Originally written Oct 1998
Title: Hot and Cold
Rating: T

Summary: Missing moments from the episode "Displaced." P/T, K.

Tom blinked, disoriented. He was no longer on Voyager. This must be the Nyrian colony, he realized.

"Tom!" a familiar voice called out.

He turned around, relieved to see his best friend.

"Hi, Harry."

They both stopped as three armed Nyrians appeared and approached Tom, removing his commbadge. They disappeared again as quickly as they had appeared.

Captain Janeway made her way over to them.

"Are you all right, Tom?" she asked. He nodded.

"What's going on, Captain?"

"I wish I knew," she said grimly. "They haven't told us anything. There are more compounds like this one. I sent Tuvok to investigate. Why don't you help Harry look for a way out of this one," Captain Janeway said.

"Yes, ma'am," they said in unison.

They walked in companionable silence for a while. Tom was being uncharacteristically quiet, Harry thought. He seemed distracted. Harry guessed that it had something to do with B'Elanna. He knew that they'd had a date earlier today. He decided to broach the subject.

"So, how did your date with B'Elanna go?" Harry asked, curious but half-afraid to hear the answer.

Tom merely grunted.

Harry wasn't quite sure how to interpret that. This is ridiculous, he thought. Judging from B'Elanna's grumpy mood earlier and Tom's reluctance to answer the question, the date hadn't gone too well. I'm going to get to the bottom of this, he resolved. Let them get mad at him for asking. He was just trying to help them out, since they were his two best friends. He decided to cut to the chase.

"Tom, exactly what did you say to B'Elanna? I mean, just before I was transported here, she kept asking me if I thought she was 'hostile.' What was that all about?" Harry asked.

Tom grimaced.

"We were on the Holodeck, trying out that Klingon martial arts program I was telling you about," Tom explained. "We were doing fine until B'Elanna got tired of it and walked out on me. I followed her, and we had a ... slight disagreement." Harry raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"'Slight disagreement?'" Harry repeated, knowing that with B'Elanna's temper there was no such thing as a "slight disagreement." Especially where Tom was concerned.

"Okay, okay, so it was more than just a 'slight disagreement.' If you really must know, she nearly took my head off with a bat'leth in the middle of the corridor. All right?" Tom amended, irritated.

"You didn't really call her 'hostile,' did you? Tom? Tom?" Harry pressed when Tom didn't say anything.

"Well..." hedged Tom.

"You didn't!" Harry exclaimed incredulously. "What were you thinking?"

"I don't know..." Tom was silent for a long moment. Suddenly, he pounded his fists against the wall in frustration. "I can't believe this!" Tom complained. "All I wanted was to spend some quality time with her, and look what happens."

Harry nodded sympathetically, but he felt that he should point out that B'Elanna wasn't entirely to blame for their altercation.

"Tom, I really don't think it was such a good idea for you to tell her that she was being 'hostile,'" Harry said as tactfully as he could manage.

"Well, she was!" said Tom defensively.

Harry felt like smacking some sense into him. Tom could be so dense sometimes. He was entirely missing the point.

"It's still not a good idea to say it outright," Harry said. "Come on, Tom. You know that. You're the ladies' man; you know how to talk to women. Telling her that she's 'hostile' is not the way to win her over."

Tom shook his head in frustration.

"I don't know how to talk to her, Harry," he confessed. "She doesn't fall for any of my lines. The charm doesn't work with her. She sees right through me."

Harry stared at him in surprise. He was a bit taken aback by this admission and unusual display of insecurity. Tom has it bad, he mused. Harry hadn't realized that this had gotten to be so serious.

"Well, try being yourself. You two are friends. I think she likes you better when you're not trying to impress her," Harry told him slowly.

"You really think that will work?" Tom asked, still uncertain.

"Of course I think it'll work. She likes you. Just don't provoke her too much."

Tom nodded, knowing that Harry was right.

"Thanks, Harry," he said gratefully.

"Anytime, Tom," Harry said with a grin. He found it somewhat ironic that he was giving Tom advice on women. Then again, B'Elanna wasn't just any woman.

"Harry, now that Jarlath has explained how he managed to open a portal between compounds, I'd you to work with B'Elanna on figuring out how we can get through this forcefield and open a portal that leads elsewhere," Captain Janeway instructed. "I'm going to see what else I can find out about our captors from Jarlath."

