Disclaimer: Star Trek: Voyager and all characters therein are the property of Americans who are not me. No infringement of copyright is intended.

NB: This story is set approximately around Season 5-7, but not particular spoilers other than this happens after Thirty Days (but after Tom re-makes it to Lieutenant again) and before Drive. Rating T/PG14

OF RYALS & RELATIONSHIPS

Chapter 3 – Brunette Bombshell

"Go ahead, B'Elanna," Captain Janeway acknowledged the transmission from Ryzak's surface.

"Captain, I can repair the module but it will take me a day longer than I anticipated?" B'Elanna explained.

"Not a problem," Janeway smiled, "by the time you get back all the new parts Jeren is supplying will have been fitted and all you will have to do is inspect them before we depart." She suppressed an actual grin at the memory of how half the engineering crew were acting more terrified of B'Elanna's incipient inspection than a Borg attack.

B'Elanna however merely nodded, distracted by the interesting engineering puzzle she was engrossed in. "Thank you, Captain. Torres out."

Janeway returned to the Captain's chair, waiting with perfectly concealed impatience for the end of the duty shift when she could retire to her Ready Room and allow herself to be simply Kathryn. But she couldn't prevent some of her cheer showing through. For once this was proving to be a pit-stop without death and disaster. Jeren's supplies were fairly priced and of good, sturdy quality. They could make up for any extra time spent here once they got going again and the crew were positively giddy with having nearly a full Earth week of rest and relaxation outside the 'giant tin can'…

On the surface, B'Elanna turned back to the cylinder, which had packed a lot of moving parts into its squat three-foot-high frame. Still, things were progressing nicely. B'Elanna picked up her empty cup and poured herself another cup of Zerin, since Jeren was out at one of the cargo depots. Despite his somewhat nervous nature, she liked him. Zerin was a pale, golden hot liquid that had much in common with the finer varieties of Earth tea – the delicate, refreshing Chinese and Japanese blends. Neelix had already purchased several of the plants from Jeren and had accompanied him to the food halls along with Sam Wildman, where the alien helpfully identified a variety of juicy fruits and flavoursome vegetables that would augment their food supplies. Anything that wasn't Leola root, as Tom had joked, would be joyously accepted.

B'Elanna felt a twinge momentarily of resentment. She didn't expect Tom to lavish adoring attention on her 24/7 for goodness' sake, but it would be nice occasionally to get higher on his list than the next chapter of Captain Proton, upgrading the Delta Flyer, working out new strategies for his endless game of pool against Chakotay at Sandrine's, or whatever shiny new toy distracted him next.

Maybe she should cut her losses, she mused absently as she fiddled with a circuit relay…she had heard her grandmother say - her human grandmother Mama Torres to her father - one day when she was four, during Aunt Sophia's wedding reception on Talis Minor...she'd heard such an unusual note of sadness in Mama's voice, though she hadn't really understood what her grandmother had meant when she told B'Elanna's father that it was 'easier to be with someone for the wrong reasons than it is to be alone for the right ones.' At least, not until her father had walked away without a backward glance a year later.

Maybe she was letting her fears of loss and abandonment get the better of her again, clinging to Tom instead of acknowledging she wasn't really important to him and moving on –Richard Platt had always had a bit of extra warmth in his smile, and back when they'd been in the Maquis, Lt Tabor had let it be known he was not averse to a closer relationship. Tom never seemed to notice if she made an effort to look feminine instead of as if she'd just spent the night scrubbing the warp plasma manifolds…Unaware of the shadow that slipped away from the shop, she continued working, soon engrossed.

Harry raised his eyebrows at the price tag on the bracelet – ten Blue Quartz Ryals for that? He wasn't that besotted over Megan Delaney. He deliberately moved away from Mr 'Smirking Dangerously Close To No Longer Being My Best Friend' Paris over there and examined some of the cheaper but unfortunately correspondingly tackier items.

"Harry human! Harry human!"

He looked up and smiled as Jeren came towards him. As usual the alien seemed to be living on nervous energy; his attitude was typically uncertain and cautious, in fact he reminded Harry a lot of the way he himself had been when he stepped aboard Voyager for the first time with Tom, so green he was emerald and pitifully naïve. Aware of Tom's amusement and that the blond would have moved behind a concealing display stand to let 'good old Harry' deal with any problems, he politely asked, "Just call me Harry, Jeren?"

"Indeed." Jeren cleared his throat and then stage-whispered conspiratorially, "I was wondering if I might be permitted to use one of Voyager's replicators?"

Harry instantly frowned. Allowing even the most-friendly and helpful seeming alien access to Voyager and any one of it's systems was something Captain Janeway was highly unlikely to sanction unless for particularly dire reasons. "I'm sorry, I don't think that would be possible…but surely you can get what you need right here?" he gestured at the thriving, bustling markets around them.

But Jeren shook his head, "I cannot, Harry. This is a matter…most delicate and sensitive…"

"What is it exactly you need?" Harry's curiosity was piqued.

"A single specimen of a plant native to your home world," Jeren against stage-whispered, "called a red rose."

"A single red rose?" Harry repeated. "What on earth for?"

Jeren cleared his throat and admitted, "I have been told that the offering of a flower to the female is a customary prelude to the courtship ritual amongst your species…"

Courtship ritual? "Er…I don't quite follow…"

Jeren sighed deeply, "I find B'Elanna human most attractive…"

Harry didn't have an empathic bone in his body but he didn't need one to know that Tom Paris, unseen inside this over-priced junk store, had just lost his smile and his attitude of amused insouciance. In fact he could feel his friend's eyes glaring into his back. Oh boy. "Jeren…I…er…that is…"

"I have noted how her hair catches the light and reflects it back and how when she smiles at me her lips seem a most luscious Idarii pink…"

Uh-oh. Harry knew he had to stop the other from rhapsodising; he was surprised the back of his uniform wasn't smouldering from the heat of Tom's outraged gaze. Any second now he was going to come storming out. "I'm sorry, Jeren, but I'm afraid B'Elanna already has a mate on Voyager."

"Oh…really…" Jeren stopped in mid-flow and looked so disappointed that Harry couldn't help feel for him… "I do apologise…B'Elanna never mentioned that…"

To be continued…

© 2005, C D Stewart