Author's Notes: Hello and welcome to chapter 3! Thanks so much to all my reviewers! It makes my day to read them! Thanks again to Scifiromance and Starshine for letting me tell them a story. Love you guys!

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)

~LM

If you haven't, make sure you read 'The Gift' by Scifiromance! She just added chapter 114, and it is intense!

Obligatory Legalities: Don't own them. You know that. Why do I keep putting this here?

XXX

January 20, 2377

XXX

"Come along, children." Seven said lightly, leading her charges out of the turbolift and towards the messhall. Mezoti's hand was cemented in hers, and had been since the young girl had emerged from her alcove an hour before. Her other hand was wrapped around Rebi's. Icheb and Azan walked swiftly behind them, pulling up the rear on their march towards breakfast.

"Seven..?" Rebi said softly, turning his head up to look at her face.

"Yes, Rebi?"

"My biradial clamp.." he murmured, pulling his hand from hers to rub his other shoulder. "It hurts today."

Seven paused her steps, turning to him. She gently shook her hand free of Mezoti's to carefully turn Rebi so that she could feel along his shoulder. "Do you want to go to sickbay before breakfast?" she asked him, carefully palpating his artificial joint.

"I'm hungry, though." he half-whined, wincing when she lifted his arm to check his mobility.

The blonde nearly rolled her eyes at his stubbornness. "Can you make it through breakfast with your arm in pain?" She nearly winced with him as she put his arm back to his side. Her own shoulder had been aching since carrying Mezoti the day before. If they hadn't already been scheduled to see the Doctor this morning, she would have taken them all anyway.

"I'll carry your tray." offered Azan, watching his brother anxiously.

"That is very thoughtful of you, Azan." praised Seven, giving the boys one of her little smiles. She cupped Rebi's chin with her hand to make him look at her. "Can you wait or do you want to go to sickbay? It's your decision."

The ten year old twin pursed his lips for a few heartbeats before shaking his head. "I can wait." he decided.

Seven nodded, dropping her hand. "As you wish."

"I do. Neelix might have made more cinnamon rolls!" said the boy, taking his brother's hand with his right, and pulling him on down the hallway. 'Let's go.'

'I'm coming!'

As she usually did, Seven winced at the intrusion of little voices behind her eyes. The twins were especially good at communicating between one another with their interlink node. Rarely, the signal was strong enough to include herself and the other children. Beside her, Mezoti laughed, taking up her hand again and pulling her along towards the messhall. "Boys, use your voices!" she called out after them.

'Sorry, Seven!'

"Rebi!"

The twins skidded to a halt outside of the messhall doors, barely missing knocking over a couple of science ensigns, whipping back around to see Seven as she briskly lead Mezoti and Icheb towards them. "Yes, Seven?" Rebi asked innocently, staring up at her with big, brown, doe eyes.

She could feel the irritated expression relax off of her face. "Please use your voices." she repeated, then added for good measure. "And do not run in the corridors!"

Looking properly chastised, both boys bowed their heads in a nod. "Yes, Seven." they spoke in unison as they did most things. Rebi was the first to peek up. "Can we go eat now?"'

"Yes." she answered with a half-amused smirk, ushering them into the messhall and towards the line to the galley. Icheb and the boys hurried to get in line, eagerly grabbing up their trays and silverware. Mezoti stood quietly at Seven's side until she was forced to let go of her hand to hold her own breakfast tray.

"Good morning, Icheb." Neelix said pleasantly, quickly filling the teenager's plate with all manner of breakfast goodies.

"Good morning, Mister Neelix." returned the teen with a nod, stepping back to allow the twins to have their trays filled.

"Good morning, Neelix!" the twins said, holding their trays out in unison.

"Hello, boys!" Neelix made sure to put a little extra jam on their plates before they ducked back to make room for Mezoti. "And good morning, Mezoti. Are you feeling better today?"

"Yes, Mister Neelix." answered the young girl, smiling sweetly when he stuck and extra pancake on her stack. "Thank you, Mister Neelix."

