Time Enough

Chapter 9: Glimpses

Dani kissed her own palm again. Her hands and knees were raw from crawling on a grate through chutes in a Mencari ship. She promised her mommie that she wouldn't complain so much. But then again, her mommie didn't know that Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway would bring her into the belly of a ship belonging to the "Honored Mothers."

She brushed a tear away and tried to keep from sobbing. She didn't want to cry. How would she explain it to this universe's Seven and Kathryn? How could she tell them that she knew she didn't belong to them? That her own mommie, the tender Annika Hansen, had used the last bit of fading life to open a quantum singularity that brought her to this space and this time. The memory burned.

=/\=

Ket'zali phaser bursts were bombarding the shield of the small shuttle. Its weapons had long been depleted and systems were failing every millisecond. "Mommie, I'm scared," she had said from the rear of the shuttle.

Seven looked back at her. One eye was closed and purple. Her human arm was useless. There were large patches of her singlesuit that was fused with her skin from plasma burns. Her hair was an unruly heap upon her head. But still, Seven of Nine toiled to find a way out of an untenable position.

"Maybe they won't hurt me," the girl whispered at last. "I can give myself up and they'll...they'll let you go."

Seven turned her head sharply. "That is not accurate, baby," she said, her mouth tugging unnaturally to the left. Her implants were unable to maintain her biological systems any longer because of the heavy damage.

A photon burst hit the ship again, rocking it unmercifully. "Shields at forty-five percent," the computer's feminine voice stated.

"They destroyed a planet to reach you," she said. Without any other sign of the profound pain underneath, Seven held herself still, closing her eyes for just one moment as she imagined being back in Kathryn's arm. She would give anything to feel their warmth.

When another photon burst rocked the ship and the computer announced another drop in the shield and hull integrity, Seven's eyes snapped open. "I know you hardly remember, Eridani," she said. "But Cappie gave her life to save you. I can do no less."

Seven whirled, her hands flashing over the helm and deflector controls.

"What are we gonna do?"

"I am preparing now for a special mission," she said. "You...." Mother lifted her gaze to beloved daughter. "You, my special girl, will travel through a quantum singularity to safety."

"But—!"

The shuttle's deflector began to emit a concentrated chroniton beam, distorting space-time just ahead of the shuttle. The event horizon of the black hole was just large enough for a shuttle.

Seven dashed to the girl, swept her up and, with only her Borg-enhanced arm remaining operational, embraced Dani until she was breathless. "I love you, Eridani," she whispered. "I am certain to love you in every universe."

"Are you coming?"

"I cannot," she said with a sad smile. "I will beam to the Ket'zali ship, where I will ensure your departure from this timeline."

Seven saw tears spill from the mirrored eyes of her daughter. "Yes, Eridani," she said quietly to the shaking head. "It is the only way."

"But where am I going? Cain't you follow me?"

"The correct word is 'can't' and the answer is no, I cannot. You are going through a quantum singularity to another timeline. Another universe, if you will. By virtue of traveling back along another timeline, you will possess information that could prove dangerous. To yourself, others or the timeline. You must never speak of what you know, Eridani. This you must promise me."

She nodded, still blinking as she urgently clutched at her mother's arms.

"One more promise," Seven said, noting the continuing drain on the shields. "Promise me that you will suppress your multi-potentiality in favor of being a seven-year-old girl?"

"But why—"

"It is vital for your continued existence, Eridani. Give me your oath that you will conceal your status as a child prodigy. That you will be true to your chronological age and not the age of your intellect." Seven stroked the girl's cheek lovingly. "I do not want anyone to take advantage of you, love."

Dani Janeway blinked her eyes furiously like a pulsing quasar, though no celestial phenomena could contain the grief of one little girl about to watch a parent sacrifice her life. "Promise," she whispered.

"I love you, Eridani. Forever," she whispered. She leaned over and kissed her forehead, both cheeks and finally the lips that promised a fullness of their own. "Look for me on the other side. I will love you there, as well."

With a heavy sigh, Seven gently pushed the girl away from her and ordered the computer to beam her aboard the Ket'zali bio-ship. In a twinkling of an eye, Seven of Nine was gone, leaving a frightened girl to howl her way alone through the singularity.

=/\=

The memory unleashed a flood of emotion so strong, Dani began to sob uncontrollably. She wanted her very own mother. She fell to her butt, bringing her hands to her face, in uncontrollable cries.

