Disclaimer: I am not making any money of this fic, nor do I own Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation or the original series, or anything else I make references to. If you saw the character on any show, then it is not mine. The same goes for ships, planets, cultures, et cetera. This story will depict a loving relationship between two women and there are no apologies to be made over this. Chapter 12 title is from "Waking Up" by Alanis Morrisette. Song within Chapter is "Angel" by Aerosmith.

Genre: Action-Adventure, Drama
Codes: K/7, T/7
Feedback: Please, reviews are the food of the muse… but flames are for candles!

Home, Chapter 12
What goes around never comes around to you...

Present...

B'Elanna chased the floating ball, determined not to let Harry or Seven have it. The grass was slippery from a drizzle that the computer was simulating and she almost lost her footing twice. Each time, she was able to regain her balance; one of them had snatched the ball. Now she had it and she was determined to take out her frustration on it.

'Harry and Seven might be having sex.' The thought broke B'Elanna's concentration and one of the holograms took the ball from her. Enraged, she almost knocked the hologram down recovering it. A week had passed in which the two might have been getting closer. B'Elanna hated that Harry might get something that she wanted. That he had something she wanted.

WHAM!

The ball hit Harry soundly in the chest and he went down, coughing. B'Elanna suddenly felt horrible for her jealousy and anger as she remembered that it was directed at Harry. The first friend she had on Voyager. Harry, who wouldn't hurt a fly if it couldn't hurt him back. She ran to him, tripping over her own feet to find out if he was okay.

"I'm (cough) fine, really. Both of you calm down, please." Seven and B'Elanna were both asking him the same questions and he laughed, waving them off. "I'll go to Sickbay, if it means you two will stop worrying. Sheesh, I've just got the wind knocked out of me!"

…

"That, and a cracked sternum," the doctor grumbled when they reached Sickbay. "You need to take it easier, it's just a game."

"It's my fault," B'Elanna said. "I didn't really see him until after I kicked the ball. I was trying to score from half a field away."

"Well, I suppose that's understandable," the EMH said, grudgingly. "I can't fault you on an accident. You're just lucky that the safety protocols kicked in, or you would have worse than just a hairline fracture. Getting kicked point-blank by a Klingon at her strongest isn't a good way to stay healthy." Harry laughed and B'Elanna had to smile, even though she still felt terrible and wondered if she had unconsciously injured Harry on purpose.

"Thanks, Doc." Harry said, hopping off the bed when he was given a clean bill of health. "I think we still have the holodeck for fifteen more minutes if you ladies would like to finish our game? At least to the next point scored?" B'Elanna and Seven nodded and the trio left Sickbay and a protesting Medical Hologram behind.

Past...

Music floated down the corridor from their destination room. The Queen's suite. The doors hissed open to reveal Jessica dancing and singing at the top of her voice, not at all unpleasantly.

"Without your love, I'm nothing but a beggar! Without your love, a dog without a bone. What can I do?" Jessica was twirling towards the door and smacked into Luii on the last line. She leaned against his bare chest, surprised, as the song continued with 'I'm sleeping in this bed alone...' Jessica grinned up at Luii and stepped into him, wiggling playfully. "Happy to see me?" She teased, then Luii raised his eyebrow and she blushed furiously, turning and scampering back into the room.

"I've brought the Voyager officers to see you, My Queen," he stated formally. There was a hint of teasing in his voice and she grinned. He replied in kind, and then indicated that Kathryn, Harry, Tom and B'Elanna should enter. He turned and left.

"Well, welcome to my quarters." Janeway looked around, surprised at the amount of decoration in the room. It was very personalized, with two-dimensional photographs plastered to one wall in a collage of what looked like friends and family of Jessica, including one of the Queen with five identical girls, all dressed differently.

"There's no way you decorated this fast," Harry said after doing his own exploring.

"I believe that she got it messy this fast," B'Elanna joked. Jessica stuck out her tongue and knocked a pile of paper books off of a chair and cleared clothes off a couch. She looked at the items in her arms, and then tossed them behind the couch. Harry laughed.

"I always wondered how you passed room inspections," teased Kim. Jessica shrugged.

"Jaxa wanted to pass. So I... 'moved' my mess."

"Cheater," B'Elanna growled. "I was never ready for inspections and I always failed."

"Who's Jaxa?" Janeway asked. Jessica's eyes grew sad.

