Disclaimer: All things Star Trek belong to CBS/Paramount. I only own my imagination.
Spoilers: The Swarm. If you haven't seen it, this won't make much sense.
Author's Note: I have the ambition to keep these coming, but I also have a real life which can mess with me. Clumsy is the word that comes to mind, when I think about Tom's behaviour right at the beginning. How he could expect B'Elanna to ever say 'yes Tom, what a lovely idea' is beyond me – and that went for her as well apparently. I got a good laugh out of it anyway, and I imagine I wasn't the only one.
"So, lets get to the bottom of this then," Harry said picking up a padd. "It seems a bit redundant by now ," he sighed.
"Paper work, Harry. It's what sets us apart from any thug organisation in this universe," Tom said and smiled.
"I didn't think you'd be such a great fan of it," Harry replied with a grin.
"Saying that I'm a fan is perhaps taking it a bit too far, but I do get why we need to do this. Sometimes it's even useful," Tom said and leaned back in the briefing room chair.
Harry kept grinning and looked down at the padd in his hand. "So far I've looked at the physical pieces in this jigsaw puzzle. I've been looking at the shuttle and I have gone over the readings recorded in the database. It's exactly what we saw while passing through their territory so there's nothing new there. I have also listened to some very interesting recordings." He looked up at his friend who was wearing his best poker face. "Sailing on Lake Como?" he asked with an amused voice.
"It's a beautiful program. You should try it yourself some time," Tom defended himself.
Harry shook his head. "Tom, for heavens sake, you've known B'Elanna for a long time now. What were you thinking? Talking about Freddy Bristow? A holodeck program date? You handled it like this was just any woman on this ship!"
Tom was irked. "I had been sitting there for five hours trying to think of something. I just couldn't come up with anything," he replied.
"She shot you down Tom," Harry pointed out.
"I know she did. I was there, remember?" Tom said sourly.
"Well, if you were complaining about her keeping the distance lately before this, she sure will now. You just proved you're looking at her like any of the other women you've shown interest in here on Voyager," Harry concluded.
Tom threw out his hands. "What would you have done then?" Tom asked.
"For having been around and about the way you have, you sure have some gaps in that smooth talking façade of yours. Why didn't you just tell her what you think of her? Not kidding around, just a serious and honest confession. Leaving the date thing for later when she had thought about it for a while," Harry suggested.
"Easier said than done," Tom grumbled.
Harry nodded. "True. But as it is now, you'll have to start all over again. You'll have to prove to her that this was honest. Knowing her, that will take some time. You have your work cut out for you," he said trying to not sound too gleeful.
"And why are you so smug anyway?" Tom asked glaring at Harry.
"Oh, but I have the opportunity to watch real life drama happening right under my nose. It is highly entertaining actually." He smiled. "Joking aside, I'm just so very happy it's not me. You should be glad I'm not going to organise betting on this."
"You wouldn't dare," Tom exclaimed and leaned forward in his chair.
Harry raised his eyebrows at his friend. "Unlike someone else I know, I'm not a gambler, and I'd definitely not give people details of friends' personal lives. You just concentrate on pulling yourself together and think of something else that could work with B'Elanna."
"That'll be easy," Tom groused and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Probably not, but on the other hand you have plenty of time," Harry said and looked up from his padd. "I still think you should just tell her. Straight up. No jokes, not trying to gloss it over, just you telling her."
"I'll think about it," Tom said dismissively.
Harry drew a breath. "So. Anything you want to add to this investigation?" he asked.
"Not really. The records tells everything there is to know. It was incredibly painful, but it's already in the records," Tom replied.
"Very well," Harry said looking at his padd. The doors opened and let the chief engineer through. She hesitated a moment before deliberately choosing a seat on the opposite side of the table away from Tom. He followed her every move before he realised he was staring and tore his eyes from her to look at Harry.
"Are we done?" he asked.
"Yes, we're done," Harry sighed.
"Good. See you later." Tom rose and looked straight at B'Elanna who had a deer caught in headlights look about her. He stood a moment too long looking intently at her. "Lieutenant," he finally said and nodded before walking out of the room with long strides. B'Elanna looked down at the table and drew a deep breath.
"One could almost think something has happened," Harry said casually.
B'Elanna glared at him. "I take it you have listened to the recordings," she said coldly.
"It's part of the process," Harry pointed out.
"If I so much as hear a peep, a hint, that the content in that conversation is known, your tongue will find a new decorative place in engineering," B'Elanna said emphasising every word as she was leaning over the table looking Harry steadily in his eyes. For once she let that to humans scary Klingon part of her peek out and she noted with pleasure that Harry paled slightly.
"I would never dream of talking to anyone else about it," Harry said with a hint of indignation.
"Good," she said and suddenly she sighed. "But you have talked with Paris about it, haven't you?" she asked.
"It kind of came up, yes," Harry admitted. For a moment he wondered if he should say anything, try and explain why Tom had acted the way he had but decided to not get involved.
"I don't know what to say really. I must confess I was surprised. It just came out of the blue! We sat there for five hours and then he suddenly just blurted it out. After five hours!" She giggled. "I'm sorry," she continued. "I almost started laughing at him when I turned him down. He was so... clumsy. I never imagined that Tom Paris, the resident Don Juan, would act like he was a 17 year old kid." She broke out in a hearty laughter. Harry couldn't resist any longer and joined in. She shook her head and continued. "No matter how I look at it, don't get it. I just don't get it. We've become friends, really friends, and then this happens. Should I take him seriously? I mean, judging from the way he put it, it's impossible to do it. It was like the routine dating Paris decided now was as good a time as any to cover all bases. It's just that I haven't had the feeling he was going to pull that one on me. He knows me. I almost told him he's a pig when I turned him down, mostly to remind him of how much I loathe that behaviour." She gazed thoughtfully at the viewport for long moments.
"How are you feeling about it then?" Harry asked and almost started holding his breath.
B'Elanna's eyes became piercing and she turned her head to look at him. "That is none of your business," she said coldly.
"Of course not," he replied looking down at his padd. He didn't dare pointing out that she had just told him exactly how she felt about Tom Paris. He decided to change the subject. "Is there anything you would like to add to the investigation?" he asked and waved the padd in his hand as he looked up at her.
She shook her head. "No. The records says it all. We don't more now than we did when it happened. It was painful. And if I say it's painful, it is painful," she said. "Paris should be thankful he never regained consciousness before the Doctor and Kes was finished treating him."
"How's the Doctor doing by the way?" Harry asked.
"He'll be fine and is back to his usual charming self. I'll have to keep an eye on those circuits and work on a solution on a more permanent basis. We bought ourself a couple of years or so with this procedure, but he'll keep adding and growing as a person so I'll need to solve it. You might want to look at it too," B'Elanna replied. "Anything else?" she asked and leaned forward ready to get out of her chair.
"No. Talking to you was the last thing I needed to do before filing the report. Thanks," he said and smiled.
"Well then. See you later," she said and got out of the chair and walked out of the room with the same determination as Tom had done just minutes ago.
Harry sighed and read the text on his padd before sending the content to Tuvok for review. He took a moment to look out through the viewport before getting out of the chair, picking up the padds strewn around the seat he had occupied and leaving the room. He decided to replicate some real coffee before getting back to his station.
