Disclaimer: Star Trek: Voyager belongs to Paramount Pictures.
Sorry, C12 was some bad British humour, I wrote it to fill in some gaps, it's not meant to make sense, if you hate it I'll take of off for you. The idea behind it came to me one afternoon and I wrote it then and there, this is the conclusion to chapter 11, sorry!
~*~
Chapter 13: You could be
San Francisco, October 27th 2379.
"What the hell were you doing?" Seven asked, although angry she had tears in her eyes.
Tad lifted his hand to her cheek and caressed it softly, "you should have left me in there," he said oddly with a sad smile on his face.
"Tad! You were drowning, you did drown! Why did you do that? Why would you do that to me?" more tears welled in her eyes, and giving up she allowed herself to cry.
"Sometimes it's easier to dream," he looked away from her, "it hurts less people."
Seven touched his cheek and ran her fingers through his hair, the past few weeks he had changed drastically from the Tad she had fallen in love with, to a wreck of a man. What made it worse was that she didn't know why, she never did know why, because he never told her, he never opened up to her. She watched as he closed his eyes, and was scared that he would leave her again, realising that she had done all that she could, she headed out of the bathroom, and into their bedroom. There she accessed the com system and called for medical assistance.
Immediately she heard the familiar bleep at the door, with a last look at Tad in the bathroom, and seeing that he was still breathing, she headed down the stairs to give them access to the apartment. Opening the door and paramedic stepped forward, "is there something I can help with?" she asked.
Seven nodded, "it's my boyfriend," Seven explained cutting across the living area and heading back up the steps, the two paramedics close behind, one slightly behind the other as he was carrying a stretcher in one arm. "He didn't answer the door, so I let myself in, and I found him in the bath. I performed CPR on him," she explained as she entered the bedroom, leading them into the ensuite, "but he's still drifting in and out of conciseness, and speaking erratically, I believe that he is concussed."
When they entered the bathroom, he was still lying on the floor dressed only in boxer shorts with a wet puddle around him. They looked across at the bath, and saw that it was full of water and ice cubes, leaving theories as to what happened to later they went straight over to the patient.
What happened next was a blur for Seven, as it became too much, she remembered them saying that he wasn't breathing, but as she became more and more overwhelmed with complex emotions she collapsed.
~*~
San Francisco, October 28th 2379 (early morning).
Seven slowly opened her eyes, everything still a blur, but quickly her vision cleared and she saw the doctor staring down at her with a smile. "How are you?" he asked as he moved away from her, placing a triquarder on the table beside her bed. Realising that she was lying on a bed, she studied her surroundings, and also realised that she was in a hospital.
"What's going on?" she asked.
The doctor's smile fell from his face, "your cortical implant is failing more rapidly than I first predicted, it seems that with the shock of finding your boyfriend drowned in the bath was too much for it to handle, and you collapsed."
Seven tried to sit up, and as she did so, the world span slightly with her. "How much longer do I have?" she asked the doctor.
He shook his face, "I wouldn't like to say," he saw her struggling to sit and so gave her a hand. Seeing the determined look in her face he thought it best to give her his guess, "I'd say a couple more weeks, maybe a month maximum, but I think that I shall be able to find a solution before then."
Wanting a distraction from her own problems, she looked back up at the doctor, "and Tad, how is he?"
The doctor nodded, although he supported her relationship with the man, a part of him always hoped that maybe she would leave him in preference for himself. He had always felt that Tad was never good enough for her, and the incident that night had just proven him right. Although there were many questions still to be asked, a theory was that Tad had tried to commit suicide, and in the doctor's mind, any man that would leave Seven in such a way was not even worth one moment of her attention. But, he could see that she cared greatly for him, maybe even loved him like she claimed that she did, and so he answered her, "he's doing okay thanks to you. The CPR saved his life, but maybe not his mind."
Seven looked at the doctor with grave concern, "what do you mean?" she asked a little shakily.
The doctor appeared to swallow, although there was nothing inside his holographic mouth for him to swallow, he gave the appearance that he was. "He is acting insanely, mumbling oddities, no one is able to make much sense of him, doctors have been trying for some time to talk to him, but they can't get one straight sentence out of him."
"How long have we been here?" Seven looked around for a clock.
"Close to four hours," the doctor told her, "apparently his family was contacted a short time ago, and are on their way, is there anyone who you would like me to contact?"
