A/N: Big thanks to MissyHissy3 for her beta read and suggestions and also to everyone who has taken the time to review. Very much appreciated!

Fourteen

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks ten miles to school, another's dropping out
Funny the way it is, it's not right or wrong
On a soldier's last breath, a baby's being born

Funny the Way It Is – Dave Matthews Band

Chakotay got out of his car and paused for a moment, leaning on the open door. The churned patch of earth outside the gym was no longer entirely bare. A series of small trees had been planted against the wire fence on three sides of the square, leaving the final side – the one with the metal gate – empty. As he watched, a small man with a dusty coat slung over one arm pulled the gate shut behind him before fitting a key to the lock and turning it. Chakotay looked around, but of Kathryn Janeway and Tom Paris there was no sign.

The strange little man headed in the direction of the gym, the key still in his hand. Chakotay pushed the door of the car shut and at the noise the man looked over, a beaming grin breaking out across his face.

"Ah ha!" he said. "Mr Chakotay, there you are."

"Hello," said Chakotay. "I'm sorry - do we know each other?"

"Not yet, no, I don't suppose so," said the man, coming to a halt. "I know who you are because I've seen you coming and going, but there's no reason at all for you to know me. I'm Neelix. I live over there-" he twitched his head in the direction of the block of apartments opposite, "and I have taken on the honour of looking after Ms Janeway's trees."

"I see," said Chakotay, with a smile. He held out his hand, which Neelix shook just a little too vigorously. "I'm glad she's managed to persuade another local to come aboard. I think she was beginning to fear no one else would."

Neelix beamed again. "Well, she's really something, isn't she, Mr Chakotay? And what she's trying to do here – well, it just seems to me she and young Tom deserve all the help they can get."

"Can't disagree with you on that score, Mr Neelix."

"No mister," Neelix said, breezily. "Just Neelix. Anyway, I don't want to keep you. Could you take the key and leave it on Ms Janeway's desk? I just wanted to do one last check of the trees and I told her I'd make sure it got back to the proper place."

Chakotay took the key with another smile. "Of course. I'll be here for another hour or two if you need it again this evening."

Neelix had already started back across the road, stepping off the sidewalk with a wave of one hand. "Oh no, they'll be fine until tomorrow now," he said. "I'm off to spread the word that help is needed here. See you again, Mr Chakotay."

"No mister," Chakotay called after him. "It's just Chakotay."

Neelix turned back briefly with another beaming smile. "There, you see," he said. "Friends already."

Chakotay was still smiling to himself when he walked through the gym doors. They were unlocked, and the faint sound of gloves against leather told him someone was there early. He glanced down the far end of the hallway, but he could see through the glass of the office door that Janeway had already gone.

In the gym, B'Elanna was putting her favourite punch bag through its paces. He stopped and considered her stance for a few moments, pocketing the key Neelix had given him with a mental note not to forget to put it on Kathryn's desk later.

"Your head level is good," he said aloud, "but you're still putting too much weight on your left heel. If you don't level that out you'll strain your back against a real opponent. It'll take you too long to adjust before returning a strike."

B'Elanna stopped, turning to face him but not looking him in the eye.

"Hey," Chakotay said. "Nice to see you. It's been a while."

The girl shrugged and turned back to the mat. "I've been here, though."

"I know."

"Haven't broken our deal."

"Not technically, no. But being your coach implies that at some point, I do actually coach you. Hard to do that when you make sure you're not here at the same time as me."

Torres blew out a breath and threw a punch. "Someone been telling tales?"

Chakotay dropped his training bag and moved closer. "Who would do that?"

"How about a white chick from out of town?" B'Elanna flicked him a look then, before throwing another punch. "Just a wild guess – Coach."

Chakotay caught the bag before she could execute an off-centre uppercut. "Actually, yes - Ms Janeway has been talking to me about you."

B'Elanna danced backwards on the soles of her feet, a tight, unhappy look on her face. "Right. I knew it. Look-"

"She showed me some sketches you'd done. For a water reclamation unit." Chakotay raised an eyebrow. "Pretty impressive stuff, Torres. You could have told me, you know."

B'Elanna opened her mouth and then shut it again, a frown creasing her brow. "Told you what?"

"That you needed time to work on your designs. What did you think, that I'd drop you because of that? B'Elanna, what you've been working on has extraordinary merit, not to mention amazing potential. I can completely understand that it's been taking up training time."

B'Elanna met his eye with another frown. "Janeway said that? That that's what I'd been doing?"

Chakotay shrugged. "What did you think she'd said?"

The girl started untying her hands, giving up when she reached forward to help. "Don't know. She's not… my biggest fan."

He smiled grimly. "Funny. She said pretty much the same thing about you."

She pulled her hands back and freed them from her gloves. "Yeah, well. What were you talking about me at all for?"

"She wants you to present your idea to an audience. There's a benefit gala evening coming up and there'll be people there who might be interested in taking it further. It's an amazing opportunity, B'Elanna."

The girl raised her eyebrows. "Yeah? So why isn't she asking me herself?"

"She thought it'd be better coming from me."

B'Elanna shook her head. "I can't do it."

"You can."

"I can't. You know what it'll be like. Dumb women sitting around in dresses their fat old husbands spent more on than my mom makes in six months. What am I supposed to say to people like that? I don't even know how to make the thing work, I just… have theories, that's all. It's all made up from stuff I read on the Internet or in books. That's it."

