Disclaimer: Voyager and its characters are not mine, just borrowing them for a while


Hello everybody, I am so sorry it took me so long to write this, but I had finals to study
for and other stuff to do. But here it is.

I would like to thank all of the people who reviewed the last chapter, you rock!!

One more little announcement, for all of you who are dorks like me and actually check
out the Star trek web site I found some disturbing news for all of us Seven of Nine fans.
There was an article in the news portion of the site that said Seven is to be the "tragic"
character on the series. Since I have heard rumors that they are going to kill off one of the
main characters of Voyager before the seasons end, I put two and two together and came
to the conclusion that "tragic" could be interpreted as the one to be killed. This really
pisses me off cause Seven is my favorite character. If anyone hears any different or
knows what this means that I would appreciate them emailing me or writing something in
their review, thanks.




Seven leaped back into the water. When the eel creature had been struck it had
lashed out and struck her suit, rupturing it. Her air began to decompress. She scrambled
to the surface, ripped of her helmet and gasped for air. Her mind was racing.
"Finnegan," she said.
Logic was tossed aside, pure emotion was in control of her. She dove into the
water, the cold attacking her senses, but it didn't faze her. She pushed herself toward the
dark form in the water. When she got closer she could see that he was straining to reach
the surface and that his breathing gill was gone. She pushed herself harder. She knew that
it wasn't likely that she would be able to make it to him and pull them back up to the
surface, but she didn't care. She saw him open his mouth and scream something. Even
though the sound was lost in the water, she knew he was yelling her name. She reached
out and grasped his extended arm.
Quickly, with the speed of an Olympic swimmer she pivoted in the water and
began her journey to the surface. The cold was stinging her face, her air was running out,
but she pushed on. Light broke in, she had reached the surface, she gasped for air and
cradled the unconscious Finnegan in her arms and began to swim for land. She reached
the shore and pulled Finnegan on the sandy beach.
He was unconscious, not breathing, but there was still a pulse. Seven acted
quickly. She tilted his head back and pinched his nose with her fingers. She then pressed
her mouth against his and began to breath air into his lungs. She continued the process
until he began to cough, water spurting from his mouth.
He was safe. She had saved him. She relaxed, a tremendous weight of worry now
off of her shoulders.
Finnegan's eyes opened and he looked around, trying to take in what just
happened. He turned to Seven, his eyes glazed with exhaustion, he mustered a smile " It
was you, I grabbed your hand, you … are my… future…" he passed out.
Seven quickly shuffled through their pack of essentials and pulled out a medical
tricorder. She scanned him. He was unconscious but stable.
She paused for a second, contemplating what he had just said. She shrugged it off
as a delusion due to the trauma and got to work putting his dry clothes back on him and
setting up camp for them for the rest of the day. She believed that they had traveled
enough.

"You know what, I am really getting tired of losing consciousness," Seven turned
around to see Finnegan sitting up in the place where she had left him.
She stood up from her attempts at making a fire and walked toward him, the
corners of her mouth slightly perked into a smile. "Then perhaps you will cease in
performing foolish acts of heroics," she said, with a slightly mocking tone. She walked
over to him and began to scan him with the tricorder.
He reached out and gently placed his had on hers. "I assure you, they have all
been for a good cause," he replied in a fully flirtatious manor.
Seven raised an eyebrow, " Well I thank you for risking you health yet again for
my safety, it was… noble of you, despite its foolishness."
Finnegan noticed that she hadn't removed his hand from hers.
"Seven, go to dinner with me?" he asked.
She stepped back, breaking the contact with him. " What?"
"When all this is over, and we are safely back on Voyager, would you like to go
out to dinner with me?" he asked, staring her down.
" I hardly think this is the appropriate time to be asking me on a date," she
replied, not yet denying his request.
"Well I beg to differ, who knows when I'll be knocked out again, I want to make
sure I ask you before I get hit in the head and forget who you are, the risks of trauma
induced amnesia and all. Besides, a man avoids death this many times he begins to think
he's invincible, I'm going to take advantage of this confidence while I can," he said, a
huge smile on his face.
Seven looked at him. "Would it be so bad" she thought to herself, " Feelings
cannot be avoided and I clearly have them for him. She was reminded of the way she had
felt when she emerged from the water earlier in the day. He only concern was to make
sure Finnegan was ok, the fact that she was in danger and that there were other more
logical and efficient ways to rescue him did not occur to her. Her only concern was to get
to him as quickly as possible.
She looked him in the eyes, "I will consider your request," she replied.
"Well I guess that's good enough, now lets see if we can get that fire started," he
said, walking over to the pile of sticks that Seven had assembled. He bent down to look at
it.
"Hmmm, I guess that Borg wouldn't have made very good boy scouts, come here
and let me teach you how to make a fire," he said, waving her over to the pile of sticks.
She walked over and knelt next to him as he proceeded to explain how to create a
pile of sticks that would ignite easily. She listened to his every word, almost in a trance.
Perhaps going to dinner with him would not be a mistake at all.

