Chapters 3 to 5 added on 21 Mar 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG13
Chapter 3
The day seemed to fly by for Seven, which was quite odd in and of itself since the woman had a built-in chronometer, or clock, and was able to keep track of every second that passed. Today she was actually having fun. The captain had given her the day off today in order to rest and reacquaint herself with 'reality' and Seven had decided to spend the entire day with her youngest and best friend, Naomi. They played on the holodeck and in the young girl's quarters, they went to astrometrics and cargo bay 2 doing anything and everything that came to mind in regards to playing of course. But now it was 1800 hours and Naomi's mother, Sam Wildman, had just come home from alpha shift. This was 'dinner time'. Sam of course invited Seven to stay for dinner but the Borg declined already having had breakfast with both mother and daughter.
"Come on, Seven, stay. Mom doesn't mind making dinner for the both of us," Naomi whined.
"She's right, Seven, I really don't mind even if you were here for breakfast this morning. You can eat with us anytime you like. I told you, we consider you family," Sam joined in, pleading just as her daughter had done. Ever since hearing about Seven's dream she found that she really did love the ex-drone just as if she was apart of her family. Before the were friends, but now, now they were family.
"I apologize, Sam, Naomi but I had planned on visiting Mr. Neelix in the mess-hall for dinner. I found that the 'month' I was away I had... missed his cooking. It is illogical to miss something you hate but nonetheless, I did miss it."
"It probably reminded you of the way Voyager used to be. A touch of home you could say." Sam tried to help clarify things for Seven a bit.
"Perhaps. Or perhaps I am just illogical." Seven smiled while Sam laughed and Naomi realized she had just missed something. "I promise to visit you both tomorrow but I must leave now." Seven said as she reached down to wrap Naomi in her arms and give her hug. As she straightened up, Sam wrapped Seven in her arms and gave her a hug, too.
"We will be expecting you by for breakfast, Miss I-have-already-consumed-my-nutritional-supplement. So don't be a stranger."
~~~
Seven was standing over the kitchen counter looking at all the lime green and purple foods displayed for dinner tonight.
"Seven! It's so good to see that you have finally decided to try out some of my scrumptious food. hat can I get for you? We have....." Before Neelix could list all of the dinner meals Seven interrupted.
"Mr. Neelix, I believe I will try some of your leola stew. Perhaps you can add some salt to that as well." Seven deliberately left off the fact that she had missed his cooking, afraid that when this phenomenon wore off, Seven would be obligated to continue to eat in the mess-hall.
"No problem, Seven. Anything to drink with that?'
"Some iced tea would be fine."
"Well, then here you go. I don't believe I saw the captain here tonight. Is she coming to meet you?" The cook asked when he saw Seven looking around the mess-hall.
"No, but I do believe I see a few friends to sit with. Thank you, Mr. Neelix." Seven headed over to one of the middle tables with her tray of food in hand.
"May, I join you?"
"Um, why?" Ensign Beth Kayla asked being the first to recover from the shock of having Seven of Nine ask to join them. She then received two kicks, one from Crewman Coty Keller and another from Junior Lt. Ben Harris, her dinner companions.
"Sure, Seven, if that's what you want," Keller offered.
"Thank you. I know that this must be a little unorthodox considering we have not spoken to each other in the past, but I would like to get to know you. Perhaps even become friends." Seven placed her tray down on the table and took a seat next to Coty.
"Why?" Beth asked again. Unable to ask anything else.
Seven opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again. 'Perhaps it would be easier to just tell them of my dream.' And that is exactly what she proceeded to do. A dinner and 30 minutes later the three junior officers sat with their mouths wide open.
"I believe I enjoy telling my dream," Seven stated.
"And why is that, 'captain,'" Keller joked suddenly seeing a new side to Seven. She seemed a more relaxed and emotional human, not the cold unfeeling drone she used to be and Coty liked it.
"Because I enjoy seeing the funny faces people make when shocked," Seven smiled as did the other three at the table.
"So, I became chief pilot, huh?" Kayla asked yet again.
"Yes and I do believe that if you continue to practice your skills, then perhaps Captain Janeway will be able to give you more responsibilities fitting for a back-up chief pilot."
"Cool, thanks, Seven. So, do you think you could come up with a really good holoprogram for me to train on? If you think I'm good enough to be chief pilot then I want to prove it to Janeway too." Again the ex-Borg smiled, something she was really becoming used to, as the other two jumped in with suggestions of their own. All becoming comfortable around each other as if they had been friends for years. The blonde realized that she had just made another three friends.