"And where you do think everyone else's ideas come from? B'Elanna, come on – even if nothing comes of this, think of where it could lead. Just your ingenuity in thinking of it shows you've got the kind of potential that people with the wherewithal can use."

"Yeah? And what if I don't want to be used?" B'Elanna said, throwing her hands up. "Huh? You ever think about that, Coach? Maybe I've already had enough of being used. How about that?"

She dropped her hands and turned away. Chakotay watched her back, frowning.

"B'Elanna – is there something you need to tell me? Something you need help with? Because you know I'll always do what I can. Whatever it is."

There was a moment of silence. He watched the lines of tension ripple down the girl's back and it saddened him that there could be so much weight on the shoulders of one so young. Then B'Elanna turned around with a sigh.

"Nothing. There's nothing wrong. Everything's fine."

He didn't believe her, but what could he do? He couldn't force the truth out of her. He doubted anyone could.

"Then why don't you just give it a try?" he suggested. "Just talk to Kathryn. Give her a chance, B'Elanna. I don't know why you have such an issue with her, but she's worth that. Isn't she? She's at least worth that."

B'Elanna shook her head. "You're as bad as Tom."

"What?"

"With him it's some weird hero worship thing, but with you-" The girl quirked an eyebrow. "You do know she's getting married, right?"

"Sorry?"

"In two and a half months. Tom told me."

"What's this got to do with me?"

B'Elanna crossed her arms. "Just making sure you knew, that's all."

"What difference does it make to you what I know or don't know about Ms Janeway?" Chakotay said, struggling to tamp down on his growing annoyance.

The girl tilted her head and clenched her jaw. "Makes no difference to me – Coach."

Chakotay shook his head. "I'd forgotten what you can be like, B'Elanna. I thought you were trying to lose the attitude."

She laughed and dropped her arms. "What me? What would be the point of that? So I can be the best behaved of all the bums waiting in line in the soup kitchen?"

"What's happened?" he asked, with blunt frustration. "This isn't you. I know it isn't. You were doing so well, B'Elanna – in school and here. Out of the blue you come up with this fantastic idea. There's the chance of doing something with it – someone who's got enough faith in you to give you a stage for that – and you won't take it. Why? What's holding you back? Tell me and I'll do whatever I can. You know that."

Something flickered across Torres' face, the briefest glimmer of naked fear. Then it vanished again beneath the weight of her sullen brow. "All right," she said. "I'll think about it."

"You'll think about what?"

"Doing what she wants. Talking to her. If that's what you want."

He scrubbed a hand across his face in frustration. "It's not about what I want, B'Elanna, or about what Kathryn Janeway wants. It's-"

She held up her hands. "Yeah. I know. It's about my future, right? My wonderful, rosy future. I'll think about it."

Chakotay shrugged. "All right. Well, I guess I can't ask for more than that."

"Nope."

"Except… you can acknowledge that it's a good thing she's trying to do. Can't you?"

B'Elanna sighed. Then she nodded, reluctantly. "Yeah. It is pretty good of her, I guess."

Chakotay nodded. "All right. Come on, then. Put your gloves back on and we'll spar."

She bit her lip. "I can't be long. I've got to be out of here in under an hour."

He sighed. "B'Elanna-"

"I know. I know. But I'm here now, aren't I? So stop moaning at me and let's get on with it, Coach. But be warned. I'm pretty riled right now."

Chakotay raised an eyebrow at her as he crossed to his bag and pulled out his gloves. "You think you can take me?"

Torres grinned as she wrenched her gloves back on. "Oh, I know I can."

He grinned back, jerking his chin at the waiting ring. "All right then. Feel free to give it your best shot."

Torres waited until he was already out of breath to hit him hardest.

"Tom says her fiancé's a dick," she said, out of nowhere.

The statement blindsided him enough to let her get a shot in while he was off balance. She darted in and clipped his jaw.

"He can't understand why she's going through with it," she added, dancing backwards as he recovered.

"Torres," Chakotay warned, jabbing back.

"Her family doesn't want her to stay with him either," B'Elanna added, ducking out of his way with nimble ease.

"B'Elanna – drop it."

"Tom reckons she just hasn't met the right guy," Torres went on, landing a smart right hook that sent him reeling backwards.

He gritted his teeth. "B'Elanna-"

"It's a pretty sad story, really," the girl went on, dancing back in for another jab, not even slightly out of breath. "She was engaged before and he died. Tom says she was there. Couldn't-" she jabbed, "save-" and jabbed, "him-" and jabbed. "That's gotta be pretty tough, right?"

Chakotay swung back towards her with a wrong-footed and clumsy uppercut, of which she took full advantage.

"Funny thing is, though," B'Elanna added, smashing his ribs with a smart left hook, "Tom reckons she's been really happy over the past few weeks. Like, happier than he's seen her in years."

"Makes sense to me," Chakotay managed through gritted teeth, parrying yet another blow but lurching backwards with the effort. "She's getting married in two and half months."

"Could be it," B'Elanna agreed, letting him swing and then plunging back again. "But Tom reckons it's this place. Actually," she added, with a pause before landing the final blow. "He says he mainly notices it when you're around."

She slammed another fist into his ribs and Chakotay found himself pitching backwards, crashing against the too-slack ropes of the too-old ring with his too-old-for-this-goddamn-shit back.

"Sorry, Coach," Torres said, standing in front of him. "Looks as if you're on the ropes."

[TBC]