Second Chances: Chapter 79

A/N: This chapter was supposed to have more substance, but I had so much fun writing the interactions between B'Elanna and Shava and B'Elanna and Navi, and I didn't want to cut it. So we get some fluff this chapter and will get back to substance in the next one. Based on my rough outline for the rest of the story, we have four or five chapters left.

Enjoy.

Stardate 54245
August 2377
San Francisco, Earth

Lt. B'Elanna Torres was preparing her materials for the first lecture for Comparative Systems as the students were filing in, when she caught a flash of a teal cadet uniform out of the corner of her eye. She looked up fully and sighed as the chime alerted to the start of the class. "Good morning," she said in her professor voice. "Welcome to Engineering 322: Comparative Systems. Over the course of the semester, we'll be covering the main technical systems of starships of multiple space-faring societies. This is not a course comparing organ systems of different races, in case there was any confusion, Cadet Torres." Navi looked up at her with a wide grin on her face.

"I'm in the right room, sir," she said, still grinning.

"This isn't a typical class for biomedical engineering majors," B'Elanna pointed out.

"Well, maybe if more biomedical engineers took Comparative Systems, you would have had someone who could have figured out how to install a biobed on a Jem'Hadar fighter. Sir," Navi said cheekily. Sitting next to her, Cadet Shava was trying her hardest not to smirk.

The material was far above Navi's head. There was a reason that most engineering majors took Comparative Systems as firsties; it required a solid understanding of each of the component systems that were covered, and thirds just didn't have that. It would have been beyond Shava's reach, too, if it hadn't been for the fact that Shava had been working in Pathfinder for the last five months and spent the summer holiday working with Seven of Nine on Voyager on a review of the impact of Federation technology on Borg systems.

B'Elanna discovered three things about her sister in the first few weeks of Navi's third classman year. She found out that her sister was just as stubborn as she was and realized that Navi would succeed in anything she set her mind to. Even though the material was too advanced for her, Navi didn't back down and didn't drop the course when she could have without it impacting her grades. Instead, she buckled down, spending twice as much time as her classmates on the material, because she had to learn the basics of each system before she could figure out how to compare them. She sought out help when she needed it—usually from Shava, sometimes from senior classmates, often from B'Elanna—and was organized in such a way that left no doubt as to the fact that she had been raised by an engineer and was well on the way of becoming one herself.

And the third thing B'Elanna discovered was that Navi was still dating the terrible boyfriend she had started dating around January. She had met the guy, a second-classmate cadet Navi met through the Academy Symphony, and was overall not impressed, but figured that if Navi was old enough and mature enough to go the Academy, she was old enough and mature enough to decide who to date without meddling from her half-sister. And she would have been okay leaving it at that, if it wasn't for the fact that she was subjected to Shava's complaints about Navi's relationship whenever they worked together. She preferred not to discuss anything personal with anyone while working, but none of her attempts to redirect Shava had succeeded. "He's awful," Shava railed as they worked on disassembling the holographic projection of Voyager's impulse manifolds. "Can't you tell her to break up with him?"

Torres snorted. "You're not the first to ask," she commented. Shava looked up quizzically. "John," Torres said simply, which didn't help Shava's confusion. "Our father," she explained. "He's not a fan, either."

"That's because Brad is dumber than a box of rocks," Shava said, somehow making the name sound like a curse. "Not that there aren't smart security officers out there, but let's just say it's good for him that he's halfway decent with a phaser, because there is no other function he'll be able to perform on a ship." Torres had to fight to keep the smirk from her face. "My mother would have loved him."

"Why's that?" This might have been the first time Shava had directly mentioned either parent in Torres' presence.

"Because he's an easy mark," Shava said simply. "Give a little smile, dance a little dance," she briefly held one arm over her head in a half-second, half-demonstration of an Orion slave girl dance, "and swoop in and take his ship and all his possessions. If it weren't for the Brad's of the quadrant, the Orion Syndicate would have gone out of business centuries ago."

The mental image amused Torres. "What does Navi think of you assessing her boyfriend for the Syndicate?"

"She said if I want to sleep with him, I have to go about it honestly. No pheromones." Torres chuckled at Navi's sarcastic response, and Shava made a face. "As if I would. The last thing I need is a Brad."

"The last thing I need is to hear anything else about Brad," Torres replied. "Unless this is your way of telling me that you now know everything there is to know about Borg modifications of Intrepid-class impulse manifolds?" Shava gave her an apologetic smile and returned to the task at hand.

Since Comparative Systems was in the class period before lunch, the two Torreses continued their Wednesday lunches. It wasn't uncommon for said lunches to turn into tutoring sessions, but it also wasn't uncommon for Navi to declare that she needed a break from engineering for a few minutes and talk about things that were completely inconsequential. "I'm going to try to come to Izzy's flight competition this weekend," Navi said out of the blue. B'Elanna frowned at her.

"I thought you were usually busy on Saturdays," she observed, and Navi shrugged a shoulder.

"I've been going to Brad's water polo games," she said, "but that's getting boring."

"'That' being the water polo games, or Brad?" B'Elanna asked, and Navi chuckled.

"Brad has always been boring," she said. "It's not like I'm dating him for the intellectual stimulation." B'Elanna snorted, and Navi put on a wicked grin. "I mean, come on. He's on the water polo team and spends most of his time working out. He has the most objectively perfect body."

"The sex can't be that good." She wondered how much enjoyment a person who didn't like to be touched could get out of sex, but then figured that casual touch and intimate touch were probably different enough that they couldn't be compared. She also had no frame of reference as to what sex was like as a telepath and really didn't feel like getting into such a discussion with her cadet of a half-sister.

"The sex is that good," Navi countered, then sighed. "I know, I'm going to have to break up with him. Probably soon. But haven't you ever dated the completely wrong guy for completely physical reasons?"

That described all of B'Elanna's secondary school experience, but instead of saying that, she joked, "And then I married him."

Navi chuckled, probably because she knew that wasn't true. "Well, I certainly can't marry Brad," she said. "For one, he would drive me insane with how completely unintelligent he is. And I really can't marry any human, because then our kids wouldn't have hybrid status. They'd be three-quarters human and just tiny slivers of anything interesting."

"You really shouldn't choose your husband based on your non-existent children's hybrid status," B'Elanna observed. "And I thought you didn't want kids?"

"Betazoids are out," Navi mused as if B'Elanna hadn't said anything. "I can't deal with that meek men nonsense. And Vulcans…"

"You would be the most frustrating spouse to a Vulcan," B'Elanna commented.

"Exactly," Navi sighed. "And they're boring. The summer I spent on Vulcan was excruciating. You need to do things that aren't logical every once in a while, you know?" She sighed again and poked at her food with her fork. "I don't think I'm going to get married," she commented. "I don't know if that's me. Maybe I'll just stay single and have great sex for the rest of my life."

"There's a lot of bad sex between the bouts of great sex," B'Elanna commented. Navi smirked slightly.

"Do you miss it?" she asked abruptly. "Not Tom. I know you miss him, but do you miss the relationship stuff? And the sex?"

"I am most certainly not discussing my sex life in the middle of the Scott Hall mess," B'Elanna replied.

But yes, she definitely missed the relationship stuff, and most certainly missed the sex.

Two more months. If this worked this time, she had two more months.

If.