Disclaimer: The ideas are mine the charaters and
locations aren't... I asked but Paramount wouldn't give them.
Life hates me...we've been over this before.
But it gets worse. B`Elanna dumped me. On Chakotay's advice. Like I said, life
got those two in one shot. He's her friend and the unofficial ship's counselor.
So instead of just telling me she wasn't happy with our relationship, she went
to him and told him every problem we'd ever had, with an interesting spin. In
her explanations, everything was my fault. So now he's furious with me for
making her unhappy. Which I had no idea she was because she never told me. She
was going around, telling anyone who asked why we broke up what an awful guy I
am.
I was just waiting to get cornered by someone
and beaten to a pulp. I really had no idea she was unhappy, sometimes she'd
seem a little down or something, and I'd ask about it. But she always just
waved it off as nothing. So suddenly I was the bad guy.
But then everything changed. Harry came over
one night, I'd been avoiding him. He was B`Elanna's friend too, I was sure he
would have heard her tales of woe long ago. He asked why I hadn't been around
lately. I gave him one of those looks and told him. "I'd like to live
Harry."
He just gave me one of those looks, not like
my looks. His say "Tom, what am I going to do with you?" while mine
say "Are you out of your mind?"
He reached out and cupped my chin in his
hand, forcing me to look up into his eyes instead of staring at the arm of the
couch. Then he bent and suddenly he was kissing me. When he drew back, I
blinked in shock. "Come on Tom, we're going out." He said, so I
followed him out the door to Sandrine's.
People were glaring at me, but no one would
try anything with Harry at my side. B`Elanna was there with Chakotay, playing
protective big brother figure. She came after me with her sob stories of what
an awful guy I was. It went on for a while, then Harry rose from his seat on
the barstool beside mine, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his
chin on my shoulder.
"Lay off Torres." He said, loud
enough for those less than subtly eavesdropping, to hear. "We all know
everything that happened in your relationship was as much, if not more your
fault than his. You might have convinced everyone else but we know better so go
tell your sob story to some fool who will believe it." With that, he
pressed a kiss to my cheek. The room was oddly silent. B`Elanna spluttered,
Chakotay had gone white at the last statement, which had so obviously been
aimed at him.
There were murmurs now. Through out all this
Harry, had stayed quiet, never defending me or supporting B`Elanna, until
today. Today he had sided with me. And everyone knew Harry never lied and
always was on the right side. And he was on my side. "Come on." He
murmured. "Let's go back to your quarters." I nodded and allowed him
to lead me out of the holodeck.
Life hates me, that is quite clear. But life also happens to love Harry. It never denies him anything he wants unless in the long run, it'll make him unhappy. And he wants me, I hope it's forever. As long as I'm with him, life can't touch me, not without upsetting him anyway. I suspect there'll be a few incidents but it doesn't matter. Harry says he loves me, that's all I could ever really want. I could die tomorrow a happy man, except I know how miserable it would make him. So I know I won't die tomorrow. Life won't let Harry be miserable.