Across the room were two other life long friends. Both Tom and Harry sat eating their dinners.
"What's wrong Tom, you haven't said more then two words tonight and the alpha shift just wasn't the same without your jokes."
"Lanna and I had a fight this morning. I don't know what's going on. All we seem to do now is fight. This morning we even fought about Seven, who Lanna was for some reason actually defending. It's like I can't say anything right any more."
"Well, Tom, you can be pretty rude sometimes."
"I know and I did apologize for that but she wouldn't even allow me to hug her."
"Maybe but it is so much more than that. Maybe she's still mad and didn't want to hug you."
"She never wants to hug me or kiss me. I don't know what to do any more. It feels like we're growing so far apart."
"Well, I don't know what to do about the rest but have a talk with your wife tonight and fix the fight from this morning. Then worry about the rest latter. Give it time and I'm sure things will work itself out and you and Lanna will be just fine."
"Yeah, you're right, Harry, and I'll just pick up a little insurance on the way." Tom picked up his empty tray and deposited it in the replicator. He then pressed in a few commands and replicated a yellow rose, Lanna's favorite color then headed out of the mess-hall.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned wife was pacing back and forth in her quarters. A low but deep growl emanated from deep within B'Elanna's throat and nearly shook the china set up on the kitchen table. Her deep not so cleansing breaths only served to blow out the candles on the table. The lights had long ago been raised to normal room lighting levels and the soft jazz music no longer played in the background. 'The food is not going to be the only thing that ends up cold tonight,' Lanna vowed right before she went back to her pacing.
Chapter 4
Stopping one last time to smell the yellow rose he kept clutched in his hand, a smile crept over his face. A smile that soon changed into a frown as soon as that same man stepped into his quarters only to hear a crash a few inches from his head. It sounded like glass or maybe porcelain breaking as soon as it hit a wall, but before he could examine the remains he saw something come flying from the general direction of the kitchen toward his head. Thanks to reflexes honed by having to dodge asteroids, meteors, and other space phenomena all day long, Tom Paris was able to dodge the flying saucer now on an intercept course with his easy to target big head. He then made the mistake of turning around to examine the debris field because as soon as he did something thunked him on the back of his head.
"Oowww! Lanna? What the hell is going on? And why are you throwing napkin holders at me." Tom said as he picked up the aforementioned item. Then had to duck an incoming.... well.... duck. Obviously tonight's main course. The plate it was sitting on soon followed.
"Don't Lanna me, you petaQ. Where the hell were you? You were suppose to be home hours ago. Your shift ended hours ago." A fork, a knife, a crystal glass, and a candle followed each punctuated sentence.
Tom finally had to seek cover behind the couch but that didn't stop the assault only managed to lessen the amounts of times he actually got hit. Peeking up from behind the sofa during a lull in the attack, Paris finally saw what this was all about. On the dinning table was left the remains of what was probably a very elegantly set up dinner.
"You had dinner planned? Why didn't you tell me?" Tom yelled across the room. He was starting to become a little piqued at having objects flying over his head at great velocity and him not having a force field handy.
"Then, you dumber than a targ sorry excuse for a human being, it wouldn't have been a surprise." Lanna seemed to have an endless supple of table utensils to throw as yet even more things were set into motion. Tom had to wonder if she had replicated extra utensils just for this purpose. 'Surely no one ever uses this amount of cook ware for one dinner.'
"You could have just told me to get my sorry excuse for a human being ass back home after the alpha shift because you had a surprise for me." Tom was really starting to get pissed now. How was he suppose to know that Lanna as waiting for him to come home. After all they had just had a fight this morning. Not to mention that the name calling was just unnecessary, especially when aimed at Tom himself.
"WE WEREN'T SPEAKING! How could I have told you to get home. This WAS suppose to be my way of apology for blowing up this morning. But NOW forget it. Since you rather enjoy spending so much time with Harry, more then with me, you can continue to spend all the time you want with Harry for the rest of your life." Now Lanna really did run out of things to throw at her 'husband'. All the dinnerware was broken, all the utensils sticking out from the wall at a stark 90 degree angle, and Tom was now wearing his dinner. That's when B'Elanna contemplated how best to beat a pilot without showing too many marks.
"What's that suppose to mean? Spending all my time with Harry? Are you checking up on me? How did you know I had dinner with him tonight?"
