The BLTS Archive- Threesomes
#9: Twosomes: Remembrances
by Nyani-Iisha F. Martin(nfmartin@fas.harvard.edu)

---

Disclaimers: I know y'all know the drill by now. *smile* The stuff
that belongs to Paramount: these characters (except for M'Lar, but I
don't want him anyway, and Aileen), the setting, and the Star Trek
universe. The stuff that belongs to me: the above-named characters and
the text,  COPYRIGHT 1997 Nyani-Iisha F. Martin. The sum total of the
money I  intend to make from this story and the money anyone else
should make  from it: 0.00 (And, of course, please ask me before
reprinting this  story, archiving it, etc.)

This particular story is "heavy R" rather than NC-17; I hope nobody
minds. *smile* It has mentions of nonconsensual partner abuse and of a
f/f relationship; If you think it'd bug you or you're not allowed,
well, go read something else then.

Anyway. Here we go:

---

B'Elanna stood in the holodeck doorway, quietly watching Harry; she
hadn't realized just how badly she'd missed him till she saw him again
just now. For most of the week since the Enarans' departure she'd been
busy in Engineering....mostly, she had to admit to herself, doing
busy- work as an excuse to avoid the guys. B'Elanna had found herself
feeling strangely uneasy around them, struck by the puzzling notion
that she might be dangerous to them; while trying to figure out why
she felt this way she realized that these thoughts probably went back
to her recent, ahem, experiences with Jora Morell. That was where the
emotional explorations ended; if deciphering her feelings meant
dealing with that whole mess with the Enarans, B'Elanna definitely
didn't feel up to more than treating the symptoms.

Still, after a couple of days, her loneliness overcame her unease, so
she went looking for her lovers; Tom was on duty, but Harry was free,
and now she stood in the doorarch of the holographic gym, just looking
at Harry, watching him as he lay on his back bench-pressing some
weights. He was so sweet, and so young, that B'Elanna sometimes found
herself forgetting just how strong he was; watching him, she thought
about how it was a good idea to remind herself occasionally.  Besides,
he looked really good, pushing the weights up into the air with corded
arms, all his muscles taut and firm, broad expanses of golden skin
bared by his sleeveless shirt and shorts.  Watching him, B'Elanna
unconsciously bit her lip, feeling her blood come to a slow simmer.

Harry sat up to put the weights down, looked up, and looked so
delighted to see her that B'Elanna couldn't help but smile. "Hey!" he
called, waving, as he picked up a towel to wipe his brow; cheered by
the invitation, she took it and sat down on the bench beside him.

"Did you hear about that nebula we saw today?" Harry enthused, tossing
down the towel and running a hand through his sleek dark hair.

B'Elanna started smiling as she watched him; Harry's cheer was exactly
what she needed to combat the depressed anger still weighing her down.

"It was an oxygen-nitrogen one, Class 7, I think" he went on,
forgetting about his hair to wave his hands descriptively, "so it was
dappled with blue, green, pink....It was incredible, nearly a hundred
lightyears across, and what's more, it even had proplyds in it! I wish
you could've seen it; I think Tom made a recording for you."

"I'll thank him when I see him....Proplyds?"

"Yeah. Proto-planetary disks around baby stars. They're the things
that look like floating pearls; they reflect the light of the cluster
lighting up the nebula. Just think, one day life may form on one of
those planets! Perhaps even intelligent life!"

B'Elanna grinned, as much at Harry's enthusiasm as at the thought of
nascent planets and future civilizations. "I can't wait to see that
recording," she said, starting to get up, but Harry put a hand on her
arm.

"Do you have anything to do?" he asked, begging her to say "no" with
his eyes. B'Elanna smiled at that, her heavy heart raised further by
his reaction; she hadn't been going anywhere.

"Not really, for once. There's work to do, but nothing that can't wait
till I go back on duty in....hmm...four hours."

"Well, then, stay and talk to me," Harry said, and smiled at her,
looking as happy to be with her as he had over the baby stars; her
replying smile widened when he slid his hand down her arm to take hers
and added, "I haven't seen you in days; I don't see enough of you, you
know."

