Disclaimers apply as usual.

A/N: The Red Sox are starting up their next playoff series, long nights of pacing the living room await me...and more updates to calm me down haha. Like I said I want to get started on the next "season" as soon as possible.

The mood around Voyager had been somber the last three days as they traveled at warp towards coordinates that Sarah Barrett claimed she had received from a Kreyole leader on the Vaga colony. Harry Kim didn't know how much stock to put into that. Sarah had been alone, and already on one occasion had been manipulated by Supreme Commander Casius, for all he, and the rest of the crew knew, they were flying right into another trap.

Harry had felt his mood go south when Sarah, Tom, and B'Elanna had returned from the Gerroan warship and Sarah had informed them that they would no longer be working with the Gerroan Fleet to find their missing officers. He hadn't voiced his concerns that they would not be able to make it on their own, but rather, had plunged into trying to decipher more of the message that Captain Janeway had sent them. Sarah had seemed uninterested in the message, as did Tom and B'Elanna. When he had questioned his friends on that they had all brushed him off, claiming that they were busy. B'Elanna had immediately gone back to work on the weapons and shields, Sarah locked herself in the ready room doing god only knew what, Neelix had all but disappeared after the First Councilmen had left, and Harry had not seen Tom in what felt like months.

The doors to the turbolift opening startled him. He glanced up to see that B'Elanna was standing in there. Swallowing he got inside. Since their near kiss in the transporter room several weeks before, they had not been alone. Even working in engineering together, there was always someone over their shoulder.

"Going to the bridge?" B'Elanna finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Ah yeah," Harry replied.

The Klingon woman instructed the lift to continue. They rode it in silence for a while before she finally spoke. "Listen, Harry, about what happened in the transporter room, weeks ago now, I know, I think…I think it was just…you know…a defense mechanism or some other stupid thing that Sarah would call it."

Harry looked at her. He had never told anyone about what had happened in the transporter room, but the rumors had flown all over the ship. He felt his heart fall. "Right, of course," he lied to her. "Let's consider it forgotten, okay?"

B'Elanna's face fell slightly, but she set her jaw. "Consider it forgotten."

The doors to the bridge swished open and the two officers stepped off, both going in opposite directions. Harry took his place at operations and B'Elanna went to disappear into the ready room. Harry frowned. His mood had just gotten worse. He just did not have luck with women. He was sure that Libby was going to find someone new, Sarah had become more like a sister to him, and now B'Elanna just wanted to be friends, and their near kiss in the transporter room weeks before had been nothing but an emotional lapse. He vaguely wondered if Tom was having anymore luck with Sarah or the Delaney sisters than he was having.

Sarah and B'Elanna were stepping out of the ready room now, and Harry realized it had been several hours since he had last seen their acting captain. She had taken her hair out of the twist and it was pinned at the sides with two silver clips. Both women took the steps up to tactical and instructed Mike Ayala to move to the side. The former Maquis did so, watching with curious eyes as Sarah worked at the console. After several seconds she handed a PADD back to B'Elanna and they moved away from the console silently. The Chief Engineer disappeared back into the turbo lift and Sarah back into the ready room.

Harry's brow furrowed. What the hell is going on? And where the hell is Tom? It was time that he found out. Leaving his station behind he went to press the door chime to the ready room. Sarah's voice called out an "enter" and the doors swished open.

She was sitting at the desk looking at the personal computer. Her eyes drifted up slightly to see him standing there. "What can I do for your Harry?"

"What can you do for me? First, you can tell me what's going on Sarah. You lock yourself in the ready room since returning from the Gerroan Fleet and Delvor, B'Elanna is the only one who goes in and out of here with the exception of Kes every now and then; Tom has not been seen at his station for three days, and Neelix suddenly is ill," Harry snapped, feeling the strain from the past three days beginning to wear on him. "I don't think its coincidence, do you?"

For a moment he didn't think she was going to answer. Silently she pushed the personal computer away from her. "Harry you're paranoid, did I ever tell you that? Neelix is indeed ill, ask the Doctor he treated him, and Tom is working on a project for me. I know the last three days have been…stressful, but hopefully when we reach our destination, everything will fall into place. Now, Harry can you go command the bridge for me? If you need anything, I'll be in here, working."

