Over the rumble of the bridge being rocketed by a torpedo, Chakotay thought he heard a disembodied voice. Whipping his head about he looked over his shoulder at Harry Kim, still working to figure out a way to beam their people safely back to Voyager. Could he really have been the only one to hear the voice? "Ensign," he said, "are you picking up any hails?"
Kim looked puzzled. "No sir."
Chakotay strained his ears over the rumblings of battle around him. It was almost inaudible, but this time he was sure he heard it. Practically leaping over to the tactical station and shoving Tuvok out of the way, he worked on localizing the source. It was indeed a hail, however faint it was, coming from Kathryn's combadge. How did Harry miss it? Chakotay wondered as he struggled with the controls. This time the voice came on over the speakers stronger, startling everyone around him.
"Barrett to Voyager! Please! We need an emergency beam out, directly to sickbay! I have wounded!"
The First Officer heard Harry Kim gasp across the impasse between them. "I've got them," Kim said, anxiously. "Three human life signs, two are weakening." He shook his head. "I can't raise her. There's too much interference, she's barely getting a message to us."
"You didn't get to be a senior officer if you can't handle a little interference! Do as she says, Ensign, beam them to sickbay!"
"The firing is making it difficult to localize their signals."
"Widen the damn confinement beam," Chakotay snapped, jumping at the turbolift. "Tuvok, you have the bridge."
"May I remind you Commander, that we are in a state of red alert, your place is on the bridge," Tuvok said, calmly.
The Commander's eyes flashed dangerously. "Tuvok, we have three seniors officers trapped on that surface, two with possible fatal injuries,"Chakotay shot back, "My place, as you so call it, is where I want it to be!" He spun about in the turbo lift, with a final snap at Harry, "I don't care how you get them back, Harry, but do it!"
Kim watched as the lift's doors closed, realizing that if he didn't get everyone back to the ship, the first officer was going to execute him.
As the walls began to cave in around her, Sarah frantically scrambled and pulled the mattresses from the medical cots off their resting places and threw them over Tom and Janeway's bodies. Both officers had fallen unconscious and Sarah, with the limited resources that she had, had done the best she could to stop their bleeding. Her left hand was pretty useless and her right arm was screaming protests as she pulled the heavy mattress to the floor. She wasn't sure these mattresses were going to offer much protection, especially when the Fleet blew the Central Nexus to pieces. "Barret to Voyager! Please! We need an emergency beam out directly to sickbay! I have wounded!"
The other side remained painfully quiet. Did Captain Janeway travel here all by herself? Was there really no Voyager in orbit? If that was the case, by the time Commander Chakotay managed to track Janeway down, it would be too late; they would be dead, buried beneath kilotons of rubble. Sarah sprawled out on her stomach underneath the mattress, covering her head with her hands. Of all the ways to die, here on this planet, this was the farthest one from her mind when she had first come here, being buried underneath rubble and a mattress, her arms torn up by the enemy's blade. At least, she thought, the Kreyole have a chance for freedom now. She only wished that Ravior and the others would be around to see all they had worked for come to frutition.
Beneath her the floor began to rumble louder and louder as the building they were trapped in began to tear apart from constant plasma bombs. She felt the floor begin to fall out from underneath her trembling body. The last sensation she had before a blinding flash of light and an odd tingling sensation, was that she was falling, hard and fast into the bowels of the Central Nexus.
There wasn't even time to scream.
Chakotay entered sickbay just as the transport was completed. He was shocked when three yellowed mattresses appeared on the floor in front of the biobeds. And then one of those mattresses squeaked a surprised yelp and he was propelled into action. Crewmen around him began to pull the mattress back to reveal Tom Paris, Kathryn Janeway, and Sarah Barrett lying beneath them.
He audibly gasped when he saw them, his first thought was that he had never, even in his days with the Maquis, seen so much blood. All three of them were covered in it from various stab wounds, Paris bleeding from a gaping wound in his back, Sarah's right arm was torn open and her left hand had a huge hole through it. And Kathryn...he couldn't even look at her. He had to advert his eyes to collect his thoughts for a moment. When he looked back, her condition had not changed like he had prayed. She still had two fairly decent sized wounds on both sides of her neck, deep, but not deep enough he realized that she would die right away. Her attacker had wanted her to die slowly. He was pushed out of the way when crewmen rushed to pick up Kathryn and Tom and put them on biobeds.
