Chapters 1 to 2
Hi all, Again this is an even further step away from my holiday series but when the muse haunts you until the wee hours of the morning, you just have to listen to what she says. This little diddy came about during the middle of the night and ended up being a little longer than I had anticipated it being. So if some things don't sound right or if there is an excessive amount of mistakes please forgive me, I try. And now onto the show.
Disclaimers: I don't own these characters but they got bored with the cheesy storylines Paramount keeps coming up with and asked me to create something for them to work with. There is a loving relationship between two women and goes a little farther than my usual stories do :)
I didn't get this beta read so watch out for those silly gramatical errors. They're there.
Feedback: Please (pouting lip along with puppy dog face) to letterx
Chapter 2
Chapter 1
It was almost the end of the alpha shift and the engineering crew were still walking on eggshells. Afraid to upset their cheif engineer even more, nobody had even bothered to ask what had upset the Lt. to begin with. All they knew for sure was that ever since B'Elanna Torres walked into engineering at 08:00 that morning, she was more volitle than they had ever seen her before.
"Gods be damned! Where the hell is that neutrionic spanner?!" Torres yelled as she frantically went through a box full tools, discarding the ones she didn't need by throwing them over her shoulder.
While dodging the flying debris, Vorik ventured to comment. "I believe it has not been used since our last inventory check and is still stored away in a box in Cargo Bay 2. If I am not mistaken."
"What?! For Kahless's sake! Fine, I'll go get it. Maybe a walk will do me good." B'Elanna mumbled that last part knowing deep down inside that she was being quite unfair to her crew but also knew that she couldn't help it. Not after what had happened late last night.
Torres stormed out of engineering heading for Cargo bay 2. Praying to any god she could think of that she didn't bump into Seven of Nine while there. 'Please not today, I don't think I could handle her today.
B'Elanna walked into the bay with hesitant steps. Looking around cautiously, she saw that it was thankfully empty. With more determined steps, the engineer headed directly for a crate stacked on the far left shelving. With the worry of bumping into Seven gone, Torres felt her previous anger bubble up to the surface again. Like before, the Lt. tore through the box of tools like a targ tearing into it's prey. A few minutes later a whole litenany of Klingon curses filled the air. Looking down at her hand, Lanna saw that she had a cut across her right palm which was now bleeding profusely. And that was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The half- Klingon kicked and punched and swore at the box of tools so violently that if Seven hadn't come in when she did and wrap her arms around the Lt., she was sure that B'Elanna would have injured herself further. Without any warning, it had stopped just as quickly as it had started. As soon as Lanna had felt the arms wrap around her, radiating warmth, strength, and comfort, she stopped struggling only to collapse and cry helplessly into the shoulder of her savior. Seven unsure of what to do, closed her arms tighter around the upset woman murmering soft words of comfort just like she had seen Samantha Wildman do for her daughter when she was upset.
"Shh, Lt. I am here now. It will be okay. Shh, you are safe."
The words of comfort sounded slightly off but when B'Elanna realized who was saying them, they suddenly became the most sweetest words she had ever heard. The engineer tried to pull herself together as best as she could realizing how uncomfortable the woman who's arms she was now laying in was. Lanna also realized that both women were sitting on the floor and felt that it was time to get up. Only as she did so, Seven gently pulled her down again.
"Lt. Torres. You are damaged." Seven stated as she noticed the cut on the woman's right hand.
"I'm fine, Seven, really." The half-Klingon tried to be convincing through the sniffles and hiccups.
"Why were so angry today and why are you here crying now?" The ex- drone asked in such a soft and gentle voice that B'Elanna had to turn around and make sure it was still Seven she was with.
"I...," Lanna was going to make up some excuse or tell Seven off but as she looked into the clear ice blue eyes that held so much concern, she dismissed that line of thought. So as she snuggled up into the blond's arms even more the engineer continued on, this time with the truth. "He let me, Seven."
"I assume you are refering to Lt. Paris?" Seven whispered as she rested her forehead on top of the Klingon's head. She didn't know why she did it, only that it seemed right.
"Yes." Lanna choked out. "If he left because of another woman or that he didn't love me any more or that he couldn't take the fighting any more, I'd understand. But he left just sayng that it was over. There was no other woman, he still loved me, and he couldn't care less about the fights. He said that the problem was that I didn't love him any more. He claimed that him ending the marriage was for the best no matter how much it pained him to do it. We stood up all night talking about it and then this morning we both went to see the captain. The marriage was annoled.
"Do you still love him?"
"Yes, no. Not the way I used to. I guess he was right. I may still love him but I'm no longer in love with him."
