Chapter 6 added on 21 Dec 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG13
"They're in the holodeck" said Harry; looking much happier than the last time he had sat in the conference room. They were his friends and he was worried about them, and Tom was driving him mad. Sure he knew his friend was upset but he seemed to be more concerned with whining at him to solve the problem, than actually admitting how much he missed his wife.
"We are aware of that fact already" said Tuvok, obviously without a hint of irritation in his tone, "What have you learned apart from that?"
"The program is self-contained, they're not actually on the holodeck they're in it. The sudden introduction of Seven's nanoprobes to the system created a small quantum shift, they are essentially out of sync with the rest of the ship, the nanoprobes adapted the holodeck to contain them, to separate them from the holodeck before they could be injured by the explosion."
"It's quite marvellous really" commented the Doctor, looking uncharacteristically chipper at events, "The nanoprobes, couldn't adapt Seven to the environment, so they adapted the environment to her. It's an amazing feat, the possibilities of harnessing this are endless, purely from a medical perspective of course."
"Fascinating " commented the Captain, not looking fascinated at all, "How do we get them back?"
"We can't" said Harry, then catching a glimpse of a glare forming on the Captain's face he jumped to his feet and activated the computer screen, hastening to explain. "The holodeck has been isolated from the inside, only by removing Seven's nanoprobes from the main computer can we re-integrate their habitat with ours. However since the nanoprobes have created this environment we can't simply purge them from the system, without risking leaving B'Elanna and Seven trapped 'somewhere' else."
"Therefore" jumped in Chakotay, "we have to find a way to get them to recognise and remove the nanoprobes from the system gradually."
"Why the hell is everything to do with holodecks so complicated?" wondered Kathryn outloud, but the smile on her face showed how happy she was to have a working plan. "So how do we contact them?"
"Umm, by placing something unusual in the habitat." Tom spoke up for the first time, "Wherever they are, it can only be created from the active memory of the last few programmes the holodeck has run, as the rest are saved in a separate memory junction, so we just have to introduce something into the environment that they will recognise as being out of place."
"Or at least we would normally" Lieutenant Carey spoke up. He had been more than a little intimidated by being asked to this meeting, but as temporary head of engineering Harry had felt that he not only had a right to be there, but might also be able to help. Seeing a force ten Janeway glare suddenly directed at him (she seemed to be glaring a lot this morning) he almost wished he didn't have anything interesting to say and could just leave quietly.
"Can you explain Lieutenant" Chakotay spoke up before the Captain could, seeing how nervous Carey looked
"Yes sir" Carey decided Chakotay was all right, he didn't have much contact with him normally, but anyone who braved the Captain's temper warranted getting to know. "The program is already showing random anomalies, it is my belief that the nanoprobes are still linked to Seven. Every time she thinks about Voyager or just getting out of wherever she is they react to the increase in brain patterns we can detect in the holodeck and accordingly provide a glitch in the scenery, somehow altering or possibly even aiding her."
"Like I said, clever little inventions aren't they?" the Doctor looked smug, as if to say 'ha, medicine really does know everything'
"So what does this mean Lieutenant?" asked Kathryn, never having been an engineering specialist. She was tired, short-tempered and god dammit she wanted to cuddle with, then do various adult rated things with her honey when she got her back. All in all the strain was showing.
"Well Ma'am" said Carey quickly, refusing to look up at her, "We know that Seven's brain waves are affecting the holodeck construct they're stuck in. So rather than trying to add something into the program and risk it being rejected by the nanoprobes, we just need to draw her attention to what's already happening. We just need to send her a message."
"Get on it then" barked Kathryn; "I want them back here safely by 0000 tonight, no excuses."
A chorus of "Yes Ma'am" greeted her words as well as Harry's note that "We just need to tell them to look for the clues. So we'll send a letter, introduce it into the program and let the nanoprobes convert it to the appropriate form for their surroundings." He started muttering to himself quietly.