Sarah screamed when they went to lift her. In fact, she whirled her wounded arm around and sucker punched Murphy. The ensign grunted as he stumbled backwards into an instrument tray. It wasn't a bad move, Chakotay realized, given the fact that her arm must be killing her.
"Lieutenant!" the Doctor was yelling at her. "You're safe! We're only trying to help you!"
But Chakotay could see that Sarah was in emotional and perhaps physical shock. She shook her head and reached for the nearest thing she could hurl at the hologram, a medical tricorder. The First Officer watched as it sailed right through the hologram and hit an unsuspecting crewman in the shoulder. Ouch, that's going to leave a bruise. "Doctor," Chakotay said, calmly, intervening when the hologram started to rant that if she didn't calm down she was going to destroy his whole sickbay, "I'll handle this, you have patients."
"Commander, she's one of them!"
"Is she in danger?"
The Doctor looked incredulous. "Well, her wounds don't look that serious, nearly not as serious as Mister Paris and the Captain, but she's been off the ship for close to five weeks! She needs to be examined!"
"But it can wait until after you've treated Paris and the Captain?"
"I wouldn't reccommend it--"
"But it can be done, later, right Doctor?"
The hologram deepened his permanent frown. "Yes," he grumbled. With a glare he turned to Kes. "Bring me blood gas infusers, we have to stabilize their breathing before I can operate." Still sulking at the First Officer, the Doctor went about his work as Chakotay inched closer to Sarah. She recoiled and grabbed the nearest weapon, a cortical stimulator. The primal fear in her eyes was heart breaking, how much had she really endured the last five weeks, only for it to come to a head in the Central Nexus?
"Sarah," he started softly, as if addressing a child. "It's alright now, you're on Voyager. You're home. You're safe."
Her grip slackened on the cortical stimulator. Chakotay took the chance and moved closer, his hand gently reaching out and prying the instrument from her hand. "Let the Doctor help you, Sarah. No one here is going to hurt you."
"I killed him."
Chakotay blinked, looking over his shoulder at Tom briefly. "I...I'm not sure I understand, Sarah."
"He was going to kill us, Commander! I...I had to do it!"
So she had been the one to kill their attacker. Very well, Chakotay understood, it was kill or be killed, she had acted. Why was she so upset about it? A nameless Gerroan soldier attacking them and subsquently being killed by Sarah in self defense shouldn't be rattling her this way. "It's alright, Sarah, you did what you had to do. Here, let me help you up. You can rest while the Doctor works on the others."
She flinched slightly but allowed him to help her to her feet and assist her up onto the last biobed. She was trembling but Chakotay could see the primal fear in her eyes start to diminish and the calm demeanor of a Starfleet officer took hold. He would be lying, however, if he said he wasn't deeply worried about her mental state. Despite everything they had been through, her faked death, Tom's abrupt departure, leaving the children behind on Nydia and Kathryn trying to cover it up, to Kathryn's suicide mission, it couldn't possibly compare to Sarah's five weeks of isolation on Gerroa Prime. People who are recovered from Gerroan prisoners are just that, recovered. There is nothing, psychologically, left of them to rescue.
With a shiver Chakotay recalled Prime Minister Yutell's words when the senior officers had first met with him. Was the only thing they had rescued from Gerroa Prime a shell of the officer taken from them?
"Doctor there's a problem," Kes' voice sounded urgent. Chakotay spun about to fix his gaze on their young nurse. She was standing besides Kathryn's bed. "Their blood isn't coagulating."
The hologram looked concerned. "The procedures should have stopped the bleeding to prepare them for more treatment."
"They're still losing blood."
"And more rapidly," the Doctor said, running a scanner over Kathryn's body.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Chakotay inquired, gritting his teeth.
The hologram shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure. There appears to a be toxin of some kind in her system, preventing her blood from clotting." He moved to investigate Paris. "It's present in Mister Paris as well. At this rate, I'll never be able to stop their bleeding in time before they both die! Kes, prepare to extract a sample of the toxin!" The two began flying around the biobeds at a dizzying pace, nearly knocking Chakotay over as they spun out of control to try and save Paris and Kathryn. Chakotay could do nothing but be pushed out of the way and pray that this wasn't going to end as badly as it was looking at the moment.
On the biobed, the monitors began to blare all sorts of warnings. Paris and Janeway were going into shock, their bodies were putting up the last defenses before they slipped away. Their skin was ashen, colorless; they already looked like death. He swallowed and allowed his eyes to fall on Sarah, staring up at the ceiling. Presumably the toxin was in her system as well, just working more slowly due to the fact that her injuries were not nearly as severe.
