A/N You guys like me. You really, really like me. Seriously though wow, the support you guys have given me for this fic is overwhelming, so thanks. This is the first fic I've had that garnered this many reviews and follows so fast. The least I can do is give you guys another chapter as thanks.

Chapter 3

Let Me In

Wiping away the last of his tears, Jake laid on his bed struggling to remember her face. His mother's face. Even though it had been only four days ago when he had last saw her, it was still so hard.

She would never smile at him with that beautiful smile again. She would never yell at him to clean up his room or to wash behind his ears. She would never... Even though it was hard to remember her face he would always remember the last thing she did for him.

When the ship started to shake and their room started to fall apart, she had flung herself on top of him. She had done it out of love and she had done it even if it would buy him an extra second of life. That's what he would always remember about her, if nothing else.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Startled, he nearly fell off the bed.

"Jake." a voice said as the door slowly creaked open. "Are you decent? I want you to come out and see your new house guest."

"I really don't want to see anybody, grandpa." Jake replied, lowering his head. Putting a finger under the boy's chin, he made him look up to him.

"Believe me Jake I know how you feel my boy." Joseph said letting out a breath. "But this house guest... well hopefully she's going to be here for awhile. I think it's important that you meet her because hopefully she can help you... heal."

"Okay, Grandpa." the little boy said as he slowly walked out of the room.

"Wow." That was the first word that came out of Jake's mouth as Seven of Nine walked through the front door of his father's house. She had to have been the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. "Can I have you... help you?" he asked as the girl raised a curious eyebrow towards him.

"Jake!" Ben barked out snapping the boy out of his pre-adolescent musings.

He was young once too and knew what he must have been thinking. Especially since Seven had on a silver skin tight catsuit, that didn't leave much to the imagination, even for a teenage girl. He had asked the doctor's why she had to wear it and they told him, it was just in case her nanoprobes reactivated and started to sprout out on her body, then it would be easier for him to see and call for help. Whatever... he still didn't like it.

"Dad when did you get here?" Jake asked, trying not to hard to snap out of his stupor.

"I got here the same time she did." Ben replied with a roll of his eyes. "Jake this is Seven of Nine. Seven this is my son Jake." he properly introduced.

"How did you get a name with numbers?" Jake asked her dumbly.

"Jake!" Ben said letting out a sigh.

"It is... all right." Seven said with a slight grin, never taking her eyes off of Jake. "He did not offend me."

'Her voice is beautiful too.' the little boy thought to himself, completely ignoring the Borg implants on her face and hand. His mind was in complete childlike bliss as he stared at Seven's pouty heart shaped lips.

"Seven come with me, I'll show you to your room and help you build your regeneration chamber." Ben said as he walked past her.

"She's staying with us?" Jake asked as he couldn't take it anymore and fainted.

Looking down at his son incredulously, Ben looked to Seven and saw that she was looking back at him as if saying, "What did I do?" Glancing back down at his son, he saw that he had drool coming from the corner of his mouth, while mumbling Seven is beautiful in his state of unconsciousness.

'Wait until he finds out that she's legally his sister.' Ben thought to himself as he shook his head, darkly. It took some doing but Ben was able to talk to Admiral Ross and he'd been able to adopt Seven relatively quickly.

"What happened to him?" Joseph asked as he walked into the room and moved to pick Jake up off of the floor.

"I"ll tell you later." he said looking at his father. "But when he wakes up tell him what's going on."

It didn't take Ben as long as he thought to help Seven fashion the regeneration alcove in her room. He had wanted to talk to her and get to know her better as they worked, but she seemed very dismissive with everything she told him.

Then it hit him, she wasn't necessarily not talking to him, because she hated him, but rather what was there for her to talk about? Her childhood was robbed from her and she knew nothing of the outside world. It was only what she assimilated. She had nothing of her own to hold onto.

He wanted to bring up the subject of her parents again, but he knew that the subject matter would make them go backwards in their relationship. If that's what you could call this.

'At least she's not trying to assimilate all of us.' he thought loosely to himself.

"Hey you two, dinner is almost ready." Joseph said as he poked his head into the room. "Hmmm. I see you almost got that damned thing ready."

"Dad..."

"I just can't see what's wrong with catching a few z's on a nice soft bed." Joseph went on, his hate of technology prevalent in his voice. "A pretty girl should have a nice bed to sleep in, not a coffin."

"The bed would be more of a coffin for me." Seven interrupted. "Because, I'd catch... Z's forever if I slept in one for more then a few days without regenerating."

"Fair enough." Joseph said with a chuckle as he walked out of the room.

