Author's note: Today is the 20th anniversary of "Resolutions" – and as such, what better way to celebrate? This was written both for the Resolutions Drabble Challenge at the VAMB forum as well as various Caesar's Palace prompts.
Legal B.S.: Star Trek Voyager and all canon elements belong to Paramount/CBS.
Thanks to Katesfire for the quick beta look-over!
Definition
Even before she sat across from him and insisted that they talk, he suspected what she was going to say. She had lived and breathed Starfleet for so long that her need for order, for protocols and parameters, was second nature. He, on the other hand, had spent much of his life in restless rebellion; even more time had been spent allowing anger and bitterness to consume his spirit.
All of that had changed the moment he had laid eyes on this fearless, beautiful woman sitting before him. She had surprised and impressed him time and again, his opinion of her shifting from wary distrust to respect and friendship. When that respect and friendship had graduated to a deep affection, he didn't know. And, since that realization, he had refrained from letting her know—first because of protocol and then because of her obsession with seeking a cure. And then yesterday's storm had changed everything.
Her insistence on wanting to define what lay between them was the perfect opening for him to divulge his feelings. But the idea of simply saying "I love you" seemed mundane—when what she meant to him went beyond the descriptions that could be defined as such.
"I'm not sure I can 'define parameters'. But I can tell you a story..."
*the beginning...*
