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

Spoilers: Unity. 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. While Chakotay flies off to be seduced by the devil (as Robbie McNeill put it to Robert Beltran while filming this episode) one small step is taken on Voyager.


"This place is as exciting as watching a stone," Tom complained and waved towards the viewport.

B'Elanna gave him a look somewhere between annoyance and disbelief. "You're kidding me. The past month we have known we're in Borg territory and now we've found them. Or at least one of their dead ships. Or what ever you can say about that thing," she said and leaned back against the back of her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Even when we run in to something potentially dangerous, it's dead. Says a lot about this place," Tom replied.

"Don't you get too comfortable flyboy. That thing out there? It may look dead, but if something causes it to go back to its original programming, it's back in business and will come after us," she said ruefully.

"It can't just do that, can it?" he asked in disbelief.

"I can't say. It's been sitting there for five years so it seems unlikely, but I don't know if there's anything that can be triggered in any way, from inside the cube or from a distance. We simply know too little about the Borg." She came to a hesitating halt and looked down. He had that look again; when it seemed like he was looking right through her, looking like he wasn't thinking about the subject at hand at all. The past month she had been on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop but so far it had been quiet. Tom had for the most part been his usual self, treating her pretty much like before, with a little less flirting perhaps. Actually with a lot less flirting. Instead he sought her out for a chat over coffee, a run in the woods on the holodeck, proposing working dinners, being friendly and sincere. But he was watching her, and she knew it. Sometimes when they were talking he would end up simply looking at her while she tried to keep the conversation going, and though he wore his best poker face she instinctively knew that he couldn't care less about what she was saying. She sighed inwardly. Several times the past month she had tried to muster up courage to reach out to the man sitting in front of her, but every time she opened her mouth to say the magic words which would set the landslide in motion, she just couldn't speak. Before the blood fever she had been comfortably relying on Tom to be the one to keep things going, the one to flirt and come with ambiguous suggestions, but no more. It was clear it was up to her what would happen next.

Tom tilted his mug absentmindedly as he watched B'Elanna. He wished he could say something, but to be honest he didn't know how to broach the subject without coming across as a blabbering idiot. Besides, he wanted her to come to a decision on her own, not being pressured by him. However, time was ticking and he was beginning to become impatient. He wanted to act or say something, anything for some progress however small it was. In this case it didn't serve him to become impatient, and he hated the fact that he often felt bored, but he couldn't help it. It was in his nature to seek action, even in his personal life. With a slight sigh he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was not used to this. Before B'Elanna came along, stable wasn't in his vocabulary. After Caldik Prime he'd had good reason, at least in his own opinion, but it had also suited his temperament better, he had to admit that. However, this time it wasn't just an infatuation. Every time he thought about abandoning the whole pursuit, go on with his life, he just needed to hear her voice, catch a glimpse of her small frame, and he knew he couldn't. Over time he had formed an attachment to her that he never had with anyone before. The only thing he could do was wait.

On the other side of the table B'Elanna took a deep breath and looked up. "Um, I was thinking... " her voice trailed off and she bit her lip. Tom looked up and watched her keenly. "You've said you wanted to know more about Klingon culture," she blurted.

He nodded carefully, not giving anything away. "True. Do you have anything specific in mind?" His mind was racing. Keep calm Tommy boy, he chastised himself. Don't push it.

"Well, I wasn't particularly keen on Klingon culture myself, but it was impossible to ignore it, especially when we lived on Qo'noS. Once I left home for Earth I didn't want to think about anything Klingon. But I am what I am and I perhaps need to face it... And since you've kept asking me I figured you really was interested. I mean, there's this course at Starfleet Academy, " she made a face before continuing, "Klingon 101. Do you have any idea how I felt when they were giving those lectures? The questions that inevitably would come, how people sought me out to discuss anything Klingon or just pick a fight so I would show my famous Klingon anger... It didn't exactly make me feel better about being half-Klingon." She paused. "I guess you already know what's in that course," she continued with a flat voice.

Tom nodded, straightened in the seat and looked down at his hands still holing the mug. "Klingon anatomy and history, yeah, got the basics in that," he replied before looking up again. "But you know, it's a very different thing to learn what it means to be a Klingon from you."

B'Elanna looked away for a moment, watching the other people in the mess hall. "I still don't particularly like my Klingon side." She paused and looked back at Tom. "It's perhaps not as hateful as I thought as a child though." She paused again and looked down at her own mug sitting untouched in front of her. "There are some decent programs in the database... We could take a look if you want to. I mean, you don't have to. You don't need to feel like there's any pressure or anything," she quickly said and glanced up at him.

Tom leaned forward and caught her eyes. "I want to B'Elanna. Just say when."

She glanced down at her mug, then let her eyes quickly dart around the nearest tables before she was able to muster up enough courage to meet his eyes again. "Once Chakotay is back I'll have a hole in the schedule... " She didn't finish the sentence.

Tom nodded. "Sounds good to me," he said and smiled warmly.

B'Elanna took a deep breath. She had taken the plunge.