The BLTS Archive- I Can't Make You Love Me by T'Reija (Theganan@gmx.de) --- Archive: May be sent to ASCEML and BLTS and archived at R'Rain's and the ASC/EM Archive, all others ask first. Please archive this revised version. Thanks. Disclaimer: B'Ela and Kathy and the rest of Voyager belong to Paramount, a Viacom company. "I Can't Make You Love Me" is sung by George Michael, it's a wonderful, slow, and (IMHO) very moving song I listen to when *I'm* feeling down. If my research was correct this time, it was originally written by M.Reid/A.Shamblin The creative content is mine, and creative it is (in the sense of, um, "stretching" canon ). I also own the original character "Lyla", who will have more appearance in the sequel. Note: The person I write this for will probably never read it. It is a person I felt very much for, I still care very much about, a person I don't even really exist for, so B'Ela's kinda luckier than me . I guess you all know love doesn't always have a happy ending, especially in RL. It is also for another person I hardly know (yet?). If one of you ever finds the instructions for love, please tell me. November 1998, Revised in January 1999 --- Piano starts playing, we see B'Elanna in her quarters --- //turn down the light turn down the bed turn down these voices inside my head lay down with me tell me no lies just hold me close don't patronise don't patronise// --- I love her. I've known for some time that I care for her very much, although I didn't know it was love. But that's just what it is, it must be. I've never felt this way before, not this strongly. I can't name a special event or time when it started, probably shortly after we came here, to the Delta Quadrant. We see each other every day, and every time part of me wants to tell her, wants to take this chance. --- //'cause I can't make you love me if you don't you can't make you're heart feel something that it won't here in the dark in these final hours I will lay down my heart and I feel the power but you won't, no you won't// --- Chance? Now where did that come from? There's no chance she could return these feelings I have for her, not in a million years. Why is it then that I can't forget? Can't come over it? It's not as if there aren't others. I've been flirting with Tom for quite a while now, and he's a good man. I know he cares for me; we both like each other, as friends. Why can't I love him the way I love her? Then there's Lyla, from Astrophysics. We first really saw each other in Sandrine's; she was there alone, and so was I, and we smiled at each other across a room full of people. Nothing more, for then. Suddenly, we seemed to cross ways more often, every time we smiled and walked on. Until we met again today, only short, in the 'turbo, I started talking to her, and she to me. Lyla had this sparkle in her eyes, could it be that she was flirting with me? I don't know much about her, but the first impression is good, and I have this... this tingle inside me, as I only feel with one other person... --- //'cause I can't make you love me... if you don't I'll close my eyes then I won't see the love you do not feel when you're holding me mornin' will come and I'll do what's right just give me till then to give up this fight and I will give up this fight// --- ... Kathryn, my sweet Kathryn. Did I say this out loud? Who cares, after all, I *am* in my quarters, and she won't hear me. Yes, these feelings I have, they're so strong, so painful. I know she doesn't love me. When I look into her eyes, I see friendship, maybe even a different kind of love. Like... I don't know, like sisters perhaps. --- //and I can't make you love me if you don't you can't make you're heart feel something that it won't here in the dark in these final hours I will lay down my heart and I feel the power but you won't, no you won't and I can't make you love me if you don't// --- Over the past years, we've formed a friendship. We visit each other's quarters, we share pain and give comfort. And now... now she's still here, with me. She fell asleep, and she looked so... so peaceful, more so than she has in days, so I couldn't wake her up. I know of her pain, the more time we spend together, the more pain she has. I had held her in my arms, and it had seemed so *good*, so *right*, now, however, I'm feeling guilty. No, I can't go on like this. Pretend to be her friend and secretly want so much more, much more than she is willing or able to give. --- //Without love All my tears, all these years everything I believed in// --- I will end this. If I tell her, maybe I can move on, and maybe we can still be friends. Perhaps I can even help her with her relationship with Chakotay. She deserves to be happy, and if I can't give her this happiness, I know Chakotay will. And he's one of my dearest friends, it won't hurt so much giving her away to him. Because she was never mine to have. But then, maybe I shouldn't tell her. Our friendship, it's just too important to me. Whatever I do, it will be hard, but in the end, it's for the best. I know that, and it makes it easier. Somehow, I hope Lyla and I will meet again. --- //Someone's gonna love me...// --- The End