"I didn't. But you just confirmed my suspicions. It was a well educated guess that you had been with Harry tonight. You are always with him. In the holodeck, sharing lunch or dinner in the mess-hall, tinkering with the Delta Flyer. You two spend more time with each other then we do. Maybe you should have married him," Torres spat out as she began to circle the couch.
"And you're not as bad?! How many times have we had to cancel dinner so that you could go over some engineering report that Vorik could handle? How many times have we canceled our dates to the holodeck because you have just one more test to do? How many times have you skipped out on get togethers with Harry and Chakotay to work on some project or another?" Tom may have kept bodily distance between himself and the aggravated Klingon but he never lost eye contact as he too circled the couch. "That's different. I'm busy working trying to fix this ship while you're off 'playing' with Harry. There is no other chief engineer I could call in when I need a day off so my job, just like the captain's, is a full time job."
"So is marriage. More and more lately you have become so easily distracted. Work this - work that. We no longer spend time with each other like we used to. Now all we do is fight. We can't even be friends or civil to each other. I can't put my finger on it but something has come between us. You are no longer affectionate towards me, hugs, kisses seem to be a thing of the past especially when we're out in public. Prime example, this morning when I did apologize and tried to hug you, you pushed me away, again. What went wrong."
"I was mad at you, you dumb ass. We had just had a fight and you expect me to be all nice the next minute. Sorry, can't just dismiss my feelings so easily unlike you."
"And what of all the other times you pull away when I want to kiss you. I remember a time when Janeway had to reprimand us for NOT keeping our hands off each other during duty. Lanna we haven't slept together in over a month even though I'VE been ready and willing." That did it. Suddenly all movement stopped and both people froze at what had just been admitted. Torres, who happened to have stopped closest to the bedroom door, slowly turned and walked calmly into the room. Tom stood frozen by the side of the couch facing the door that lead to the corridor. A few minutes had gone by and Lanna finally came walking out of the bedroom. In her arms, she carried one pillow, one blanket, and a pair of Tom's pj's. Depositing them on the floor of the corridor outside their quarters, she then turned around and glared at Tom. No words needed to be spoken as the pilot slowly limped out of the room with his head held down in shame. The doors shut with a muted hiss and Lanna finally noticed the crushed yellow rose petals now scattered on the floor near the door mixed in with shards of glass and pieces of china. A mess that would have to be cleaned up tomorrow. A fitting end to a bad day.
The next morning came now matter how much B'Elanna didn't want it to. She had no idea where Tom spent last night, 'Well that's not true, he probably spent it at Harry's, nor did she have a desire to know where he would be today or tonight for that matter. One thing she knew for certain was that she didn't want to see him at all today but that was just not possible. Even though things were quiet for once in the Delta Quadrant, Captain Janeway had called for her weekly staff meeting. 'She probably just wants to make sure we're all keeping busy. Not to mention it gives her something to do.' Torres snorted at that last thought. Lately she had been having increasingly negative thoughts toward the captain. 'Wonder why that is. Well one problem at a time,' Lanna thought as she tried to avoid eye contact with her husband while trying to sit down in her chair at the conference table.
Janeway was the last to arrive at the meeting but didn't let that stop her as she immediately dove into questions and concerns regarding her ship. One of the first topics being of course engineering.
"Lieutenant, you've sent me a few proposals on improvements we could make to the ship while we could advantage of the this quiet time. I agree. Here are some of the proposals I have accepted and I want you to get to work on them right away." The captain handed the engineer the pad of said proposals. "Seven, since all of the star charts are already done for this sector I want you down in engineering helping out. If that's okay with you, B'Elanna?"
"Um, sure no problem." Lanna seemed too engrossed in looking over the planned proposals to really hear what the captain had said.
"Good. Harry, I want you to monitor astrometrics while Seven's helping out in engineering."
"Aye, Captain."
"Well, I guess that's it on my part. If no else has anything to say then we can call this the shortest staff meeting in all of Starfleet history."
"Actually, I do have something to add," Tom piped up. For the first time since Lanna had walked into the room she looked over at Tom. His voice had been what got her attention being that is sounded all harsh and raspy but his face is what really surprised her. There were deep circles under his eyes which looked all red and puffy not to mention his hair was a little out of place. He looked like he didn't sleep much last night.
"Well, last night I had an opportunity to do some research and I came across something that I though Neelix would be interested in. It used to be a religious holiday named after a St. Valentine or something or other but as time went on the holiday lost it's religious meaning and became more of a pagan holiday. This holiday, now called Sweetheart's Day, was only really celebrated within Northern American and is not widely known even on Earth."
