B'Elanna sat eating her banana pancakes alone in the darkened mess hall reminiscing, smiling at how they made her feel better emotionally. Funny how she hadn't thought of this comfort food before now, before these last couple of days when she had sunk to her utter depths psychologically. Then, she heard the characteristic swoosh of the door just as she had finished half of the pancakes alone and her smile quickly disappeared. Before she could get too upset though, she saw Tom standing apprehensively just inside the door frame.
"May I join you?", belied the nervousness in his voice and hesitation in approaching her.
It was not lost on her that he had been trying to be supportive of her and had tried to reach out to her. But, over these past few weeks she slowly and methodically distanced herself emotionally from him until it culminated with her shutting him out completely during the past week—a week that should have brought them joy in being able to work side by side on a project, which they rarely, if ever, got to do for stretches at a time. However, she could not undo what had already been done. All she could do was try to make it up to him later...somehow.
Without saying a word, she made her first move and pushed the chair across from her out from under the table. All this week Tom had been on pins and needles worrying that he was losing the woman that he had truly fallen head over heels for—the only woman that had ever done this emotional number on him. Still not sure what was going on with her, Tom quietly crossed the room and sat down as she finished another bite. She put her fork down, touched his hand, and looked over at him in silence as she offered the first warm smile he'd seen from her in many, many days. With an internal sigh of relief, he returned a warm, silent smile as he let take her hand back to finish her pancakes in silence.
Although he knew they still had a lot to discuss, he also knew that it, whatever it was, could wait until later. For now, the most important thing is that he knew in his heart that both B'Elanna and their relationship would return to normal again. Not all at once and certainly not tonight, but sometime soon.