Kathryn smiled, "Dismissed" she said, but while the others filed from the room, Chakotay shooting her a brief but encouraging grin, Tom stayed where he was.
"Can I help you Tom?" asked Kathryn, realising, for the first time really that she was not the only one who was scared about a loved one. She stood up and moved towards him, perching on the edge of the table next to his seat. Tom swivelled his chair a little so he could look at her fully and then composed himself. Looking suddenly embarrassed.
"I kinda think this is all my fault" He admitted hanging his head a little, "Seven beat me at cards you see, and B'Elanna thought she'd cheated, that was why she landed up in the holodeck, trying to prove it and I'm sorry Captain."
Kathryn, composed herself, it would have been easy to yell at Tom, but one look at him showed how desperately guilty he felt, thinking that somehow he might have put his wife into danger. So Kathryn reached out her hand, resting it on Tom's shoulder and waiting for him to look at her,
"Its not your fault Tom, the game was a set up." Tom went red, Kathryn hastened on, "Seven didn't cheat, she doesn't know how to" Kathryn smiled at the thought of her gentle and painfully honest lover, "But I knew she was better than you, which is why I suggested she play the game so we could supplement our holodeck rations."
Tom would have grinned, the elegant Captain had well and truly hustled him, then he noticed something in her speech, "Wait, we? Our? What were you two doing in there Captain?" He was grinning now.
"Nothing you need concern yourself with Lieutenant" replied Kathryn sharply, then snorted with laughter, "I'm sure it wasn't anything B'Elanna could have expected to see though when she burst in there!"
Tom's mind generated several images he would just have loved to have seen, then remembering he was still with the Captain (and he could wonder what she looked like naked later - Seven had said "Exquisite" but he wasn't to know that) he asked another question that had been concerning him.
"Are you really going to demote B'Elanna?"
Kathryn stood and paced over to the window, staring out she tried to collect her scattered thoughts. How much of her anger was justified and how much was related to her own embarrassment? She rested her hands on the window ledge, and then still staring out into space she slowly formed the words to answer a question that had been plaguing her.
"B'Elanna's actions were inexcusable, to barge into a locked program, to make derogatory comments about Seven and by association myself, those are all serious offences. However, if they had been committed against another pair of shipmates (Kathryn was careful not to use or imply the words 'partners', 'lovers' or god forbid, 'my girlfriend') I would probably not be reacting so badly."
She turned round, studying Tom's face, who in a moment of rare sensitivity and intelligence had schooled them not to show his reaction to how intimate her tone was, how rich and gentle Janeway's voice had been as she had spoken Seven's name. Satisfied that she wasn't being mocked in anyway Kathryn continued,
"No Tom, I won't demote her, but I will punish her appropriately for the incident."
"Thank you Ma'am" said Tom smartly, rising to his feet and straightening into a rigid posture, "Permission to go and help get my partner back?" he asked. There was just the hint of a gentle smile on his face, letting Kathryn know that though he suspected he wouldn't presume or comment to anyone else.
For the first time in the conversation Kathryn relaxed completely, "That sounds like a good idea" she said smiling honestly now, making her look much younger, "After you" she gestured with her hand, as they both left the conference room and headed for the holodeck.
"OK so lets go over it again?" said B'Elanna, wrapping her hands round the mug of coffee she had just had refilled for the fifth time.
Unable to sleep after the excitement of the revelation she and Seven had both pulled on some clothes and wondered out to find a coffee shop, two blocks down they had found a small all-night place. It was larger than they expected, with red leather booths and shiny metal tables, the jukebox in the corner was playing Buddy Holly, and the other occupants of the diner could have come straight of the set of 'Grease'. There were gold disks and signed pictures on the wall, and it screamed 1950's at you from every corner, as did the junk food.
So, three hours and four baskets of fries, five coffees and three vanilla milkshakes later B'Elanna and Seven were finally reaching some conclusions.