That made her grin, despite her pang of guilt. "I don't see enough of
you, either," B'Elanna said with a leer, and Harry's smile broadened
as he flushed a little; he leaned forwards, just a little shyly, and
she dove in the rest of the way to kiss him warmly, parting her lips
over his, feeling his warm breath on her cheek, the welcome heat
starting to flow through her. She tilted her head, pressing her mouth
to his, and he lifted his other hand to her face, running one finger
caressingly over her cheekbone; then, most frustratingly, Harry sat
back and looked at her intently.

"B'Elanna, how *are* you? I mean, how are you doing, after---"

B'Elanna knew what he was going to ask, and didn't want to think about
the answer. "I've been in Engineering for days and by myself in bed,"
she replied, making sure her voice growled, as she leaned forward with
her best sleek and predatory look; Harry blushed under that gaze,
looking nervous and elated all at once, and she smiled triumphantly.
"Is there a shower written into this program?"

"A shower?" Harry echoed, staring at her with that intentness, and
those big dark eyes, that were only his. Yeah, B'Elanna thought, she'd
missed him. Badly.  She smiled more widely and licked her lips, and he
nearly stammered as he replied, "Uh, I think so..."

"Good." She reached down to yank off her boots, purposefully ignoring
the frenzied rustling beside her; when she sat back up to unfasten her
uniform she smiled to herself to find Harry watching her, his gym
clothes already on the floor.

"Well, that was fast," she observed, and Harry blushed deeply and
grinned,  though all he said was "let me help you with that," as he
reached forwards to pull her turtleneck over her head, and kissed her
warmly as he tugged it up her arms.

B'Elanna freed one arm to wrap around his shoulders and kissed Harry
back enthusiastically, kissing her way across his cheek and biting his
neck with the ungentleness she knew he liked; his moan sent a wave of
heat through her and she rode it gladly, letting the undertow of her
arousal sweep away other, less pleasant emotions.
---

_Mmmmm. That was nice. _ B'Elanna opened her eyes to find Harry
watching her, his head propped up on one hand, his damp hair all askew
and a red line of bites arching from ear to neck. She smiled up at him
and lifted her hand to touch the bites; he smiled back as he put his
hand over hers, and she could have just purred for contentment. "Hey."

"Hey," Harry said in return. "You nearly drew blood, you know." He
didn't sound very upset.

"I forgot how good you taste," B'Elanna replied; Harry smiled wider at
that and sat up, but he kept her hand folded in his as his smile faded
into a more serious look.

"B'Elanna...."

"Yeah, Harry? What's up?" Harry's expression was worrying her...

"I don't know----I mean, what's up with *you*, B'Elanna?  How *are*
you doing? What with---"

_Oh, shit. Don't, Harry, just don't._ B'Elanna sat completely up,
yanking her hand out of Harry's grasp. "What with the Enarans and
all?"  she finished, and snorted in annoyance. "Is *everyone* going to
keep asking me about that?"

"As long as we're worried about you, yes."

B'Elanna's irritation exploded. "I'm FINE!" she insisted, leaping to
her feet; she turned on her heel, looking for the door arch.
"Computer, locate uniform----"

"Stop running away, B'Elanna." Whatever the computer replied was lost
to her, as she froze at Harry's words, long enough for him to come up
behind her and tentatively put his hands on her shoulders.
"We....I...I  know it's bothering you. Stop running away from it."

"I'm not running away," she began, but her anger was already
subsiding; gently, but with firm hands, Harry turned her to face him,
and he looked so worried....he was too sweet to stay angry at....but
she did *not* want to talk about this. "The Enarans left, it's over.
I'm not running away," she finished, looking down, not looking at him.

"Then why haven't Tom and I seen you all week?"

"I happen to have work to do."

"No, you haven't. Not this much work, anyway; I talked to Nicoletti.
You've been making up work for yourself, so you can avoid talking to
us, or her, or Chakotay. You're running from something, from something
Jora's memories did to you, and you're isolating yourself. We won't
let you.... I won't let you."

