AUTHOR'S NOTE: Very fluffy, may be a tad mature for K+ at the very end. Enjoy, and please review!
SPOILERS: For "Displaced", "Lineage", and "Endgame"
B'Elanna was cold. Very cold. She shivered, her muscles cramping as she squatted on the frozen ground, hiding from the Nyrians. The only warmth came from Tom.
She wanted to get closer to him, to bite his cheek and taste his sweet blood again. But she couldn't. He wanted it too, she knew. How she longed for closeness, for comfort, to be loved and needed. For warmth.
Tom's breath was warm, blessedly warm, on her hands. She let her eyes fall closed, unable to look at the frosty blue rocks that surrounded them or into his calm blue eyes. Her head lolled around on her shoulders, her bones and joints burning with the intensity of the cold.
"B'Elanna? B'Elanna, stay with me. Stay awake!"
"I can't. I'm just so tired..."
B'Elanna felt herself slipping into a quiet place, beyond the cold, beyond the pain, beyond the Nyrians. But Tom wasn't about to let B'Elanna slip away.
"No, B'Elanna, you can't," Tom didn't bother to hide the urgency in his voice.
"I just need to close my eyes for a minute- go on without me."
"You'll die!" Tom almost screamed. When B'Elanna didn't move, he grabbed her under the arms and roughly lifted her up. "On your feet Torres, and that's an order!"
A baby's cry woke B'Elanna, who buried her head under her pillow and groaned as the memory in the dream continued to fade away. Miral continued to screech, but B'Elanna felt too exhausted to move. It came as a relief when she felt Tom stirring beside her.
"I'll get it," he mumbled in a half asleep trance.
He's adorable when he's half asleep, B'Elanna thought. She tried to sleep again, but her ears kept trying to listen to Tom and Miral. Sighing, B'Elanna heaved herself up and groggily trotted to join her family.
B'Elanna slid her arms over Tom's shoulders, resting her head just above where her hands met.
They stayed like that until Miral quieted, and drifted back off to sleep. Tom settled the baby in her crib, and then stretched an arm around B'Elanna's waist.
Staying close to her husband, B'Elanna gently reached out and stroked her daughter's cranial ridges.
She felt so proud to have given Miral those beautiful, soft ridges. She was even happier that Miral had Tom's dazzling blue eyes, two oceans of calm in a world of Klingon spirit. Even in sleep, Miral's face scrunched up with stubbornness as her tiny feet kicked at imaginary enemies.
"Our little Kuvah'magh is definitely a Paris," B'Elanna commented.
"Oh, and a Torres too," he replied.
"All her stubbornness comes from you, Flyboy," B'Elanna teased.
But instead of the clever quip she expected, B'Elanna was rewarded with a passionate kiss. His hands found her hips, and his lips traveled to the soft skin between her neck and ear.
And B'Elanna felt a shiver...