Trials 04 Shadow's Trial

by Terri Zavaleta

  they're stupid enough to incriminate themselves, we'll take advantage

  of it. If not, this confrontation, assuming it's successful, will

  raise Malista's self-esteem and solve the problem without our

  'official' intervention."

  "I still don't see why I can't be out there where----" Harry began for

  the fourteenth time in twenty minutes.

  "Because that's not the plan," Torres snarled impatiently. "She'd

  start looking at you and forget her lines. Or worry about what you're

  thinking about what she's saying. And you HAVE to stay QUIET!

  Remember, she thinks we're monitoring this from the Security Office.

  We DON'T want her to know we're here so she'll handle it herself!"

  "Well, where is she?" Tom reiterated for the twelfth time in the SAME

  twenty minutes.

  B'Elanna turned her fiery scowl on him. She was about to lose all

  patience with both Tom and Harry and blast them both verbally, when

  she heard the entrance to the holodeck hiss open. "The Delaneys are

  here."

  "Where's Malista?" The question came from four directions at once as

  the breathless redheaded sisters slid behind the concealing curtain

  and climbed up the bleachers to seat themselves on the third row up.

  "George is bringing her," Jenny snapped irritably. "She almost flaked

  out on us again. That girl has NO backbone!"

  Tom, Harry, and B'Elanna bridled defensively at that remark, but

  before they could respond, Megan Delaney contradicted her sister.

  "Yes, she does. You should have seen her standing eye to eye and toe

  to toe with---"

  Megan's hand flew to her mouth as she immediately suppressed what she

  intended to say. For all her famed lack of discretion, she had managed

  to avoid describing the Paris/Shadow confrontation on the planet. And

  now? Now she almost let it slip in front of the captain, the first

  officer...Damn! Everyone was staring at her.

  "So where are Malista and Natwick?" Harry Kim insisted.

  Jenny, covering for her sister's loss of composure, quickly replied,

  "She started trying to back out again. George was telling her about

  something called ---what was it, Meg? bush something."

  "Bushido," supplied a subdued Megan . "Something to do with honor and

  fighting, I think."

  "What? What the hell does that have to do---" Paris began.

  "I told you. She was trying to back out of the whole thing. George was

  trying to convince her that she has to defend her name and fight back.

  He was trying to get her to agree that this is a matter of honor,"

  Jenny explained.

  "Was he making any progress?" Torres asked sardonically. She didn't

  think so. Her own mother had never had much luck appealing to

  B'Elanna's sense of family honor in order to gain her obedience or

  compliance in following Klingon traditions.

  "I don't think so," Megan sighed. "She may be sweet and easy-going,

  but she sure can be hard-headed. You think it's a family

  characteristic, Tom? Oh. Sorry. I forgot. She's not really your

  sister." Torres stared at the redhead disbelievingly. Megan ignored

  the chief engineer and continued, "Anyway, she totally refused to wear

  the dancing girl costume we provided. She's been dragging her heels

  all the way. She said she'll confront them, but she's not letting us

  use the hologram of her dancing after all. She says she'll let us make

  a recording of her dancing later. In private. For Harry's eyes only.

  I'll be surprised if she doesn't just cancel the whole thing while

  she's at it. Or tell George to tell us she's not going through with

  it."

  "Maybe I should go check on them?" Ensign Kim suggested, bounding to

  his feet. Inaction and not knowing what was going on was driving him

  insane by degrees. Harry told himself he was merely concerned. Maybe

  he'd caught the overprotective bug from Tom? He certainly was not

  jealous because Malista was alone with another man. Even if it was the

  one man who had almost seduced her once before in a vulnerable moment.

  There was no need for him to feel threatened. Of course not.

  Torres snagged Kim's arm and thrust him back towards the bleachers.

  "Leave them alone. I think they may have some issues they need to deal

  with before Malista is ready to deal with this one."

  "George will get her here. He knows she has to do this," Jenny

  insisted.

  "Besides," her twin added, "George seems to have a calming effect on

  her."

  Not comforted in the slightest, Harry Kim threw a discomfited glance

  at Megan, and gauged his chances of getting past B'Elanna to the

  exit-and concluded he had absolutely no chance at all. He finally

  faded reluctantly back into place on the bleacher to wait impatiently,

  though he bounced his feet incessantly in an attempt to work off

  excess energy.

  "I have every confidence in Mr. Natwick's ability to carry out his

  assignment," Tuvok stated firmly. "He is quite competent in his duties

  as a Security Officer."

  "Oh, that sterling reference alone makes me feel so-o-o-o much

  better," Tom drawled, but subsided under the steel gray glance of his

  captain. They all settled down to await the arrival of the most

  important participant in the planned scenario.