By the time Finnegan had regained consciousness it was already fourteen hundred
and needless to say they were both exhausted. By seventeen hundred the sun was already
on its way to setting. The air was cold, yet not as cold as Finnegan had expected, the fire
was supplying a great deal of warmth, or maybe it was just Seven, Finnegan really didn't
know. He felt happy, almost joyous. He had come to a revelation in that water, and that
revelation was Seven. She was his future, whatever that meant. So he was happy as long
as she was around.
"Should we look for food, or do you think we have enough rations to last us the
rest of the trip?" he asked her.
She turned to face him, she had been scanning the area for the past couple of
minutes, " I believe that the rations we posses will be sufficient," she replied and went
back to scanning.
"Okay," he continued to poke at the fire. "Well is there anything that I can do to
help, I'm feeling kind of worthless here," he said.
"I suppose you could set up the sleeping area for tonight, it should be quite cold
once the sun goes down," she said, still scanning.
"All right," he said, leaping at the chance to do something. He laid down the
thermal mat and the blanket on top of that. He was done. "Hmmm," he looked over at
her, still scanning, " Is there something specific that you are looking for, there isn't any
X- dylythium in this area, at least there wasn't on the scanners in the ship."
"I am aware of that, I am just making sure that there aren't any other life forms
out there that will give us the same trouble as our slimy friend did in that water. I would
like to get you back to the ship without getting eaten," she replied.
Finnegan smiled, " That worried about how boring your life would be without me,
huh?"
Seven turned and faced him, giving him a glare that was less then amused, yet
still had a hint of playfulness in it, " No, I know that the Captain is quite fond of you, I
wouldn't want to disappoint her."
"Sure, the Captain," he said laughing. He watched her as she continued to scan
the area and noticed that she was looking rather tired.
"Seven, you look tired, I'm sure dragging my sorry hide out of the water today
took a lot out of you, why don't you get some sleep, I think I can hold down the fort for
the rest of the night," he said walking toward her and putting a hand on the tricorder.
She looked up at him, "Fort?" she asked.
"Figure of speech," he replied.
"I supposed that I could benefit from some extra rest, I will comply," she said
handing him the tricorder, " After I consume some nutritional supplements," she said,
walking toward the bag.
She rummaged in it and pulled out two rations containers, "Will you be joining
me in consumption Mr. Finnegan?" she asked.
"I guess so," he said sitting on the ground next to her.
"Is my pack in there?" he asked.
She looked in the bag and pulled out a small little sack and handed it to him. He
took it, opened it and removed a small package of some kind and another small metallic
object. From the package he removed a small white stick, he grabbed the metallic object,
opened its top and lit the small stick with the metallic object. It began to emit smoke,
which he greedily breathed in.
Seven looked over with confusion, " What is that?" she asked.
"Oh sorry, its just a bad little habit I picked up on Rublaton. I've been waiting for
an away mission to smoke one of these," he said.
" One of what?" she asked.
"Oh it's a cigarette, its like tobacco, a hot little commodity on Rublaton, used to
be popular on Earth too, but quite unhealthy," he said.
"If it is unhealthy then why would you smoke it?" she asked, very confused.
"I don't know, I just like 'em," he replied, taking another drag on the cigarette.
"I do not understand why humans do so many things that are self destructive," she
said, munching on her food.
"Hey, we all have our little self destructive habits. This is just one of my many,"
he said, " Would you like to try one," he said, handing her a cigarette.
She looked at it, almost with a hint of fear, then slowly grabbed it with her thumb
and forefinger, holding it away from her body like it would sting her if it got to close.
"How do you try it?" she asked.
"Here, let me show you," he said as he moved closer to her, his leg brushing up
against hers.
"Put it up to your lips and I'm going to light it with my lighter. When I do that
inhale, try to get the smoke into your lungs. Let me tell you, it's not that pleasant at first,"
he said.
Seven looked at him with some suspicion, yet her curiosity took over her reason.
She placed the cigarette up to her lips and when Finnegan raised the lighter toward the tip
and lit it she inhaled deeply. She immediately began to cough. She leaned over and
continued to cough until the smoke was dispersed from her offended lungs. As unpleasant
as it was, she soon felt a soothing calm come over her. Finnegan just laughed and patted
her back affectionately.
"I told you it was unpleasant," he said through the laughter.
She held the cigarette in front of her and looked at it, " It is repulsive, fortunately
taste is irrelevant," and she took another drag.
"Well don't get too addicted to them, I only have a couple left," he said smiling.
They just sat there, watching the sunset, and smoking a cigarette.