"I've heard of it and even participated in it once or twice when I actually had a boyfriend to participate with. Although I'm not to clear on the rituals associated with the holiday, it is suppose to represent a time with the ones you love."
"That's right, Captain. Its a time to show those you love, whether it be your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, or even just a friend how much you do love them, respect them, honor them, and cherish them," Tom said as he looked directly at Lanna who, no matter how hard she tried, could not look away.
"There's something about hearts, candy, chocolates, and flowers involved but I'm sure Neelix could figure it all out when he organizes the party. If the captain agrees that is."
"A party, huh? Well since it is quiet sailing, why not? Mr. Neelix you are to head up the party committee, along with Tom's help since it was his idea, and Chakotay can supervise. I think this is just what we need to break the monotony of the past few days and coming weeks. Neelix, schedule the party for five days from now. It can be an all day thing so that everyone has an opportunity to come. And everyone will come, that's an order. And with a date, while I'm at it." Janeway quickly ordered the mandatory attendance as she saw the wheels turning in B'Elanna's head, Tuvok's head, and Seven's head. Seven may have changed since her dream but not that much as it seems she still hates social gatherings.
"Now if that's all?" Janeway took a quick scan of the room. "Good. Dismissed."
One by one all of the senior staff filed out of the room lost in their own thoughts. Seven was wondering what exactly this Sweetheart's Day would entail and if she could stomach seeing Lanna and Paris together in public. Tuvok was wondering exactly who he was suppose to bring and if that somehow violated his marriage vows to have a date. Chakotay didn't have that problem for he knew exactly who he wanted to bring to the party. No his problem was more along the line of how to ask her out. Tom knew who he wanted to ask but was scared she wouldn't accept. While Lanna was trying desperately to come up with an excuse not to attend. She was not yet ready to face Tom like that. The Doctor was at somewhat of a loss as to who to ask but he feared not sure in his handsome good looks and charming personality being able to win over 'anyone'. Kim already had his date planned but now he just had to ask her. As for Neelix, he was sure his friend wouldn't mind being escorted to the party by a furry Talaxian. And as for the captain, she definitely knew who she was asking but she needed to figure to the best way to approach her. She wouldn't want to scare the woman of her dreams off.
And so each of the senior staff went along their merry ways with more than sugar plums dancing in their heads.
Chapter 5
As soon as the staff meeting had ended, Seven headed directly for astrometrics. The space that they were currently passing through was actually a very quiet region of space. Unlike all of the other times when Voyager had encountered 'quiet space' it never turned out to be this quiet. But this time was different. Not only had the astrometrics department cataloged this region of space as dead, but Seven also had knowledge from the collective that no one had lived here in the past 200 years. There were a few scattered planets in the region, none of which could sustain life since the system of space was missing a bright star to act as a sun. There were no other anomalies such as gas giants or black holes to study either in this barren region. Seven was glad to be handing over controls of the sensors to Harry because this promised to be a very boring area to have to spend anytime scanning. The Borg came straight to the astrometrics lab and began finishing up a few loose ends, like a report or two, before she was able to hand over the controls. These reports and an actual transfer of the sensor controls to ops was made in record time. Before mid afternoon, Seven had handed in her reports and was now heading for engineering.
Seven paused in her steps when she remembered exactly who she was going to have to check in with. Could she really work with Lanna and control the sudden urges of wanting to reach out and caress her cheek? After all, she couldn't stop herself the last time she met the Klingon in engineering. But it didn't really matter since the captain had ordered her to work in engineering. Seven was just going to have to suck it up and.....
All of the air had left the blonde's body when she walked up to the chief engineer's office and saw the said woman hunched over her desk reviewing a data pad. Seven couldn't help it when her eyes automatically roamed the sculptured features of her love. From the petite hands that quietly punched away at the pad to muscular arms strained ever so effortlessly by the pressure from leaning on them. From the slender curve of an inviting neck, tilted to the side from intense concentration, to a taut back that lay hunched over the desk just waiting for the right person to come along and offer up a relaxing massage. From the curve of a tight behind that no uniform pants could ever hide, waiting to be squeezed by gentle hands, to the muscular legs which held up the entire package with so little as a second thought.
