Chapter 26: I knew I hated Poetry
Valerie's POV:

Having lunch with Tom and Harry was something I found enjoyment all the time, and being joined by B'Elanna never hurt considering it did make things somewhat more comfortable considering I didn't have that many friends among the female members of the crew, beyond Ahni and Samantha. Speaking of which I definitely had to check in with her later... she said something about wanting to talk to me and it had been a while since I'd last seen her…

A week ago for dinner I think.

Internally sighing I decided to pull myself out of my thoughts paying attention to the conversation at hand.

"Well I have to go, I have a duty shift" Tom said suddenly, standing up and taking the tray to the counter as he walked out, giving a slight wave. Nodding in acknowledgment I turned back to Harry, cocking my head to the side wondering whether or not he also had duty.

"I'm off duty for now" he said, answering my unspoken question.

"Well unfortunately for me, I have about… 2 hours until I have to go for another appointment with Ensign Jetal" yes, I had an appointment with Ahni, which I'd have to try hard to keep on a professional level as opposed to mere talking and gossiping. Ah the happiness of being associated with one of the members on the crew that seemed to know everything, before the others did even!

And on a star ship with a crew of about 150 that is surprisingly hard!

"Then you could come with me to the holodeck until then, I've been thinking about continuing on of my new holo-novels" he suggested, grinning at me and I pretended to think about it even though I already knew how I'd respond.

"You know I have a couple of things to do…" pausing I tried to make it dramatic but he didn't seem to respond, a smile still on his face. "Screw it I'm in"

"Then let's go" he replied with a smile as we stood, hastily moving towards the Holo-deck. "Basically this is a holo-novel based on a… well ancient English Epic called Beowulf, its set in Denmark sometime during the 1600's"

"Right… um… is it helpful that the only thing I remember from this story is that the main character eventually dies fighting a dragon?" I asked mockingly as I looked at him in confusion. I had no clue what happened in the story before that one event so I had a feeling I'd be pretty much clueless.

"Follow my lead… considering I've been in it before I'll be playing the part of Beowulf though I suppose we'll fit you in somehow… and don't worry about it, I didn't turn off the safety protocols so even if we're meant to die we won't"

"Because that's so comforting" I responded sarcastically, following him into the holo-deck anyway.

I found myself in the woods, walking along side Harry despite the fact that it was completely dark. Well… not completely but there was still nothing besides silhouettes, until we came across a woman who was frozen.

"Basically it's frozen at this point in time, so I'll resume it soon enough… just go behind a tree and wait for me to call unless you want her to stab or burn you"

"People here are so lovely" I said rather sarcastically once again as I listened to instructions, crouching under a bush near a tree as I vaguely heard the command for the computer to resume the program.

"Val, you can come out now… Freya's agreed to take us to see her King" he said, and I had a feeling he motioned for me to come out, resulting in me doing just that, standing behind Harry for a second before I pulled myself together before anyone noticed. At least they were correct and didn't put horns on her helmet. I would've destroyed the hologram myself if they did!

Trudging through the woods I could've almost destroyed it anyway. By the time we caught sight of a keep I could've strangled her just so she'd shut her mouth about how brave 'Harry' was. Though both Harry and I were fairly silent, with him probably bathing in the fact that he was recognized for deeds he'd never done.

"I've heard many tales of you Sir, though none of them mention your lady here" she suddenly said catching my attention and causing my eyes to widen, and as soon as I was going to interrupt the entire thing I heard Harry speaking instead.

"Surprising, the last I heard they had mentioned her beauty in those tales" he said easily making me raise an eyebrow. He was never this relaxed about complimenting anyone's looks, let alone this at ease talking about a female like that and so fighting the blush that I could feel was going to show thankfully in the dark. Grabbing onto his arm I roughly pulled him back to where I was standing as we kept walking, with Freya ranted on about how she should've heard.

"What the hell was that?" I asked icily, in a tone just low enough that she wouldn't hear any of our discussion.

"It made sense didn't it? She came to the conclusion and I filled in the character by being confident about something, besides you anyway needed some kind of role to play in this"

"Oh so of course I'll just be your woman" I hissed.

"She came to the conclusion" he said holding his hands up in defence as I glared, unsure why I was being so… sensitive about the topic. Shaking my head slightly I followed him into the building in silence, as we slowly moved our forward into what I assumed was the great hall.

"Hail, Lord Hrothgar! I bring two friends, the great warrior Beowulf and Valdís who have come to help us, and fight Grendel. Greet them well" I heard Freya announce us and rolled my eyes. These introductions were rather… annoying to be honest. There seemed to be no real point to them aside from waste time.

We soon found ourselves being served food on a long banquet like table, holographic food of course not that you'd really notice the difference, and while people talked of Beowulf's greatness and hopefulness that he'd beat the monster Grendel I stayed fairly quiet.

"Ah, it is no surprise that a great Warrior like Beowulf has found a beautiful woman like that!" I heard someone say and let the loose blonde hair fall in front of my face as I bit my tongue. It wasn't exactly as if I could randomly say I was his sister, not his woman in front of them. After all we looked nothing alike but the compliments amongst all the talk about Harry and me being his… girlfriend I suppose they meant was a bit… strange if not over the top in my opinion!

"I think it was merely luck" he said playing along as he wrapped his arm around my waist, me about to slap him before I decided to get in character as smile, leaning into the touch and resting my head slightly on his shoulder.

"The luck was all mine sir" I said with as much adoration as I could though I made sure that he noticed the forced smile on my face which curled into a real one as he flinched.

At least that was amusing.

Time passed slowly and soon people started filing out of the hall leaving it with only Freya, Harry and I.

"Lady Valdís are you sure that I can't accompany you to a chambers for the night while we wait for Beowulf to defeat Grendel?" Freya suddenly asked me and I simply smiled at her and gave a small wave that I assumed would excuse her.

"I'd prefer to be by the side of my beloved in case anything does happen, besides with Beowulf here I'll be perfectly safe anyway" I said without any hesitation and a slightly less obviously forced smile.

"Alright Sir, milady" she replied nodding as she walked away before I turned to Harry. The second she was gone I spoke again.

"Remind me why on earth I have to be your woman" I hissed at him, glaring as I shrugged his arm off of me.

"I thought we talked about that before…" he replied hesitantly though I didn't bother looking at him.

"You know, screw this, tell them I died while you fought when I played a distraction, I'm going to get to Ahni it's probably almost time for our appointment" I replied when suddenly we heard a loud banging noise, exchanging glances quickly. We both shared the same thought, Grendel. Sighing I spoke to the computer. "Computer, freeze the program"

Suddenly there was another bang, leaving Harry and I to exchange looks as suddenly the door was burst open, a flash of light stopping me from seeing what was going on.

Hey guys

I know this chapter took forever but thanks for bearing with me, I've got my holidays now so I guess I'll have a bit more time to try and get these ready for you ^-^. Also, I've been working on a separate body of works, which will be a 'story' with lots of little one shots or drabbles of things that Valerie doesn't notice in any of this, because it is written in first person and she can't know everything, those will probably be written completely in third person.

Thanks! And don't forget to review if you liked it, or give any feedback if you didn't!