When Tom found her in their quarters later that day, he wasn't sure how long she had been crying, but he could tell that it had been quite some time. Laying down on the bed next to her, where it looked like she'd been for hours, Tom put his arm around her waist and pressed his forehead up against her shoulder. Closing his eyes, he tried to give her just a little bit of the emotional stability he currently had, by taking in deep, slow breaths. After a while, when he was sure she wasn't going to reach back and punch him in surprise, he asked softly, "can you tell me what happened?"

In reality, he knew exactly what had happened. Tom had started his alpha shift just a few moments after B'Elanna had entered the Captain's Ready Room, and had waited with increasing impatience for her to emerge. When she did, Tom knew immediately that something was terribly wrong. She wasn't crying - at least not quite - but she looked as if she'd been physically beaten about the head, so great was the redness in her face and the general tone of her body. She looked utterly defeated. B'Elanna hadn't seen him, of course. She had run as quickly as she could from the Ready Room to the turbolift, terrified she wouldn't make it to a private space before she broke down. Tom turned to Chaktotay as the turbo lift doors swished shut, prepared to ask to go check on her, but the Ready Room doors had clicked open just as he stood up, and the Captain, catching his gaze and knowing his intended question, had shaken her head decidedly. The look on her face brokered no arguments, so Tom sat down, a little too aggressively, and began plotting a time he could sneak away to get a moment with her. He heard the Captain ask for Chakotay and Ensign Kim, and wondered for a beat what possible reason she would need Harry. Then, after a pause, the Captain barked, "You come too, Mr. Paris. I supposed you need to be up to date on this as well".

Tom had entered the Ready Room searching for the eyes of Harry, who looked just as bewildered about his presence as Tom was. The Captain didn't give them much time to speculate, however. Sitting down crisply at her desk, she said,

"I've made the decision to remove Lieutenant Torres as the Chief Engineer. I'm replacing her with Ensign Vorik." Looking at Tom's wild eyes, she paused for a minute to wait for his challenge, all the while positively daring him with her stance to question her command decision. Tom, in a moment of sanity, chose not to confront the Captain about the change. "I've decided to assign her to Ops. From here on out, she'll be serving under you, Mr. Kim. I've allowed her to keep her rank, but I've told her she is to follow your orders, to a T." Given the emphasis she was placing on her words with the three men in her office, Tom could assume she had been even more, emphatic, with B'Elanna.

"I've also informed her that I'm willing to re-examine these arrangements in 30 days. That means, Mr. Kim, that I'll be expecting a full and honest report on her performance at ops at that time. Clear?"

Harry looked a little shell-shocked by the news, but was trying not to get any of the obvious ire the Captain was feeling directed in his direction. Poking sleeping bears, and all that he thought. He wisely just gave her a crisp, "yes, ma'am" and waited for someone else to jump in. He didn't have to wait long before Chakotay chimed in.

"Captain, if there's nothing else, I'd like to speak with you about some status reports from this morning". Both Harry and Tom knew, of course, that he wanted more information about the decision, but he wasn't about to publicly question the Captain's personal decision, and certainly not in the mood she appeared to be in. Looking to the Captain for her response, she nodded her head briefly and gave them a firm "dismissed, gentleman". Both men left as quickly as they could manage.

…

Now, cradling B'Elanna's shaking body, Tom wanted to find out as much as he could about what the Captain had told B'Elanna, and what else the Captain hadn't told Harry and Tom. But his query had gone unanswered, and he continued to feel her silent sobs as he rested his forehead on her neck. Knowing his wife, but having seen her this worked up, so….emotionally vulnerable, so few times throughout their relationship, he decided the best course of action was patience. 20 minutes ticked by as Tom kept his eyes on the chronometer on the side of the bed. Finally, B'Elanna drew in a raspy breath and then her body seemed to still. Tom decided to try again.

"Tell me what happened?" he asked softly.

Another raspy breath.

"I got fired," she said matter-of-factly. It was a soft statement, not filled with any of the anger or aggression as Tom was expecting.

"You got fired? What does that mean?"

"Ensign Vorik is now Voyager's Chief Engineer". Another matter-of-fact statement.

"So where does that leave you?"

B'Elanna sighed, and moved to sit up. Tom moved his body away to give her space and pushed himself up against the headboard to sit next to her.