He blinked as she went back to work. Her dismissal of him made him feel cold inside. Stepping out onto the bridge he went to sit in the command chair, running his fingers along the edges. He glanced at the console, remembering the message from Captain Janeway. If Sarah wasn't going to tell him what was going on, maybe there was something in that message that would. He began working on it immediately, and three hours later when Ensign Lang was picking up a transmission and they were pulling out of warp, he still had not cleaned it up anymore. "Lieutenant Barrett to the bridge," Harry said, standing up. "Put the message on screen, Ensign."

A man's face appeared on the screen as Sarah stepped out onto the bridge. She was smiling. "Hello, Ravior."

"Lieutenant Barrett, we've been expecting you."

Harry glanced sideways at her.

"You can help us then?"

"I believe that we can."

Sarah crossed her arms over her chest for a moment. "Before I consent to any talks between us, first, I need to understand what is going between your people and the Gerroan. I'm treading dangerous waters here; it only seems natural that I understand what I'm getting myself into."

"Understandable," the Kreyole, Ravior replied. " Our people conexisted side by side for centuries until people like Supreme Commander Casius took control. The Gerron believe that my people are unholy, the nulpias… our empathic abilities frighten them, they believe that we are possessed by demons... we do not possess the technology that they do and we would rather not, to them all beings that they deem inferior should be purged. They have been rounding up and putting my people in prisons for years. But since Supreme Commander Casius has taken command of the Fleet, these roundups have become bloodier. We are forced to move every few months just to stay a head of them."

Sarah shivered. "I've seen the prison on Vaga. It isn't a nice place."

"Vaga is only the tip of the iceberg I'm afraid, Lieutenant. Throughout the years as my people have fled Gerron space, they have pursued us, thus, spreading their territory. You have yet to enter the heart of it," Ravior replied. "My people are scattered throughout their space in prisons like the one you have seen on Vaga."

Harry felt bile rising in his throat. They had entered a region of space that was torn apart by a holy war from the sounds of it.

"We'd be glad to offer assistance if you could kindly transmit transport coordinates to us," Sarah requested.

"Certainly, Lieutenant," Ravior replied. Harry heard the beeping of consoles behind him and Lang tell their acting captain that she had received the coordinates.

Before Sarah could utter the order though to have herself beamed down there, she was picked up in a purple transporter beam. Harry stood there stunned; he had thought B'Elanna had come up with a way to protect everyone from being transported off of the ship by the Gerroan. Voyager rocked suddenly with weapon's fire and Harry felt himself yelling, "RED ALERT!"

"Sir, a Gerroan warship has just dropped out of warp!" Lang reported, nervously.

Harry tapped his combadge. "B'Elanna I hope you have something for me on the shields and weapons."

"We came up with a crude shielding modification, based on information I got from the warship, but we haven't tested them yet, Harry, it's possible that these new modifications could tear the ship apart let alone protect it."

A console exploded with another volley. A crewman went flying over the railing. "B'Elanna, we're going to be ripped apart either way. Prepare to bring the new shields online on my orders!"

"Understood, we'll be standing by."

Harry turned about gripping the railing tightly to keep his balance as the ship rocked violently. "Lang, do you have a lock on Lieutenant Barrett?"

"Transporting her would mean we'd have to drop our shields sir," Lang stuttered.

Which is what they want, Harry lamented. "Target the ship and bring B'Elanna's new weapons online. Let's try them on for size."

It was dark in the room that Sarah had been transported too. It was large with several windows lining the left side wall with the twinkling stars and the glow of the planet below them the only light. But Sarah knew he was there. Her senses told her it was true. Suddenly his large form moved from the shadows. She didn't flinch because she had known he would make his presence known at some point. "Lieutenant Barrett, have a seat," Supreme Commander Casius' voice told her. She could see his large hand gesturing towards a soft plush chair.

Slowly she lowered her body into it. Casius stepped from the shadows, holding a pot of steaming Gerroan tea in his hands. "Tea? It maybe stronger than what you humans are used too, but I think you might enjoy it."

"How do I know it's not poison?"

He chuckled. "Why don't you use your telepathic senses to figure that out?"

"I'd rather not," she snapped.

Casius moved towards her, placing the pot onto the nearby glass top table. A sly grin, one that she had come to know all too well the past two weeks, crept across his features. "Do you honestly believe what the stupid old man Ravior told you, Miss Barrett? Or me, a person who has done nothing but be helpful to you."

"Helpful?" Sarah spat.

"Yes, I didn't have to let you and your small ship come along for the ride to Delvor," Casius replied.

