DISCLAIMER: Surprising enough Paramount/Viacom happens to own the rights to a groups of characters with the same names as I just happened to use here. Imagine that. The difference is that I'm not going to make a cent off this little story. No copyright infringement intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Caught Looking
By twk4258
"You look like you belong in that chair Starfleet," B'Elanna gently teased Harry Kim as she walked up beside him on the bridge. It was Gamma shift and the Ensign was getting in a little extra seat time at the Con as part of his ongoing training for promotion.
Surprised Harry quickly lifted his head from the padd that he had his nose buried in and turned to the Chief Engineer and then just as quickly assuming a mock serious look he half growled, "What the hell do you think you're doing on the bridge Maquis? This isn't some kind of playground you can just wander in and out of any time you want to."
B'Elanna smiled as she leaned over and gently swatted Harry on the arm and nodded in the general direction of Seven who had taken over her usual console from the crew member who was manning it. "Yea, yea, I know. Seven and I were just on our way home from the Captain's quarters, when she decided that she wanted to have a look at her console up here." Rolling her eyes at the conscientiousness of the woman who had been her lover for the last few months she continued, "Apparently there was some sluggishness in response times the last time she had to monitor things from up here on the bridge, and she decided that now was a good time to check it out."
Harry glanced up to where Seven's hands were already a blur running through a variety of diagnostics on the console while the crew member who normally run the console during Gamma shift had already given up trying to follow along and just looked back at Harry and shrugged his shoulders.
Harry turned back to his friend and gave her his best little smirk. "What's the matter Lieutenant? Can't keep her distracted from work?"
"Oh, I can distract her .." B'Elanna started.
"Excuse me Ensign Kim?" Jenkins interrupted from her place at the helm.
Harry turned to face Jenkins and gave her his best command glare, "Yes Jenkins?"
The pilot wrinkled her nose back at him to let him know that she wasn't really taking him all that seriously. "Permission to go .. powder my nose, Ensign Kim?" she asked.
"Yea, sure. Go ahead Jenkins," Harry replied as he turned to the crew member standing uselessly by Seven and gestured at him to cover the helm for a few moments.
The engineer standing by the Command chair casually watched as the helm officer got up out of her chair and they smiled and nodded at each other as she walked past B'Elanna on her way off the bridge.
'Nice,' thought B'Elanna as she turned to watch the gentle roll of Jenkins' hips as she was walking away. 'No where near as nice as my Bang'wi, but .. aesthetically pleasing. And almost as tall as My Heart without her heels. Funny how I would 'never' allow myself to look at another woman like this while I use to think of myself as a straight woman,' she thought as she turned to look over to where the blond former Borg drone was standing. To find one very pissed off Astrometrics Officer giving her a glare that caused her to pucker in all the wrong places.
It only took a few of her quick long lithe strides for the tall blond to reach the chief engineer, but by the time she did, B'Elanna was already back pedaling. Only to be brought up short by one of the few strategically placed grab rails running around the bridge.
"Just what do you think you were looking at 'B'Elanna Torres'?" hissed the angry blond in the half Klingon's ear.
A quick glance around the bridge told B'Elanna that she was on her own as not one of the other people on the bridge even dared glance their way. They all had their faces carefully averted in that way they have when they know someone was going to get a severe dressing down. Harry pretended to study his padd while his finger twitched nervously around the call button for security.
"Nothing really, I just thought she had some lint stuck on her .." the half Klingon started.
"Lint!?" the former Borg questioned dangerously.
"No, no, not lint. It wasn't lint at all. Ah, actually I was just noticing what a nice .. walk she had," B'Elanna answered truthfully hoping to get off lightly.
"A nice walk?" Seven asked with ever increasing volume. "And did you notice all the nice muscle that created the nice walk? Hmmm? Perhaps you were comparing her 'walk' with my 'walk'."
"No, no!" the engineer started hoping to explain. "Your walk is so much nicer. It's just that I never use to let myself really look at a woman and..."
"Oohhh! So now that you are in a committed relation with me, you are going to start looking at other women? Is that what you're trying to tell me? IS IT?"
