Tom came to sometime later.  His head hurt and his arms were pinned underneath him.  He tried to move them to get circulation, but stopped when he heard her voice.  She was sitting behind her desk.  "I see you are awake."  Looking around, Tom realized he was laying o her bed.  "You know, the phaser was a trap.  I'm not foolish enough to underestimate you.  I just wanted to see what you are capable of, and now I know.  You will not be left alone again.  In fact, I doubt I will leave you with anyone else.  Now that we have contacted Cardassia and we know we will arrived in 48 hours, I don't think I want to share you until then."

Tom tried to pull his hands out from under him, only to discover that a strong, thin chain had been connected the cuffs.  "Undo this chain."

"No, I don't think so."  She stood up and walked over to the bed.  "You see," she said as she sat down, "I like you completely helpless."  She brushed her hand against his chin, and then started undoing the buttons on his top with one hand, while running the other one down his chest.

"Stop," he said quietly.  The heat of her hands was burning his skin.  His face flushed pink in embarrassment.  "Leave me alone."

"No," she said as she leaned down to kiss him.  He bit her lip, drawing blood.  She pulled back her hand and slapped him, hard.  His ears were still ringing as he looked up at her.  The pain was causing tears to well up in his eyes.  She reached forward and grabbed his chin in her hand and applied pressure.  "You do something like that again and I promise you, you will wish to die.  Remember how painful that drug was that the doctor gave you?  That was mild compared to what I can do to you."  She shoved his face back into the covers, and then tore his shirt open.  She leaned over him and started kissing his chest. 

Anger and frustration washed over him as he tried to throw her off.  She leaned into him, pinning him to the mattress.  Against his will, Tom's body started responding to feelings he'd never felt before.  He shivered in fear, trying to stop the rush as she reached for the waste band of the shorts.  "Stop, please," he whispered.  She opened the band of the shorts, and shoved her hand in to cup him as she leaned forward to cover his mouth with hers, pressing so hard he couldn't pull away.  Tom felt his body changing, the lower half was definitely getting aroused and he tried to stop the feelings.  As she pulled back he asked one more time, "Please?"

She pulled the shorts all the way down and climbed on top of him.  He felt his body begin to betray him as she once again locked her lips with his and ran her hands down his chest.  "Stop. Now.  Leave me alone."  He kept trying to convince her to cease.  At some point she must have gotten to the point where she was done listening to him.  Tokal covered his mouth and pressed just hard enough to convince him that she would suffocate him if he continued.  The air was getting tight. Slowly he let his mind drift off to other things, trying to tune out what was happening.  In that moment he thought of Ricki and everything she tried to teach him.  He should have listened harder.  She had tried to show him how to protect himself and he'd failed.  He swore then that once this was over, he would never let anyone best him again.  He would learn to protect himself better.

Whatever happened after that, he would never be able to completely recall.  He had emotionally checked out of his body and didn't wakeup until morning.  When he awoke, Tokal was sitting behind her desk again.  As he sat up, he felt sore needle pricks all up and down his arms as the feeling began to return.  His hands were no longer bound and he reached forward to pull his shorts up then grabbed the edges of his shirt and closed it with his fist.  "There are clean clothes and bathing supplies in the washroom."

Silently, Tom went into the other room and closed the door.  The reflection in the mirror didn't even look like him.  His skin was translucent, there were fingerprints on his chin and there were shadows under his eyes and in his pupils.  No matter how hard he scrubbed, he couldn't get the feel of her off of him.  As he took off the ruined clothing he noticed bruises on his chest and arms, but couldn't recall how they happened. He changed his clothes.  The new 'uniform' was more comfortable.  A thin, black long sleeve shirt and lightweight baggy pants the same color.  The slave collar and wrist guards really clashed with the outfit, but it made him feel less exposed.

He finally gave up trying to feel clean and went back into her room.  He sat down on her couch and just stared straight ahead at something no one else could see.  He would get his revenge.  It was just a matter of time.  A few minutes later, she stood up from her desk and picked up a cylinder.  She sat down next to him and turned his face to look at her.  He shook his head, knocking her hand away.  "You will stop this now.  I will not have you fighting me."  Then she gently turned his face once more and began moving the cylinder up and down over his bruises, removing the marks.  "You slept a long time.  We will be entering Cardassia's orbit in about three hours.  At which time the Gul Lutal will take custody of you until after his mission is over and then I get you back.  Do as he says and he won't break any bones."  She then leaned over and attached his wrist guards with a chain and then attached the leash to his collar once again. 