"Except for the fact that you needed me to get Valia Jourid, or did you forget that minor detail?"

Casius took a sip of his tea, still chuckling to himself. "I've liked you, Miss Barrett, from the beginning. You have fire, that's something Gerroan women lack. I don't think you truly see how…attractive that makes you." He put the cup down as well and moved towards her. Soon his large body was standing over her, his hands gripping the sides of her chair. His face was inches from hers. "Why don't you leave Voyager behind, Sarah, we could easily end all this conflict between the Gerroan and Kreyole, I would be the new leader of the Gerroan Empire, and you could be its first empress. You have to admit it sounds tempting does it not?"

Sarah felt her nerves begin to tingle. His breath was hot on her face. She felt violated and he had not even touched her…yet. "If there's one thing you have yet to learn about my people is that we don't seek wealth or power. Humans no longer have the desire to possess material things. We want to improve our knowledge, add to our culture."

"Such a noble race, you humans," Casius said, tracing a finger down her cheekbone. "So noble, in fact, that you blindly flew away from Vaga thinking that you could out wit me, the Supreme Commander of the strongest military fleet in the sector, quite possibly the entire quadrant." He pulled out his tiny communicator and pressed a button on it. "Gaffa, have the ground troops been deployed?"

"They have my lord."

"And Voyager?"

"She has sustained a fair amount of damage. I'm sure retreat will be ordered soon. The Gerroan have won a vital victory, sir!"

"Good let me know when you have the Kreyole." Casius smiled hatefully at her and shut the communicator down. He placed it back into his pocket and leaned closer to her. "You see, Sarah, you trust too easily. Maybe when this is all over, you'll learn something from it."

It was Sarah's turn to smile slyly. "I already have learned something Casius."

"Oh, really? What is that?"

She leaned in closer so her lips were inches from him, enticing him. "Never to trust you." Inside of brushing her lips across his, like she knew he was desiring her to do, she took her finger and ran it over his mouth. "But it seems, Casius that you have fallen into the same trap. You trusted me to just sail on ward, not looking back. The truth is, I was looking back, always peering over my shoulder to make sure that I was two steps a head of you."

A confused look came over his face as she slithered her way out of the chair and a way from him. The communicator was beeping in his pocket. He pulled it out, realizing for the first time that she was far too confident and calm for someone who had been tracked secretly and taken from her ship suddenly. It was if she had known it was going to happen all along. "Go ahead Gaffa."

"Sir, the Kreyole aren't here. There's nothing here sir."

"But we saw Ravior speaking to Lieutenant Barrett through the tapped comline!" His dark eyes glared at her.

"I know sir, I don't understand it either."

"I do," he growled, closing the comlink down. "You set this all up didn't you," he hissed. "The Kreyole were never here. Some how you staged that message!"

"We used our holodecks to create a phony transmission. I knew you would be too occupied with finding the Kreyole to really care where the message was being transmitted from. If you had just run the proper scans you would have seen that it came from within the ship," Sarah replied, a smug little grin on her face, she knew it was irking him. "I knew from the moment I broke off the partnership with you that you wouldn't leave well enough alone, that you'd be back." She tapped her combadge. "Barrett to Voyager."

B'Elanna's voice filled the room. "Go ahead Lieutenant."

"Are our new transporters online?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, prepare to beam me back to Voyager." Sarah ordered.

"You would have to lower your shields for that, Miss Barrett, and then I could destroy your ship," Casius sneered.

"Another mistake, Casius, you let me and my people have free access to your ship on the way to Delvor," Sarah replied. "My chief engineer gathered enough information to come up with crude, but adequate defenses against your technology. So, we now possess transporters that can cut through both our shielding to get me out of here. Voyager, energize." With a final smile at Casius as the transporter beam swept her up, she said, "Game, set, match."

Casius screamed angrily and yelled into the communicator. "Destroy them!"

"We can't sir…they've gone to warp!"

"HOW!"

"I…I don't know sir…they found a way to block the dampening field."

The Supreme Commander of the Gerroan threw the communicator across the room and it shattered against the wall. He had lost, rarely did he lose, and a woman of all things had beaten him, and he was sure that their paths would later cross, but the next time he wasn't going to be so merciful on her and her ship. Voyager would pay for their deception eventually.

"Where the hell is Voyager?"