B'Elanna looked up at Harry, and he looked so stubborn....where had he
gotten this strength? In Aquitaria? Her own stubbornness told her to
pluck his hands off her arms and leave; but her pride stung at the
truth of his accusation, and her reason told her he was right. She
sighed and let go---

---and the tears nearly knocked her off her feet, as she swayed and
Harry clutched her, afraid she would fall. Leaning against his firm
chest, B'Elanna got her feet back beneath herself and bit her lip as
her eyes watered, ignoring Harry's concerned questioning long enough
to shove the lump in her throat back down.

"Are you OK?" he asked again, and she gulped and nodded, then let go
of him and sat down heavily on the floor.

"Can we change this program?"

"Of course; what do you want?"

"That silly sunny resort of Neelix's and Tom's. But no hologirls. Just
sunshine and a comfortable place to sit." Harry nodded and called up
the program, and they found themselves on the wooden deck of a pool
that rippled in a gentle breeze and sparkled in the sunshine; then he
took her hand and looked at her expectantly, and B'Elanna looked at
him sideways through the shield of her hair. Where to begin?

"I, um....you spent quite a bit of time with Jessen," she started,
making sure she was smiling, but the comment startled Harry into alarm
anyway. "You aren't mad at me---"

"Of course not!" _I missed you, was all._ "After all, you did ask us,
and we figured you were exploring a newfound taste for blondes." Harry
blushed beautifully at that, and B'Elanna grinned briefly, but soon
asked soberly, "Do you think Jessen believes me?"

Harry paused for a moment, then nodded. "Especially after you showed
her the memories. I think she does."

The depths of her relief surprised B'Elanna. "I hope she does. After
what I showed her, what Jora showed me....even in the Maquis....I've
killed, I was in the Maquis after all, but to murder an *entire*
people....that was what I joined the Maquis to *prevent*." B'Elanna
climbed to her feet and started pacing, biting her fingers, and Harry
watched her. "An entire race. And the way Jora showed me, it was like
I was the one doing it, I was the one who sent my lover to his death,
but I would never do that! How could she have done that! I---she loved
him. How could she let them kill him?"  B'Elanna sank down next to
Harry, and he put his arm behind her, ready to hold her, as she put
her face in her hands. "She really did love him," she said softly, her
voice shaking. "So how could she cheer as they killed him?"

"This really affected you," said Harry. He made a face at himself as
if he thought what he'd said was stupid, but B'Elanna nodded, and
there were tears in her voice. "It reminded me.... Jareth was her
first lover, I think. That's how it seemed, anyway, how she reacted.
And he was so kind, so gentle....kind of like you." B'Elanna turned
her head  slightly  to smile at Harry through her hair, and he smiled
back encouragingly; looking at his earnest young face, appreciating
that he was giving her the listening ear she'd needed.

B'Elanna thought, _how could I have stayed away from him so long?_, as
she smiled more fully before she went on. "For Jora to....to let them
kill him, for me to see inside her as she did....I could never  have
done that.  I would have followed a lover like that to the ends  of
the galaxy. Did I ever tell you about my first relationship?" Harry
shook his head, and B'Elanna put her hand on his thigh in apology. "I
told Tom. You are so.... you were so innocent. I didn't want to upset
you."

"I can deal," said Harry, and B'Elanna looked at him, smiling a little
again. "I know," she said, with both her voice and her heart; then she
pulled her knees up, resting her chin on them, and took a deep breath.

"My mother and I were the only Klingons in the colony, so, to make
sure I 'knew my heritage' we went to the Homeworld when I was sixteen.
I didn't want to go, and I made sure she knew it; I sulked the entire
way there. And, like I'd expected, I really didn't enjoy Klingon
culture very much. There were some parts I liked, but...the Klingons
in my mother's family were stuffy and stern and used notions of
'honor' to smack each other into place. But I did meet M'Lar."

"M'Lar?"

B'Elanna nodded as much as she could with her knees under her chin,
hugging herself against the memory. "The best and the worst part of
the trip. He was handsome, and tall, and full Klin, and he told me my
forehead was delicate, not flat, and that I was tinted, not pale.
Being a sheltered teenager raised on a backwater colony, I fell head
over heels for him. We *were* actually happy for a month or so, or at
least as happy as I could make myself by ignoring every time he
angrily called me weak or told me how grateful a half-Human like me
should be for a Klingon's attention...."

