=/\=
When he received the message from Seven, informing him they'd returned from their trip, Icheb was off Earth, working with B'Elanna on Utopia Planitia. As soon as he went to her and explained that his mother had returned, B'Elanna thanked him for his service and released him, adding, "Now get yourself to Earth! You won't be any good to me up here if you're moping around about not seeing Seven and Axum!"
He didn't even take the time to drop off his baggage at the suite. Instead, he left it in a locker at the spaceport and transported himself to Seven's front walkway immediately. He knocked at the door, but it opened before his knuckles struck the wood for the second time. "I saw you materializing," Seven explained, as she enveloped her adopted son within her arms. Axum came through the kitchen door and hugged them both.
"I've missed you so much," Icheb admitted, gasping for breath. Axum's hugs could be extremely forceful.
"We've missed you, too, Icheb. You look well. You've survived our absence , I see." Axum replied, grinning broadly.
"I had a lot of friends to help me." In the brief silence that followed his answer to Axum, Icheb heard other voices. "Is someone else here? That sounds like Mrs. Yuhl's voice."
"Yes, she's here. She's interviewing someone." Seven's smile shone brightly. Axum was biting his lower lip, as if to cut off something he was longing to say.
And then Icheb recognized the second voice. Could Mezoti really be here?
He never knew, afterwards, if he'd called out to her. He didn't remember saying anything at all as he left the vestibule and approached the kitchen. All he could really be sure of was that he heard her voice saying his name as she rushed into his arms.
"Icheb, oh, Icheb, I've wanted to be with you for so long!"
When she was finally ready to let him go, he gently wiped the tears from his eyes and hers and asked, "You must have had your emotional inhibitor chip removed."
"I did," she replied. "I couldn't stop crying, so Mazani took me to the physician that had the records the Doctor sent with us. He said it was faulty and took it out. Oh, Icheb, I think that might be why I became so afraid of traveling on Voyager with you."
"It's all right now. You're here! You're finally here! Let me look at you. You've grown up so much."
"I have," she said proudly, twirling around on her toes. "Not as much as Naomi has, judging from her messages to me, but I have grown up - a lot."
"But she's still young enough to need someone to take care of her," Mrs. Yuhl interpolated. "I don't doubt she'll have wonderful parents - and a brother who clearly loves her." The social worker wiped a tear or two from her own eyes as she placed her PADD inside her bag. "I think I have all I need for my report, Ms. Hansen and Axum. If I require anything more, I'll contact you. I'll leave you now to your happy family reunion." She shook hands with Axum and Seven, and then turned to Icheb. "It's good to see you looking so well, Icheb. I'm very happy about how this has turned out, especially for you. You deserve it. You all do, after what you've had to go through. I'll let you know when the court hearing will take place. You can be sure the recommendations in my report to the court will be just as favorable as the ones I made when I interviewed Icheb!"
Once Mrs. Yuhl had left, the family sat down around the kitchen table. Seven went to the replicator and prepared nutritional supplement snacks for all of them, even Axum, who had developed a taste for peanut butter-flavored shakes and the same kind of nacho chips Icheb loved. The emotions of the moment had left all of them feeling drained and more than a little hungry.
Once Mezoti had consumed almost half of her shake, she sighed and looked at Icheb with a pensive expression. "It's sad. I can't hear you 'underneath' like I used to. The Wysanti physician told me that from what he could see, my cortical node had formed completely. He said he thinks that's why I can communicate subvocally more efficiently than Azan and Rebi can. Their subvocal communication is very efficient with each other, but not so much with me, or any of the other Borg who came to Wysanti last year. I was glad when the physician removed my emotional inhibitor chip, but it was hard. I was able to cry and be passionate about what I love, but it made me miss you even more, once it was gone. I felt all my emotions so clearly. I'm not sorry now, but sometimes I was then."
Mezoti lightly touched the spot on Icheb's forehead where his cortical node used to be. Tears filled her eyes. "We'll never be able to speak subvocally anymore. I'm going to miss that."
"You'll get used to speaking out loud to me, just like you always did with Naomi, when we were on Voyager together."
"I guess it's good I always liked to chatter with the crew, isn't it?"
"It is," Seven agreed. "And you'll still be able to speak 'underneath' to Axum and me. Eventually, you'll adapt to this way of communicating with Icheb. Often, when I speak with him, I'm reminded that he gave up the ability to speak subvocally for me. It was the price he paid to save my life."
"I'll try to think of it that way, too, then." Mezoti held out her hand to Icheb, who took it in his own and squeezed it lightly. Seven placed her left arm around Mezoti's shoulders, while Axum did the same to Icheb.
"How we communicate with each other doesn't really matter that much, as long as we do, right?" Axum said. "And what I want to speak of now has to do with planning a wedding."
"I'm so glad you came for me so I could be there with you," Mezoti said.
"We couldn't get married without our whole family with us!" Seven said this firmly, almost like she did when she was being especially drone-like on Voyager. This time, though, her smile was broad and the expression on her face softened with love, even if her voice rang out firmly.
"Yes, a wedding. It's time to gather your Voyager family and our friends from the alliance before everyone is scattered so far apart we won't have any guests to share our wedding day with," Axum said.
"Finally! I'm glad we've finally gathered our family together, the way it always should be. We won't need to send a datastream transmission to Wysanti this time."
"But, yes, we will, Icheb," Mezoti said soberly. "We still have family on Wysanti. Azan, Rebi, Mazani, and Arebi. They deserve to be part of the wedding, too, even if they can't be here in person. I don't want to forget them, ever. They were very good to me."
"You're right. I didn't think," Icheb said, abashed. "I'm sure our Doctor Mark Zimmerman will be glad to use his imager to record the happy day for them. It will be good for him, too. I'm sure he'll need something to distract him from seeing Seven married to someone other than him."
While everyone chuckled at Icheb's observation, they also had to acknowledge its truth. The Doctor would finally have to accept that his desire for a passionate relationship with Seven of Nine was never meant to be.
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