"Isolate the toxin," the Doctor was ordering Kes who was gazing into a microscope. "We can use it to create a counter agent."
Time seemed to stand still, at least for Chakotay, who was anxiously keeping an eye on Kathryn's monitors. She's fading, hurry Doctor.
"There!" the hologram shouted triumphantly. He yanked a hypospray away from the work station and rushed to the Captain, injecting her with a counter agent that they all collectively prayed would work. Slowly her heart rate steadied and the bleeding began to slow. The Doctor looked smugly at the monitors before rushing to give Paris and then Barrett the injection as well. "Excellent, Kes, we can start treating their wounds with the dermal regenator."
Kes moved to treat Sarah first, but Chakotay shook his head, grabbed the instrument from her hand and proceeded to heal her wounds. Kes silently acknowledged that the First Officer wanted to speak to her, now that she seemed to be calming. The young Ocampa didn't know enough about psychology to know that Sarah was actually in a state of traumatic shock, not calming down.
"These are pretty nasty," Chakotay said, running the regenerator over Sarah's hand. "That solider must have wanted you good and dead, Lieutenant, to leave these."
"He wanted me dead, the others were just a door prize," her response was cold, emotionless.
"Casius must have sent him."
"He sent himself."
Chakotay stopped what he was doing and snapped his dark eyes up in an attempt to meet hers. She was staring listlessly at the wall, a glassy look in her eyes. No wonder she was shaken by her killing; she had killed Dellon Casius in self defense, the repercussions it would have on the galaxy were not lost on Chakotay. And what about the ones it would have on her? Hatred swelled inside of his heart as he pictured that monster slashing his knife into Sarah's flesh, and Tom's, and then it exploded as he pictured Kathryn screaming in agony.
He realized that if Sarah hadn't been the one to kill Casius, he would have done it himself.
"Tuvok to Chakotay."
"Go ahead Commander."
"Prime Minister Yutell demands an update."
Chakotay frowned. Of course he does. "What's our status Mister Tuvok?"
"For the moment, Gerroan forces are retreating. The Central Nexus has been destroyed and the Resistance Fleet is landing ground troops, there seems to be no immediate danger in the vicnity."
He finished healing the gash on Sarah's arm and with a final pat of her shoulder, he placed the instrument back down on the tray. "I'll be along in a moment, Tuvok, Chakotay out." He searched Sarah's eyes for a moment, before instructing her to get some rest. With one last sigh, the First Officer left sickbay behind, realizing that things could have been much worse, given the circumstances. If Voyager hadn't beamed the officers out when she did, well, Chakotay hated to think what would have happened to them. It was bad enough that Paris and Janeway had almost bled to death. The worst, he concluded, was seeing the shell of their counselor.
Stepping out onto the bridge he couldn't help be feel responsible. He was after all one her commanding officers, but his brotherly protection of her stretched beyond normal first officer subordinate relationships. Again he came to the conclusion that if Sarah hadn't killed Dellon Casius, he was sure he would have, with his bare hands. "Hail the Prime Minister Harry," he ordered gruffly.
Prime Minister Yutell's face appeared on the large viewscreen. "Commander Chakotay, I wish to speak with Captain Janeway. Our sensors indicated that you were successful in transporting your people back to Voyager before the Central Nexus was destroyed."
"I'm afraid Prime Minister that Captain Janeway is unavailable at the moment," Chakotay replied. "I'm in command for the time being." So you're going to have to deal with me.
"Very well," Yutell said, despondently. "I assume now that this is all over, Voyager will be heading back to Nydia."
"You assume correctly," Chakotay said, harshly. "We have crew we need to retrieve. I'm sure they're feeling quite abandoned right now."
"Your implication that my people are not taking care of your crew insults me, Commander," Yutell snapped.
"Let me make something perfectly clear, Prime Minister," Chakotay said hotly, "We never would have needed to leave them behind if you hadn't talked Captain Janeway into this suicide mission. We were lucky to get her back in one piece. Now, Voyager will gladly go to Nydia and pick up those we left behind, but don't plan on us doing any more favors for you or your cause. Voyager out." He motioned for the transmission to be cut and turned about to get to his seat.
Tuvok and Harry were both looking at him, actually Harry was gaping and Tuvok had that one eyebrow of his crocked up in a way that Chakotay knew a lecture was soon to follow. He mustered his best Kathryn Janeway death glare silencing any objections either officer might have had before slumping into his seat with a silent groan. He would be glad when this day of hell would be over.
