The BLTS Archive - Privilege
by monkee (wiecek@earthlink.net)

---

Paramount owns Star Trek Voyager and all its characters,
but keeps forgetting to put in the scenes where we can tell they're
all friends...

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B'Elanna steeled herself with a deep breath, then stepped forward and
entered the Captain's Ready Room. She was fairly sure she knew why
she'd been called here.

Janeway was standing at her viewport, looking out at the planet below.
Her arms were folded across her chest. She turned around and B'Elanna
could see that she was very close to actually drumming her fingers on
her arms. This was not good.

"One to 'ascend to the heavens' ?" she asked archly, scowling.

B'Elanna was ready for this. She'd rehearsed this speech in the
turbolift. Her explanation tumbled out too fast, though, making her
feel like a first year cadet.

"I know what you're thinking. But really, I figured that letting them
believe that I just might be an 'eternal' was better than anything
else I might do. I mean, they'd already seen the Delta Flyer -- they
weren't going to buy that I came from 'up north' or anything." She had
to stop for a moment to breathe. Janeway hadn't moved a muscle. Oh
dear. "Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have beamed out right in front of
them like that, but...but it was really perfect for the play. And
besides, I did what I thought was right under the circumstances, and
you have to just trust my judgement sometimes..." She winced, knowing
that was probably not a good thing to say. "Right?" she added, weakly.

She waited for the reprimand that she knew was coming, but it didn't
come. Janeway remained motionless for several moments, just staring
rather blankly at her. Then she sighed, shrugged her shoulders
slightly, and sat down on her couch.

"All right," she said.

B'Elanna's mouth opened, but she couldn't think of anything to say
right away. She blinked and shook her head slightly. Had she stumbled
into some kind of alternate universe?

"All right?" she finally managed to sputter. "What do you mean, 'All
right?' I broke the prime directive! Are YOU all right? I mean,
shouldn't I be in a lot of trouble?"

"Technically, I suppose you should," Janeway replied. She sounded
tired. "But if you stop to think about it..." She sighed again,
resigned. "Your infraction was just a drop in the bucket, really. I
think Starfleet will barely notice one little 'impersonating a deity'
incident in the midst of all of MY prime directive violations, "she
snorted, softly.  "I'm sure you did what you felt was right," she
continued.  "I'm just glad you and Harry are both okay. We've all been
worried about you."

B'Elanna stood for a moment, stunned, then made a conscious decision
to close her mouth. She shook her head, confused.

Janeway laughed, then gestured to the coffee service on the table in
front of her. "Coffee?" she asked.

Numbly, B'Elanna sat down on the couch. This certainly wasn't going
the way she'd expected. "Sure, I'll have coffee," she said.

Smiling, Janeway scooted forward on the couch to pour her a cup. "So,"
she said, "I skimmed your report. Tell me about this play."

Finally accepting that she wasn't going to get busted down to Jr.
Lieutenant,  B'Elanna relaxed and leaned back into the couch.  "It
turned out really well, actually," she said. "It was interesting to
see actors play out our roles. They had a three-man chorus reading
your Captain's logs."

Janeway grinned. "I'll bet they sounded a whole lot more interesting
that way," she said.

B'Elanna nodded. "Seven didn't fare well in the play, though" she
said. "First she was a temptress, then she turned out to be the Borg
Queen, just waiting to betray you. But you were on to her. In the end,
you threw down your sword and let her go, telling her that you
wouldn't allow hatred to destroy both sides."

Janeway nodded her approval, then smirked. "A temptress?" she asked,
slyly.

"She kissed Tom," B'Elanna said, sourly.

Janeway made a face. "Ugh," she said.

"Oh, there was a lot of kissing in the original version of the play.
It was a bit much," B'Elanna replied.  She glanced sideways at her
Captain, considering, then bit her lip and decided to go through with
it.  "But you might have found the big Janeway/Chakotay love scene
interesting..."

B'Elanna noted with satisfaction that it was Janeway's turn to have
her jaw drop open.

"You're kidding," she said, staring at her in shock.

"Nope," B'Elanna replied. Her eyes lost their focus as she remembered.
"Janeway stepped up to Chakotay and said something like 'Why must I be
denied what every other female officer on this ship has?' and Chakotay
said, 'Captain?', and..." She paused. "You know, he really sounded
like Chakotay when he said that.  Anyway, then she looked right at him
and said...'The privilege of your touch.' Then she took the edge of
her mask and used it to slowly push his mask down to the side."
B'Elanna found herself acting the scene out to some degree.  "Then he
stepped towards her, and she tilted her head back, and he bent down,
and they both closed their eyes, and..."