"You're welcome!" All smiles, he finally turned to greet Seven as she held out her tray to him, but his words were cut off by a loud clatter behind her.

"Ow!" Rebi whimpered, his right hand clamped over his left shoulder as he looked down at his dropped tray and the food splattered over his feet. All the eyes in the messhall had turned to him at the sudden noise, the steady mumble of the crew talking over breakfast quieting down to whispers in the span of a few seconds. Eyes struggling to hold back tears looked up into Seven's face. "I'm sorry.. my arm just.."

Seven handed her tray back to Neelix. "It's okay." she assured, bending and picking up his dropped tray. Directing the other children to go sit down, she pulled Rebi aside out of the way of the line still waiting for breakfast. "We should go to sickbay now."

The boy pouted. "But I'm hungry.."

"Is he okay?" Tom asked, bringing his tray up to the bus table. Harry was behind him with his own empty tray, watching them concernedly.

"He's fine." answered Seven, turning to grab some napkins from the counter.

"I dropped my tray." Rebi said softly, his face red.

Harry grabbed a handful of napkins, as well, bending down beside Seven and dabbing at the glob of jelly on the carpet by the boy's feet. "Hey, accidents happen." he said with a smile, throwing the dirty napkin in the recycler. Tom handed him another stack. "I've dropped my tray, too."

"I can beat that." said Tom, taking Rebi's tray from Seven and putting it in the bus bin. "Once, a long time ago, Neelix dumped a tray of spaghetti over my head!"

Rebi broke into a grin. "Mister Neelix did?"

"He sure did." Tom nodded sagely. "He thought I was makin' moves on his girl."

Harry snorted. "Weren't you?"

The helmrat had the good sense to look contrite. "Well, the thing about that is.."

"Thank you for your assistance." Seven said to Harry, wiping the last of the jam from Rebi's shoes.

"No problem, Seven." Harry waved her off, taking the soiled napkins to the recycler for her.

"Kids are messy." Tom shrugged with a playful grin. "You should have seen me at that age."

"I believe that is one of my first observations of them." Seven agreed with a small half-smirk. She gently turned Rebi towards her, lifting the hand he held clutched over his shoulder. "Come along."

"Where?" the little boy asked cautiously, letting Seven feel over his shoulder. "I'm still hungry. I didn't get to eat- it all spilled."

Seven sighed, holding back the roll of her eyes. "Rebi-"

"Please?" begged the child. "Azan got to eat- and he doesn't even like to! My stomach is growling!"

Neelix, finishing up the last person in line, held Seven's tray up. "Did you still want this, Seven?" he asked over the counter.

Rebi's eyes went wide. "Yes!" He looked back at Seven imploringly. "Please?"

"...as you wish." she breathed, letting him go to take her tray back into her hands. She gestured towards the table where the other children were already eating, and followed after him with the tray. He settled into the chair across from his twin, reaching out with his right arm and stealing a piece of buttered toast. Seven settled beside him, sliding her tray in front of him, and turning sideways in her seat towards him. "Let me see your shoulder while you ingest your nutrients."

The little boy didn't bat an eye as she pulled his chair up to her knees and undid the button of his overalls. He was far too busy trying to get the fork in his non-dominant right hand to make the trip from his eggs to his mouth. After the second time the yellow curd fell off from his fork to roll back onto his plate, he sighed in frustration. When Seven pushed her fingers over the tender skin around his irritated biradial clamp, he hissed in pain, twisting away from her.

"Jag är ledsen." she murmured an apology, easing up the pressure as she carefully palpated his shoulder. "Hurry and eat so we can go to sickbay."

"I can't." whined Rebi. "I keep dropping it. Can I use my hands?"

"Like a baby?" Icheb smirked.

"Here." Azan stood from his chair and leaned over the table. He took Rebi's fork and speared a clump of yellow eggs with it before holding it up to his brother's mouth. "Better?" Rebi nodded, chewing his bite behind a smile.

"Can you do it with your other hand?" Mezoti challenged, switching hands with her own fork and carefully bringing a bite of pancakes to her lips. At the last second she almost missed, smearing sticky syrup around the corner of her mouth before hitting her target. "It's hard!" she said around the mouthful.

