Part 4 added on 31 May 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG
Kathryn came running into Sickbay, assuming that B'Elanna was having another growth spurt. Instead, she found her adoptive daughter lying on a biobed, wan and sickly. She brushed the girl's hair back from her forehead, feeling how hot and clammy her skin was. The doctor came out of his office and smiled at her.
"Don't worry," he said. "She only has rop'ngor." Kathryn raised her eyebrows. "It's a common childhood ailment among Klingons. It's like measles, only with a much lower mortality rate. I've already treated it and she should be fine in a day or so."
"How did she catch Klingon Measles all the way out here?" Kathryn demanded.
"Fairly easily. Only Klingons are susceptible to rop'ngor," the doctor looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, Bolians can catch them too, so you might want to keep her in your quarters for a week, until the contagion has passed. Bolians don't react to it as well as Klingons. Anyway," the EMH continued when he saw Kathryn's stare, "As I was saying, any of the crew could have been in contact with a Klingon whose child had it and so was carrying the disease, and picked it up without ever knowing it. You, yourself could have. Then, B'Elanna picked up the germ and caught the disease."
"But if it was me, then wouldn't she have already caught it?"
"Yes. So, more than likely, it wasn't you. But tracking the perpetrator isn't important. All she needs is a day of bed rest and liquids and she should be fine." Kathryn put her hand back on B'Elanna's forehead. It wasn't as warm now, although it was still warmer than even B'Elanna's normal. B'Elanna opened her eyes.
"Should I leave her here?" B'Elanna turned her head away, closing her eyes.
"If you like. But there's no reason that she can't go to her own bed." Kathryn nodded and scooped B'Elanna up. The little Klingon looked at her and smiled weakly.
"Come on, my little hothead," Kathryn teased gently, causing B'Elanna's smile to widen. She carried her off to their quarters.
"I don't want to hear it," Kathryn said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She looked at her now nine-year aged charge and frowned. "Naomi will be purple for weeks. What on earth made you think that tampering with the sonic shower was acceptable?"
"NotonEarth," B'Elanna muttered.
"Don't mumble. You and Annika are not to play together until your next growth spurt!" Janeway exploded.
"But--but it was just a joke. Annika and I were bored and Naomi was being bossy--"
"So you dyed her PURPLE? If you're lucky, it'll come off her skin. But you young lady are not allowed to use the holodeck until she's back to her normal colour and \don't even THINK of helping her along!"/
"That's not fair! Naomi said it was her favorite colour!"
"That doesn't mean that she wanted to be that colour!"
"You're mean! I bet that Annika isn't restricted from the holodeck. I bet Sam forgives her and--"
"You wanna bet?" Samantha growled at Annika. "I'll take odds that B'Elanna is just as grounded as you are. And if you keep this up, I'll make it longer."
"You're just being hard on me because Naomi is your real daughter. You don't care as much about me!" Annika yelled and ran into her room, knocking Naomi over on the way.
"Ow," Naomi said, rubbing her dark pink arm. "You don't have to be so harsh, Mom. It's coming off," Naomi said, holding out her arms for inspection. "The stuff the Doctor gave me is working just fine."
"That's not the point, Naomi. And besides, he said that there's nothing he can do about your hair, short of cutting it off and stimulating its growth." Naomi went to the mirror over the washbasin and looked at her hair.
"I dunno, I kinda like it..."
"Does the captain know that you're here?" Annika hissed from around the corner.
"Hun-uh. What about Sam and Naomi?"
"Nope. So what did you get?" Annika asked and sat down. B'Elanna sat down with her back against the wall and replied to Annika, who she couldn't see.
"I'm restricted from the holodeck until Naomi's a normal colour again. What about you?"
"I'm grounded for a month, not even allowed to leave our quarters for a week."
"Why are grown-ups so mean?" B'Elanna asked.
"I dunno. I hope I'm not that way when I grow up." Annika stared at the wall across from her, that she was facing. "How come Naomi doesn't grow like we do?"
"Maybe she's stunted. Or maybe she just doesn't grow like that anymore."
"Maybe we're weird?" Annika said, making it a question.
"Maybe. What do you want to be when you grow up?" B'Elanna asked, curling her knees up to her chest.
"I dunno. Maybe I'll be captain," Annika answered, laughing. B'Elanna laughed, too.
"Are you going to join Starfleet? Like Icheb?"
"Icheb's BOR-ing," Annika said, wrinkling her nose. "And he's got that funny thing on his face. What is that, anyway?"
"He was Borg. Remember the Borg?" When Annika didn't answer, B'Elanna tried to prompt her. "Recent Alpha Quadrant History--The Borg attack, Wolf 359? Haven't you done the history assignment yet? You're usually done way before me."
"The Borg gave me nightmares, so I didn't want to think about them. Icheb doesn't look like one of them."
"He had all his implants removed, I asked him. But he didn't really want to talk about it, it seemed to make him uncomfortable."
"I'd have to join Starfleet if I wanted to be a captain. What about you?"
"I wanna build stuff. I like technical manuals and things and you know how I love breaking things and putting them back together."
"You're really good at it. Maybe you should be an Engineer."
"You're good at science. Captain Janeway was a science officer before she was Captain, so maybe you could be that."
"Maybe, I don't know. Would you ever want to be planetside?"
"Hun-uh."
"Me, either. I like the stars." They sat there for a moment, quiet, then Annika broke the silence. "Well, I better get back."
"Yeah, me, too. Bye, Nika."
"By, Lala," Annika said, grinning.
"Something's been bothering me," Kathryn said, as B'Elanna recovered from her most recent growth spurt, which left her at about twelve years old. Her hair was once again down to her ankles and the doctor was cutting her nails before she could bite them off.
"Yes?" the Doctor asked.
"May we speak in private for a moment?" The Doctor nodded and followed Janeway away from B'Elanna, who immediately began chewing off her nails. Annika was sitting next to her, cutting her own.
"Are these spurts ever going to stop? What would happen if they just--kept growing?"
"They would grow old and die, only much faster," the EMH answered, honestly. Janeway looked at him, intensely.
"Can you find a way to stop it?"
"I've been trying. I predicted this problem with their first rapid growth spurt, but didn't really worry about it until their second. I don't know how close I am to developing a way to stop their growth, since I don't know what's causing it. I mean, I know what causes it, but I don't know the trigger," he quickly corrected.
"What causes it?"
"Somatotrophin. It causes all growth in carbon-based life forms. But more than that--something is causing their brains to mature as well, and that is what I have yet to understand. I believe it has something to do with the temporal flux they experience when a growth spurt initiates. I've been working on a way to safely expose them to a tachyon field, but so far, I've been unsuccessful."
"Keep trying, I don't want to lose them."
"Neither do I, Captain."
To be continued....