B'Elanna bore down on his wrists.

Being pinned beneath her, Tom tried to push her off but his condition had deteriorated to the point where he didn't have the strength to counter her.

"Don't sever our link." She squeezed him harder, hoping to convey to him that it was very important that he not act out of fear. "Promise me." She leaned in and kissed him to show that she wasn't trying to hurt him.

It backfired. He reacted wildly, thrusting his hips against her thigh. He didn't have the ability to stop himself. The wave of fear from him was unlike anything she had ever felt.

He let out a cry of frustration.

She tried hard to ignore what he was doing, willing him to focus on her voice. "Whatever this link can do to me has been done already," she said emphatically. "Promise me."

I promise. He desperately tried to slow his movements, remembering his lack of control when they tried to end the Pon Farr earlier. She could sense his guilt.

She let go of his wrists.

He raised his hand to the side of his face, but B'Elanna quickly slapped it away without thinking. "Do you want to be transported back to sickbay?"

Tom just looked at her, unable to say anything and slightly stunned at what she had done.

"I'm sorry." B'Elanna got the sense that he needed a minute to adjust. "Just... please…" She put a comforting hand on the side of his face. He flinched for a moment, but didn't fight her. He wanted her to comfort him. He reached up and held onto her hand. "Trust me," she said gently.

He didn't seem to have much coherent thought that she could pick up, just raw emotion; bits and pieces of things that scared him at the moment. His body felt alien to him, and... He didn't know if he had made a costly mistake earlier.

"I never told you to stop," she said.

It didn't matter. He didn't know if he would've stopped if she told him. That's what terrified him the most and caused her to doubt. She held on to the idea that no matter what he did, the Pon Farr was to blame, not him.

But then, something began to gnaw at her. From the back of her mind, B'Elanna unintentionally remembered her conversation with the Captain. About the alien that called himself Steth. She tried to dismiss the thought as quickly as it came, but she sensed another wave of guilt from Tom. A quick memory of his flashed through her mind; of Captain Janeway's voice saying, Give B'Elanna my regards... a little snicker.

What did he...? Tom looked up at her, trying hard to concentrate on their mental link instead of what was happening to him physically. She could see the strain in his face as he pushed himself up on his elbows so he could be at her level.

The memories began to resurface; Tom was intentionally drawing them from her, into the open: the feeling of being touched by familiar, yet alien, hands; of being undressed; of knowing something was wrong but not being able to identify it…

B'Elanna felt a surge of primal jealousy from Tom. His expression twisted into one of pure anger. How far did he...?

She tried to keep it from him, but he pulled the memory to the front of her mind. She remembered hands that felt like his, slamming her against the bed, holding her wrists down. She could hear her own voice telling him to stop…

She remembered Tom's face above her; the contorted, perverse look as he pried her legs apart; how fast he penetrated her; of him ignoring her cry of pain… Of how quickly it was over without even the slightest consideration that he had stuck his dick in another living person. How did I not realize that it wasn't Tom that…

...raped you!

With that simple, furious thought from him, she had lost the capacity to be the voice of reason. She never dared to think of what happened in those terms. She had always blamed herself for being seduced by a stranger who said things to her that she so desperately needed to hear. She thought it was him because he had said some things to her that made her want to believe it was.

Feeling sick, she leaped off the bed and stumbled into the bathroom. It was stupid. When she needed to be alone, there was no way in hell that she could be. She could still sense his raw anger and his shame because he didn't have the ability to restrain himself sexually. It was more than she could handle.

B'Elanna choked back the first sob. All she needed was to just clean herself off and start over. She quickly stripped down to nothing and turned on the shower.

When she heard the door whoosh open, she spun around so her back was facing him. She could feel his heavy breathing on the bare skin of her neck. Her body felt hot. It was like the temperature in their quarters had been raised without her knowing.

"B'Elanna." It took him so much effort to say her name.

She felt his hand on her shoulder. Gently, he nudged her around to face him.

She looked up into his tear-streaked face, seeing the strain in his features, feeling his frustration of not being able to talk or think straight. His eyes dilated further when he got a good look at her.

You're shaking.

B'Elanna looked down at her hands, alarmed and confused. She didn't know if it was her own emotional reaction or if it was the neurogenic link affecting her.

Tom didn't know either, but seemed sickened by his own carelessness. She was displaying symptoms of Pon Farr but it was hard for him to tell for sure without a tricorder. He never wanted this to happen. He didn't know if he could ever forgive himself for doing this to her.