"Nuh-uh!" Azan, up to the challenge, switched hands before scooping up another bite of eggs and holding them out to his brother with a laugh. "You just have to pay attention, Mezoti- oh." The yellow fluff rolled off the fork and across the table. The three youngest burst into giggles. Icheb snorted. Seven, refastening Rebi's overalls strap, shook her head with a smirk.

"Do try not to make a mess, children." she chided gently. "The nutrients are supposed to go inside your bellies- not on the table."

"I'm not trying to make a mess.." Rebi said with another giggle, using his left hand to pick up a piece of sausage and pop it into his mouth. "But I can't do it wrong-handed."

XXX

Across the messhall, at the table recently vacated by Tom and Harry, B'Elanna looked up at the sound of the Borgling children laughing, raising an eyebrow onto her ridged forehead as she scanned her eyes over to their table. "What in the world are those Borglings up to?" she asked absently.

"Huh?" Sitting across from her, sipping a cup of green tea and reading over a PADD, Chakotay glanced up as she spoke.

"You didn't hear them?" B'Elanna asked, glancing over at him before turning her eyes back towards the Borglings' table. This time she scrunched her nose. "Seven is letting them eat pancakes with their hands.."

"Probably why they were laughing." Chakotay said, leaning forward and putting his cup down to gesture to the screen of his PADD. "Look at this- what if we take the EPS conduits from the dilithium storage unit and-"

B'Elanna ignored him, watching the children across the room. "I'll never understand why the Captain decided to have Seven be the one to watch after those Borglings." she said, setting her fork down on her empty plate. "But really, who else would-" She raised her other eyebrow to meet the first when she saw one of the twins lean into Seven's side, and the blonde ex-drone put her arm around his shoulders.

"Bee, I'm trying to talk to you." Chakotay said impatiently, tapping the PADD.

"I'm listening."

The Commander scowled, turning his eyes over to the table B'Elanna was watching. The children were smiling and laughing- like children should be. So what if they made a little mess? Maybe Seven was serious about letting them be spontaneous like had had advised. Either way, now was not the time to contemplate. "No you're not- you're watching Azan and Mezoti see who can eat their pancakes the fastest."

The half-Klingon turned to him in surprise. "How do you know which twin it is?"

He shrugged. "I don't know- I just do- now would you please listen to me so we can get the deflector dish the juice it needs to find the Captain or do I need to go find Carey?"

"Woah- no need to be cranky, hermano." returned B'Elanna, dismissing the Borglings and turning her full attention to her superior. "You can't reroute the power from the dilithium storage tanks- we already have." She gave him a small, sympathetic sigh. "Don't worry- we will find the Captain. We always do."

"Well, we better hurry up about it." returned Chakotay. "I already need a vacation and its only been a week."

XXX

"Ah, my favorite patients!" The Doctor greeted the Borglings as they followed Seven into sickbay. He rounded the main console and lifted his tricorder up from the tray beside it. "And their ever-reluctant guardian. Seven, if I'd have known all it would take to get you to come once a week was-"

"Good morning, Doctor." Seven broke in, effectively cutting him off as she lead the children to the surgical suite. "Children?"

"Good morning, Doctor." they chorused.

"Hello, children." He smiled at them lined up. "Who is first?"

"Rebi, today." Seven answered for them. "His biradial clamp is misaligned and causing him pain."

"Nothing I can't fix." said the Doctor, gesturing for Rebi to hop up on the exam table. "This will only take a minute." As he gently worked out the kinks in the little boy's shoulder, he turned his attention to Azan beside him. "And how about you, Azan? Any tummy troubles?"

"Nope." answered the boy, shaking his head.

"And Icheb?" The Doctor spared him a look. "Any headaches, tenderness?"

The teen shook his head. "Not this week, Doctor."

Finished with Rebi, he shook the boy's hand in his, "All fixed up."

As the Doctor went down the line of children, Mezoti stepped closer to an observing Seven, looking up with worried eyes. "Seven?"

