Making Up is Hard to Do

Chapter 4

The EMH scowled as he waved his tricorder over a sedated Tom Paris who was asleep on a biobed. Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay were standing nearby.

"I think both of you should step into my office." His tone was not its typical puffery. The doctor was serious. Janeway and Chakotay followed and looked at the EMH who began his report. "Captain, Commander, Mr. Paris is no longer fit to fly."

"What?" Janeway blinked. Chakotay looked dumbfounded.

Head shaking was all that the doctor could muster to indicate his displeasure. "Currently he could not pass flying a kite let alone a Starship. Physically he is deteriorating at a rapid rate. He has lost over one third of his body weight. Lack of sleep, food, and water are the main causes. He has dropped muscle mass and the tests I did on his reflexes show he is well below piloting safety margins. I cannot keep him on flight status for that reason alone." He then added a somber note. "But there is more."

There always is with Tom Paris. Janeway looked very concerned. Her chief pilot could no longer fly. What was that going to do to him? Their ability to get home? Training other pilots? Given that he had also broken up with Torres, this was devastating news. "What else?"

"Captain, I am not a clinical psychiatrist and there is so much we do not know about the human brain and how it handles trauma." The doctor walked around sickbay as he examined his tricorder. "But I can tell you that Mr. Paris is depressed, very depressed. And it is deepening. That would seem normal given what happened in his personal life two months ago. But when I ran his current brain scans versus his most recent flight physical he has slipped tremendously. He has the reactions of someone twice his age or more."

Now Janeway was really worried. "Will he hurt himself, I mean, is he going to….?"

The EMH looked at her. "I don't know. He needs help and support. I suppose he can get that from Ensign Aubrey given how she has latched onto him, at least from what I have observed." He smiled then spoke. "But I don't think so."

That was good news in that Tom was not suicidal. Janeway had her arms folded and was now very curious. Chakotay was leaning over a desk. Still, the doctor was getting at something.

"Why not?" She knew by asking that things were about to get very complicated.

"Captain, I think you and the Commander should sit down." They took their seats and waited in anticipation for what was coming.

The doctor assumed his usual pose with his hands behind his back. "Before I answer I need your permission. As of now, you, I, and Mr. Paris as the medical technician are the only officers on Voyager who can access every medical file. We need to block him immediately because what he will see there would cause him to be alarmed and that is not what he needs at the moment."

He paused. She nodded. "Okay. Do it."

The doctor accessed a computer to lock out Paris and then walked around a bit. He then turned to face Voyager's most senior officers. "So how can I explain this? Mr. Paris's condition has to do with mating. Klingon mating."

"Klingon mating?" Both Janeway and Chakotay looked blankly at each other.

"Yes. Lieutenant Paris being with his mate Lieutenant Torres meant his hormone levels were let us say 'peaked' all the time. I attribute that to his physical attraction and obvious love for her. And of course the overwhelming sex drive between them, given how often he has had to visit sickbay for broken bones, skin abrasions, bite marks, bruised ribs, pain stick burns, a raked back…."

Chakotay rolled his eyes. Janeway smirked. "We get the picture, doctor. We all understand the birds and the bees."

Interesting images and ideas floated across the doctor's memory subroutines. "I suppose you do. Now they no longer are together so sex with each other is out of the question. And I doubt he or she is having sex. His hormone level has dropped dangerously low and his brain activity is slowing. Both conditions have affected his reaction time. I have not had a chance to fully evaluate Lieutenant Torres but she seems to be less affected, as of now. But she also has lost weight and seems a bit listless at work from the engineering reports. She also is not sleeping well."

"What about her sex drive with Murphy? And Paris with Aubrey? Won't that help?" Chakotay knew the answers before he asked the questions.

The doctor mulled it over. "I doubt it seriously. Lieutenants Paris and Torres are mated for life. They are not having sex with each other or anyone else."

Janeway found the Klingon mating opinion to be odd. There were a lot of celibate crew members on Voyager and many others who were not. She glanced at her first officer and her mind wandered a bit.

Her head cleared and she looked at the doctor once more. "Is there anything you can do medically? Or should we just order Lieutenant Paris to have sex? I am sure there are many willing women aboard who would take him into their bed."

Paris had more than enough females who were interested in him. He pursued a few of them for kissing purposes until he fell hard for B'Elanna Torres years ago. But he had never slept with any of them, only B'Elanna.