Seven's heart rate had just exponentially increased in the span of seconds as her mouth went completely dry. She had to swallow past the lump which now took up most of the room in her throat and that what was must have finally caught the lieutenant's attention. For in the next instant, Lanna looked up from her report to see who was there. Seven immediately met the engineer's eyes and prayed, to who she didn't know, that she was not just caught staring. But Lanna did notice, she just didn't realize what it was. At first. The Klingon had been so engrossed in the report she was reading which detailed a plan to improve the warp core mixture rate process that when she had seen Seven she went right into what she had wanted the ex-drone to do. After explaining what she wanted Seven to research and see if the plan was feasible, did Lanna finally realize what she had missed. 'Oh my god, I think Seven was checking me out. And I liked it. And oh my God, I'm checking her out too.' The chief engineer realized as she became mesmerized by the gentle sway of the blonde's hips while she walked away.
An hour and 47 minutes later.....
"Lt. Torres, I have completed my analysis," Seven said as she entered the engineer's office for the second time that day.
Startled, B'Elanna nearly jumped out of her chair. "Really?" She asked distractedly and when she looked up at the statuesque woman, Seven could see that her eyes were haunted.
"What's wrong, Lanna?" Seven immediately crouched down beside the other woman. Over come with concern, she didn't realize it when she used B'Elanna's nickname but B'Elanna did. And what's more, she actually liked the way it sounded when coming from Seven's lips. It didn't sound childish the way Tom always made it sound, like they were two teenagers dating.
"Nothing Seven. So what do you think of the plan?" Lanna tried to dismiss the Borg's concern by changing the subject. But in response all she got was a disbelievingly raised eyebrow. "Really, it's nothing. Just have some personal stuff on my mind that's all. Now back to ship's business." It was a low blow but Torres knew that would definitely stop Seven from asking any more questions for now since they were both on duty and discussing anything but ship's business was a no no.
"As I have stated, I have completed my analysis and believe this plan to be efficient and logical." Seven immediately stood up, hurt by the fact that Torres didn't even want to talk to her about anything other than ship's business. And Lanna immediately felt a great loss when the tall blonde stood up and brought down her cold Borg exterior. "I am ready to proceed with the improvement any time you are ready to begin."
"Good. But I won't be working with you on this one, Seven. Lt. Gavens knows more about the warp core mixture than anyone else aboard ship and I want him working with you. He..... Seven? What's wrong?" Lanna had noticed the flinch as soon as she had said Gavens's name.
"I..... I..... Nothing is wrong. I will work with Gavens if that is what you want. Where can I find him?" Seven suddenly seemed very skittish.
"Seven, if you have a problem with Gavens I want you to tell me and tell me now!" Lanna became extremely upset. It wasn't directed at Seven but rather at the lieutenant who must have done something awful to have caused this kind of reaction the Borg.
"He has done nothing. I would prefer not to talk about it. It is nothing illegal nor has he hurt me physically. It is.... personal." B'Elanna flinched at her own words coming back to bite her. Seven really didn't mean to say that but she didn't know how else to explain how she felt toward Gavens and why. After all, it was only a dream and in reality, Seven had no idea if Gavens really hated her or not. "I will go and find him and then will keep you appraised of our progress on the improvement, Lieutenant." Seven nodded as she turned on her heel and high tailed it out of the office.
~~~
Ten minutes later and Seven found the engineer up on the second level of engineering. As she walked closer and closer to the man who only a few days prior had cut out her heart and ate it, she began to understand what it meant to swallow back the bile rising in one's throat. Her palms became sweaty, her heart felt like it was going to beat right out of her chest, and worst yet she felt like she was going to break down and cry any second now.
Gavens was punching up some information standing right in front of the console that had nearly killed Seven in her dream. It took all of her Borg control and conditioning to be able to approach the area. As it was she stopped five feet away and wouldn't move any further. Offhandedly, she wondered if it was a Borg malfunction in her legs but then quickly realized she had no Borg implants in her legs.
"Seven, the lieutenant informed me earlier that we might be working together on a possible improvement to the warp core. Are you ready?" the engineer asked as the blonde was still some distance form him and she didn't seem like she was moving any closer. Seven didn't see an hostility directed at her nor did she see an openly friendly face. But she couldn't stand around all day allowing her fear free reign especially when there was a possibility that Gavens did not harbor any ill will towards her.
"Yes. Here are the specs for the improvement." The words came out slightly jittery and the woman only managed a step closer just to hand the engineer the pad. Gavens was quite thrown by the uncharacteristic behavior coming from the normally so composed blonde so he decided to speed things along. He guided Seven over to the controls he was just working at and asked her to monitor them while he went to go check something out.