Tom Paris had known it was going to be the first question out of Kathryn Janeway's mouth when she realized that a shuttle craft, piloted by him, had come to retrieve her and not her ship. He straightened the tunic of his uniform and looked at Chakotay briefly before compiling his answer. "They should be about two days behind me. At least they were the last time I had contact with them. Which was about ten hours ago." He set a med kit down on a nearby stump. "The Doctor wants me to do a simple check up on you, Captain."

If Kathryn hadn't been so stunned to see him there, she may have argued that she was fine and order him to put the medical kit away. Instead, she numbly sat down and allowed the pilot to run a medical tricorder over her. It would at least give her the opportunity to ask about Voyager and what was going on. Even if Tom had not had any contact with the ship in ten hours, he still had more information than her. "Tom, does Voyager realize that they could be tracked by the Gerroan? If not, then we need to send them a message, have Sarah alter course before it's too late."

"I don't think it will be a problem, ma'am," Tom answered, gesturing for Chakotay that it was his turn. "Everything checks out, Captain. You're in good health considering the hell you must have been through the past two weeks."

Chakotay was certain that he saw her eyes roll as she moved away from Paris. She began to pace. "How can you be certain it won't be a problem? Did you find the device already? Did you deactivate it? Do you know that when you do deactivate the tracking device the Gerroan will be alerted to it? Then there's the possibility that they're tracking you from only a few light years out, they'd be able to easily find Voyager if the tracking device was deactivated. That's why we abandoned the shuttle and destroyed it. However, considering you were able to track us to Delvor, then I'm assuming that destroying the shuttle did very little."

Tom looked at Chakotay for help. He wasn't sure how to deal with a rambling Kathryn Janeway. "We were led to Delvor on the chance that you and the high prophet were there."

"High prophet?" Chakotay asked.

Tom frowned. "I guess it was another of Casius tricks to keep Sarah in line with him." He told the first officer that he was medically cleared as well, and moved to scan Tuvok, who had been silently watching the scene with Vulcan curiosity.

"You came alone Tom?" Kathryn was asking now, peering into the shuttle.

"Yes ma'am," Tom replied, running the tricorder over Tuvok. "Neelix was supposed to come along for the ride, but came down with a nasty case of the flu. The Doctor confined him to quarters. I think he was just sick of the First Councilmen."

"First Councilmen Unay was on my ship!" Kathryn nearly shouted.

Tom shut the tricorder down. "Er, it was one of the Gerroan's conditions if we were to travel to Delvor with them."

"I can't believe this, that…that puppet was on my ship!"

Chakotay cleared his throat to get her attention. Kathryn turned sharply on her heel, eyes blazing. "You know that Casius kept Unay on Voyager to keep a close eye on him. He wouldn't risk losing his…puppet as you so delicately put it, Captain. I'm sure that Unay was not a threat. He probably asked a lot of questions about the crew and their spiritual beliefs." He turned towards Tom, noticing that Kathryn had gone back to her pacing. He sighed; she wasn't going to calm down until she saw that her ship, and her children, were alright. "Are we clear to go, Lieutenant?"

Tom nodded his head. "Yes sir. We're going to rendezvous with Voyager in Fedori space."

The First Officer nodded his head and looked back at a pacing Kathryn. "Captain?" She stopped what she was doing and looked at him. "Are you ready to go, ma'am?"

Ravior had appeared next to Tuvok, arms crossed over his chest. Kathryn made eye contact with him for a moment. Something dawned on her then. "You had contact with Lieutenant Barrett this whole time, didn't you?"

The Kreyole nodded his head. "Once, immediately after Valia spoke to her. But after that, I never spoke to her again. I assumed, like you did Captain, that she, along with the rest of your crew, were killed. Apparently Lieutenant Barrett managed to out play Casius in his little game. For that, the Kreyole are grateful. It's not often that someone comes along and can beat Casius at his own game. You and your crew have surprised me Captain, you have won our allegiance."

Small victories, Kathryn thought, with a small nod of her head. "I suppose it's time to rejoin my crew. Tom, prepare the shuttle for take off. And get ready to send a message to Voyager; I want to have a little chat with Lieutenant Barrett before we get there."

"Yes, ma'am," Tom said, enthusiastically. He would never admit it out loud, but he was happy to hear her spouting off orders again. His first taste at command had nearly ended in disaster. He was much happier stepping back, for the time being anyways, and leaving Janeway and Chakotay to that job. "They should be within our range." With that he disappeared up the ramp of the shuttle and into the cabin, Tuvok following behind him.

