Cowards, the both of them. One touching and the other holding her away with false innocence. She saw the way they brushed against each other in the corridors, huddled close at meals. That was friendship? When Tom would forget about her completely and they would act like strangers during missions ...and they were dating.

Not that she blamed him. Well, not about Harry anyway. She did the same thing when she thought that she would get away with it and there was no complaint yet. She did suspect that he knew exactly what was going on. The wide-eyed routine didn't fool her anymore. It just gave her the chance to push things a little further than she could if they were acknowledging the way that engineering would get so warm when those little moments happened.

Tom didn't see any of it, safe on the bridge, when they worked together. It was just as well. He didn't seem to be able to deal with either of them very well, trying to hide the way he felt for both and failing miserably. They let him think that they could not see it. B'Elanna had never talked to Harry about Tom, not about this anyway, but she could see that he understood how the pilot felt. They honored that distance. It was what they had to do.

Perhaps life was more enlightened and their relationship wouldn't be anything unusual for the majority of the crew. But Tom didn't say anything and so they wouldn't either. The only one she felt badly for was Harry. She and Tom had each other when the dark of night struck with horrible cruelty. Harry was alone. Trapped between two people he obviously loved and could not be with. And they clung together, sinking into that sea of lies, all drowning on that perfectly blue-skied beach. All dying in the sun.

end