"Yes, Mezoti?"

Mezoti looked back at the Doctor as he put a hypo to Azan's throat. "Is he going to make me unconscious again?"

Seven barely held in her surprise at the question, turning her head sharply down at the little girl. "What? No." She ran her hand over the back and Mezot's head, smoothing down her hair. "He's going to give you your weekly maintenance checkup. That is all."

"..okay."

When the Doctor finished with all the boys, and turned to them, Mezoti stepped halfway behind Seven, leaning her head against the blue biosuit over Seven's arm. Again, she turned her eyes up to her guardian's. "Are you sure?"

"What is the matter, Mezoti?" asked the Doctor. "Have you had any tummy troubles? Clamps and junctions all in alignment?"

"I'm fine. I do not require a maintenance checkup." said Mezoti determinedly, her fingers coming up to circle Seven's wrist. "I have not malfunctioned again. I can skip this one." Another look up at Seven. "Can't I, Seven? Please?"

Seven gently shook off the girl's hands before circling her arm around Mezoti's shoulders. "I am afraid that you cannot, Mezoti." she said gently, her tone empathetic but firm.

"You need your medicine." the Doctor said with a smile. "Come along and let me scan you. I'll give you a lollipop after. Tom Paris says that is a common practice on Earth- a sucker after every Doctor's visit."

"We were good." said Azan behind him. Rebi nodded, continuing, "May we have lollipops?"

The holographic doctor glanced back at them with a nod. "Once Mezoti has had her checkup."

Rebi's eyes widened, turning them to Mezoti's pensive face. "Come on, Zotti!" he urged. "He might have blue ones!"

The thought of a blue lollipop- maybe even a sour green lollipop- was definitely tempting, but Mezoti continued to eye the hypospray in the Doctor's hands as though it was a writhing viper, ready to lash out and bite her. She shook her head, drawing closer to Seven. "No, thank you."

The blonde shook her head, taking her arm back. "Come on, Mezoti. Let the Doctor examine you and be done with it." She turned to the Borgling, placing her hands under Mezoti's arms, and lifted her up. She quickly put one arm beneath the girl's bottom, holding her in place, and carried her to the first biobed.

"No- you first!" Mezoti begged, drawing her knees up to her chest when she was placed on the bed. "Please?"

"Why is Mezoti afraid?" Rebi asked his brother, watching the girl with interest.

"She's a baby." answered Azan with a shrug.

Mezoti turned to glare at them with eyes that had began to water. "I am not!" She looked imploringly up at Seven. "I'm not."

At the raised eyebrow Seven sent Azan's way, both boys quietened. She turned back to Mezoti as the Doctor approached them, his tricorder out to scan. Mezoti watched him warily, but allowed him to begin her examination.

XXX

The Doctor had just finished giving Mezoti her last hypospray when Chakotay walked through sickbay's double doors. His typical smile was more a scowl, the little lines around his eyes creased in worry until he crossed the threshold and attempted to reign it back in. When the twins and Icheb greeted him, he smiled for them, tousling the twins' hair as he walked by. He stopped next to the biobed and the Doctor. "You rang, Doc?"

"Oh, yes, Commander," the Doctor nodded, putting the last of his tools back on the tray beside the surgical bed. "I just need you to sign off on their exams like the other day." He gestured to the main console.

"Have you found the Captain yet?" Icheb asked, watching the Commander walk back to the console.

"Not yet, I'm afraid, Icheb." answered Chakotay, inputting his initials on the Doctor's files. He glanced up at the teenager. "With you and Seven working on mapping the phenomena, I'm sure we will have them found very soon." The teen nodded with a smile, turning back to the PADD in his hands, and Chakotay looked back down to the console. Mezoti's file was last. He looked back up, his eyes finding Seven's across the room. "Have you discussed Mezoti's anxiety with the Doctor yet?"

The blonde shook her head, stepping back to allow Mezoti to slide off the biobed and follow her siblings to the replicator for their suckers. She turned pensive eyes after them before looking back at Chakotay. "No." she answered.

