AN: Here we are, another chapter as we progress.

I hope that you enjoy! Please don't forget to let me know what you think!

111

Someone asked Seven, nearly every five to ten minutes, how she was feeling.

The customary answers that she gave came from among those she'd come to understand were most expected or well-received: "I'm fine." "I'm tired." "I'm excited." "I'm anxious to meet our child."

She'd tested a few responses out on different people, just to see their reactions, and she'd determined that those were the best to choose for most people who asked the question.

Of course, those weren't the answers she gave to everyone. The answers she gave to the Doctor and to Doctor Crusher were different. When they asked how she was, they wanted a certain type of answer—mostly having to do with any changes she noted in her physical body. Her conversations with them could last a few minutes, since there were seemingly constant changes.

When Seven spoke to Deanna Troi, her answers were also different. She wanted to know about Seven's mind. She was interested in her emotions, her feelings, and how she was processing everything that was happening in her life.

When B'Elanna asked Seven how she was feeling, it was often to try to tweak energy inputs and outputs or to monitor the new Borg implants that had appeared in her body as a response to impending motherhood. Though she asked Seven about her feelings as a friend, her interest was often technical.

It was only Raffi, really, that stopped to hear everything that Seven said, and everything that she didn't say, whenever she asked her how she felt. She wanted it all. She wanted the good, the bad, and all the things that Seven felt she couldn't even quite sort into one of those categories. And Raffi would take whatever Seven had to give her in whatever form it came in. She would take it organized, as Seven thought through what she was feeling. She would take it disorganized, as Seven sought her help in sorting it out. She would take it with frustration, with tears, with laughter, and even with the lust that seemed to burn in Seven constantly, despite the fact that she expected not to feel lustful as her pregnancy advanced and their daughter grew—at least, that's what she'd been led to believe, thanks to what she'd consumed about the state of being.

The Doctor's responses to Seven's concerns were reasonable and logical. His subroutines had allowed him to master an upbeat manner of response, meant to put Seven at ease and reassure her of the positive side of her experiences, while he answered any question she may have in a succinct manner. Doctor Crusher's responses were more emotional, though equally informative, and often came with gestures meant to physically provide comfort and security. Seven was finding that, in the past few days, the latter was the kind of response she wanted most. She communicated that to Raffi, of course, and Raffi seemed to be making sure that anyone who needed to know, now knew that Seven didn't mind a few extra hugs or shoulder pats of reassurance.

Seven was overwhelmed at all times.

Sometimes, she was overwhelmed with happiness. Their baby girl was growing—very quickly, in fact—and she seemed to be thriving. Soon, very soon, Seven would hold her in her arms. She would see her face. She would be a mother. That feeling was overwhelming and wonderful.

Sometimes, Seven was overwhelmed with panic and worry. She worried that she didn't know how to be a mother. She worried that, given their baby girl to hold and mother, she would find that she didn't know what to do with her, and nobody would be able to teach her how to truly be a parent—especially since Seven couldn't remember what it was like to have a mother of her own, and had only witnessed others parenting from the outside.

Sometimes, Seven was overwhelmed with gratefulness for the people in her life. Raffi was there for every concern, no matter how irrational or trivial, and that thought brought tears to Seven's eyes. Doctor Crusher, determined to fulfill her offered role as something of a grandmother to their little one, had offered to take Seven through something of a parenting crash course, on the holodeck, of everything she would need to know about handling the basics of caring for a newborn—and, then, she could rest with the knowledge that, at the very least, she could do the most basic and most necessary things. She would only grow in her skills as a mother, as time went on.

More than anything, though, Seven thought a great deal of her overwhelm came from what Raffi called the panic-response of the nanonannies. From the best they could tell, the nanoprobes were doing their best to make Seven's pregnancy as successful and efficient as possible. At the rate she was going, Doctor Crusher teased, she would be able to have their daughter, heal, and repeat the process in as long as it took typical human women to carry one pregnancy to term—their children could be very close to twins, if that's what Seven wanted.

Efficient nanonannies, though, were what Raffi described as thirsty little workers. Seven always thought of them that way, according to Raffi's description, while she was managing the hormones that they seemed to constantly be demanding from her. Her hormone regulation chip was frequently sending feedback to her device that she needed to dose herself before her alarm went off and began to startle the people around her.

Between the hormones, the nanonannies, and the ever-more-impending arrival of their daughter, Seven was starting to feel quite out of control of herself—something that everyone kept trying to tell her to embrace, though she was finding that difficult to do so.

"Where is Elnor?" Seven asked, looking around the little transporter room.

Raffi's hand immediately started rubbing circles around Seven's back. As much as a part of Seven wanted to insist that it was unnecessary, the other part of her relished the touch enough that she decided not to deprive herself. She did resist, however, her desire to lean into Raffi as a way of requesting more affection.

