It was Harry who suggested we reconvene to the holodeck. He had some of Tom's programs from our Voyager days on file that he thought Elliot might like to check out. This is how I found myself taking a seat in Sandrine's bar some ten years since Tom had created the program. It certainly brought back memories of our early days on Voyager. Tom and I had not exactly been friends then despite him having rescued me on the Ocampan homeworld. To tell the truth, I wished he wasn't on board and did all I could to ignore him. Tom and Harry, however, had formed a fast friendship right from the start, I remember clearly. Here we were now, a decade later, in a not dissimilar circumstance. I couldn't pretend to like Elliot and yet Harry seemed almost eager to befriend him. As much as Elliot Lloyd reminded me of Tom Paris, I wondered if he was equally deserving of my friendship or Harry's. We would find out sooner or later.

"Tom programmed all this?" Elliot glanced around the room.

"From memory," Harry confirmed. "A place he knew back on Earth."

"Impressive," Elliot raised his eyebrows – and then his glass. We watched as he downed the whole pint of beer, before setting the now empty glass back on the table. "Okay," he put his feet up on the chair opposite. "I'm ready to begin." Harry leaned in eager to hear the story. I was no less eager, but I tried not to show it. I wanted to discern everything I could from Elliot's body language to gauge whether he was telling the straight truth. He began:

"As you both know, Tom and I met when he was working in the 'Fleet's Rescue Squad, down in Turellia. You know, there's something about life or death situations - when you're forced to rely on the people around you - that really gets to the heart of things. And let me tell you there were plenty of those. You either want to forget it happened and hope you never meet again, or else you're friends for life. Know what I mean?"

Harry and I nodded. We understood because it had been that way on Voyager. We had become a family.

Elliot continued. "After Tom quit, we stayed in contact. Whenever I was passing through Jupiter Station I'd drop in. Tom and I would go out, get drunk, have some fun – or try to." He shook his head. "Tom just didn't seem himself since he quit the squad. I thought it was his wife. He told me how she was pushing him to get another 'fleet position even though Tom said he didn't feel ready. I offered him some work myself, thinking that we could go into business together, but he turned it down. He didn't give a reason. Again - I blamed his wife."

"Why?" I asked bluntly. "Why blame B'Elanna?"

Elliot's eyes darted to mine, sensing the unfriendly tone of my voice. He bought himself time by taking out a pack of cigarettes he must have swiped from the bar, and lighting up. "We didn't click, B'Elanna and I," he admitted, blowing smoke out the side of his mouth. "You could say we got off to a bad start… and things only went downhill from there." He grinned wryly. "I guess I didn't compare favourably to Harry here, as her husband's best friend. She thought I was a bad influence." He shook his head ruefully then leaned in and began tapping ash into the ashtray in a very distracting fashion. Impulsively I reached for his cigarette, but he pulled away. "Hey! What's your problem? It's only holographic."

"It's annoying me."

"Do you wanna hear my story or not?"

"Just get on with it. Why didn't B'Elanna like you?"

"First time I met her, Tom and I had just got back to his apartment. We were both drunk, Tom more than me, since I'd been topping up his glass, trying to get him to spill the beans. His wife came to the door carrying Miral. You know Tom's daughter looks so much like him. Gorgeous little princess – blonde, blue-eyed and perfect, forehead ridges and all. Her face lit up when she saw him. Tom went to kiss his daughter but B'Elanna pulled away. She was furious. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. Tom had stood her up for dinner and she was not impressed to find him drunk. "It's my fault," I told her, trying to explain, as she tried to shut the door on me. "I'm Elliot," I introduced myself. "Tom hasn't mentioned me?"

She paused. "He talks about an Elliot who is loyal and brave." She shook her head. "But you are not that man."

"I'm not?"

"No. You're a loser and a drunk."

I laughed. "I don't deny it."

She wasn't amused. She straightened herself haughtily, looking me defiantly in the eyes. We were equal in height. "Also, I imagined Elliot would be taller than you."

In retrospect I should've let her have the last word, but I couldn't help myself. "Size isn't everything," I sneered provocatively. She let the door slide shut in my face. They say first impressions last and this one certainly has. I knew I'd blown it. There was no changing her mind after that. She'd decided I was a bad influence and she wanted me out of the picture."

"I wonder why?" I said flatly.

Harry was incredulous. "I can't believe you said that to B'Elanna! That's asking for trouble. You do realise she's half Klingon!"

"I can see I'm not getting either of you on my side," Elliot observed. He took his boots off the chair. "Look, I know I'm no great role model, but come on! She was overreacting. I'm not saying I was a good influence. I'm saying I had no influence!" Elliot defended. "He knows what my life is like enough not to envy me. Sure, I have my freedom (most of the time), but… he has a loyal wife and an angel of a daughter – he has a family! - or had." Elliot heaved a melancholy sigh. "The way he felt about them – I could never top that. Why would I want to try? I was his friend. I wanted the best for him. But I can't see into the future. I didn't know half of what was going on between Tom and his wife."

"Go on," I pressed him.

Elliot gestured for another beer, which aggravated me. It was not until it was in his hand that he leaned forward and resumed talking. "She came aboard my ship when I was doing some repair work…"

"B'Elanna?"

"Yeah, who else?" He said in an angry tone, his voice rising. "She came aboard uninvited, now that's asking for trouble! She was lucky I didn't throw her down the gangway. And then she had the nerve to demand that I stay the hell away from Tom! At that time I had hardly caught up with him in months. Mostly I was working, flying in and out of Turellia. But B'Elanna seemed to think all Tom did all day was hang out with me! Turns out he may have used me as an alibi for some missed job interviews, but I didn't know that then, and I was fed up with her attitude. "How are you going to stop me?" I laughed when she clenched her fists. She was always acting like I was the animal, like I was the uncivilised one. "Are you going to fight me?"