The EMH rubbed his chin. "I can order medication to boost his hormones temporarily. But it won't last. His body is in decline at a much faster rate than I can compensate through hyposprays. What he really needs is…Lieutenant Torres."

Janeway laughed loudly. "Oh, come on doctor! People go through this kind of breakup thing all the time! No one can have that much effect upon someone."

The doctor glared. "Apparently she has. Please consider that these two are different because they mated on Sakari IV according to Klingon cultural norms. Without being too graphic, when she bit him several years ago during her Pon Farr-induced Klingon blood fever she tasted his blood and gathered his scent. And it was willing on her part, not the blood fever alone. She had wanted him for a long time."

Really? "How do you know that?" Janeway thought the doctor was speculating.

Revealing private medical matters was unethical and against Starfleet regulations but in this case necessary. "Because she told me she was having strong intimate feelings for Mr. Paris. Several months before Sakari IV she came in complaining of lack of sleep, erotic dreams, and other issues of a sexual nature that required her to seek manual relief. My diagnosis then was that her problems were due to dreams she was having where other beings had entered her mind and implanted false memories. But their faces kept changing to her and Lieutenant Paris. Then after Sakari IV she came back again. I told her that what she had done to Lieutenant Paris needed to be reconciled. Every time I mentioned his name she glowed. She even growled a couple of times. There is no doubt. She wanted him and not because of her blood fever. She was in love with him but would not admit it."

Chakotay laughed. "I knew it! I have known B'Elanna for a long time and I knew it."

The doctor nodded. "But this is very important, Commander. That bite also injected her saliva into Lieutenant Paris' blood stream. Saliva has DNA. That caused some physiological and psychological changes within him that were very subtle but enough to show up on his next flight physical."

He continued. "He would have purged it eventually if he had not wanted her. But he did want her. He must have had deep feelings for her already and I would venture to say he was in love with her when it happened. He still has her bite mark faintly displayed on his chin to prove it."

Chakotay was not convinced about Paris who he had never liked until recently. "When we came back from Sakari IV you had Kes do a complete check of Tom to make sure B'Elanna had not passed the Pon Farr onto him. You reported no symptoms, nothing. What changed?"

The EMH was now looking at that report and mumbling. "Her saliva took a while to imbed itself into his physiology because the quantity was small. But it was very potent. He might have rejected it if he had fought it off like a cold. But he let it happen because he wanted her. He still does."

Janeway was trying to take it all in. She had a scraped ship and a psychologically damaged pilot. And an engineering chief who had mated with that pilot and who knows what was happening physically and emotionally to her now or in the future.

Janeway looked up. "Okay, so they bonded doctor? Is that it?"

He shook his head. "Yes and no."

Janeway was growing impatient. "Damn it doctor, this is getting very confusing. Can you just get to the point?"

The doctor related. "They mated, not bonded. Given who and what they are emotionally with what I have deduced is a lot of personal baggage, it took a while for them to come to grips with just being mated. But once they did we all saw what happened in their relationship. It took off at warp speed. I may be a hologram but my subroutines understand relationships better now and I have experienced one myself." He did not mention that he also was in lust with Seven-of-Nine to include creating Hologram programs where he was an artist and she a naked model.

Chakotay nodded. He was now following most of what the doctor was saying but not all of it. "So if they mated why did they break up? Klingons mate forever and are monogamous. Tom has not looked at anyone else but Torres in years. She obviously loves him. Yet from what I heard it was quite the scene in the mess hall."

Here the doctor needed to be direct. "B'Elanna is only half Klingon. Recall that when she was put back together after the Vidiian prison her reconstructed self was built upon transplanted Klingon DNA being transposed onto her human self. She used to be the other way around at birth or slightly more Klingon than human. So she now is more human than Klingon psychologically. But she has also embraced more of her Klingon side now to achieve balance and emotional control. Yes it is complicated but according to her Klingon mating practices they never actually bonded. They never made it real. I mean they never…."

"Got married." Janeway understood.

"Yes, Captain! If they had both been Klingons marriage would have happened soon after she bit him. She would have claimed him by ritual proclamation and he would have said the words back to claim her. Then they would have consummated that claim by copulation. Then their mating would have bonded. Solidified. They would have truly become one. But right now they simply cohabitate as a couple and of course have sex. Wild and intense sex." His computerized brain wandered to the former Borg. He smirked.

"Doctor, I said we get the picture!"

