August 2380

B'Elanna's PADD was beeping incessantly, informing her that her hover car had arrived. She now had five minutes to get out the door or the stupid thing would drive off, considering her to be a no show. And if the car drove off, then she'd have to order another, which would take five or ten minutes to arrive, ensuring that she'd be late for the first day of class.

Trying to focus, B'Elanna went through her mental checklist: she had her personal PADD, her larger one for taking notes in class, the revisions for her journal article… that's everything, right?

Her PADD buzzed again. Three minutes to get outside. B'Elanna rushed out of her office and past Tom and Miral, who were at the kitchen table. Tom had a steaming cup of coffee in front of him (of which B'Elanna was envious, but reminded herself she could grab something at the train station) and Miral was enjoying oatmeal and fruit. As usual, it looked as though her daughter was wearing more of her food than she was eating.

"I have to run," B'Elanna said, giving Tom a quick kiss as he rose to head over to the kitchen. B'Elanna then gave Miral a kiss on the top of the head. "Bye, honey. Love you."

"Bye, bye. Love you." Miral replied, her mouth full of food. B'Elanna couldn't help but smile. She was constantly amazed at how she never tired of hearing Miral say that.

"B'Elanna, if you wait—" Tom began, but B'Elanna cut him off.

"I really can't. I'm late already. See you tonight." With that, B'Elanna hurried out the door and to the waiting car. B'Elanna ran through her mental checklist again, feeling her bag to make sure she had each item. PADD, PADD, revisions… shit. Running clothes. She and Amara had been running together at lunch every day over the summer, and she'd set her clothes next to her bag last night… and then completely forgot to put them in the bag. B'Elanna opened the car's door, and hit the 'hold' button, guaranteeing her five more minutes before it drove off. And then she ran back inside the house.

Rushing back to her office, she heard Miral cry out, "Mama!" and Tom say, "Well, that was a short day," but she ignored them both. Back in her office, she stuffed her running clothes in her bag and then quickly made her way back through the house (pausing only to give Miral another kiss), out the door, and was halfway to the car when she heard Tom's voice calling her. She turned, and he was standing there, holding a bag and her jacket.

"I have food and coffee for you," Tom said and he walked towards her.

B'Elanna took the sack, but looked skeptically at the jacket. "Tom, it's August, it's sunny, and I'm already wearing a sweater."

"Humor me," he replied, forcing the jacket into her hand.

B'Elanna sighed and took it, not having time to argue the point. Just as she was turning to head back to the car, Tom grabbed her by the waist, and kissed her. This kiss was oddly passionate for the situation, and B'Elanna could taste the coffee he'd been drinking, mingling with a flavor that told her he had yet to brush his teeth. When they broke, B'Elanna could see in Tom's eyes that her going to school and him taking care of Miral all day was not his first choice of activities. B'Elanna began to mentally calculate exactly how long it had been since they'd had time for that… two weeks? No wonder he had that gleam in his eye. Maybe tonight, after Miral was asleep, she would throw him on their bed and they'd spend some quality time together.

Although, recently, Tom's busy schedule had been the main cause of their not engaging in more amorous activities. Over the summer, B'Elanna had only been working in the lab, and thus was always home for dinner and was relatively free on the weekends. But Tom… his schedule was jam packed. He'd taken advantage of B'Elanna being at home more regularly to join a hoverball team, which took him away two nights a week and for a couple hours on the weekend. Plus, he was busy writing new episodes of Captain Proton, spurred on by a visit from Harry in July.

"So, tell me, how are things going on the Biko?" B'Elanna had asked Harry as they settled into the living room of Tom and B'Elanna's new house.

"Great," Harry replied enthusiastically. "If I were in uniform, I'm sure you'd compliment me on my new, gold, pip."

"Full lieutenant?!" B'Elanna was sure her mouth was hanging open. Harry had of course been promoted to lieutenant j.g. upon their return… but another promotion?

Harry was still staring at her, waiting for her reaction. She quickly shook off her shock. "Well, congratulations! That's great. When did this happen? Why didn't you tell us?"

"It was just a few days ago, so I figured I'd wait to tell you in person. So, how are things at school?"

B'Elanna smiled. "Actually, really good. Last semester's courses were a little rough, but I made a breakthrough on my research a couple months ago. I should be able to do a journal publication this fall. Plus, now that it's summer, I get to spend all day in the lab, which I really do enjoy."

"That's great," Harry said, looking genuinely happy for her. "I'm actually really glad to hear it, because you didn't seem too happy last time we talked. So, tell me about this breakthrough."

B'Elanna was about halfway through telling Harry about her work when Tom came back into the living room, laden with appetizers and drinks.

"Tom, did you know our Harry is now a full lieutenant?" B'Elanna asked as her husband sat beside her on the couch.