"Sito Jaxa. She was my roommate. She was a Senior, but since I was only planning to be there one year, they roomed me with her. Also, no one else would live with her." A dark look passed over Harry's face for a moment and Janeway had to ask.

"Why?"

"She was part of Nova Squadron. A member was killed when they were attempting to perform a dangerous and illegal stunt formation. They lied to cover it up, but in the end came clean. She was allowed to stay on, but everyone hated her afterwards."

"Sounds familiar," Tom muttered, taking a seat on the couch. Jessica shrugged.

"The dead cadet agreed to the stunt, so it was just as much his fault that he died as any of theirs." Kathryn looked shocked. "What?" Janeway shook her head. "I like the outcasts. It's one of the reasons I spent so much time as one. I don't tolerate anyone who's honestly a nice, good person to be treated like shit." Harry sat on the couch, next to Tom and B'Elanna sat next to Harry, leaving the chair to Kathryn, who sat down as well.

"Can I get you anything to drink? Tea, soda, juice, coffee?" Janeway's eyes lit up like a kid in a candy store.

"Coffee?" Jessica smiled at the captain, and then looked at everyone else. They gave her their drink orders and she went to a comm panel.

"Galley, send up a coffee, one orange juice, tea, a soda and a Raktijino." Jessica turned and walked back to the group, shoving a pile of clothes into a bigger pile and sitting on it as though it was a chair. Janeway started to offer her seat, but Jessica waved her away.

"Thank you for the coffee," Janeway said, smiling. "Where do you get it?"

"Shaola grows coffee plants naturally. Almost the same as Earth's, but the flavor is indistinguishable. Plus, we have coffee recipes from all over the galaxy. Personally, I'm nothing without a Raktijino every now and then. Coffee puts me to sleep, but something in Klingon coffee wakes me right up." A few seconds later, the boy that B'Elanna had bestowed a kiss upon earlier showed up with a tray of beverages, and then left quickly.

"I wanted to thank you, Jessica. My crew really needs the shore leave that this trip is going to provide and Voyager really needs the repairs. If we were back in the Alpha Quadrant, she would have been able to dock at the nearest port, but we've been without that luxury for a week or so now."

"You're welcome. Always glad to be of help," Jessica suddenly looked tired, stood and went into another room of the quarters without explanation. She emerged a moment later with Mary-Jane, who was whimpering quietly. Jessica sat her down and dragged a bag out of the mess. She changed the baby quietly, while everyone else looked around the room in fascination and sipped their drinks.

"To answer your question, Harry, this room is always decorated for me. I'm the only one who ever uses it, so it's always waiting for my return. But they clean it when I'm gone, so I can't find anything when I get back."

"How can you find anything in this?" Janeway asked, hoping that she wasn't being rude.

"I know where everything is. And it's not a mess," Jessica said, frowning at B'Elanna as she lifted her baby up to hold. "It's organized chaos." Everyone laughed at that, even the baby. Suddenly, Tom noticed something on the wall and he stood and walked to it.

"What's this?" Janeway stood to examine it as well. The only thing she could read was the first two words: Jessica Sara. The next part looked like it was in Klingon and the rest of the page was in the same language as the signs on the ship.

"That's my name," Jessica said with a laugh.

"There's gotta be a hundred here!" Tom exclaimed.

"One hundred and seven, to be precise. Shashans have a particular method of naming. The first name is my personal name, the one that I am called by. The second is from the race of my father's mother. Then my father's father's race is the third name. But since my father was full human, my Callayna's father's race is the third name. Jessica Sara B'Eal. Then my main race is the fourth name—Shanala. It means 'impossible.' I'm not sure if it's an insult or not. The next hundred are my ancestors' surnames, back fifty generations, the last being my mother's married name—Wrou. Then my maiden surname, since it was changed when I was on Earth—"

"O'Neil?" Janeway asked, surprised to find another name she could read. "Troi and Rozhenko." Jessica nodded as Kathryn looked at her for confirmation.

"That's a lot of names to learn," Tom said. Jessica nodded again.

"At least I don't take any but my First husband's last name."

"First husband?" Tom asked.

"She has two," Harry supplied. Tom raised his eyebrow.

"How many are you allowed to have?" Janeway asked.

"No more than five, including wives, if I wish." Kathryn shook her head and looked back at the long string of names, trying to see if she could read any others. "My mother's side isn't listed, only my Callayna's, so you won't be able to read most of those names. He took his mother's and she her father's, and so on. My father's name is in there, too. We're also expected to memorize the full name of the parent of the same gender. It prevents inbreeding."