Harry inched his arm up around B'Elanna's waist, as she continued, in
a quiet voice that belied the blood pounding in her head. "M'Lar
eventually got fed up with me for being part Human. He started calling
me frail and flat-headed and cursing my Human blood, and I got fed up
with his mistreatment so we had a few fights....which I got the worst
of. If it wasn't for regenerators I'd have a scar on my chin; when I
told him we were through he, um,' convinced' me we were not, breaking
my jaw in the process."

Harry's gasp brought B'Elanna out of her memories, as he tightened his
arm protectively around her, trembling with anger. "If I ever meet
him...." he said softly, through clenched teeth, sounding quite
fierce. B'Elanna had to smile at that, especially since Tom had
reacted the exact same way.

"I don't think we'll ever run into him," she replied; "he's not the
kind of person who goes on diplomatic outreaches to other races."

"Frankly, I'm surprised he maltreated you and lived." Harry took her
hand in his own warm one and kissed her fingertips. "How did you get
away from him?"

"My mother wasn't pleased with how he treated me, so she told his
family to make him leave me alone. They told her if I couldn't handle
being treated like a Klingon she should take me off the homeworld, so
she decided to cut our visit short; of course, she blamed me for
choosing the wrong man and for not being able to handle him, or at
least that's how I felt.

"Despite my 'Human fraility' and all, M'Lar wanted me to stay; I guess
he enjoyed having someone he could push around. So he told me he
wanted to make up with me and took me on a trip to see some supposedly
landmark waterfall.  Like a fool I went, and he tried to rape me, so
he could force me to take the Marriage Oath." Hearing Harry's gasp of
outrage, B'Elanna squeezed his hand a little more tightly to reassure
him.

"*Tried* being the word. He broke my arm in two places, but I fought
back and knocked him out, then made it back to the city. My mother,
realizing what was about to descend on us, packed us onto the next
outbound ship, not wanting to wait even to have my arm healed. It took
three sessions to do it properly.

"Apparently M'Lar's family convinced him I wasn't worth it, because he
didn't so much as write me, not that I minded. My mother was angry
that I'd gotten myself into such a mess, and ruined her stay; in
general, it didn't help our relationship. The next year I left for
Starfleet Academy."

"That *you'd* gotten yourself into a mess?" Shaking with anger, Harry
wrapped both arms around B'Elanna, pulling her into a tight embrace
that, she had to admit to herself, she could use right then. "How
could your mother blame you? It wasn't your fault!"

"Oh, I know." _Now, at least._ "The fact that she could blame me was
probably what....one of the things that finally made me leave her."

"I still can't believe your own mother could blame you." Harry, still
trembling with anger, rocked them both back and forth a little, slowly
calming down.

Seeing Harry so angry for her sake made B'Elanna feel paradoxically
calmer; the few other times she had told this story it left her
shaking with old anger and remembered pain. But, now, having finally
begun to let out what was troubling her, and to such a sympathetic
audience, she felt a strange almost-peace.

"It doesn't have anything to do with Corinna, I mean Jora's story, but
what she showed me made me remember, because....Jareth was so gentle.
M'Lar was so rough.  We didn't actually have sex, and I'm glad we
didn't, not just because he could have made me take the Marriage Oath
if we had; in everything we did he was rough, often not in good way,
and he was a selfish bastard. But, still, I don't think I would have
wanted him to be killed; I only hit him with a rock because I had to.
If I'd had someone like Jareth, someone like you and Tom, I would have
as soon let them chain me to that pillar."

So much for calm. B'Elanna heard tears in her voice again, and so did
Harry; he started to raise a hand to her hair, but she leaned back out
of his arms, knowing if she leaned on him she'd start crying. "She had
a lover like that, and she threw him away..." B'Elanna's voice broke,
and she bit her lip, staring at the wooden deck and fighting back the
tears, swallowing hard against the lump in her throat.

"Shhhh," said Harry; he raised his hand to touch B'Elanna's hair, and
that act of gentleness, from this most gentle man, pushed her over the
edge. She bit her fingers desperately even as she took that first
heaving sob, and Harry pulled her to his chest, holding her as she hid
her face against him and broke down and cried, cried for Corinna Jora
Morel and her Jareth, cried for all the dead Regressives....and cried
for herself and the girl she had been before she met M'Lar, before her
heart had begun scarring, even before the Academy or the Maquis.

