Summary: B'Elanna Torres and Joe Carey, through the years.
Author's Notes: Big thanks, as always, to Capt Acorn. She gave me the prompt "a Joe and B'Elanna story" and then held my hand the whole way. A girl couldn't ask for a better writing partner. Many thanks as well to Photogirl1890, one of the best copy editors out there!
Linchpin
Prime Factors
B'Elanna couldn't stop reliving it.
I want you to know how very deeply you have disappointed me.
Each time her body reacted just as it had in that moment: when Janeway, her voice thick with anger, spat the words. The rush of adrenaline, the itch to fight or run. The edges of the world greyed out, and all that was left were those cold blue eyes.
She squeezed her eyes shut, and when she reopened them, the image of the ready room had evaporated, replaced by Engineering. The murmurs of her engineers wafting from the lower level, the smell of plasma and duranium. She stared into the warp core. The blue and purple hues ebbing and flowing with the surges from the primary reaction matrix normally calmed her, but the gnawing in the pit of her stomach did not abate.
Disappointed.
The last time she'd felt like this was after Dreadnaught. Thinking again of Chakotay's damn, soft voice, telling her she'd hurt him, added a new knot to the many Janeway had put there.
"Lieutenant?"
B'Elanna jumped at Carey's voice, unaware that she was no longer alone on the upper level. She didn't turn, unwilling to face her fellow conspirator. Had this been a game to him? Had he talked her into it so that Janeway would see the error of her ways and make him the chief engineer?
She dug her fingernails into her thighs. "Yes?"
"I…" When his voice died away, B'Elanna finally turned. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry." His eyes were soft - they didn't bore into her as the last set of blue eyes had. "For whatever trouble you're in. I shouldn't have-"
She cut him off. "There's no need, Lieutenant. I was the senior officer, I should have put a stop to it."
"No, I..." He looked at the floor for a moment. "Permission to speak freely?"
No one had ever asked her that before. She shrugged.
"When you became chief engineer, you asked me to help you. And instead, I talked you into violating every protocol in the book. Because I wanted to get home."
Home. That place, seventy thousand light years away, where the Maquis were fighting. Where her friends were dying.
Where Carey's children were growing up without a father.
"You were only supposed to be gone three weeks, weren't you?"
Carey's boots attracted his full attention. "Yeah. Temporary assignment. Then back home to Mars in time for my youngest's first day of kindergarten. Anyway." He cleared his throat, and with it thoughts of home. "I need you to know, I will never steer you wrong again. You have my word."
There was no deception in his voice. One of the knots in B'Elanna's stomach eased. "I'll hold you to it."