Look After You- Chapter Fourteen
Not completely happy with this chapter, but it's the best I could come up with. Thanks to Pepper for the beta. References and quotes from Partuition.
***
"How am I doing?" Kes asked, worry etched in her voice.
Tom watched her from the passenger seat. "Well, we're still in one piece, so I'd say you're doing okay."
Kes let out a groan. "Aside from that inertial dampener incident."
Tom waved a hand. "That was minutes ago."
Kes flayed her arms over the con, clearly still nervous about flying the shuttle, even if it was simulated.
"I don't know why I let you talk me into this, Tom Paris."
Tom grinned at her calling him by his full name.
"I thought you might want to learn something that wasn't medicine-related for a change."
"I don't think I was cut out for this." Kes let out a long breath, and reclined back in her seat.
"Kes, I know there's a pilot in you somewhere, just dying to get out."
Kes laughed. "Somehow, Tom, I doubt it. Oh, I keep meaning to tell you. I read the book you gave me."
"Already? Did you like it?"
He watched as Kes beamed. "Oh, it was wonderful. I did seem to notice a theme, however. The beautiful girl is always a poor girl or a princess, and she is always waiting for her Prince Charming to rescue her."
Tom grinned. "Kind of an antiquated notion, isn't it?"
"Yet the stories are still compelling. I guess that's why they are still popular today."
"Well, if you're looking for something slightly different, I have a holo-novel about a beautiful girl who cares nothing about beauty herself, and has an insatiable need to read and learn. Due to a situation that I will not disclose, she finds herself in a castle of a horrible beast, and learns the true meaning of beauty."
"I don't think that story is in my book."
"No, it isn't."
"It sounds interesting. I'd love to try it."
"Of course."
Kes frowned. "This notion of a Prince Charming. Is it something that people still believe in today?"
Tom thought about B'Elanna, and how much she'd probably hate the idea of some prince riding on his horse and trying to rescue her.
"Probably not in the way they are portrayed in the stories. I think women would like them to be a little more dimensional and real. I know my sisters used to dream of theirs when we were younger."
"So what constitutes as a Prince Charming these days?"
Tom considered this. "My sisters would never settle for a man that didn't treat them with respect or honour. They wanted someone who understood them, and I think deep down they needed someone who could rescue them if they needed it, even if it was something as little as to rescue them from a bad day, although they never admitted that."
"Did your sisters tell you that?"
"Well, not exactly. But when you're an inquisitive little brother, you know these things."
"How? Is it intuition?"
"I guess. That, and the fact I read their diaries."
"Tom!"
"It's a rite of passage for every brother to read their sister's diary." He frowned. "Although it took me ages to hack into their PADDs."
Kes was shaking her head at him.
"If it's any consolation, I read some pretty traumatic things that no brother ever needs to know about a sister, so I won't be doing that again."
Kes laughed. "So are you Prince Charming material?"
It was Tom's turn to laugh. "I doubt it. More like the Arch Enemy that needs defeating."
"But you seem to suit all those requirements."
"It's not as simple as that."
"Well," Kes began in a decided manner. "I don't think you're a contender for the bad guy either."
Tom grinned. "Thanks, Kes."
"That's okay. I just don't want you to think you're not prince material. And I'm sure there are plenty of girls who think so, too."
Tom thought briefly of Susan, and the way she was slowly succumbing to his advances. "I doubt it."
"Well, what about B'Elanna?"
"B'Elanna? You mean B'Elanna Torres? She most definitely does not believe in Prince Charming."
"Why not?"
"She's far too cynical, for starters."
"But the two of you, aren't you-,"
"Just friends," he finished for her.
"Oh." For a moment Kes looked confused. "I thought maybe…I sensed that…oh, it doesn't matter."
The holo-deck started beeping, signalling the end of their lesson.
"Come on, Kes, I better get you back to your own Prince Charming, before he slays me for keeping you for too long."
***
"Must you play something so depressing?"
Harry cast a withering glance at Tom, who was sprawled out on his couch.
"My room: my rules," he said flatly. "Rule number one: whatever I want goes. And I want to play this tune."
He resumed playing his clarinet.
"Rehearsing for your band?" Tom inquired.
Harry paused. "Yep."
"How is the band?"
"Fine."
"Exactly who has made the band?"
Harry rolled his eyes, and put down his instrument. "I didn't realize we were playing twenty questions, Tom."
"I'm sorry. I'm just…depressed."
"Depressed?" Harry sighed, and came over and sat next to Tom. "Okay, what is it, Paris? I, your reluctant psychiatrist, will yet again listen to your problems."
"Thank you, Harry. Your concern is touching. No, really, it is."
Harry just looked at Tom.
"Okay, fine. Harry, I'm in trouble."
"What's new?"
"Okay, I'm conflicted."
"What's new?"
"See, I was talking to Kes today."
"Please don't tell me you're in love with her."
"I'm not in love with her. Let me finish talking! What kind of psychiatrist are you, if all you do is interrupt what I say?"
"Well, it's not like I'm charging."
"Anyway, she said something that got me thinking."
"Is that the problem? She got you to think?"
Tom glared at him. "Harry!"
"I'm sorry."
"We were talking about Prince Charming, from fairytales. And she seemed to have this belief that I could be someone's…prince."
Harry sniggered. "Well, you sure are charming."
"That wasn't the problem."
"What was, then?"
"She almost implied that something was going on between B'Elanna and me."
Harry almost dropped his clarinet. "Well that's…unexpected."
"Tell me about it. But the thing is, Kes is really perceptive. She picks up on a lot of things that no one else may notice. So what does she see when she looks at B'Elanna and me?"
Harry considered this. He'd be lying if he said that he hadn't noticed a connection between the two of them. With their past history, the Vidiian incident and their growing friendship, B'Elanna and Tom seemed extremely in tune with each other. Such in a way that neither of them had realized it. "I have no idea," he lied. "What do you see, Tom?"
Tom shrugged. "I don't know. I mean yeah, B'Elanna is attractive. But she's…B'Elanna. She's my friend."
"That's it?"
Tom shrugged again. "She understands things about me that I didn't think anyone did. But then so do you, even if they're different things. And maybe… I like her laugh. Oh, and I almost kissed her when we were stuck on that planet."
Harry's eyes widened. "You almost kissed her?"
"I didn't mean to. It just…happened."
"That was why you were avoiding B'Elanna after that."
Tom shrugged.
"So what does this mean, then?" Harry asked.
"Nothing. It means nothing."
"So you've thought certain things about her, and it means nothing?"
"Yeah. B'Elanna doesn't need someone like me, Harry. I'm only going to hurt her."
"How do you know?"
"Because it's something I'm extremely good at doing."
Harry didn't say anything to this.
"B'Elanna is just my friend," Tom reiterated.
Harry looked at him "Who are you trying to convince, Tom? Me or you?"
"You. I can't bring myself to feel anything more for her. Or anyone for that matter."
Harry gave him a long look. "Can't or won't, Tom?"
Tom didn't say anything for a while, but Harry could see him closing another part of himself off; suppressing a part of him that was desperately trying to thrive.
"It doesn't matter," Tom finally said. "It's Susan that I'm after."