The cold grate against bare hands brought sharp icicles straight to her heart. The two women stopped, concerned with the sudden bout of tears. They each sat on one side of her, with Seven placing her arms around the girl.

"What troubles you, Eridani?"

What could she say? That she knows they aren't her parents and then watch them painfully withdraw from her and each other? She wiped her tears and took a breath, plunging herself into the emotional maelstrom of a pre-adolescent girl who was much loved and much spoiled.

"My arms are gonna fall off," she whined. "I'm tired of this!"

She saw the mood of her mothers shift to annoyance. But Dani was far from done.

"And I want my...Silly Willy!" The last two words were drawn out in a long, pitiful cry of woe.

Seven's eyes went wide, as she looked to Captain Janeway for support. Kathryn softened her eyes, as she patted Dani's leg sympathetically. She tried to lean over to catch the inclined eyes of the girl, who studied her hands intently. "Seven still sleeps with a stuffed animal," she said sympathetically. The comment earned her a chilly glare and a dubious raise of an eyebrow. Her response was to shrug a shoulder.

Dani eyes lifted. They were shiny and stricken with pain, both mothers noted. "You do?"

"Yes, well, I—" Seven's stammering was painful for Janeway to hear.

"Bobo," Janeway said. "That's the name of her favorite stuffed tribble." She smiled weakly at the girl and impishly at Seven.

"Tribble, huh?"

Seven nodded reluctantly, noticing that the ruse was calming the girl. Dani looked at the Seven's backpack longingly.

"Yes," Seven said pointedly to Janeway, "my particular trouble with tribbles involves willfulness." She gave an almost imperceptible nod to Janeway.

"Huh?"

Seven nearly startled to find the girl staring between the two women. She wondered for how long they had lost themselves in that visual embrace. She cleared her throat to clear her mind. "My tribble—"

"What color is her fur?" Dani inquired.

"Red," Seven said sharply to Janeway. "My red-headed tribble jumps out of my backpack incessantly, just as your Silly Willy did."

Dani's eyes widened. "You mean...you didn't forget Silly Willy, just because Cappie likes dogs better?"

Cappie squeezed the girl's knee. "No, of course not, sweetheart. We can like different things and still be a family."

"We can?"

Dani's memories took her back to her original universe, with her original parents as they all sat on the back porch swing at Grandma Gretchen's house.

"Eridani," Seven had said so long ago. "Cappie and I have something to discuss."

"I'm not takin' piano lessons, Mom," she said, sitting forward on the chair while she watched her tiptoes push off the wood flooring.

"It's not about that, Dani," Kathryn said, rubbing her back.

Dani continued as if she hadn't heard. "Because I don't like music."

"Eridani, it is another matter entirely," Seven said, watching the little hand braced against her thigh.

"And I don't like that creepy Mr. Waters," she continued. "I think he is a child molester."

"Dani!" Kathryn shouted while Seven yelled, "Eridani!"

"What?" She said, her eyes wide in alarm.

"You can't just say that so casually!" Janeway's command voice was always sharper with her daughter than she wanted it to be. This time had been no different.

"I didn't say it! Lindy did!"

Kathryn continued as if Dani hadn't spoken. "It's shocking and could ruin his reputation, if untrue." The Captain pulled her back, so she could study her face when she asked the next question. "Is there something you should tell us, Elizabeth Eridani Janeway?"

Dani tightened her mouth at the mention of her whole name. "How should I know? I don't take piano lessons," she reasoned.

"What has Lindy said to you? Exactly, Dani?"

"That he makes her practice her scales and squeals on her to her mom when she screws that up during the lesson."

"We do not use the word 'screws,' Eridani," Seven pointed out sternly.

"Cappie said 'exactly," Mom. I didn't say it—"

"Lindy said it," Janeway offered. "Yes, I think we got it, m'darlin'." Janeway took out a padd and tapped the screens a few times. "I'll call Tessa tomorrow so that she can decide if there is merit or not."

Dani glared at Kathryn. Sometimes she wanted to fling that dumb doohickey into the cow pasture. Cappie loves it more than me, Dani thought wretchedly.

