REPEAT
by Rocky
a Ripples in Time prologue
summary: a little short that was written when we weren't quite ready with the next story.
B'Elanna let herself into their quarters, smiling in anticipation. After weeks of working conflicting shifts, she and her husband would finally have an evening free to spend together. Miral should be long since asleep for the night, and there were no slipstream problems, no aggressive aliens or interstellar conflicts, no extra Sickbay shifts-she smiled again as she wondered just what Tom would have come up with. A new holodeck scenario, perhaps, or maybe they'd just spend the time in their cabin...
Reality hit when she rounded the corner and saw him sprawled on the couch watching television, a bowl of popcorn precariously balanced on his T-shirt clad abdomen.
"Tom!"
"Geez, you startled me," he said reproachfully, and attempted to stuff some of the fluffy white kernels back into the bowl. He picked up the beer can from the coffee table, shook it to assure himself there was still some left, and took a long pull. He glanced over to where she stood in the doorway, her arms folded across her chest. "What?"
"What? You have the nerve to ask me what? This is the first time in *weeks* we've both been off duty at the same time and I come back to find you watching television!"
"Well, what's wrong with that?" he asked defensively. "We hadn't made any plans-in fact, I thought you'd be pretty tired after all those double shifts in engineering, that you'd appreciate the chance to just kick back and relax for a change."
She shook her head. "Now why do I get the feeling that this is what you'd be doing even if I was still on duty?"
Tom smiled, and patted the couch next to him. "Harry isn't as much fun to snuggle with, and Miral likes to hog the remote control." He looked at her expectantly. "Come on, Be, does everything have to be a big production? When's the last time we had the chance to spend some free time together?"
"It's been too long," she conceded, "But still, this isn't exactly what I had in mind..." She gave up and sat down next to him. "What're you watching?"
He flashed her a grin. "Star Journey: Adventure."
B'Elanna sat bolt upright, dislodging his arm. "You're kidding. That awful tripe?"
"Hey!" he protested. "What's wrong with it?"
"Correct me if I'm wrong," she said, "But didn't you swear after the last episode that you were never going to watch it again? Didn't you say that the show's creators had totally negated and contradicted everything they'd been striving for in the early shows and had gone off in a completely implausible direction?"
He waved her protests away. "That was before. Now the show's been taken over by new management, whose stated goal was to restore things to the same high level they were before."
B'Elanna tried, and failed, to suppress a snort. "But this is still television we're talking about, right?"
"Shh! It's starting!"
"Of course," B'Elanna said, the barest trace of sarcasm in her voice, "You don't want to miss a minute of the continuing adventures of the intrepid woman captain, her most deadly adversary now turned loyal supporter, the dashing young pilot eager to prove himself..."
"...and the feisty yet brilliant engineer who manages to come up with a new technological marvel each and every week," said Tom, his eyes on the screen. Then, "Oh, rats."
"What's the matter?"
"It's a repeat," Tom said, disappointment evident in his voice. "After all that, it's one we've already seen."
"Oh, well," B'Elanna said, "Isn't that just too bad? But what can you do?" She mentally held her breath.
Tom was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He looked over at his wife. "I don't suppose you'd like to watch it anyway? This one was pretty good, about the time the captain and the pilot de-evolved into..." He ducked to avoid the barrage of couch pillows. "I was kidding! Honest, B'Elanna, I was only kidding!"