Second Chances: Chapter 27

Stardate 54471
October 2377
U.S.S. Voyager
Alpha Quadrant

Lt. Tom Paris was having a nightmare about Borgs and Species 8472 and attacks on Earth and seeing his friends assimilated, until he was abruptly awoken by the sound of a thud from the living area of his quarters. He sat up with a start, his breath caught in his throat.

"Izzy fell off the couch," B'Elanna murmured next to him. "She's fine."

Sure enough, a few seconds later, a small voice called out from the other side of the divider, "I'm okay!"

"Computer, time," B'Elanna requested, still sounding more asleep than awake.

*The time is 0617,* the computer replied. She groaned and rolled over.

"Get her breakfast," she said, and then it was his turn to groan. He should have figured this would happen; B'Elanna didn't need much sleep, but she still hated getting out of bed. He supposed breakfast duty was now officially part of his job description.

"What does she eat?" he asked as he pulled back the covers and got up.

"Whatever she wants to, usually," B'Elanna replied. He had no idea if that response was more reflective of Izzy being as strong-willed as her mother, or B'Elanna's inability to form a coherent argument before her second or third cup of coffee.

He groaned again as he rose and grabbed his robe and slipped it on. He was still rubbing his eyes when he padded out into the living area to see Izzy appearing wide awake, trying to access something on his computer console. "Do you have vids on here?" Izzy asked, as if her poking around on his computer console was perfectly normal.

"What kind of vids?" he asked as he made his way toward the kitchen. "I'm going to make peanut butter toast. Do you want some?"

"I dunno. Flying vids? And what's that?"

"What's what? I'll pull up some flying vids in a minute."

"Peanut butter toast. What kind of flying vids?"

"Whatever kind of flying vids you want to see. And you're in for a treat." He pulled out the toaster, and then realized he didn't have any bread. He replicated a loaf and a mug of coffee for himself. He was about to ask Izzy if she wanted one, too, but then remembered that six-year-olds didn't drink coffee.

Izzy watched his movements curiously. "Why don't you just replicate toasted bread?" she finally asked. "It's faster."

"But it's not as good," he said with a grin.

"How is it different?" she asked with a frown. He laughed.

"No, you're not your mother's daughter," he teased. She frowned again.

"Yes I am," she protested.

"I was joking, Izzy," he said. He handed over a plate of two pieces of toast, thickly covered in peanut butter. "Here you go."

"Can I have a hot chocolate, too?" she asked, still studying the toast skeptically. "Do I like this?"

"You'll have to try it to find out," he said. "Marshmallows in your hot chocolate?"

"I can have marshmallows?" she asked excitedly. He chuckled.

"One hot chocolate, with marshmallows," he ordered into the replicator. Izzy was almost bouncing with excitement as she reached for the mug. "Eat your toast before it gets cold," he said. She frowned again as she studied the toast in front of her.

"Can I have waffles instead?"

"Just try the toast!" He sighed. "If you don't like it, I'll replicate some waffles."

Izzy seemed to accept that compromise and picked up a piece of toast. "Can you show me the flying vids?" she asked before taking a bite. He sighed at the sight of the uneaten toast and wondered why he ever thought that any kid of Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres would ever be easy to handle.

He heard a combadge chirp on the other side of the divider, followed by B'Elanna's murmured voice. He heard her get up and head for the sonic shower. "I like peanut butter!" Izzy exclaimed excitedly. Tom just sighed again.

A few minutes later, he had Izzy contentedly eating toast while watching vids of show squadron routines when B'Elanna appeared, fastening her uniform top. She headed straight for the replicator. "Raktajino, hot," she ordered. "The diagnostic finished," she reported after taking her first drink of coffee. "Izzy, I need to borrow the console to check on the diagnostic results."

"But I'm watching flying vids!" Izzy protested.

"And you'll be watching vids again in a few minutes," B'Elanna replied. Izzy looked very displeased, but reluctantly got up from the console.

"Do you want anything for breakfast?" Tom asked as she began studying the diagnostic results.

"No, thanks," she replied, already sounding distracted. Izzy was already bored and began running around the quarters. "Calm down, Izzy," B'Elanna said, her eyes not leaving the console. "These quarters aren't big enough for you to be running around. You're going to break something."

"You heard your mother," Tom said, lunging after his daughter. "No running around!" She exploded in laughter as she dodged him, and he lunged again, bumping into the table and knocking over B'Elanna's raktajino.

"Tom!" she exclaimed, trying to clean up the mess. "Can you at least try to act like an adult? I did not spend the last three years of my life working to get Voyager back so I could raise two children!"

He couldn't help but laugh and gave her a kiss. She didn't appear amused. "We'll be good. I'll ask Captain Janeway if we can take the Flyer out again."

"I'm going to need your help after lunch," B'Elanna said. "The navigational controls need recalibration before we can get moving again."

He knew it wasn't fair to his crewmates, but he was no longer in a hurry to get home. He wanted to see his mother and sisters again, sure, but everything he had cared about for the last six years had already happened: he had B'Elanna and Izzy. He would be content spending the rest of his years at that position in Federation space, on Voyager, as long as he had them by his side.