Seven watched a shadow cross Dani's face. She knew exactly what the girl was feeling. She'd felt it herself many times in the last few years of her marriage. Of late, Seven of Nine had contemplated threatening her wife with assimilation. Perhaps a "red alert" could draw Kathryn's attention, Seven mused. At the very least her assimilation tubules could pique Kathryn's waning interest in Seven's neglected body.

Soon, it had become apparent that Janeway was doing more than just putting tapping out a note to call Gretchen Janeway's neighbor and Lindy's mother, Tessa Saberhagen.

Seven sighed, drawing Dani's attention with a tug. "In the future, please refrain from repeating idle gossip, particularly one so malicious," Seven said, also with a chastising look. "I think perhaps your afternoons have been too laissez-faire here at Geegee's house this summer."

Kathryn lifted her eyes, regarding her wife disapprovingly. "Andy," she said, evoking the nickname more of habit than affection. "I don't believe that my mother has had a hand in Dani's poor choice of friends."

Dani felt her Borg mother stiffen. Dani put a leg up and rested a forehead there, encircling her head with both arms.

Seven swiveled her head to look back at Kathryn. She wanted to call Kathryn her special name, but she fought the spiteful urge. She would not use the name unless spoken in love. "Neither for innuendo nor allegation did I refer to your dear mother. Her name was merely an attributive identifier." Janeway winced to hear the bitter edge.

Kathryn watched as the two most important people in her life lined up against her. Her chest tightened at the growing sense of alienation. Over what? A slip of the tongue. She shook her head, raising a pacifistic hand. "Fine, fine," she said. She meant the comments as agreement, but her wife took them as arrogantly dismissive.

"I'm sorry I said anything," the girl muttered, throwing herself back on the swing. Her slouch made her nearly entirely horizontal and, to her mothers, she looked uncomfortable.

"It is not fine, Kathryn," Seven said with more ice in her already frigid monotone. "The topic is clearly something of importance to you to bring it up at this unusual juncture."

Kathryn lifted her head in thought, a hand running down her neck. She leveled a withering glare that could melt the hull of a starship. "You really didn't want to come spend the summer here with my family, did you?"

Seven's face hardened. Kathryn The Explorer, who pushed the limits of a starship, never seemed to know when to stop with her or Dani. It was inefficient. As Seven opened her mouth to respond, Dani interrupted. "I said! I'm sorry I brought it up! Sheesh!"

Kathryn easily recognized Seven's attitude of defiance from subtle nuances in the tension around her eyes and her subtle ship in posture. The ex-Borg was insubordinate from the moment she stepped onto Voyager and she brought the same insolence to their marriage. All Kathryn had to do now was to wait for Seven to say just a few word to start a disagreement. Wait for it...wait for it...

"Dani is correct," Seven said without any variation of tone.

There it is! Kathryn tightened her mouth, looking away while she gathered her composure.

Seven continued to speak to Kathryn's shoulder. "We should not be discussing what is between us now."

"Oh, that's right." The comment was tinged with sarcasm and Kathryn thought her daughter wouldn't register it. But she was wrong.

Dani bolted from the swing. "Lindy said her parents hated each other, too." She stood with her back to the women, wondering how this summer vacation got to be such a bummer.

Seven sat ramrod straight, a hand lying on each knee. She was looking straight at the Janeway barn that housed a cow and her calf, and a few bantam chickens.

With a hand at her chin, Janeway was leaning against the arm of the swing with a leg crossed, watching the leaves on a grove of oak trees sway with the gentle breeze.

Just as she always did, Kathryn absorbed her emotions and was the first to offer armistice. She looked back at Seven, knowing her wife was embroiled in a cascade of emotions that usually made it difficult for her to cope. And Dani was still young, despite the smart mouth on her. "I think we've started this discussion off on the wrong foot. Several, in fact," she said lightly. "I think it's good thing we are only bi-pedal."

Seven allowed her dismay to show. But, to Kathryn's surprise, Dani chuckled, thinking of how she'd ride a bike with an extra pair of legs.

"So," Janeway said, pushing herself up from her knees. "Where were we?"

Dani put her fingers in the back pockets of her faded jeans, as she slowly turned. "You were just about to tell me I could take swimming lessons."

Janeway crossed her arms and looked down at her daughter with a look of simulated impatience. "No, I don't think that was it, Dani."

"Oh," she said breezily, with a casual wave of a hand. "Then it musta been you telling me it was okay to get my ears pierced."

