At Any Cost- Ch.12- Leave Him Alone
Just as I put the coordinates in for the Alpha Quadrant, Thor came up on the view screen.
"We are about to depart, Captain Janeway." Thor said. "I am sorry I can not stay longer, but I must have a... conversation with the Goa'uld, especially Hathor. Lieutenant Paris, I will see you again." He nodded his head and cut the communication.
"Lieutenant Paris, I think you should take the rest of the day and tomorrow off. Oh, and don't let Tameth out, not yet." Janeway smiled. I went to the turbolift and Harry followed. We both called for our decks and the lift started.
He wasn't smiling; he hadn't smiled since Hathor's attack. This whole thing must've hit him really hard. Finding out your friend is part of a different race than first suspected and he not telling you is a little nerve racking.
"Hey." I said, trying to get him to talk. "What's wrong?"
"Why didn't you tell us in the first place, with Hathor?" He asked.
"Well gee, I'm sorry, I knew I should've told you guys that I was apart of a race that wasn't known to many people." I replied sarcastically. "Harry, would you seriously have believed me if it weren't for the Asgard?"
"No." He said in a low voice. "But you could've found proof or something that would convince us."
"No matter what I did, no one would believe me. For god's sake Harry, you didn't even believe me! If my best friend wouldn't believe me, who would?" I asked.
"Point taken, but, Tom, why did you leave? You left us all to die, only to come back." He asked, tuff question.
"I had to. Hathor would've killed everyone just to get me and she almost did, but I stopped her." I answered. "We're still buddies right?"
"I don't know. Sure you might still be you, but after what you've done, running away when we could've helped, you're not the person who I thought you were." Harry said, a little somber. "You have two other people living inside you and you can change into them! Hell, they might've changed you from a nice guy to a lying, outsider. You might have really dangerous people inside you and it scares me that at any moment they can come out. I don't know what we are, Tom. Just, for now, leave me alone."
I was completely and utterly shocked. Harry, the nicest, friendliest, and most naïve young man said, 'leave me alone.' One and a half years on Voyager and we went through the thick and the thin, but this time is just too much for him to handle. The lift stopped and Harry got off on his deck.
Why did I have to do this? I thought. If Harry doesn't want to continue our friendship, what about everyone else? Sure they all seemed so happy, but they're probably faking it. Damn, why did I have to tell them? Why do I always do this to myself?
The lift stopped at my deck and I practically ran to my quarters. I took my injection and took a shower. I got ready for bed and tried to clear my head of all these questions. I slipped into my bed and called for the lights out. I tried to move the blankets over, but they were stuck on something, or someone. I called for the lights on and saw Q lying in the bed next to me in an old pink night gown with a little hat.
"What the hell are you doing here?!?!?!?" I yelled jumping out of the bed. "What're you doing in my bed?"
"Calm down Tommyboy. I just wanted to tell you that I stopped the Vidiians and Kazon. They won't be attacking Voyager together." Q smiled sitting up in the bed.
"Couldn't you have told me that when I first came in?" I asked annoyed.
"I just got here, so, no." He smiled and snapped his fingers. He was gone, but I had the distinct feeling of him watching me. Ignoring the feeling I got into bed. It was hard to fall asleep, but eventually I did.
I woke up to find B'Elanna hovering over me. She wasn't smiling, just like Harry.
"How'd you get in here?" I asked sitting up. B'Elanna sat on my bed and just looked at me.
"I used my code to get in." She replied. "We need to talk."
"What time is it?" I asked yawning.
"O two hundred." She answered. I looked at her surprised. "We need to talk, but I guess I can meet you for lunch or something." She got up to leave.
"No, wait, we can talk now, I don't mind." I said grabbing her hand. She looked at our clutched hands and sat back down. "Listen-" She cleared her throat and I realized that I was still holding her hand. "Oh, sorry about that." I let go and started over. "Listen, I'm sorry about what Tameth said about you being my girlfriend. Believe me; I'll make sure he leaves you alone when he's out and about."
"Thanks, but that's not what I wanted to talk about." B'Elanna said, in the same low voice as Harry had yesterday. "Tom, I-"
"You're doing the same thing as Harry." I whispered. "You don't want me around. To quote Harry, you want me to 'leave you alone.'"
"What did Harry do?" She asked. I told her everything that happened yesterday. "Harry actually said, 'leave me alone?'"
"Yes, and he meant it." I replied.
"I'm going to kill him." She murmured. "Why did he do that? There's no point! Just because things have changed doesn't mean that you two should stop being friends!"
"But you were going to do the same thing." I assumed. I'm confused.
"No, Tom." She claimed. She put her hand on my hand. "I wanted to talk about what happened. I want to say thank you and how surprised I was that you left us the first time. I also wanted to know if you knew what kind of engines the Asgard has." We laughed and she kept her hand on mine, it felt good and so... right.
"Tom, I understand your reasoning for leaving, but I don't get why you left so suddenly. I saw your face when Hathor was on the comm again. You looked angry." B'Elanna went quiet.
"You were there when Jack told the senior staff about how he killed Hathor. Hathor had a lot of enemies. One of them was Jack's team, Hathor hated two people most of all, one was Daniel whom Hathor tried to do it with and the other was Jack. She hated Jack the most. Jack wasn't too thrilled about Hathor, so when I saw her on the view screen in Engineering, I knew she was going to do something. Also, not only my hatred for her was showing, but Jack's." I whispered. B'Elanna held onto my hand tighter. I decided to tell her what happened while I was on Hathor's ship.
"Tom, to be honest, I don't think I would've be so courageous to risk my life. I mean on both counts. You risk your life to save Voyager when we were going to be destroyed by Hathor and another time when the Asgard were going to kill us and you. Thanks." B'Elanna smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Now that felt like it was right. "Now, don't die yet, Paris, you're this ship's lucky charm." WE both smiled and she let go of my hand and left.
"Computer, what time is it?" I asked.
"O three forty seven hundred hours." The computer responded.
That took awhile. I thought. Wow, first Harry says he doesn't want to be friends anymore. Then, I hold B'Elanna's hand for a nanosecond. Next, she holds my hand for twenty minutes. And then to finish it all up, she kisses me! Sure it was only on the cheek, but it was incredible! I should do weird things more often.
I decided that sleep wasn't going to be an option because of what's been happening so I decided to get breakfast.
It was around four thirty in the morning when I received a message.
Lieutenant Tom Paris,
Please meet me in my ready room at O twelve hundred. I think that we should discuss these past events.
Captain Kathryn Janeway
Looks like Janeway wants to talk. What else can happen?