  ***********

  "George, I can't fight for my family honor if I don't have any!"

  Malista shouted. She looked for all the world like a trapped kitten.

  She'd backed herself into the corner of her room nearest the door and

  wrapped her arms around herself. She felt terribly self-conscious

  being alone with him in her quarters while wearing her circus tights

  and robe. Somehow it felt odd. Awkward. It was strange but she'd never

  felt quite so exposed when she wore this costume in her circus program

  on the holodeck.

  "Any family? Or any honor?" Natwick wasn't sure he understood her

  response.

  "Either. Both. My father disowned me," she confessed miserably.

  Natwick, arms crossed over his massively muscular chest, just stared

  down at her for a moment wearing his most stoic expression. He didn't

  try to close the distance between them. She might bolt. 'Okay,' he

  thought dispassionately. 'Screw the honor code approach. Time for a

  new angle.'

  "Malista, do you remember when you knocked me on my butt?"

  That caught her attention all right. He could tell that she had

  immediately stopped her internal preparation of arguments to counter

  his 'code of honor' rationale. She frowned at him, thrown by the

  sudden change in subject. "Do I remember---of course, I

  remember---George! Did I ever apologize? I meant to---"

  "As a matter of fact, you did, but then you told me I deserved it. And

  you were right, but not for the reason you thought."

  Now he had her. Her interest was engaged and she immediately became

  less defensive and self-conscious. Her arms dropped to her sides as

  she took a step towards him, frowning even more deeply as she tried to

  puzzle out his meaning. "Why? What do you mean?"

  "Malista, WHY did you knock me down in that self-defense class? YOU

  got violent. With ME." His voice reve
aled that he still wasn't quite

  over his own astonishment. "I'm taller than you. I'm heavier than you.

  And, God knows, I have more training than you do! Since I was

  seventeen and began my training at Starfleet Academy, and all

  throughout my Starfleet career, up until that moment, no one---NO

  ONE---had ever managed to knock me flat like that. Why do you suppose

  that is?" Natwick felt almost out of breath. That was probably the

  greatest total number of sentences he'd strung together in months,

  except for when he was teaching. Or talking to Malista Shadow. Damn.

  Something about this woman always made him behave

  uncharacteristically. Now, she was turning him into a blabbermouth!

  But if it would help her.....

  She hesitated, trying to come up with an acceptable answer. "Uh, I

  caught you by surprise?"

  "You did that," he agreed, shaking his head. "But that just tells me

  why you succeeded. I didn't expect your reaction. That and the fact

  that I underestimated you. I didn't think you had the aggressive

  instincts to come after me. I thought you'd take the chance I offered

  you to give Kim a few bruises and feel better for doing it. I'm

  usually pretty good about judging the students in my classes. A lot of

  people may not like my methods, but they work and that means those I

  teach learn to defend themselves and don't get themselves killed

  needlessly. But you never answered my original question. Why?"

  "Why what?" She drew closer, not noticing that he had been steadily

  walking backwards until he seated himself on the couch. It felt

  awkward to remain standing so she sat down but remained bolt upright

  in the armchair facing him. She was not ready to lower her guard,

  suspecting a verbal trap of some kind and trying to prepare herself

  for it.

  "Why did you attack me?" His tone was accusatory.

  "I didn't *attack* you!" she protested breathlessly, looking

  positively horrified at his interpretation of the event.

  He rubbed his stomach in the exact place she'd struck him with the end

  of the plastic pipe during the confrontation. "Didn't feel like a love

  pat," Natwick said shortly. "You knocked me flat on my back in front

  of the whole self-defense class. Which didn't help my reputation any."

  Now Shadow was thoroughly confused. The big man didn't seem angry. He

  was just stating facts. She didn't understand what he was getting at.

  "George, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..."

  "No, you shouldn't apologize. That's my point," he said patiently,

  fastening deep brown eyes on hers. "Did you attack me for a reason? Or

  just for fun?"

  "No, of course it wasn't for fun. I didn't mean to hurt you," she

  began earnestly, but then forced herself to be honest. "Well, not

  exactly. But you were trying to set Harry up to take a beating in that

  class! For no reason at all."

  The muscular Security Officer's mouth twisted in a half-smile. "Oh, I

  had a reason. It just didn't prove to be valid. I was attracted to

  you, Malista. Even then," he added as she shook her head in automatic

  denial. "Yes, even then with you trying to hide your beauty. Even with

  you trying to disappear behind Kim every time I got close. I found you

  attractive and I took entirely the wrong approach to try to get your

  attention. Flexing my muscles always worked before." He held up his

  right arm and sent a ripple through the biceps and across his

  pectorals in demonstration. "But it didn't with you."