"No!" the both mothers yelled in unison.

Dani's crooked smile slowly blossomed. Seven believed their daughter's impish grin was nearly identical to Kathryn's. But was not about to derail the truce for that observation, no matter how true.

Dani didn't even give the mothers time to recover before she issued another sally. "What about Lindy's aunt's wedding? Next weekend in Indianapolis? Can I go with Lindy?" Dani held her breath on this request, knowing the distance would mean an overnight stay in a hotel.

Both parents realized the other requests had been gimmicks, mere props in a battle of wits.

"We require a more detailed briefing before a decision may be fully rendered."

"Like what?"

"Like who is Lindy's aunt and who is her groom?" Janeway asked.

Seven slowly swiveled her head to Kathryn and then returned it to Dani. "Or her bride."

"Ah," Kathryn chuckled, realizing her error. "Good call, Andy." But her overtures were met with typical Borg indifference.

"Um, Lindy's aunt is Tierna...or something like that...Saberhagen." Dani looked up, squinting as she tried to recall the details. "She's marrying some guy...." The blank look on her parents face told her she needed to keep digging. "I think he's from Betazed."

Kathryn came to full alert, standing tall. "Will their ceremony be traditional Betazoid, by chance?"

Dani grimaced, as her shoulders went up. "Um, yes."

"Then, um, no, you can't go," Kathryn said decisively. "You are six, Dani. You can't traipse around a wedding with nothing but your pretty little smile on."

"But—"

Seven raised a hand to stop their daughter. "Yes, we realize you are intellectually gifted," she said. "Particularly since you never fail to declare that datum to your advantage."

"But—"

Seven raised a brow and her eyes narrowed.

"Maybe next time," Dani conceded as she dropped to the space beside Seven on the swing.

Seven patted the girl's knee in sympathy. "I am gratified that we agree."

"Me, too," she said sullenly.

Kathryn joined the pair on the swing. As they swayed, the boards of the authentic wooden slats moaned and the steel hinges creaked. They could hear a dog barking in a field.

Janeway sighed. She and Seven had agreed that she would take the lead on this real reason for this family meeting. Now she wondered if she'd been sucker punched by her wife of seven years.

Janeway let a loose fist fall good-naturedly on Dani's knee. "First off, kiddo, you know we love you, right?"

"Yep," she said, watching her mother's hand curl on her leg.

"We always shall," Seven added.

"I shall, too." She smiled when she heard her mothers chuckle.

But the brief calm, quickly gave way to tension. Dani's eyes flicked up when she heard a small strain in Kathryn's voice. The girl could feel a gaggle of targs bucking in her stomach.

After a few more heartbeats of silence, Dani adjusted herself. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong" Janeway knew she spoke too fast and instantly regretting the lie, but unable to reverse course.

Seven began to caress her daughter's arm. "Cappie has been thinking about taking an extended assignment."

Dani started to hear the crickets chirping, as she tried to absorb this news. "Yes, let's," Dani finally replied. "'Cause there will be no piano teachers in space!" Her triumphant smile was marred by the heart-breaking seriousness of her parents. "We are going, right?"

Janeway offered a cheerless smile, as she shook her head. "I will be taking command of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan."

"What about us?"

The parents shared a meaningful look. Janeway took Dani's hand and kissed the knuckles. "You and your mother will stay planet-side."

She grimaced. It was a distorted expression, equal parts anger, fear and frustration. "Just like Lindy's mom and dad," Dani said. "Lindy said they told her they loved her and then wham-o they divorced."

"Well," Janeway said, with a hint of mockery. "Lindy's lived quite a life already."

"So are you getting a divorce?" Dani's tears fell freely and she made no pretense of hiding them now.

Janeway gave a little gurgle in her throat as she looked at Seven with a plea in her eye. "Dani, Cappie and I merely require sufficient...time to...perform diagnostics on our...connection."

Still Dani couldn't bring herself to look at either parent. She stared down at her hands, threading and unthreading the fingers. "How long will you be gone, Cap?"

Janeway toyed with one of Dani's flower buttons that festooned her blouse. "It's a twelve-month assignment in deep space."

"A whole year," she said, sounding crushed. "So when is the divorce then?"

Seven leaned forward to look into Dani's eyes. "That possibility has not been raised by either of us, Eridani. It is not a consideration."

"I'm not a baby, you know."