"We are in the holodeck." Stated Seven
"Yes" replied B'Elanna seriously, as if that wasn't really a blatantly obvious statement. "Why are we still here?"
"We must assume one of two things either: A) they do not know we are still here or B) they have simply failed to find a way to contact us yet." said Seven, pausing to take a deep gulp from her milkshake. "Either option implies there is a problem with the holodeck that somehow conceals our presence from their sight," she continued.
"Which we can do very little about," said B'Elanna in frustration, "I guess what we can do though is try and figure out a way out of here ourselves."
"How?" asked Seven, fascinated by this idea, "I know very little about holodecks, I have always found them to be wasteful, inefficient and…"
"Fun when you're sharing them with the right person" grinned B'Elanna, as Seven blushed. "Anyway, most holodeck programs are designed with a story y'know, a beginning, a middle and "
"An end!" Seven jumped in excitedly, "So if we follow the program to its logical conclusion it should allow us to leave."
"Right" said B'Elanna, finding Seven's excitement charming and infectious, "But we do need to figure out what the goal is?"
"Howz will you be paying for this?" drawled the waitress, slapping a bill down on the table, "With money or diamonds?" she asked with an odd smirk in her face.
B'Elanna and Seven wheeled round to look, it was the same waitress as at the coffee shop, "Money" said B'Elanna hesitantly, once again extending a ten dollar bill.
"No." said Seven firmly, capturing the waitresses attention, "We'd like to pay with diamonds"
The waitress smiled, and it lit her face up, making her seem angelic, transcendent. "Do you have any diamonds then?" she asked, her clothes catching the light as the dawn broke, shinning through her hair.
"No" said Seven, "Where might we acquire some?" she asked.
"At Jerry's" said the waitress, then as Seven turned to ask B'Elanna with her eyes if she knew the answer to the puzzle the waitress faded away, from the table and from the room.
"What was that about?" asked B'Elanna. Seven smiled, and reached over to pull B'Elanna to her feet as she too rose, "It is the beginning of our answer," she said delightedly.
"Huh?" asked B'Elanna, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet and out of the door into the crisp air, tinged with the scent of gasoline, and the murky dawn light, oozing through the haze that surrounded them.
"We must find Jerry's B'Elanna, we must collect the 'Diamonds' they are the key to getting out of here." Seven smiled, wrapping her long black coat round her a little more tightly, and looking for a cab, and smiling when she spotted one passing slowly along the main road at the end of the side alley on which they were now standing. "It is time to go home." She said, smiling gently at the thought of Kathryn.
"Great" replied B'Elanna, not sounding as excited by the prospect as she perhaps should be.
"So what do you want the message to read Captain?" asked Harry. He and Carey were now standing in holodeck two, its black walls and mustard gridlines mocking them by concealing the program they knew was still running. They had worked for almost two hours now, suggesting, checking, disregarding and at last deciding on the best method to get a message in, they had hailed the Captain, and had been a little surprised when she ordered them to wait so she could come down to the holodeck itself.
Kathryn herself was pondering the question. It had been quite a shock she realised, to find herself missing Seven as much as she had, her presence, her humour (albeit sly and a tad sardonic at times) her warmth and comfort in being there to greet her at the end of Kathryn's day. All of those things she had expected to miss, but not her physical presence, the casual brush of her hand along Kathryn's arm when they worked together in Astrometrics. Her half smile and the ghost of warm breath on her cheek when she leaned in to make a comment as they walked through the corridors. Her. Kathryn missed her.
"Captain" Harry interrupted her thoughts, "We can't send a very long message, in fact the longer it is the more likely the nanoprobes will sense and reject it." He explained.
"At most twelve words" chipped in Carey; his fatigue making him slightly insulated from his trepidation around the Captain, "So they have to count." He added.
Kathryn smiled, "Can I choose the message?" she asked. The others nodded their heads in affirmation, Kathryn decided to stick with a message that would mean something to Seven, and her alone, just in case B'Elanna got it first and decided to try and ditch Seven, she didn't think the Klingon had that little honour, but she wasn't taking any chances. " Say: What lies within you will guide you home." She requested.
