'. She told herself to ask her
mommy what all these words meant later, and where all the missing people were.

****************************************************************

B'Elanna crawled through the Jeffries Tubes, headed for the spot outside of
Tom's quarters. It had been a week since the murders, and she came here to
talk with him every chance she got. When she got to their spot, she knocked on
the wall three times, a code for them, and she heard him get up from the couch
and walk over to the vent. 

"How was the service?" he asked, sighing. He'd been extremely upset when he
found that he couldn't attend the service, and B'Elanna had blown up at
Chakotay about it. 

"Depressing." she told him, "Practically everyone had something to say, and
everyone but Tuvok and Vorik attended. The two of them stated that ' Vulcans
did not require mourning and their duties were to the ship.' ". she rolled her
eyes, even though Tom couldn't see it. He sighed again. 

"Wish I could've been there." he told her. She pulled the vent between them
off, and handed him a little computer chip. He smiled when he saw her, they'd
been cautious about their meeting, just in case Chakotay ever went over sensor
logs. He leaned over and kissed her, then looked at the chip.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A recording of the service." she smiled. He kissed her again, then looked at
her. He missed seeing her chocolate brown eyes, her beautiful hair that always
fell in her face, her smile, everything. He hated that he couldn't crawl
through that vent and be with her, but it was too small for him to fit
through.

"Last night, I wrote a speech about them, what I would have said if I'd been
at the service." he told her bitterly as she put the vent back on. 

"I wrote one, too, but it didn't help me, I didn't get through what I wanted
to say. I broke down while talking about Captain Janeway, and never even got
to talk about Harry." she confessed, seeming a bit embarrassed.

"There's nothing wrong with that, it's probably what I would have done." he
told her. 

"I'd like to hear your speech, Tom." she told him after a long pause. She
heard him get up, walk into his bedroom, and walk out. He sat down, and
punched a few buttons on a PADD to pull up his speech.

"It's sort of short, I had trouble writing it." he said sheepishly.

"That's all right, Tom." she told him soothingly.

"The four people that were so wrongly taken from us one week ago were four of
the best friends I've ever had. I don't know how I'll make it without them.
They felt... almost like a family to me. Kes was like a little sister to me, I
felt that I had to protect her from any and all dangers that were out there.
She was always the one I could count on to cheer me up if I'd been having a
bad day, or give me advice on a tough personal situation. Neelix was another
one who I could always count on to cheer me up. I will admit, I might not miss
the Leola Root Surprise, but I'll miss the hell out of him. I don't think I'll
ever get used to seeing the mess hall without him in the kitchen, fixing God
only knows what for dinner." Tom's voice began to get choked up as he went on
with the speech, "Captain Janeway is the reason I am here today, the reason I
am who I am. She believed in me when no one else did, took a chance on a
Starfleet criminal, and gave him the life he never thought he could have. And,
Harry Kim. The first friend I made here on Voyager. He saw me for who I was at
the moment we met, not for the mistakes in my past. He's always been there for
me, no matter the situation, and I know that I wouldn't be here today if not
for him. I'll miss the hell out of you guys." 

Tom threw down the PADD, and wiped away a tear from his cheek. B'Elanna was
silent, speechless. 

"Tom, that was beautiful." she finally said. 

TO BE CONTINUED

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