"If I am to die," Seven said, trying to sound brave, "I believe that the captain would wish to be informed, she was very disappointed that I did not inform her sooner the last time my cortical node failed, I think that she would prefer it if she was told of my situation than if she was left in the dark again."
The doctor nodded with a slight sad smile, glad to hear that Seven was finally ready to involve Kathryn. "I'll call her right away," he said.
Before he left the room, Seven called after him, "doctor, I would like to see Tad, but I think that I may need some help in reaching him."
He hesitated, but gave in, "I'll take you over myself," he said at last.
~*~
He was out of his bed, she was surprised to see that he was, but didn't know why she was so surprised, it was not as if he had received many major injuries. Tad stood by the window looking out at the dark sky, knowing that in a few hours sun would appear over the horizon and make it's may across the world. Seven wasn't sure if he was aware of her presence or not, but if he was he didn't look round. She looked round at the doctor, "you should call the Captain," she attempted to get him out of the room.
The doctor looked over at Tad, not wanting to leave her alone with him, but after some thought he concluded that there was little danger in leaving her alone with him, and even if the man had become dangerous in his insanity he was quite certain that in any situation Seven would be able to over power him. "Don't stay too long though," he warned her, "you need to rest."
Seven nodded, and watched as he left the room, closing the door behind himself to give the couple some privacy. Tad still didn't look round from the window, and this time Seven was almost certain that he knew she was there. "Tad, what happened?" she asked.
He flinched at being addressed, but didn't answer. "Tad!" Seven attempted to get his attention.
This time she did get a response from him, as he turned his head slightly in her direction, eventually his eyes made their way from the floor and met with her eyes. They had changed, she noticed, there was something unfamiliar in them, as if he could hear her thoughts he spoke, "everyone changes eventually Annika," his voice was soft and soothing, but painfully distant, as if he wasn't talking to her at all.
She took some steps closer to him, "why won't you tell me?" she asked, inches away from him now, "tell me what's wrong Tad!" tears formed in her eyes, and he looked away as if he couldn't bear to look at her.
"She went," he said, still looking at the floor, "she left me again, but she's still here, and so I thought that maybe if I left she wouldn't leave me again."
Seven put a hand on his shoulder, "who?" she put her hand to his cheek and encouraged him to face her. Reluctantly he moved his head and looked at her again.
"And now you're going to leave me," he said sadly, putting his arm around her waist, "I can see that now. It doesn't matter if you know or if you don't know, you're going to leave me. It doesn't matter if you stay here or not, you'll still leave me." He looped his other arm around her waist and leant in to kiss her.
"Don't cry," he said pulling away from her slightly, put keeping one arm around her he lifted his other hand to her face, and wiped away a falling tear from her cheek. "I think it will be okay now."
Seven looked up at him, and saw that he was smiling slightly, "Tad, I don't understand-" she stopped suddenly as she felt a sharp pain run down her spine, and then back up it. The pain didn't stop and instead filled her entire body, consuming her. She tried to cry out, but found that she was unable to speak. In her mind she searched for causes of the pain, and with reluctance realised that it was Tad who was causing it. She didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it, but the pain was intolerable, only on one occasion could she remember such extreme pain, and that had not been since she had been assimilated by the Borg when as a small child.
If she could have she would have cried to tell Tad to stop, but she couldn't. But thinking about it, he was no longer causing the pain, he was no longer even holding her, she looked for him, but found she was incapable of moving, and saw only the ceiling as she realised she was on the floor. Vision in one eye went blank, and as she wandered why she was suddenly aware of a wetness dripping down her forehead, and could only conceive that it was blood. For the second time in twenty four hours she blanked out.
~*~
A short time later
This time Seven woke up she did not see the doctor's friendly face beaming down at her, in fact she didn't see any face, and after looking around she could only conclude that she was alone. She was in a bed, whether or not she was in the same hospital, or a hospital of any description still remained to be seen. The room was lit with a dim light, and she wandered if it was not for her enhanced vision whether she would be able to see at all. Just as she was thinking about it, a rush or intense light entered the room, she looked away finding that the light hurt her eyes.
Looking away from the door she was aware of two people entering, and when she felt that the door had been closed, she looked back round. There was a woman and a man sitting on chairs by her bed, that she had not even realised were there before. They were both wearing black, and strangely enough black sun glasses. "What's going on?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady and not admit, even to hear self that she was scared shitless.