Harry looked puzzled, but he had the distinct feeling he was missing something in all this, something rather important, shrugging he decided that complying with the Captain's wishes was probably safest. So with a few deft taps of sequences into the holodeck computer, "Message sent Captain" he confirmed.
Kathryn smiled, and turned, briskly striding from the holodeck, feeling happier than she had in days.
"Are you sure you have tried every possibility B'Elanna?" asked Seven patiently
"Yes god dammit!" the highly irritated Klingon yelled as she continued pacing, "What? You think for fun I decided to just fucking leave some options out!?!"
The pair had returned to their small rented apartment just as the sun turned from dawn red, to early morning yellow, the world around them was stirring. B'Elanna and Seven were oblivious to this though, totally focused on their task, finding a way home.
They had grabbed phone books from their room, from the lobby they had called the operator who, after drawling, "Sorry Ma'am I have no person or organisation by that name, please try Bell services again for all your directory needs. Have a nice day." a dozen times had finally been abandoned, (it was either that or find a way for B'Elanna to crawl down the telephone line and personally assault her as she was now itching to do).
Seven was lying on the couch, eyes closed, hands resting on her stomach and idly playing with the white sparkling belt that threaded through the top of her dark black jeans. The movement was disturbing the bottom of her matching white square necked top, adorned by small sequins so that it rode up slightly, exposing a smooth, impossibly pale and alluring stomach, with silver webbed mesh running across it hinting at another delicate pattern of spidery strands presence beneath.
B'Elanna tore her eyes away for the fifth time in the last half an hour, sighing from frustration. Something had changed, and she didn't like it, she needed space from the growing realisation that…
'Knock knock' there was a rapping on the door, disturbing them both from private thoughts. Seven shot a worried look at B'Elanna, who wished (not for the first time) that she had her mekleth with her.
"Its OK" whispered the Klingon, "We can handle this." She reassured Seven, who smiled and relaxed back on the couch.
"I don't doubt it B'Elanna, I will let you have 'first crack'". Nevertheless the Borg's posture remained tense, and B'Elanna had no doubt that it would take her only a split second to jump into the fray if need be. Still she was oddly touched by Seven's faith in her abilities.
Cautiously, B'Elanna moved towards the door, "Who is it?" she yelled through the thin plywood door.
"Post" came the muffled reply; "I've got a letter for Seven?" the puzzlement in his voice was evident. B'Elanna grinned, then slowly opened the door, sliding the chain of and opening it just a crack.
A postman stood in the corridor, with a blue hat and blue jacket, a large worn brown leather backpack was slung over his shoulder, weighing him down a little. The man, boy really, with short neatly cut brown hair, a face that didn't need shaving and bright blue eyes and a name tag the proudly proclaimed 'Jemmy', hesitantly extended a letter to the crack in the door.
"I won't bite," he said, afraid they might.
B'Elanna grinned, showing her own razor sharp teeth and opened the door fully, "Its too early for me to either" she grinned, "I'll take that thanks" she grabbed the letter, nodded in acknowledgement and closed the door.
"What is it?" asked Seven looking excited, regardless of the contents she had never got a letter before. B'Elanna saw her look of anticipation and matched it with a wicked gleam. First she sniffed the envelope, making sure nothing horrible was inside, then she held it up, tilting it towards the window so the light shone through. She carefully flipped and rotated it, examining it from all angles. Then she did it again.
By now Seven had realised she was being bated, so she decided that fair was fair, "What's the matter Lieutenant?" she asked, her voice light and mocking, "Is the big Klingon warrior scared of the itty bitty envelope."
