AN: Here we are, another piece here. I loaded Chapter 26 this morning, so please do read that, first, if you haven't already read it.
I hope you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!
111
"See? There's nothing I can't fix with a few blankets, pillows, and determination," Raffi said.
"You are an engineer," Seven said.
"And sometimes my medium is couches," Raffi said. "Now—I can reach both the drinks. Get your popcorn and come here. Snuggle in."
While they shared the shower, Seven had expressed her particular sadness over the Starfleet couches in their quarters. While not entirely uncomfortable, they weren't quite couches like the one they had at their home, and Seven, it seemed, was lamenting that their family movie night wouldn't be the same if Raffi couldn't cuddle with her in quite the way she preferred at their home.
Raffi opened herself up, inviting Seven to join her in the blanket and pillow nest that she'd created on the couch.
"This couch is lower than our couch," Seven said, turning around and sitting down before she swiveled her body to slide into the spot that Raffi made for her. As soon as Seven leaned back against her, Raffi moved her legs to hug around Seven. She enjoyed the pressure of Seven's body against hers as she got settled in.
"We'll get Elnor to get us off of it, if we get stuck," Raffi teased. "Comfortable?" Seven hummed in the affirmative. "Do you need a pillow? Is your neck OK?"
"You are my pillow," Seven said. Raffi hugged her. "Are you comfortable? Am I too heavy for you?"
"You're perfect," Raffi said. "I told you we could make it like home."
"You were correct," Seven said.
"Move the popcorn bowl just a little," Raffi said.
"You can't reach it?" Seven asked, trying to move the bowl so that she could share the movie treat with Raffi.
"I don't want to reach it," Raffi said. "I want to reach this…"
She managed to rest her hands so that her fingertips touched Seven's abdomen. She rubbed her fingertips there, and Seven covered Raffi's hand with her left hand—the other holding the popcorn out of the way.
"That feels good," Seven said.
"I'm not doing anything," Raffi said.
"I simply enjoy your touch," Seven said. "I believe the baby does, too."
Raffi smiled to herself and snuggled a little closer to Seven—not that there was really much room between them for her to do so.
"Seven—about what happened today," Raffi said. "With that Dr. Spalen…"
"What is there to say about him?" Seven asked.
"You don't have to do this," Raffi said. "The whole—meeting with him and his colleagues. You don't have to do that. If you want to change your mind, if you feel like he backed you into a corner, I'll tell Chakotay first thing in the morning. We'll tell Janeway and JL. They'll pull the plug on the whole thing. You don't have to answer any of their questions, not if you don't want to."
"I intend to go through with the talk," Seven said.
"I don't want them to be rude to you," Raffi said. "I don't want them to treat you like an exhibit, and that's exactly what I think is going to happen."
"I have no doubt that you are correct," Seven said.
"Then—why won't you let me call it off?" Raffi asked.
"It is my sincerest hope that, by having the talk, and opening up the discussion to anyone who wishes to come, I may lessen the amount of people who view me as an exhibit," Seven said. "At the moment, I am Borg—something that intrigues and terrifies nearly everyone on the ship to some varying degree. If, by answering some questions and opening myself up to address their concerns, I am able to relieve both curiosity and fear, then I will simply become something familiar."
"Someone familiar," Raffi said. "Let's not forget that you're human, too, just because they seem to forget that. I don't want my wife—my love—dehumanized."
"I appreciate your support, Raf, but I am entering into this fully aware of the risks and hopeful for a truly positive outcome," Seven said.
"If we talk about the elephant in the room, maybe that'll take care of the problem," Raffi said.
"Something like that," Seven said.
"Fine—but I'm going to be there," Raffi said.
"I would be disappointed if you didn't come," Seven said. "I would like to have you with me."
"And I'm not promising to keep my mouth shut, either," Raffi said. "If it's meant to be a learning opportunity, then I think that means that people should learn, and part of learning is learning when something isn't acceptable."
"I will appreciate your assistance," Seven assured her. "However, I am able to handle most situations."
