"Stop being such a ptaQ!" Miral bellowed as she slammed the apartment door. Her father lunged out of stool he had been sitting in to follow her.
"Let her go, Tom," B'Elanna warned while still tying her robe around her waist. "She'll go vent some steam somewhere out of earshot of the neighbors and be back". These outbursts had become more common since Miral had turned fourteen. B'Elanna poured coffee slowly into an oversized mug marked with her initial. "My mother was lucky if she saw me once a week when I was her age".
"No offense, but I would like to think I have a more stable relationship with our daughter than you had with your mother," Tom replied. There was a time when he wouldn't have responded so bluntly about B'Elanna's childhood, but age and wisdom had tempered his wife's fire over the years.
"You know Miral loves you, Tom. Puberty is hard for humans. Think how difficult it is for the Klingon side of her," B'Elanna gave a suggestive eyebrow wag to see if she could break the tension on her husband's face. Realizing that was not the icebreaker she thought it would be, she changed tactics. "What did you fight about this time? Grades? Her breaking curfew with Lynnis?". She motioned for Tom to join her on the couch while setting her coffee down on the thick glass table beside her.
"No," Tom admitted easing himself onto the couch beside his wife and allowing her to wrap her strong arm around him. "I talked to Sam this morning, it was a misunderstanding about curfew," He paused but could feel his wife's prying eyes waiting for a response, "It's silly really…".
"It can't be that bad," B'Elanna encouraged.
"She wants to cut her hair," Tom admitted flatly.
"Oh…I see," she admitted knowingly. "You knew this day was going to come."
"I know and it seems so silly," Tom admitted. "I just…her hair…it was our thing".
B'Elanna nodded knowingly before motioning to stand up. "I need to show you something". She grabbed Tom's hand and led him to the master bedroom. "Sit here," she instructed as long steps took her to the walk in closet.
"You know," Tom mused, "I didn't think I needed a strip tease, but this might be the thing to pull me out of this funk".
"Keep guessing, Flyboy!" his wife responded and a smile crept over Tom's face. He hadn't flown a Starship in a decade but he always loved the nickname. It had started as almost an insult all those years ago, but it had become his favorite pet name. Miral usually mimed a gagging motion when Flyboy or Maquis was tossed around the house, although they had successfully gotten Miral to call Harry 'Uncle Starfleet' until she was six. He heard something fall in the closet and quickly entered to find his wife hunched over an old bag.
"Is that your travel bag from when you worked on Mars? I can't believe you still have that thing".
"Hey, a girl can be sentimental," B'Elanna retorted. "Besides, I am looking for something specif—aha! Found it!". She pulled a photo frame out of the bag and the couple sat together on the end of their bed. "When I was working weeks at a time on UP, I was so worried I was choosing the wrong thing for us and Miral. but this photo centered me every night before I went to sleep". She held up a small frame with a picture that had been taken at a sleepover when Miral had just started school. "You remember Tom? Miral was so afraid to be in school with mostly humans. She was bigger than the other kids and wanted desperately to make friends. You reached out to every girl's parents and invited them over for a ballet birthday party, just like she wanted. You worked that whole week to make it wonderful and instead it all went wrong. We ended up with a dinosaur cake, Miral had seemed to grow impossibly since we bought her dress and she ended up in jeans and an oversized sweater. She thought it had been ruined. What she didn't know was her dad had sisters who had forced him to learn to braid hair". She turned over the photo and handed it to Tom. The photo was taken from behind, with Miral sitting in Tom's lap while he braided her hair. Six other girls looked on in wonder around them.
"I didn't even know you took a picture of this," Tom remarked, running his fingers over the photo. "And it isn't even a holophoto. I have rubbed off on you haven't it!?" He turned his attention back to the item in his hands. "I do remember this. We had just tried to go to the community holodecks and play a Flotter novel, but they were doing emergency maintenance. Two of the other girls had begun to cry they were so disappointed and Miral was about in tears. I was crushed when I thought I had let her down. Then I remembered Moira would always ask me to braid her hair when she was sad and I thought I would try to remember for Miral's sake. Soon enough, I had a gaggle of small girls all prancing around asking me to do their hair next," he continued with a chuckle, "and a daughter who asked nearly every day if Dad could braid her hair". He looked up with tears forming in his eyes. "Thank you for showing me this".
B'Elanna inserted herself in the crook of her husband's left arm. "Do you remember that day on Voyager when you told me you would never leave me? This photo always made me think of that promise". She leaned up and softly placed a kiss on Tom's cheek. "And even though you didn't end up with three or four of us, I think you have spoiled Miral and I".
"Well it wasn't for lack of trying on the other part," Tom lightly teased. They had never sought medical diagnosis in their attempt to have more children, but both accepted after several years it was best to focus their attention on Miral and their own careers. He looked at the ceiling and exhaled deeply. "She is growing up, isn't she Lanna?" his wife gave a small knowing nod and he paused before continuing, "Besides, with her taking up Springball, it will be nice to have shorter hair".
"And even nicer when she isn't taking a full half hour in the sonic shower every morning," B'Elanna added. She paused before continuing. "You've done good, Dad. No matter how much she yells at your or how short she cuts her hair, she will always be your little kuvah'magh". She stood to go retrieve the rest of her nearly abandoned coffee but realized her robe had come undone. She turned around in shock but only found her husband still sitting with a grin on his face and the robe tie dangling from his hands. "Thomas Eugene Paris, you pig!" she joked while gleefully pouncing on her husband.