She stopped, her face upturned, her eyes closed. Then she looked over
at Janeway, whose eyes were rather wide.  "You know," B'Elanna said,
surprised, "It was really...nice. It was romantic." And it was. With a
few snarls and bites, it would fit right into one of her Klingon
romance novels.

Janeway looked shell-shocked for a few moments, then seemed to shake
herself a bit. She let out an embarrassed sounding laugh, and forced a
smile.  "You can't be serious. The PRIVILEGE of your touch?" she said,
trying to make light of it.  "That's absurd."

"Well," B'Elanna admitted, "the dialog was a bit much, I suppose,
but..."

She was interrupted by the chime of the door. Startled, they both
jumped a little. Janeway blinked. "Come in," she called.

It was Chakotay, of course. B'Elanna tried to suppress a smile, with
only limited success.  Beside her, she heard Janeway take a deep
breath. She glanced quickly over at her and observed that her face was
a shade pinker than usual. It was subtle, and she wondered if Chakotay
would notice.

"Yes, Commander," Janeway said, with forced nonchalance.

Chakotay looked back and forth between them, his brow slightly
furrowed. He had clearly discerned something odd, but didn't comment
on it. Instead he quipped, "I just wanted to make sure you were both
in one piece. You've been in here for a while."

"Well," Janeway said, with a tight smile, "as you can see, we're
fine."

"Of course," Chakotay said, then straightened into a more professional
stance. "I also wanted to inform you, Captain, that I've set up a four
shift rotation for the next few days. I think everyone needs to catch
up on some rest. It's been a trying couple of weeks."

B'Elanna smiled at the obvious concern the crew had shown while she
and Harry were missing -- she was touched. She was also acutely aware
of how tightly strung Janeway was next to her. She noticed that
Janeway absolutely would not meet her gaze.

"Excellent idea, Commander," Janeway said. "Thank you."

It was a clear dismissal, but Chakotay didn't leave.  He cleared his
throat. "Actually, Captain," he said, "that means you, too. You didn't
get much more sleep than Tuvok did."

Janeway's discomfort was broken long enough for her to glare at her
First Officer.

"I can get the doctor to back me up," Chakotay warned.

"Oh, all right," Janeway sighed, still scowling. "As soon as B'Elanna
and I are finished here, I'll go." She began sipping her coffee
defiantly.

"Fair enough," Chakotay said, relenting. He grinned at B'Elanna.
"Make sure she leaves with you," he added.

B'Elanna glanced over at Janeway, who looked away quickly.  "It would
be my...privilege," she said, with a completely straight face.

To her credit, Janeway did manage to swallow the sip of coffee in her
mouth, but it must have gone down the wrong way. She began to cough
violently, and was soon doubled over on the couch. B'Elanna patted her
back, shrugging innocently at Chakotay.

"Captain?" he asked, concerned.  "Are you all right?"

Janeway didn't respond, so B'Elanna answered for her. "She's fine."
Still coughing with her face down on her lap, Janeway waved him away.

"I think that means you're dismissed," B'Elanna translated.

Shaking his head and eyeing them both suspiciously, Chakotay left.

Janeway pulled herself together after a few more minutes of coughing
and laughing. She looked pointedly at B'Elanna. "B'Elanna," she said,
in a warning tone, "I swear if you EVER tell him what you told me..."

B'Elanna's eyebrows shot up, and she grinned. That hadn't even
occurred to her! She'd love to see how Chakotay would react to the
information.

"B'Elanna..." Janeway said, ominously.

She sighed. "I know, I know," she said. "You'll bust me down to
Ensign."

"Oh no," Janeway said, shaking her head. "There are far worse things,
B'Elanna. I can ruin your life with one order. Remember that." She
smirked, then looked askance at her chief engineer.  "I've been
thinking," she said breezily, "that perhaps Seven isn't being
challenged enough in astrometrics. How would you feel about me
assigning her permanently to engineering?"

B'Elanna laughed and raised her hands in surrender. "All right, all
right," she said. "I won't mention that particular scene in my
report."

Smiling and stretching, Janeway put her coffee cup back on the table
and got up. B'Elanna joined her and they headed out the door. But as
they walked through the bridge towards the turbo-lift, and Chakotay's
eyes flashed affectionately at Janeway, she began to have a change of
heart.  She could almost understand why Janeway and Chakotay did not
want to complicate their professional relationship with a personal
one, but surely there was room in everyone's life for a LITTLE
romance. Surely they would both benefit from a little attraction, a
little awkwardness. It made life interesting. She couldn't believe she
was actually considering defying Janeway -- Tom must be rubbing off on
her -- but she really wanted to see the look on Chakotay's
face...Maybe she'd pay him a visit later, after all...

Besides, she was sure she could find something for Seven to do in the
engineering department if she had to. Perhaps she could assist Harren
on deck 15...

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The End