Raffi laughed, and she gently traced her fingers along Seven's abdomen, absent-mindedly rubbing her since she had expressed her enjoyment of the sensation and hadn't made any show of wanting Raffi to stop.
"I know that," Raffi said. "You know, it was kind of hot when you grabbed that asshole's arm and nearly scared him to death. You could see, for just a minute, that his whole damn life flashed before his eyes."
Seven laughed, and her laughter shook her body and transferred into Raffi's body, shaking her, too.
"I was considering breaking his arm for a moment," Seven said. "For research purposes, of course. I thought he might enjoy having his own up-close and personal encounter with the Borg to discuss in his research papers and conferences."
It was Raffi's turn to laugh, then, and to share that laughter with Seven.
"You should have," Raffi said. "He was disrespectful and dehumanizing. You know—if you had broken his arm, people would treat you a lot differently. It could be just as effective as the question-and-answer session, really."
Seven hummed. She trailed her fingertips over the tops of Raffi's hands and up her arm. The touch was light and it tickled, sending tiny shockwaves up Raffi's arms. With her right hand still holding the bowl, Raffi knew that the touch was for her benefit and not for Seven's really, other than giving her something to do. Though she could use them, she had no actual sensation in her left fingertips. Raffi took the touch as an invitation to keep patting the small evidence of the baby that they had.
"I didn't want to risk being put in the Brig for the remainder of the mission," Seven said. "Someone may have demanded something like that if I had reacted violently."
"Nobody in that room would have thought you were completely outside of your rights to break his arm," Raffi said. "Or his nose—whatever you were feeling at the moment. Besides—if you got thrown in the Brig, I would just get B'Elanna to deactivate the whole thing and bail you out."
Seven laughed.
"And then we would all be insubordinate together," Seven teased.
"Insubordination loves company," Raffi said. "I understand if you want to do the question-and-answer thing. And if you want to do it, I'll be right there. I don't promise my absolute silence, but I do promise to let you handle it, at least until I feel like I have to step in."
"I don't imagine that I can ask you for more," Seven said.
"But…Seven…I want you to understand that doing this may not have the effect that you want it to have. People are attached to their prejudices. Some of them work very hard to hold onto them, no matter how hard the universe works to teach them they're wrong. I just don't want you to be too disappointed if you find out there are still assholes out there."
"I am fully aware of the shortcomings of members of all species," Seven said. "But—I am exceedingly grateful to have a wife who cares enough about my feelings that she doesn't want me to be hurt by those same assholes, as you call them."
Raffi jumped, and Seven did too, when the door chime sounded.
"Who is it?" Raffi called.
"Elnor," Elnor responded.
"Come in," Raffi said.
Elnor stepped into their quarters and the doors slid closed behind him. He was, on the whole, entirely incapable of being embarrassed when it came to "family" time. Unlike some teenagers, perhaps, he wasn't embarrassed by either of his adopted moms, their affection for each other, or their affection for him. He wasn't embarrassed, either, by his affection for Raffi and Seven, or his desire to experience everything that they all believed was part of a storybook family.
Elnor had clearly worn his Starfleet issued pajamas all the way from his quarters, and he was unbothered by that, too. He smiled to find them both already relaxed in the living room and curled on the couch together. He immediately came over and sat at their feet, inviting Seven to put her feet across his lap, if she pleased. Tonight, she did.
"Do you want some popcorn?" She asked. "We replicated enough for all of us. If you don't want popcorn, you may have anything that you'd like. Raffi also replicated you the beverage that you said you enjoyed—Root Beer?"
"Look what else we have, Elnor," Raffi said.
Elnor looked at her, and Raffi waved her hand. She pointed to Seven's stomach. Elnor's eyes followed her fingers' indication.
"What am I looking at?" He asked.
"This—this little tummy right here," Raffi said. "We went to sickbay today, and this is Baby M, making their presence known a little."
"The literature that I read on gestation suggested there would be fetal movement," Elnor said. "Is there fetal movement?"