"Yes, Captain," Harry replied. He looked around for B'Elanna. She was some distance away, still reassuring the Doctor that his mobile emitter was working just fine and looking slightly impatient.

"Hi, B'Elanna," said Harry cautiously as he approached her. "Ready to work on the portal?" She looked up and smiled when she saw him, nodding.

"Hi, Harry," B'Elanna said, looking relieved at finally having an excuse to get away from the Doctor. He was being a difficult patient. They left the Doc to start working on the portal.

"Listen, Harry, I'm sorry about getting so worked up earlier," she apologized ruefully. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's all right," he reassured her. "I wasn't scared, exactly..."

"Just intimidated," B'Elanna countered. Frustrated, she shook her head. "Everyone always backs off when I lose my temper. They get so intimidated..."

"Tom doesn't," Harry pointed out, trying to steer the conversation in that direction. A strange expression crossed B'Elanna's face. She fell silent. Harry looked at her expectantly.

"I know," she said at last. "I think that bothers me even more."

"Why?" Harry's brow crinkled, perplexed. She shrugged, not sure how to answer that.

"It scares me," she finally said. "I'm not used to it, and I don't know how to behave around him. He just refuses to go away. He won't leave me alone," she finished, exasperated.

"B'Elanna, do you really want to him to leave you alone?" Harry asked with a small laugh. "I mean, you're supposed to be friends, right?"

She had looked away, lost in thought.

"Right?" Harry repeated when she didn't answer him.

"I guess so," she muttered.

"Well, then. Try talking to him. I mean, I know that you two have your differences, but you can work them out if you just talk to each other," he urged her encouragingly.

"I can't talk to him! He insists on provoking me, and I can't help losing my temper."

Harry mulled that over for a moment.

"That's not really fair," he said slowly, searching for the right words. "I don't think he's deliberately trying to provoke you. I know he's not the most tactful person in the world, but he means well. He's just trying to reach out to you but doesn't quite know how."

B'Elanna sighed, resigned. In her heart, she knew Harry was right.

"I know, I know. All right, I'll try to talk to him later. After we finish this," she said firmly.

Tom reported B'Elanna's progress on the modifications to the Doctor's mobile holo-emitter to the captain, then moved off to sit by himself. Uh-oh, thought Harry, noticing his friend's stiff posture and clenched jaw. What now? he wondered. Sighing, he went over to Tom.

"How'd it go? Did you talk to B'Elanna?" Harry asked Tom.

"I guess so. If you could call it talking," Tom said bitterly. "I don't even know why I keep trying!"

"What happened?"

Tom shrugged.

"Everything started out okay. I apologized to her for forcing her to go through the program, and she apologized to me for lashing out at me... but then the Doc had to throw his two cents in. Said it was a 'typical defensive reaction' to use an 'aggressive outburst as a shield against a perceived emotional threat.'"

"Great. Just great," Harry muttered. "I'm sure that went over well with B'Elanna." Then another terrible thought occurred to him. "Tom, you didn't agree with him, did you?" Tom's silence foretold impending doom. "Oh, no..."

"It was true," Tom defended himself.

"Tom, do you have a death wish or something?" asked Harry tiredly. "Because at this rate, B'Elanna's going to kill you pretty soon."

Harry spotted B'Elanna and the Doctor sitting in the middle of the courtyard. B'Elanna finished making the last of the modifications to his mobile emitter and relinquished him. The Doc decided it might wiser to go find someone else to talk to. Someone who wasn't in such a thunderous mood. Someone who couldn't turn his volume off.

Harry made his way over to her and sat down.

"I was just talking to Tom, and..." Harry floundered for the right words.

"That man is impossible!" B'Elanna fumed to Harry. "He has a lot of nerve, telling me that I'm defensive!"

"B'Elanna, I'm sure he didn't mean –" Harry started to say, trying to defuse the situation.

She whirled on him, glaring.

"Don't you dare defend him to me!" she yelled before she stomped off.

Harry sighed. He was starting to wonder how he had gotten involved in all of this and if there was really anything he could do.

