Okay this is my attempt to write a response to Bethany's memory
challenge.
I think it hold some kind of record for the number of rewrites is has
gotten but here goes.

Disclaimer: Paramount owns everything star trek related. Just having
fun with their characters. No profit intended.

Pairing:T/7
Rating: pg13
Warning story contains likeable Paris

Thanks to Quew for betaing


Nothing is ever easy


With a big bang Seven's regeneration cycle was rudely interrupted.
Seven didn't even notice; she was thrown halfway through cargo bay
two. She was unconscious before she hit the ground.

*

The warning signals in both engineering and on the bridge had gone
haywire. Something had happened in cargo bay two and B'Elanna
together with Vorik had already been on her way there before the
Captain ordered her.

The first to arrive B'Elanna entered the bay without hesitation,
momentarily stopping in her tracks as she took in the mess that had
once been Seven's alcove. Vorik immediately left her side to check
the alcove but at that moment the Chief-Engineer saw Seven lying on
the floor.

Not wasting a single moment she hurried over to the former Borg while
tapping her comm. Badge.

"Medical emergency, two to transport directly to sick-bay."

Before the blue tinkling of the transporters moved them, B'Elanna
quickly ordered Vorik not to touch anything until Tuvok had a chance
to investigate. Therefore she did not notice how very briefly Seven's
eyes fluttered open and drank in the image of the woman kneeling
beside her.

By the time the two women materialised in sickbay her eyes were
closed again.

*

Three hours later B'Elanna entered sick bay for the second time that
day. With Tuvok reviewing all the logs concerning Seven's accident
the half Klingon had finished her regular shift. Not able to get the
image of Seven lying on the floor out of her mind she felt she wanted
to check in on her.

When she entered sick bay her view of Seven was blocked by a small
cluster of people standing in front of the bio bed on which Seven lay.
The Captain, Chakotay and Tom were talking with the Doctor. As she
neared them her boyfriend looked over his shoulder and briefly smiled
at her, before concentrating on the conversation again.

Before joining the others the engineer wanted to see for herself how
Seven was doing. A few hours earlier the tall blonde woman had been
bleeding from several wounds. She was relieved to see that at least
the outside wounds had been healed. Now standing directly besides
Seven's bed an unexpected flash of pity made its way through
B'Elanna.
How often in her few years on board Voyager had she seen the younger
woman in this exact same position in sickbay? They had never quite
become friends but at least lately their adversarial relationship had
started to thaw. Now looking down at the former drone, again, it
finally dawned on her how badly she of all people had treated the
woman. How difficult life must have been for Seven after her release
from the Borg collective and just how few real breaks in life the
woman had gotten.

At that moment her musings were interrupted as she realised Seven had
opened her eyes and was staring at her, a slight smile on her face.

"Seven," the one word was enough to draw everyone's attention,
however by that time, just a very few moments later, the woman had
already closed her eyes again.

Running his medical tricorder over his patient the doctor
announced, "she is sleeping." Relief and a touch of wonder was
evident in his voice.


Turning to the Captain he said. "Captain can we please continue our
conversation in my office. I do not want to disturb Seven if it can
be prevented. You know she is not used to sleeping."

"Of course, doctor." Agreed Janeway.

"Uh, doc, you don't need me anymore do you?" asked Tom.

"No, you can go. I will let you know when I need you."

Having seen Seven and not wanting to be in the way B'Elanna left
together with Tom and he filled her in on Seven's condition.
"Physically she will be fine. It's her memory doc's worried about the
most."

"What do you mean." B'Elanna asked, honestly worried for Seven.

"Well, it looks like whatever caused Seven's alcove to blow happened
while she was regenerating. We've ran several scans of her brain
and..," here he sighed deeply, "..things just don't look too good.
There is a good chance she has some brain damage. The thing is, with
Seven's Borg implants we don't know how serious."

"But she will be al right, right? The Doctor can cure her?"

Sighing deeply again in misery Tom shook his head. "We just don't
know at this point. It's to early to tell."
He was glad though that B'Elanna showed this concern for Seven's
welfare. Seven was a friend of his and he was glad his girlfriend was
finally coming around to her.

*

Seven awoke the next morning, only she did not know she was Seven of
Nine, former Borg drone. She looked around the unfamiliar room and
did not find what she was looking for.

What was she looking for? Who was she looking for? Who was she? At
that moment Seven realised the face that had been there the last few
times was not there. It should have been but it wasn't. Why wasn't it
there?
Why didn't she know anything?

She started to panic. Why didn't she know anything?

A strange balding male in a blue outfit suddenly stood in her field
of vision. He held out a piece of machinery that he waved in front of
her. Why was he doing that? Who was he?