"It leaves me, I guess, working in Ops. With Harry. Under Harry, I suppose."

Tom was silent for a minute, giving her space to continue, since prompting B'Elanna to talk almost always ended in things being thrown at him. When she didn't re-engage, he risked one more question.

"How do you feel about that?"

Another silence. B'Elanna stood up this time and started wandering back and forth, aimlessly, in front of the bed. After a long minute, she sat down at the foot of the bed, looking down at her hands in her lap.

"I guess I'm…. I'm disappointed that I've lost the only job I've ever liked, the only job I've really ever wanted… I'm so angry at myself for making stupid decisions…. I can't even really wrap my mind around not going to engineering in the morning. Of reporting to Harry to work on Ops. It….. I've never lost something this important to me and I'm not really sure what to do…." B'Elanna paused there, and though Tom wanted badly to comfort her, he willed himself to be silent, hoping that she would keep going. His self-control was rewarded when B'Elanna drew in a shaky breath and continued.

"But I also…. I feel….ashamed. I feel…. Embarrassed…. I feel like I've lost her respect and I'm never going to get it back and I don't know how to…" her words became too shaky and throaty for her to keep speaking, and Tom knew she was crying again, though no sound escaped her.

He moved as quickly as he dared to put his hand on her shoulder. Tom knew how B'Elanna felt about the Captain - in many ways he shared her feelings and the complex relationship one shares with someone who rescues you from your past life, makes you into a new and better person, and is still your commanding officer. But B'Elanna's relationship with the Captain included something else. Something….maternal. Of course, the Captain was quite a maternal person, and of course, Tom had experienced her maternal ministrations at various points in their relationship. But Tom had a Mother at home that was, well…. motherly. B'Elanna's mother - though Tom knew B'Elanna believed she had done her best to raise her - hadn't really been motherly. And the Captain, for all her strict protocol and Starfleet rigor, was also kind and caring and the closest thing B'Elanna had ever experienced to a mother. He knew that B'Elanna genuinely considered the Captain her surrogate mother-figure, and though she was very guarded about these feelings - ashamed of the vulnerability it created, embarrassed to have feel a need for a maternal-figure - she had mentioned more than a few times the extreme worth she placed in the Captain's opinion of her. He knew he couldn't understand the emotional anguish of feeling as if you've lost your dream job, your professional standing, the respect of your commanding officer and affection of your mother all in one fell swoop, but he imagined it must be incredibly painful. So though he was certain that B'Elanna had lost neither the Captain's respect or her affection - at least not permanently (though she certainly seemed pretty ticked this morning) - he also knew his wife assumed that everyone was always abandoning her. And that it was always her fault.

"Hey, hey, hey" he whispered as he came to sit next to her on the bed, scooting his thighs to touch the side of hers. B'Elanna just shook her head and continued to cry silently. "Hey. I'm not going to try to tell you whether you're right or wrong". B'Elanna let out a little grunt of air, her unspoken expression of disapproval at his attempts to comfort her. "But. I know the Captain. And I know you, and I know how you react to each other. And I will bet you….." he glanced around their quarters quickly, "my television set and all it's programs…. that this will get better. I don't know how long it will take, but it will get better. And hey! 30 days isn't that long. I'm sure it'll all blow over by the time 30 days rolls around".

B'Elanna gave him a side-eye glance that signalled her disagreement with his premise. His wife was nothing if not a stellar non-verbal communicator. She turned her body to the side, turning her face as far away from him as she could. It broke Tom's heart to see the shame she continued to feel about expressing herself.

"You weren't there" she exclaimed, and let out a choked sob. "She… she… she said that I obviously didn't appreciate my position, or the time I've spent on Voyager. But I do!" Another choked sob, and a raggedy breath in.

"I know I made a mistake... but Voyager is the only place, the only home…. the only family that has ever mattered to me. And I've lost it! And the Captain…." B'Elanna's voice trailed off, unable to finish the sentence aloud. But Tom knew. The Captain is the closest person I'll ever have to a mother, and now I've lost that too. Tom sighed and leaned his forehead into his wife's beautiful ridges. There wasn't really much else to say. He just hoped there would be easier days ahead for B'Elanna.