Summary: Some things were never meant to be. A missing scene from Timeless
Author's Notes: Many thanks to CaptAcorn, Delwin, and Photogirl1890 for all their comments on this piece and forcing me to actually describe things and not use clichés :)
In the Middle of the Journey
"All hands, brace for impact!"
They were the last words Tom could remember, as he slowly came to, his head throbbing. He was on his side, half buried under the viewscreen, unsure of how he'd arrived. He tried to sit up but was met with an overwhelming surge of nausea. The bridge spun around him as he struggled to regain control, taking deep breaths and trying not to move a muscle. Finally, the vertigo eased, leaving Tom woozy but no longer on the verge of heaving. Well, back to basics, then. He could wiggle his fingers, but his toes… he tried touching his leg. Nothing. Broken back. Great.
He groaned as he twisted his head, trying to survey the damage. The bridge was illuminated by dim light filtering in through a breach in the hull. Snowflakes slowly drifted down, accumulating on the rubble. All the consoles he could see were dead; even the emergency lighting was out. An eerie hush filled the bridge, interrupted only by the sounds of the ship settling in its grave.
"Captain?" he croaked.
No response.
"Anyone?" Silence met him. Was he really the only one who was conscious… or maybe even alive? He searched for some signs of life as he scanned the bridge, his focus settling on the engineering station. Did that rubble just move?
"Tom?" The voice was weak.
"I'm here, B'Elanna. Can you see anyone else?"
She grunted. A piece of debris shifted.
"The Captain and Seven…" She paused. "They're not alive."
"Are you sure?"
"No one's head could be at that angle and survive."
Tom let out a long breath. "Tuvok?" It was half a question and half a plea.
"I don't know. Let me-" She cried out. He'd heard her cry in pain before, but never quite like that.
"B'Elanna? You alright?"
"I'm…" Her voice sounded woozy. "I'm stuck. Under my station."
Well, I'm not exactly mobile either… He tried his combadge. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. "B'Elanna, can you get unstuck? I don't know if I can get to you."
A long moment passed. He hoped she was merely assessing her situation. As the silence was about to overwhelm him, she finally spoke, "It… it's not so much that I'm stuck. I'm…" Another pause. "I'm impaled. Through the gut."
Tom closed his eyes, trying to ride out the quick surge of adrenaline her words shot through him. "Don't move. I'll try to get to you."
"Are you okay to move?"
Even if I'm not, I'm not just going to lay here while you die. "Yeah. Just sit tight."
Tom systematically tested out his body parts. Arms were working. Shoulders. He could twist his torso a bit, although it caused a blinding amount of pain. His legs were a lost cause. From the look of the left one - bone protruding and blood gushing - he was actually glad he couldn't feel it.
With a push from his left arm, Tom rolled onto his stomach – and nearly blacked out from the pain. He lay, prone on the deck, trying to focus his mind on the task at hand: getting to the engineering station. Digging his fingertips into the carpet, he took a deep breath and moved forward… less than ten centimeters.
He banged his head against the deck in frustration. How in the hell was he going to get B'Elanna out of here when he could barely move himself? At least there was a medkit in the wall over there; he could give her something for the pain. And something for me, too, he thought as he resumed his snail-like pace.
It must have taken ten minutes for him to crawl the four meters; he had to stop every few moments lest he black out entirely. In those moments he'd tell her his condition and his progress, keeping her and himself talking. Assuring each other they were both still alive.
Halfway to her station he looked up, only to find Tuvok's lifeless eyes staring back at him. It was just the two of them; no one else was left alive on the bridge.
A few more minutes, and he'd finally reached the medkit. Tugging it from the wall, he slid it towards his final destination. Her hand reached out to grab the kit – a hand that was red with her own blood.
Spurred on, he closed the distance, crawling away from the viewscreen along the wall of the bridge. When his head finally passed the bulkhead that defined the engineering station, he froze.