B'Elanna replied in kind, keeping the grin from her face, "No, I just think it's to dangerous for any Borg, particularly any with blonde hair. Perhaps I should hang on to it?" she teased Seven now, waving the envelope slightly as one would a bone in front of a dog, or a cookie in front of a toddler, tempting, tantalisingly close and…
"It was addressed to me!" yelled Seven, leaping from the sofa straight at B'Elanna, who dodged her barely, skipping out of reach and waving the envelope. "Nun nuh" she taunted, "Its mine now and you can't get it Seven."
Seven grinned wildly, and stalked B'Elanna, tracking her movements as she circled round the couch, ignoring the fakes from left to right with which B'Elanna tried to dodge her. Waiting, watching, then B'Elanna moved just a fraction back from the couch, getting the space to make a dash for it, and Seven jumped. Straight over the couch, landing on B'Elanna, straddling her torso with her thighs, pinning her onto the carpet as she reached down to grab the letter, bringing her face within a millimetre of B'Elanna's. "Mine" declared Seven huskily. "Uhuh" agreed B'Elanna, fixed on her eyes, tasting her breath.
Then Seven drew back slightly, flustered, trying to bring her sudden playfulness back into check. No one but Kathryn had seen her like this before, and she wondered why B'Elanna had suddenly brought this behaviour out in her.
Embarrassed, Seven rolled off B'Elanna and in a fluid motion rose to her feet, still clutching the envelope. "Perhaps we should find what this contains?" she suggested sitting back down on the couch.
"Sure" grinned B'Elanna, still breathless from their little encounter, "Lets take a look." B'Elanna perched on the arm of the chair, leaning down towards Seven who opened the envelope and withdrew a single sheet of paper, ignoring the engineers hot breath on her cheek, or the fingertips that ghosted across hers as they came to rest on the edge of the seat.
She opened up the flawless white sheet and read eight typed words emblazoned on it in red ink.
"What lies within you will guide you home."
"What the hell does that mean?" asked B'Elanna snatching the paper from Seven's hand and staring at it.
Seven smiled, her eyes growing misty, "It is from Kathryn," she said.
~~~~~~~~~~~
\Seven had been ill, she wasn't often ill, the nanoprobes normally caught and filtered out any infection, but this time the slippery little alien virus had confused her body into thinking it was a harmless protein and had infiltrated every one of her major systems before it mutated and struck.
Now she felt horrible, her head pounded, her skin was clammy and sweaty, her guts were tight and she felt sick. But she wouldn't see the Doctor, oh no. Partly it was stubborn pride, surely no little virus could beat her, partly it was her distaste over the Doctor's lecture, but mainly it was because she didn't want Kathryn to worry.
So, after spending all day trying not to be ill, she stumbled and wavered back to Kathryn's quarters, the Borg children would only call the Doctor, but Kathryn was still on duty for another five hours. Seven decided she could shower, sleep and leave without Kathryn ever knowing, hopefully she would feel well enough later to see Kathryn, as long as she could distract her from a game of Velocity, which, she smirked, was never too hard if you used the right persuasion.
So she took a shower, leaning heavily against the wall she allowed the water to beat down on her, washing away the sweat that clung to her body like gel, soaking her clothes to her skin, stifling her with its presence and scent. At last, when she thought she would fall over in exhaustion she felt clean, and shirking all clothes Seven crawled into the large double bed she and Kathryn shared, pulling off all the covers except a thin cotton sheet and huddling underneath it.
"Computer" she mumbled, "Set alarm for..." she started to snore as the illness took its toll and knocked her out. When Kathryn came in then that's how she found her, still asleep in their bed, once again sweating heavily, and whimpering in fever induced nightmares.
Alarmed Kathryn called the Doctor, and oblivious to the consequences she slung off her uniform, grabbed a blue silk robe instead and curled up in bed next to Seven, soothing her lover gently.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency" reeled off the Doctor as he materialised into the bedroom then he saw the two people in the bed, "Oh my" he exclaimed, "Why Captain I had no idea!"
"Save it" snapped Kathryn, "Doctor - Patient privilege applies and I'll wipe your program out if you tell anyone." The Doctor gulped, though it was purely dramatic license. "Now get over here and help her," ordered Kathryn.
