The BLTS Archive - Tangled Web: The Good
by Yvette (yvette@ecn.net.au)

---

Harry paced outside Sickbay for what seemed like hours, until
Chakotay finally emerged.

The First Officer looked furious.

"Are you and Tuvok satisfied, now, Ensign? Another ten minutes and
Tom might have bled to death on the floor of his bathroom."

Harry blanched at the curt comment. It was Tuvok who spoke up in
their defense.

"Commander - it is neither Ensign Kim's fault or my own that
Lieutenant Paris chose this attention-seeking ploy. It is unfair to
place the blame on anyone's shoulders but the Lieutenant's."

Chakotay gave Tuvok a looked that would have felled a lesser person.
Tuvok took it in his stride.

"And just what were you and Ensign Kim doing while Tom was cutting
his wrists?" He knew the answer. When Chakotay had found Tom on the
floor of his bathroom and had him beamed to sickbay, his first
thought had been to track down Tom's best friend. The computer had
given Harry's location as Tuvok's quarters, and the amount of time
it had taken for Tuvok to answer the door would have been indication
enough of what was going on, even if Chakotay hadn't seen Harry
hurriedly dressing in the background.

It was Tuvok's turn to look annoyed at the intrusive question. Harry
ignored them both as he looked in through the sickbay doors to where
the Doctor was talking to Tom.

"Commander - neither Ensign Kim or myself are responsible for
Lieutenant Paris' actions. I do not believe our actions this evening
are anyone's business but our own."

Chakotay was having none of it.

"I've spoken to Tom, Tuvok. He says you and he were in a relationship
and you dumped him for Harry. His best friend. Then you threw him out
of your quarters tonight so that you and Harry could get together!"
Chakotay's feelings for Tom Paris were long-standing, and he could
barely stand to look at the man who had had Tom Paris, but cast him
aside.

Tuvok took a deep breath, calling on years of training to quell the
temper he could feel building inside of him.

"Commander - Mr. Paris and I concluded our relationship yesterday
evening. He knew all along that I meant to bond with Harry, in fact
he offered himself to *me*. It was a relationship of convenience. ."
at which point Chakotay launched himself at Tuvok and the rest of
the sentence was lost.

"Oh, Christ!" Harry tried to get the two men apart - Tuvok was giving
as good as he was getting, though - finally pissed off beyond normal
Vulcan controls. And Chakotay in a fury wasn't easy to pull off, but
somehow, Harry managed to separate them. Until a left hook Chakotay
meant for Tuvok caught him on the chin and he sank to the floor,
unconscious.

---

Captain Janeway stood at the entrance to sickbay and surveyed the
scene. Tom lay on the first bed, pale, but showing no other signs of
the suicide attempt that had put him here. Harry was sitting on the
next bed, his concussion and bruising having been treated by the
Doctor. Chakotay was being treated by the Doctor on the third bed,
and Tuvok was being treated by Kes on the bed nearest the door.

The Captain did nothing more for the first few minutes other than
stare disgustedly at each of the combatants who all failed to meet
her eyes. When she had gotten their attention, she said,
"Commander Chakotay, Lieutenant Tuvok. You will both prepare a
complete written report of this entire incident and have it sent to
my computer by 0800 hours. Consider yourselves suspended from duty
for a period of one week. Commander - you will see that each and
every engineering system onboard this ship is overhauled and I don't
care if you work twenty-four hours a day to do it. Mr. Tuvok - you
will spend your week assessing every crewmember aside from the Bridge
crew for physical fitness. You will prepare fitness programs and
nutritional diets for those who require them. And neither of you
will return to duty until you have completed those tasks. Is that
understood?"

Both men gave a subdued 'Yes, Captain'.

The Captain turned to Tom and Harry.

"Tom - you will attend mandatory counselling with the Doctor for the
next three months. We will then review the situation. As we are
currently short-staffed on the Bridge, you and Harry will both do an
extra shift until further notice. Clear?"

Tom and Harry both nodded.

The Captain had one more instruction.

"And, gentlemen - none of you are to have any contact, whatsoever -
with each other for a period of one week. If I find out any of you
have so much as spoken with each other, I will punish you far more
severely than this. Understood? Right." And with that, the Captain
left.

---

The week's respite turned out to be a blessing for all concerned.
Chakotay took two weeks to finish the engineering overhaul, but the
solid work calmed him down quite a bit. His spare time - what there
was of it, was spent meditating. He had wanted to pursue a
relationship with Tom Paris for a long time, and much of his anger
had been due to the fact that Tom was sleeping with someone else,
than to Tuvok's perceived bad treatment of the Pilot. There was hope,
though. In the days following Chakotay's reprieve, he had spent some
very enjoyable hours in Tom's company, just eating dinner and
talking. He began to understand what it was that had drawn Tom to
Tuvok, and hoped to show Tom that there was more to a relationship
than security.

Tom attended the counselling reluctantly, but it turned out to be
quite beneficial. He still felt a twinge of envy when he thought of
Harry and Tuvok together, but for the first time in a long while, Tom
felt attracted to someone else. Whether Chakotay could replace Tuvok
was another question altogether, but at least he felt like finding
out.

Tuvok took twelve days to complete the physical evaluations of the
crew, and that was working virtually around the clock. He had no time
to ponder his relationship with Harry, and ended his time in
purgatory wanting nothing more than to spend some quiet time curled
up on the couch with Harry. His self-confidence had taken an enormous
battering, and he would be going into this relationship a lot less
self-assurance than he had before.

And Harry? Harry repaired his friendship with Tom, but made it clear
that he and Tuvok would be getting together. And Tom seemed to accept
that for now. Harry had had a major scare seeing Tom bleeding on the
bathroom floor, and he would be doubly careful about all of his
relationships from now on - friendship and otherwise.

And every day he fell a little further in love with Tuvok. And that
wasn't a bad thing at all.

---

The End