"It was the strangest thing, B'Elanna," Chakotay said, his finger tracing the edge of his coffee cup, "If I didn't know better, I'd say that she was scared of me."
"Don't be stupid Chakotay," she smirked, "Why would Naomi be scared of you? She only has to bat her eyes to get whatever she wants from you."
"It's not funny, B'Elanna. I'm worried about her."
"Well go see her then, when she's in her quarters with Samantha. I'm sure you've just got things wrong."
"Yes. I'd better be going. Night shift with Tuvok."
"Have fun."
The second he was gone, Naomi ducked out from behind the counter and scurried over to B'Elanna's table, notebook in hand. She sat herself down, an innocent smile on her face. B'Elanna blinked.
"Hey Naomi. What's up?"
"Can I talk to you?"
"Yeah," she eyed her notebook, "Are you working on something?"
"Kind of."
"Do you want to know something about engineering?"
"Nope. I want to know about the Maquis."
B'Elanna narrowed her eyes, "Are you allowed to know about that?"
"Yes. My mom told me about them a bit."
"So, what do you want to know?" she asked carefully, watching in amusement as Naomi pulled the lid from her pen and settled down, finally setting her bright eyes expectantly on B'Elanna's face.
"Why did you join the Maquis?"
"Do you know why the Maquis even existed?"
"Yes. Why did you join?"
"Because the Maquis were right, Naomi and the Federation was wrong."
B'Elanna was surprised at the venom in her voice and, judging from the look on her face, Naomi was too. It had been a year since they received the news of the Maquis slaughter and B'Elanna thought that the wound had started to heal. It had been a while since she'd poked it though; maybe it wasn't as healthy as she thought.
"I don't have to talk to you if you don't want."
"No, it's OK. It's just been a while since I spoke to anyone about it."
"When did you join?"
"Commander Chakotay found me on a Bolian freighter. We were attacked. I was trapped. He saved my life."
"What were you doing on a Bolian freighter? Why were you attacked?"
"You don't need to know, Naomi," she said darkly.
"But-"
"No. The last thing I want to do is traumatize you."
Neelix trotted over with a coffee pot. Naomi slammed her notebook shut as she heard Neelix's cheerful voice, "More coffee, B'Elanna?"
"Yes, please Neelix."
"Hi Neelix," Naomi smiled, her arms pressed tightly over her notebook.
"What are you two talking about?"
B'Elanna opened her mouth, only the pleading expression on Naomi's face catching her eye. She swallowed her answer quickly.
"Not much, Neelix."
"Oh," the Talaxian nodded, "I'll leave you to it then."
B'Elanna crossed her arms, eyebrows raised as Naomi at least had the good grace to look sheepish.
"They don't know, do they Naomi?"
"Not exactly. Mom didn't say I couldn't find out more. Please don't tell Neelix."
"I won't," B'Elanna breathed through her nose as a thought suddenly occurred to her, "Naomi, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"Commander Chakotay said that you ran away from him earlier. Does this new interest in the Maquis have anything to do with it?"
"No."
"Naomi?"
"Tuvok told me that Commander Chakotay had hurt some people when he was in the Maquis," she whispered, "I guess I just got scared."
"Of him? Naomi, I don't want to scare you but we all had to defend ourselves. And that's all we were ever doing, defending ourselves. Don't think that anyone ever enjoyed doing it."
"Yeah."
"Why are you talking to me anyway? I defended myself as much as Chakotay ever did."
"I don't know," Naomi shrugged, "I needed to talk to someone and Tuvok said you might talk to me."
"But you're scared of Commander Chakotay?"
"I guess so."
Naomi stood to leave, her notebook firmly under her arm as she glanced nervously at Neelix, "Did you like being in the Maquis, B'Elanna?"
"I had a lot of friends in the Maquis," she nodded contemplatively, "But I was angry all the time. We all were. I got tired of being angry but I couldn't stop."
Thanks B'Elanna."
"Naomi, do me a favour."
"OK."
"Go and see Commander Chakotay. He's really worried that he's upset you."
Naomi skipped out of the doors, Neelix calling after her, "You'll be late for bed if you don't go now!"
B'Elanna drained her coffee cup and decided to head to Tom's quarters to see what he was doing that night. As she hurried to catch the turbolift, she found herself sorting the people that she passed into Starfleet or Maquis. When she was first on board Voyager, all those years ago, she used to find herself doing that obsessively all day. It wasn't as though she really got anything from it but it was reassuring to know that there were still Maquis people nearby if she needed them. It was irrelevant now, as Seven would say. Naomi had stirred up some odd feelings though. It had been so long since she had spoken to anyone – the last time, she, Chakotay and Michael Ayala had switched on Sandrine's for the night and reminisced, soon after Chakotay got the news from Sveta. Maybe they should do more to remember. She shook her head as he pressed the chime for Tom's door. Not maybe. They should do more to remember. The guilt had already begun to gnaw at her stomach. She couldn't afford to let it get any worse.