"Makes sense," Tom said. "But if you have two husbands, before genetic testing was available, how did you know which was the father?"

"Only the Queen is allowed to take multiple spouses and if paternity is in question, then the First husband is named the father by default."

"Kirk?" Kathryn had finally found another name that she could read.

"Shh. It's a secret." Jessica said in a little girl voice. Kathryn turned and looked at the girl. Short, golden hair curled softly around her head and yes—she saw the same look that the legend's pictures had held in her eyes. Janeway shook her head.

"Impossible."

"That's my name, don't wear it out," Jessica muttered. "My family always has the ability to space-shift. My mother was no exception and she was much better than I at spatial perception. If she hadn't been where she was, then the miracle of my birth would never have happened. My mother wasn't supposed to have children. But this anomaly had a thing for granting dreams..." Jessica's eyes grew distant, as Janeway noticed they often did.

"How did your mother meet him? I thought that you were the child of her first marriage. James Kirk was never married."

"She met him on Earth, where she was born. It was annulled. No records exist for it. Not even their memories, since they're both dead now. But my sons will carry his name in theirs, even if they don't know why."

"How many children do you have?" Kathryn asked.

"Too many." Jessica noticed that Kathryn wanted a number and answered. "Pamela, who's now dead, Alexandra, who's two, Brian, Jack and Elizabeth, who are one and Mary Jane. Also, I'm currently gestating." Kathryn shook her head in disbelief. "It's a product of genetic engineering from five hundred years ago, during a plague. Our scientists, desperate to repopulate our species, who were down to only a few million, worked with the most prominent families to increase breeding. About three hundred Houses were chosen, including mine, the third and the fourth Houses, to be altered.

"Once, we entered our first minor sajala at about the age of thirteen and were able to breed around the age of fifteen through seventeen for our first true sajala. The scientists lowered the breeding age in some families, including mine, to ten. A side effect of their tampering, in about sixty Houses, was that at five months into gestation, we begin ovulating again. Suffice it to say that a lot of women were bred to death in that time, but since then, we're a little more careful."

"You don't seem to be," Tom remarked, earning a wry grin from Jessica.

"No, I'm not. But I wasn't supposed to be able to have children, either, due to my condition. So when I accidentally got pregnant the first time while being pregnant, it was a shock."

"Condition?" Janeway asked. Harry had been smiling, but immediately, it vanished from his face.

"I have what is called Vaggimort Syndrome. It occurs only in children born to mothers with damaged ova. The results are often sterility and advanced mental prowess, but I can have children, although I do experience the latter. The other effect of the syndrome is death." Jessica said it calmly, no hint of emotion. "No one with Vaggimort has ever seen their twenty-first birthday, although one male lived to the day before. Between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, rapid aging begins. Sometimes it lasts a few days, sometimes a few years. The end result has never changed, in the two hundred thousand years since it was first diagnosed."

"A coma, then death." B'Elanna said, sounding subdued. Jessica nodded and Kathryn felt her heart pang in sympathy.

"How long have you known?" Janeway asked.

"It was diagnosed in myself and my sisters in utero. No cure has ever been found, not even a preventative measure. I've known since before I was born, through the telepathic link with my mother. It's why I was accepted into the Academy and allowed to take an accelerated schedule of classes. Because I'm racing time, trying to live before I die." All the exuberance was gone from Jessica and for a moment, she was completely serious. Then she shook it off and smiled at everyone. "Anyone for a game?"

Present...

"Hey, Spaz, watch where you're going!" B'Elanna heard Carey shout. Angrily she spun on him, but he was already on the lift to an upper level of Engineering. She turned to Spacey, who was trying to gather up the instruments that had spilled all over the floor when Carey had crashed into her and knelt down to help her pick them up. Spacey looked surprised at B'Elanna and smiled shyly.

"Thank you, Lieutenant." B'Elanna looked into her clear green eyes and smiled back.

"Don't let them get to you," B'Elanna offered. They stood up and the petite redhead suddenly hugged B'Elanna, and then shrunk back on herself.

"I know that that wasn't protocol, it's just that you've done so much for me. If it weren't for your recommendation, I'd still be down here all the time, stumbling around. I love flying this ship, she's so responsive and I know from working here that that's partly due to you. So thank you for giving me a chance, especially when you did." Anna's eyes went to her hand where she nervously picked a hangnail.

