Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Voyager. Obviously.
A/N: Hey, everyone! Only one chapter this time, but I hope you enjoy it and that you all had wonderful holidays.
Tom smiled peacefully in his still half-asleep state. The bed was a bit lumpy this morning for some reason, but B'Elanna's warm body next to him made up for it. She was too far away for his liking though. It didn't seem right without her feet tangled with his. "B'Elanna...," he mumbled, his eyes still closed as he gradually fell back asleep. He scooted closer and started to throw an arm around her, but a hand on his chest pushing him back stopped him.
"Get the hell away from me, Paris. I'm not your wife."
Tom's eyes popped open and he sat up with a start. This wasn't his bed. With a look to his left he realized that hadn't been B'Elanna either. It was Jarvin. "Sorry, Jar."
Jarvin's eyes were still closed, but there was an amused smirk on his face. "Remind me to tell B'Elanna you tried to cuddle with me."
"Yeah, sure," he said sarcastically and rolled his neck from side to side to work out the kinks.
The first few rays of morning light were beginning to peak through the trees. He must have slept right through the night. Which meant the Captain hadn't woken him for his night watch shift again. Wait...
The Captain.
His eyes snapped open again and he looked over to where he knew she had been when he'd fallen asleep. She wasn't there. Only her blankets remained. Something didn't feel right.
His heart leapt into his throat as he stood and nudged Jarvin with his foot. "Wake up," he said, his eyes scanning the camp site for the Captain. She wasn't anywhere to be seen though.
"What's wrong?" Jarvin asked, sensing his tension, as he stood as well.
"Captain Janeway," Tom answered simply. His gaze fell on Sofin who was sitting up against the large rock by their supplies. As Tom moved over to Sofin, Jarvin looked around for the Captain. When he too came up empty he followed Tom.
Upon getting closer Tom realized Sofin was asleep. The little p'taq had fallen asleep. Tom supposed he couldn't be too angry about that fact when he himself had fallen asleep even though he'd intended to stay awake and keep an eye on the Captain. He'd recognized the look on her face the night before and it hadn't set well with him. He simply hadn't been able to fight off the call of sleep though. Apparently Sofin had had the same problem. He reached down and shook the crewman's shoulder. "Sofin, wake up."
The younger man woke with a start, his hand automatically gripping the spear as his eyes instantly widened. "What? What's going on?"
"You fell asleep," Tom answered dryly. The other man at least had the decency to look apologetic. "And the Captain's gone."
"Oh," Sofin released a long breath and relaxed slightly, just enough so his shoulders weren't quite so tense. "Is that all."
"Is that all?" Jarvin repeated incredulously. "Do you even have a brain? Or just a hearing problem?"
Sofin rolled his eyes and pushed himself into a standing position. "That's not how I meant it. I just meant...it could have been something worse."
Before Jarvin could reply Tom spoke up. "Did you see the Captain go somewhere? Did you hear anything?" He had a pretty good idea where the Captain had gone, or at least why she had gone, but knowing what direction she'd went would be helpful.
"No, I didn't see anything," he answered with a shake of his head. "Or hear anything. What's the big deal anyway?" he asked, obviously noticing how tense the other two men were. "She probably just left early this morning to go look for some of that sap. She'll be back."
"Even if she left as soon as the sun started coming up she should have been back by now," Tom pointed out. "You even said yourself yesterday how 'dangerous' the forest is. She shouldn't have to be alone out there."
Sofin scoffed. "Captain Janeway can take care of herself."
There were practically sparks jumping from Jarvin's stare. "Why don't we take you out to the middle of the forest, tie you to a tree, and see if you can take care of yourself. How does that sound?"
"That's enough," Tom said, using his best glare on the two. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the Captain's, but it did the trick. "You two can kill each other later. Right now we need to find the Captain. Sofin you can stay here with Tal and make sure she's alright. Jarvin and I will see if we can find the Captain."
"Fine with me," Sofin said in annoyance before going over to sit by Celes.
"Come on, let's go." He picked up the phaser Sofin had left on the ground and led the way into the woods.