"No," Seven said.
"Not that Seven can feel," Raffi said. "And you and I will feel it after she feels it. The baby's moving, though. We just can't feel it."
"When will we be able to detect the movement?" Elnor asked.
"That's hard to say," Raffi said. "Twenty to twenty-four weeks?"
"Are you asking me or telling me, Raf?" Elnor asked.
Raffi laughed to herself.
"I'm saying that I'm not sure," she said. "Every pregnancy is different, Elnor, and this one is unique, to say the least."
"If Baby Musiker continues to do things according to their particularly unpredictable manner," Seven said, "then we should expect movement tomorrow—followed by recalibrating the warp drive within a month."
Elnor looked confused for a moment, but when Raffi and Seven both laughed, he recognized that it was a joke and nothing more.
"Did you choose the holo-film?" Raffi asked, reaching and gathering a handful of popcorn from the bowl. Seven moved the bowl back in front of her where they could all comfortably reach it.
"I wasn't sure what to choose," Elnor said. "I asked some of the other cadets for suggestions, but it was finally Tom Paris that said he knew of a film that he assured me was the best choice for our family film night."
"What did you pick?" Raffi asked.
"I don't recall the title, but I have the file designation. Computer—load projector screen with holo-file 67 Paris," Elnor said. "Tom said it was a Narumbian horror film, but it's very popular."
"I do not enjoy horror films," Seven said. It was more a statement than anything else. She often sat through horror movies if Raffi or Elnor chose them. She never argued about it, but she did expect a little extra consideration when she was forced to watch them. Raffi hugged her a little tighter.
"Just lean into me, Baby," Raffi said. "I'll protect you, and Elnor's going to make sure nothing sneaks up from that end of the couch. Computer—lower lights."
The movie started and, for a while, Raffi felt like she struggled to follow what was happening. Narumbian films could be difficult to follow. They often had very little dialogue—which was preferable, really, given the fact that the translators always seemed to have difficulty with translating the language in the films—and they were often somewhat fast-paced like very old Earth movies that ran at unnatural speeds. Of course, that was mostly owing to the fact that Narumbians were particularly quick with their movements.
For a while, there seemed to be nothing particularly scary about the movie. They watched in silence, with nothing but the sound of popcorn crunching to pull anyone out of the movie. The three of them, naturally, seemed to move toward the screen a little as they searched for meaning among the obscure plot of the film that had come so highly recommended by Tom Paris.
None of them expected, then, the shocking moment when a lot of the plot became clear and the creatures, which Raffi finally realized were threatening the Narumbian population, began to make their presence known with what Raffi assumed would turn out to be a chain of grisly murders. The first of those murders surprised all of them after an otherwise uneventful film, when one of the creatures essentially exploded out of the body of a visibly pregnant Narumbian. All of them yelled in surprise, and Elnor ended up showered with popcorn when Seven jumped. Raffi's first instinct was to try to cover Seven's eyes, though she failed to do so before the damage was done.
"Computer stop film!" Raffi barked out. The film stopped, and the computer waited for further instruction.
"That was unexpected," Elnor said. Raffi didn't know if he was referencing the events of the film or his popcorn shower.
"You said Tom Paris recommended this?" Raffi asked.
"I told him I was looking for a film for our family night," Elnor said. "He said he knew just the right film."
"This is an awful film," Seven declared.
"And B'Elanna is going to know about it, first thing in the morning," Raffi said. "Elnor—are you dedicated to finishing this?"
"I am not enjoying it," he admitted.
Raffi hugged Seven as Seven relaxed against her again.
"Computer—load and pause holo-file Musiker 14," Raffi said. She relaxed into the couch. "We'll watch a great classic—a cartoon musical. Elnor—would you replicate us some ice cream?"
"I would prefer cheesecake," Seven said, when Elnor got up to go to the replicator.
"Two ice creams and one cheesecake," Raffi said. "We'll have something a little better for sweet dreams all the way around."