Tom lifted his eyebrows. "Good thing we're out of the 'Fleet, or else we'd have to call him 'sir' now."

Harry laughed, as did B'Elanna, although she thought she'd detected a hint of dark humor in Tom's joke.

Taking a sip of wine, Harry turned his attention to Tom. "So, Tom, what have you been up to since we last talked? You know, other than changing diapers."

"Actually, Miral is potty trained," Tom replied, looking proud. Miral was one of the youngest in her play group to get the hang of it, so Tom had bragging rights. Privately, B'Elanna was pretty sure Miral's ability to control her bladder at such a young age had a lot to do with her Klingon genetics. But she wasn't going to say that to Tom. "But I'm sure you don't want to hear about that." Tom continued, grabbing a slice of sopressata and wrapping it around a chunk of manchego. "What have you been up to lately?"

"Other than my promotion, I found a new holodeck program I thought you might like." Harry leaned over to grab a cracker. "But I still haven't found anything as good as Captain Proton. Have you written any new chapters lately? I'd think you'd have some time on your hands these days."

B'Elanna winced when Harry said that. She was about to jump down his throat about how hard it is to take care of a child, but Tom spoke before she could react. "No, I haven't worked on anything new lately. Why? You looking for a date?"

B'Elanna instinctively slapped Tom on the leg (which he ignored).

"Actually, I've been seeing someone new. And don't start in about how she's a terrorist, or from a xenophobic species…"

"You know, that girl from the xenophobic species was a terrorist as well. What is it with you and terrorists?"

B'Elanna rolled her eyes. "Tell us about her. How long have you been seeing each other?"

"A couple months, actually."

Longer than most of Harry's relationships. It was probably just about time for the other shoe to drop. "Is it going well?" she asked.

Harry made an uncertain noise. "I don't know. I really like Maja, but I think we may want different things. She's mentioned a couple times about how she might like to be stationed planet side. I don't know if I could do that."

"What do you mean?" Tom asked.

Harry looked at her husband and shrugged. "I don't know… wife, kids, a regular nine to five… I just don't know if could live a life with so little excitement." Suddenly, Harry's face blanched, as though he'd just comprehended what he had said. "I mean, not that you guys-"

Tom had held up a hand. "It's okay. We know we're old and boring." He took another sip of his beer before continuing. "But getting back to Proton, I have had some ideas for new chapters floating around in the back of my head..."

Tom's firm squeeze of her ass brought her back to the present. "Love you. Knock 'em dead today,"

B'Elanna's PADD started buzzing at her about the car again, prompting her to start moving back towards the car. "Thanks. Love you too." As she climbed into the car, she looked over her shoulder and said, "And let's spend some 'quality time' alone tonight."

A grin broke out across Tom's face. "I look forward to it."

The ride in the car was short. It was only a few kilometers from their new house on the edge of the Oakland hills to the nearest Trans Francisco station. Once she was settled on the train, B'Elanna started to rummage through the bag of food Tom had given her: a thermos of coffee and several small containers. B'Elanna took a sip of the coffee, enjoying its rich flavor. Setting the cup aside, B'Elanna started to go through the rest of the items in the bag.

After all the chaos of finding a new place and moving all their shit had been accomplished, Tom had started in on the garden of their new house. He'd lamented that they had moved in too late in the season for him to plant tomatoes, but he did get a range of other vegetables into the fertile ground. But this lack of tomatoes had set him off on a mission, which landed him at a farmers market.

And yet another obsession was born.

Tom would bring home all kinds of things, and then experiment with how to cook them. For a man who hated Neelix's experimental cooking so much, B'Elanna couldn't help to laugh at the fact that dinner time in her house now bore an eerie resemblance to dinner time in the Delta Quadrant.

B'Elanna pulled out one container that was still warm. Opening it, she saw it contained oatmeal and fruit, the same breakfast that Miral had been eating. Smiling, she located the spoon and dug in. While carrying all this extra food Tom was producing to school was a pain in the ass, at least it tasted good.

As she was finishing her breakfast, the train pulled into the Academy station in Sausalito. B'Elanna quickly threw her containers back into the bag and hustled out of the train. She had exactly ten minutes to make it to her class. She hurried through the station, dodging people who seemed to have nothing better to do than stand directly in her way. Finally, she was near the exit, and the wide streets that would allow her to pick up the pace.

But when she exited the station, she was greeted by a gust of bone chilling fog. B'Elanna shivered. But it had been so warm in Oakland…

She paused for a moment, pulling out the jacket that Tom had forced her to bring along. Somehow he'd known. Either he'd had the foresight to check the weather or his childhood in Marin had made him realize it would be dreadful still on this summer morning. As she slipped on her coat, she thought about how Tom, in the two years since they'd been back on Earth, had been focusing all his attention on her, making sure she got through school and was successful.

Maybe it was time to start focusing on him.