Prompt 85: "It doesn't bother me." (Jenny & Megan Delaney)

Episode: "Thirty Days"

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"It's the Delaney sisters, Harry. They're twins. Does it really matter which one?"

In Tom Paris' defense, he probably had no idea what a carrying voice he had. Jenny was in no mood to defend him, however, when she saw Megan stop in her tracks, her long brown curls falling forward like a curtain. Neither of them heard Harry's quieter answer as the two men headed for the turbolifts. Jenny's first impulse was to charge after them, but she swallowed it down. Tom was still a superior officer, and besides, looking after her twin was more important. She caught Megan's elbow and steered her in the opposite direction, back to their quarters to change out of their ridiculous Captain Proton costumes.

"I can't believe he said that. What an asshole!"

Megan and Tom had gone out together several times during their early years in the Delta Quadrant, which was how the four of them had started hanging out to begin with. He'd lost interest when he'd fallen for B'Elanna, though, and this being a small ship, Megan's only option had been to swallow her hurt feelings and be friends. She had managed this with such panache that he never even suspected, but Jenny knew – and to hear Tom talking about the two of them like this made her furious.

"He just said that to get a rise out of Harry. You know how he is." But Megan's face was still flushed with hurt under her pointy headdress, even as she shrugged with would-be indifference. "Besides, we do act like the same person most of the time. You can't blame other people for taking us up on it."

She smoothed the black and silver skirt of her Demonica gown, as identical to Jenny's as her face and body, as evidence.

Jenny scowled. "I can and I will, if it bothers you that much."

"It doesn't bother me. I'm fine."

"If you say so, but you won't catch me playing Malicia for him next time. I quit."

"You can't do that!" Megan gasped. "You'll ruin the story arc. Besides, it'll never be as fun without you. You're so much better at being evil than I am."

Jenny couldn't help smiling a little at the sincere way Megan said that. She flounced her skirt and tossed back her hair. "I am, aren't I? Look at it this way. Maybe if they're on the holodeck with only one of us, Tom will finally learn to tell us apart as well as Harry can."

She could have sworn that she was being casual, that there was nothing about her face and voice that would give her away. But it was impossible not to think of Harry as Buster Kincaid, playing Tom's sidekick with both humility and humor … as Ensign Kim in Astrometrics, always patient with Seven of Nine's Borg manners, always kind to junior officers like Jenny and Megan … the way he could focus his bright black eyes on a problem and see details no one else would pick up on, how he felt the music visibly when he played his clarinet, and how he never, ever lost faith that they would get home.

People who could tell the Delaneys apart often called Megan the sensitive twin, and they had a point. She stopped walking, put her arm around Jenny's shoulders, and looked at her with big, compassionate eyes.

"Oh, Jen. After all this time?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jenny shrugged her off and kept walking.

"You still like Harry. I knew it!" Megan brightened up amazingly as she hurried to keep up with Jenny's lengthening strides, their matching stiletto heels click-clacking on the floor. "See, this is why you can't quit Proton. It's the perfect opportunity!"

They had reached their quarters. Jenny punched the door control, marched in without looking behind her, and pounced on the cupboard where they kept their uniforms. They wore the same size and were both science officers, so it didn't matter whose clothes were whose. She tossed trousers, turtleneck and jacket over her shoulder before picking out her own set, knowing Megan would catch them, even as she kept chattering about what a perfect opportunity it was.

"You know he loves doing the torture scene … Oops! … He can't take his eyes off us in these costumes and who can blame him, we're gorgeous … Jen, seriously, did you even fold these? … He obviously likes us, that's a good sign, right? Hey, can you unzip me?"

Jenny sighed, unzipped Megan's dress as she'd been doing since they were toddlers, and turned around so Megan could do the same for her. It was a considerable, if childish, satisfaction to crumple up the Malicia costume and toss it into a corner, headdress and all. Megan, of course, hung hers up neatly in the closet instead.

"He likes you, Meg." Jenny kicked off her high heels and slumped down on the bottom bunk in her underwear, her irritation fading to defeat. "You're the one he always looks at first in this dress. You're the one he talks to before and after. Because unlike some people, he doesn't treat us like we're interchangeable. And it doesn't bother me that much … honestly, I think you'd be a better match for him than I am. I mean, look at what happened in Venice."

Megan's mouth twitched with suppressed laughter, and Jenny couldn't blame her. Their ill-fated double date with Tom and Harry in the Venice holoprogram, which had ended with Harry dodging Jenny in a gondola and falling into the canal, had gone down in Delaney twin history as a joke. Harry was a darling, but he didn't handle surprises well. It had been weeks before he could look Jenny in the face again, let alone spend time with her off-duty.

"He'd be better off with a woman who doesn't rock the boat." Jenny snorted. "Literally."

"Well, that's too bad." Megan slumped down next to her. "Because he's not my type at all. I like guys who rock the boat."

"Or fly the ship?"

"Oh, shush."

Megan gave Jenny a light shove, which Jenny exaggerated as always by falling sideways until her head hit the pillow. Left to her own devices, she could have pulled the blanket over her head and stayed there for hours.

"Hey." The same hand that shoved her now ran lightly over her hair. "It's okay. You don't have to stay in the program if you don't want to. I'll tell Harry we're quitting, first thing tomorrow."

"We?" Jenny sat up, shook her hair out of her face, and stared at Megan in disbelief.

"Of course."

"But you love it." Jenny thought remorsefully of how careful Megan had been with that silly costume earlier. "I don't want to ruin it for you. Can't you find someone else to play Malicia?"

"What?" Megan frowned. "No. I don't love it. I mean, it's fun, but I was mostly in it to give you your chance with Harry. Now we've established that's not happening … "

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Jenny exclaimed. "I was mostly in it to help you get over Tom!"

Jenny looked at Megan. Megan looked back.

One sister raised her right eyebrow, the other her left.

They fell back on the bed and burst out laughing.

Thank the universe, thought Jenny, for twins.

They had lived apart for several years. Tom wasn't the first guy Megan had fallen for with a sense of adventure; the first one had been a Maquis sympathizer, and she'd joined his cause and seen him killed. People who didn't know them well would never have picked sensitive Megan over brash Jenny as the former outlaw, but it was that same sensitivity that had almost broken Megan after her loss. Even now, there were parts of her past she still didn't talk about, even to her twin.

Jenny had volunteered for Voyager's mission to the Badlands hoping against hope to find her sister, and she still couldn't believe her luck that it had actually worked. If they took their matching outfits and inside jokes a little too far sometimes, it was out of gratitude, and perhaps for reassurance that they wouldn't lose each other, even though they might.

"Okay, okay. C'mon." She hauled herself back upright, pulled the turtleneck over her head and then the trousers. "Seven's gonna kill us if we're late."

"We've got fifteen minutes." Megan glanced at the chronometer on the wall. "Plenty of time."

They put on their uniforms and pinned up each other's hair, a routine they had down to an art form.

"How do we look?" asked Megan.

"Gorgeous." Jenny pulled a single curl out of her sister's bun. "There. So they can tell which one."

Megan, the best mirror anyone could ask for, tucked the curl behind her ear and smiled.

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Author's Note: The idea of Megan being Maquis and her backstory is borrowed from The Cheshire Cheese.