Second Chances: Chapter 41
Stardate 54473
October 2377
U.S.S. Voyager
Alpha Quadrant
With Voyager again moving toward Earth, Captain Janeway called for the usual senior staff meeting at 0800, and Tom Paris couldn't decide if he was more upset about having to set his alarm for 0600 again or for missing out on another trip out on the Flyer with Izzy. Probably the time spent with his daughter, but he certainly wasn't enjoying the early morning wake-up.
It was obvious in the Mess Hall that the crew had figured out that the replicators were no longer rationed; Neelix was trying to look busy, but everyone was going straight for the replicators. Tom came close to taking pity on him, but when he couldn't figure out what Neelix was serving on the first glance, he also changed directions and headed to the replicator.
Izzy and his father were already seated at a table near the viewport when B'Elanna and he joined them. "Looks like Grandpa tried his hand at doing hair today," B'Elanna joked as she gave Izzy a kiss on the top of her head, smoothing back errand curls.
"I did raise two daughters, you know," Owen said mildly. B'Elanna snorted.
"Both with straight, thin hair," she pointed out. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the admiral. "And I can't see Nicki sitting still long enough for you to do her hair. Or Sydney having enough hair for you to worry about."
"Sydney didn't cut her hair short until she was in secondary school," Owen replied. "She used to love listening to my stories while I did her hair." Tom snorted; he couldn't remember this, but it sounded so much like Sydney that he had no problems believing it. "But you're right about Nicki," Owen acknowledged. "I think she stopped letting me do her hair when she got enough hair for me to do."
B'Elanna chuckled. "None of that prepares you to deal with thick, curly hair," she pointed out. "I'll fix your hair after I'm done eating," she said to Izzy.
"But you don't have curly hair, either," Izzy pointed out.
"I have curlier hair than you do, kiddo," B'Elanna said, and Izzy gave her a look that clearly said that she wasn't buying it.
"Looks pretty straight to me," Izzy declared before going back to her breakfast.
"Yes, because I straightened it," B'Elanna said, rolling her eyes. "You've seen holos from when you were a baby."
"I want straight hair, too," Izzy declared. B'Elanna shrugged.
"Okay," she said. "We can do that when we get back home."
"I like your curly hair," Tom protested. He liked B'Elanna's, too. He could still see the way she would push stray curls behind her ear, the way she absently twisted her hair into a bun or a braid as she eyed a piece of machinery or her competition at a track meet. He could still see the way those dark curls looked against his pillow, or the way they felt when he fisted her hair in his hands.
"It's just hair, Tom," B'Elanna scoffed.
"What's the point in changing something that doesn't need changing?" he asked.
"What's the point in arguing about hair?" B'Elanna asked in reply. He opened his mouth to reply, but then closed it when he saw both Izzy and his father looking at him curiously. He took another bite of his breakfast. B'Elanna rolled her eyes, Owen smirked and took a drink of his coffee, Izzy looked confused and then seemed to disregard the whole thing.
After eating, B'Elanna quickly and expertly re-braided Izzy's hair, offered to take a break to meet them from lunch, and gave Tom a quick kiss before she headed to engineering, and he remembered that single-minded focus as she got ready to go to work. Nice to know that some things never changed.
Barely two minutes after B'Elanna left, Naomi Wildman came over, an excited expression on her face. "Do you want to come to my quarters to play a game?" she asked Izzy.
"Can I?" Izzy asked Owen.
"Ask your father," Owen replied, nodding over to Tom. Izzy looked embarrassed at the faux pas, her cheeks flushing.
"Can I, Dad?" she asked Tom.
"If it's okay with Ensign Wildman," he replied. Both girls turned their heads toward Sam Wildman, who was standing a few meters away.
"Of course," she replied. She smiled and shrugged. "Now that we're on our way home, I don't have any experiments running. I just have some reports to finish up, and I can easily write those while watching two girls."
"If you need anything, just comm," Tom offered.
The girls took off quickly, as if afraid either set of parents would change their minds. Tom took another bite of his breakfast and looked over at his father.