First Officer's Log, supplemental; Three days have passed since the Central Nexus has been destroyed. We have arrived at Nydia and are finishing repairs in their primary space port. The Gerroan, with the overseeing of several Nydian and Kitae officials, has formed a new government under the command of a Sub Commander we thought dead. Apparently the Resistance hide Sub Commander Quierron before Dellon Casius could arrest and execute him. Unfortunately, Doctor Jetrel didn't fare as well. After he submitted his distress signal to us, Casius had no use for him and the Gerroan executed him. At least the truth finally came out. As for Captain Janeway and Lieutenants Paris and Barrett, the Doctor has released all three from sickbay. However, it is obvious it is going to take a long time for their emotional wounds to heal.
Chakotay noticed that despite their best efforts, Voyager just had not gotten back to normal since they had started back to Nydia three days prior. Kathryn had been unnervingly private, more so than usual, hiding out in her ready room when on duty, against the Doctor's wishes of course. Tom Paris was still in a tremendous amount of pain from his injuries and would be off duty until further notice, and Sarah Barrett, Chakotay wouldn't have known she was back on the ship if he hadn't been in sickbay when the away team was beamed back on board.
Sarah's isolation had Chakotay even more worried than Kathryn's isolation. Five weeks was a long time to be held against one's wishes, but to be held by a tyrant was even worse. He had read the Doctor's report on Sarah's condition after he had examined her. She had several traces of injuries, including being sexually assaulted, and the possibility that she was pregnant. The Doctor was waiting a few more days to run that test, let her get acquainted with the ship again. She was already in distress, and the Doctor, or Kes rather, had pointed out that a pregnancy test would only cause more. Sarah's time on Gerroa Prime had been no picnic. He had seen the emotional trauma it had caused in sickbay three days before. It terrified him where it was leading her.
To make matters worse Chakotay wasn't sure who qualified to counsel her. His natural choice and first choice would have been Kathryn, she seemed to have a good rapport with the young woman, but she was emotionally traumatized herself. Sighing, he wished the answers would come easier to him.
"Good afternoon, Commander," Neelix greeted him cheerily as he entered the turbolift with him.
Chakotay looked at their chef. "Neelix," he greeted solemnly.
"Everything alright Commander? You seem preoccupied."
"Lots on my mind I suppose."
"You and everyone else."
"How is the crew holding up?"
"Anxious. No one has seen Lieutenant Barrett since she came back. They're all worried about her," Neelix answered. "Has anyone been to see her?"
"Kes has checked on her, but she refuses to see anyone else," Chakotay said with a frown.
Neelix screwed his face up. "With all due respect, sir, shouldn't we be disregarding that order?"
Chakotay shook his head. "We need to give her her space. She needs to garner some trust."
"Trust? We're her friends, Commander, she should already trust us!"
"She's gone through severe emotional trauma, her psyche doesn't know how to trust right now," Chakotay said leaving the conversation at that and stepping out of the turbolift on deck three. As he walked he briefly looked at Kathryn's door. He had waited three days for her to explain herself but to no avail. His conversation with Neelix had made his patience even thinner than it already was.
He pressed her door chime.
Surprisingly she allowed him admittance. He found her buzzing around her quarters, coffee cup in hand, status report in the other. "Oh good, you must have read my mind; I was just about to call you and ask for you to join me. We have some things to go over. I think the shield modifications are more power conservative than our original ones. Tell B'Elanna she can keep them."
"Ah yes ma'am."
"Also, have Neelix draft a supply list, we're going to open trade negotiations with the Nydians. Thankfully your little outburst the other day didn't do any damage," Kathryn said, sipping her coffee.
Chakotay blinked. Was she lecturing him about showing aliens who was the boss? "I'm sorry, we've all be under a bit of stress."
"Next time, use a stress ball."
"A what?"
"Never mind. How many hours has the Prime Minsiter given us before we start negotations?"
"Commander Tuvok reports six hours."
Kathryn took a large swig of coffee from her mug. "I'll beam to the surface once at that time, I'll take a security detail with me. I've already Kes to beam down, I'm sure the Doctor is going to want the crew that stayed behind on Nydia examined before returning to the ship."
Chakotay was irked that she so casually threw off her children like that and hadn't even bothered to join Kes on the surface while their nurse made sure the crew was fit to transport back to the ship. It would be the first time in almost a week that Kathryn had seen them, and with the way she left them, he had a feeling they hadn't taken the separation so well. She kept talking before he could say another word.