"Yes, we remember," Janeway said, lightly tapping Dani's knee. "You used to smile all the time and never, ever talked back."

Dani pulled herself from the chair, crossing her arms and stomping to the other end of the porch.

Janeway scratched her forehead, wondering what her mother would have done. She patted Seven's leg, when the woman made to rise. "Let me," she said. "I'm usually the enemy anyway."

Seven watched Janeway stride confidently to where Dani leaned against a post looking out. She had often tried to tell the Captain how Dani felt about being low priority with her. Kathryn's response was always the same. "My father the admiral did it to me. I got over it. She'll be fine."

Seven had long since come to the conclusion that Admirals and Captains make inefficient partners and should therefore be sterilized. Eight years as a Starfleet captain's wife was like eighteen years as a Borg drone. The cracks in their relationship were inevitable. Now Seven did not know how they would ever live together as a couple. They had no trouble competing against each other. More than once, they'd taken a friendly competition further than sanity prescribed. Seven blushed with shame to remember a Velocity game where they went ten rounds and in the end, Janeway emerged with a bloody nose and a bruised ego.

Seven believed they had allowed their friendship to slowly decompile. With that gone, they were never any good in bed, making the rivalry that much more caustic. She wondered how they could ever redeem what the years had consumed.

=/\=

Cappie stood next to the girl, as they watched the sun on the waving amber wheat field. She didn't know what to do with her hands, so she shoved them in her pants. "I want you to know something, Dani. I'm not leaving you, sweetheart."

"That's what it feels like."

"I know," she said empathetically. "But it simply isn't true. It's a chance to give your mother space without being suffocated by me, my ship and Starfleet."

Dani just made an angry sound, like bees stuck in her throat.

"You know, we can live different places and still love each other."

"Can we?"

Five months from that day, Seven cried in agony as she learned she would never address her wife by any name. The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan was destroyed and all hands lost, including Captain Kathryn Janeway, defending the Alpha Quadrant against a Ket'zali invasion force heading toward Starfleet Headquarters on Earth. Seven of Nine was never the same again.

=/\=

Dani remembered the funeral. It was a cold day in Indiana that January. Just like it was right now on this stupid ship. There was nothing left of her Cappie, only a marble statue of the U.S.S. Voyager at the family plot. The stone was cold, too. My Cappie is gone, she thought.

Only when Seven's warm hand touched her forehead did Dani jerk back to the present. "Did I startle you?" Seven asked quietly as she considered the readings on her medical tricorder.

Kathryn misread Dani's expression. "We'll get Silly Willy back," Cappie said with a curl of her lips. "And Little Bobo, too." She nearly laughed out loud at Seven's gleam of amusement.

Dani's unblinking eyes turned to look at her mother. She registered her smile and the playful way her mothers interacted, just as it used to be, long before the Evil Ones.

Janeway stopped abruptly, studying the catatonic state of her daughter. "Dani, are you all right?"

She finally blinked and the reality hit her. She was in another universe where both of her parents were alive. Alive! And they liked each other!

Dani flung herself into Kathryn's arm, clutching her neck tightly. Janeway squeaked when her backside smacked the cold, hard grate. It wasn't graceful or gentle, but Janeway would take what she could get with her daughter. This was the child's first overture since Cappie's attempt to extract information. She returned Dani's hug. "What's the matter?" She and Seven exchanged worried looks.

"I'm sorry, Cap," she whispered. "I love you so much."

"Oh, honey, I know you do. I feel the same way about you." Janeway continued to cling to the girl

"My Cappie," she murmured against Kathryn's neck.

Kathryn wondered at this new development. It was exactly like her first tantrum, after the board games. She exploded and then clung to Kathryn as if they were to be separated forever.

In her mother's embrace, Dani still shuddered. "You know what?" she said to the small ear beside her. "I'd get a hundred cats, if they all came with a warm cup of coffee." Janeway poked the girl's rib, drawing a small giggle and a squirm. "And I'd bet you'd take a hundred baths if you could have a hot chocolate after every one of them."

Dani pulled back. "With marshmallows?"

"It isn't hot chocolate without marshmallows, now is it?" Dani shook her head in earnest agreement. "They'd do just the trick to take the nip out of the air just like that," Kathryn said, though she didn't bother to snap her fingers. They were too numb. Then she stopped for a split second. "Of course, this isn't really cold. Not really, if you're from Indiana."

