Disclaimer - Paramount and Viacom own the characters from Voyager, although they didn’t often treat them right. The story line belongs to me. 

Author’s note: I have resubmitted this chapter because I just realized I had spelled B’Elanna’s name with only one n. (Sorry to B’Elanna and Roxann Dawson)

Chapter 5

Harry entered the mess hall, hungry for breakfast. He picked up some fruit, some strange purple concoction that resembled scrambled eggs, and coffee. Looking around, he spotted B’Elanna at a small table by the viewport.

"Hey, Starfleet, why the glum face?" B’Elanna smiled up at Harry as he placed his tray on the table and sat down across from her.

"I’m worried about Tom. There’s something bothering him but he won’t talk about it." ‘I should tell her about his quarters being trashed but that will only get him even more upset.’ Harry thought.

"Yeah, he does seem rather distant lately." B’Elanna replied. "We were supposed to have dinner together last week but he canceled at the last minute, said something about Chakotay giving him extra diagnostics to run."

"He seems to be avoiding people and he’s very distracted. We played pool last night and I beat him three games." Harry grimaced as he put a forkful of breakfast in his mouth. "What exactly is this supposed to be?"

B’Elanna smiled as she pointed to her tray. "I’m not sure but I’m sticking to the basics, coffee, fruit, and toast. You’re right about Tom, he has been scarce the past few weeks and unusually quiet." She thought back to the first time she ran into Tom, on the Liberty.

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"BaQa' !!!! Ghuy'!!!! QI'yaH !!!!!!! What the hell kind of flying was that?!!!" B’Elanna burst onto the bridge of the Liberty.

Chakotay turned in his seat and flashed her a huge grin. "Just some creative maneuvers from our new pilot."

B’Elanna looked down into the bluest eyes she had ever seen as the blonde haired man, at the conn, spun his chair around. He put his hand out in greeting. "Tom Paris." he smirked. "Not impressed with my piloting?"

"Not when it puts that much strain on my engines." she glowered at him, ignoring the outstretched hand.

"There’s other ways to impress a beautiful lady." Tom replied with a smug look on his face.

"PetaQ!!" B’Elanna spit out as she turned on her heel. "Chakotay, if he screws up my engines again, I’ll personally jettison him out the nearest airlock." she called out over her shoulder as she left the bridge.
 

B’Elanna’s thoughts returned to the mess hall again. ‘Even then, Tom was quite good looking, if you could get past his huge ego.’ B’Elanna had forgotten the pilot after he was caught on his first mission for the Maquis. Then he had appeared in the tunnel on Ocampa. They had slowly become friends and B’Elanna felt that their relationship was moving to another level. She wasn’t sure what she wanted from Tom but if he was in trouble, she cared enough to be worried.

"Senior staff to the ready room." The Captain’s voice came over the comm system. B’Elanna and Harry left the mess hall and headed for the turbolift.

TBC