Harry fidgeted outside the blast doors of Shuttlebay One, waiting for the computer to tell them the bay was secure and it was safe to go inside to check on his friends. They'd had to tractor the Flyer back onto Voyager — even the shuttle's thrusters had been damaged in the blast — which wasn't a speedy process.
"Take it easy, Ensign," Chakotay said, a small smile on his face. "I'm sure they would have said something if either of them were seriously injured."
"Right," Harry said, nodding. He still bolted into the shuttlebay the moment he was able to open the doors. He heard them before he saw them. Tom's light tenor was too low for him to make out the words, but whatever it was he said, it made B'Elanna giggle.
B'Elanna was giggling.
Harry started to cross over to the hatch side of the Flyer, but Tom and B'Elanna emerged before he got there. Both upright, both a little singed, but clearly intact. And both with broad grins across their faces.
"Harry! Chakotay!" Tom called, his arm tight around B'Elanna's waist. "Congratulate us!"
"On what?" Harry said, scanning them both for injuries. "You didn't even finish the race."
"On our marriage, Starfleet," B'Elanna said.
Chakotay recovered first. "On your what?"
"Marriage!" Tom confirmed, he looked down at B'Elanna and gave her a tender smile. "We took the tIhogh 'Ip."
Harry frowned. "Did you two run low on oxygen? What the hell are you talking about? Tah hawk what?"
B'Elanna rolled her eyes, but the smile never left her face. "tlhogh 'Ip," she repeated, enunciating each syllable. "The oath of marriage."
"When?" Harry demanded. "How? Don't you need a priest or something? And pain sticks and bat'leths and blood wine?"
"Not necessarily," B'Elanna said, her brown eyes now locked with Tom's blue ones. "That's one option, but there's also a less formal way. One that many warriors instituted the night before, or after, a battle. One that's a bit more private."
Tom grinned back at her. "Marriage by mutual consent. No fuss, no muss. No more muss than you want, anyway." He reached out and tucked a lock of B'Elanna's hair behind her ear with one hand, while the other slipped lower on her waist.
Chakotay cleared his throat. Loudly.
Tom jerked his head up to look at the other two men. "Right. Anyway, we're as married as we need to be, but we thought we'd ask the captain to make it Federation official."
Chakotay smiled, the dimples appearing. "I'm sure she'd be happy to. When would you—"
"Now," B'Elanna said.
"Now?" Chakotay and Harry said in unison.
"No time like the present!" Tom said, and he gave B'Elanna's hand a squeeze.
Not fifteen minutes later, the four of them were gathered in the captain's ready room: Tom and B'Elanna still in their flight suits, Chakotay and Janeway exchanging bemused but happy glances, and Harry, standing just apart from the rest.
"Did you get the rings?" Tom said to him, breaking free from B'Elanna.
"Right here," Harry said with a tight smile, dropping the two circles of gold into Tom's open palm. "Made to your specifications."
"Thanks, Har. You're the best," Tom said with a grin and quick squeeze of Harry's shoulder. He moved back to B'Elanna, handing her the larger of the two rings.
It was a short ceremony, Federation standard, and almost entirely read off a PADD. "I might have prepared something a bit more personal," Janeway said with a mock glare, "if I'd been given more than five minutes' notice."
Chakotay shared a favorite love poem of his by e.e. cummings and the captain looked to Harry. "What about you, Ensign Kim? Anything to say in support of this union?"
Harry looked at B'Elanna and Tom as they watched him, expectantly. He blinked a few times, but didn't speak.
"What's the matter, Har?" Tom said, smiling. "Not planning on objecting, are you? Going to declare your long-standing secret crush on the bride?"
"No," Harry said, with a small laugh. "Nothing like that. I… I'm very… uh… " He shifted his feet from side to side. "Inarticulate at the moment. So I'll just say," Harry moved to stand in between and just behind his two friends, clasping his hands on both their shoulders, "I couldn't be happier for the two of you."
"Well, then, Lieutenant Paris," the captain said, "I think it's time you kissed the bride."
Several seconds later, as Harry chewed on his lower lip and Chakotay stared at his shoes, quietly laughing, Janeway cleared her throat. "Just kissing, you two. This is my office, you know."
"Sorry, Captain," Tom and B'Elanna both murmured as they broke apart with matching intimate smiles.
"I think this calls for a celebration," Janeway declared. "I'll let Neelix know he should start replicating the champagne."
Before she could hit her comm badge, Tom put a hand on her forearm. "Actually, Captain. B'Elanna and I were wondering if we could have a few days to ourselves."
She smiled at them. "Of course. Let me look at the holodeck schedule, and I can—"
"Captain?" Harry interjected. "I have another idea. Do you mind?"
Janeway waved an arm at him. "Not at all, Harry. But keep in mind," she said, turning her attention back to Tom and B'Elanna. "I won't be able to put Neelix off forever. This party is happening eventually."
The newlyweds nodded and smiled at the captain. Tom turned to Harry, a puzzled grin on his face. "We are going to like this, right?"
"Absolutely," Harry said. "Just give me an hour."
B'Elanna licked her lips and looked up at her husband. "Now how will we possibly keep ourselves occupied for an hour?"
"I'm serious," Janeway said, pointing a scolding finger at them. "Go to your quarters. Anyone's quarters."
One hour and twenty minutes later, Harry met Tom and B'Elanna, freshly showered and their faces flushed, back at Shuttlebay One. "Great idea, Harry," Tom said, clapping him firmly on the back. "We can't thank you enough."
Harry stepped back behind the console that controlled the bay doors. He focused on the touchpad at his fingers, not looking up as the shuttle he'd painstakingly repaired by himself lifted off the decking and performed a neat about-face. Not until the readouts showed they'd cleared Voyager's hull did he raise his eyes towards the open doors, only a force field separating him from the cold vacuum of space. He stood there a long while, watching the Flyer as it whisked his two best friends away on their journey, not leaving until it was no more than another spot of light in the black.
The End
a/n: Thanks so much for everyone that read and reviewed! My next series of stories are all P/T, all the time, I swear...
