REPEAT by Rocky
B'Elanna let herself into their quarters, smiling in anticipation.
After weeks of working conflicting shifts, she and her husband
would finally have an evening free to spend together. Miral should
be long since asleep for the night, and there were no slipstream
problems, no aggressive aliens or interstellar conflicts, no extra
Sickbay shifts--she smiled again as she wondered just what Tom
would have come up with. A new holodeck scenario, perhaps, or
maybe they'd just spend the time in their cabin...
Reality hit when she rounded the corner and saw him sprawled on
the couch watching television, a bowl of popcorn precariously
balanced on his T-shirt clad abdomen.
"Tom!"
"Geez, you startled me," he said reproachfully, and
attempted to stuff some of the fluffy white kernels back into
the bowl. He picked up the beer can from the coffee table, shook
it to assure himself there was still some left, and took a long
pull. He glanced over to where she stood in the doorway, her arms
folded across her chest. "What?"
"What? You have the nerve to ask me what? This is the first
time in *weeks* we've both been off duty at the same time and
I come back to find you watching television!"
"Well, what's wrong with that?" he asked defensively.
"We hadn't made any plans--in fact, I thought you'd be pretty
tired after all those double shifts in engineering, that you'd
appreciate the chance to just kick back and relax for a change."
She shook her head. "Now why do I get the feeling that this
is what you'd be doing even if I was still on duty?"
Tom smiled, and patted the couch next to him. "Harry isn't
as much fun to snuggle with, and Miral likes to hog the remote
control." He looked at her expectantly. "Come on, Be,
does everything have to be a big production? When's the last time
we had the chance to spend some free time together?"
"It's been too long," she conceded, "But still,
this isn't exactly what I had in mind..." She gave up and
sat down next to him. "What're you watching?"
He flashed her a grin. "Star Journey: Adventure."
B'Elanna sat bolt upright, dislodging his arm. "You're kidding.
That awful tripe?"
"Hey!" he protested. "What's wrong with it?"
"Correct me if I'm wrong," she said, "But didn't
you swear after the last episode that you were never going to
watch it again? Didn't you say that the show's creators had totally
negated and contradicted everything they'd been striving for in
the early shows and had gone off in a completely implausible direction?"
He waved her protests away. "That was before. Now the show's
been taken over by new management, whose stated goal was to restore
things to the same high level they were before."
B'Elanna tried, and failed, to suppress a snort. "But this
is still television we're talking about, right?"
"Shh! It's starting!"
"Of course," B'Elanna said, the barest trace of sarcasm
in her voice, "You don't want to miss a minute of the continuing
adventures of the intrepid woman captain, her most deadly adversary
now turned loyal supporter, the dashing young pilot eager to prove
himself..."
"...and the feisty yet brilliant engineer who manages to
come up with a new technological marvel each and every week,"
said Tom, his eyes on the screen. Then, "Oh, rats."
"What's the matter?"
"It's a repeat," Tom said, disappointment evident in
his voice. "After all that, it's one we've already seen."
"Oh, well," B'Elanna said, "Isn't that just too
bad? But what can you do?" She mentally held her breath.
Tom was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
He looked over at his wife. "I don't suppose you'd like to
watch it anyway? This one was pretty good, about the time the
captain and the pilot de-evolved into..." He ducked to avoid
the barrage of couch pillows. "I was kidding! Honest, B'Elanna,
I was only kidding!"
Next:
Ripples in TimeWhen things become routine...