Title: Black Eyes, Blue Tears 2/2 Author: Amiroq. the KiTfox (of the Wolves) Email: fitchett@netaccess.co.nz Size: 11K Rating: NR Codes: Angst, Rape, Violence, Other Summary: B'Elanna and Chakotay's relationship is put to the test when an old acquaintance restarts old games. Set sometime early second season. Disclaimers first part Kathryn sighed, pressing her thumb and forefinger into her temples. She'd been sitting in her readyroom for two hours without moving now, and she was getting bedsores. She shifted uncomfortably, and opened the new crew timetable Chakotay had sent to her. Or tried to. Instead, she found she'd slipped and opened the file beneath - replicator records. About to close it, she paused. That was odd. A couple of lines were blank - that meant someone was trying not to let her see what it was they were replicating. She frowned, and performed a diagnostic on one. It was from Deck 9, Section 12, Corridor 93, and those particular quarters - B'Elanna's? Certainly she had the skill to cover her tracks like that. She tried a few more things, and just as she was about to give up, the results appeared on the screen. She read it carefully - once, twice. A third time, just to make sure. Then she tapped her commbadge. "Janeway to Chakotay." --- "What did you think you were doing?" Chakotay demanded. "No wonder you've been acting so strangely. Don't you *know* those are addictive?" B'Elanna didn't even bother looking at him, instead glaring out the window, sulking. "How long?" "*Once*." "Don't expect me to believe that. You replicated well over a hundred doses, B'Elanna." "I only did it once." "So what happened to the rest?" Her glare grew a little more intense, and she tore her gaze away from the stars to the green-brown velvet of the couch. "I can't say." He sat down next to her. "Look, B'El, the tests all came back positive. I only want to help--" "Then mind your own fucking business! I'm not a child." "But you need help. You can't shake this by yourself." "There's nothing to shake! I'm not addicted." "Please, B'El, just--" "Don't call me that." "Fine. Can't you just admit you have a problem?" "I *don't have* a problem." "We checked the records. These.. things have been being replicated almost since we arrived in the Delta Quadrant. You have a problem." "You can't prove it was me replicating them." "The last three were. It stands to reason the rest were as well." "They weren't." The doorchime cut off any arguements he might have had, and he sighed. "I'll see you later." As he left, Harry entered. "I've been hearing the strangest things about you, Torres," he said, and she could hear what he didn't - are they true? "The drugs?" "So it's true." "No. Everyone's jumping to conclusions, that's all. It looks bad, I know, but none of it's true." He sat down next to her and tried to catch her eye. "What happened?" She shook her head slowly. "I can't explain. Just.. you have to believe me, Harry. I tried them, once. And then it showed up in all the blood tests and everyone thinks I've been doing them for years. It's not true." "Why can't you explain?" "I just can't!" He didn't answer for a moment, thinking about that. "You were getting them for someone else?" Now it was her turn not to say anything, which he took for a yes. "Obviously you wouldn't just for the fun of it, right? So that means you were being threatened. Right so far?" No answer. "Okay, so someone *else* has been getting them the hard way all this time. Which means if I work at the records hard enough, I won't have to sit here naming everyone on the ship until I get it right. Sound good?" She nodded slightly. "Didn't Chakotay even *try* thinking of alternatives?" "No." "I'll find out who it was. I promise." He stood up, and was almost at the door when she said something. "What?" He half-turned. "Nothing." He looked at her a moment, trying to work out if she was telling the truth, then left. She growled at herself. //You're so *stupid*!// she thought. //God, why didn't you say it again? It's Mack Daamen. *Mack Daamen*. It's not that hard!// But now he was gone, and she knew that if she had been able to say it a second time, she wouldn't be able to chase after him. --- Deck 15, section 7, corridor 102. Malfunction in empty crew quarters causing trouble for the power all over the ship. You found the strangest things while working in Engineering. It didn't take long for B'Elanna to locate the problem and adjust the relays to fix it - ten, fifteen minutes, max. She was packing up her toolbox when the door opened. She froze, *feeling* the breathing of the person, *feeling* footfalls walking toward her. Only one person walked like that. The familiar feeling of dread spread into her gut, like putting rocks into a bag, making it heavier bit by bit by bit until she felt she couldn't stand it anymore because her arms would fall off if another single stone were put in - or she would have a nervous breakdown. But now he was closer, perhaps only a few metres away, as his footfalls were the same volume, but she could hear them easier now, due to the shortened distance. She fought to unfreeze her muscles. Now. She spun as he came closer, ready with a punch to where his jaw would be, but her fist struck nothing but air. She looked side to side to down to up in one go, adrenalin qhickening her reactions, but there was no one there. There was no sound in the room. No other breathing, no other voice. She turned slowly, once, twice. No one. Had she really *imagined* that? Made herself believe that he was coming, that he was right behind her? It seemed hard to believe, but it was the only answer. "Computer where is Mack Daamen?" "Ensign Mack Daamen is on Deck 6, section 32." Just near the messhall. He couldn't have done it. She'd imagined it all. She sat down eternally slow, leaning heavily on the sofa which might have been dusty in another time and place. He was driving her crazy. She'd been done for drug abuse, and he was driving her crazy. --- Ten minutes later, the doors whooshed open - this time for real. She looked up, and automatically reeached for something heavy as he came closer. There was nothing in reach. --- Chakotay walked through the corridors of Deck 15 with confusion in his thoughts. According to Carey, it had been a full two hours since she'd come down to fix the power fluxes, and it so should not have taken that long to fix. Twenty minutes, maybe, even up to forty, but definitely no more than an hour. He found the quarters she'd been working in, and opened the door. There was no one in sight, so he entered and explored. The computer said she was here, but there was no answer. --- Harry had been working at the logs for a full seven hours straight when he finally hit on something that worked. He waited impatiently while the results came up, read them, saved them, and tried the same formula on some other blanked out records, and got the same results. He loaded them to a PADD, and stood up to go. --- The call to go to Sickbay came just after he'd left his quarters. He noted the tone of the Doctor's voice with worry - this was definitely unusual, but he was more concerned with getting these results to the Captain. Of course, the Doctor had said this most definitely could not wait, so really he had no choice. The Captain was in Sickbay anyway. She and Chakotay both looked up as he entered, but he could only look past them to the Doctor, pulling a sheet up over the form on the biobed. --- He was told later, in the Doctor's office, by Kathryn that it had been an overdose of trixodene, while Chakotay stood alone in main Sickbay next to the bed. He gave her his information, the proof he'd needed two hours ago when she'd still been alive to save, but it didn't seem to matter anymore whether or not Mack was caught. He'd done too much, gone too far. It didn't matter. FINIS