Harry shook his head, utterly confused. He hadn't actually seen anything himself, but rumor had it that when Lieutenants Paris and Torres had been unexpectedly beamed back from the Argala habitat into the Federation habitat, they had been wrapped in each other's arms. Harry was skeptical, but he had it on good authority from three fairly reliable witnesses by now. Of course, Tom and B'Elanna had reportedly jumped apart in a hurry amidst the stares of the incredulous onlookers and avoided each other after that. Harry had only observed the avoidance and assumed that they had still not worked out their differences. They had both clammed up, though, and all Tom had said was, "It was 20 below in the Argala habitat." That was probably why they had been like that when they were beamed out, Harry realized. He knew how much B'Elanna hated the cold, due to her half-Klingon physiology. Still, Harry was curious about exactly what had transpired in the Argala habitat. However, he couldn't get anything out of Tom, and B'Elanna had also refused to discuss it at all, despite Harry's efforts to get her to talk. At least they didn't seem to be angry with each other anymore, he told himself. Something must have happened between them in that habitat, but he was fairly certain that it wasn't what the other people had been jokingly speculating. He had dismissed their exaggerated stories. They weren't serious, but it made for amusing gossip, since Lieutenants Paris and Torres were constantly arguing with each other. They were always a hot topic in the rumor mills. It was common knowledge that Tom had been persistently pursuing B'Elanna for some time now, though she refused to take him seriously. Most people thought that Paris was just after another conquest, while Torres was playing hard-to-get. But Harry knew better. He knew them both too well - they didn't play games like that. Tom was seriously interested in B'Elanna, but he didn't know how to get through to her. And B'Elanna did enjoy Tom's company, but she was always wary of his motives and intentions.

Dammit, if they'd only stop being so stubborn and defensive! he thought to himself, exasperated. More often than not, Harry had to listen to them complain about each other whenever they got into a disagreement. Immediately, he felt a twinge of guilt for feeling annoyed. He didn't really mind listening to them talk about their problems, that was what friends were for, but it just seemed like they were getting nowhere fast. However, he really couldn't blame them for it. They had both been through so much, always having to struggle all their lives, that it was difficult for them to really open up to and trust other people. They were too similar in that respect. He'd have to think of something else. Harry racked his brain, trying to think of a good way to get them to talk to each other in a non-threatening environment now that they were back on Voyager.

"Computer, location of Tom Paris?" he asked as he stepped into the turbolift.

"Lieutenant Paris is currently in Holodeck One," the computer replied. Okay, he thought to himself. I'll start there, try to talk some sense into him. "Deck 6." The turbolift beeped in response. If that doesn't work, then I'll talk to B'Elanna, he thought.

"Computer, what's the location of B'Elanna Torres?"

"Lieutenant. Torres is in Holodeck One." Harry frowned, surprised. Hmm... That's interesting, he mused. He hoped that whatever they were doing in the holodeck, they weren't trying to kill each other. He made his way to the holodeck and entered. Blinking as his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the Paxau resort program, Harry stood in the doorway for a moment. He didn't see them either of them anywhere, so he leisurely strolled around the resort. A holographic bikini-clad waitress sweetly offered to bring him a drink, but he declined, intent upon finding his two best friends. He stopped for a moment to chat with Ayala and a few others, who were lounging in beach chairs under the shade of the beach umbrellas. As they exchanged pleasantries, Harry continued to slowly scan the area for Tom and B'Elanna. Suddenly, he spotted them. They were sitting on the same loveseat, though some distance apart, basking in the sun and sipping tropical drinks. Recovering from the cold of the Argala habitat, thought Harry. He contemplated them some more, debating whether or not to go over to them. He doubted that they'd even notice – they seemed oblivious to everything except each other. They were deep in conversation, relaxed and smiling. Ayala followed Harry's gaze to the two lieutenants and gave him a knowing grin.

"They've been there for awhile," he yawned, stretching out on his beach chair.

"Is that so," Harry said. He watched as B'Elanna let out a peal of laughter. Tom joined her. Harry smiled at the sound of them laughing together. They were obviously thoroughly enjoying themselves. Even from this distance Harry could sense the electricity between them. Well, what do you know, he thought. They really are capable of acting civilized and working out their differences on their own. Maybe they were listening to me when I was giving them all that advice after all, he thought with satisfaction. Sometimes it was hard to tell if he was getting through to either of them or not. But for the moment, at least, they were fine. I don't think they need me right now, he decided. The storm had passed, and his responsibility to his friends had been fulfilled for the time being. Harry heaved a sigh of relief and closed his eyes as he settled into a vacant beach chair to relish the serenity now afforded to him. He hoped it would last. From the looks of it, he had nothing to worry about. Things looked promising.

The End