A/N: Take THAT "page breaks"!

I will admit, this whole thing is a unique experience for me. Having never really written anything of length before, nor written fanfiction at all I simply had no idea what a writer goes through. I thought you have an idea and you write, simple as that. Man was I wrong. This chapter is a great example of that. I had written 12 notes of concepts and ideas I wanted to touch on in the story before I began writing, but when I got to this chapter I found that although I had stuff for B'Elanna to do later, she really had nothing to do in this chapter- suddenly a crazy idea hit me and changed the whole dynamic of the story. Because of this I was able to write Chapter 4 in one sitting and it is currently the only one of my 13 finished chapters to not undergo extensive re-writes and editing. But we're still at chapter 3, so here you go.

Chapter 3- Distractions

It had been three long hours of surgery and Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres was tired and in considerable pain. She wasn't showing it of course as a good Klingon didn't admit to being in pain. Having recaptured some of her Klingon heritage over the last few years and from her experience on the Barge of the Dead, B'Elanna was honestly new to most of it but determined to give it her best. That included not making a fuss about the pain spreading through her back and her difficulty breathing while Seven of Nine lay recovering on a surgical bed.

However, due to the pain assaulting her senses, she was unable to process the complex emotions she was starting to feel now that the adrenalin of the evening's events was wearing off. For now, seeing the look on the Captain's face at her favourite `girl' lying prone on a biobed, B'Elanna knew it was time to step back. The very least she knew was that she owed the young woman and owed her big. Maybe later she would look at some of the engineering proposals of Seven's she had dismissed so many times before out of spite or anger. She was also getting some ideas of her own and had to review some of Voyager's mission logs. If only the pain in her back would stop…

During the first hour of the surgery, Captain Janeway had stormed into Sickbay demanding a report and got nothing but hard glares from her CMO and Chief of Engineering. Lieutenant Myles came to Sickbay shortly after the Delta Flyer was safely docked and Lt. Carey took charge of offloading the collected resources. The science team arrived following her verbal report to Tuvok so she headed directly to Sickbay. The corpse of the lizard-creature they had beamed to the flyer was prepped and sent to Bio-Sciences for dissection. It turned out that once the creature was dead, it showed up on sensors, which was curious in itself.

Neither the Captain nor Lieutenant Myles had left Sick Bay during the surgery and Neelix had brought a small plate of food for Lieutenant Myles while trying to get an update for Naomi Wildman.

There was also the issue of the main computer alerting the Doctor about 'unknown contaminants' during transport that couldn't be cleared in transport. Because they beamed to Sickbay directly, it was a medical quarantine issue and not a security issue. After locking down the alert, a brief glance at the computer logs told the Captain more about what was wrong with Seven. She transferred the data to Bio-Sciences while the Doctor continued to work with B'Elanna. The indications of contaminants on B'Elanna seemed to have to do with the amount of Seven's blood she had been covered in. At least, that's how the Captain's distracted thinking interpreted the data...

Now that the surgery was done and Seven was asleep and recovering, Captain Janeway felt like her heart would start beating at its proper pace. She had been fighting back uncomfortable feelings of fear that had crept into her heart the moment she heard there was a medical emergency on the Flyer. Getting the story from Lieutenant Myles, Janeway was thanking whatever gods were listening that the Doctor was as talented as he was. She wouldn't tell him that though lest his digital ego inflate and cause a short in his holomatrix program buffers.

She also hadn't informed Commander Chakotay of Seven's situation which she found didn't bother her at all. Operationally, because there was no reason to as Tuvok was currently acting First Officer, *no one* had informed Chakotay of the return of the Flyer and his being back in his quarters fussing over his late night musical selection kept him effectively in the dark.

Moving to the biobed in the surgical bay as the Doctor began to clean up, neither Captain Janeway nor Lieutenant Myles noticed B'Elanna backing slowly away from the biobed toward her clothes in the sterilization room.

Neither saw her collapse.

"Doctor, how is she?" Janeway allowed herself to tuck a strand of blonde hair behind the ear of Seven's peaceful visage. The urge for physical contact and comfort had briefly defeated her ingrained ability to remain 'The Captain'. Lieutenant Myles stood back looking somewhat uncomfortable at the show of affection from her Captain, but was still concerned for the woman on the bed and wanted to hear that she would be alright.

