The Next Morning

Chapter 1

It was early in what counted as daytime on Voyager. Captain Kathryn Janeway was already at work in her quarters, in full uniform, hair neatly in place, familiar cup of coffee at hand. They would soon be entering something called 'Devore' space. The little that they knew about these people suggested that the Devore would demand that Voyager adhere strictly to local laws and protocols while traveling through their space. It would help if Voyager's Captain had a better idea of exactly what those protocols entailed. She hoped to get more information from a freighter that they were scheduled to meet up with late today. Meanwhile Kathryn was clearing away as much routine business as possible.

Voyager's Captain had another reason for being up early today. This was the morning that Tom Paris returned to duty. Kathryn reached out to touch the lid of a small box that she kept on her desk. Inside there was a single black pip that had once ridden on Tom's collar. For years she had kept a similar box that had held another black pip. That was the pip that Starfleet had granted to Lt. Tuvok, promoting him to the rank of Lieutenant Commander for his undercover work with the Maquis. At first she had delayed giving it to him to avoid creating resentment and causing further difficulties for him with the Maquis crew. Then Tuvok had misjudged badly, assisting B'Elanna to obtain technology from Sikaris. The pip had stayed in its box for over two more years. In time she had been able to present it to its intended owner. She would keep this pip safe too, until the time came when she could return it to Tom.

She had arranged a meeting with Tom at 11:00 today. She had chosen this time carefully. It allowed him a few hours to get his bearings. Yet, it was not so late in the day that the meeting would weigh on his mind all day, or on hers either.

Kathryn took a sip of her coffee and made a face when she realized that she had let it get cold. She considered her options. She could drink the coffee cold, be frugal and simply reheat it or remain a purist and replicate a fresh cup. "What the heck," she decided and got up to replicate a fresh cup.

"Tuvok to Captain Janeway." Tuvok's voice interrupted her rendezvous with the replicator.

"Janeway here," she responded.

"Mr. Paris has been released from the brig. I have escorted him to his quarters where I believe he will require time to 'freshen up'. I have notified Commander Chakotay to expect Mr. Paris to report to him in the Astrometrics lab at 07:30."

"Very good, Tuvok. How is Mr. Paris?"

Despite what he considered to be imprecise phrasing, Tuvok knew that the Captain was requesting his professional evaluation of the physical and mental state of the crewmember who had so recently been a prisoner. "Mr. Paris was a bit disoriented at first. That is natural and was to be expected. He was otherwise able to function normally and seems ready and able to return to duty."

"Thank you, Tuvok. Please ask Commander Chakotay to see me in my ready room at his earliest convenience after he is finished in Astrometrics."

"Very well, Captain." Tuvok signed off.

On a lower deck, Tom Paris had completed his transition from brig-appropriate to duty-ready attire and was making his way to B'Elanna Torres' quarters. When he entered the turbolift, he turned around to watch the grey doors close in front of his face. He waited for a reaction. Nothing. It was strange. After his confinement in the Akritiri prison he couldn't stand to be inside his quarters without having a door open somewhere. He had taken to leaving the door to his bathroom open. He also had the small partition between his sleeping and living areas removed. That helped to get him through those first few moments of waking when he was still on the edge of sleep. But, even at his claustrophobic worst, he had never felt any reaction to the small spaces inside turbolifts or shuttlecraft. Maybe it was because they were taking him somewhere. In his mind they were a part of a journey, not a prison.

When Tom reached B'Elanna's door, he stopped. Normally he would have entered her code and walked right in. Today, he thought back to her teasing order to report to her quarters at 07:00. He activated the signal and waited. The door swished open and B'Elanna was there, standing in front of him, warm, vibrant and real. For a moment he could think of nothing else. After a month of anticipating this moment, it was here. "Ensign Paris reporting as ordered, Ma'am," he announced in the cheeky tone that he used when he wasn't quite sure what was going to happen and didn't want to let on that he wasn't sure.

"Ensign Paris," B'Elanna acknowledged. She took his hand and led him inside her quarters. They stopped in the living area where she turned to face him. "Ensign Paris," she whispered as she reached up to trace her fingers along the side of his face. "Ensign Paris," she said as she let her hand linger over the spot where she had bitten him all that time ago. "Ensign Paris," she repeated slowly, emphasizing each word. Then she leaned up and whispered a lewd proposal in his ear that made him burst out laughing.

"Ensign," she smiled up at him as he smiled down into her eyes. "No matter what title you carry, I will always be proud of you."

As was so often the case when his emotions overwhelmed him, Tom could not get out an answer in words. He gathered her close, burying his face in her hair. He held on as tightly as he could, trying to somehow transfer what he was feeling directly to her. She hugged him fiercely in return. After a few minutes he was able to whisper, "I missed you so much, so much."

"I missed you too, Tom," she whispered back. Then to help him recover his composure, she teased lightly. "Maybe you should stick around more. I've gotten used to having you around."

He loosened his hold to tease back. "You mean like that old pair of slippers that you like to kick around in?"

She thought about this a moment. "No," she decided. "You're more like that pair of high heeled shoes that I replicated for the dance a few months ago, the ones that made me feel beautiful, desirable and sexy."

He smiled.

Then, because they really didn't have time to take this much further right now, she added, "and pinched my toes so much that my feet hurt like hell halfway through the evening."

Tom laughed out loud.

"You'd better get going." B'Elanna told him, once again brushing her hand lightly along his face. "You've got work to do. I'll see you at dinner."

He took her hand and squeezed it gently before letting go. This was a now familiar gesture, his response in a silent dialogue reaffirming the love between them.

"Until dinner," Tom said, making it a promise.

"Until dinner," B'Elanna agreed and watched him go.

Author's notes:

1) Star Trek treats a change in rank from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander as a major promotion; note the sailing ship celebration arranged for Worf in The Next Generation, and the party and pranks arranged for Tuvok in the episode, Revulsion. With Captain's Janeway's established reluctance to promote Ensign Kim, where did Tuvok's promotion come from? There was no obvious reason to promote him at this time. I chose to explain it as a delayed promotion initiated by Starfleet, postponed at first for the reasons suggested in this story and then held back further as a consequence of Tuvok's actions on Sikaris.

2) About the changes to Tom's quarters, if you're interested, check out the changes from the early, to the post 'Chute' episodes. It is only at the very end of the series, when Tom and B'Elanna are married and living together, that we again see the bathroom door in his quarters closed. Even then, they keep a rather open area arrangement for their furniture.

3) At the end of the episode, Thirty Days, B'Elanna first invites Tom to dinner, then orders him to come to her quarters at 07:00. I don't know what the writers had in mind, but I chose to treat these as two separate visits. The characters in the series use the 24-hour clock correctly in too many episodes for B'Elanna to cite 07:00 as a suitable time for an evening meal. In the Season Four episode, Waking Moments, B'Elanna was working the night shift. The meal that she had planned to have with Tom at 07:00 was at the end of her 'day', but she still called it 'breakfast'.