Disclaimer: All things Star Trek belong to CBS/Paramount. I only own my imagination.

Spoilers: Coda. 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. Last one before Blood Fever! The episodes Alter Ego and Coda are 7 days apart, therefore Harry is still suffering from his bewitchment, which leads him to bring up a couple of important points – and ruin things for Tom.


"Have you heard the latest news?" Harry said as he stopped next to B'Elanna and handed her a padd.

She looked up and frowned. "That depends on what you mean by the latest," she said and returned her focus to the console in front of her placing the padd next to her.

"The captain almost died," he said seriously.

B'Elanna snapped her head up and looked at him. "What?" she said and looked at Harry in disbelief.

"She and commander Chakotay crashed with the shuttle and she was critically injured. The Doctor and Tuvok went down there and managed to revive her," he continued.

She stared at Harry. "Kahless! Is she alright?" she asked with concern.

"Fortunately yes. I don't know the details, but she's back on Voyager and is being treated in sickbay for her injuries," he explained.

"And Chakotay?" she continued to ask.

"Nothing serious. Cuts and bruises. But according to what I heard he was quite shaken by her near death," Harry continued and sighed. "We could have lost them both. Again."

B'Elanna looked down. Both of them. What a horrible thought, she mused and the usual fear she had of losing friends welled up.

"Next meeting we're having I'm going to suggest that those two aren't allowed to go on missions together. It's been close twice now and even though I think it would have worked better with Tuvok as captain this time around, it's still a bad idea to send both of them on an away team," he said, starting to sound quite annoyed

She looked up at him. "I just think they wanted some time alone," she suggested.

"And it nearly cost us both of them! If they want to have time for themselves they should go to the holdecks or their quarters. They shouldn't use an away mission as an excuse!"

It was starting to sound like a rant to B'Elanna. "Don't you think you're a bit... hard on them? The rest of us would probably do the exact same thing. I prefer working with people I get along with," she said hesitatingly, a bit surprised by his annoyance.

"But you and I aren't in command," Harry reminded her.

"No, but I'm the chief engineer and you're the senior operations officer and we've been crucial in solving engineering related problems like no one else on this ship. We shouldn't go together for that reason alone." She paused. "This is a small ship. We can't always think about things like that," she continued.

"True, but they went together because of personal reasons, and they're our commanding officers. They shouldn't have done it," Harry protested.

Steps were heard behind them and they both turned their heads to find out who was approaching.

"Hey, I see the rumour mill is hard at work," Tom greeted them and held out a padd towards B'Elanna, coming to a halt slightly too close to her, invading her personal space. "Here. Could you go over the technical data from the crashed shuttle, please? I'm going to look at the flight logs, and I was going to ask you Harry," he glanced over at his friend, "to chat with the commander and captain later when they're up to it. I suggest we meet later and compare the data, tomorrow perhaps?" He looked expectantly at B'Elanna. Harry pressed his lips together and started to look annoyed again.

"Since when did this become a group assignment?" B'Elanna asked and took the padd slowly from his hand. She tilted her head slightly and peered up at him in a somewhat teasing manner.

"Since Chakotay wanted this fast. My scheduled duty shifts the coming 24 hours makes it a bit difficult to meet his time table so I decided to ask the most competent people on this ship to help me out. It would really be helpful," Tom said, wearing his best smile as he looked down at her.

B'Elanna pointed at him with the padd. "Save the flattery flyboy," she replied with a lopsided smile. "But I'll look at it since you're asking nicely," she continued.

Tom put his hand on the console behind her back inching himself closer to her. "I appreciate it B'Elanna," he said softly.

She opened her mouth to answer but was cut off by Harry. "You two? Get a room," he scolded. Tom and B'Elanna turned their heads to look at him, both with surprise.

"They crashed and when you're discussing the investigation, you start flirting? This is exactly why the captain almost died, because people are letting their personal life interfere with their work," Harry lectured.

B'Elanna looked away and then down on the floor, shrinking away from Tom who stood silent for a moment. "Harry, I think you're overreacting," Tom said calmly.

"Why would they fly off together, unless they... You know they have some sort of relationship," Harry pointed out.

"Yes, they obviously have some warmer feelings toward each other, but they're keeping it to themselves," Tom said.

"But they shouldn't have left the ship together!" Harry exclaimed.

"That may very well be the recommendation that comes out of this investigation," Tom replied. "Let's do this investigation and see what the results are and then make the suggestions, okay?"

B'Elanna looked up and glared at Harry. "If you two gentlemen are done, I suggest you go and do something useful so I can get back to work," she said coldly.

Tom looked back at her. "Sure. I'm coming back to you on when the meeting is," he said lightly, ignoring the shift in atmosphere. "Come on Harry, we've got other things to do," he continued.

The two men left and B'Elanna put down the padd Tom had given her and turned back to what she had been doing. As Tom and Harry reached the corridor Tom stopped and looked at his friend.

"Okay Harry, what's wrong?" Tom asked. "It's not like you to act like this."

Harry stopped as well and sighed. "I'm sorry Tom. I'm annoyed because... It's just days since this Marayna thing," he explained and hung his head. "I didn't mean to let it out on you guys. But the thing is, in essence I do think we all need to work harder on separating personal and professional life. I'm as much to blame as anyone. I lost focus completely when Marayna showed up, and that's just not okay."

"I think you're a bit hard on yourself Harry. We all do mistakes. Hopefully we learn something from them. As for personal and professional life, well, without the personal life we might not even get home, so we have to live with it. It's not like anyone has acted completely improperly losing focus. I agree that because the captain and Chakotay do get along very well, they like to work together. It's not like they couldn't handle the situation though. Yes, the captain was injured, but the quick look I've had on the material so far indicate that they were acting professionally."

Harry looked up and nodded. "I kind of ruined things for you just now, didn't I?"

"B'Elanna will be like a porcupine with quills on end for weeks because of what you said," Tom complained and started walking.

"I'm sorry Tom," Harry apologised and caught up with him.

"You owe me to come up with something. It really feels like one step forward and two back right now," Tom said and sighed.

"How about you simply telling her?" Harry asked. "Did I forget to give you that advice before? No, I'm sure I did. Tell her."

"I'm not listening to you," Tom said and stopped at the turbolift. "She must feel she can take the step or I'll end up like after Lake Como again."

"Tell her!" Harry said. The turbolift doors opened and they walked inside.

"No. She'll run like a deer if I do that," Tom explained.

"At some point you'll have to confront her or you'll never get anywhere," Harry persisted.

The doors closed.

"Deck one," Tom said and was silent for a moment avoiding to look at Harry. "I'll think about it."

Harry threw up his hands. "You're a coward," he concluded.

"I'm not. I just don't want to scare her off," Tom replied.

Silence fell as the lift travelled upwards through the ship.

"I'll think about it," Tom said again as the lift stopped and let them out. Harry chuckled.