Look After You- Chapter Six
Rating : T
Pairing: P/T
Disclaimer: Paramount owns everything, apparently. The title comes from The Fray's song Look After You
Summary: Tom and B'Elanna go on their first away mission since the mines, and find out there's no such thing as a simple mission.
Thanks to Pepper for the beta.
***
"Hold on, hold on to yourself. You know that only time will tell." - Sarah Mclachlan, Hold On
"Lieutenant Torres and Paris to the Captain's Ready Room."
B'Elanna groaned, wanting to stay in bed but the captain's orders were forcing her away from her beloved piece of furniture.
"Do I have to?" she moaned, before realising a moment too late that her combadge was still on.
"Yes Lieutenant, and you might want to pick up some coffee on the way," came the captain's amused voice.
B'Elanna groaned again and propelled herself out of bed.
So much for a lie in, she thought.
A little while later she found her way to the Ready Room, and Tom was already there. She was disgusted to see him looking decidedly immaculate compared to her rather dishevelled form.
"Did you get up at 5am to look like that, Paris?" she snarled.
Tom raised his eyebrows. "Good morning to you too, Torres. Someone's cheerful this morning."
She muttered something that sounded like a string of curses.
Kathryn entered the room, carrying a padd in one hand.
"Ah, B'Elanna, Tom. Take a seat," she greeted.
Mutely, they sat down beside each other.
The captain took a seat nearby them.
"Our sensors have picked up a nearby uninhabited M-class planet, which could be a source of dilithium crystals."
B'Elanna's heart tightened in trepidation; she had a feeling of what was coming next.
"I want to send a shuttle to investigate."
The captain looked at both of them intently. "I want to send the two people I think are most suitable for the job."
Tom and B'Elanna exchanged looks. Were they ready to back out on a mission again? It had only been a month since their Vidiian expedition and in some ways it felt a lot longer; in other ways it felt like barely a day had passed since their return.
"I understand if the two of you do not feel up to the task. Lieutenant Carey is more than happy to go for you B'Elanna, and I'm sure we can send someone instead of you, Tom."
For a moment, neither of them said anything. B'Elanna glanced down at her hands, and intertwined her fingers together. Personally, she felt that she would be okay if she never went on another away mission again. But she knew fear was what was holding her back, and she never wanted to be the type of person that let fear restrain her. Yet even though she knew she had to overcome this obstacle, she didn't feel ready. Somehow, she didn't think she ever would, and maybe that was the problem.
"I'll go," she said quietly.
It was Tom's turn to stare intently at her, and she gave him a reassuring smile. She knew that Tom probably felt similar to her, but she also knew that he thought this would be worse for her, and maybe he was right.
"I'm in too," Tom said.
The captain smiled at them. "Good, I'm glad. I have full confidence in you both that this will go well."
"I hope so," Tom muttered.
I hope so too, B'Elanna thought.
If she wasn't awake a few minutes ago, she definitely was wide awake now.
***
The two of them sat onboard the Cochrane, simply staring at the controls.
B'Elanna let out a long sigh.
Tom glanced at her. "So, we're definitely doing this?"
She nodded. "I think so."
"Right," he said. "Right," he repeated more to himself, before initiating take off. To any other person, Tom might have appeared quite calm, if maybe a little worried, but B'Elanna knew him well enough to know that he was quite nervous. His trembling hands were a dead giveaway for starters.
"Well be fine, Tom," she assured him.
He frowned. "You don't know that."
She smiled. "I know, but I thought I'd try and reassure you anyway."
"Thanks."
They flew in silence for a long while, and tension started to build inside B'Elanna. She felt that at any moment, Vidiians were going to come and attack their shuttle.
"There aren't any signs of Vidiians around," Tom said, as if reading her mind.
"I know," she said quietly. "But an irrational part of me still thinks they could come out of nowhere. For all we know, a Vidiian is lying across the top of the shuttle, listening to our conversation."
Tom laughed. "If there is one, his butt must be frozen by now."
B'Elanna laughed back. "We can hope."
They fell into silence again.
"Are you still having nightmares?" Tom finally asked her.
"No, not for a while. Talking to you helped, actually."
Tom grinned. "Now there's a surprise."
"What about you?"
"The occasional one. But not like before."
"Good. I'm glad."