Impaled. When she said that, he'd hoped she was exaggerating. But no. She was on her back, a five centimeter thick rod was sticking out of her torso. It looked like it had come up through the floor, piercing B'Elanna and the console above her. Her head was facing out towards the center of the bridge; he couldn't see her feet under the collapsed workstation.
As a medic, he took in her condition. The amount of blood on the floor around her. The color of her lips. How he could possibly cut her out. The best way to get her to Sickbay.
As her partner, he couldn't stand to look at it. It wasn't supposed to end like this. They were supposed to get home, not bleed out on the floor of the bridge, stuck on some L-class planet in the middle of nowhere.
He rested his head on his arm, trying to recover his energy and come up with a way to save her. His face was mere inches from the top of her head. He reached out to gently stroke her hair.
"It's that bad?" She turned her head to look at him.
"If I could get you to Sickbay…"
She shook her head. "Deck five breached while we were still in space."
"But-"
"Tom." She reached over her head to grab his hand. "Even if sickbay is still there, the Doc is still there, how are we going to get there? I'll bleed out as soon as I'm moved. You can't use your legs…" she trailed off. "And you're…" she swallowed as she looked at his injuries.
"And I'll be dead soon too if we can't stop the bleeding," he finished for her.
They were silent a long moment. With what they had in the medkit, there was no fixing this. Maybe someone would find them. Maybe.
"So we just lay here?"
Her eyes met his. "Do we have another choice?"
"Maybe Harry and Chakotay will make it back for us."
"Maybe."
He tried to look back at his broken leg, but it took more energy than he had. God, I'm tired. He lowered his head down into a pillow made by his arms. He felt her hand in his hair. "I don't want it to end like this," he murmured.
"Me neither. But…" she paused, long enough that he picked his head back up. "I'm glad the last thing I'll see is you."
He tried to laugh, but it hurt too much. He slowly rotated himself so he could lie next to her, pressing a hypo against her neck once he got settled. "For the pain," he said, before giving himself a dose.
"It's getting cold." Her teeth chattered.
"I know. This planet is just a ball of ice." He reached into the medkit for a blanket, spreading it over her as best he could.
"The blood loss doesn't help either."
There was a heavy silence after they were situated. She was on her back, the conduit still sticking out of her belly. He was on his stomach, his arm draped over her chest. He fidgeted with the blanket, trying to cover as much of her as he could while avoiding the rod protruding from her belly. Slowly, his antsy hands became idle. He laid his head next to her, his mouth near her ear. "Do you think someone will come?" he whispered, hoping he had not just arranged his death bed.
She didn't respond right away. "I hope so." Her tone made it clear that 'hope' and 'think' had two very different meanings.
Another long silence. "You know I love you, right?"
She turned her head to look at him. "Yes, I know. And I love you too."
Her breath was ragged.
"You know," he licked his lips, "sometimes I think about our future."
"Tell me." She closed her eyes.
"I think about the two of us getting married."
A grin spread across her face. "You want to marry me?"
"Yes." This didn't seem like the moment to say 'someday'.
"I'd like to marry you too." Her speech was slurring.
"After we were married a while, I thought we'd have kids."
"I always wanted a family." A cough. "How many?"
"Two, maybe three." He ran his hand through her hair.
"I think… you meant to say… one, maybe two."
He chuckled. "You're right."
"I wish…" her head listed. "Tom, I wish…"
Tears welled in his eyes. "Shhh, it's okay."
"I… I'm sorry I wasted our time."
"You didn't waste anything." He kissed her softly on the lips. "I love you. Always have, always will."
"No… no matter what?"
"No matter what."
Her breath caught. "I'm tired."
He stroked her face. "Then just close your eyes."
"Okay."
Her eyes slowly closed.
His soon followed.
Fin
Endnotes: I know I wasn't exactly consistent with the episode, so let's call it Timeless A/U.