B'Elanna was almost awake. In her half-conscious state she thought it odd to wake up so slowly. The computer should have been the one to wake her. As she became more and more awake she realized she was late. She got up quickly and went to her sonic shower. As soon as she turned it on there was a bang and a truly horrible sound seemed to fill every part of her surroundings. She quickly turned it off. When her head was no longer spinning she checked and found that the acoustic converter had burst.

This was not the start to a great day she thought with a growl as she started to repair her shower.

Once the repairs were complete and she got her shower, there was no time to get breakfast before her shift. She ranted to no one as she got dressed and left.

"Sorry I'm late," B'Elanna said as she came into engineering. "Are we ready to start the fuel cell overhaul?"

"Sorry Lieutenant but we don't have the people today."

"What why?"

"Smith and Parsins called in sick."

B'Elanna sighed. This was not going to be her day.

And she was right. It wasn't long before another problem presented itself.

"Now what!" B'Elanna yelled. She could hear the leaking plasma coolant coming from somewhere.

"There has been a rupture in the coolant injector," Vorik said.

"I can see that! Why haven't you sealed it off?"

"I am attempting to do so." The alarm stopped.

"That's better," B'Elanna said and turned away to deal with new problems. Vorik followed her.

"Lieutenant I have an idea," he said as he followed her to the warp core. "Perhaps it would be advisable to reconfigure the coolant assembly. That would give us greater control over the pressure admissions."

"You are probably right and tomorrow we can do it first thing, but not today." B'Elanna wasn't about to start such a complicated project with today's bad luck.

"I don't understand why wait until tomorrow when today would be a much more—"

"Not today Vorik!" B'Elanna moved away to check another control panel.

"Good morning!" B'Elanna looked up. Tom was here.

"Here is the helm control evaluation you wanted." He handed her the padd.

"Thank you."

"So have you decided if you are going through with it?" Tom asked.

"I have and I'm not," B'Elanna said. "Today hasn't started out very well and the last thing I need is to get involved in some obscure Klingon Ritual."

"You were the one who suggested it!"

"I know, and for one sentimental minute I thought I would go through with it but not anymore." B'Elanna didn't want to talk about this anymore. She moved away, but Tom followed her.

"Course not," he said. "Wouldn't want to get too sentimental."

"Look I have just had a really bad day," B'Elanna hadn't noticed she was raising her voice. "and I am in a really bad mood. None of which will be helped by participating in the Klingon Day of Honor."

Tom backed off. She had to admit this guy was smarter than he looked.

"Okay," he said. "But if you change your mind, you know where to find me." He left.

No sooner was he gone than Chakotay showed up with even worse news: Seven of Nine wanted to work in engineering. Could her day get any worse?

When Seven was done working in engineering and the thoron particle's the caption had asked for were sorted out, B'Elanna went to the Mess Hall for a break.

Neelix tried to help. He wanted to be her verbal punching bag which was very sweet but she couldn't accept. In the end he changed her mind though. She went to the holodeck after that, but it didn't go well, kind of like the rest of her day. Twenty minutes later she was in her quarters too mad to cry.

The door rang.

"Come in."

"I tried to find you before but you were on the holodeck," Tom said.

"That's right," B'Elanna said from the sofa. She was holding a blanket.

"You know you left it running," Tom said. "And there was a Klingon there who didn't look too happy."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he was nursing a whale of a black eye. He looked like he had a run in with someone having a really bad day."

"That's very funny," B'Elanna said coolly.

"So how'd it go?" he said walking away from the door and toward her slightly.

"It didn't. Do you mind if we talk about something else?"

"As a matter of fact I do," Tom said, sitting down next to B'Elanna on the couch. "You have been like a spinning cobra all day and it's getting boring. We designed that holodeck program together and I think you own me the courtesy of telling me what happened."

"It was ridiculous, meaningless, posturing. Honor. Dishonor. What does it matter?"

"It matters because it's part of who you are! You've been running away from that your whole life."

"Who are you to tell me that!"

Tom got up. "I care about you. But if you're going to keep pushing me away there's no point in my staying around is there?"

"Fine! Just leave me alone!"

"Oh don't worry. If this is the way you treat people who try and get close to you, you'll be alone alright." He left. B'Elanna felt worse, if that was possible.

She just sat there. She felt like she would fall down if she stood up, but of course she had to go back to work.

To her surprise she did stumble when she got up. She actually fell over.

It was probably stress, she thought. A product of her horrible day, but just to be sure she got out her tricorder and scanned herself, being too stubborn to go to sickbay.

As she read the results dozens of reasons for them raced through her mind, other than the obvious one.

But as she re-did the scan and asked the computer to interpret the results she knew the obvious answer was the only one it could be.

It didn't feel real. And she was now late for work for the second time that day so she left.