This story is finished, there will be no waiting for me to write the next chapter, you just have to wait for me to post. This is my first finished fan-fic that isn't Picard/Crusher, but, I really like the idea of the Janeway/Paris pairing and I've been on a Voyager kick lately, so, I decided to give writing the pairing a shot. I hope you all enjoy the story.
Scent
"I've thought about having children, but, I must say, I've never considered having them with you."
Captain Janeway had said those words with a crooked smile and in all honesty to Tom Paris. The lieutenant had been ill at ease and somewhat embarrassed after the events which had occurred in recent days and Janeway had used this as a means of alleviating Tom's worries and putting him at ease.
The problem now was they had been stuck in sickbay together for the last two days and that was really all she could think about. 'What the hell is wrong with me?' she scolded herself. Kathryn had spent plenty of down time in sickbays in the past, with very little to occupy her mind, but, never had she spent that time fantasizing about mating with a subordinate.
She needed to get out of sickbay, and get out now.
"Doctor, I don't see why you can't just release us to our quarters," she said in her command voice with her hands on her hips, even though it never seemed to hold much weight with the ship's Emergency Medical Hologram.
"Captain, nothing remotely close to this has ever happened before, at least as far as Federation science knows, and the two of you need to be monitored to make sure everything is going as I have planned."
"Really, Doctor, nothing has changed in our condition in almost 24 hours, your brilliance has been proven once again. Can't we at least sleep in our own beds tonight?" Kathryn heard Tom snicker from behind her.
"While you are correct about my brilliance, no, you may not leave sickbay tonight." The EMH said. "Nothing you will threaten me with will cause me to change my answer," he added as he saw the Captain's eyes narrow and her mouth begin to open.
"Fine," she said. "I am leaving here in the morning with or without your consent," she added as she turned and headed back to the diagnostics bed.
"Nice try," Tom said from his perch on the side of his bed, as she stepped between their two beds. "If he was flesh and blood, he would have completely fallen for the stroking of his male ego and we'd both be out of here and on our way to better places. You do that rather well."
"Perhaps we should consider a subroutine to that effect," Janeway joked, casually placing her hand on Tom's shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze as he laughed lightly at her suggestion.
Heat burned through her hand at the point of contact with Tom's shoulder and up her arm like lightening, the gentle squeeze of his shoulder turned into a soft caress of his bicep . A feeling of contentment washed over her, just as a raw hunger, like she had never known, shot through her. Her feelings were in complete contradiction with each other and she was surprised by the strength of both her sudden contentment and her hunger.
A wonderful heat infused her entire body as her eyes slowly met Tom's. She looked into Tom's eyes and saw all the same emotions she was feeling reflected in them Complete shock was also written clearly on his face. She was sure Tom saw shock in her eyes, as well.
She was entranced by the feelings pulsing between them, the heat and the smell of his body. She moved towards him without a thought other then how much she needed to feel his lips against hers at this moment.
"Captain, I'll be happy to release the both of you tomorrow, after I run a few more tests," the EMH said as he made his way from his office into the outer sickbay area, following shortly on the Captain's heals.
"Wonderful," Kathryn said as she took a step away from Tom, shaking her head to clear it, and turned towards her own diagnostic bed. "That really isn't soon enough," she added more quietly.
"Getting tired of Lieutenant Paris's company, Captain?"
"Tom's company is not the problem," she replied, trying desperately to keep her arousal out of her voice, "Just a little tired of cooling my heals, so to speak. I'm ready to get back to work."
As the Doctor turned and left, the pair glanced at each other briefly and looked away. Communicating with a mere look that they shouldn't bring up the last three minutes. The feelings and the heat that had engulfed her body when she had innocently placed her hand on Tom's shoulder remained with her and were reminiscent of the feelings that they had shared down on the planet.
"I need to get out of here," she heard Tom say under his breath, "This is too much."
'As soon as we have time to step away from each other, this...this, whatever it is, is going to fade away. It's just leftover from the changes that took place in us. Things will go back to normal as soon as we can get out of sickbay and have some time to ourselves, time to put our thoughts about the experience in perspective.' Kathryn thought to herself as she tried to get some rest and not think about Tom.
