Part 7 added on 31 May 2001
Disclaimers are in part 1.
Rating: PG
"There just... has always been something off about this relationship. Beyond the age difference."
"I know, Seven." Icheb said, lowering his head. "I mean, kissing you is like kissing a relative. It doesn't feel right."
"Agreed. Perhaps it was my previous status as your guardian." Icheb looked up. "I will miss the musicals," she said quietly.
"We don't have to stop seeing them together, we'll just do it as friends." Seven smiled then.
"That is acceptable. Good-night, Icheb." Seven stepped through her door as Icheb responded.
"Good-night, Seven." When Seven walked through the doors, Samantha greeted her nervously.
"Hi, Annika. How was your date?" Seven glared at Sam and refused to answer. She walked past, heading for her room, still not having forgiven her adoptive mother for keeping her in the dark. "B'Elanna came by."
"Thank you for delivering the message, Mrs. Wildman," Seven said coldly and walked into her room. She lay down in her bed and stared at the ceiling.
"Computer, begin recording personal log, Annika... Seven of Nine."
"Recording."
"What did I do to deserve this?" she began, her voice trembling. "If B'Elanna is only going to grow to hate me, should I continue our friendship? I have the ill fortune to be supplied with foreknowledge of our future. Of my future. It can only end in heartbreak. Our records on this ship as adults show that we were unable to work together without having serious altercations. B'Elanna and I already fight sometimes.
"Though I love her, still. I wonder; can I accept that I have lost my Lala, in favor of the growing B'Elanna? She grows to be more as I remember her older self with each passing day. So she will grow to hate me once again. Last week she had an altercation with Lieutenant Paris, sexually harassing and assaulting him. She doesn't know that I know, as I learned it from overhearing a conversation Mr. Paris was having with Lieutenant Kim.
"He didn't speak ill of her, but merely commented that he felt it was worse to have lost her and have her still be here than to have lost her to death. But he mentioned that he was glad she was alive, he was just tormented. Is that my fate as well? To lose my Lala, my B'Elanna? I have no one in whom I can confide my feelings, as Samantha Wildman has displayed her lack of trustworthiness, raising me in ignorance of my past.
"Admittedly, as a child I would not have comprehended the facts as I do now, but she would have denied me this knowledge until I was even older. She wished to keep me as her second daughter, which was and is unfair to me. I do not speak with her anymore, except necessary pleasantries." Seven sighed. "Icheb and I have ended our dating experiment. We are remaining friends. End log." Seven lay in bed afterwards, staring at the ceiling.
Samantha covered her face in her hands and cried. She couldn't take Seven's coldness, it broke her heart. Especially when she remembered the bright-eyed little girl she had been, so sweet, innocent, questioning and... Sam stood and walked into her bedroom, locking the door behind her so neither of the girls would see her crying. She didn't know that it was too late and Naomi already had.
"You spoiled BRAT!" Naomi shrieked, throwing herself at Seven. Seven, still unused to being bigger than Naomi, cowered away and shoved the smaller girl off her, onto the floor.
"What is your problem?" Seven asked.
"You, Seven! You've hurt Mom! You bitch!" Naomi slapped Seven as hard as she could, shocking the older girl into complete stillness. "You're the one who's supposed to be growing up so fast, but I haven't seen it yet. And if acting like you is what I have to look forward to, I hope I never grow up!"
"Leave my room!" Seven commanded, lowering her voice dangerously.
"If you don't straighten up, you'll never sleep again, I promise you. And if you ever make my mother cry again," Naomi hissed, "I will kill you." Naomi glared at Seven dangerously for a moment, then turned and stalked out of the older girl's room. Seven put her hand to the cheek that Naomi had struck, tears rolling down her face.
She tried to say 'Computer begin log' but all that came out was a muffled sob. Seven buried her head in her pillow and let out shrieks of hurt and fury, then cried her eyes out, the sound never heard by anyone else in the Wildman quarters.
To be continued....