Then she realised the man was talking to her.

"Seven how are you feeling?" he was looking intently at her.

Seven? She had to be Seven then… ignoring the bald guy she looked
around again. Where was she, her dark haired angel? She should have
been here.





*

One week later.

The only good thing to come out off Seven's accident, though by now
the Doctor was starting to doubt if it was a good thing, was that
Seven's cortical implant no longer functioned. She would be able to
experience every emotion to the fullest. A complication she could
probably do without.
He Doctor had done all he could for Seven. Apart from her memory loss
Seven appeared at least physically fine but her behaviour had become
absolutely unreadable to everyone. Even more so then before her
accident, even those who had known her best no longer recognised her.
However few found this weird thanks to Seven's accident but no-one
knew what to do.

B'Elanna had wanted to visit Seven as well. The image of the
unconscious woman kept plaguing her. However the doctor, who was well
only too aware of the engineer's formidable temper and her
antagonistic behaviour towards his patient, had prevented this.


*

Seven had read her personal logs as well as her personnel records. It
was no use, she did not recognise the person she had once been. In
fact she found it impossible to identify with that person. Going
through the crew manifest she had also found her angel. Lieutenant
B'Elanna Torres, also the ship's Chief Engineer. The same person with
whome she had constantly argued, at least according to her own logs.

Those logs had to be false, or they belonged to another person. She
could not compare the feelings she felt every time she thought about
the beautiful woman, to the logs she read. The few memories, images
really, Seven had were of the dark haired woman looking down at her
compassionately.

It must be the reason why B'Elanna had not come to visit her. Seven
could not make herself call the woman by any other name than
B'Elanna. A beautiful name, which she had often repeated to herself
these last few days.

And the more she thought about the woman the more she became aware of
her feelings for her. Where had these feeling come from, she couldn't
have just woken up with them, could she? She wanted to see her but
obviously B'Elanna did not want to see her. She would have done so by
now if she had, wouldn't she?

The only thing Seven recognised from her logs where the feelings of
loss and utter confusion after she had been freed from the `Borg
collective'. Only now it wasn't the loss of `the many voices' that
terrified her but the loss of one voice. Which, if she thought about
it she might as well have never really had.

*

On the bridge B'Elanna was working at the Engineering station. She
was sitting with her back to the turbolift door and took no notice of
who walked through the door. A few moments later she became aware of
someone standing behind her. Irritated that that person didn't say
anything she turned around to face a tentatively smiling, yet very
uncertain looking Seven.

Tom had kept B'Elanna appraised of Seven's condition when the doctor
had refused her to see Seven earlier that week. She knew of Seven's
memory loss and her behaviour so she was very uncertain how to
respond to the smiling woman in front of her.

But she had to say something. So she answered the other woman's smile
with one of her own and tentatively asked. "Seven, how are you doing?"
To be taken completely by surprise as the younger woman hugged her
tight and murmured happily. "You don't hate me." It was as much a
statement as a question.

Realising she could hardly expect normal behaviour from someone who
had gone through what Seven had Voyager's Chief-Engineer was now at a
total loss of how to respond. Hugging her awkwardly back she finally
had to ask Seven to release her.
"No, Seven I don't hate you." What else could she say?

Rarely had she been more relieved then right now for the Doctor to
interrupt something as he did now.

"Seven we have a meeting with the Captain." The Doctor looked
thoughtfully at B'Elanna. He had been only slightly less surprised by
Seven's actions then the Lieutenant. However the woman had gotten the
first spontaneous reaction out of her since the accident in cargo bay
two. Tuvok had found out that it had indeed been `only' a very
unfortunate accident. The idea that had begun to form in the Doctor's
photonic brain seemed less like a long shot than that morning.

*

B'Elanna had been relieved to see Seven go. The doctor had to ask
Seven three times before the woman would leave her. She just hadn't
known how to handle this new Seven. Though she definitely did not
want to upset the younger woman in any way. On the contrary she
honestly wanted to help her. But how, was a question she didn't know
how to answer.
No, far better to concentrate on her work at hand. That at least was
something she understood.

When the Captain called her into the ready room a few moments later
B'Elanna had the sinking suspicion she knew what it was about.

*

It was as B'Elanna had suspected. It had been decided Seven should
for the time being work in Engineering. For her to head up the
Astrometrics department was out of the question right now. Together
with the Doctor B'Elanna would determine which work would be suitable
for Seven. The ex-drone no longer had the vast knowledge of the Borg
at her fingertips and they had to find out what skills Seven still
had or had to relearn.

*

Several weeks passed like this. Weeks in which B'Elanna spend a lot
of time with the `new' Seven and had to, guiltily, admit she liked
this new Seven.

They quickly became friends.