Knowing nothing beyond Harry's arms around her and her own shoulders'
heaving, B'Elanna cried for a long time, releasing all the pain of the
previous week, the pain of Jora's horrible memories and her own
traumas they'd dragged up. And all the time while she cried
uncontrollably, while the anger and sorrow drained out of her, Harry
held her, rocking her gently, murmuring indistinct comforting things,
until her sobs grew less frequent, less racking, until B'Elanna slowly
quieted from stormy tears to sniffling calm. At least, calm enough to
notice the strong arms around her and the firm chest under her cheek,
now wet with her tears, and to realize that she'd been sobbing as if
her proverbial heart had broken, and that her nose was running.  _Oh,
just great.  What a mess._

Harry heard B'Elanna's sobs dwindle to sniffles, and was just letting
go of her when she sat up, feeling silly for crying like a small
child. He handed her a corner of the towel, which she took without
looking up, and she scrubbed her face, wiped his chest, and smiled
ruefully. "I must look awful." Still, she did feel better.

Harry smiled. "When Tom said that you teased him unmercifully."

"Well, you're the nice one." Still too embarrassed to meet Harry's
gaze, B'Elanna wiggled back a little, telling herself she was giving
him space; Harry let his arm fall so that his hand just touched hers,
no more. Despite her bowed head, B'Elanna sat up straight, throwing
her shoulders back so she wouldn't look like she'd just been wearing
herself out crying; from the corner of her eye she caught Harry's
grin.  "What's so funny?"

"You, donning the strong-woman look again." B'Elanna started to draw
back, opening her mouth in indignation, when Harry laid his hand over
hers to sweeten his words, and she found herself unable to hold onto
her surprise long enough for it to become irritation. Looking down at
their hands, she turned hers over to clasp his and sighed; when she
looked up again Harry was holding his other arm out invitingly, and
B'Elanna couldn't help but smile, her heart warmed by his gesture. She
leaned forward to kiss him gently, lips barely touching lips, then
turned around to snuggle backwards against him, wrapping his arms
around her waist and looking up at the sunny blue sky, letting herself
rest on his strength just for once.

"I guess you're right," B'Elanna admitted, thinking of how weak and
stupid that story must have made her sound. "I'm not that strong."

Harry tensed with disagreement. "That's not what I meant," he
countered. "You're one of the strongest people I've ever met."

"I couldn't even deal with a teenage boy; I still can't deal with my
emotions."

"You were a teenager too, and he was a manipulative asshole as well as
physically stronger," said Harry with a force that brooked no debate.
"And you've come a long way from when you broke Carey's nose." His
hand played caressingly over the skin below her ribs. "I don't know
why you doubt yourself," he went on, sounding irritated despite his
caresses. "You're beautiful and brilliant and fearless and impressive.
What do you think is----mmph!"

Twisting around quickly, B'Elanna shut Harry up with a kiss, grabbing
his face with both hands and holding it to hers; after a moment's
shock, he kissed her back enthusiastically, his arms tight around her
waist, his lips caressing hers, and she felt herself flushing and her
nipples tightening. Oh, she *had* missed Harry; it was a good long
while before B'Elanna let go, to smile at and then snuggle back
against him. "You feel really warm," she said, feeling almost
lighthearted.

"B'Elanna," said Harry, attempting to be stern; he'd apparently
managed to remember what he'd been talking about. Harry was so cute as
a Stern Young Man that B'Elanna couldn't help but smile up at him, and
his "don't change the subject" expression melted into a smile, and
then into surprise and a little arousal as she wriggled further into
his lap. "Um," he went on, much less firmly, "I...guess it's the
sunshine."

_Not just_, thought B'Elanna as she pulled his arms a little tighter,
leaning back. "Thanks, Harry."

"You're welcome." Harry kissed her head through her hair. "For what?"

_For being wonderful._ "For knowing that I needed to talk." Harry
hugged her more tightly for a moment, and she held onto his arms,
thinking about the shadow on her heart that was fading, if still there
as yet. "You're such a good listener, Harry. Don't you ever get tired
of listening?"