The Doctor set his tray of tools back in its proper place. "Well, it would probably be best not to discuss it in front of them." He gestured to the office. "In my office."

XXX

The Doctor shut the door to his office behind Chakotay and Seven, gesturing for them to sit on the stools in front of his desk. When they were seated, he rounded the desk and took up his chair. The files for the children were already loaded up on his console, so all he had to do was swivel it sideways and click on Mezoti's name. "It's understandable that Mezoti- or any of the children- would develop some kind of anxiety. Most humanoids harbor some sort of anxiety at one time or another whether it is where they are going to find their next meal to where is the next dilithium source and so on and so forth."

"The difference being the severity." Chakotay cut in. "I've spent a lot of time worrying about where we are going to get the next tank of dilithium, but I've never fallen out on the floor screaming or throwing up over it." He snorted, the mental picture of himself- or the Captain- falling out on the floor and flailing about whipping through his mind before he could suppress it.

"Well, yes.." said the Doctor, lacing his fingers together over the desktop. "But those children have been through a heck of a lot worse than just a little worry. They've been traumatized- body and mind- by the Borg."

The words sobered Chakotay, who nodded, clasping his hands together in his lap. "Right."

"Will they all start exhibiting these.. panic attacks?" Seven asked quietly, her eyes on the children sitting on the biobeds enjoying their rainbow lollipops through the glass.

"I really couldn't say." answered the Doctor with a regretful wince. "Trauma hits everyone differently. What manifests in one person is different from what manifests in the next person and the next and so on."

Chakotay nodded. "I haven't seen her in the middle of a panic attack, but they must be as intense as you say they are or you wouldn't have knocked a nine-year old child out, right?"

"Eight." Seven corrected. "Mezoti is eight. During the two attacks she has had, she screamed and cried. Then yesterday, she had another- and she vomited in the middle of it." She wrung her hands once in her lap before forcing them to lay still over the tops of her thighs, hiding her own level of anxiety. "And when I have come to assess the situation, she clings to me.. like she is afraid to let go."

"Didn't you say she was crying about you leaving her?" asked Chakotay, watching her still her hands again as she began to draw them back together in her lap. The blonde nodded once.

"She could be having a bout of separation anxiety." said the Doctor thoughtfully. "It's certainly not unheard of. As I've said before, the children will all likely have some level of regression. This may be hers."

"Regression?" That caught Chakotay's attention. "You mean they will start acting like babies again?"

"No, not necessarily." The EMH shook his head. "We're not talking about having to change diapers, Commander. But things like separation anxiety, irritability, being unable to trust others, acting out.." He sighed, looking at Seven with a touch of pity. "We may have our hands quite full for a while." When the ex-drone gave him a startled look, eyes wide and bright and for a heartbeat or two scared, he was quick to continue. "Or we may not- as I said, we don't know how it will affect the children or if it even will affect all of them! Take Icheb for example: that boy is cool as a cucumber, as Mister Paris would say. The twins, so far, have not exhibited any regressive behaviors. Right now, we can just focus on Mezoti."

"Isn't there some kind of medicine you could give her?" asked Chakotay. "At the Academy there were lots of cadets that needed something to.. take the edge off."

"I can begin to try and formulate something that would maybe help her, but honestly with a bloodstream full of nanoprobes it was hard enough to synthesize a compound strong enough to knock them out or to ease their pain." said the Doctor regretfully. "But if you feel that we-"

Chakotay said up straight, surprised. "Pain? What pain?"

"Doctor." Seven said, her voice a soft warning- or maybe a plea.

The EMH only gave her a slightly pitying look. "Really, Seven, I wish you would have let me say a long time ago-"

"Irrelevant."

"It is not irrelevant." said the Doctor with a scowl, turning back to Chakotay. "It's a traumatic thing to be taken apart bit by bit and then stuck back together. Of course there is pain involved, but I keep them as comfortable as possible with weekly doses of-"

"DOCTOR!" Seven, her cheeks beginning to flush, stood from her seat, slapping her hands down on the desktop.

