After the story "Nebula," I'm still completely in Voyager mode. My style is familiar to those who have read and hopefully enjoyed several of my stories. Someone will always suffer terribly, someone will almost die, the Doctor has a hell of work to try and save my maltreated characters, B'Elanna and Tom will show up somewhere, but the focus is ALWAYS on Kathryn, Chakotay, Ayala, Naomi, Icheb, and Seven.
As also some of you might know – I wrote Harry Kim, Tuvok, and Neelix out of my stories at some point, and they'll never return (sorry). I also wrote Samantha out once (I am sorry about that, but it was important for the story). However, for the beginning of this story Sam and Neelix return - briefly.
Since I've also become so obsessed with Ayala, I've always hinted that Naomi is something of a foster daughter to Ayala, that he took care of her after Samantha's death. So after finishing "Nebula" and rereading some old stories, I realized that I'd never told my version of how Tarik actually became Naomi's protector / friend / surrogate father. Until now. I was so excited to tell this story and a little more about their new life that this is the longest story I've ever written, and it's also the story I've written in the shortest amount of time. Three weeks to the day.
And yes, I've put some characters through hell again. I just can't help it. But there's a little fun and pure romance this time too. I also admit, when I was writing a J/C scene, I had to take a short break because I just had to cry... that shows how much I really love these characters, doesn't it?
But now... presenting my longest story - I hope you like it.