After three hours, Sara Myles could only conclude that the Captain had more than 'friendly' feelings for Voyager's resident Borg. Fighting to keep from wringing her hands together, eyes continually darting to Seven's face, micro-creases in her mouth indicating worry- it seemed that the Captain had it bad, whether she knew it or not. Attempting to remain stoic herself, Lieutenant Myles found her attention divided equally between Seven and the Captain. Now that she was on Alpha shift, Myles had seen more of the tiny woman who radiated constant authority and power despite the reality of Voyager's situation in the Delta Quadrant. If she were to admit it to herself, she would say that she found her Captain to be an impressive woman indeed and this tiniest bit of allowed weakness only made her more human.

"She will make a full recovery, her systems are already compensating and after she wakes up she will have to have to spend twelve hours in her alcove regenerating. I will then need to see her for another check-up and she will be able to return to duty the day after that." Knowing that Seven would be fine in the next couple of days, Janeway finally allowed herself to relax. The tiny movement of her shoulders was the only indication, which was only noticed by the crimson haired security Lieutenant.

It would only be a day before Janeway could spend some time with the young woman she was guiding back to humanity. "Were you able to remove any more of her implants?" It was an odd statement Janeway had to admit to herself. She just blurted it out.

Shocked at such a statement, the Doctor had to bite back a scathing retort about her not being a science project subject to the Captain's whim. This was a woman, an emerging woman who had defended the Doctor's own right to sentience. His own feelings for Seven may have gone deeper than simply professional or friendship but he found her to be beautiful just how she was and would have no interest in changing her to fit more to his *wants*. "Captain, her abdominal implant suffered the most damage and without it, she will die. The facts are that she will have implants for the rest of her life."

The Captain heard the sharpness in the Doctor's reply, but decided to let it pass. Her protégé was back and would be up and prattling on about the inefficiency and paradoxical nature of humanity in a day or two. It was good enough for now.

Janeway decided that it was time for a bit of a distraction as she knew there would be little sleep for her tonight. She was still curious about this creature that had attacked them and felt it was once again time to put her science background to work. She decided to take Lieutenant Myles with her as the redhead was a combat veteran and witness to the creature's behaviour while it was alive.

Before the Doctor could once again pat him self on the back with praise, Janeway turned and put a hand on his arm. "As long as she is safe. Inform me when she wakes up. Lieutenant Myles, where is the creature now?"

"Deck 8, Section 15, Bio-Science Lab 2 ma'am."

With a nod of her head towards the door, Captain Janeway gave Lieutenant Myles one of her best 'show me some initiative' looks.

"While you may have heard that 'ma'am' is good in a crunch, I'd prefer 'Captain', Lieutenant."

"Aye Captain" Lieutenant Myles snapped to attention and turned leading the Captain out of sickbay inwardly thrilled that the Captain was interacting with her as opposed to simply dismissing her and calling one of the senior staff to escort and help her. In her excitement, she didn't notice the nagging feeling of alarm at the back of her mind as they left Sickbay.

Back in sickbay, the Doctor was finishing up his post-operation clean-up when he thought he heard a murmur come from Seven.

"Seven?" Grabbing a medical tricorder and running it the length of the ex-drone's body, the Doctor concluded that she was recovering well when Seven mumbled.

"…B'El… anna."

The Doctor paused. Looking back to Seven, he saw that she was once again fully unconscious. He didn't immediately remember Lieutenant Torres leaving Sickbay. Not that she ever wanted to stay, or chat or even help if she wasn't conscripted… Grumbling something about unappreciative help after instantly reviewing his program's sensor logs for the past several minutes, the Doctor walked around Seven's biobed toward the sterilization room when he saw the unmoving form of Voyager's Chief of Engineering lying on the floor.

End Chapter 3

****A lot of tiny changes had to happen to this chapter in part due to VJB community feedback on Myles which inspired me to flesh her out a bit more and to attempt to 'fix' what I had later read to be a continuity issue. I've actually written a whole chapter focusing on just Janeway and Myles that will be insterted as Chapter 5 bumping the rest of the chapters ahead. While it may interrupt the narrative 'flow' of the story, it was fun to write and I'm still taking this all as a learning experience and have to stop thinking that I've got to have it *perfect* before anyone can read it.***