Dinner Tonight?
by Camilla Faye Montgomery

This one's all mine (Kate)

Summary: Years after Voyager's return: Naomi and Icheb have a dinner date.

My first fanfic. Not quite sure where the inspiration came from, and as for the ending, well, I think I just ran out of stuff to write, so...
I'll try to write more if anyone wants me to. Please review.

Rating: G

Disclaimer: I don't own Voyager, somebody else does. And while I'm sure they're making plenty of money from it, I'm not.

The story:

22 year old Naomi Wildman smoothed her blue satin dress. Idly, she looked at her reflection as she quickly and expertly coiled her strawberry hair into a intricate bun. She scrutinized her appearance for a moment, and then abruptly took out the pins and shook out her locks. no, not tonight, the young ensign thought, tonight is special . Naomi brushed her hair out and left it loose, with only a clip to hold it out of her face. As she applied her makeup, Naomi glanced at the chronometer. 1855. He would be there in five minutes... exactly. He was always punctual, to the nanosecond. Sometimes she wished that he could be a little more exciting, a little more spontaneous. But then she looked into his eyes... those eyes so filled with passion for life, those eyes that could just as easily look through her, lifelessly, with the cold glint of metal that was the Borg. But they didn't . If he hadn't been disconnected from the collective years ago, if he hadn't been carrying that virus that meant death to the Borg, if they hadn't found his ship, if Seven hadn't saved him, then she would never be able to look into those eyes and know the person behind them.

He had come when they were just children, her more so than him. At first she had been afraid of him, but she soon came to realize that he was frightened too. She did her best to be his friend, and when the other children left, he became one of her best friends.

When Voyager returned home, there were debriefings and trials. The trials were just a formality; nearly everyone who was charged was acquitted, except for the people from the Equinox. After the doctors at Starfleet Medical had finished studying him and Seven, he entered the Academy. He sent her short, text-only messages often, and once in a while they would share a short conversation over the communicator. She saw him every year at the reunions, of course, but it wasn't the same as on Voyager, especially when he started to bring dates with him. He was growing up, and she knew he still thought of her as a child.

She entered the academy early, just as he had. But he was already on his second mission by then. When she graduated, she had unexpectedly been assigned to the same ship as he was. They reconnected and ate breakfast in the mess hall together whenever they could. But it wasn't until they had been serving on the same ship for two years that he asked her out on a real date. They were on shore leave, on Ktari, in fact, and he sent a short message to her quarters. dinner tonight? resistance is futile. He was able to joke about being Borg now. It had been so many years. When she passed him on her way to her duty station that morning she winked, to show him that her answer was yes.

The sound of the door chiming for the third time brought her back to the present. She looked up at the chronometer again. 1905. He'd been there for five minutes. Why didn't he just come in? He knew her key code. I'm coming, she called, in the general direction of the door, as she swept around the room, making sure she had everything. She was so excited, much more than she would have thought that she would be. A real date, with someone she'd had a crush on since they were both children, someone she respected, admired, loved. Naomi flew to the door and smiled as it opened. That smile didn't last for long. Clark, what are you doing here? she breathed. Ensign Clark Johnson was her friend, but he was not the person she had expected to see. Where's Icheb? she asked him innocently.

His face paled as she asked him that. he began, Icheb is dead.