"It's going to take some getting used to," Owen said, his tone somewhere between apologetic and accepting.
"I know," Tom agreed.
"For both of them," Owen elaborated. "B'Elanna's been Izzy's only parent her entire life. She's not used to asking for input from anyone else."
"I know," Tom repeated.
"You know how independent she is," Owen continued. "And if there's one thing she's proven over the last six and a half years, it's that she doesn't need anybody else. As hard as it is to hear, even you." Tom opened his mouth to argue, but Owen raised his hand to stop him. "B'Elanna and Izzy don't need you, Tom, which means that if they decide to let you stick around, it's because they want you. I think that's even better. And you should be thankful every day that they decide they want you."
"Are you done?" Tom asked. Owen nodded. "I know that," he said, annoyed. "B'Elanna's never needed me. Hell, I spent most of the time we were dating waiting for her to realize that she could do better. And I know she wants me. She didn't give up on me."
"No," Owen agreed. "She didn't." He opened his mouth, then closed it, then looked like he was about to say something he wasn't sure he should say. "B'Elanna's had a remarkable career so far," he finally said.
"I know," Tom replied. "I've read about it since we got the datastream, and since you guys have gotten here, she's told me up through the quantum fissure. We're slowly working our way through six and a half years of B'Elanna Torres in the Alpha quadrant."
"So she told you about that Jem'Hadar ship."
"Which one? She told me they found and repaired a second."
"The first one," Owen confirmed. He got a far away look in his eyes for a second, then snapped back. "I'm guessing she didn't say much about the mission."
"She said they went into Cardassian space, destroyed a facility that made something the Jem'Hadar needed—"
"Ketracel-white," Owen interjected.
"Right," Tom said, "then there was an explosion, they were fired on, had to land, and fought a Jem'Hadar ship before they could take off again. With the second ship."
Owen took a deep breath. "You know how focused B'Elanna gets sometimes? Like nothing exists outside of her lab or engine room?"
"I'm familiar with that," Tom said dryly. He could still remember a number of missed lunches and late dinners because she just wasn't paying attention to the time, and the number of times he had to explain some sort of current event, because she wasn't paying attention to the news.
Owen hesitated again, as if trying to figure out how to explain what he wanted to say. "When they were in the dark matter nebula, they were lost to the outside world," he finally said. "We were receiving their coordinates, and then, nothing. Starbase 375 was able to pick up on signs of an explosion in the area of space the ship was, but we weren't receiving anything from the ship itself. It was like it was gone. The way Voyager was gone." He paused again. "I've been married to your mother for almost my entire Starfleet career," he said. "And in that time, the only time I've lied to her about anything was when B'Elanna was out on that mission. I came home every night and said that we were still monitoring and it was just going to be a little bit longer, because I couldn't think of what it might do to her to know that we lost contact with another ship that carried someone she loved. To B'Elanna, it was a tedious month with about a week of non-stop work and some enemy threats she had to spend a couple of hours thinking about. To me, it was Starfleet taking advantage of an exceptional engineer's sense of duty. And I knew they would do that again and again, for as long as they could, because I had done that again and again, for as long as I could, whenever I found an officer that exceptional. I did the same thing to Captain Janeway when she was a junior officer." He looked like he had to find his train of thought again. "B'Elanna's going to go far in Starfleet," he said a minute later. "I'm pretty sure she knows at this point, but she still denies it. She's more highly decorated than a lot of senior officers."
"You're really not telling me anything I don't already know," Tom said. "What's your point?"
"My point is that she was willing to walk away from that career for you, Thomas," Owen said. "Now, you're my son, and you know I love you. But I've spent a lot more time over the last six and a half years with B'Elanna and Izzy than with you. And, well," he shrugged, "the family has already lived without you for a while. We can do it again if you screw this up."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dad," Tom said dryly as he stood up to head to the staff meeting.
"All I'm saying, Tom, is it took a hell of a lot to find you and find a way to bring you back here. Be worth it."