"I was born in Bloomington," Dani piped in.

"Go Hoosiers." Kathryn playfully tugged the girl's boot.

"Hoo-rah!" Her voice was a little too loud and her mothers quieted her quickly, but Janeway was still elated. It took the edge off of the rejection she felt from a child who shared her own DNA.

=/\=

About thirty meters beyond, Dani collapsed gustily to the grate, rolling to her stomach. "My arms are gonna fall off and I still have to pee." She thought briefly of the promise she made to her real mother. As far as peeing, she could definitely act like a seven-year-old because she was not about to willingly tinkle in a weird spaceship. Yep, definitely not gonna do it. But her bloated bladder squeezed itself and she crossed her legs against gravity.

Seven stopped her tricorder in mid-air to look over her shoulder at the girl. "We are halfway to our destination," she said, assuming it would be welcome news.

Instead Dani groaned loudly, earning a look of censure from the Borg. Janeway could see the impatience building in Seven's face, much to Kathryn's relief. She hardly wanted to be the only parent with a low tolerance for whining, particularly when Dani already had the power to urinate.

Dani lifted her face to grimace at her mother, her expression turning exasperated when Seven gestured toward a corner of the chute for Dani's private business. The girl shook her head and buried it in the crook of her arm. She uncrossed her legs and recrossed them again. "I don't have to go anymore."

Seven crawled back to sit beside the prone figure. She traced a small circle on Dani's shoulder with a finger as she spoke. "We may not arrive to our destination until much later, Eridani. It is not a difficult thing to relieve yourself in an open forum."

Dani lifted her head, eyeing her Borg mother suspiciously. "Then you pee," she said with a defiant lilt of her dimpled chin.

Janeway, who was seated near Dani's feet, smothered her smirk into her bent knees. She knew she shouldn't be so amused watching a sparring match between these two people. Lord knows she's been on the receiving end of Seven's stubborn-streak on more occasions than she cared to remember. But the Captain could not help the amused satisfaction she received from watching Seven of Nine get a dose of her own insolent medicine.

Seven spied Janeway's shoulder shakes and cleared her throat. Janeway straightened, wiping a few laugh tears and turned to see Seven's frown. The Borg turned her attention once again on her daughter, who was bouncing her leg in an unrelenting attempt to forget how full she felt.

"Eridani, I do not require urination," Seven said matter-of-factly. "It is you who has complained on twelve separate occasions."

Dani glared at her mother, while Seven merely held an even, steady gaze. She noted the circles under the girl's eyes and the corners of her mouth drawn down. Then she saw Dani shiver. "Are you having difficulty maintaining your core temperature, Eridani?"

She rolled over to her back, sitting up to rub her arms and pull her knees close. "I'm a little cold."

Before Dani had even finished responding, Janeway shed her Starfleet tunic, placing it over the girl's small shoulders. "It's a little big. But you'll grow into it," she said with a wink.

Dani smiled shyly as she slipped her arms into the sleeves. She could still feel her mother's heat. Kathryn rolled the sleeves up until they were fat rings around Dani's wrist. "How's that?"

"Better," she mumbled, keeping her chin tucked. Her thanks was nearly inaudible.

"I'm glad," Kathryn said. The older mother tried to infuse her soft grin with all the affection she could, but the girl looked away nervously. There'll be time enough, the woman thought.

"Now, Eridani, please find the privacy you need—"

"But not far so we can't see you," Janeway added with a nod to Seven, who replied with a small dip of her head.

"Yes, remain within visual range...." Seven inhaled deeply at the child's puckered brow. "But you must eliminate your waste."

The girl looked forlornly at the corner her mother had indicated, and then buried her head again.

"You must comply, Eridani." Seven let all of her fingers tap Dani's shoulder rhythmically.

The girl burrowed her head in deeper, covering it with her arms.

"Eridani?" A single finger lightly thumped her once.

She sat up, wiping her tears with a sleeve. "I will comply," Dani said bleakly.

Her defeated crawl was pathetic for her mothers to watch. "My mother always said most girls go through a drama stage at one time or other," Janeway whispered as they heard sniffles from the girl.

Seven watched as Janeway studied their daughter. "Did you also dramatize excessively?"

Janeway flicked her gaze toward the azure one. "Oh, never! My sister Phoebe though...." She clicked her teeth and shook her head.