Neither of those things happened. Tom and Kathryn both had a very restless night.
=/\=
Kathryn and Tom sat on the ends of their biobeds as the EMH finished his scans of the pair and gave a long winded list of instructions they were to follow if they wanted to leave sickbay this morning. Tom finally had to cut him off, he needed to leave. The only alternative to getting away from his commanding officer was to go ahead and kiss her, which, considering that he still valued his life, wasn't really an option, at all. Damn, she had become more and more distracting as their time together in sickbay had slowly passed.
Tom noticed two things; he was starting to fidget and the Captain smelt amazing. "I think we got it Doc," he started. "Straight to our quarters, where we are suppose to relax and try to rest for the next couple of days. We need to report to you in the morning so you can run your scans on us, again. If we have any out of the ordinary things occur we are to contact you immediately. Last, but, certainly not least, neither one of us is allowed to return to duty until you clear us," Tom finished in a flourish.
"I don't see why I can't just go to my ready room, I'm perfectly fine."
"Captain, I will keep you here if I feel you can't abide by my medical instructions."
"Not to worry," she said quickly, putting her hand up to forestall anything else the Doctor was planning on saying. "I'll do as you have instructed."
"The experience that both of your bodies have been through is enormous, I want to give them time to adjust before administering all inoculations that are currently required by Starfleet for active duty officers. The evolution and subsequent de-evolution has rendered all previous inoculations null. Both of you should be prepared for a long round of hypo-sprays before you return to duty."
Both Tom and Kathryn jumped off their beds as the Doctor was finishing his sentence. "We will both see you in the morning, Doc," Tom said as he made a hasty exit.
"Thank you, I'll see you in the morning, Doctor," Kathryn said as she walked from the room.
Tom waited just outside of sickbay for her. It was a rare moment when the young man would find himself at a loss for words. This was one of those times. He began with a stammer, "Umm... Captain … I think..." he started, then paused, starting again, "May I..."
Kathryn held up a hand to silence him, "We've both been through a challenging situation, Lieutenant, there are bound to be some things that will take a short while to go back to normal. But, they will go back to normal." She said with a clipped tone and then she turned away from him as she headed for the turbolift.
"Understood, Captain," he said to her retreating form. Tom stood there and let her enter the lift alone, waited a few moments and entered an empty lift and headed for his quarters.
=/\=
Kathryn was spending her doctor ordered time off sifting through the never ending pile of reports that needed her attention on a daily basis. Three days on the planet followed by three days in sickbay and she had a lot of catching up on her hands. With a PADD in one hand and her favorite blend of coffee in the other, the Captain had set to work, planning on making her way through the myriad of reports before her.
Sitting down the PADD on the low table before her, she ran her hand through her hair as she asked the computer for the time. She realized she had been sitting here for nearly two-and-a-half hours and had made it through exactly one report. One engineering report that she could no longer remember the contents of. She swore softly, muttering to herself about her recent lack of mental self control.
Kathryn had been sure that the sudden preoccupation with Lieutenant Paris, her subordinate, was due in large part to the Doctor not letting her work while in sickbay. He'd said no unneeded stress as their bodies acclimated to being human once again. She had been left with nothing to do, in the absence of more pressing concerns her mind had traveled back to her conversation with Tom and then back down to the planet where they may have been glorified lizards, but, they had also possessed many heightened senses and a hyper-awareness of each other that had been amazing. Because, while she didn't remember the small details of what happened on the planet, she did remember the multitude of sensations and how aware and connected she had been to Tom. She was sure that Tom's memory was the same as hers.
Now, she realized that she had spent most of the last three hours fantasizing about Tom Paris. She rose from her position on the sofa and headed to the replicator, calling for another coffee as she went. She reached for the coffee and immediately brought it to her nose, closing her eyes and inhaling deeply. Mixed with the rich, deep, calming aroma she had expected, she had also been assaulted with a deep, husky maleness that was distinctive to Tom Paris. Her eyes opened wide in surprise. She had to be imagining that. When she took another tentative sniff the scent of Tom Paris intermingled with the scent she wanted, the calming aroma of coffee.