An hour later, after hastily transporting Seven to Sick Bay and generally helping the Captain towards an early grave with his grim pronouncements and sudden bouts of panic, the Doctor figured it out.
"It's a completely harmless virus, very much like the common cold only about thousand times weaker." He said, playing with the instruments on the tray next to Seven's biobed, and avoiding the Captain's eye.
"It doesn't look very harmless," pointed out Kathryn. Looking haggard and tired, "What's going on Doctor?" she asked wearily.
"Well the virus has affected the coding that allows her nanoprobes to bond to her molecular structure. Her natural defences are trying to expel the nanoprobes from her system, mistaking them for the virus itself, but the nanoprobes are fighting back."
"So?" exclaimed Kathryn in irritation and concern
"So her body is fighting against herself, and unsurprisingly it's losing, the nanoprobes are killing off her white blood cells." Said the Doctor worriedly, checking her vitals then preparing a hypospray.
"The only thing we an do is to temporarily deactivate her nanoprobes." He said
"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Kathryn. She had moved closer and closer to Seven during the conversation and was now gently stroking her hand. The Doctor continued to look worried, but pressed on gamely. "We have no choice Captain, if we leave the nanoprobes in though we might be able to hide them from the natural antibodies that are attacking them, the nanoprobes themselves will continue to attack her body."
Then, before Janeway could object he reached over and injected the compound he had prepared into Seven's slender neck. "We only need to knock the nanoprobes out temporarily." Said the Doctor, scanning her attentively. "Just until the white cells 'forget' about them, providing I monitor her vitals carefully and administer any other treatment immediately there shouldn't be any further damage." With that the Doctor patted Seven's limp arm and turned back towards his office to worry in private, leaving her and the Captain alone.
"Oh Seven" whispered Kathryn "Hang in there darling." She implored, resting her head on Seven's left arm, running her hand along the metal implants on her arm, "I'll be here when you wake up love, I promise."
It was sixteen fever-marred, touch-and-go hours later, before Seven's condition finally stabilised, her nanoprobes were re-activated and for the first time in almost two days she was able to sleep, rather than just succumb to unconsciousness. Exhausted Kathryn joined her in slumber, her head resting on Seven's shoulder and her body leaning half out of the chair and onto Seven's body. In the end the Doctor was so worried about her injuring herself in that position he lifted Kathryn up and placed her on the biobed next to Seven, after securing them from prying eyes of course with an opaque privacy screen.
It was another five hours before Seven awoke. When she did, she conversed quietly with Doctor, so as not to disturb the still sleeping Captain, when satisfied with the EMH's explanations she simply cuddled up closer to Kathryn, contenting herself with stroking her hands through the Captains thick auburn mane and waiting until she was ready to wake up naturally.
When Kathryn did, it was with a sleepy groan and a vain attempt to block out the waking world, nuzzling deeper into Seven's shoulder and sighing in contentment as her hands tightened around the medical gown beneath her. Then her eyes popped open in surprise, and she looked up to meet Seven's now awake and bright shining blue eyes.
"Oh love" she said tenderly, reaching up to stroke Seven's face, tracing the delicate cheekbones and the soft downy cheeks, touching her reverently as if afraid Seven would simply disappear, "Oh love" murmured Kathryn again.
"Shh Kathryn." Seven laid a delicate finger on Kathryn's lips, then frowned as a tear rolled down her face onto the digit, bathing it in her concern, "Do not cry my love, all is well."
She tried to reassure Kathryn who only shed more tears before whispering, "I was so scared" over and over, a chant of her devotion.
Seven lent down then, kissing her deeply, feeling silk lips touching against hers, the hint of a velvet tongue shyly emerging. Leaning into the lightly callused hand that cupped her face as she ran her own hand down the soft neck extended beneath her, onto Kathryn's shoulder, where she delicately shifted the fabric of her shoulder, and lent to kiss the hollow point by her collar bone. Kathryn gasped, arching slightly into the contact, moving her hand round to the back of Seven's head and pushing her closer as her own mouth sucked on the tender earlobe tilted towards her. This time Seven gasped, pulling her head back so she could look at Kathryn.