"He's coming, Baby," Raffi offered. "And if he doesn't—we'll see him later."

"I wanted to be able to introduce him to Neelix," Seven said. "I wanted to be able to…introduce our family. Our whole family." Seven felt her throat tighten. Her chest ached. Her vision blurred, and she blinked out the tears that she didn't want to produce in the first place. "Damn it," she hissed.

"It's OK, Seven," Raffi assured her, producing one of the seemingly endless supply of handkerchiefs she carried these days, tucked everywhere in her uniform. Seven was pretty sure that every time they passed a recycler, Raffi disposed of a half a dozen, and she replaced them every time they passed a replicator.

"No, it's not, Raffi," Seven said. "The severity of my current emotional reaction is not aligned with the actual gravity of the situation."

"You're emotional, Seven," Raffi said. "And you have a thousand reasons to be emotional right now. Here—it's fine. Nobody faults you for being emotional."

"What's going on over here?" Janeway asked. Seven felt her hand as it squeezed Seven's shoulder and began a familiar trek around Seven's back. Somehow, Kathryn Janeway and Raffi managed to rub her back at the same time without allowing their two separate tracks to end in a sort of collision. "Is there anything that needs tending to at the moment?"

"We just have a case of one lost Romulan," Raffi said. "Elnor wasn't sure if he could be here for Neelix's arrival."

"Janeway to Elnor," Janeway said, touching her combadge. "You're wanted in the transporter room. Post-haste, ensign."

"That was unnecessary," Seven said. Both women laughed at Seven. "I am merely too emotional. This is my malfunction, and it should not affect others."

Janeway laughed again.

"When I was just about as pregnant with Kaya as you are right now, our replicator malfunctioned. I asked for fudge ripple ice cream. I got pistachio. I cried for twenty-two minutes and sixteen seconds, without stopping, before I was able to explain to Chakotay what was upsetting me. I know exactly how long that ridiculous crying jag lasted because he timed it to keep his own composure."

"When I was about this pregnant," Raffi offered, "I was trying to put my boots on by myself. I couldn't get them on, and I got so irrationally angry at the fact that…that I couldn't move like I wanted to move, and I couldn't breathe when I did move…that I kicked the table. I broke my toe. I cried the whole time it was being repaired. I mean the osteogenic stimulator is unpleasant on the best days, but I was actually crying because I felt like the table breaking my toe was somehow a personal attack."

"You are telling me anecdotes about irrational behavior so that I feel that my own behavior is justified," Seven said.

"We're telling you that we've all been there," Janeway said. "Look—there's your son. He made it."

Elnor brought Naomi Wildman with him, and Seven immediately felt foolish. Of course, he'd been waiting on Naomi. She'd want to be here, just the same as many of them, to greet Neelix as he was beamed aboard from the Talaxian shuttlecraft that would be delivering him and his family to the rendezvous point.

After a hug, Seven reassured Elnor that she was fine, simply overreacting beyond her current control, and he reassured her, with words he'd practically memorized from Raffi, that everything was fine and she was only acting as was to be expected.

Seven was thankful when, finally, it was time for the Ambassador of New Talax to beam aboard. Any and all attention that had been given to her was, at the very least, divided.

As soon as Seven saw Neelix, she felt better. She felt the same sense of overwhelming emotion—like there was too much to sort out in her body, and like she was barely staying ahead of each change—but this emotion was pleasant and welcomed.

Janeway and Picard were the first two, as Admiral and Vice Admiral, to welcome Neelix and his family onto the ship. Chakotay followed, and Raffi stepped forward with Seven on her arm.

Neelix bypassed the diplomacy of it all, and enthusiastically came toward Seven. She sank into his arms, not trying to contain her smile, and she accepted his surprised hug and somewhat stuttered comments as he pulled away.

"Well…now…Seven, I'm so happy to see you. You're…you're looking wonderful! But…what is this?"

Seven laughed in response. She hadn't known, until that moment, how much she'd missed Neelix. She immediately regretted having lost touch with him like she had—and not having reestablished it the moment that communications were more reliable between the Delta and Alpha Quadrants.

"I'm having a baby," Seven said.

"That's wonderful! And you told me, once, that you'd never want a little Seven Point Five!"

"Well…a lot's changed," Seven said. "I don't think we'll call our daughter Seven Point Five, though, Neelix."

"Daughter?" Neelix asked. Seven nodded.

"There's a little more," Seven said. "Neelix—this is my wife, Raffi Musiker. And—our son, Elnor."