"To people I care about? No, of course not," he replied, so cheerfully
her heart lifted a bit more. "Besides, I love you. I want to know you
inside and out. I---ah...um."

B'Elanna turned around to look at Harry, and found him blushing. "I
didn't even have to say it," she said with a grin, and put her hand on
his cheek to kiss him once more, feeling the warm blood in his skin;
Harry pulled her close again, stroking her back, and she could feel
the fire stirring deep within herself. But, in the midst of the kiss,
the echoes of Harry's words, of his trust, made B'Elanna suddenly go
rigid as she realized precisely why she had avoided Tom and Harry this
week, that there was one more thing she had to say. Harry, feeling her
go still, let go of her mouth to look at her questioningly, and she
took a deep breath and asked, "Harry, are you sure you want to know
*all* about me?"

Poor Harry looked completely bemused. "What do you mean?"

B'Elanna gently disengaged herself from his arms, to save him the
trouble. "What I said before about Jora, about how I would never
betray my lover the way she did, I'm not sure that's entirely true."
She looked up at him, but all he did was nod encouragingly, looking at
her with that serious, beautiful expression of his, so she went on,
looking back down at her fingers. "I did see what Jora thought, what
she felt, and I saw why she chose me to give her memories to; we're a
lot alike in many ways. I would have liked to have known her better.
To be fair to her, she didn't just give Jareth up; she gave him up for
a *cause*, and....well, I'm here, we're together, because of a cause.
When I left the Academy, all I knew about my life was that I didn't
want to die. I landed on the edge of the Federation, heard about the
Cardassians and the atrocities they were committing, and found my
cause....and eventually, my leader."

B'Elanna smiled, remembering. "I met a woman there, a Human named
Aileen Kessel, but my second *love* was Chakotay. A good friend, a
father figure, probably more though he never laid a hand on me." Harry
was smiling, now, but B'Elanna couldn't smile back, afraid her next
words would wipe that smile off his face.

"Aileen turned out to be a Federation spy, and I helped trap her. You
know, Tuvok helped us with that also; it was part of why we began to
trust him. Chakotay even told me I didn't have to be involved, but I
insisted on it....Aileen may have been a spy, but she was pure
Federation, pure Starfleet." Harry grinned, and, a bit surprised at
his reaction, B'Elanna smiled back.

 "She was kind to me, told me off when I needed it, and helped me get
over some things. I think I was starting to fall in....fall for her,
and I was so angry when I found out she might be a spy....I guess I
took her deception personally. When we caught her, I didn't
participate in the debate over what to do with her; I told myself that
Chakotay would make them let her go unharmed, but when he told me they
had part of me was actually angry.  So I look at you and Tom and
I....I wonder. I don't trust myself.  In those memories Jora gave me,
I don't agree with what she did at all, I think it was horrible, but I
wonder if she chose me because she knew that, in a way, I'd done the
same thing, that I was capable of it."

Now, B'Elanna let herself look at Harry, but he sat silently for an
agonizingly long moment, thinking; as if he knew she were going
through torments of worry, he reached out to take her hand, squeezing
it reassuringly, but they sat there for a moment more before he spoke.
"Remember when we met?"

"It was pretty memorable," B'Elanna said dryly.

"All the time we were trying to escape you kept saying 'come on,
Starfleet, *we* have to go', '*we* have to get out of here'. Always
'we'. You never once forgot about me or tried to leave me behind."
B'Elanna looked at his face, but he was looking down at their hands,
rubbing her knuckles gently with his thumb. "And when Tom pulled his
'bad-boy' act, we all believed him, but you were the only one who
talked to him about it, who tried to stop him from what we thought was
destroying himself."

Now Harry looked up at B'Elanna, and the love in his eyes made her
heart soar, as the weight was finally toppled by a wave of relief and
love. Stunned and elated all at once, all B'Elanna could do was choke
out, "Harry, you..."

"Trust you with my life. Of course." Harry put his hand on B'Elanna's
cheek, smiling at her, beaming at her. "And Tom does, too. His life, I
mean. The entire ship trusts you; you're our Chief Engineer. But he,
and I, also trust you with our hearts."