"Do you find Dani's sensationalism hurtful?" Seven noted the slight tightening around Janeway's eyes. "As when she pulled away from you?"

Janeway watched the girl circle the chosen spot, muttering something inaudible. "Mmm," she finally murmured. "Like a blow to the gut and from a midget."

Seven watched the delicate auburn lashes that lightly brushed the planes of her cheeks. "You yourself indicated that you had bonded with her."

Janeway nodded, watching Dani unbuckle her belt. "Perhaps she feels closer to you...." Her voice began to crack and so she cleared her throat. "Because you...your counterpart in the other universe carried her during pregnancy." When she saw Dani finally prepare to lower her trousers, Janeway adjusted herself. She could still see the child in her periphery, but afforded her a modicum of privacy. "What do you think?"

Seven considered the statement. "If I were Borg in the other universe – and there is nothing to indicate otherwise – then, no, Kathryn, I would not have carried Dani in my uterus."

The liquid gray snapped up, bewilderment dulling her sparkle. For several heartbeats she was unable to form a single coherent thought, though she tried. "Are you suggesting to me that I...that I..." Kathryn lightly touched her chest. "That I was pregnant?"

Seven raised an eyebrow. "Not you, Captain. You're counterpart in the parallel universe, as my counterpart would have had no uterus with which to carry a subunit."

Seven's eyes fluttered once, the Borg composure melted away. "As I cannot become pregnant, though I would if I were better equipped." With the weight of Kathryn's compassion, Seven flushed and closed her eyes.

Kathryn's hand on her knee was warm and comforting. Seven immediately laced their hands together. When she opened her eyes, the Captain was staring their twined hands in awe. "I didn't know you ever wanted children," she said. "As Captain, I mean...." She let anymore words die on her lips because the ones she'd just uttered sounded cold.

"I did not know until I met Eridani."

Kathryn's thumb began to stroke Seven. It was all innocent, but she felt her breathing start to accelerate.

"What of you, Captain?"

Janeway finally lifted her eyes, shrugging a shoulder. It was an oddly naked gesture, open and honest. "I never seem to have much luck with love." There was a humorous lilt to the comment, but Seven surmised it was artifice. She tightened her grip on Kathryn's hand in response.

With a hooked finger under Kathryn's chin, Seven lifted her gaze until they were level. "Perhaps it is not luck that you require," she said softly. "But devotion and fidelity." And availability, Seven pondered to herself. Yes, she could give that to this woman, free and with both hands.

A faint smile touched Kathryn's lips as she let her gaze fall to their hands again. I have the worst timing, she thought. Why this now? "I'm...I'm flattered, Seven." She blushed when she caught a glimpse of desire that Seven had very careful to bridle. "But should we really be having this kind of discussion in the innards of a strange ship flying to God knows where while two races fight over who gets to fricassee us?"

"The situation is rather dramatic, Kathryn, but our opportunities for repose have been negligible in the Delta Quadrant." Seven rushed on, as Kathryn opened her mouth to reply. "That is why the most optimal time to discuss such matters is always now."

Kathryn leaned forward and pressed her lips into a thin line, disquiet dogging her. "Seven," she said softly. "I'm...I'm—"

"You are flattered and flattery is irrelevant."

She nodded, still too shy to look up at the beautiful young woman. "What I'm so ineloquently trying to say, Seven is...I just don't think we can overcome the stress of a.... We aren't special enough. I've seen too many captains...and admirals—my own father, for one...."

Seven's persistent gaze finally incinerated the last bit of Kathryn's calculated speech. "You're not buying it, are you?"

"Commander Tuvok has advised me to disregard illogical and emotive ramblings from Terrans. In this particular case, I would wager the opposite of your declarations is true."

She issued the challenge with an arched brow.

Janeway covered half her face with her hand, a blush burning her skin. "The truth is I do want you, Seven. I'm sure you know that with the way I've been acting. But I have a ship that I have to consider first and foremost and always." She brushed her fingertips along the strong jaw line. "But in another lifetime...."

Seven looked back at Dani, who was stooped over with her underwear and trousers pulled to her ankles. "Hey, mom, how'm I supposed to wipe my butt?"

"I will be there shortly, Eridani."

Before she turned her attention to the backpack, Seven abruptly hauled Janeway into her lap. "Seven!"