"So.. just the children?" asked Chakotay, eyeing the side of Seven's face as she glared at the EMH.

Seven turned to Chakotay just long enough to spit out a terse, "Yes."

Not swayed, the Doctor continued on without so much as a flinch. "No." he answered simply, ignoring the surprised scowl Chakotay turned on the blonde beside him. The blonde beside him was giving the Doctor a look that could melt steel. "It's a fact, Seven!" he continued, "Life would be a lot easier on you- and you'd need less of it- if at least some people had some idea of what you go through-"

"ENOUGH!" Seven's slapped hands became fists before she swiveled away to pace across the office. "We aren't talking about ME- we were discussing the CHILDREN."

Outside of the glass, Mezoti stood in front of the office's door, looking in with a worried frown. "Seven?" Her mouth moved, but no sound could be heard through the office's dampeners. Seven, fight or flight already beginning to kick in, slid open the office door. Mezoti only had to hold her arms up for Seven to lift her and carry her across sickbay to the biobed the twins and Icheb perched on.

"What's wrong?" Icheb asked, seeing the disturbed look on Seven's face as plain as day before she could hide it, schooling it back into indifference.

"Nothing is wrong." she lied, trying to fake a smile. "Come along, children. We have lessons."

XXX

Chakotay and the Doctor watched Seven practically run the children out of sickbay, the twins and Icheb at her heels and Mezoti held securely on one hip. When the sickbay doors slid shut behind them, the Doctor let out a little tired sigh despite not having to breathe or being capable of feeling tired. The sound drew Chakotay's attention back to him, and the Commander frowned at the EMH. "Why did you never say-?"

The Doctor snorted, leaning back in his chair. "You saw what her reaction to that was, Commander." he murmured. "She doesn't like to admit to any kind of weakness."

The Commander could only nod. It was true for any who spent even a little time with the ex-drone. The Borg arrogance, the fight for perfection... Of course she wouldn't want to admit she fell short, but this was serious. His frown became a worried scowl. Just what did she and the children go through? He had been teaching the children a few lessons here and there since they took them on, and he'd never seen any indication that they were in any pain. He pursed his lips once before asking, "Just what kind of pain are they in?"

"Well, Commander.." The Doctor hesitated. "I am bound by my programming to not breach doctor/patient confidentiality.. but the Captain has access to all of Seven's and the children's medical files unless Seven specifically tells me to withhold anything. In the beginning, right after we.. took custody.. of Seven, it was practical for the Captain to know exactly what was going on, and we have never really changed it-"

"But the Captain is not here." Chakotay cut in. "And I am Captain in her stead."

A brief, fleeting moment of silence passed between the two as the Doctor made up his mind. With another little tired sigh, he nodded. "Very well." he said, lacing his fingers together over his holographic stomach. "Say you get a cut on your hand- it hurts, correct? The nerve endings in your hand send signals to your brain saying 'Ouch!' to draw your attention to it so that you will move out of whatever possible danger caused you injury."

Chakotay rolled his eyes. "Biology 101, Doc."

"Yes, common knowledge, of course." agreed the Doctor. "But say instead of a cut on your hand, your hand was cut off. Now, there would be a lot of pain, of course, but if you're quick, and with the help of a skilled doctor, such as myself, you could be mended up, the cut edges of your skin knit back together, and eventually you would no longer feel any pain from that injury- only bear the scar for the rest of your life. The nerve endings in your wrist are organic and will either die away or somewhat heal. You may not have any feeling around your scar, but you don't feel any pain."

"What does that have to-"

"But in Borg drones, it works a little differently. They have the same nerve endings your or I do- or whatever their particular specie has, anyway." the Doctor continued, "But part of their nervous system is Borg- nanoprobe, wire, circuit, nodes. If I remove an implant, it was attached to their Borg nervous system. Those cybernetic nerve endings don't die or heal. They continuously act like a fresh cut- sending signals to the cybernetic brain that something is damaged and needs repair. How the cybernetic brain interprets that signal is with enough pain to urge a drone to return to their alcove to be repaired."