She moved around her quarters in a rather agitated state. She realized that every breath she took was filled with Tom. Tom, who wasn't even on the same deck as her, let alone the same room, encompassed her senses. It was no wonder she had been fantasizing about him so intently all morning.
Kathryn realized she needed a distraction from the places her imagination kept going to and decided to do the one thing she almost never did of her own accord, go talk to the Doctor. 'I suppose this counts as an unusual symptom,' Kathryn surmised as she left her quarters and headed for sickbay and a talk with the Doctor.
=/\=
"Absolutely no help at all!" Kathryn ranted aloud to herself as she entered the turbolift that would return her to deck 3 and her quarters. The EMH had demanded that they report any unusual symptoms to him immediately, she had done just that, albeit in a round about way. She hadn't come right out and said, "I can smell the amazing scent of Tom Paris all around me, no matter where he is on Voyager and when I come in contact with him an absolutely delicious heat spreads through my body. All of this leaving me with a complete feeling of need." Instead she had simply stated that she had a heightened sense of smell and touch, she really was not prepared to have the exact nature of these heightened senses written in a report or her medical file.
The Doctor had given her no quick fix or explanation for this leftover from the evolutionary process, as he had called it. He would look into it, but, in all likelihood it would resolve itself in time. The EMH had said to enjoy the above average human abilities, while she still had them.
Of course, if she'd been completely honest with the ship's doctor he might have seen the problem with enjoying her heightened awareness.
Enjoying it really wasn't an option, as it appeared as if all of her senses were fixated on one thing and one thing only; Tom Paris. No, she really couldn't enjoy Tom Paris the way her body was telling her too.
Her body was positively tingling and that was when she realized that the turbolift had a lone occupant, the man that was the center of her current ruminations.
"Been to see the Doctor about something, Captain?" he said.
"Yes," she answered, her fingers itching to reach out and grab him.
She watched Tom closely and noticed immediately as he inhaled, nostrils flaring slightly and eyes dilating of their own accord. "You were on your way to talk to the Doctor," she surmised. "It's really no use. He doesn't know why and can't help. He told me that he'll look over his data, but, that in all likelihood this will dissipate on it's own."
"Oh, what did you tell him, exactly?" Tom asked, wondering how she had put the problem before the doctor.
"I told him that I had a heightened sense of touch and smell, and that it was becoming distracting," she told him.
"Not a lie, but, not the truth," Tom replied, regarding her with his clear blue eyes and a smile that sent her thoughts rocketing to unimaginable places.
"Exactly," she said, as she inhaled deeply, letting his scent wash over her. "Deck three."
The moment the turbolift door closed and they were alone, they moved together without any conscious thought. Their lips crashed together, he pulled her closer, their hearts beat in a frantic rhythm, she twined her hands around his back and moved her fingers through his hair, as they continued to kiss without thought to who might come upon them.
The moment the turbolift doors parted they jumped apart in shock and Kathryn made a hasty exist out of the lift and into the blessed empty hallway. "I might have to rethink what we need to tell the doctor," she said as she studied Tom with her new awareness of him.
She pointed to the both of them and stated in a low gravelly voice, "This can't happen again."
Tom studied her for a few moments, not speaking. Kathryn noticed that he looked as if he was trying to find the answers to some important questions. Tom called for his deck as he glanced back at Kathryn, who stood there staring after him, willfully having to force her body not to move. As the doors closed on him, she heard him state, "I'm not sure that we have a choice."
=/\=
Tom Paris found himself in Cargo Bay 2 doing inventory. Not his job, but, he was in desperate need of something to do. Inventorying the cargo bay would take hours. If the truth was to be told, he was trying to get his mind away from the Captain. Endless amounts of work seemed like a good idea when he started.
It wasn't working.
She was invading his senses, he was enveloped in the essence of his Captain. No distraction was working, he'd had lunch with Harry in the mess hall earlier and hadn't been able to give his friend his full attention. 'Hell, Harry hardly got any of my attention,' Tom thought. It was all directed at Janeway and she wasn't anywhere near the mess hall that afternoon.
