A Little Love Story by PJ in NH (upon suggestion of DocJan and Laura Hale) 6/99 ______ In the Messhall during a romantic dinner... T: Tom, is that your foot I feel trying to worm its way into my pant leg? P: It isn't Neelix's. T: Neelix? Are you trying to make me sick? P: No, not sick, just interested. How about we take the wine and head back to my cabin? T: Your cabin? P: Maybe your cabin? T: [smiles] P. [smiles back] ______ Later in Tom's Cabin...  P: Cheers, B'Elanna. T: [B'Elanna sips the wine.] Very nice. P: I don't replicate the best Merlot for just anyone. T: So you went to all this trouble just because you like me, not because you want to get me in the sack? P: B'Elanna! I'm shocked that you would think such a thing! T: Don't tell me you didn't think about it. P: Cross my heart. [B'Elanna sips the wine.] T: Mmmmm, this is good. But remember I'm watching you. P: I'm counting on it. ______ Later that evening... they took a stroll and ended up in Engineering....hey use your imagination (you think this is easy?!).... T:[Mmmm, this IS good! Actually, he even tastes good.] P: You know we should stop. This might be just the wine making us do this. T: Just the wine? I don't think so. P: So you want me? T: I don't just want you, Tom Paris. I crave you. And if you stop I'll kill you! P: Be still my beating heart! T: Just as long as the rest of you isn't still! P: Yes, ma'am. T: I love an obedient man! ______ Three weeks later in the mess hall...  P: B'Elanna, you look...um...green. T: I feel green. I can't keep anything down, and I can't remember ever feeling so tired. P: [Giggles] You don't suppose you have morning sickness do you? T: That's very funny. P: I'm kidding, you can't get pregnant. I've had my shot months ago and... T: Ssssh...you want everyone to know what we've been doing? P: B'Elanna, I hate to be the one to break this too you, but everyone on Deck 9 Section 12, and everyone on Deck 4 Section3 either know all about us or they are all deaf. ______ A few days later in Sickbay....the Doctor provides a lesson in the reproductive system to the Ensign and Lieutenant... EMH: And thus the sperm attacks the female ova....Now the odds of a human sperm impregnating a half-Klingon/half-human egg is... P: We know how pregnancy occurs, Doc, and the odds are moot at this point. T: We just want to know why it happened to us. Tom is up-to-date on his birth control shots isn't he? P: Of course I am. Aren't I? EMH: Of course he is...[scans the pilot with his medical tricorder]....um....well... P/T: Well? EMH: You remember that time you changed into a lizard. Apparently, it interferred with your body chemistry. In other words, congratulatations, Mr. Paris, you are going to be a father! T: [Grrrrrl] P: Would you rather have someone else be the father? T: Don't tempt me! ______ P: You okay, B'Elanna? T: Do I look okay, Tom!? P: Maybe it was something we ate? T: We? P: Well I'm not pregnant. If it was just you, I'd say that you were just having another bout of morning sickness. T: Haven't you ever heard of sympathy morning sickness? P: Sympathy? How is this for sympathy? Will you marry me. T: Marry you! I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on Earth. P: We aren't on Earth. T: Good point. P: And I am the father. T: Another good point. P: So? T: So what? P: Will you marry me? //pause// B'Elanna Torres, I love you, will you please marry me? T: Wait a minute, I'm not finished yet. //Baarfff// Yes, I will marry you. P: So romantic. T: Don't push it Paris. ______ A few days later, the crew gather for The Wedding... Janeway: Do you Tom Paris take B'Elanna Torres to be your lawfully wedded wife. To have and to hold, in sickness and in health, until death you do part? P: //aside//sickness and in health--oh boy.// T: //aside// Watch it, helmboy, or you'll have to find another shuttlebay to park your little flyer. P: //aside// Little?! Janeway: Ah....Mr. Paris, do you take B'Elanna to be your lawfully wedded wife? P: Ah, I do? ______ A few months pass, B'Elanna's starting to show... P: B'Elanna, be careful with that. T: Why should I? You weren't careful! P: It was a mistake. Honest. T: Mistake. Do you think all these extra hormones surging through my body feels like a mistake! Do you think my continued morning sickness feels like a 'mistake'?[B'Elanna waves the bat'leth back and forth inches from Tom's face] Do you think having to wear those silly engineering smocks is my wardrobe of choice?! P: Watch it, Torres, you'll take my nose off with that thing. T: I wouldn't be aiming for your nose, Paris! P: B'Elanna! T: Just call me by my middle name: Loreena. P: Anyone ever tell you that you look incredbily sexy when you're angry? ______ Later, back in their cabin, after they change... T: So you think I look sexy, huh?. P: Yep, incredibly sexy. T: Pregnant and all. I feel like a whale. P: You look beautiful. T: I don't feel beautiful. I feel huge! P: Let me show you just how much I love you, and how gorgeous you are. T: You're too good for me, Tom. P: I haven't done anything yet. T: But you will. ______ Several weeks later... P: Dahlia? You want to name our little bundle of joy: Dahlia? T: What's wrong with Dahlia? It is a lot better than P'Rika!. P: But Dahlia, it sounds so old. You might as well call her Pansy or Petunia! T: And P'Rika sounds like a paprika. She not some kind of...kind of...ah..spice child! I'm warning you, Paris...// she points an angry finger at the pilot like only a pregnant, hormonal imbalanced, half-Klingon can//... I won't name her P'Rika! P: There must be something we can do. Perhaps a compromise? T: Compromise? P: Yes, well you like Dahlia //he grimaces// and I like P'Trika. T: Smiling. How about Darika? P: Excellent! ______ Several weeks after the birth... T: I'm so happy! P: Me too, and doesn't Darika look adorable. T: She's really taken a shine to Chakotay. P: She sure has. Though I don't know what she sees in him. But, everytime he holds her she spits up all over his shoulder. T: And you smile everytime she does that. P: You trained her well, Mrs. Paris. T: Now if only I could train you. The end? Special thanks to Doc Jan and Laura for providing the above pictures!