Disclaimer: All things Star Trek belong to CBS/Paramount. I only own my imagination.
Spoilers: Remember. 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. Tom is catching up with Harry when B'Elanna seek out her two friends.
"Where is she now?" Tom asked.
"I don't know. The function kind of died right then and there and everyone scurried away to deal with something else than hanging around in that pretty uncomfortable silence. The captain might have talked to B'Elanna afterwards, but what happened later, I have no clue," Harry replied.
Tom raised his eyebrows. "I know they had a meeting. It's hard to miss when they have to cross the bridge to get to the captains ready room after all. B'Elanna has this uncanny talent for looking defiant and uncertain at the same time and the captain, well, she looked like she was cut in stone."
"It wasn't exactly a favourite situation for a captain," Harry said with a sigh.
"So what do you think?" Tom asked looking intently at his friend.
"It's hard to believe something like that could have happened." Harry shook his head and turned to look at Tom. "But both you and I know that if anything, B'Elanna isn't the kind of person who would throw wild accusations around, and it was clear something had happened. The captain didn't seem like she was taken by surprise so something has been going on a while, which could explain why we haven't seen much of B'Elanna the past days. And she passed out on her way to engineering."
Tom pursed his lips and squinted at Harry. "I heard something about that but no one seemed to know why she had passed out." A hint of concern was heard in his voice.
"No one does, aside from the EMH, Kes and I guess the captain and lieutenant Tuvok, but yeah, I think it's related to those memories." Harry walked up to the viewport and gazed at the planet visible below. "And now they're all leaving. It feels so... unresolved. Something happened down there but we won't know if they'll actually have the courage to deal with it."
Tom threw a glance through the viewport. "She has sown a seed. It's all she can do really. You can't force people to look truth in the eye and some won't even be interested, but it's enough that one or two will be. Most will go in to denial, especially those who took part in what happened, but there will be more people willing to speak up if this comes out."
"But who would start talking? It was pretty clear that those present during the function didn't want to acknowledge this," Harry said and looked at Tom.
"People isn't going to accept something like this immediately. It will stay with them though and after a while some will start looking. That's when the ball start rolling," Tom said firmly.
"I hope you're right," Harry said and looked back through the viewport.
The door signalled and Tom half-turned towards it. "Come in," he called out and the door opened. Outside a hesitant B'Elanna weighed on one foot. Tom turned and took a few steps towards her before stopping himself. "Come in B'Elanna," he urged her and his concern was clearly visible.
She looked up and a brief smile crossed her features before slowly stepping inside but stopping just inside the room. Tom pressed his lips together when he saw the uncertainty in her eyes and swiftly went over to her and gently nudged her in to the room towards the couch. Once she sat he sat down next to her. "How are you doing?" he asked calmly. Harry came slowly over to the couch and sat down as well. B'Elanna tilted her head and looked down at her hands.
"I'm okay. It's all a bit awkward right now." She paused and looked up. "I went down to engineering to talk to Jessen."
"What did she say?" Harry anxiously asked.
"She asked if I'd share these memories and then she initiated a link... and experienced the first part of the memories. She has it all and know how it ends, but it still takes a while to process." B'Elanna swallowed. "She was quite shaken." Her voice was a bit unstable.
"I'm amazed it went that fast," Tom said thoughtfully.
"I think... there might have been indications that something perhaps weren't as great as she was told growing up. When I offered to give her all the memories I got, she had to find out. She knew Korrena." B'Elanna cleared her throat.
Tom rose and went over to his bathroom and picked up a glass and filled it with water, returned to the couch and handed it to her. "Here, drink some," he said softly.
B'Elanna accepted the glass and had a sip. "I'm a bit shaken by all of this. I got so angry when I realised what had happened, and that Jorena had been killed because she shared her memories with me. I mean, one can question her actions because I didn't have a say in this, but it was so important. Had she asked me I would have said yes in a heartbeat. She didn't because she knew it was dangerous... and I in my ignorance gave her away. It was my fault she was killed!" B'Elanna said with an increasingly unstable voice.
Harry leaned forward. "You cannot take responsibility for her death! It wasn't you who killed her. You had no idea you even gave her away. If anything they used you to get to Jorena, but you didn't have any part in any killing," he said with calm decisiveness.
"It's not that easy." B'Elanna's voice was now ashen.
Tom glanced away for a moment. "No, it's not that easy. I know it's not that easy." He looked back at her. "But, and this is important, don't blame yourself for the actions of others. You had no intention of doing harm, nor did you actually do any harm. Her life lives on because you realised what happened, and that's what's important, and it was what she was hoping to achieve. Jorena knew she was taking a risk but she decided it was worth it. She apparently had great faith in you B'Elanna, and you proved her right. That's what's important," he said with a firm voice and placed his hand on her shoulder as if he wished his calm assertion would flow from him over to her.
B'Elanna looked up. Their words were curious echoes of Jessen's and she felt a bit embarrassed, though she had no reason for it. She felt less than stellar about her part in Jorena's death, but she realised there were truth in what they were saying. Hearing it from Tom who definitely had experienced guilt because of his actions made her feel she might have a right to be angry for being used by someone trying to cover up something as awful as a genocide. "Thank you," she simply said.
Tom smiled at her. "You're welcome." He paused and they sat gazing at each other as moments passed by.
Harry noticed the slight shift in the air and that the silence drew on. Great, he thought. Why do I always feel like I turn in to the third wheel around these two? Suddenly Tom and B'Elanna became aware of the situation and Tom pulled back his hand and B'Elanna looked down at her hands. To his amazement Harry noticed she blushed. He quickly looked at Tom who rubbed the back of his neck while his eyes darted around the room, with ears in an interesting shade of red. A rouge smile grew on Harry's face despite his effort to hold it back.
"So, what now?" he said in an effort to break the awkwardness between his two friends and his own smugness. Tom and B'Elanna glanced nonplussed at him "I mean, they're packing up their stuff and leaving, so what now?" he tried to explain.
"They have already left, so there's nothing more we can do but hope. The captain ordered us to be on our way as soon as we were cleared to do so," B'Elanna threw Tom a quick glance.
"Baytart," Tom said as if B'Elanna had asked who was at the conn. She nodded. As if on cue the impulse engines could be felt through the deck under their feet and the view outside changed. They were on their way again.
"Have any of you eaten yet?" Tom asked.
"No, the function was all about drinks," Harry said and B'Elanna shook her head.
"Well then. I suggest we get something to eat. We still have to go on living after all. Replicator or Neelix?" He looked at the other two.
"Replicator," they said in chorus and then chuckled reluctantly looking at each other. Tom joined in.
"Who am I to protest? Lets blow some rations!" he said.