"Speaking of the Doctor, Harry drafted a plan for the new activation sequence; he'll install the new subroutines once all the repairs are complete."
He noticed that she refused to acknowledge why the Doctor needed the power to control his own activation sequence. She was avoiding the subject of her children completely because she knew where he stood on her abrupt abandonment of them. "Sounds good," he said, coolly.
"Something wrong Commander?"
"Permission to speak freely?"
Kathryn knew she was probably about to open a can of worms but she said yes anyways.
"Your isolation from the crew is only making you put off facing what happened. Since leaving the children behind on Nydia you haven't mentioned them by name and I have yet to see any reports on what happened on Gerroa Prime," Chakotay replied, narrowing his eyes slightly.
"I've decided to let both Sarah and Tom heal a little before they issue reports. I'm not sure if Sarah will ever be ready for that."
"What about you?"
She averted her eyes. "I walked into the wrong room and Dellon Casius stabbed me. There isn't much else to report."
"If you had informed us of your intentions, perhaps you wouldn't have been in that room," Chakotay snapped.
"This is what this is all about, isn't it? You're upset that I didn't inform you about my plans."
"I'm not upset, I'm furious."
"Noted, is that all?"
He shook his head fiercely. "No, I'm not done yet. What you did was reckless, irrational, and if we were back in the Alpha Quadrant, Starfleet would be investigating you for possible mental instability! Kathryn, it was a suicide mission, and don't tell me you didn't realize that when you agreed to it!" Chakotay argued. "This crew would wither and die without you. And what was I supposed to tell your children? Sorry, I let your mother go on a mission that was destined to kill her."
Kathryn glared at him. "This crew has done enough, sacrificed enough already. I couldn't ask them to sacrifice anymore."
"But you were asking them to sacrifice, you were asking them to sacrifice you. Kathryn, sometimes you have to put yourself first."
"Starfleet captains don't have that luxury."
His gaze grew dark. "Starfleet captains in the Alpha Quadrant, maybe, but out here, where the crew depends so much on you, you have to think about the consequences of your actions!"
Kathryn deepened her glare into a death glare. "Are you quite done lecturing me like a child in my quarters?"
"Not unless you promise never to keep me in the dark like that again," Chakotay said. "And you have to really mean it Kathryn."
"Very well," she said, "I admit that I made an error in judgment and I promise, I will never keep you in the dark like that again--unless I see fit."
Chakotay realized that this was the best he was going to get. But between the two of them they knew it wasn't going to end here. Someday they would be having this conversation again. And that frightened him. He opened his mouth to argue some more when they were interrupted by a voice over the comline.
"Captain, the Nydians are ready to transport the children, Crewman Celes, and Ensign Wildman back to the ship," Harry Kim's voice said. "Shall I inform the transporter room to wait until you arrive, ma'am?"
Kathryn had forgotten that she had requested that she be notified when the Nydians were ready to transport the others back to Voyager. It had already been unfair of her to abandon Michael and Ava like she did, it would be even more unfair if she didn't greet them in the transporter room. Turning slightly away from Chakotay she pressed her combadge. "Yes, I'll be there in a moment, Mister Kim. Thank you for notifying me. Janeway out." She lowered her head for a moment and took a deep breath. Focusing on the stars beyond her viewport, she said softly, "I appreciate your concerns Chakotay. But you have to understand that I thought I was doing what was best for this crew."
"You honestly think sacrificing yourself is best?"
"No, but if it meant that none of them had to die, then yes."
"Kathryn, I swear, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll have your command codes permanently restricted."
A sad grin formed on her face. "I thought you said the crew would be devastated if they lost me."
"I'm your first officer, if throwing you in the brig is the only way to protect you, then so be it," Chakotay snapped playfully.
She laid the palm of her hand on his chest and smiled sweetly. Their eyes met for the briefest of seconds, "Thank you," she whispered before slipping out of the room quietly. She heard him exit behind her, but move in the other direction, possibly to make his way back to the bridge. Closing her eyes for a moment she tried to capture that look between them and hold onto it. For a few seconds she wasn't his commanding officer, his wasn't her subordinate, they were just two people; two people that were beginning to care for each other more than protocol would allow. Snapping her eyes open she entered the lift and called out her destination hastily. If it were another time or place, Kathryn realized, she might not hesitate, but protocol was protocol and hadn't they just argued about what was best for the ship? Surely the Captain getting involved with her first officer wasn't in their best interests.