Kathryn held her hand out to Ravior. "Thank you, for everything. We wouldn't have been able to keep ahead of the Gerroan without your help. If there is anything that you need, in the future, don't be afraid to contact us. When I get back to Voyager Iwill have our flight path sent to you, and methods of communications so you can get in contact with us if the need arises."

Ravior took her hand and shook it. "Thank you, again Captain. The offer is generous. I'm afraid that my people's fight, and the fight for this sector of space is far from over. If we can get more races to join our side, like the Fedori, then maybe it wouldn't feel like such a lost cause. But I'm afraid that things are not going to change until Casius is out of the picture. He is the driving force behind their hatred for races they don't consider worthy. Lieutenant Barrett may have won a critical victory for you; Casius is intrigued by anyone who can play the game with him. He might be even more determined to find your ship now and play another one, instead of destroy you at first glance." He released her hand. "I hope to cross paths with you again, Captain Janeway."

A small smile graced her tired features. "Same here, Ravior, take care." Turning about on her heel, Chakotay following behind her, they entered the shuttle. Tom informed them that they were ready to take off and that the channel to Voyager would be open as soon as they cleared the atmosphere. Kathryn settled herself down into the seat behind Tom, her fingers brushing over the clean terminal and familiar keys.

The tiny shuttle lifted off the surface and quickly entered the atmosphere. Kathryn knew as Tom pointed the shuttle towards Voyager that it was not the last time that the Federation ship would be seeing Ravior and the Kreyole again. As long as Voyager traveled on a close course to Gerroan space, there would come another time that they would be drawn into the bloody conflict, but the survival of her crew, and countless others were on line if they did not help in the fight. The game, as Ravior had put it, was far from over.

"We've repaired all systems, except communications," Harry Kim reported, handing Sarah Barrett a PADD.

"How long will those be down?" Sarah asked, azure eyes attempting to read the PADD, but they were heavy with exhaustion.

"It could take two to three days, ma'am."

Two to three days? Sarah thought dismally. Although their modified shields and weapons had kept them in the fight with the Gerroan warship for the time being, but they had not used their multiadaptive torpedoes, and it had only been one warship. They were going to have to come up with something better for the long run. Voyager had sustained heavy damage even with the modified shielding. Their biggest accomplishment, however, had been to break the dampening field so they could go to warp. That, she was sure, had taken Casius by surprise. It was quite possibly the best defense that B'Elanna had come up with after studying the information they had gathered from their time on the way to Delvor. "Well, just do your best Harry."

Harry nodded his head, took the PADD back from her, but didn't budge. "You need rest, Lieutenant."

Sarah shook her head, her undone curls bouncing off worn shoulders. "We haven't picked up Tom's shuttle yet. When all four of them are back safely aboard Voyager I'll rest."

He frowned. The Doctor had been after her to rest as well. The last few days it had become more apparent that the young woman had not had sleep in days, perhaps since the start of this whole ordeal, there were dark circles forming underneath her eyes, she didn't bother with her hair, it hung around her face, parted to one side, and her makeup was hastily done. She was drinking coffee like it was going out of style and rarely eating. Her eyes usually filled with emotion and fire, where dull, lifeless. Harry felt like relieving her of duty but wasn't sure if he had the authority to do so. It wouldn't be the first time he was tempted to try relieving her. When she had met with him after her return from Casius' ship, to explain why she had concealed her plan from him and the rest of the crew, he had seen for the first time how exhausted she truly was. He had been too stunned by her deception, not only of him and the rest of the crew, but of the Gerroan as well, that he had just sat there simply soaking it all in. Even though he understood why she had kept it quiet, so the Gerroan, listening in through a tap wouldn't get wind of what was really going, Harry had felt shunned that he had been left out.

"Counselor," a voice squeaked behind them. Sarah looked up to see Neelix standing there. "I understand that Paris has retrieved the Captain."

"Yes," Sarah replied. They had received a brief message from Tom before the communications array had blown out. "He's on his way back to Voyager now. Neelix, are you sure you're feeling better?"

"Never better," Neelix replied hoarsely. "In fact, I want to throw a party when the away team returns. I think this calls for celebration and the crew could certainly use a morale boaster."

Harry felt a smile touch his lips. The one thing Sarah had not lied to him about was that Neelix was indeed sick, having picked up something from the Janeway children. The last day or so he had been working in the mess hall, and claimed that the Doctor gave him a clean bill of health, except that his voice would not return for another week or so. No one could fault his enthusiasm.