She stood and dragged him over to the door.  "Katat, escort our prisoner to Moset.  The Doctor has been ordered to take him to the interrogation room."

*****

Moset was sitting in the lab going over the recent scans of his test subject, when Katat brought Tom in.  He stood up and walked over to the guard.   "So we shoud be near Cardassia anytime now?" he said.

Yes, Doctor.  You are to bring him to the interrogation room as soon as you run your final tests.  Tokal isn't sure we will get him back.  She thought you might want to finish up anything you were working on, just in case."

"Very thoughtful of her.  So far I have only been testing a new tolerance drug.  He will need the next dose, either way.  Tell the Commander I will bring him down in about an hour.

"Yes, sir." 

As the guard left Tom alone with the doctor, Moset called out to his nurse,  "Corat, bring me that syringe.  The boy needs his final dose.     

"Here it is."

"Thank you.  You may go now, if you want.  This final dose should have few side effects, certainly nothing like the last ones, and if it does have life threating side effects it hardly matters since they are planning on disposing of him.  I believe the Commander would like to keep you, and the Order has no reason not to give you back to her. 

Corat, inform Tokal that I am on my way with the hostage." 

Hours later, on Cardassia, Tom was beaten by two burly guards, then dragged into a small square room and thrown onto the floor, his head was spinning from the drug Moset had once again given him.  When he could finally push up from the ground, he looked up into the face of his father.  "Dad!"  Owen Paris had been beaten once already and was bleeding from just above his left eye and from the corner of his lip.  There were three Cardassians in the room with them. 

"Tom!"  Owen looked up at the Cardassian who had been working him over.  "Leave him alone.  He's not involved in this."

"Your wrong there.  You are a traitor to us, and that makes him fair game.  You will tells us what we want to know or we will start on your son next."  And out of fear for his son, Owen told them what he wouldn't tell them to protect himself.  He finished answering the Cardassian's questions, only to see them turn on Tom anyway.  Two of the soldiers took glowing rods and slammed them into Tom's chest.  He cried out in pain and slumped to the floor.  Moments later the guards carried Tom out of the room, leaving Owen alone with his three guards, wondering what would happen to his son.

Just then a forceful explosion took out a portion of the wall behind Owen and two Starfleet officers came in with phasers blasting.  All three Cardassians were cut down in an instant and the two officers, dressed in the black of Special Operations rushed in.  The man went to Owen and braced his arm around his neck to help carry him to their ship. 

"Ricki, they've got Tom."

"Tom?" the woman asked.  She looked around but couldn't find him.  "Owen, where's Tom?" Two other Special Ops officers came up.  "We've got Janeway to the ship already.  Paris is the only one left, let's go."

"Ricki, Tom's not here," Owen whispered.  "They took him down the hall."

"Griffin, get him to the ship.  I will go after the boy,"

"Lewis, you're not going alone.  We'll come back for the boy, that's an order."

"I'm disobeying it, sir."  She turned and went out after the Cardassians.  They hadn't gotten very far dragging Tom's dead weight.  Ricki raised her phaser rifle and shot both of them.  They went down instantly.

"Katat!"  Ricki looked up to see a female Cardassian Commander come around the corner up ahead.  The woman had her own weapon pointed right at her.  Ricki Lewis didn't have time to duck, and she was sure this was it…  She heard the phaser blast, but was amazingly still in one piece.  Commander Tokal fell to the floor dead.

Ricki looked over at Tom, who was still conscious by will alone, standing braced against the wall, phaser in hand.  He must have taken it from one of the dead soldiers.  Tom looked up.  "Ricki?  I…"

"Yes, Tom, it's me."  She ran over to him checking for injuries with her eyes.  "We've got to get to the ship, now.  Can you walk?"

"I'll have to, won't I?  I'm not staying here."  Just before they got to the shuttle, Tom's vision went blurry and he fell to the ground unconscious.  Ricki picked him up draping his slight frame over her arms in front of her.

When they came onboard the rescue ship, the Victory, the woman set Tom down.  "Come on Tom, wake up."  She shook him a little as the doctor came up behind her. She felt the shuttle go to warp under her feet and knew the Cardassians would not pursue.  "Tom, come on, don't do this to me.  Wake up."