  "Oh, George." Her green eyes were filled with compassion. "I didn't

  know. I didn't understand." She wouldn't have believed any man could

  possibly have found her attractive then. To find out that she had not

  one, but two admirers amazed her.

  "I know." He forgave and dismissed all her transgressions with a

  rueful smile. "I went at you like a charging targ. By the time I

  realized I needed to change my methods, it was too late. Kim already

  had you on his hook and halfway to reeled in." He held up a hand to

  stop her next comment. He was afraid, from the look in her eyes, that

  it would be a compliment inspired by pity. He was strong and could

  stand a lot of things, but being pitied was not one of them. "But get

  back on track here. WHY did you attack me?"

  "You were trying to hurt Harry," she answered simply. "And using me to

  do it." Her jaw clenched in remembered anger.

  "On two different occasions you refused to 'use' me. Once to beat up

  Harry for you and the other to teach you about sex," Natwick

  commented, steadfastly ignoring Malista's mortified blush. "Is that

  some kind of issue for you? You don't want to use people or be used by

  them?"

  "Well, of course---"

  "There's no 'of course' about it, woman!" the big man snarled. "Not

  everyone shares that point of view. Obviously. Why do you think

  Longoria and Castelle were harassing you? And some of the other Maquis

  women?"

  "I don't know." Shadow tried to bounce out of the chair, but Natwick

  leaned forward and blocked her way. "I didn't know about the others. I

  thought it was just me. I thought---"

  "You thought you deserved it? You thought you did something that

  caused them to treat you like a Risan pleasure girl?"

  She didn't reply. Her body sank back into the chair, trying to retreat

  from his words. Her green eyes darted away from his face, fixing in a

  stare at her clasped and wringing hands. "Didn't I?" Her expression

  was a confused mixture of anger and embarrassment, with a measure of

  self-disgust thrown in.

  "What could you possibly have done that would merit that kind of

  treatment?" Natwick demanded exasperatedly. "Did you encourage them?

  Did you flirt with them? Did you take off your clothes and run naked

  down the corridors?"

  "No!" Malista exclaimed in fierce denial. Then a thought seemed to

  occur to her. "I don't think I encouraged them. At least, not

  deliberately. But then I'm pretty stupid when it comes to things like

  that. I didn't think I had done anything to make YOU think I was

  attractive either. I must have done something!"

  Natwick was floored by her assumption. He remained silent for a moment

  while he pondered a counterstrike. She stared back at him. From the

  look in her eyes, he judged that she was waiting to be convinced she

  was wrong. And HE was supposed to do the convincing? Damn.

  He closed his eyes as he brought one large hand up to massage his

  temples. "I hate to think you've put me in the same category as those

  two. I took 'no' for an answer if you'll remember. Above and beyond

  the call of duty in your quarters that night. For that alone, I should

  get a medal!" He sighed heavily. "You really don't know much about

  men, do you, darlin'?"

  She refused to answer verbally, shrugging as she studied her

  fingertips and worried her lower lip between her teeth.

  With a heavy sigh, Natwick plunged into the fray once more. "Malista,

  back in Texas my dear old Daddy used to say there are two kinds of

  men---gentlemen and hound dogs. Do you know how you tell the

  difference?" />
  Eyes rounding, she shook her head.

  "A gentleman is a man who treats every woman as if she is a lady,

  until she proves herself otherwise. Hound dogs treat every woman like

  a tramp regardless of her behavior." That said, Natwick leaned back

  against the sofa and let her ponder his meaning.

  After a moment, she tentatively ventured, "Are you trying to say that

  Longoria and Castelle treated me that way, not because of what I may

  have done, but because that's the way they treat all women?"

  The big man nodded slowly. "More or less. That's the way they treat

  all women when they think they can get away with it. You'll notice

  they didn't try their tricks with Captain Janeway. Or B'Elanna Torres.

  Or Susan Nicoletti, come to think of it. Because they are cowards,

  Malista. Their behavior was as much about power and control as it was

  about sex. They only picked on women who wouldn't fight back---"

  "Wait a minute! There's something wrong with your theory there! What

  about Henley? She's a Maquis and she doesn't run from anyone. If they

  only pick on cowards like me, why did---"

  "You are not a coward," Natwick insisted, meeting her eyes with a

  demanding glare. "As for their plan of attack, don't ask me to explain

  it. I think they underestimated Henley's reaction. Or they'd grown

  arrogant and careless because they'd been getting away with it so

  long---"

  "Then it's my fault, isn't it?"

  Natwick growled deep in his throat. "Woman! You'd probably try to take

  credit for the Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant if you could find a