"Umm, yes. Well, being married is a bond that is different than living together for Klingons and many humans, as far as I can tell. It is also perhaps involves having children raised by two committed parents."

Was B'Elanna pregnant? Janeway was stunned.

The EMH read her facial expression. "No, Captain, she is not with child. She and Mr. Paris are both current on their prevention medication."

Well, we have that going for us anyway. Janeway then recalled her own life and past relationships. Marriage was a scary proposition for many people.

So since B'Elanna talked to you about her feelings for Tom can you figure out why they have not married? I do not pry into such things. Once their relationship became public I assumed that we all surmised that they would marry at some point."

The EMH placed his tricorder onto a table. "Now I am speculating. Something held them back that I cannot explain. But Lieutenant Paris is taking the worst of it. The mating drive to bond did not take over in both of them. But it could be that it just hasn't happened yet because they are who they are."

"Yet?" Janeway looked a bit irked.

The doctor paused briefly and then spoke. "I am no psychiatrist. There is a strong attraction and deep love between them but some humans and even a half-Klingon can be afraid of taking that final step. So they just live together. If they married they would be allowing the other person to have control over them. And like any couple there would be good days and bad. But I doubt that these two would divorce. Their feelings for each other go far beyond even the most adoring humans, at least to me."

Voyager's captain was at a loss for words. Now I have to get involved in personal relationships? So just what is your diagnosis, doctor?"

"Captain, I am making another educated guess here so do not take it as fact. Remember they have been living together nearly three years now although they tried to hide it for a while. Until they got caught more than once in compromising positions around Voyager, as you recall." He sighed.

He then walked around. "I suspect that what drove this romantic tragedy was that one of them concluded it was time to move forward and bond permanently by getting married. And the other one for some reason was not ready or possibly unwilling. So they broke up. I suspect their argument was only a symptom of unwillingness to permanently bond. Marriage or in this case not being married is the root cause of their breakup."

Janeway's irritation showed and Chakotay smirked. "Look doctor, marriage is not some sort of fairytale happy ending story. It takes a lot of hard work once the bloom is off the rose and a lot of couples fail even with that effort." She knew.

Chakotay added, "How does their being married or not make any difference regarding what is happening to Tom?"

The doctor smirked. "I do not know enough about Klingon mating practices to say for sure. But I do know this. Lieutenant Torres rejected her mate. That is why it has had a tremendous effect upon him more than her. If he had rejected her, she would be laying on that biobed, not him. But there is no guarantee that she will not begin to intensely feel what he is going through. I think she is already sensing something is not right with her. As I said she has lost weight and at times appears listless."

"So what do we do with Tom?" What can be done for a love sick officer?

The EMH scratched his head. "Nothing medically that I know of other than hormone hyposprays, which I said is only temporary. I suppose you could talk to Lieutenant Torres about trying to get them back together but knowing her stubbornness I doubt she will do it. From what I heard she thinks he drove her to this decision. And he won't do it because he thinks she wants it this way. And they have other companions now. They really need to work this out among themselves."

He exhaled. "In the meantime, I am medically relieving Lieutenant Paris of all flight responsibilities less simulator activities. I have no choice."

"Do what you must." This is bad, real bad. The Captain and Commander turned to walk out but the doctor stopped them.

"Umm, Captain, there is one other way."

Another way? Janeway looked hopeful. "And what would that be?"

"If one of them was to die the mating drive to bond would end naturally. I am not suggesting that you send one of them on an impossible mission but the Delta Quadrant is very lethal. Look at how many times Mr. Paris has cheated death. The survivor would grieve and…." He stopped when he saw the pained looks on the two senior officers. Janeway was horrified.

"Never mind."

/

Lieutenant Torres ran from the turbolift on Deck 5 and followed the familiar path to Sickbay. How many times had she gone there to find Tom either dying or seriously injured? And he had been there for her under similar circumstances. Perhaps it is time to patch this up despite the fact that he caused this not me. He can be so infuriating. Why do I ache so much? I can't think straight. I love him.

Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks. Standing outside the Sickbay door was the very beautiful Ensign Frederique Aubrey. She was accessing her PADD and looking very concerned.

B'Elanna growled and balled her hands into fists. She wanted to break the woman's nose. Instead she bit her lower lip and ran back to the turbolift with her eyes filling with tears.

She did not notice that Freddy Aubrey saw her and nodded her head knowingly.