"You're welcome, Anna." Spacey smiled one more time, then her eyes grew large as saucers and she looked past B'Elanna, her pale skin blanching until the tan spots that traveled down either side of her face and neck stood out in stark relief. B'Elanna looked behind her, but all she saw was Harry Kim, discussing something with Vorik. She looked back at the part-Trill woman and wondered what had her so... B'Elanna looked back. Harry? Vorik? Once more her eyes traveled back to Spacey and there it was.

The young woman was in love. Or at least had a serious crush. On which one of the men, B'Elanna didn't know. Spacey snapped out of her trance and the color bled back into her face, tingeing her cheeks with pink. B'Elanna grinned knowingly and Anna blushed furiously as she met the half-Klingon's eyes.

"I better get going," she said and scurried out of Engineering, not looking back up even once. B'Elanna chuckled lightly and then went back to work, in a much better mood than before.

…

"Regeneration cycle incomplete." The computer complained as Seven sat up in bed. Seven looked at the compact regeneration unit attached to her bed that allowed her to appear to sleep and sighed. It had been a dream. The same dream that she had experienced for the past four nights, never changing. She was standing in a field, a pink dress blowing about her body, not a single implant remaining in her system.

'Unimatrix Zero? No… not quite.' Seven lay down and tried to remember the dream even as her mind tried to reorganize her thoughts to forget it.

There was a warm sun shining overhead, heating her and making the world around her sparkle. She was laughing into a breeze and she started picking flowers—violets. She looked up from kneeling on the grass when she heard a sound. It was her name. 'Seven!' Harry was calling and she looked at him. He was smiling, offering her a bouquet of roses. She looked down at the tiny purple and white flowers in her hand and heard another voice. But this voice was crying.

She stood and ran to the crying voice, finding B'Elanna, sitting on a sheet of metal. Suddenly, clouds began rolling in overhead. As Seven walked to B'Elanna, she saw that she was lying across a torpedo casing, with a blue United Federation Of Planets flag lying across it. Seven offered B'Elanna the violets, knowing that they weren't enough.

Seven looked around as B'Elanna took the crumpled flowers and saw Harry, still smiling, illuminated in a shaft of sunlight. The roses hung limply at his side and his expression changed from happy to puzzled. Seven looked back down at B'Elanna to find that the half-Klingon had lain the flowers on the makeshift coffin.

'My love,' B'Elanna whispered, and kissed the shiny black surface. She looked up at Seven and glared. Seven looked back at Harry, but he was gone. 'You killed my love—' Seven looked back down as the thunder drowned out B'Elanna's words. She was giving a speech, but the thunder rumbled on.

Suddenly, the scene shifted and B'Elanna was sitting on top of her, wrestling with her. Seven wasn't strong enough and B'Elanna leaned down and bit her cheek. Seven cried out, not in pain, not in pleasure. She just reacted. B'Elanna didn't look happy.

'You still can't feel me!' B'Elanna slapped her and Seven started crying. Suddenly, B'Elanna was gone and in her place was Harry, trying to soothe her. Rain had started pouring from the sky and his body blocked it from hers. He kissed her gently, then more forcefully, climbing on top of her. She felt him, pressed against her and again, there was nothing.

'You still can't feel me.' He looked sad.

'I do not know what you mean!' Seven cried. Harry shook his head.

'I'm just an experiment.'

'She doesn't know what she wants,' B'Elanna reappeared to add.

'She wants you,' Harry said. B'Elanna didn't look convinced.

'Does she? Then why is she with you?'

'Because she wants to be human.'

'Human? She's just a machine.' Seven stood and ran from them, to the torpedo coffin. She knelt down in front of it and threw the lid open. She looked into the face of—

"Regeneration cycle incomplete." Seven looked around again, then threw her pillow across the room.

"I am not a machine!" She yelled at no one in particular. Seven felt a tear begin to track down her cheek and she covered her eyes with the palms of her hands. "I have feelings! I do feel you!" She screamed the words, defying every nasty comment, every fearful look, and every denied emotion that she had ever known.

Next door, the young occupant awoke to Seven's shouts. She began to cry in the darkness, whispering, "I hear you." Anna rolled over in bed and closed her eyes, the sole witness to Seven's outburst.

To be continued…