The lump in her throat cutting off all words, B'Elanna threw her arms
around Harry's neck and kissed him soundly; she had meant to thank him
for understanding, for trusting her, but he brought his arms up around
her back, spreading his hands flat across her shoulderblades as he
pulled her tight against his chest, and it seemed to her that there
were better things to do with her mouth than talk. B'Elanna rocked
Harry over onto his back so she could straddle him, and he gasped into
her kiss; she pulled her lips from his to kiss her way across his face
as he clutched her tightly, and when she bit him on the neck he gasped
again.

And then she paused. No, she thought; she didn't want to bite him this
time, be her usual wild self. Instead, she kissed him on the bite, as
gently as she could, and Harry made a questioning little moan.

"B'Elanna?"

"Want me?" she whispered, blowing onto his ear so that he squirmed
beneath her, biting his lip. Yes, Harry's gorgeously sensitive ears.

"Oh, stars," he groaned, between smiling and crying as she ran her
tongue over  the outermost curve. "Can't you tell? Don't I always?"
Harry turned his head to find her mouth, and rolled them over when he
did, kissing her deeply as she hooked one of her legs around his, her
hands now flat across his shoulders; he slid up over her when he did
that, and she could feel him against her, how much he did want her.

Feeling much warmer than just the sunshine could make her, B'Elanna
pushed with the other leg, turning them over once more; landing on his
back, Harry gently pulled B'Elanna up a bit to suckle one breast and
stroke the other, and she arched her back and moaned for the sheer joy
of him, but while he kissed up her chest and throat she relaxed,
opening her eyes, and saw water below her.

"I think we'd better stop," she croaked, and laughed inwardly at how
her voice sounded, rough with arousal.

"Stop this?" asked Harry disbelievingly, his voice a bit muffled by
her collarbone, one hand still cradling her breast in trembling
fingers.

"No, stop turning over." Shifting back on her knees, she watched him
slowly realize they were at the pool's edge and smiled as his eyes
widened. "Unless you want to go swimming."

"Not right now." Harry smiled up at B'Elanna, and she sank her hand
into the damp hair at his temple, smiling back into those wide dark
eyes, thinking of a thousand things to thank him for, a thousand
reasons to tell him why she loved him.

"Harry, thank you."

Harry looked pleased and bemused. "Oh, anytime. All I did---"

"Was get me to talk. Was what I needed." B'Elanna kissed him, and
whispered against his lips, "and I love you for it" as she sank down
onto him, catching his answering moan in her next kiss.

---

B'Elanna woke up atop Harry, who lay on the towel, one arm still
around her, a sleeping smile on his face. As she looked at him,
raising herself on her elbows, she had a sudden urge to trace the line
of his lips with her finger. Shaking her head at herself and smiling,
B'Elanna got up off Harry. "Computer, what's the time?" she asked
softly.

"1732," came the answer, and B'Elanna swore under her breath, just as
Harry stirred at the loss of her warm weight on his body; he opened
his eyes to smile up at her, one of those heartwrenchingly beautiful
smiles of his. "Hey," was all she could manage to say back, before she
leaned down to kiss him. "I have to get going. I'm on duty in less
than a half hour."

"OK." Harry sat up, and as they started hunting for what the program
had done with their clothes he remarked, "someone probably has the
Holodeck soon anyway."

"Yeah," B'Elanna agreed gruffly, feeling a little shy after the
intensity of what had happened, of her feelings and catharsis. Out of
the corner of her eye she saw Harry startle, then smile as he
understood, and she closed her eyes and smiled, relaxing, when he
stroked the hair back from her face to kiss her forehead.

"I *knew* I had to get you to talk when you set out to seduce me," he
said cheerfully.  "When you're that horny you usually would've just
pinned me to the wall."

B'Elanna laughed at that, and turned to kiss Harry on the cheek.
"Thanks for understanding me."

"Oh, my pleasure," he said, smiling, and handed her the pants he'd
found. "Anyway. Can Tom and I come over tomorrow night? With the
recording of the nebula? And, can I come eat with you now?"

B'Elanna smiled back as she pulled on the pants. "I'd really....I'd
love that. All of that." She ran her fingers through her hair as Harry
pulled on his shirt; then, with her boots in one hand and Harry's hand
in the other, she left the Holodeck.

---

The End