The man adjusted his sunglasses, "we are here to inform you of a change in reality," he said, his voice cold and blunt.
She was about to argue, but before she could the woman spoke up, "we know that you are of the opinion that the universe is based on mathematical equations, and the equations on the function of the universe, but for you to leave this room you must understand that that is not the case."
"But it is not the case," Seven interjected.
"There are two ways that we can go about this Ms Hanson," the man spoke loudly as if to prevent her from talking through him, "you can either except that we have the ability to alter reality, or you can stay here for the remainder of your life."
Although Seven didn't agree, she kept silent. "Good," the woman said. "The change to reality is as follows:"
"You do not know a Tobias Aden Drew Janeway," the man explained, "neither have you ever met one. However, you cannot take something from the universe with out replacing it, so you did know a Tad Holland, however, in an unfortunate water ski accident he drowned, you attempted CPR but it was to no avail."
"But that is not the case," she couldn't bare to stand, or in this case lye by and allow them to retell her life.
The woman shifted in her seat slightly, "this is not a debate Ms Hanson! We shall continue without further debate, and if we are again interrupted, we shall leave this room and we will be the last two people that you ever see, is that quite understood?"
If she could have felt her arms she would have lifted herself from the bed and shown them that she was quite in control of her own mind, but part of her believed that they were telling the truth when they said that she may never be allowed to leave if she argued with them to the contrary. So, she kept silent, and nodded that she understood what they were trying to do.
The man continued, "a doctor Ardagh who is a specialist in Borg physiology, found a way of removing the manoprobes from your body, and so as a result you are no longer reliant on your cortical node."
Seven looked round sharply at them, "what do you mean?" she asked, but saw the woman give her a look which told her that she had just interrupted.
Both the man and the woman stood from their chairs, and headed towards the exit of the room, "any further questions you have about this change in reality may not be asked, as there is no one in existence to answer them, you will wake up the moment we leave this room and not mention our visit to any unauthorised personal, as you are not aware of who is authorised, I would revert from any mention of our visit to anyone."
With those final words they left the room, leaving Seven in the dimly light of the room.
~*~
End of chapter 13
Sorry, C12 was some bad British humour, I wrote it to fill in some gaps, it's not meant to make sense, if you hate it I'll take of off for you. The idea behind it came to me one afternoon and I wrote it then and there, this is the conclusion to chapter 11, sorry!
~*~
Chapter 13: You could be
San Francisco, October 27th 2379.
"What the hell were you doing?" Seven asked, although angry she had tears in her eyes.
Tad lifted his hand to her cheek and caressed it softly, "you should have left me in there," he said oddly with a sad smile on his face.
"Tad! You were drowning, you did drown! Why did you do that? Why would you do that to me?" more tears welled in her eyes, and giving up she allowed herself to cry.
"Sometimes it's easier to dream," he looked away from her, "it hurts less people."
Seven touched his cheek and ran her fingers through his hair, the past few weeks he had changed drastically from the Tad she had fallen in love with, to a wreck of a man. What made it worse was that she didn't know why, she never did know why, because he never told her, he never opened up to her. She watched as he closed his eyes, and was scared that he would leave her again, realising that she had done all that she could, she headed out of the bathroom, and into their bedroom. There she accessed the com system and called for medical assistance.
Immediately she heard the familiar bleep at the door, with a last look at Tad in the bathroom, and seeing that he was still breathing, she headed down the stairs to give them access to the apartment. Opening the door and paramedic stepped forward, "is there something I can help with?" she asked.
Seven nodded, "it's my boyfriend," Seven explained cutting across the living area and heading back up the steps, the two paramedics close behind, one slightly behind the other as he was carrying a stretcher in one arm. "He didn't answer the door, so I let myself in, and I found him in the bath. I performed CPR on him," she explained as she entered the bedroom, leading them into the ensuite, "but he's still drifting in and out of conciseness, and speaking erratically, I believe that he is concussed."
When they entered the bathroom, he was still lying on the floor dressed only in boxer shorts with a wet puddle around him. They looked across at the bath, and saw that it was full of water and ice cubes, leaving theories as to what happened to later they went straight over to the patient.
What happened next was a blur for Seven, as it became too much, she remembered them saying that he wasn't breathing, but as she became more and more overwhelmed with complex emotions she collapsed.