"Why do you sit down at a table?" Seven asked as Joseph and Ben put down plates and platters of food in front of them.

"Because this is where, family's go to be social." Ben informed her as he placed some gumbo in a bowl and put it in front of her. "You know we talk about our day, eat, share stories. That sort of thing."

Seven eyed the family of three with curiosity as they passed down cornbread and gumbo along the table. She found it so strange to be with an actual family instead of with the Borg. A stray memory of her eating with her parents tried to break through the surface of her mind. Shaking her head she looked around the table again to finish her assessment.

In her family... in her Collective Joseph Sisko would be immediately discarded, because he was too old. But here he was eating with his family and giving them advice about life. He was useful and not easily discarded like others she had seen in the Borg that had reached his age.

Then there was Benjamin Sisko. He was a strong man, intelligent, and hard working. He would make an excellent drone. But those qualities would also make a good father. Shaking her head at that thought, she looked to the youngest member of the group, Jake.

She didn't even try to assess him at all, rather she just stared at him for a long moment. He looked so sad and on the verge of tears. She also noticed that he didn't touch his food at all. He had a look on his face that even in a million years, she wouldn't be able to describe.

"May I be excused?" he suddenly asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"But Jake you haven't touched your food." Ben said, putting down the slice of cornbread he had in his hand.

"I'm just not hungry." he replied, his voice barely a whisper.

"You... you're excused." and as Ben barely got that out of his mouth, Jake hopped out of his seat and went out the front door, slamming it behind him.

"He's taking his mother's death really hard." Joseph mumbled more to himself, then anybody else as he looked at Jake sitting down skipping rocks across the pond. "Hopefully he can snap out of this funk soon."

"May I be excused as well?" Seven asked, already standing to her feet.

"Of course." Joseph said in surprise as he looked at her bowl. "Didn't you like my gumbo?"

"As Doctor Crusher stated, my metabolism won't reassert itself for another few weeks." merely saying that she walked out of the front door as well.

As she walked outside, she saw Jake sitting on a large rock, throwing smaller ones into the pond. She had to admit that he made for an easy target. All she had to do was stick her assimilation tubes into his neck and turn him. Then go back into the house and do the same to his father.

'And then what?' her conscience spoke up. 'Even if you could do that there's no way you would get off earth with this many people knowing who and where you are.'

Besides she had no desire to harm Jake. For some reason she felt strangely attached to him. 'It's because he lost his mother too.' that voice in her head spoke again.

"Seven." Jake said, already knowing she was there.

Eyebrow going up slightly, she wondered how he knew she was behind him.

"Why do the borg hate us?"

"The borg do not hate." Seven said proudly as she walked up and stood beside him. "We assimilate other races in order to be perfect."

"Oh." was all Jake said as he skipped another rock. Sitting down beside him, she watched as he picked up another rock and the two sat in an uncomfortable silence.

A silence that was broken by another question.

"Where do you go when you die?" he suddenly asked, catching her off guard.

Seven had wanted to tell the little boy nowhere, but something in her told her to give him another answer. "I... I don't know."

"If you don't know then why did you take my mom away from me!?" he asked angrily as he looked up at her. Not being able to hold it in he broke down into tears, his body racking with sobs. "I'm sorry... I'm sor..."

As he said that he suddenly threw his little arms around her waist and engulfed her in a tight hug. Totally caught off guard and not knowing why she was feeling protective of the boy, she hugged him back.

Lowering his phaser rifle, from the top story window ledge of his house, Ben took the controls off of the kill setting and put it back on stun. Putting it down all together he breathed a sigh of relief. He automatically thought that Seven would try to hurt Jake, so he grabbed his rifle and headed upstairs, waiting for the moment of maybe having to pull the trigger.

'But here they are hugging.' he thought to himself. 'Maybe they are all the other needed.'

Wiping the bead of sweat off of his forehead, he stood up and walked back downstairs. As he walked into the kitchen, he saw that his father was eyeing him warily.

"It was a false alarm." Ben said sitting back down.

"I know it was." he replied as he turned back to the window. "Ben no matter what she looks like or how she acts, she's still a frightened little girl. A frightened little girl that needs a father and honestly I can't think of a better man for the job."

Ignoring the urge to sigh, Ben leaned back in his chair and looked out of the window to see Jake teaching Seven to skip rocks.

"You have to cut Seven a little slack. She's a Sisko now and she needs you to trust her so she can start trusting you."

'Because I'm her guide.' he thought to himself.

"I'm going to go home." Joseph said standing to his feet with a grunt. He hated feeling so old. "I'll be back to check on you three in a few days."

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