Silence again. B'Elanna tried to think of something to say, but the only thing she could think about was being captured, and that wasn't exactly a good conversation starter. Besides, they were almost at the planet.
"The computer is picking up nearby spatial turbulence," Tom suddenly announced.
B'Elanna grew alert. "We should re-route."
The shuttle violently shook.
"Too late," Tom said, surprised at how quick the turbulence reached them.
The shuttle shook again, more violently, and the two of them lurched forward.
B'Elanna swore.
"Engines are damaged," Tom reported. "Can we send a distress call to Voyager?"
"Negative, they're out of range."
"What about the transporters, are they online?"
"No, that would be too convenient."
It was Tom's turn to swear. "The M class planet is in range. We can try and make an emergency landing."
"Are you sure we can make it there?"
"Are options aren't exactly open."
B'Elanna's heart started racing. "Okay, re-routing power and employing anti-gravity thrusters. Hold on tight."
"You don't need to tell me," Tom said with a wince as they hurtled towards the planet.
This is it, she thought, closing her eyes and praying they'd make it through.
***
B'Elanna felt groggy, and it took a while for her to figure out where she was.
I'm on the Cochrane, she thought. And it's crashed.
She brought a hand up to her head, and felt blood there. She groaned. Had she passed out? And for how long?
She turned to look beside her. Tom's head and left side of his upper body was lying against the console, and his eyes were closed. For a moment, she wasn't sure if he was still alive, until she noted the small signs of him breathing.
"Tom," she whispered, shaking him gently. "Are you alive?"
He let out a moan. "Just barely," he answered, slowly opening his eyes. He lifted his head up, and looked at her. "Are you?"
She managed a small smile. "I think so. I hit my head pretty bad, but I think that's about it."
Tom tried to lift his left hand up to his face, but found he couldn't lift it up. He let out another moan when pain radiated from his elbow. "I think my elbow's broken. And my head doesn't feel too good either. In fact, I don't think anything feels good."
"Great, good to know that things just keep going from bad to worse. I'll go and grab the med kit." She stood up, and walked rather unsteadily through the damaged shuttle to the kit, before bringing it back. "I think it'll be safer if we try and move outside, I don't think it's too safe in here. Can you move?"
"I'm not sure. I'll try." He stood up with difficulty, and B'Elanna went over to support him. Wrapping her arm round his waist and his good arm round her shoulders, she helped him as he limped out the shuttle.
They were greeted by the sight of an incredibly sunny and pleasant planet.
"Well, doesn't this delightful scene just add insult to injury?" Tom mused, as they walked over to a spot several feet away from the shuttle.
B'Elanna snorted. "Would you rather be greeted by a stormy planet, maybe with a few hostile inhabitants there too?"
"It would match my mood," Tom said, as she set him down on the ground. "There aren't any inhabitants, are there?"
"The captain said this place uninhabited." She pulled out her tricorder and scanned around. "I'm not picking up any signs of life. If there's anybody around, they're hiding it."
"It would make my day if they were."
B'Elanna knelt down in front of him and opened the med kit, taking out the dermal regenerator. She ran it over the cuts he had on his forehead and left cheek. She gingerly lifted up the bloodied sleeve of his damaged arm, and healed the open wound of his elbow.
"Anywhere else?" she asked.
He lifted his right trouser leg with his good arm, exposing the deep gash running all the way down his leg.
B'Elanna frowned. "How did this happen?" she asked, as she scanned the regenerator over it.
"I'm not sure; I think I hit it against something damaged from the console."
B'Elanna sighed, and rummaged through the medkit. "I'm trying to find something in here to fix your arm."
"There's nothing for it. I'm going to wait until we're back on Voyager to get it sorted."
She noted the way his arm hung against him, with his face contorted in pain. She took off her jacket. "We can use this as a sling in the mean time," she decided.
"So what do we do now?" Tom asked, as she sat next to him.
She shrugged. "The shuttle isn't in any state to fly, and I can't send a subspace message to Voyager. I can use my combadge to send out a homing signal, but other than that all we can do is wait." She sighed. "Our first mission back and our shuttle crashes."
"Well at least we made it here," Tom mused.
"True. But not quite in one piece."
The two of them settled into a brooding silence, and B'Elanna started to feel the waves of an extremely bad mood come on.
Once we're back, I'm never leaving Voyager again, she thought.