Her attitude changing almost a full hundred and eighty degrees Seven choked back a sob as she started to turn away from B'Elana. "Or maybe.. maybe you're just looking for someone younger."
"No, no sweetie. You're the only one I want. Looking at Jenkins just made me think of you honey." the half Klingon said as she quickly recognized the insecurity of her lover and gently turned the quietly sobbing former drone and took her in her arms. "You are my Heart, my Benal. My very life even."
"Really?" Seven choked out as she really looked into the warm loving gaze of her mate for the first time since they came onto the Bridge.
"Really," B'Elanna said as reached up with one hand to gently caress the tall Borg's face and then place a gentle kiss upon her lips.
The normally quiet little whoosh of the door as Jenkins returned to the bridge caused more than a couple of the bridge crew to flinch. The gamma shift helm officer hesitated briefly as she noticed the now very strained atmosphere on the command deck before she continued on to her position, stepping very carefully around the spot where Seven was now in the comforting embrace of her half Klingon love.
Reaching the helm the returning pilot lightly tapped her short term replacement on the shoulder telling him, "I got it."
Hearing the helm officer's brief utterance, Seven glanced over briefly before returning her gaze to her tenderly smiling lover. Just as quickly she looked back over at Jenkins suddenly curious.
"Merala?" the former Borg queried.
"Yes ma am," the pilot replied surprised as she spun to face Seven.
The chief engineer's look quickly changing from one of gentle comforting love to surprise, quietly echoed, "Merala? You know her by her first name?"
Glancing only very briefly at her mate, Seven continued her conversation with the gamma shift pilot, "Have you been making adjustments to your fitness routine lately?"
"Uh, yes I have Seven," Jenkins replied nervously.
"Then they are working admirably. Your glutei have a noticeable increase in the quality of their tonus," remarked the former Borg.
Laughing slightly nervously the helm officer replied, "Actually that's kind of funny. You see the name of the fitness holo one of my training partners found was 'Glutei of Duranium' and... so we've been working with it for a few rotations."
"Now hold on just a minute here," the feisty half Klingon started with growing anger as she turned Seven by the arm. "You've looked at Jenkin's ass enough to notice an 'increase in the quality of their tonus' and you were giving me a hard time for looking at it once?"
There was a brief moment when the realization of her faux pas crossed the tall blond's face, before she reverted to her most impassive Borg expression.
"I believe it is time that we returned to our quarters, Bang'wi," the tall blond stated as she turned and started for the exit.
"Don't start trying to sweet talk me now little Miss Barbie Borg," B'Elanna acidly replied as she grabbed Seven by the arm and tried to slow her progress toward the exit. "And you called her by her first name! How could you!? You never started calling me by my first name until after we were half naked and.."
The rest of the argument was mercifully cut off as the exit whooshed shut. Around the bridge there was an exchange of meaningful glances and brief comments as everyone there tried to refocus on their tasks.
Harry finally turned his gaze from the exit and with a shudder he met Jenkins' look.
"Ah, Jenkins?"
"Yes, Ensign Kim?" the pilot replied.
"If those two are ever on the bridge again while you're here," Harry started.
"I won't even turn around," Jenkins acknowledged.
"Thank you," Harry answered.
"Maybe I could set up a privacy screen like they have in sickbay," she added.
"Great idea. I doubt that anybody else here would think we were being silly," Harry concluded sincerely.
The End
Author's Notes: This is the Jenkins I'm referring to: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:Jenkins.jpg
I forget exactly why I was digging through the crew lists on the web site but I remember seeing the picture of Jenkins and thinking, 'She could cause trouble.' A quick check at the Internet Movie Database indicates that Mckenzie Kate Westmore is roughly the same height as Jeri Ryan and a little over nine years younger. This fic quickly followed. I hope you enjoyed. Oh yea. I just pulled a first name out of the hat for Jenkins. I don't think she ever rated a first name in the Series.
In the episode Warhead, she sat at the helm while Harry played Captain.
A big thank you to the folks running memory-alpha.org for taking the time and effort to make this kind of data available.