But he knew that wasn't going to happen and knew that they—at least, he, B'Elanna, and his father—were Starfleet officers and had a mission to complete, and that they were going to complete it. So he promised to see B'Elanna for lunch, gave her another kiss, and then headed for the shuttlebay with Izzy.

They went through the same pre-flight checks as the day before, and then Izzy requested permission to launch before Tom actually flew them out of the shuttlebay. As before, he transferred over controls once they were clear of the ship. "Why did you and Mom get married?" Izzy asked after a few minutes of trying out some new techniques that Tom taught her.

Surprised by the question, he said the first thing that popped into his mind: "Because we love each other."

She seemed to think about that for a few seconds. "Do you have to marry people you love?"

"You don't ever have to do anything," he replied automatically. "Well, except for things your mother and I tell you to do," he amended a second later. "Up to a point." He had to stop and get his thoughts in order, trying to figure out how to be a parent when he still hadn't figured out how to be a son. He had hated people telling him what to do, even his parents, especially his father. "We'll figure that out as we go," he promised. "But no. You don't have to marry someone just because you love them. But you definitely should be in love before you marry someone."

She considered that for a long minute. "Navi and Ainsley have boyfriends," she finally said. "Navi says she doesn't love him and she's only dating him because it annoys Grandpa John." He had to bite back a snort of laughter at that. "Ainsley says her boyfriend's fun enough for now. What does that mean?"

"I think you're still a little young for that explanation," he said, trying not to laugh and definitely comparing his niece to Nicki when she the same age. Their bedrooms were right next to each other; he had asked her when he was eight or nine why she opened her window some nights. By the time he was ten, he had figured out that she was using the giant tree next to her window to sneak out in the middle of the night and sneak back in before the sun was up.

"Kajsa says that boyfriends are a distraction and that she's not going to get married until she's over 30," Izzy continued. "She said she has to focus on getting in the Academy right now."

This time, he did laugh. "Your cousins are just like their mothers," he said. Izzy tilted her head to the side, but kept her eyes on the controls.

"What do you mean?"

"Your aunt Sydney also said she wasn't going to get married until she was 30," he explained. Izzy frowned.

"But she married Uncle Jens when she was 22."

"That's because life never works out the way it's planned. And Kajsa might meet someone in her first month at the Academy and get married as soon as she graduates, just like Sydney did. And Ainsley might say she's just having fun and then end up bringing a surprise husband home for Christmas when she's 20, like Nicki did." He shrugged. "Or they might do their own thing. It's up to them."

She thought about that for a minute. "When did you think you'd get married?"

He laughed. "When your mom agreed to marry me," he replied. She frowned at that response.

"I don't have a boyfriend," she informed him. "I asked Patrick if he wanted to be my boyfriend, but he said he really wants to focus on his schoolwork right now."

Now it was Tom's turn to frown. "Patrick Carey?" he asked. "Isn't he nine?"

"Nine and a half," she corrected.

"Isn't that a bit old for you?"

She shrugged. "Doesn't matter," she replied lightly. "Because he's not my boyfriend."

"Right," Tom said, nodding as if any part of this conversation made sense. "Because he's focusing on his schoolwork."

They stayed out for two hours before Chakotay asked them to come back in, and then Izzy immediately ran off to play with Naomi. Tom found his father sitting alone at a table in the mess hall, studying something on a PADD. It was still too early for lunch, and Tom was still hoping that B'Elanna would take a break to join him, so he replicated a raktajino and sat across from his father. "How are Izzy's flying lessons?" Owen asked without looking up.

"She asks a lot of questions," Tom replied. Owen chuckled.

"Wonder where she gets that from," he commented dryly. Tom had to chuckle in acknowledgement. He had probably been pretty obnoxious when he was Izzy's age.

"B'Elanna told me about the Borg attack on Earth," Tom commented, and Owen finally looked up.

"Wasn't much of an attack," he finally said, returning his eyes to his PADD. "The Enterprise stopped them before they got to Earth."

Tom snorted. "You don't need to give me the Starfleet party line, Dad," he said. "Seven told us about it. I know about the time travel and what really happened with first contact and everything."

Owen sighed. "That's not important. Not really. The Borg... The Borg will always be something else."

"No kidding," Tom murmured. For a long minute, father and son sat in silence, both thinking of different engagements, different conflicts in different quadrants, against the same horrible enemy.

"It was a rough time," Owen finally said. "It was... pretty scary, for the whole family. We hadn't had that kind of threat against Earth before. We were all fine. The Taurus had some damage and Jens got a concussion, but no lasting damage."

"How could you tell?" Tom asked dryly. "Not as if it would affect his personality."

"Be nice," Owen admonished, but Tom saw the tuggings of a smile on his face. "Those were a pretty rough few years. In the grand scheme of things, the Borg threat—attack—whatever it was—was barely a blip on the radar. It was a scary few days, but nothing like what happened with the Jem'Hadar. Did B'Elanna tell you about her ship?"

"The one she fixed up?" He had figured the story wasn't finished; she had said something about eating rations for a month and was sure the two were related.

Owen nodded, then shook his head. "She didn't just fix up that ship, Tom," he said. "She risked her life for it. I know I'm biased, but B'Elanna is one of the best engineers—and one of the best officers—to come out of Starfleet, but that being said, and even though I've given my entire adult life to Starfleet, I'll never forgive the organization for the fact that they made her do that."