by Aeryn
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Archive: PKSP, All others ask first.

Warnings: If you are offended by male/male relationships, you likely are on the wrong list! :) But anyway, if you are uncomfortable in any way by reading such, then please make use of the always wonderful Delete Key. Otherwise, enjoy!

Disclaimers: Paramount/Viacom owns the rights. I merely give them room to play.

Parts: 1/? (I'm still working on this one. I'm not sure how many parts it will have yet. So please bear with me.)

Feedback: PLEASE DO!!! I love feedback! Even Constructive Commenting. . . how I can make my work better. . . is welcome! :)

--- Present Day - Outside Voyager

Queasy. That was how he felt right about now. But zero-G operations always made him feel that way. He was good at them, which was why he was here, but that did not mean he liked them. In fact, he hated them.

"Almost got it, Captain." He called to the bridge through the tiny speaker in the helmet of his suit. "Have Tuvok try now."

"One moment, Mr. Kim." Janeway's voice came back almost instantly, sounding tinny through the small speaker.

"Acknowledged."

He waited. Nothing. Five minutes. Nothing.

"Captain?" He started to ask for the test again, but was cut off by the energy. It twisted up his legs and up until it had encompassed his entire form. It was blue and silver tendrils curling and twisting about themselves. Coiling and uncoiling in silent thunder. A thunder that only existed for Harry Kim.

He tried to call to Janeway again. Then to Torres because she was Engineering and monitoring from her board. Nothing. Then to just anyone who might hear. Nothing still.

The blue and silver tendrils now owned him. He could feel their energy twisting through his internal makeup. It was. . . warm and embracing in a strange way. Fear vanished. Resistance melted under the warm embrace of the Blue-Silver. He closed his eyes and let his body fall slack.

--- Sometime in the Future

Silence.

The silent thunder in his mind had ceased. There was no sound at all. Not surprising since he was outside the ship. . . and sound did not travel through vacuum. But he should at least have been able to hear his own breathing. What had happened? Where was he?

The fear began again. It twisted through his mind as the tendrils had before it. But it screamed in the tones of his own voice rather than the thunder of silence the Blue-Silver had spoken in. He tried to move, to pull himself together. To touch the hull of the ship, the panel beneath the hull plating that he had been working on.

Nothing.

Harry froze. Nothing moved. His eyes snapped open. Mistake.

The harsh light of SickBay assaulted his eyes. Then the sounds began. Hearing returned. The Doctor was making a report to someone. Instruments were whirring and humming around him. And then feeling. . . the bed beneath him. But somehow, that was wrong. It did not feel right. What. . .?

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but he was silenced by a gentle hand on his arm. An arm that was restrained beneath the half-dome of the Surgical Scanner. He blinked, then followed the arm up until he was staring at its owner.

He started to speak again, but the expression in those eyes made him stop. Relief. A relief so intense that it implied far more than just Harry being unconscious. What indeed had happened? And the head that the face belonged to. . . was much older. What hair was left had gone gray. What the. . .!?

Harry turned his hand over and grasped hold of the hand on his arm. His eyes locked with the other's. His voice came out soft, hoarse.

"Tom. . . what. . .?" he tried.

Tom squeezed his hand and leaned over, kissing him softly but with intense feeling. "Sshh. . . Harry, it's ok now. Doc says you'll be ok." Harry could hear the choked quality in his Love's voice. Somehow he had to ease that expression of pain barely healing. . . somehow. . .

--- Present Day - Voyager's Bridge

Tom Paris froze. His hands ceased their dancing over the Navigation Board. His body went rigid. His eyes locked on first the ViewScreen where Harry's work was being watched by the bridge crew, then on Tuvok. Not that he hoped to receive sympathy from the Vulcan Tactical officer, but what he did hope for was. . . denial.

Janeway also turned. "Tuvok, what exactly was that?" she demanded.

Tuvok glanced to his board as his hands flew over its controls. His eyes then came back up to meet Janeway's. His voice held the same lack of emotion as it always did.

"Unknown, Captain. It bears striking resemblances to Temporal phenomena experienced by this crew before. But there are differences." he informed them.

Tom had to know. Had to know whether Harry was lost to him forever, or only for a Time. "Differences? Like what, Tuvok?" Not that Tom was the expert on Temporal Phenomena, but. . .

Tuvok's dark eyes shifted to him. They remained impassive as did his voice.

"The differences, Mr. Paris, are in the nature of the emissions that seem to have caused this particular anomaly. They do not match any of those previously encountered by StarFleet."

The rest of the bridge crew exchanged glances. Then Torres spoke up. "All right, then what did cause it?" She was, as usual, failing to be impressed by Tuvok's distinctly Vulcan riddle-speech.

Tuvok, unruffled by her barb, flicked his eyes to her to acknowledge that she spoke, then flicked them back to the Captain. "The phenomenon appears to have been. . . localized and completely random simultaneously." he explained. At the looks of confusion, he continued. "It is random in that the typical things which precede a Temporal Anomaly were distinctly lacking in this one. It came, as you Humans would put it, out of the clear blue." He tapped a few more keys, displaying the thing again on the forward ViewScreen. "It was focused in that it centered solely around Mr. Kim. . . as though it were seeking him out."