She heard his breath whoosh out of him seconds before he opened his eyes.  "Ricki?"

"Yeah, Tom it's me.  I came to get you.  I promised you I always would.  Where do you hurt?"

"Here," Tom whispered pointing to his chest.  She moved to open his shirt.  "No!" he yelled trying to stop her from opening his shirt.

"Tom, I have to.  I need to see it."

He let go of her hands and turned his face away as tears starting flowing.  She realized that even though she had known him since the day he was born, she had never seen him cry.  As Ricki opened Tom's shirt she gasped in outrage at the bruises that covered his chest.  As she pulled the shirt apart, she noticed that there were two burn marks in the fabric that went through to the skin.  "Doctor!"

"Let me in Ensign.  I need to see what's wrong."  As he got closer and saw the damage, he realized that the shuttle was not properly equipped to deal with cardiac burns and one of the marks was sitting right over the heart.  "Ensign, we need to get him into stasis, now.  I can't treat these burns here.  The Enterprise is closest, but they are still 2 days away.  If we want him to live, we need to do it now." 

"Yes sir.  Here let's get him to the cargo bay."  This time she picked the boy up across her arms and carried him.  He was still so small and light.  His weight barely phased her ad she carried him down to the cargo bay.  "She was whispering into his ear as the doctor followed behind her.  "Tom, you really need to gain some weight here.  You're so skinny a full breeze could knock you over.  When we get you out of this, I'm going to make you promise me you'll take better care of yourself."  The doctor walked around her and opened the stasis unit.  They had brought it along in case Janeway or Owen were too severely injured to be treated.  No one anticipated the possibility of Tom being here.  He was supposed to be home safe on Earth.  Special Ops had just received word that he was missing. 

When this was over she was going to find out what went wrong.  Tom was the closest thing she had to a brother and she refused to loose him this way.  The doctor opened the stasis tube and Ricki set Tom down.  As he started to drift into stasis, he opened his eyes and said, "I love you Ricki.  I …" And he was asleep.

Hours later Ricki woke to an alarm sounding.  Tom had somehow deactivated his chamber from stasis.  The computer had been monitoring his life signs and when they started to fluctuate it sounded an alarm.  He was thrashing around.  "I will shoot you!"

"Tom, your okay, everything is fine.  We're almost home."

"Nothing's going to be okay now.  You'll never want me now.  I don't deserve you…" He paused and she though he had drifted back to sleep, so his voice surprised her when he whispered, "I told her I would shoot her, she should have believed me, she should have left me alone, why couldn't she leave me alone?"

"I don't know, Tom, I just don't know."  Tom fell back asleep as the doctor reactivated the stasis unit.

****

Tom looked up from the floor and finally met B'Elanna's eyes.  "That's the first time I've ever told anyone about that time.  The counselors tried, but I pretended I had amnesia and they left me alone.  I was cleared for the academy and no one asked any questions.  I can control most of the emotions now, the 'Paris mask' but not when I am in confined spaces and stasis units are probably the smallest space you can find for me.  I was placed in one for the three days it took to get to the Enterprise, where Doctor Crusher put me back together. 

"If that rod had gotten any closer to my heart, I never would have met you.  Doctor Crusher was amazed I lived and had no apparent residual effects."

"What happened to Ricki?  Was she the character in Sandrine's?"

Tom smiled a little, the first time she had really seen him smile since the nebula.  "I did model that character after her.  I'm not even sure why, except that whenever I needed a friend she was always there.  When I started making friends here, I let go of the character.

Ricki Lewis was my sister's best friend.  When I was five and she was thirteen I told her I was going to marry her.  She told me I was more like her brother and she would always be there to protect me.  When I started having problems with the school bully, Ricki taught me the defensive strategies she was learning in school. 

"She was always there to take care of me.  And when she met Robert, she let my ego down easy.  She got married a year before Caldik Prime and didn't know what happened there until I got sent to Auckland.  She started writing me once a month.  I was supposed to go visit her when I got out of there, but I took a pleasant detour along the way.  When we get home, I want you to meet her."

"I want to.  After all, she saved your life, I think that means she can sit at our table."  She paused.  "So do you think we will get home?" 

"Definitely, its just a matter of time.  If I didn't believe that, I never would have agreed toe the stasis unit so we would be able to get home.  I will make it happen."

*******

The End