"I'll do whatever I have to," she swore. "I want you out of our life."

"You're that sure I'm the problem?" I hated her bias against me. I wish I'd had the sense to realise there was more to it than that.

"Tom and I were doing just fine before you came along!"

"The way I see it, Tom was fine until he quit the squad to be with you," I retorted, walking toward her.

"Are you implying I'm the one ruining his life? I love him!"

"Like fuck you do!" I threw my tools across the floor. "That's why you choose his friends for him? That's why you're threatening me? You better watch it love, you're on my turf here. My ship, my rules. And you know what I think missus? You're jealous of me!"

"That's insane!"

"Is it?" I grabbed her in an armlock and held her against the wall. She wasn't expecting that. Lucky I was quick, I wasn't expecting her to be so strong, but I managed to hold her. "Let me make something crystal clear to you darling. You don't want me around? You better do the leaving. Cos I sure as hell don't plan to tiptoe my way around the galaxy just so as not to tread on your pretty little toes." She struggled and I let her go with a shove.

"Fine. Just tell me the last place in the galaxy you'd go, and I swear that's where I'll move my family!"

"Careful what you swear to, love," I cautioned. "Dartesia's not exactly a family-friendly place." I was serious. My surprise at her strength had placated my anger somewhat and I felt a sudden well of admiration at her fiery nature, her determination to protect her family, and also for Tom for having caught such a fine woman.

She turned her back on me and left. That was the last time I saw B'Elanna."

We sat in silence as Harry and I took in Elliot's story.

"Is that where B'Elanna is?" Harry gaped. "Dartesia?"

I nodded.

"You're sure?"

"I went there. I saw her."

"Is she okay? Is Miral okay?"

I nodded. "It's all right. They're fine."

"Fucking hell!" Elliot exploded. "They're not fine! They're trapped there. Do you know how hard it is to get out of that place once you've accepted an assignment? You think I didn't have reason to name Dartesia as the last place in the galaxy I'd go?"

"B'Elanna's contract finishes in a month," I reminded him. "And I sent her Tom's letter. She'll read it, finish up her contract and leave."

"That letter won't make it past the border," Elliot shook his head, "and her contract won't end until she finishes the job, until she rebuilds that transport station. Trouble is, Dartesian officials don't want that station completed. They employ the engineers, but it's all pretence. Security restrictions ensure that it's virtually impossible to import the necessary parts. She's stuck there until the political situation is resolved – God knows how long that'll be!"

I wondered if he was right. I knew I was being optimistic.

"How do you know all this?" Harry was impressed.

Elliot's face clouded over. "Well, that's another story. Don't want to get into it, frankly." The more he drank, the more I noticed a slight Irish inflection in his speech.

"How about you finish the one you started," I suggested. "So you saw Tom again at Jupiter Station?"

"Only once," Elliot continued reluctantly, speaking into his beer. "After that confrontation with B'Elanna, I headed back to Turellia for the rest of the month. When I docked at the station weeks later, I persuaded Tom to meet me at the bar." Elliot took a slightly shaky breath. "When I saw him he was a mess. I wish I could've got more out of him. All I could gather was that B'Elanna had left. They'd argued. He mentioned something about forgetting his daughter, and how this meant B'Elanna was right. I didn't quite follow. I asked if he should go after her. He said it was too late. He said he wanted to, but it was too late. It was all over now. I began to get really worried. We'd only had one beer, but he was becoming unintelligible. I tried to shake him out of it. "Tom, what's wrong with you? What is too late? What have you done?" I asked. "Fuck's sake, just tell me, what did you take?" I couldn't get anything more out of him. When he collapsed I yelled for an emergency transport."

"Poor Tom," Harry breathed.

Elliot paused and took another gulp of his beer. I noticed the liquid quivering in the glass as he raised it to his lips. "At the medical centre while the doctors tried to stabilise him, I called up Tom's dad, the Admiral. He interrogated me, but there wasn't much I could say. I said his wife had just left him and that I thought he'd taken something. Hardly ten minutes later Tom's dad had him transported from the station back to Earth and that was it. I returned to the bar and stayed drunk until my supplies were finally delivered and I left the station. I never heard from the Admiral, or from Tom, again." Elliot sighed. "So… I just assumed… there was nothing to hear, that he was gone. I mean nothing ever lasts. Things might come together for a while, but they always fall apart. Friends, enemies, lovers – they come and go. You always end up alone. That's just life, right?"

I nodded in understanding, feeling a sudden sympathy for Elliot Lloyd. Maybe he was right. There was no one to blame for Tom and B'Elanna's situation. Sometimes things just fall apart. Even so, I refused to believe that this meant they could not be put back together. Surely there was a way. My thoughts were interrupted as Elliot abruptly slid his chair back and got to his feet, downing the rest of his pint.

"You're leaving already?" Harry was surprised.

"If I don't, I'll be here all night. Wouldn't want to outstay my welcome." He gave an off hand salute and sauntered off the holodeck. I remained lost in thought, until Harry spoke.

"That man reminds me of someone," Harry told me.

"Tom Paris," I answered. Janeway and I had thought the same thing.

"No, that's not it," Harry disagreed. "He reminds me of… you, Chakotay."

I looked up, startled. Was he serious?

"…except for the drinking, of course…" Harry corrected, "…and the smoking, and the swearing. Did you ever do any of those things Chakotay?"

"Didn't we all?" I snorted.

"No," Harry Kim replied honestly.