Prompt: Mrs. Thatcher - "Oh my. You actually graduated." - 'When Calls The Heart'
He never thought he would feel this way, but he was actually grateful to be in his uniform and heading to engineering. It sure the hell beat enduring another one of Tuvok's intensive training sessions. Even if he had learned a lot, he was glad that they were over. Even better, all four of them had at least proved themselves enough in Tuvok's eyes to get a passing grade in the field training.
With any luck he would never have to endure something like that again. He also sure as hell wasn't going to admit to anyone that he had a better understanding of why Starfleet did things the way they did.
As he stepped through the doorway and into engineering, the sound of applause stopped him in his tracks. Looking around, he found every one of his fellow engineers, Starfleet and Maquis alike, looking in his direction as they clapped. Scanning the crowd, his eyes finally found B'Elanna who was walking toward him.
"What's going on, Lieutenant?"
"Just a little congratulation ceremony to celebrate you graduating Tuvok's field training, Dalby," B'Elanna replied. "You sure surprised me."
"Thank-you. I think," Dalby replied, glancing around again as a murmur of laughter rippled through the gathered engineers.
"Also, we decided you should have the pot of rations from the bet we had going as there was no winners."
"You guys had a pool going on me?"
"Of course we did. The bet was on whether or not you would pass Tuvok's training."
"And no one won? I'm not sure whether to be happy about winning the rations or upset that nobody had any faith in me passing."
"Most of us figured you end up getting yourself thrown into the brig for punching Tuvok," Hogan supplied.
Giving how many times that thought had crossed his mind, Dalby figured that had probably been the safe bet for most.
"And I almost won when you guys walked out after three minutes but you ended up going back," Hargrove spoke up.
"You only gave me three minutes?"
"No, five," Hargrove corrected. "But it would have been the closest."
"Gee thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Hey, I wasn't the lowest. Carey bet you wouldn't even bother to show up."
Dalby turned his glare on the assistant chief engineer.
"Hey, after having a former Maquis break my nose, can you blame me for not having much faith in another Maquis going through Starfleet training," Carey replied defensively.
"In that case, I'll let you slide, sir," Dalby replied, getting another ripple of laughter from the engineers.
Perhaps him going through this training hadn't just been beneficial for him, Chell, Henley, and Gerron. Perhaps their willingness to go through Starfleet training would help bridge the gap between Maquis and Starfleet personnel throughout the ship.