Title: Film Buffs
Rating: T
Summary: Inspired by "Unexpected," by lodessa. Fictober 2018 prompt #17: "I'll tell you, but you're not gonna like it." B'Elanna finds out what Tom did. P/T, J/C (mentioned).

A/N: This is a sequel to "Unexpected," by lodessa. Please read (and review!) that story first or this won't make much sense.

archiveofourown –dot– org/works/3436721

Tom was still panicking when B'Elanna walked back in.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie," she enthused.

She frowned as she caught sight of the image frozen on the screen.

"Wait. This is the original, isn't it? The one we already watched at the Palace Theatre on the holodeck? I thought we were going to watch the other version tonight."

"Um, yeah," he hedged. "About that."

"Tom," she said warningly. "What's going on?"

"Okay, okay," he groaned. "I'll tell you, but you're not gonna like it. I may have… given it to Chakotay."

"You WHAT?" she gasped, aghast. "Why would you do that?"

"It was an accident!" he protested. "He wanted to borrow the original movie, and I gave him the wrong one by mistake."

"Tom! How could you? Didn't you think to check it first before you gave it to him?"

"I did check! Or at least, I thought I did."

She shook her head in exasperation. "Well, obviously you didn't!"

He took a deep breath. "It gets worse. Chakotay was planning to watch it with Captain Janeway."

She gaped at him in horror. "What?! Oh, no! We'll never live this down!"

"I'm so sorry, B'Elanna. I didn't mean for this to happen!"

"Okay. No need to panic. I'll just over to his quarters right now and ask for it back. Chakotay and I will have a good laugh about it, and then you and I can –"

"It's too late!" he interjected. "The computer said she's already in his quarters. They've probably already started watching it."

"I don't believe this!" she ranted. "Of all the stupid, careless mistakes to make… The captain's going to bust you back down to Ensign again for this!"

"I know, I know," he moaned.

"And I really wanted to see this movie!"

"We can still watch it. I'll just download it again, and –"

"No!" she exclaimed. "I don't want to watch it now, knowing that they're watching it too!"

"We don't know for sure that they're actually watching it…"

He trailed off as she glared at him.

"All right," he said, desperate to salvage the evening. "Here's another one I think you'll like. It's a lot like Women Warriors at the River of Blood. Only instead of rivers of blood, there are rivers of…"

He didn't need to finish his sentence. B'Elanna was already nodding in approval.

"Sounds like my kind of film," she said.

Tom breathed a sigh of relief. Lucky for him, there was a plethora of films in this genre.

There was still the problem of Captain Janeway and Chakotay, but that would have to wait until tomorrow.

Tonight he was just going to enjoy movie night with his wife in the privacy of their quarters.

The End!