The Power of Love: Pieces of the Past By Erin Alpert Stay on the happy side! I want my Paradigms, gimmie it! Auntie Kate, Auntie Kate! Oh my! If poor old Carey only had a brain.... then he wouldn't have to see the lizard, the wonderful lizard if Oz! Sorry, see why I'm the queen of all weirdness? This story has some'o'B'Elanna's back-story, so don't kill me if it's all messed up! The room was silent as B'Elanna waited for him to come. she had asked the woman at the front desk if he was still with Starfleet, and she told her that he was. A man came through the door, tall, and dark-haired. "Do I know you Miss...what's your name?" he asked. She smiled for a moment, then let out her breath she had been holding, "B'Elanna.... Torres." The man looked thoughtfully at her for a second, then said, "Funny, I had a daughter named B'Elanna... funny looking thing she was... I didn't think it was such a common name.... it's Klingon, you know." "Yes, I know.... and you do know me." "I do.. strange.. I don't remember you." "I haven't seen you in a long time, I was five the last time...." Mr. Torres, B'Elanna's father, touched his hand to his face, as if thinking, "B'Elanna... are you my little B'Elanna?" She once again let her smile grow again, "Yes, I am." *************************** Paris knew she would come back.... eventually. Unless, she met some cute blond.. * Thomas Eugene Paris... don't let anything Libby said get into your head! * "I wonder why 'Lanna's still there?" he asked himself. * Tom! You jerk! Earth's a big planet! IT could take days, weeks, to find out if you are there or not! *  "Someday, I'll find her again.. and I'll take her in my arms, and   never,  ever, let go." * Good plan! * For once, his brain, and his heart agreed. ************************* Torres had a nice house. Not B'Elanna, the other one, her father. "'Lanna! How have you been! Why haven't I seen you in such a long time?" "My starship took a wrong turn," she said, then added, "Kinda." "What happened?" "You know Voyager?" "Who doesn't? Wait.. you were..." B'Elanna nodded. "Wow. That's amazing, you guys are going to goo down in Starfleet history, even those Maquis guys." "Like me." "You were Maquis? Wow... I never knew that. I know your going to go down in history but certain people are going to be on kid's tests in school, The Captain, The First Officer, The Chief of Operations, The Helmsman, not the little ones, the chief one... um.. who was that?" "Tom?" "Tom? Yeah! Tom Paris, I knew his father... and the Chief Engineer, he's gonna be famous.. who was he?" "She." "She? Woah... female Captain, female engineer, who was this little tramp?" "Me." "You!?!!? You were the chief of Engineering?!" "Yeah." "'Lanna, that's great!" "Only one other person ever called me that," B'Elanna murmured. "Who was that?" Obviously, Mr. Torres had better hearing then she thought. "What? Huh? Oh, Tom, calls me that." "And who is this... Tom.. of yours?" * My Tom? Hmm... I like that, * "He.. is... Voyager's Helmsman," she wasn't lying, not really, just not telling the whole truth. "Oh. But why would he have any reason to call you 'Lanna?" * Gods! He's too good! * "He, and I are... have a very close,"  * Relationship? Friendship? * "Companionship," * That works too. * "Oh... I see," he knew what she meant, "Well, I guess you might need some sleep. So, I'll show you where to stay, and you tell me a little about what's happened in you life... deal?" "Deal." **************************** B'Elanna and her father had a nice chat. [in private room gun quote! Sorry, the Queen of Weirdness 'pologizes for so rudely interrupting my story] They talked about her Academy days, her life on Voyager, the Maquis, and what she was up to now. But now the chat was over, and B'Elanna was ready to get some sleep. Mr. Torres had led her to a small room, but it was nice. That was where she stayed. B'Elanna had gotten into some night-clothes, and pulled herself into the bed. She couldn't sleep. She was cold, very cold. That was something she rarely felt, a Klingon thing. She had gotten up, turned the air down, and the heater up, but it did no good. B'Elanna slid farther under the covers, and crossed her arms. There was no denying it, she was cold probably because she missed him. She had never, not since she first met Tom, been this far away. Not on Voyager, not on DS9, not during any away mission. And now, she knew something was wrong.  Torres, B'Elanna, wished she could close her eyes, open them to see Tom trying to wake her up, then yell at him, asking how he got in. But, then, he would just grin his silly smile, and tell her that he had his sources. Torres knew that wouldn't happen now, not until she got back. There was a knock on the door. "Come in," she called. Her father stepped in, "'Lanna, I didn't think you were sleeping. I didn't wake you, did I?" "No... can you do me a favor?" "Anything, what do you want?" "I want you to take me back to DS9, now, tonight." ***************************** * Things just aren't the same without her, * Tom thought to himself.  When she was away, he just kept having this feeling that something was missing. And, something was.... her. It was night once again on the station. But Paris couldn't sleep. He kept having a feeling of sudden chills [Plasma Chills! Bad Erin! Stop interrupting, you have barely read any of that story! Sorry] coldness, loneliness. He had been trying to sleep for about 9 hours now, and thought he never would, not before his next shift began, at least. He just wanted that door-bell to ring, and her to be there. <Ding-dong> * Did I just hear that? * <Ding-dong> * Tom, you're hallucinating. * <Ding-dong> * Fine, even if you are, go answer the door. * So he did, and with all his heart, he hoped 'Lanna would be standing there, but knew she wouldn't.  He ran a hand across his face, pushing the hair out of his eyes, and yawned, trying to look his best, for all he knew, Captain Sisko could be at the door. But he wasn't. Paris walked over and manually opened the door. Standing there, was B'Elanna Torres. She ran into his arms with a force that nearly sent him flying backward. But Tom just held on, he didn't want to let go. The power of love had yet to fail them. "'Lanna, why'd you go to look for me?" "Tom, you know why... I love you." "That's not it, you didn't think I was coming back, did you?" "Fine... Tom, I'm a little embarrassed to tell you this, but, you're right.. I didn't think you would come back.... I'm sorry." "It's okay... at first, I didn't think I'd come back either." "Why did you?" "I got my job at Starfleet back, I'm assigned to DS9." "Tom! That's great news." "We can stay here now. Together." "Tom?" "What?" "I have some great news to tell you too." To Be Continued  :+) What do you think her big news is? E-mail me and tell me, I already know, but I'll give credit at the top of my next chapter to whoever can guess! Legal junk. Viacom owns characters, I own story. Comments on my second section of my first real series go to Eraalpert@aol.com.