"Then, perhaps, the real reason you are upset right now is because you percieve that you have failed at making the marriage work, something you really wanted to accopmlish." Seven suggested in that infamous borg bluntness.
"Maybe." (sniffle, sniffle)
"Then you are mistaken. A failed marriage is not one that ends in divorce but one that remains unhappy. Both you and Lt. Paris recognized that your marriage was no longer a truely happy one. And instead of continuing on with the way things were, Tom Paris ended it, hoping to leave the marriage remembering it as a happy and lovefilled time."
"Really?" B'Elanna asked in a very uncharacteristic meek voice.
"Really. At least that's what my research concluded. But I could be in error." Seven replied with a quirk of her lips forming a slight smile but it was enough to get Lanna to smile back in return.
B'Elanna leaned back into Seven, content to just sit in her arms for a while longer. Suprising herself, the ex-drone who was normally adverse to physical contact, found herself content to just hold Torres in her arms. With both their duty shift now over, both women had all the time in the world.
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Chapter 2
Days, then weeks passed by. B'Elanna found herself able to move past her breakup with Tom with suprising ease. Perhaps it really was that she had no longer loved Tom but rather someone else like he had suggested that faithful night. But Lanna doubted that. 'I am not in love with anyone else. If I was I would know about it. Right?' So if it wasn't about being in love with someone else then it had to do with a certain blond ex-borg. Ever since that day in Cargo Bay 2, Seven had been a source of constant support for the half-Klingon. They shared lunches and dinners together, worked willingly on projects together, and spent some off time together. Torres exposed Seven to new experiences like her first picnic on the holodeck, reading her first adult novel, and even eating what they learned to cook. It was one such morning when Neelix had showed the two women how to make Lanna's favorite, Banana pancakes. The two then took their stash over to a corner table to reap the benefits of cooking. That's when Harry and Tom came into the messhall for breakfast. Upon seeing the two women together, Tom visibly flinched.
"You still love her, don't you?" Harry said as he saw the flinch and tracked what had caused it.
"Yes." Was the simple answer from the pilot.
"Then why did you just let her go without a fight?"
"Because, Harry, I had already lost her a long time ago. I just didn't know it then that another had captured her hearts. If I had known maybe I could have put up a fight but now, now it was just too late. I lost the fight before I even knew it had happened." Tom said with a certainty and fiality that Harry had never heard from the usually optimistic and carefree guy.
The operations officer took one last look at Lanna before heading off with Tom. He noticed that she did seem happier than before. There seemed to be a certain... glow about her that wasn't there before. Maybe Tom was right, maybe the engineer was in love with someone else and now that the marriage was dissolved she was finally free to express that love. 'But who does she love?', was Kim's last thought as he left the messhall, only turning to glance at the half-Klingon who was suddenly laughing hystercally.
"Naomi Wildman, are we schedualed to play kotiskot?" Seven asked as the young Katarine entered Cargo Bay 2.
"No, Seven, I, well, I wanted to just talk to you."
The ex-drone nodded her head and directed the young child to sit on the dias before her alcove.
"What would you like to discuss?"
"I, uh, you see, uh, do you still want to be my friend?" Naomi asked in a rush afraid of what the answer might be.
"Yes, of course." Seven actually looked as shocked as she felt by the unexpected question. "Why would you even ask a question like that?"
"It's just that, well, you were spending a lot of time with Lt. Torres. I just thought that you wanted to be her friend now instead of mine.", came the whispered reply.
"Naomi, I would never want to stop being your friend. You are my 'bestest' friend in the 'whole wide universe'." Seven smiled down at her bestest fiend. "It is just that I have a new friendship with Lt. Torres. We have moved past our antagonism and have become 'close'."
"Do you 'like' Lt. Torres?" Seven assurtained that Naomi was refering to sexual feelings toward B'Elanna due to the emphasis on the word like. In response, both eyebrows flew into her hairline. Naomi just continued on. "It just occured to me that you two spend a lot of time together and have lots of fun, plus you get this little twinkle in your eyes when you speak of her." The Katarine smiled triumphantly at having figured out Seven's feelings before anyone else did.
"I... I... I do not know. I have not analysized my feelings toward B'Elanna yet." Seven replied honestly.
"Well, do you feel happy and tingly inside when around her? Do feel sad and lonely when's she's away? Do you have lots in common?" Seven nodded yes to all the questions. "Then you love her." Again Naomi smiled triumphantly.
The more Seven thought about it the more she felt Naomi just may be right. Even though it was a rather simplistic look at love. She would definitely need to research this more later.
"Thank you, Naomi Wildma, for your assistance. I will consider the matter at a latter time. Right now I believe I wish to challenge you a game of kotiskot."
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Continued to Chapter 3