Life With A Paris: Favorite Toy     Delta lay in the corner of Tom and B'Elanna's quarters, softly nuzzling the purple targ Daddy had given him over a month before, the night his baby had come into the world. He climbed to his feet, purple targ in teeth, and stretched. Delta made his way silently across the floor to where his baby lay in her cradle, sleeping quietly, waiting for her empty tummy to wake her from soft pink dreams. Delta lay down at the side of the cradle, between his baby and the doors to their quarters in case anyone should get it into their minds to try and take her away from him. His purple targ squeaked softly, but Delta knew better than to make too much noise and wake up the baby. His mommy needed sleep, he felt bad for her. His baby was a good baby, mostly quiet, but she still needed what she needed very often, and mommy was beginning to show the effects of it.  He lay his head down once more, and closed his eyes. As long as he was laying here, he figured it wouldn't be too much trouble just to take a nap until the baby's next feeding. *** Delta groaned as he rolled to his back, cracking open an eye. Mommy was looking down at him, laughter in her face. "Fall asleep, Delta-Dog?" She smiled softly as she reached across him to pluck the still sleeping baby from her crib. "We're going to have some company tonight, puppy. Captain Janeway will be joining us for dinner. She'd like to see your baby sister, and to tell you the truth, as much as I love the two of you, it'll be nice to have someone to talk to. Baby talk and puppy talk are just not the basics of any good conversation." B'Elanna winked at the dog, and moved herself and the baby into the next room. She lay the child on the floor on a blanket before turning away and beginning to prepare the baby's bottle. Delta's eyes tracked his mommy as she heated his baby's dinner, but rather than follow B'Elanna like he would once have done, he lay down next to his baby, and softly nuzzled her tiny hand. He suppressed a surprised yelp as her tiny fingers latched onto his nose and squeezed with more pressure than Delta would have thought possible, but then she let go and the slight pain eased. Delta stared at her with a stupid expression of doggy love as she gripped his ears and pulled them in either direction.  B'Elanna's laughter was heard clear into the hallway as she turned around to find Delta, his ears held out from either side of his head like the wings on a plane, and the baby cooing and gurgling softly. He flicked his eyes over to his mommy, the chocolate brown clearly relaying the depths of Delta's patience as once again his nose was grabbed and squeezed tightly.  B'Elanna knelt down beside the dog and baby, and softly stroked Delta's head. "You're a good puppy, Delta. You're a good dog to be so nice to your baby sister. She'll grow out of this, I promise." What B'Elanna neglected to tell the now unamused puppy was that it would take several years before his child learned to not pull his ears and tail and squeeze his nose. She laughed again, from the patience Delta was showing at the moment, she had very little doubt that he would have any problems adjusting to his new life as a child's favorite toy. Delta rolled his eyes one last time towards his mommy, before heaving a huge sigh, and relenting to his new found fate. End.