With a hand on each of Kathryn's cheek, Seven covered her mouth. It was not a tender kiss of promise. It was a full-mouthed union that was possessive and unyielding in its expression of desire. Long when Kathryn thought Seven would pull back, she did not. She surveyed the Captain's mouth, staking a claim that the older woman found exhilarating and alarming. Seven's always-polite hand slipped down to first caress the side of her breast, its softness and curves. Kathryn tried to dislodge the hand, but still their tongues remained intertwined. When Seven lightly brushed Kathryn's nipple with a thumb, she moaned long. Her hand covering Seven's at once to break the circuit of electricity and to bind them together.

"Dani...." Kathryn managed.

Only then did Seven break the spell, but held the redhead against her chest. "One day, Kathryn," she whispered in her ear, "you will love me more than all the coffee in all the galaxy."

Easily, the tall woman disentangled herself to take their daughter what she needed, while a bewildered and wide-eyed Kathryn stared on. She wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her turtle neck, as she watched the woman speaking with Dani. "I already do," she whispered to no one. But coffee is not her rival. The U.S.S. Voyager is.

=/\=

Dani noted with some satisfaction the relaxed intimacy of Kathryn and Seven. Their caresses seemed welcome from both of them, though she sensed that they had never considered a relationship with each other before her appearance.

She smiled softly when Seven seized Kathryn for a breath-stealing, soulful kiss. It conveyed so much more than a lust or a short-term fling. If nothing else, Dani hoped she could have here what her parents had spoiled there. It was more reason to continue the ruse of acting her age. Besides, it was certainly entertaining sometimes.

With that decision reinforced, Dani yelled for toilet paper.

=/\=

After conversing quietly with Dani for a few minutes, Seven made her way back to the Captain. Gone were the warmth and fervor. Even in those few minutes, Kathryn felt that she had cheated herself of something precious. With a forceful inner roar, Captain Janeway plunged the feeling so deep that she would forget.

Seven had resumed reviewing her tricorder readings, sparing only a second to notice the Captain. The needle puncture site on her neck was swollen. She wasn't sure whether she was more gaunt or if the contrast with the angry red spot sharpened the contrast. But the Captain did not complain and so she returned her attention to the tricorder.

"Did Dani finally answer nature's call?" Kathryn asked quietly.

"Yes. Let us hope that the many other issues she faces are so easily remedied."

"I have no doubt the answer will be no."

Seven glanced at the girl, earning a hiss from her. "I am fearful that our daughter may be confusing reality with nightmares or her world with ours."

Janeway frowned. "Why do you say that?"

Seven glanced quickly to Dani and then back before she could be chastised. "When she first saw you, Eridani believed you were a phantasm."

Janeway's hand automatically went up to stroke her own chin, a soothing habit that always had allowed her to think. "Then I was probably dead in the alternate universe," she said casually. "Goodness knows there have been plenty of opportunities for that." A careless smile dropped from her face when she noticed Seven's distress. "But here, I'm quite alive."

"Yes, and you will remain so, Captain." To Janeway's questioning look, Seven lifted a brow, inviting debate. But Kathryn wisely yielded the debate to the Astrometrics Officer, with a small nod.

"But then why hasn't she told us something about that? Like why I'm alive? That she knows she's in the wrong universe?" Kathryn scratched her head.

They turned to see Dani crawl back, a little disgusted by her hands as with every step she wiped a hand on her pants.

"Perhaps she does not remember."

The pair shared a meaningful look before a growl from the child refocused their attention. "She is quite the puzzle," she murmured.

"I would not require her any other way," Seven said, with more affection than Janeway had ever seen her display. When the girl reached them, she threw herself to the bottom grate, where Seven's hand lightly squeezed her shoulder. "Do you not feel relief, Eridani?"

The girl didn't want to answer, but reluctantly she did. "Yeah, I guess so. Can I eat?"

Her mothers refrained from eating, allowing her to have their share of ration bars. Her mothers noted once more that the child's color was pallid and she was again sluggish. But Dani was completely unaware, so caught up in stuffing her mouth full.

"Eridani," Seven said, alarmed at the bulging cheeks while she chewed. "Please decelerate your consumption."

"Mmpf...wwof."

Kathryn playfully pinched her thigh, and said, "And don't talk with your mouth fool, sweetheart."