Sara gestured for Neelix to sit down on the bench next to her. "Sounds like a plan to me, Neelix, but in a few minutes, hopefully, I won't be in command anymore."

"If I may say so, Lieutenant, you performed admirably," Neelix sputtered.

She shook her head. "No Neelix, I fell for his trap the first time when I shouldn't have."

"But you burned him in the end," Neelix replied, gleefully. "From what I hear, that is not an easy feat. Captain Janeway will be proud of you."

I hope so, Sarah thought as Ensign Lang announced that the shuttle was ready to dock. With a silent nod of her head she told the bridge crew to get to work bringing the shuttle home. Harry left the command station to take his and Sarah found herself staring at the back of Baytart's head for the longest time. It was at that moment, with the proposition of Voyager's command being turned back over to her rightful leaders that Sarah felt the full brunt of her exhaustion. Sleep had not come easily when she had the time to try and get it and even though she had been sleep deprived she had just kept going, kept pushing ahead. Coffee had seemed like a life saver, an energy boaster, but the last day or so even coffee wasn't helping her stay up.

She had a lot of time to reflect the past twenty four hours. She was still seething from the deception that Casius had pulled over her, she was after all a trained Starfleet officer, a psychologist, she should have seen right through him, but her emotions had clouded her judgment. When she had finally seen it, it was too late to turn back. She had to play the game. Many had told her that she had won, she wasn't so sure. On top of all the deception of the Gerroan, she had uncovered the deception of her mother. Sarah was indeed half betazoid, and the Gerroan had picked up on it when they had done their bioscan of her the first time she had been transported to the surface of New Gerroa. When she had first learned about it she had taken it in stride, she had too, she had a ship to run, a crew to maintain while they looked for the others. Now, in the quiet aftermath of their encounter with the Gerroan, Sarah had been able to dwell on it, and she had never felt more betrayed by her mother than at that moment, ever in her life.

Tom had expressed his concern for her, keeping her emotions bottled up inside of her during their trip back from Delvor. He had referenced her drug use, how she had exploded because of her determination to keep her grief to herself. He didn't want to her fall again like that.

But there was something…different about her, now, she could feel it. Perhaps it was a subtle change, but it was a change none the less. In the past she may have taken Casius deception and fallen, but this time she had fought back. This time she had refused to fall.

"Captain on the bridge!"

Harry's voice startled her slightly and she jumped to attention. Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, and Paris were stepping out of the turbolift. Janeway didn't tell them to be at ease right away, moving down the command steps towards Sarah. With a simple gesture of her hand, she ordered an at ease. Everyone went back to their work, but Sarah felt like shrinking at that moment as she was visually scrutinized by Kathryn Janeway.

"Lieutenant Paris tells me that you worked with the Gerroan for sometime," Janeway began, her eyes not conveying any emotion. "Apparently you didn't get my message ordering you to stay away from their space and fleet."

Sarah blinked, trying to recall if any message had been given to her from the Captain. She vaguely recalled Harry mentioning that they had received a transmission from Captain Janeway, but it was damaged. Harry cleared his throat, anxiously. "Ah that was my fault Captain, it was heavily damaged and I couldn't clean it up."

"No bother," Janeway replied, coolly. "It's in the past now. What I'm more interested in is how you managed to pull the wool over the master's eyes."

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "Simple," she replied, "he was too arrogant for his own good. Ravior helped us modify the knowledge that B'Elanna had gathered from the warship, we launched a shuttle using dampened shielding so the warship following us wouldn't pick it up, and then used an old Maquis trick to hide the warp trail. While the shuttle was carrying on to pick you up, virtually undetected, Voyager headed for a false location. Casius was so eager to snag more Kreyole leaders that he didn't bother to do a scan to find out where the transmission from Ravior came from, which was our own holodeck."

A small grin touched Janeway's face. "Ravior told me that he had only one telepathic conversation with you, shortly after Valia's death."

"Yes," Sarah replied. "He's right."

"But, he tried again, several times. In fact, he thought that you'd been killed because neither of you had made an agreement not to speak telepathically again."

She pulled her hair back to reveal the cortical inhibitor at the base of her neck. "I was informed that the Gerroan have a way of monitoring telepathic activity as well. Ravior wasn't sure if they could do so from the distance they were following us at, so I didn't want to take my chances." She plucked the device off of her neck. She had forgotten that she was evening wearing it in her exhausted state. "I guess I don't need it anymore."