~*~
San Francisco, October 28th 2379 (early morning).
Seven slowly opened her eyes, everything still a blur, but quickly her vision cleared and she saw the doctor staring down at her with a smile. "How are you?" he asked as he moved away from her, placing a triquarder on the table beside her bed. Realising that she was lying on a bed, she studied her surroundings, and also realised that she was in a hospital.
"What's going on?" she asked.
The doctor's smile fell from his face, "your cortical implant is failing more rapidly than I first predicted, it seems that with the shock of finding your boyfriend drowned in the bath was too much for it to handle, and you collapsed."
Seven tried to sit up, and as she did so, the world span slightly with her. "How much longer do I have?" she asked the doctor.
He shook his face, "I wouldn't like to say," he saw her struggling to sit and so gave her a hand. Seeing the determined look in her face he thought it best to give her his guess, "I'd say a couple more weeks, maybe a month maximum, but I think that I shall be able to find a solution before then."
Wanting a distraction from her own problems, she looked back up at the doctor, "and Tad, how is he?"
The doctor nodded, although he supported her relationship with the man, a part of him always hoped that maybe she would leave him in preference for himself. He had always felt that Tad was never good enough for her, and the incident that night had just proven him right. Although there were many questions still to be asked, a theory was that Tad had tried to commit suicide, and in the doctor's mind, any man that would leave Seven in such a way was not even worth one moment of her attention. But, he could see that she cared greatly for him, maybe even loved him like she claimed that she did, and so he answered her, "he's doing okay thanks to you. The CPR saved his life, but maybe not his mind."
Seven looked at the doctor with grave concern, "what do you mean?" she asked a little shakily.
The doctor appeared to swallow, although there was nothing inside his holographic mouth for him to swallow, he gave the appearance that he was. "He is acting insanely, mumbling oddities, no one is able to make much sense of him, doctors have been trying for some time to talk to him, but they can't get one straight sentence out of him."
"How long have we been here?" Seven looked around for a clock.
"Close to four hours," the doctor told her, "apparently his family was contacted a short time ago, and are on their way, is there anyone who you would like me to contact?"
"If I am to die," Seven said, trying to sound brave, "I believe that the captain would wish to be informed, she was very disappointed that I did not inform her sooner the last time my cortical node failed, I think that she would prefer it if she was told of my situation than if she was left in the dark again."
The doctor nodded with a slight sad smile, glad to hear that Seven was finally ready to involve Kathryn. "I'll call her right away," he said.
Before he left the room, Seven called after him, "doctor, I would like to see Tad, but I think that I may need some help in reaching him."
He hesitated, but gave in, "I'll take you over myself," he said at last.
~*~
He was out of his bed, she was surprised to see that he was, but didn't know why she was so surprised, it was not as if he had received many major injuries. Tad stood by the window looking out at the dark sky, knowing that in a few hours sun would appear over the horizon and make it's may across the world. Seven wasn't sure if he was aware of her presence or not, but if he was he didn't look round. She looked round at the doctor, "you should call the Captain," she attempted to get him out of the room.
The doctor looked over at Tad, not wanting to leave her alone with him, but after some thought he concluded that there was little danger in leaving her alone with him, and even if the man had become dangerous in his insanity he was quite certain that in any situation Seven would be able to over power him. "Don't stay too long though," he warned her, "you need to rest."
Seven nodded, and watched as he left the room, closing the door behind himself to give the couple some privacy. Tad still didn't look round from the window, and this time Seven was almost certain that he knew she was there. "Tad, what happened?" she asked.
He flinched at being addressed, but didn't answer. "Tad!" Seven attempted to get his attention.
This time she did get a response from him, as he turned his head slightly in her direction, eventually his eyes made their way from the floor and met with her eyes. They had changed, she noticed, there was something unfamiliar in them, as if he could hear her thoughts he spoke, "everyone changes eventually Annika," his voice was soft and soothing, but painfully distant, as if he wasn't talking to her at all.
She took some steps closer to him, "why won't you tell me?" she asked, inches away from him now, "tell me what's wrong Tad!" tears formed in her eyes, and he looked away as if he couldn't bear to look at her.
"She went," he said, still looking at the floor, "she left me again, but she's still here, and so I thought that maybe if I left she wouldn't leave me again."
