Cast your votes now! Who do you think is the murderer? Remember what you
voted, and we'll see who's right! 

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
Part Seven
By: Lauren Taylor

"You're late, lieutenant." Chakotay informed B'Elanna as she entered the
bridge, a few minutes after talking to Tom.

"I was busy." she replied coldly as she walked to her station. She sat down,
and sighed as she looked around the bridge. It was so different now, so
strange and unfamiliar. Chakotay sat in the captain's seat, at the helm was
Jenna Bayheart, at ops was Jason Caudle. Replacements, every last one of them.
B'Elanna got along all right with Bayheart, she was the only current member of
the senior staff that B'Elanna didn't mind. 

Jason was another story. He was a Starfleet officer, and not the friendliest
guy on the ship. His wife had been a crewmember, also, in engineering, but was
killed when the Caretaker whisked Voyager away to the Delta Quadrant. That had
completely destroyed Jason, as Harry had told her. What hurt him even more was
the fact that she was one month pregnant with their third child. Their two
other children were back on earth, staying with Jason's sister until the
mission was over. Jason didn't come out of his quarters much, and, when he
did, he sat alone in the mess hall or holodeck. He always threw himself into
his work, anything to keep his mind off of his losses. Jason did feel that he
deserved to manage the ops station, he was, after all, about five years older
than Harry, and, in his eyes, that made him more qualified. 

"B'Elanna, may I see you in my ready room?" Chakotay asked, breaking her train
of thought.

"Yes, commander." she replied as she stood up.

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

"You've been late a lot lately." Chakotay told her when they'd gotten into the
ready room. He was seated at the desk, and she was pacing the room. 

"You try being on time when everything and everyone you care about was taken
away from you." she whispered, not thinking that Chakotay had heard.

"B'Elanna, you aren't the only person that lost something. Everyone on this
ship suffered a loss when the murders happened."

"You sure don't act like you've lost anything." she told him, examining the
room. She looked on the table in front of the couch, where Captain Janeway had
kept pictures of some of the crew members, and of her family. The table was
now empty.

"Look at this, Chakotay. You didn't even keep anything of the captain's. Not
even the photos." she told him, gesturing to the table.

"They were the captain's items, I didn't see the use in keeping them."

"Chakotay, she would have wanted the pictures kept here. What about that one
of the two of you in the mess hall? Remember, the one that Tom took a few
months ago? Why didn't you keep that one? That was her favorite picture. I
thought you cared about her, Chakotay." B'Elanna told him as she walked out.
Chakotay followed her, and took her by the arm at the doorway. He pulled her
back so that the doors closed, and he looked her straight in the eye.

"Lieutenant Torres, you are hereby relieved of duty until further notice." he
said authoritativly.

"Thank god." she answered coldly as she left.

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

B'Elanna walked to her quarters in a huff. She passed Joe Carey and Sue
Nicoletti on the way, and they completely ignored her, knowing how she was
when she got like this. B'Elanna went into her quarters and sat down on the
couch, sighing.

"Torres to Wildman." she said as she hit her comm badge.

"Wildman here." Sam's voice answered. 

"Do you want to come to my quarters now? My duty shift ended earlier than
expected." she said remorsefully. 

"I'll be there in about fifteen minutes, I'd like to find someone to watch
Naomi." she replied. B'Elanna nodded her head, and vocally confirmed what Sam
had told her.

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

About twenty minutes later, the door chimes rang. 

"Come in." B'Elanna called out from her desk where she was desperatly trying
to find anything from sensor logs. Samantha entered, with Naomi behind her.

"I hope you don't mind that I brought Naomi." she apologized, "I've had
trouble finding sitters this past week." 

B'Elanna realized what a strain this must be taking on Sam. Naomi's usual
sitters were Neelix, Kes, or Tom. Neelix was the only one who could get Naomi
to sleep if she saw a monster, and B'Elanna was sure that, just by looking at
Sam's weary face, monsters had visited thier quarters a few times recently.

"I don't mind at all." B'Elanna told her. Naomi took her bag of toys and sat
on the couch, happily introducing two dolls to each other.

"I haven't been able to get anything from the sensors." B'Elanna admitted as
Sam sat down beside her. 

"Maybe we need to just talk to people, find out where they were when it all
happened. What's Tom's story?" Sam asked.

"Where's Uncle Tommy? He needs to finish reading to me." Naomi asked, jumping
off of the couch.

"Uncle Tommy's busy right now, sweetie. And so is mommy, so just keep playing
with your dolls." Sam said, sounding tired.

"Tom's story is that he was in his quarters, getting a shower. There's no one
that can confirm that." B'Elanna said sadly, "Where were you?" 

"I was in the science lab, alone. B'Elanna, you don't think that I-" 

"No, of course not, I just wanted to see who you were with then. Where was
Naomi? I mean, who was taking care of her?" B'Elanna asked as she looked over
at the girl, who was giving the dolls a tea party.

"Ensign Marra was watching Naomi then." Samantha said.

"Mommy, can me and Susie go see Uncle Neelix?" Naomi asked, tugging on her
mom's sleeve and clutching a dark-haired doll. 

"No, Neelix is busy, too. Naomi, I think it's your bed time. Why don't you go
and sleep in B'Elanna's bed?" Sam told her, looking at B'Elanna for
permission. B'Elanna nodded, but Naomi threw down the doll.

"I'm not going to bed until I can see Neelix!" she whined.

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

Tom watched on his monitor as Ensign Wildman gave a moving speech about
Neelix. But he couldn't hear it. His eyes drifted to a picture beside his
monitor. The picture was taken only a few days before the murders, at Harry's
surprise birthday party at Sandrines. The picture was of Tom, Harry, and
B'Elanna sitting at a table, with their arms around each other. Joe Carey had
taken that picture, and it was Tom's favorite. But, now, it meant so much
more. Harry was gone, and Sandrines was where it all happened only a week ago.
Tom choked back tears as he held the picture close to him. He couldn't take
this anymore. 

Tom threw the picture back down on the desk, and, with a sweeping motion of
his arm, flung the monitor, picture, and various padds off of the desk. He
stood up and picked up the chair, throwing it across the room where it hit the
wall, knocking down a painting. But Tom didn't care. He ran to the table in
front of his couch, and, swept everything off of there, too. Then, he
collapsed onto the couch in tears, crying for the friends who had been
brutally taken, for the love that he never got to see, for the loneliness that
he had felt for the past seven days.

TO BE CONTINUED

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