"You can do it." (J&P)

Author's Note: This story is inspired by a scene from "The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway" by Una McCormack.

/

Tom Paris was bored out of his mind.

He hated coming along to his Dad's stupid parties at Starfleet HQ. As far as he could tell, they were made up of nothing but standing around wearing a suit with an itchy collar, eating hors d'oeuvres that were so tiny you were always hungry no matter how many you ate, and letting grown-ups interrogate him about his schoolwork. His Mom and his older sisters seemed to like it, but then they were grown-ups too. He couldn't see another kid in this sea of uniforms, tuxedos and cocktail dresses anywhere.

"Hello there, young man. I haven't seen you around here before."

He snapped to attention, took his hands out of his pockets and turned around. The raspy voice with its edge of friendly amusement belonged to a young woman, a command-track ensign with blue eyes and an auburn ponytail. She smiled. "I'm Kathryn Janeway. What's your name?"

"Tom Paris, ma'am," he said politely. Before she could start on the inevitable round of questions, he decided he'd better answer them himself, if only to get the boring ritual over with faster. "I'm twelve, I go to Mayweather Prep, I'm gonna be a pilot if I can get into the Academy, and yeah, Captain Owen Paris is my dad."

Ensign Janeway blinked - maybe he'd rattled it all off too fast - but then her smile came back, this time with a conspiratorial twinkle that reminded him of his sister Kathleen in her friendliest mood.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Paris," she said. "Now, tell me honestly - are you as bored of this party as I am?"

"Huh?" His jaw dropped.

"My dad's an admiral. He's been taking me to these shindigs since I was old enough to reach the buffet table. I can smell boredom a mile away."

Tom felt a weight of apprehension roll off him. Grown-up or not, this lady understood. He loosened his collar with an emphatic yank. "Bet you didn't have to wear a penguin suit, though."

"Close. A frilly dress."

"Wow, that sucks."

They shared a grin of solidarity as she smoothed down the noticeably un-frilly shape of her red dress uniform.

"So you want to be a pilot? Have you ever flown before?"

"Not yet." He frowned at the memory of another grievance, even worse than the penguin suit. "Not even in simulations. Dad says I'm too young. But I've studied every kind of plane from the Wright brothers on."

"It must've been amazing, don't you think?" Janeway looked up with dreamy eyes through the row of floor-to-ceiling windows at the starry sky outside. "The first time that little machine lifted off the ground? Da Vinci's dream coming to life three centuries later?"

"I know, right? So cool." Tom didn't know it, but his own eyes were as dreamy as the young officer's. "And when Cochrane broke the warp barrier, can you imagine? Za-zoom!"

Several people turned to stare at him disapprovingly after this outburst, but Janeway laughed. "Hey," she said, leaning down a little, "You know I have holosuite access. How would you like it if I showed you one of our pilot training programs?"

"Seriously?" he gasped.

"Seriously."

"A real one? Like they use at the Academy?"

"Sure."

Tom hesitated. This sounded almost too good to be true. Janeway, misunderstanding, added: "I serve with your father on the Al-Batani. If you ask him, he'll tell you I'm trustworthy, although he'll also bring up all my most embarrassing rookie stories."

"Nah, that's okay."

Tom glanced over at Dad, who was holding court in front of Mom and a group of colleagues with emphatic gestures of his champagne flute, red-faced with irritation; most likely they were arguing about the Cardassian situation. Mom looked worried. The last thing Captain Paris would want right now was to be interrupted for something as frivolous as a holosuite program. Best-case scenario, he'd say no. Worst-case scenario, he'd get mad in front of everybody, including Ensign Janeway, who seemed nice and didn't deserve to get in trouble.

"I'll tell my sisters," he compromised. "They can tell Mom and Dad if they wanna know."

"Fair enough." Janeway tilted her chin toward the lobby. There was an unconscious charisma about that gesture that made it easy to believe her father was an admiral. "C'mon."

/

The underground holosuite at Starfleet HQ was a witness to one of the happiest evenings of Tom's life so far, as Ensign Janeway sat with him in the cockpit of a simulated shuttlecraft and showed him the controls. She didn't talk down to him, didn't patronize, didn't assume anything was too complicated for him to understand. She listened patiently while he told her what he already knew and answered all his questions about the things he didn't. She treated him with all the respect she would have shown a student at the Academy. If she hadn't, he would never have dared to make the request he made.

"Ensign, can I take the helm? Please?"

"Go ahead." Janeway stood up from the pilot's seat and tilted her chin. "You can do it."

Tom plopped into the slightly-too-big seat as if he'd done it every day of his life, rubbing his hands together like a pianist before rehearsal. That was how the gleaming control panels looked to him, like a beautiful instrument ready to be played, except with the power of an entire warp core behind it.

He felt like he was flying before he even keyed in the takeoff sequence.

The shuttle crashed, of course. He was twelve, and this was his first try. But since Ensign Janeway had made sure the safety protocols were fully engaged, there was not a scratch on either of them as the program reset. He looked up, red-faced with humiliation, expecting a lecture or at the very least a disappointed frown, but the officer only smoothed her disheveled ponytail and raised an eyebrow. "Wanna try that again?"

"Really?" he squeaked. "I just killed us. In a giant ball of flames!"

"It's the holosuite, Mr. Paris. We'll survive. You did better than I did on my first try, let me tell you. Can you remember where you made your first mistake?"

"Uh … yeah, I think so. Let me see … "

By the end of the time slot, he had accomplished his first safe - if not elegant - landing, and was so giddy with success he hardly felt his feet touch the ground. He practically ran out of the holosuite ahead of Ensign Janeway, and would have spread his arms like wings if he didn't consider himself too old for that.

He ran right into his frowning father, followed closely by his worried mother and curious big sisters.

"So there you are, Thomas," said Dad.

"Thank goodness," said Mom.

"Mom … " His pride and delight fizzled out like stale champagne. He hadn't meant to worry her.

"Don't you know it's bad manners to disappear like that?" Dad snapped.

"I didn't disappear, Dad! I told Moira and Kath, didn't I?"

Captain Paris' eyes narrowed. He opened his mouth to say something else, but before he could, Tom felt a warm, strong hand land on his shoulder and a supportive presence at his back.

"He was with me, sir, ma'am," said Ensign Janeway confidently, speaking to both Tom's parents. "I was showing him a pilot training program from my Academy days. I take full responsibility."

Tom was more impressed by this than he had been by her teaching or even her flying skills. He'd always thought Mom was the only person in the universe who could stand up to Dad when he looked like that.

"At ease, Ensign." Unbelievably, Dad's frown softened. "I'm not going to reprimand you. I only hope my son didn't waste too much of your time."

"On the contrary, Captain. He's very bright and has a real intuition for flying. You must be proud of him."

She gave Tom's shoulder an encouraging squeeze. He'd heard Dad's subordinates give him compliments before, trying to get on their captain's good side, but this one had the unmistakable ring of truth. It meant more to him than he would ever admit.

He looked up at his father. Miracle of miracles, the Captain was smiling.

"So we are," he said, sharing an affectionate look with Mom. "Come on, Tom. Let's go home."

The last Tom saw of Ensign Janeway, looking over his shoulder as he followed his family down the hall, the young woman was giving him a cheerful salute.

You can do it, he could hear her say. Those words were to sustain him for a long time.