Before his failed attempt to find a distraction in Harry, Tom had spent the morning in his quarters alternating between trying to read and chastising himself for his frequent errant and torrid thoughts about his Captain. When he had realized he could actually smell her, and it wasn't part of his very vivid fantasies of her, he'd decided to pay a visit to the Doc.
On his way to sickbay, Tom realized he had no idea how to broach this matter with the EMH. How much information should he give to the Doctor, he wondered as he thought of all the glib comments the Doctor might make if he just stated the entire truth to him. Tom really didn't want to put himself through that uncomfortable situation, not to mention the Doctor would insist on talking with the Captain to see if she was experiencing similar effects. Then there was the fact that he didn't want it written in a report somewhere that he had a serious case of lust for the captain of the Federation starship Voyager and was finding it near impossible to keep it in check.
He was still considering what to tell the Doctor when the turbolift door slid open to reveal the subject of his current fantasies leaving sickbay and entering the turbolift. Tom could feel the hair of his body stand on end the moment he spotted her. They had a short conversation about her meeting with the Doctor before the doors closed. The minute they were alone all hell had broken loose, so to speak.
This is what had led him to the Cargo Bay, far from people and far from her. That had been the most amazing kiss of his life, and he'd spent a lot of time kissing women. It had lasted 15 seconds, 20 seconds tops and now he was left with the remembered feel of his lips pressed against hers and her ever present scent. He'd realized how little control each one of them had over the situation as she had stood there trying to retake control of herself and the situation. "This can't happen again," she had said in a voice that belong to a woman who expected her every request to be obeyed and took for granted that it would be. There was no need for Kathryn Janeway to shout or make demands when all she had to do was give a look and a word.
Tom, on the other hand, had always found obedience hard and he thought, in this instance, Kathryn Janeway might struggle just as hard as he always did.
=/\=
Tired of sitting in her quarters, unable to concentrate on the mountain of PADDs before her, and angry at herself for her inability to remove thoughts of Tom Paris from her mind, Kathryn left the confines of her quarters in hopes of finding a little peace of mind.
She walked the halls of her ship. Deck 15, deck 14, deck 13, she continued to walk the halls, deck after deck. Only skipping deck 4 in hopes that Tom was on that deck, in his quarters. The Captain didn't stop in to check on any departments and other then a few nods and hellos to some of her crew, she didn't speak to anyone. She had walked nearly her entire ship and was still as on edge as when she started, perhaps even more so. She made her way through the last of the lower decks, entering cargo bay 2 and coming face to face with the person she simultaneously wanted to avoid and go to.
Tom Paris.
Kathryn began to tingle as her entire body flushed with want. Her eyes didn't leave Tom's face as her brows drew together, as if she was studying him in order to write a scientific paper about him.
Tom took in the studied look on her face and her clenched fists at her sides. He realized she was having the same difficulties with the after effects of their evolution as he was. "Captain," Tom began, but, wasn't sure where to go from there. He wanted to tell her that he would leave, but, his body was screaming at him that he should stay here with her.
Before either one of the two realized it, they had both moved towards each other. Kathryn took notice that they were inches apart and a breathy, "Damn," slipped from between her lips as she clasped Tom's forearms, the heat of his body radiating through his jacket and engulfing her.
Tom's need for his Captain overtook his common sense as his gaze traveled to her mouth, he gathered her small frame into his arms and kissed her soundly.
They were on the floor, clothes discarded, before either of them considered what it was they were doing. It was hot and fast and rough and aching, the furthest thing from romantic. But, neither wanted or needed romance in their primal need for each other. She begged, "Tom, please ..." and sunk her nails in to the flesh of his arms. He'd growled low in his throat, answering her pleas, he kissed her again and again, and brought her quickly to heated readiness, then with no preamble, thrust himself straight into her.
It was explosive and amazing, hard and fast, flesh to flesh, both of them flushed with desire. Neither Captain or Lieutenant giving a thought to who they were and what this might mean. Proper, strong, no nonsense Captain Kathryn Janeway had let her cheeky, free spirited and slightly insubordinate helm officer take her on the floor of Cargo Bay 2.
