Disclaimers: Please see Chapter I.
Nature of the Beast Chapter V
by Kerisempai
Tom Paris sat with Harry Kim at one of the back tables of Sandrines, nursing a beer. The holodeck held few people at this late hour, and only the fact that both men had the next day off kept them from calling it a night.
The doors opened, and Harry rose up for the umpteenth time, searching for the stocky form of the Chief Engineer. He sat back down, signaling for another round of drinks.
"Face it Harry, she's not coming," Paris stated, finishing off his own beer as their refills arrived. "She was a bit on edge at the meeting today, anyway. We're probably better off."
Harry frowned. "I know you said she lit in to you this morning, but it's not like B'Elanna to just not show up." The Ensign enjoyed their standing weekly arrangement for drinks at Sandrines. It had become tradition when B'Elanna and Tom had been dating, and they had continued it after the two had split. "Maybe she's just pissed at you?" Harry wondered out loud, "Or at me for that matter," thinking of how he'd intervened with the Captain. He'd been trying to help her out, but B'Elanna was funny about what she classified as her "domain".
"This is stupid," the helmsman said, smacking his glass down on the table.
Computer what's the location of Lieutenant Torres?
Lieutenant Torres is currently in Cargo Bay Two
Both men looked at each other, surprised at this information.
Computer what is the location of Seven of Nine? Harry added his own query.
Seven of Nine is currently in Cargo Bay Two
"Okay, that's just weird," Tom stated the obvious.
Computer is Seven of Nine regenerating?
Negative, Seven of Nine is not currently regenerating
"What do you think that's about?" Tom Paris questioned his friend.
"I don't know, but I don't like it." Harry's frown had deepened, and no little worry for the ex-drone was evident in his next comment. "You don't think B'Elanna would go down there to pick a fight, do you? I mean, I know you said she was in a mood, and she didn't look like she'd gotten much sleep, but you don't think, do you?" Harry's concern for Seven, whom he still nurtured a rather sizable crush on, was sending him rapidly into a full on babble.
"I seriously doubt that the Lieutenant is harming Seven in any way…" a haughty voice intoned from behind them, "but with Klingons it can be a thin line."
Both men turned and stared at the Emergency Medical Hologram, not sure what he was getting at.
"Why yes, gentlemen, I'd be happy to join you," the doctor intoned, pulling out an empty chair from their table, and seating himself with a wide smile.
"No offense doc, but what would you know about it?" Tom challenged.
"Oh, nothing," the doctor answered smugly, folding his hands in front of him and glancing around the bar.
Harry snorted at the hologram. "If you're trying to insinuate that Seven might be… be…" he trailed off, unwilling to voice the end of that sentence, "with B'Elanna, then you obviously don't know either of them very well. They don't even like each other." Harry's mind rebelled at the very thought of Seven engaged in any kind of romantic activity with his friend, but against his wishes an image seated itself firmly in his mind's eye. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"He's just trying to feed the gossip mill," Tom waived off. "Come on doc, I know it's been relatively uneventful lately, but B'Elanna and Seven? Please." He took another drink, wiping his lips after. "You just better hope B'Elanna doesn't hear you, or you might find your matrix creatively rearranged."
"Actually Ensign Paris, it might interest you to know that while Lieutenant Torres and I are not what one would call "bosom friends," Seven does consider me a mentor, and indeed a confidant." The doctor had drawn himself up in his chair during his short speech, radiating supreme confidence.
"So spill it then," Tom challenged. "What do you know?"
"Well," the doctor lowered his voice conspiratorially, leaning in closer, "I would point out the fact that they are obviously together right now, late at night, alone." This piece of information, already having been established did not inspire any gasps or awed expressions. He pressed on. "And if anyone had been the least bit observant, they might have noticed a particular mark on the side of Seven's neck earlier today. This particular injury results when blood has been urged to the surface of the skin, usually in the midst of amorous activity."
When Seven had requested the doctor's silence, she had only asked that he not share the nature of her visit to the sick bay, nothing had been mentioned about the presence of the mark or it's implied significance; at least that was what the hologram had convinced himself.
"Are you saying Seven has a hickey?" Harry practically shouted, causing the doctor to wince. Silence fell over the few crewmen at the surrounding tables. "From B'Elanna?" he continued in an urgent whisper.
Tom, who'd been sitting down the table from Seven at the meeting, thought back. "She did have a mark," the helmsman remembered. "It was high on her neck, right under that star shaped implant." He looked at the doctor for confirmation.
"Indeed she did Mr. Paris."
Harry looked desperate for these lies to stop battering his conviction that one day Seven of Nine would fall madly in love with him. "Tom, you can't seriously be buying this?" the shorter man begged.
Realization was quickly dawning on Tom Paris. B'Elanna's fights with Seven had always been a subject of conversation when he'd been dating the Klingon. Conversation in the way that B'Elanna would storm in from Engineering, cursing the former Borg, briefly relate the most recent transgression, and proceed to ravish him within an inch of his life. "Oh yeah," Tom smiled.
"You know, there's really only one way to find out what's going on." With that cryptic statement, the sandy haired pilot downed the last of his beer, pushed back from the table, and strode to the exit.
Harry and the doctor quickly followed suit, just catching up to the helmsman as he entered the turbolift.
"Mr. Paris, where are you going?" the EMH questioned just as the doors were beginning to close between him and Tom.
"To the cargo bay," Tom winked, breaking out into a large grin as the turbolift doors closed on the astonished faces of the other two men.