Several weeks in which Seven quietly enjoyed the time she spend with
her mentor. Quietly enjoying the company and considering herself
lucky B'Elanna now called her friend. They also spent off duty time
together on a more or less regular basis. Seven treasured this time
for she got to see sides of B'Elanna that the older woman would not
show in front of her staff.

By now Seven had started to see her amnesia as a blessing rather then
the curse it had been those first few weeks. B'Elanna had, a little
bit ashamed, admitted that the logs Seven had heard were true. Their
mutual relationship had been less then cordial.

It was nearly impossible for Seven to believe those logs when she
considered everything she felt now. Were had those feelings come
from? It didn't matter, not really.
What did matter was that she could not act on those feelings.

B'Elanna was in a relationship with Tom Paris and to all appearances
seemed happy. The ship's Helmsman and assistant to the Doctor really
was a nice guy who also wanted to be her friend. But she was finding
it difficult to be civil to him. She knew she was jealous of the man
and did not know how to deal with this emotion either. There was
nothing she could do except hope someday a solution would offer
itself.

*

Two months later

By now everyone had given up on Seven's memories returning. She was
fortunate to have an eidetic memory so she learned everything she
took on quickly. To all appearances she had settled into her new life
comfortably, and life went on for her like for everyone else.

A ship wide party had been organised and a few friends had gathered
together in the holo deck programme. Ensign Kim, Samantha Wildman,
Seven, B'Elanna and Tom shared a table in the corner giving them a
good view of the room. B'Elanna was boxed in between Seven and Tom.

Seven was having more then just a good time for B'Elanna had danced
with her twice. Tom had frowned once at them but had kept quiet as
B'Elanna gracefully led Seven over the dance floor. It helped of
course that most of the times it was with him B'Elanna danced and
that it had taken more then a little pleading, wheedling and puppy
dog looks from herself before B'Elanna agreed to those two dances.
But it had been worth it, she had created memories that she would
treasure for a long as she would remember.

One thing had not changed with Seven's memory loss. The former drone
still could not handle liquor. Her friends had warned her not to
drink but Seven had responded sceptically. Surely she could handle
one glass of Champagne, the party was starting to wind down anyhow.

Before the woman had finished her glass B'Elanna decided to take the
intoxicated woman to cargo bay two. Saying good night to the rest of
their group she kissed Tom on his cheek and told him she would see
him the next morning for breakfast.

"I could meet you in your quarters after you get Seven home." He said
suggestively.

B'Elanna smiled in return. "Not tonight Tom. You volunteered for the
cleanup crew. By the time you'd get there I'd be fast a sleep. See
you tomorrow Helm boy."

Seven was leaning on B'Elanna perhaps more then was necessary. And
she could not quite look Tom in the eye. This was how they walked to
cargo bay two, where Seven was still required to regenerate.

When the half Klingon engineer helped Seven towards her alcove Seven
suddenly said. "I love you, Lanna." She could not help herself.

For a second B'Elanna faltered in her stride. `What!' then she
realised Seven probably meant she loved her as a friend. She
replied. "I love you too Seven, you're a good friend."

"No," protested Seven. "I Love You." Turning to her companion she
grabbed the smaller woman's head between her hands. She was suddenly
very steady in her manners. She lifted the other woman's chin up and
gently placed her lips on those of B'Elanna's, kissing her deeply.
B'Elanna responded to the kiss with a passion that took Seven's
breath away.

It was Seven, not B'Elanna, who finally broke the kiss. Looking sadly
in the half human's eyes, saying, "I love you," again before stepping
on her alcove to start her regeneration cycle. Leaving a stunned
engineer, with a highly increased hart rate, staring at her.

*

Sitting in a quiet place in the completely dark mess hall B'Elanna
was staring outside where the stars flew buy as Voyager passed them
at Warp four. She did not see anything, lost in a jumble of thoughts.

`What had just happened?!' She had kissed Seven! It had felt good,
better then anything ever before. But she loved Tom, didn't she?
Could she throw away a three-year relationship based on one kiss with
the woman who was now so dominantly present in her mind? Images flew
through her mind faster then Warp nine.

Images of Seven's face, smiling… sad… concentrating on a problem,
warring with images of Tom's friendly face, his comforting arm around
her shoulder when she needed it.

What had happened tonight? What should or could she do? Why could
things never stay simple and understandable, like need little
engineering problems?

Sighing deeply again she knew there was at least one things she had
to do tonight. Klingon honour demanded it. She couldn't and wouldn't
pretend it hadn't happened, nor could she deny the impact Seven's
unexpected kiss had made on her.

Sighing again, she stood up and left her place near the window, and
went to find Tom to tell him what had happened.

The end.