Janeway's arms slid over her chest. "There are some captains that might say your decision to lead a race as powerful as the Gerroan into a little trap like this was irrational, stupid, and downright reckless, perhaps a little unorthodox…which, if you remember correctly was why I wanted you on this ship. And it's a good thing too, because, I can't think of anyone else that could out master the master like that. Now," she said, with a smile, "get off my bridge, and get some sleep, you too Mister Paris, the two of you look like hell."

A weary smile graced Sarah's face. "Yes ma'am," she whispered, and together her and Tom stepped off of the bridge into the turbolift. "Deck six," Tom called out. The lift whirred to life and began its decent.

"Aren't you going back to your quarters?" Sarah asked, sleepily.

"Well, I figure there's one last thing that I have to do as acting first officer," Tom replied.

"And that is?"

"To make sure that the acting captain follows orders and goes to bed," Tom answered.

Sarah yawned and shook her head. "I don't think you have to worry about that. I could fall asleep right here in the turbolift," she murmured. Tom felt her cheek press against his shoulder.

"Why don't you?" he asked.

She stood up, her eyes opening, or attempting to open fully. "Because then you'd have to tuck me in a like a little child."

"You know something," Tom argued, "it's alright to admit that you need someone to take care of you every now and then."

"I don't want you think I'm weak," she whispered, tears pressing the corners of her eyes.

Tom mocked glared at her. "Sarah Barrett, do you know how stupid that sounds?"

"But it's true!"

He took her by the shoulders so he could turn her to face him. "Sarah you have never once appeared weak to me."

Sarah closed her eyes and like before, in the ready room, pressed her face into his chest. Soon she felt the dull whir of the turbolift lulling her to sleep. She woke up the next morning in her bed, still in uniform, except her boots were off, placed near the foot of the bed, neatly. "Computer, time?"

"The time is zero nine hundred hours."

When was the last time I slept this late? Sarah thought as she slid out of bed and proceeded to the bathroom. She noticed in the mirror that she looked more refreshed than she had in days; there was even a sparkle in her eyes. All the mishaps of the past two weeks seemed to be melted away. Even the revelation that she was part betazoid seemed like it was nothing in the grand scheme of things. After a quick sonic shower and a change of uniform, Sarah was putting her boots back on when she pulled out a PADD, hidden within her shoes. Even the strongest of people need taking care of every now and then. Don't be afraid to ask for it, okay? Tom. With a shake of her head, she tossed the PADD onto the coffee table.

Standing up she went back into the bathroom to pull her hair back, but she had gotten as far as gathering it back into a pony tail before she realized she didn't want to be tied down to the old Sarah in anyway, shape or form, she let her hair fall from her grasp, brushed it a couple of times through, parted it slightly to one side, neatly, and clipped it with a silver barrette at the base of the part. She left her quarters that day with a different aura about her, to the naked eye she may not have been that different, but to the people that had come to know her over the past several weeks, she was extremely different. The conflict with Dellon Casius and the Gerroan had given her something that she had lacked since her time on the Explorer; a true challenge.

Entering her office she prepared for the mounds of work that had been sorely neglected during her tenure as captain. But first, she complied a message for Tom, to be delivered when he accessed his personal computer in his quarters. You may have just gotten the job Paris, of being my caretaker. Sure you want it? I heard I can be difficult.

She shut the terminal down and turned towards the PADDs. Letting out a sigh she tackled them head on and was startled when, hours later, the personal computer beeped next to her. Glancing up she realized that she was receiving a transmission. Stubborn, not difficult, and yes I want it, if you'll have me. I've heard I can be just as difficult. But…people can change you know…I'm willing…how about you?

Sarah stared at the screen of the longest time, uncertain what to say back, then hesitantly, Yes, I'm willing, was her reply before she shut the computer down and called it a night.

Captain's Log, supplemental; almost all repairs to Voyager have been made, with the exception of the communications array. Voyager is heading to a nearby Fedori space station in the hopes of finding the parts that we need. Neelix's party was a success, it certainly lifted my spirits. Everything is returning to normal. Meanwhile, Sarah's deception of Dellon Casius is causing quite a stir in this sector, and it seems shining some light onto the Kreyole's predicament. Hopefully, in the near future, that light becomes brighter.