by Melanie
Tom merely grinned and walked over to B'Elanna.
"Ready to go to your quarters?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his waist.
"Actually, I have a stop I'd like to make first."
-------
Naomi Wildman almost was asleep when her mother gently shook her awake.
"Honey, wake up. There's someone here to see you."
Blurry eyed, the little girl permitted her mother to unwrap her from her cocoon of covers and help her out of bed. Taking the offered hand, she followed Samantha into the sitting area of their quarters, rubbing her eyes.
Her eyes widened at the sight of Lts. Paris and Torres standing before her. Her mother and godfather had done their best to explain to her what had happened to Tommy, about Mr. Tuvok being inside of him and that was what was making him act funny, but she had not fully understood. It had taken the two adults over an hour to reassure her that her playmate was okay and the Vulcan was not some sort of monster that was going to do the same to her when she was not looking. Even now she still was rather leery of the entire thing.
Tom bent down on one knee and smiled at the child edging her way behind her mother's legs. "I have this little problem," he announced. "I haven't had a proper hug or kiss in almost a week. Know anyone who might be able to solve that problem, Cucumber?"
Warily, she peeked at him. "Not a cucumber."
"No, right now you look more like a blueberry to me. But calling you 'Blueberry' would be just silly."
She shifted slightly away from her mother. "You're silly."
"I'm silly? You're the silly one. Dressing like a cucumber one minute, a blueberry the next. Ha, she calls me silly," he
told B'Elanna.
Naomi closely watched the warm smile the two gave each other and all her reservations vanished. This was her Tommy. B'Elanna never would smile at Tuvok that way. She flew at the unsuspecting man, knocking him over onto his back. "Tommy!"
"Ouch, Cucumber, careful. I just got out of Sickbay, sweetie." Despite his words, he wrapped her in a bear hug.
The two women exchanged smiles and shakes of the head as the pair on the floor went through their routine.
After the last hug was given, Tom got to his feet, Naomi in his arms. "If Mommy and B'Elanna will excuse us for a moment?" At Sam's confirmation, he carried her through to her bedroom and tucked her in. "Naomi," he began, taking a seat beside her on the bed, "I want to talk to you about what happened with you, me, and Tuvok in the Mess Hall a couple days ago."
She looked away and he curled a finger around her chin to draw her eyes back to his. "Neither one of us ever meant to scare you, Naomi. It just... Vulcans don't like to be touched all that much, if at all. You know that, don't you?"
Naomi nodded.
"Well, Tuvok... When you hugged us, Tuvok had a hard time with that. He... We pulled away from you because it was hard for him. He doesn't dislike you or anything like that, Cucumber. It's just there are reasons why Vulcans act the way that they do and sometimes other people have trouble making sense of it. It didn't really have anything to do with you personally."
"He would have done that with anybody?"
"To one extent or another, yes." Tom decided to quit with that. If Tuvok ever wanted to explain to Naomi or anyone about how she reminded him of his own children, it would up to him to do so. Tom was not going to divulge anything he had learned without permission. "Okay, now? Not mad at Tuvok?"
"Not mad at Mr. Tuvok."
"Good." He yawned sleepily. "Now, it's time I go to bed, too."
"Ah, but-"
"No, 'buts,' young lady. You need your sleep and so do I."
"You okay, Tommy?"
"Yeah, Cucumber, I just need a rest." He kissed her cheek. "Now you go to sleep and I'll see you tomorrow."
"Tommy?"
"Yes?"
"Will you sing to me?"
He shot a glance towards the empty doorway. Neither woman had followed them in, thankfully. His little playmate was the only one on Voyager so far who had discovered his hidden talent and he wanted to keep it that way. He knew the moment someone else knew about it there would be pressure from Neelix and the Captain and who knew who else to perform at the next Talent Show. There was no way he was going to make a spectacle of himself like that.
"Okay," he whispered, kneeling beside her bed. "One quick song then I have to go get some sleep. What do you want to hear?"
"The pretty one."
"Okay, but we have to be quiet."
"Okay," she agreed in a yawn. Already the eyelids were falling.
Taking a deep breath, he listened to the music in his head to get the correct pitch then began to sing.
"I'll always love you, forever I pray
In moonlight and starlight, and all through the day
Whether you're close to me or very far away
In my heart you'll always be and forever you will stay."
That was as far as Tom got with the song. Naomi already was fast asleep and he did not feel very far behind her. He leaned over to give her a kiss on the temple then shakily rose, feeling the pain from every single injury he ever had sustained in his trauma filled life coming back to say hello. What was it with him that the Universe felt it constantly had to be throwing things at him -- literally? Shaking his aching head, he gave up trying to figure out his bad karma or whatever and went into the other room.
He found both of the women standing where he had left them, making small talk. Smiling tiredly at Sam, Tom wrapped an arm around B'Elanna's shoulders and his mate did the same to his waist. "Thanks for letting me see her, Sam."
