Another Place

Chapter 8

Tom was outside of Sickbay waiting for Janeway and the triplets to be released. He was unsure whether or not to go in for fear of walking in on Janeway breast feeding. Tom was pacing outside of the doors wondering if he should go in at all.

"You're going to have to go in sometime, Helmboy." Q said appearing next to him.

"Are you sure we watched everything?" Tom asked. "We didn't see anything about 'Star Trek', I could look again. And what about the Oscars?"

"We saw all of the award shows." Q responded. "We've seen all of the Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, MTV Movie Awards, VMA Music Awards, even the Stuntman Awards! Now, go in there!" Q pushed Tom into Sickbay and then she disappeared.

"Ahhh, Mr. Paris, about time you showed up." The Doctor said. He walked over to Tom and handed him two babies, one was Joey the other was Phoebe. "Now, there are some things I need to tell you."

Tom didn't pay attention at all to what the EMH needed to tell him. Tom was too busy looking back at the two babies. He was listening to their cooing and watched as they smiled back at him. They were pretty adorable.

"Got it?" The Doctor asked. Tom looked up at him.

"Got it." Tom lied.

"Good, now the Captain is over there breast feeding, you can join her if you want." The Doctor replied.

"Ahh, no, I think I'll play with these two right now." Tom answered. The Doctor looked at Tom oddly, shook his head, and then went into his office.

Soon after the Doctor left, Kathryn walked over to Tom carrying Maggie. Tom didn't even notice she was walking over to him because he was too busy staring at the two babies he was holding. With her free arm, the Captain wrapped her arm around Tom's neck and gave him a long passionate kiss. Tom snapped out of his ravine and stopped Janeway from jamming her tongue down his throat.

"Ahhh, let's go home." Tom said.

"Um, okay." Janeway replied.

The two left Sickbay carrying their three children. The passing crewmembers oohed and ahhed as they saw the babies. Most offered advice on how to take care of the babies, but everyone knew it was pointless. Three babies, two parents, do the math. Once Tom and Kathryn entered their quarters they put the babies in the three cribs in a different room that was connected to the living room/dining room.

"Wow, you did a good job, Tom." Kathryn said once they both got back to the living room.

"Thanks, it wasn't that hard, move a few things here, move a few things there." Tom answered.

"Shall we celebrate?" Kathryn asked. Though her tone seemed innocent, Tom knew what she meant.

"Crap." Tom started. "I forgot, I have to meet Harry for lunch. We needed to talk over some Bridge schematics."

"Can't that wait? I haven't seen you in over a day." Kathryn asked genuinely sad.

"You know, I'll go meet him in the Mess Hall and we'll get it done in a few minutes." Tom responded.

Tom left their quarter's right after he said that and made his way to the turbolift in hopes of seeing Q there again. And he was right; she appeared soon after he entered the turbolift. Tom halted the lift and began to freak out.

"I can't do this." Tom started. "I can't do this. I don't love her, I don't remember doing the act to get those babies, and I don't remember our life together. And I have to have sex with her! I've had six babies with Janeway within three years! Three tadpoles three years ago and now these three babies! If I have sex with her again I'll probably end up with six more kids! I don't want to do this!"

"This is supposed to teach you what it's like to be a father." Q replied.

"I don't want to learn this way!" Tom responded. "When you become a father for the first time you're supposed to not know anything! I want to be an idiot when I become a father!"

"You want ignorance over intelligence?" Q asked.

"It's worked for me well over the years." Tom answered. "I want to go home. I want to go to my home. I don't care what kind of punishment I'll get! Hell, I'll take a demotion, a year in the Brig, I don't care, I just want to go home!"

"You know, you were fun to a point, but now it's just sad." Q replied; she snapped her fingers and disappeared, leaving Tom alone in the turbolift.

"Tom?" a voice echoed. "Tom? Are you alright? Tom?" It was Riga's voice. All of a sudden there was a searing pain in his head. Tom closed his eyes to try and get rid of the pain. When he opened his eyes again, he wasn't in the turbolift; he was in the Delta Flyer.

"Tom, are you alright?" Riga asked again, he was kneeling next to Tom who was lying on the floor.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Tom answered. He sat up and leaned against the helm console. When he put his hand over his head, there was some blood dripping down. "Where are we?"

"The Delta Flyer." Riga replied confused. "Voyager shot a photon torpedo down and it hit our photon torpedo. The impact caused the ship to shake violently and you fell out of your seat and hit your head. We're now floating up to the surface."

"Oh thank the gods!" Tom stated.

Later in Sickbay…

"Mr. Paris, please, stay still." The Doctor said. Tom was sitting on the biobed looking around Sickbay.

The doors opened and Captain Janeway walked in. Though it was obvious that she was beyond mad, Tom was happy to see her.

"You're not pregnant!" Tom exclaimed. That stopped Janeway in her tracks and possibly made her even madder.

"What!" Janeway asked angrily.

"Captain, something happened while I was down there." Tom said.