Kathryn stepped into the transporter room with this thought lingering. "Ensign," she ordered the young man at the controls, "energize." She waited patiently while the transporter whined to life and deposited four humans onto the pad.
"Mommy!" a bright toddler's voice cried out.
Immediately Ava was doing her best to jump off the pad and run to her mother. Kathryn knelt to her level and scoped her daughter up into her arms. "Hi baby," she choked into the little girl's hair. "Did you miss me?"
Ava pulled away and studied her mother's face for a moment. "Yes. Where you go?"
"On a mission."
"You back now?"
"Yes. I'm back now."
"Until you have to go away again and leave us on some other dumb planet," Michael said, angrily.
Kathryn was startled by his hostile tone. "I didn't want you getting hurt." I wasn't going to be held responsible for your death. Not if I could prevent it.
"You didn't even say good bye!"
"I know, I'm sorry honey. But you have to understand..."
"I wish we never had come with you! I wish Daddy was still alive! He wouldn't have just left us!" Michael cried, bolting off of the transporter pad and out of the room.
Kathryn sat there, arms tightly wrapped about Ava, struggling to maintain control. She should have expected something like this, she should have known that Michael wasn't going to let her off the hook so easily. He had already been upset with her before he left, afraid that she was going to die and leave him. And there she was, placing him on a transporter pad and shipping him off while she flew into a dangerous region of space. As she buried her face against Ava's hair she realized that she had only made her personal problems worse, not better.
Tom Paris was starving. He had slept most of the afternoon thanks to the pain killers, but his rumbling stomach had finally woken him up around sixteen hundred hours. Crawling out of bed he got dressed in a simple button down shirt and khaki pants and decided that he didn't want to eat alone. Neelix had expressed his concerns that Sarah wasn't eating and hadn't left her quarters since returning. Tom promised that he would help once he was feeling a bit better. Today his back didn't hurt nearly as much as it had yesterday or the day before that. Taking a deep breath he decided it was time to get Sarah on the path to healing, even if he had to push her out the door.
He didn't talk to many people on his stroll to her quarters, many simply nodded their heads or asked him how he was feeling. There was no doubt in Tom's mind that the crew was still suffering tremendously from all that had taken place the past five weeks. A month long ordeal, with a never knowing atmosphere. He didn't blame them for not wanting to speak to him. They needed to heal just as much as he did or Sarah or even Captain Janeway. Neelix had also mentioned that Janeway was keeping to herself as well. It was the Talaxian's hope that once the children were back on board she would come around. Tom was still having trouble grasping the notion that Janeway had left them behind.
Stepping up to Sarah's quarter's he pressed the door chime. There was no response and it made him a little agitated. Sarah hadn't left her quarters for anything, with the exception of going to see the Doctor in sickbay. What was she doing? He pressed the chime again and got no response. "Computer, locate Lieutenant Barrett."
"Lieutenant Barrett is in her quarters."
"Sarah?" he said through the comline, "are you alright?"
Again there was nothing but silence and he was growing increasingly more nervous. Sure she had ignored him in the past, but that was before she had spent five weeks in captivity. Something was wrong. He used his security overrides to open the door and stepped inside. What he saw was not what he had expected to find. Sarah was sitting on her bed, dripping wet from a bath or shower, wearing absolutely nothing.
Tom grabbed a blanket off of her chaise lounge and rushed to wrap it around her. "What are you doing? You'll catch a cold sitting here like this."
Sarah stared blankly at the wall. "I didn't know what to wear."
"What?" Tom asked, rubbing her shoulder's gently as he sat on the bed with her.
"On Gerroa Prime if I wasn't dressed to his satisifaction he'd hit me until I got it right."
Tom felt his anger boiling. "It doesn't matter what you wear on Voyager. No one is going to beat you up over it."
"I didn't know what to wear, Tom," she cried, looking at him with tear filled eyes. "I didn't know what to do. I didn't want anyone to be disappointed in me."
He gathered her into his arms and held her tight. The path to healing suddenly got longer, rockier, as he soothed her, letting her wet hair soak through his shirt while she cried. Tom realized then, that it was going to take a lot more than a few meals in the mess hall to get Sarah down that path, if she ever did make it. There was a possibility that she may never heal from her time on Gerroa Prime. "Sarah, he's dead," Tom reassured her. "I promise, he can't hurt you anymore. We'll get through this together. Remember, I'm not about to leave you when the going gets tough."
It had quite possible gotten the toughest that either them were ever going to see. Voyager, as a whole, had a lot of healing to do.
