Tegan Chronicles STV Style 3:

What's Left of the Flag 15

She wasn't sure how it had happened but she had gone from talking to Seven about their ordeal on the planet to turning into a blubbering wreck in her arms. She pulled back and wiped angrily at her eyes. "Some Klingon I am, huh?"

"I believe it is normal after what you have been through." Seven offered, trying to sound more comforting than astute.

Had they not been in a relationship B'Elanna would have barked: What could you possibly know about it? You're Borg. But she knew Seven now and she knew she was so much more than Borg. She also knew she was right. Still it didn't make her feel any better about it. "I want to think about something else?"

"Such as?" Seven's ocular implant rose as B'Elanna grinned at her.

She had just finished going over the list of things that still needed to be done with Chakotay when she swayed forward. He reached out to steady her. "You should be in sickbay Captain."

"I'm fine Chakotay." She looked at his hand and he took the hint and removed it.

"I can handle this." He quietly reminded her as the skeleton crew on the bridge went about their duties, most of them on auto pilot.

"The supplies."

"One shovel, one axe, one saw, a month's supply of military rations. We went over this. I'll beam Mr. Jurroth and Mr. Murdrow down at the last possible second." He raised pleading brows letting his brown eyes convey his concern for her welfare.

"Commander," She stood a little straighter. "You have the bridge."

"Aye Captain."

"Not here." Seven spoke in a low tone. Not that they hadn't done it on B'Elanna's couch before but tonight was different. B'Elanna needed something different. Klingon-Borg monkey sex might take her mind off the things she saw, but it wasn't what she needed. She needed to be loved. To feel loved.

"Why not? Here is just as good as anywhere." She grumbled when Seven removed her warm naked body from hers. "Things were just getting good."

"I wish for things to be much better than good." Seven pulled her to her feet and turned her in the direction of the bedroom. "And we were barely getting started."

B'Elanna smiled at the unspoken promises and let herself be pushed toward the bedroom.

When they reached the foot of the bed Seven gently spun the smaller woman around and pushed her back on the bed. "Get comfortable."

"Seven?"

"I am going to spend hours making slow passionate love to you." She let her corners of her lips curl ever so slightly.

B'Elanna scooted up on the bed and rested her head on the pillows already feeling the weight of exhaustion. She hadn't slept since… she didn't want to think about that. "I don't know if I can last hours Seven."

"Then I will make do with the time I have." She climbed onto the bed kissing her way up B'Elanna's legs. "Computer, lights to one quarter."

"Captain." The EMH turned to look at her when she walked into sickbay.

"How are they?" She looked at the two patients currently taking up bed space.

"I just finished repairing Tuvok's shoulders and they are both stable for now." He studied her with great intensity. "Are you here as Captain or as a patient?"

"Both."

"Good then grab a bed." He watched her stare at Tegan. "She's going to be out for a while and the sooner I repair the damage in your shoulders the better chance you'll have at a full recovery."

"I don't want to be put to sleep." She stepped up to a bed and started to remove her jacket.

"I will wake you up as soon as I am done."

"You had better." Her tired glare didn't have the effect she had hoped for.

"I promise." He rolled his eyes.

Seven lay there holding B'Elanna against her body as she slept. She listened to her breathing for over an hour before she finally decided she had to get answers. She carefully extracted herself from her lover took a quick shower and dressed. She waited until she was in the corridor outside B'Elanna's quarters to speak to the computer. "Computer, locate Captain Janeway."

"Captain Janeway is in sickbay."

True to his word, and against his better judgment, the doctor woke Janeway when he was finished with the surgical repairs to her shoulders. Despite his requests that she rest she was standing at the console staring at Tegan when Seven entered. "Captain, can I have a minute of your time?"

"What is it Seven?" She asked wearily as she turned to look at her.

She stopped a few feet away and stood tall with clasped hands resting at the small of her back. "I do not understand why you would choose to help these people after what they did to you and your crew."

"Just how much do you know?" Janeway may have missed their philosophical conversations but she didn't miss Seven's penchant for ill timing.

"I accompanied B'Elanna Torres to the facility on the moon where I assimilated the data from the surveillance orbs before they were destroyed. B'Elanna explained to me how the images were broadcast live for everyone to observe and that they could close their eyes to block out the images but they still had to listen to what was happening."

"Did she also tell you that they found evidence that they had eaten fellow prisoners who had been tortured to death just so they could survive while their captors feasted on food from their home world?"

"No." Seven swallowed. "She did not tell me that."

"Do you think you could eat one of your friends Seven?" She realized a fellow prisoner might not be a friend, but she asked the question anyway.

Seven looked at Tegan and then back to Janeway.

"If you had to do it to survive?" She reached out and held on to the console to steady herself.

"I am not sure if my humanity would allow me to."

"Mine either." She smiled lightly glad they at least agreed on that.

"You still have not answered my question, Captain. Why would you help them after what they have done?" She tilted her head off balance slightly. "You did not make them criminals. You did not brutalize and torture them."

"No but no one should be treated that way and I gave my word. If I go back on it and leave them to starve than I am no better than they are."

After several minutes Seven spoke again, her voice much softer. "Captain?"

She sighed. "Yes Seven?"

"I do not believe this is what the doctor meant when he told you to rest." She didn't give Janeway time to argue. "If you will allow me, I would like to stand vigil while you rest."

Janeway gave her a small appreciative smile and nodded.

Tegan felt the sun warm on her face as a delicate breeze flitted across her skin like a lover's gentle caress. She inhaled. The air was light and crisp unlike that of the constantly filtered and recirculated air on Voyager. She looked up at the sky with perfectly shaped cottony clouds hanging suspended in an azure sea. She had almost forgotten how much she missed the sun.

She was sitting under the shade of a large oak tree, she had been here before. She looked down to find she was dressed the same now as then, she wore a white blouse with a white eyelet skirt. Uncut green grass grew in abundance for miles in every direction until it met purple-blue mountains that jutted to greet the sky. She had sat under that very tree after she had lost her arm. She had asked her Nana if she was dying. She pushed to her feet looking for the old woman, Irene, her grandmother. She wondered if she would be here after all this time. For her the time since she had been there could be counted in months, but how did the dead count time? Had it been nearly four-hundred years for her? Had she grown tired of waiting for her return? Had Shadow? Had they moved on to some other plane of existence and forgotten her? What about her mom, she had only seen her once and it had been in this place, would she still be here?

Her eyes scanned the horizon in all directions, nothing but grass and mountains as far as she could see.