Blink. That was the reaction of the entire bridge crew. A completely unknown Temporal Phenomenon that was looking for one of them? Now that made about as much sense to Tom as screen doors on a StarShip's airlocks! But at the same time, it struck him to the core.

Whatever this thing was, it had purposely sought out Harry and taken him from Tom. And to where? The past? The future? Was there even a way to know? And if the past, then he was indeed lost to Tom! His mind protested that. It simply was not. The future? That he could live with, even if he would not enjoy that living without Harry. At least, if it was the future, he had the hope that Harry would one day come back into his life and his arms. He looked to Janeway who seemed sympathetic. Then to Tuvok.

"Tuvok, can you tell where it took him?" he asked, hearing the catch in his voice and knowing that Tuvok would not miss it. The only comfort there was that, being Vulcan, Tuvok would not mention it.

True to form, Tuvok ignored Tom's emotionalism and glanced to his panel once more. His hands flew gracefully, but precicely, over the board. After a few more moments, he looked back up.

"I believe, Captain, that Mr. Kim has moved forward in time. To where, I cannot tell."

Relief! At least, he would see Harry again! Tom sagged back in his Nav Chair and closed his eyes for a second. Janeway said nothing. She understood, he was sure. Time was all that stood between him and his love. But how much time? Did it matter?

Of course it did not matter. Harry had promised himself to Tom, and Harry would never forget such a promise. Time would come around again. He would just have to wait. And wait he would. Forever if need be. Forever. . .

--- Future - Voyager SickBay

"What!?" Harry sat bolt upright on the BioBed. "I-I don't believe it! FIFTY years!?" Then it hit him. "Wait, fifty years; and we're still stuck out here?" he asked. His ire had lost some of it's steam. Tom had remained by his side through the whole thing. Now, he sat behind him on the bed and wrapped his arms around his long-lost love.

Chakotay and the Doctor exchanged looks. Then Chakotay stepped closer, his dark eyes warm and kind. Understanding played in their depths. It also showed in his voice.

"No, Harry. We're not lost. We made it back a few years after you vanished. But StarFleet has new friends and new Technology. We're back here to explore in the true nature of the 'Fleet."

"That and I couldn't leave you here, Har." Tom intoned softly in his right ear. His voice was a mere whisper. He could not trust himself to speak aloud. He was sure he would lose hold of his voice and weep with the sheer joy of seeing his Harry returned safely to them! Even the Doctor smiled at this. That was new. Harry wondered what had happened to this crew in his absence. But most of all, he wanted to know the man Tom had become. He leaned back against Tom, taking comfort in the strength and warmth of his embrace. He was finally
home. . .


Three hours later Tom sat back against the couch, watching Harry examine the items in the Quarters that had once belonged to both of them. Some of the items had changed as Tom acquired new things. . . both for himself and in preparation for Harry's eventual return.

He loved to watch Harry move. He was lithe and strong. His lean frame was well-honed and moved with a grace that was simply. . . inhuman. It excited Tom just to sit and watch the movement of toned muscle move beneath the fabric of Harry's clothing.

"Tom," Harry began, moving over to the couch and curling himself up next to his Love, "what happened after I disappeared? I mean to the crew? To you?"

He felt the need to specify that further. While he cared for the rest of the crew, this man was the most important to Harry. He was the one who was likely hurt the worst by his vanishing. Healing would be. . . difficult.

Tom thought about that for a moment. What would Harry say of what Tom had become? He had done things which he knew that Harry would not have liked in his obsessive search for retrieval. He had tried things which he would not normally have even conceived of in his search to bring Harry back. But would Harry understand this? Or would he turn away? There was only one way to know, but still Tom feared.

He took a deep breath and forged ahead before he could lose his nerve. "Well, when you vanished, Tuvok couldn't tell us any more than that you had been moved through Time. . . forward. We couldn't even track where that anomaly let out. I-" He hesitated.

"What, Tom?" Harry prodded gently, his dark eyes coming up to meet Tom's light ones. "What are you afraid to tell me?"

Tom took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He could never keep anything from Harry. He had never been able to.

"I had to find you. Had to bring you back. You have to understand, Harry, you were the only thing keeping me sane. And then. . . then. . . then you were gone. I had to get you back."

His words were all coming in a rush. He could not stop them or slow them down. Until Harry set one finger against his lips. His voice was soft, gentle, understanding.

"Tom, it's ok. I understand." He empathized.

"No, Harry, you don't. I took the Flyer out. . . Janeway told me not to, but I did it anyway. I needed to be sure. I searched ten systems before I was forced to give up the search. I spent several weeks in the brig for that one, but I didn't care. It didn't matter without you."

Harry watched him silently. He knew that was not all. There was more that Tom was not telling. Much more. But that could come later. Harry did not care what he had done. He loved him. And after all, wasn't it romantic for one to risk everything for his Love?

Harry caught Tom behind the neck and pulled him down. His lips met Tom's in a kiss filled with passion and fire. A kiss that captured Infinity and caged it into a single Second. Time froze. The kiss became much, much more. . .

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End