"Well…now…I…it's so good to meet you, Mrs. Seven!" Neelix said, enthusiastically shaking Raffi's hand a second before embracing her. Seven's stomach squeezed at the playful moniker that Neelix gave Raffi, but she relaxed when she saw that Raffi seemed to enjoy it. "I don't know what to say. I genuinely…don't know what to say. This is wonderful, Seven! I see you're doing very well at making friends now!"

"She's better at a great deal more than that," Raffi said. "Who are these lovely…Talaxians?"

Neelix's family was just making it through greetings with those who had first greeted him. Now, they stood somewhat behind him and waited their turn, much like everyone else was doing who wanted to greet Neelix.

Neelix turned, smiled at the female Talaxian that had been a large reason for his decision not to return to Earth with Voyager and her crew, and brought her over, along with the two young Talaxians that were with her.

"This is my wife, Dexa," Neelix said, "and these are our youngest children, Onex and Raxa."

"Are they twins?" Raffi asked.

Neelix smiled and nodded, placing a hand on one shoulder of each of the young Talaxians who were, if Seven guessed correctly, somewhere around the same development as five or six-year-old humans, though she recalled that Talaxian children did tend to develop on a slightly different timeline than most Terrans.

Neelix introduced Raffi and Elnor to his wife, after a little reminder of their names, and greetings were shared between them all.

"We're going to let you greet everyone and spend some time getting to know the ship," Raffi said. "Seven and I have a few activities surrounding our preparation for our daughter's arrival, but we'd like to be the first to invite you to have dinner with us tonight." She smiled at Janeway, as she approached to probably ask the same thing. "We hate to snatch you away from anyone, but…our time is a little unpredictable since Baby Musiker could come at any minute. We're trying not to put anything off right now."

With a hand on Neelix's shoulder, and one on Seven's, it was clear that Raffi's invitation had practically interrupted Janeway's.

Janeway simply smiled.

"I think that's the best idea," she said. "If you don't mind, Neelix, I'd love the chance to show you around the ship and catch up with you while Seven and Raffi are otherwise occupied."

"We're looking forward to seeing everything," Neelix said. "And everyone! You were being awfully secretive, Captain, who else is aboard?"

"I wasn't secretive at all. I simply wanted you to enjoy the surprise of the reunions. I think you'll recognize a few familiar faces," Janeway teased. "And you're going to meet some truly wonderful new people. It's Admiral now, though. Chakotay's the captain of the Soñador."

"You'll always be captain to me," Neelix teased. "Just let me finish saying hello to everyone here, and I look forward to the grand tour!"

"You ready to go, or you wanna hang around?" Raffi asked when Neelix moved on to greet Naomi Wildman and, thanks to Elnor's hovering, to find out that everyone on the ship seemed to be growing all the more connected each day. "Chakotay gave the order two hours ago. Doctor Crusher's on our schedule right now, not the other way around. Baby stuff can wait as long as you like."

Seven raised her eyebrows at Raffi. She couldn't help but smirk at her.

"I am not sure of the actual verity of that statement. I am feeling…something, Raffi."

Raffi immediately tensed and her eyes went comically large. Seven didn't mean to be amused, but she couldn't help it.

"Feel something, feel what?" Raffi asked, not at all hiding the excitement, or maybe panic, in her voice.

"Calm down," Seven said. "I am certain that it's nothing. It's…just…"

"The contractions that you were having?" Raffi asked. "Or—are they different?"

She placed her hand on Seven's belly, feeling for the tightness that had accompanied the contractions that Seven had experienced earlier—practice, she'd been informed, for the coming delivery. Seven shook her head and covered Raffi's hand with her own.

"There's no actual discomfort," Seven said. "It's more—emotional. And, though I would never recommend relying entirely on an emotion, I have the inexplicable feeling that something very big is going to happen, Raffi. Soon."

"We know that, Seven," Raffi said, laughing nervously as she relaxed a little.

Seven reached out for a hug, and she accepted the hug that she was given. Seven pressed her lips to Raffi's, as she pulled out of the embrace, not worrying at all about decorum or anything else.

"Please do not worry," Seven said. "I would simply like to participate in the holodeck programs we had planned to schedule as soon as possible. I feel certain that Baby Musiker will arrive very soon, and I will feel less anxious if I know we've completed the programs. I do not wish to delay much longer in completing them."

"Is right now soon enough?" Raffi asked.

Seven smiled at her.

"I knew you would understand."

"Musiker to Crusher," Raffi said, touching her combadge. "Reserve Holodeck Two for us, please. We'll meet you there in ten minutes." Raffi looked so satisfied with herself when Crusher confirmed that she would meet them, that she practically wiggled in place with self-satisfaction. She swayed Seven gently with her hands on her hips. "I understand completely. Let's go make sure we're as ready as we can get. Baby girl won't wait forever!"