"It's okay," Ensign Wildman assured. "She really was worried about you."
"We were worried about her."
Thinking the "we" meant the two people before her, Sam looked at B'Elanna, slightly surprised. She knew B'Elanna was fond of Naomi, but was not anywhere near as attached to her as Tom was.
Tom saw the look and shook his head. "Tuvok and I."
Sam was taken aback.
"We never meant to hurt her, Sam. I tried to explain that to her. I think she understands. If she has anymore questions, I'll try to answer them tomorrow. The Captain's ordered me to take tomorrow off. Can I take Naomi for a while?"
"I think she'd like that."
"Me, too. 'Night, Sam."
"'Night, Lieutenants."
-------
Megan Delaney was rounding a corner when she stopped. A huge, relieved grin lit up her face. There, walking away from her and towards Tom Paris' quarters, were Voyager's most combative couple. And they had their arms around each other.
As they disappeared into Tom's quarters, she felt like dancing a jig that would have made her Irish ancestor's proud. Tom and B'Elanna were together again. That meant she would not have to continue worrying about what she was going to say to the Helmsman about what her sister and Nozawa had thought they had seen on Dartin VIII. She still thought they were misinterpreting whatever they had seen since the idea of B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim was so laughable.
With a bounce in her step, she rushed off down the corridor to find her sister and tell her the good news.
-------
Tom felt B'Elanna carefully watching him as they went from the Wildman quarters to his own. Though she did not say a word, he knew she was worried about him. He was too tired to keep his mask in place so she saw all of the exhaustion and pain he felt.
Without making a comment, he pulled her inside of his quarters with him when they reached them. "Stay with me tonight," he begged, drawing her into a hug and laying his forehead against hers. "I'm not suggesting anything more than sleep."
She chuckled softly. "Like you'd be capable of anything more than sleep right now anyway."
He smiled. "Oh, I think I could make the effort."
"Effort, huh?"
A gentle kiss was laid on her lips. "You prefer 'Rise to the occasion'?"
She smiled at the double entendre. "Well...."
"Just sleep, B'
Elanna. Just sleep."
Silently, she led him over to his sleeping area and helped the nearly asleep man strip down to his briefs and climb in bed. She paused for a moment then headed over to his storage unit. It took less than a minute to find one of his T-shirts and disappear into the bathroom.
While he waited for her, his mind cast back to a few hours earlier in Sickbay. The Doctor had just finished healing him and had gone over to check on Tuvok.
"How is he, Doc?" Tom whispered.
"He appears to be holding his own," the EMH marveled. "I should have reintegrated him before this. Clearly this was what the body needed to fully heal."
He reached out and flicked off the life support. The readings fluctuated briefly then stabilized.
The Captain rushed into Sickbay. "Doctor?"
"Perhaps Engineering should move the Bridge closer to Sickbay, Captain. Your running in here is getting to be a habit."
"How are they?"
"Mr. Paris will live. Once I began treating him, his injuries turned out to be less severe than I first suspected. I'll let him out in a few hours."
There was a moan from Tuvok then the eyelids flickered.
She leaned close to the slowly waking Vulcan. "Tuvok?"
"Captain?" he hoarsely whispered. "What happened?"
"There was an explosion in Engineering. The robot prototype overloaded."
"Robot prototype?"
"Your new body."
"My new body? Why would I need a new body?"
The Captain and CMO exchanged swift glances and the EMH reached for a tricorder to scan his patient.
"Tuvok, you don't remember the accident? Sharing Tom's body?"
"Mr. Paris?"
"I was worried about something like this happening," the Doctor clucked. "The experience seems to have left him with memory loss. In light of everything that has happened, some side effects are to be expected."
"You're saying he won't remember any of the past week?"
"Apparently, though his brain is in such upheaval after the fall and his katra being inside Mr. Paris for so long, that I can't document the amount of memory loss with my scans."
"Tuvok, you okay?" came the quiet call from the other patient in Sickbay.
The Vulcan responded affirmatively in his native tongue with a "As always, Mr. Paris."
Having heard the answer he was hoping for, Tom had smiled and fallen back to sleep.
'Now, here in his quarters,' he smiled again to himself. 'Everything was going to be all right,' he thought. They were going to be safe. He had hope for the first time in months.
He looked up as B'Elanna reappeared, carrying her clothing and wearing only his T-shirt.
'And he had his B'Elanna back,' he smiled.
She set the clothes on a chair and slid in next to him. His arms automatically opened and she settled her cheek against his chest.
"I love you," she whispered.
"I love you, too," was the exhausted reply.
Smiling happily to herself, she closed her eyes. 'Things were back the way they were meant to be,' she thought, 'and nothing ever was going to pull them apart again.'
It was a nice thought. Wishful thinking, but a nice thought all the same.
The End Part 3