But there was more to it than just that. Tom was keeping something from her. So just like he had done to her, she searched his mind and pulled the truth to the surface. He didn't want her to act…

Klingon.

xxx

The Doctor frowned and snapped off his tricorder. "Ensign, is there always seven years between Pon Farr cycles?"

"Give or take. Why?" Vorik pushed himself off the main biobed. When he arrived in sickbay, the Doctor had put him through a series of quick tests and, with his permission, cross-referenced his cortical scans with Lieutenant-Commander Tuvok's from over the past two years.

"If I'm not mistaken, you may have only another year left to find a suitable mate," the Doctor said.

"Five years between cycles is unlikely, Doctor. You have to be mistaken."

"I'm afraid not. Do you want to go over my data yourself? It might explain how you've been acting."

Vorik closed his eyes and summoned patience. Having tampered with things he shouldn't have been tampering with and being relieved of duty, he needed a logical explanation for his behavior. Even though he didn't like it, he had to yield to the fact that the Doctor's diagnosis fit.

His instincts were beginning to take hold and, much to his shame, he had to admit that he still wanted B'Elanna Torres.

Who wouldn't? She was beautiful, and smart, and…

She was married to Tom Paris.

It was time for him to think about what Commander Chakotay and that meddlesome Talaxian had tried to get him to admit…

Did he want Tom Paris dead?

He didn't know the answer to that question since he didn't know the Lieutenant well enough to come up with an unbiased answer. Certainly, Neelix was right, he wanted him out of the picture, but he didn't want to commit murder. Lieutenant Paris never did anything to warrant death. In fact, what he did to help Commander Tuvok had showed him just the opposite. Tom Paris was worthy of life and worthy of B'Elanna.

He began to understand why Neelix was so quick to judge him. He did some things that made him truly question his ability to think logically. He didn't premeditate anything. Chakotay was right about him. He was taking opportunities as he saw them without thinking them through.

He had to tell someone everything he did before it was too late.

"Ensign, I believe I have found an explanation for why you're displaying pre-Pon Farr symptoms." The Doctor glanced up from his console where he was going over his data.

"Doctor, can we talk about this later? There is something that I need to tell you."

xxx

At that moment, B'Elanna felt like her entire world had been ripped from her, exposed, and destroyed. She wanted to let the Pon Farr kill her. She shoved Tom away.

Then, from deep within she could feel... rage. Forcing its way to the surface and right into her fist. Without any further thought, she drew her arm back and swung. Her knuckles impacted with Tom's jaw.

Tom stumbled back, hitting his arm hard on the wall to the shower. He landed haphazardly, halfway on the shower floor. He wiped the blood off his lip with his sleeve, stunned. Water soaked his sickbay clothes.

B'Elanna looked down at her hands. Still shaking, she couldn't stop the panic that was eating away at her, or the tears that were pouring out of her eyes. She had to stop what was happening. The neural link wasn't going to help them, it was going to kill them. She reached towards her temple…

"B'Elanna, No!" Tom didn't even give her a moment to realize what he was doing. He stumbled to his feet and grabbed her by her wrists. He twisted her around and pushed her backwards into the shower, against the tiled wall. He pinned her wrists above her head. "You made me promise…" His intention was clear: it was her turn.

"Let go," B'Elanna's voice filled with panic. She tried to yank herself free, and realizing she couldn't, she squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to stop the crying.

Tom was so close she could feel her body reacting to him. Her flesh filled with goose-bumps and her nipples were already hard. Between her legs, she was sopping wet.

She felt filthy.

A split second later, B'Elanna felt her wrists being pulled off the wall. Her eyes flew open and Tom spun her into a hold. Her breathing sounded like his and she couldn't deny what was happening to her. Somehow that forty-seven percent chance had turned into a hundred percent guarantee.

Then, she felt the warm spray of the shower over her skin. It felt calming to her. Tom intended to hold her there until she felt clean.

His breath on the back of her neck and the warmth of his feverish body holding hers caused a low, very Klingon growl to erupt from deep within. She was ashamed of the sound she instinctively made, but she couldn't stop it. Angry at herself, she tried to break free again, but it only made Tom hold her tighter. She could feel pain on her arm where his hand restrained her from moving.

When he was certain she would stop fighting, he risked removing one hand to pull the sickbay pajamas off his hips and down to his knees. His naked skin pressed into her rear end.

With his free hand, he caressed her from just above her knee, up her thigh.

He grabbed her leg with one sudden movement and lifted it off the floor. She stumbled and cried out. He caught her and kept her safe from falling by pressing her against the shower wall. There, Tom had perfect access for what he was about to do.

She drew in her breath, stopped moving, and braced herself…