Chakotay felt his stomach drop. "So every time you remove.."

The holographic doctor nodded, leaning forward over his desk. "Seven and I have managed to turn off the majority of the signals, so it isn't as though they are walking around feeling like they have been diced up, but there is a certain level of damage that I just can't repair. Usually it manifests as aches and pains where the removed implant resided. The children sometimes suffer from headaches, and the same maintenance issues that Seven has- adjustments that need to be made and the like." He sighed. "They receive a weekly infusion of reprogrammed nanoprobes and a cocktail of analgesics to keep them comfortable. Now and then, I correct a malfunction or two here and there when they happen, but usually the once a week check-up is enough."

"Will they ever.. get better?" Chakotay asked, a little horrified on their behalf.

"Seven has required less and less as time goes on, so there's the potential to wean off of it." answered the Doctor. "The Borg are virulent. The only real way to stop the signals completely is to replace the implant. Of course, that is not an option."

Chakotay was quiet for a moment, his tongue feeling particularly swollen in his mouth. "The Captain." he began, swallowing. "She knows all this?"

The Doctor shrugged, raising his eyebrows. "We have never discussed it, but she has the access to the files. The information is there at her fingertips."

XXX

The whole walk from sickbay to the holodeck had Chakotay deep in thought. He had never given much thought to Seven's wellbeing. Hell, it had taken months of her being on board before he could even look at her without getting angry- at her and at the Captain for allowing her to be there. He wasn't alone in that, he knew. For a few short moments, they had shared a mind- he understood on some level the nature of the beast better than anyone else on board- but it hadn't helped him feel any closer to her. At the thought, a brief flash of blonde pigtails and blue eyes came to the front of his mind- a memory that wasn't his of an innocent child contentedly listening to an older woman read her a book in a language he could hear behind his eyes but couldn't begin to understand. Did that little girl ever have any inkling of what she would become? A ballerina, it was not.

"Commander?"

Azan's voice pulled him back to the present. As he looked up, Chakotay realized he was in front of the holodeck without having realized he made the journey. The twins stood in front of him, bright smiles on their faces, drawing a grin out of him as well. "Hello, boys." he greeted, trying to shove the unpleasantness of the last half hour behind him. "Are you ready to do some learning?"

"Yes, sir." Rebi said brightly.

Behind them, Icheb stood reading a PADD, looking up only long enough to greet his teacher before his face was turned back to the screen. Mezoti stood beside Seven, hand held firmly in her own, watching him with a neutral expression that would rival Seven's in indifference. Seven, herself, wouldn't look at him. Instead, she was scrolling through the holodeck program files for the third time. A little niggle of shame came over him at the sight of her. He supposed he would be irritated, too, but-

"Children, the program is loaded." Seven said, her hand coming down from the holodeck controls to hang at her side. When the doors swished open, the twins were the first to run inside, followed more slowly by Icheb.

Mezoti brought up the rear, dropping Seven's hand at the last possible second. She looked back up to her guardian uncertainly. "You are attending with us, are you not?"

"Yes, Mezoti." she answered, watching the little girl smile and dash in.

When Seven moved to step into the holodeck after them, Chakotay stopped her. "Seven."

"Commander." she said quietly, finally turning to look at him.

"Look, I didn't know that-" He paused with a breath. "I'm sorry that it-"

But Seven was in no mood to listen and didn't want his sympathy. She drew her brows together. "You should not have used the Captain's absence in that way." She scowled. "It is an invasion of privacy. Even the Captain does not dig that deep into our medical information."

"I didn't read a single page." Chakotay defended gently. "The Doctor just told me a few things."

She couldn't hold in the irritated harumph. "He should not have."

"Well, I-"

Mezoti stuck her head out of the holodeck, eyeing Seven and the Commander warily. "Are you coming?" she asked quietly, her eyes resting on Seven's. "Please?"

Seven schooled her features before Chakotay could, and put on a pleasant expression for Mezoti as she nodded, following the child into the holodeck, and leaving the Commander in the corridor.

XXX

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~LM