Seven put a hand on his shoulder, "who?" she put her hand to his cheek and encouraged him to face her. Reluctantly he moved his head and looked at her again.
"And now you're going to leave me," he said sadly, putting his arm around her waist, "I can see that now. It doesn't matter if you know or if you don't know, you're going to leave me. It doesn't matter if you stay here or not, you'll still leave me." He looped his other arm around her waist and leant in to kiss her.
"Don't cry," he said pulling away from her slightly, put keeping one arm around her he lifted his other hand to her face, and wiped away a falling tear from her cheek. "I think it will be okay now."
Seven looked up at him, and saw that he was smiling slightly, "Tad, I don't understand-" she stopped suddenly as she felt a sharp pain run down her spine, and then back up it. The pain didn't stop and instead filled her entire body, consuming her. She tried to cry out, but found that she was unable to speak. In her mind she searched for causes of the pain, and with reluctance realised that it was Tad who was causing it. She didn't know what he was doing or why he was doing it, but the pain was intolerable, only on one occasion could she remember such extreme pain, and that had not been since she had been assimilated by the Borg when as a small child.
If she could have she would have cried to tell Tad to stop, but she couldn't. But thinking about it, he was no longer causing the pain, he was no longer even holding her, she looked for him, but found she was incapable of moving, and saw only the ceiling as she realised she was on the floor. Vision in one eye went blank, and as she wandered why she was suddenly aware of a wetness dripping down her forehead, and could only conceive that it was blood. For the second time in twenty four hours she blanked out.
~*~
A short time later
This time Seven woke up she did not see the doctor's friendly face beaming down at her, in fact she didn't see any face, and after looking around she could only conclude that she was alone. She was in a bed, whether or not she was in the same hospital, or a hospital of any description still remained to be seen. The room was lit with a dim light, and she wandered if it was not for her enhanced vision whether she would be able to see at all. Just as she was thinking about it, a rush or intense light entered the room, she looked away finding that the light hurt her eyes.
Looking away from the door she was aware of two people entering, and when she felt that the door had been closed, she looked back round. There was a woman and a man sitting on chairs by her bed, that she had not even realised were there before. They were both wearing black, and strangely enough black sun glasses. "What's going on?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady and not admit, even to hear self that she was scared shitless.
The man adjusted his sunglasses, "we are here to inform you of a change in reality," he said, his voice cold and blunt.
She was about to argue, but before she could the woman spoke up, "we know that you are of the opinion that the universe is based on mathematical equations, and the equations on the function of the universe, but for you to leave this room you must understand that that is not the case."
"But it is not the case," Seven interjected.
"There are two ways that we can go about this Ms Hanson," the man spoke loudly as if to prevent her from talking through him, "you can either except that we have the ability to alter reality, or you can stay here for the remainder of your life."
Although Seven didn't agree, she kept silent. "Good," the woman said. "The change to reality is as follows:"
"You do not know a Tobias Aden Drew Janeway," the man explained, "neither have you ever met one. However, you cannot take something from the universe with out replacing it, so you did know a Tad Holland, however, in an unfortunate water ski accident he drowned, you attempted CPR but it was to no avail."
"But that is not the case," she couldn't bare to stand, or in this case lye by and allow them to retell her life.
The woman shifted in her seat slightly, "this is not a debate Ms Hanson! We shall continue without further debate, and if we are again interrupted, we shall leave this room and we will be the last two people that you ever see, is that quite understood?"
If she could have felt her arms she would have lifted herself from the bed and shown them that she was quite in control of her own mind, but part of her believed that they were telling the truth when they said that she may never be allowed to leave if she argued with them to the contrary. So, she kept silent, and nodded that she understood what they were trying to do.
The man continued, "a doctor Ardagh who is a specialist in Borg physiology, found a way of removing the manoprobes from your body, and so as a result you are no longer reliant on your cortical node."
Seven looked round sharply at them, "what do you mean?" she asked, but saw the woman give her a look which told her that she had just interrupted.
Both the man and the woman stood from their chairs, and headed towards the exit of the room, "any further questions you have about this change in reality may not be asked, as there is no one in existence to answer them, you will wake up the moment we leave this room and not mention our visit to any unauthorised personal, as you are not aware of who is authorised, I would revert from any mention of our visit to anyone."
With those final words they left the room, leaving Seven in the dimly light of the room.
~*~
End of chapter 13