Seven was now standing at the same controls which blew up in her face under very similar circumstances which caused her 'accident' and the memories came unbidden. First was the kind man who had come to her office to ask for help then that same face turned evil and the eyes black as Seven remembered all of the hatred she had seen in them. She remembered the words he had spoken to her calling for retribution for all of the crimes she committed against humanity. She remembered crying over all the pain that she had gone through in the past and how much it had hurt reliving all that pain. Suddenly, she saw the panel in front of her exploding all over again and flew back into the railing. Her eyes were closed tight and her breathing labored when hand touched her arm.
"Are you okay?" Some ensign asked but all Seven could think to do was run. She had never run so fast in her entire life. Not when running to the bridge, not when running to sickbay. Seven brushed past everyone and anyone who had gotten in her way, which included a very concerned chief engineer. B'Elanna walked back into her office where Gavens was waiting.
"What's going on? I want you to tell me everything that happened up there." Torres asked of the junior lieutenant.
"I don't know. She was acting weird ever since she saw me. She wouldn't come close to me and then handed me a pad. Something was definitely not right so I decided to tell her to monitor something while I went to check out something. It was just an excuse so that I could come down here and let you know what was happening. I was kinda hoping you'd know."
"Well, I'm definitely going to find out now."
~~~
Lanna looked everywhere for the ex-Borg but couldn't find her anywhere. She checked the cargo bay, the mess-hall, sickbay, and even astrometrics but came up with nothing. 'For such a tall, out of place woman, she sure can hide.' Finally the engineer just asked the computer to locate Seven of Nine.
"Seven of Nine is on deck 26 section 14."
'What the hell is she doing on a closed off deck. Doesn't she realize just how dangerous it is down there?'
Ten minutes later and Lanna had finally arrived at the section in question. But still no sign of the Borg. Suddenly the sound of muffled sobs caught her attention. She followed the sounds to a nearby jeffries tube hatch opened it and saw Seven all huddled up hugging herself while trying to keep the sobs at bay. It wasn't working. B'Elanna's heart suddenly felt so heavy and she felt on the verge of tears herself at such a sight. So doing the only thing she could, she climbed in the tube with the distraught woman and held her, just held her. Soon enough the tears dried up and the sobs stopped racking the body. Seven began to calm down.
"I apologize, Lieutenant, for running out of engineering before."
"That's alright Seven. I understand. But do you want to tell me why?" Lanna prodded gently.
"It is an irony that here we are yet again, me in your arms after an 'incident' with Gavens. Only this time we are here and not in your quarters."
"Wha.. Oh, in the dream. Did Gavens do something do you in your dream?" Lanna could feel her temper rise but tried desperately to keep it under control.
"He tried to kill me," Seven said it so calmy that it took the Klingon a few seconds to comprehend.
"He What?!" This time the temper did flare and at Lanna's abrupt stand she hit her head on the roof of the tube. Now it was Seven's turn to hold Lanna.
"It is alright..."
"How can you say that when he tried to kill you?"
"Because it only happened in my dream. It was just a dream, Lanna. But it was not even that which bothers me the most."
"He did more to you? I'll kill the p'tach."
"He just reminded me of all the pain which I have caused others and that which I have suffered myself. I do not even know if he dislikes me in 'real life'. It was all just a nightmare within my dream. That is all."
"If that was all, you wouldn't have run out of engineering nor would Gavens have that effect on you. I know if I can't kill him then I'll transfer him to another department. How does garbage detail sound to you?" Seven gave Lanna an indulgent smile at that. "I know, I know, no transferring and no killing. Fine. But why didn't you tell me that you felt uncomfortable around Gavens?"
"Because of the fact that I was acting on irrelevant feelings from my dream and I'd knew you would overreact. It should not have gotten in the way of my duty especially since I have no proof of his true dislike for me."
"Well, then maybe you should speak to Chakotay about this. He might be able to help. But other then that is there anything else I can do for you besides transferring Gavens like I really want to?" Lanna was now smiling, now that her concerns for the most part had been wiped away. Not to mention she was really enjoying being wrapped in the comfort of Seven's arms. 'Who knew the ice princess's arms could exude such warmth and comfort?'
"Well, I would really enjoy so comfort food right now. Will you accompany me to the mess-hall for some chicken soup and 7up?"
"I'd be delighted to. Besides who taught you about comfort foods?"
And so Seven explained how Lanna had comforted her after the meeting with Gavens in the brig, leaving out so of the more 'personal' details, as they walked to the mess-hall.
Continued in next part ....