An hour of searching for the Captain turned into two hours and then three. They were more or less heading in the direction of the stream now, but so far there had been no sign of Captain Janeway. None that they could tell at any rate. Neither he nor Jarvin were exactly expert trackers.
Tom was just about ready to give in and head back to the camp site in hopes that the Captain had returned while they were away. He was going to suggest it to Jarvin, but before he could he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye.
Turning he saw the distinct crimson color of the tree Sofin had found. If they went back to the camp with a few of those branches than the day wouldn't be a complete loss after all. He nudged Jarvin and pointed to the three trees growing together. "We'll grab a few of those and head back to camp. If the Captain's not there then we can always head out again."
Jarvin nodded in agreement and followed him over. As they started gathering branches Jarvin stopped, however, and put his collection down. "Hey, Tom..."
The pilot glanced over briefly as he tried to dislodge a particularly stubborn branch. "Yeah?"
Jarvin was staring at one of the limbs. "Part of this branch has been torn off. And so has this one," he added and pointed to another branch. "This one too. Doesn't look like a cut an animal would make either..."
Tom stopped his yanking and looked at what Jarvin was indicating. The short limbs definitely looked like something had been breaking them off. In fact it kind of resembled how the two limbs he'd just broken off looked. Maybe it wasn't so much of a 'something' as it had been a 'someone'.
"Do you think it was the Captain?"
Tom considered the question for a moment as he studied the tree and glanced around at the surrounding area. "It's probably no more than half an hour walk to the camp site from here if you were to walk straight there. Maybe a little longer if it was dark out."
"In other words, if it was the Captain, what happened to her after she got the branches?"
Tom wasn't sure he wanted to know. The memory of the creature that had killed Yosa flashed through his mind at the thought. "Let's take a look around." He put his small collection of broken off limbs on the ground and started looking for any sign of the Captain.
Together they walked along, taking the path that looked most clear of rocks and other obstacles. A few minutes had passed when they came upon a ravine. The edge and steep slope down looked slicked with mud left from the storm the night before last. Rocks stuck out of the slope and at the bottom more rocks, dirt, and twigs littered the narrow pit.
At night, with only the moon as lighting and the mud even fresher, it would be easy to miss the sudden drop and even easier to slip down it. If someone was carrying a load of branches at the same time...
Tom's heart started racing. His eyes followed the ravine as they continued to walk and he was more than a little relieved when he didn't see the Captain laying in the ditch anywhere. He was almost ready to brush the thought from his mind, his heart nearly back to its normal steady rhythm, when Jarvin stopped dead in his tracks.
Tom turned back to see what the problem was and saw the other man inching closer to the side of the ravine and staring at something at the bottom. "What is it?" he asked, almost afraid to know the answer. He glanced down at the bottom and didn't seen a Starfleet Captain laying prone there or even an empty uniform where a captain used to be.
"Look down there," Jarvin said, pointing to a spot at the base of the slope. "The sun keeps reflecting off of something down there. Almost...metallic like."
Tom looked, but didn't see anything. He was looking so close for Jarvin's metallic reflection that it took longer than it probably should have taken him to realize that there were branches, like the ones they'd been collecting only a few minutes ago, scattered around the area Jarvin had pointed to. He looked down at his own feet and realized he was also standing on one.
That sinking feeling in his stomach came back and his heart gradually started racing again. "Let's take a closer look."
It took a couple minutes to descend the slope carefully without falling. Once or twice either he or Jarvin would lose their footing on the slick decline and nearly fall, but eventually they made it to the bottom unharmed.
The second he got his balance on solid ground Jarvin headed over to the spot he had been staring at. Once there he knelt down and pushed away a couple branches. Tom watched as the crewman stared down at something, but he couldn't tell what it was with the branches blocking his view.
With a deep frown and his brows creased Jarvin carefully picked up whatever it was that he'd found and then stood up. "The Captain was definitely here," he said somberly and held out his hand to show Tom.
It was the Captain's commbadge.
But there was no Captain Janeway in sight.