Disclaimer: The characters all belong to Paramount and I'm not making any money off this story, obviously. But I'm also not gonna promise all of Paramount's creations are going to survive this story intact, including relationships and half-baked ideas. So nyah. Femslash contained within. Please don't read or review if that offends you.

Code: T/7
Genre: Angst, Romance
Rating: M/R for adult situations
Feedback: welcome, encouraged and loved!

Notes: set after Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant. Implied violence/rape. Nothing graphic or explicit.

Aftermath

They came out of nowhere. Seven lost time and when she regained consciousness, B'Elanna was gone. Seven stood and ran hard and fast in the directions the footprints in the dirt suggested B'Elanna had been dragged in.

She didn't have far to go before she found her comrade. Beaten, bruised, bloody and half naked, Seven could detect neither pulse nor respiration. She knelt by her fallen crewmate and touched the cold neck. Nothing. Seven looked back at the ground, determining where the assailants had disappeared to. She tried to track them, but lost the trail after a few minutes. She punched a nearby tree in frustration.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she walked back to B'Elanna and sat down by her broken body. She sat there for a while, feeling the cold sink into her body. Finally, tears found their way down her cheeks.

"You never knew, Lieutenant, but I respected you more than any other member of the crew. Though many would believe that I would idolize captain Janeway or Lieutenant Tuvok, such is not the case. You have always expressed your beliefs, and never compromised them. Although the same can be said of Tuvok, it cannot be applied to our captain. Furthermore, you have always attempted to give others 'second chances' while never failing to remind them to better themselves...

"Never hiding your feelings. Neither the captain, nor Tuvok have ever displayed those traits, which I find enviable. Also, you are an efficient Engineer, a tenacious worker and an overall beautiful woman. I loved you, B'Elanna, for longer than you can know. I only wish that I had been able to express my feelings sooner." Seven drew in a shaky breath and followed it with tears, her words exhausted.

"Better late than never," B'Elanna rasped. Seven nearly jumped out of her skin. She leaned down over B'Elanna, whose eyes had swollen shut and touched the now burning hot neck.

"Redundant biological systems," Seven murmured.

"Thanks a lot for reminding me, I think that every one of them hurts," B'Elanna hissed, her throat obviously as dry as the blood covering much of her body. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" she asked, turning her head towards Seven, her one good eye opening.

"When you married Lieutenant Paris, it became impossible to speak of it, as you were a happily married couple. He treated you well and it was obvious that you were in love. When Miral was born, you were in what can only be described as domestic bliss. When the Delta Flyer exploded, you were devastated.

"Only in these last few weeks have you recovered enough, and now Miral is three. We have also been closer friends than anyone ever thought possible. I did not wish to push my luck, or our friendship, by revealing my feelings."

B'Elanna managed to sit up, her Klingon systems repairing themselves as though they didn't care that they had been dead for hours. She was obviously stiff and there was bruising on almost every inch of her body, but she forced herself to kneel in front of Seven, so they were face to face.

"You are one of the most intelligent people—no, the most intelligent person I know. When I lost both Tom and Harry, my husband and best friend, you were there. When Miral caught Azlamarian pox, you were there. When I was demoted, you were there. When I regained my rank—"

"I was there," Seven finished, with a smirk. "Though I might point out that it was you who was there when I opened my eyes after the surgery to remove the emotional inhibitor, both literally and figuratively."

"Yes. Yet, no matter what happened, no matter how many horrible names I called you, you stuck with it, with me. We've gone through a lot together. You never let me quit. And I love you, so much you will probably never know. It brings me to tears to think about it, I love you so much. My hearts beat for you, I'd live and die at but a mere word from you. How can you not know that when I share my bed with you, I want more? I want to feel your skin, hair, mouth—I want to feel you inside me."

Seven brushed her desperate lips against B'Elanna's bruised pair gently, to stop the words before her heart burst with joy, passion, love.

"I cannot believe I almost lost you, without ever knowing," Seven whispered and B'Elanna put her hand on Seven's chest, over her heart.

"You knew." B'Elanna said and Seven nodded.

"I was afraid."

"Of me?"

"Yes. I was afraid that it was my imagination that you were reaching for me at night. Afraid that you really were just afraid to be alone, as I am and sought my company for needs that were unfulfilled because I was there. Because I was convenient."

"You were never convenient," B'Elanna said, smiling painfully. "But if you wait until the next tragedy to make love to me, I might not forgive you."

"The morning is coming, Voyager will beam us out soon," Seven said. "There isn't enough time for us."

"You don't have to accept reassignment, Seven. You can stay with me."

"Captain Janeway would not appear to agree," Seven spat out bitterly.

"She only wants what's best for you. She thinks that she's holding you back, keeping you on Voyager as a field Ensign, no promotions, no further advances in your humanity."

"What further advance is there for me than love and family?"

"Exactly, that's why you have to stay on Voyager."

"I have already signed the documents and I leave for the Academy at oh-seven-hundred hours. It is odd, being an adult and going to school, but..."

"Please, Seven. Don't leave me. Not when we've just found each other. Say you'll never leave me."

"B'Elanna, I.."

"Promise me, Seven."

"I cannot."

"Please, Seven, I'll die without you," B'Elanna whispered, leaning against the strong, straight shoulders of the woman sitting in front of her.

"What if I wake tomorrow and all this was a dream?" Seven whispered back. "I would die."

"I'm not a dream, I'm right here."

"Promise me that you will never take it back."

"Love me."

"I do love you, B'Elanna." Their lips met again, tender and loving.

"Promise me?"

"I promise."

The End