"I am sorry I frightened you love" she said quietly, "Had it not been for my nanoprobes, for my 'Borgness' none of this would have happened." Seven closed her eyes, painful memories sweeping through her. This time Kathryn initiated the kiss, deeper, bold, demanding entrance into her mouth, kissing her fears away and then running her tongue up each of Seven's cheeks, licking dry her crystal clear tears.
"Your 'Borgness' brought you here, to me." Kathryn said firmly, "What lies within you will guide you home. To me, always my love."
Seven smiled, wantonly, wickedly, "Computer" she said out loud, "Two to beam directly to the Captain's quarters, bedroom. Energise." Kathryn began to frown, worried that Seven shouldn't leave sick bay, then a hot wet mouth bent back to her neck, sucking hard enough to leave a mark. And all other thoughts were forgotten.\
~~~~~~~~~~~
"It is from Kathryn," said Seven, smiling at the recalled memories, "My nanoprobes, somehow they are causing this," she said, "And they can lead us home."
B'Elanna raised her eyebrows, "A) How did you get that conclusion from that message?" she asked, "And B) I knew it was your fault really!" she said, standing again and grabbing the phone book, so she could wave it threateningly at Seven, who reclined herself fully on the couch.
"JERICHO'S!!!" Yelled Seven, jumping to her feet and almost knocking B'Elanna over as she leapt to grab the phone book from the confused engineer's hand.
"Huh?" asked B'Elanna, flopping down on the still warm spot on the couch Seven had just vacated and crossing her arms in a defiant gesture, "Do you mind explaining all of this?"
Seven considered teasing B'Elanna, but her emotions were a little to close to the surface to risk degenerating into a playful contest again. The memory of Kathryn was mixing in her head with the scent of B'Elanna's skin, and Seven was fighting the urge to cry, overwhelmed by hope and despair and sudden relief at a possible answer.
"Hey" said B'Elanna, standing up again, moving towards Seven and in a moment wrapping her arms around Seven, pulling her close, "Hey its OK, Seven. Tell me what you know and we can figure a way out of this." She promised her voice rich and comforting, her hands stroking the long smooth back, and (accidentally of course) brushing against her bare skin.
Seven looked at her intently, "Do you miss Tom?" she asked. B'Elanna withdrew a little, pondering the question; her arms still loosely wrapped round Seven, but a clear distance now emerging, in more ways than one.
"Yeah, " she said slowly, "I do, but its not like I can't live without him. I hoped it would be, and sometimes it is but yes I miss him, sometimes even when he's there."
"Why did you choose him?" asked Seven, wanting an answer to confirm it was the right choice, who had been chosen. "Because" said B'Elanna, "Because no-one has ever made me feel as close to how I should feel as he does."
Seven smiled, and backed gently out of the Klingon's grasp, "Jerry's is a shortened version of Jericho's" she explained, "The lounge at which Tom, Harry the Doctor and I played cards, where it all began. In fact everything has been about programs we have run, the films you have seen here, the diner Harry one took us all too. I learnt to speak French on the holodeck in the Hirogen simulations, on a square with a school just like the one outside, everything is from programs we have used recently, just slightly different and out of place when seen together."
B'Elanna mulled this over, "Y'know, I think you're right" she said, then grabbed the phone book back from Seven, "So we know where we're going, so lets get a cab."
Seven nodded in agreement and went to find her purse. B'Elanna pulled on her shoes then raised her head as Seven appeared from the bedroom, clutching a black leather purse that matched her shoes perfectly.
"So" drawled B'Elanna, "How did you get nanoprobes from that note?" she asked, tilting her head and raising her eyebrows. Seven blushed hotly.
To be continued....