Look at me.

  He almost lost it at the expression of wonder on her face. Holding her gaze, his hand came up to her face. Tracing her the curve of her cheek, the line of her jaw, and the ridges on her forward. For the rest of his life, he would never forget how she looked now.

  Blue eyes widened with pleasure when she moved against him out of pure instinct. Once, then again, and again--trying to find something, she didn't know what. He grasped her hips and showed her what she was seeking. Showed her the power she had over him. She reveled in it, setting the pace with a boldness that belied her experience. She slowed, then quickened, then slowed once again. An agonized groan came from deep within him. He didn't have the control to let her play for very long. Not this time.

  In a swift fluid move, she was against the wall. Deeper he pressed. Harder he drove. A leg was guided around his waist, then the other. Another powerful stroke, as deep as he could get. The tempo increased.

  "Lucas, please," she begged.

  Together.

  One hand between them, to bring her with him. Teeth clenched as he held back for her. Fingers laced with the hand above her head. His lips pressed over the mark he had given her. It still bled; he sucked on it lightly, and then bit down again. She screamed his name when she climaxed. The force of it brought her hard against him. He pressed their joined hands into the wall and arched into her as far as he could go. The tremors deep inside her sent him over the edge. His release was pain and pleasure, violent and complete. He felt her. She felt him.

  More than lovers, more than friends, two hearts that beat as one...

  K'Leena felt him settle her on the bed and draw the blanket over them, as sleep took her. She was exhausted. Her head throbbed slightly. She knew they should talk but she couldn't stay awake. For the first time in almost a week she was safe and could sleep. With a sigh she moved closer to him. She never heard what he said when he pulled her into his arms and wrapped his body around hers.

  "My love...my life."

  Lucas lay awake long after, scared that if he fell asleep he would discover this was all a dream...again.

  *****

  K'Leena awoke with a scream and sat straight up in the bed, disorientated. Breathing heavily, she looked wildly around the darkened room. Where was she? A pair of strong arms engulfed her in a comforting embrace.

  "S'okay, 'Leena."

  "Lucas?"

  What was Lucas doing in her bed? Kahless, her head hurt. Why was everything so fuzzy? When he brought her down to lie next to him once again, she didn't resist. It felt so safe.

  "Shhhh..... go back to sleep. I'm here."

  Why did that make everything all right?

  *****

  B'Elanna stared with unseeing eyes at the stationary stars. The Enterprise was holding position to rendezvous with the Valiant. Ten Forward was almost empty. It was late.

  "Has there been any news?" A familiar voice asked.

  "No, nothing."

  "Come and sit with me." Seven placed a hand on her friend's arm. They had been through a lot over the years, but this seemed to be harder on B'Elanna than anything she could remember. She put her arm around the smaller woman's shoulders and led her to one of the sofas.

  Seven of Nine, the 'Borg Queen', as B'Elanna used to call her, held her friend as she sobbed. All the while fighting the tears that burned the backs of her eyes.

  *****

  Lucas slipped out of bed, taking great care not to wake K'Leena. She had slept restlessly. Plagued by nightmares and an unrelenting headache. After she woke up screaming for the third time, he got a sedative from his medkit and gave it to her. The last thing he wanted was to disturb her.

  They would be dealing with the after effects of her capture for quite some time. He experienced the dreams with her. To call them disturbing was an understatement. It took a great deal of self-control to keep his rage in check. He would have to talk with his mother when they returned to Earth. She would be able to help. Both of them, he hoped.

  He grabbed a fresh uniform and headed into the bathroom. The bite on his face stood out angrily against his skin. He passed the dermal regenerator over it once to close the wound, but left the faint scar alone.

  *****

  K'Leena checked the mirror one last time. Her hair was pinned up and out of her face and the mating bite Lucas gave her healed, but not completely erased. She looked normal enough, even if she didn't quite feel it.

  She was just zipping up the jacket to her uniform when the door chime rang.

  "Come in."

  A security officer entered and stood at attention.

  "Commander Paris, Captain Riker asked me to escort you to the bridge."

  She followed him, wondering what was going on now.

  *****

  It all made sense now. That nagging feeling something just wasn't right, the ease of her rescue, even the brutality of her imprisonment. He should have paid more attention to all of it. Damn...they played him for a fool.

  "What's wrong?" K'Leena asked when she entered the bridge, his tension hitting her the moment they were together.

  "Tactical, on screen," he commanded.

  The tetryon sensor net was displayed. It stretched over 12 parsecs and covered the only navigable path out of Breen space available to them. They couldn't go through the thing. It would light them up like a Christmas tree. A cloaked Federation ship in Breen space would be considered an act of war.

  "Kahless," K'Leena breathed.

  "How did you end up on this assignment, Commander?" Lucas asked, expressionless.

  "Admiral Riker put me on it. The contact I was to shuttle out had requested the best pilot available to..." She drew in a sharp breath. Their eyes met in understanding.

  "It was all a set up. There was no contact. They got me out here to trap you!" How could she have been so blind? It was so clear. It had to have...

  "...come from the inside." Lucas finished the thought for her.

  "They were taking a big chance that you would be the one to come after me."

  "Were they? I don't think so. Your father is the Captain of the Federation's Flagship. You are under my father's command. It doesn't take a genius to follow the chain of command in this thing." What bothered him the most was the fact they hurt her, to get at him. Only people very close to the Paris and Riker families knew about their childhood connection. It made for a short and dangerous list of suspects.

  "Why would someone go to all this trouble?" she asked.

  "To start a war," came the grim reply.

  *****

  --Bridge to Captain Paris.--

  "What is it Harry?" Tom looked up from the desk of his ready room and responded to the hail.

  --Tom, you better get up here. We've got trouble.--

  Commander Kim was standing next to his wife at the Tactical station when the Captain came out of the ready room.

  "What's wrong?" Tom asked with dread.

  "Long range scans have picked up a tetryon sensor net deployed across the Valliant's flight path, it was just activated. They cannot go around it." Seven told him.

  Tom stared at the tactical readout. Everything fell into place. Somebody orchestrated the whole thing.

  "Son of a..." Tom bit off the rest of the expletive. "Get me Starfleet Command! Secure the channel. I want to speak to Admiral Riker immediately. Route it to my ready room." He turned to his First Officer. "I want the Enterprise at the edge of Breen space by the time I'm done with talking with Will."

  "Aye, sir." Harry replied. "Helm, set a course, warp 2."

  *****

  "Can they get the Valiant out of there without being detected?" Admiral Riker asked.

  "I don't know how. This was planned well. It would take them months to go around and who knows what lays in wait for them if they do."

  "Well planned." Riker said menacingly. "Too well planned. Someone knew just which buttons to push."

  "Do you have any idea who?"

  "No, and that's what's got me concerned the most. It's someone close Tom, very close. They used K'Leena and Lucas. They knew -how- to use them."

  "I know." He had come to the same conclusion himself.

  "It's going to be hard to find the leak." Will said. "I could use some help here. Are you ready to accept the Admiralty they've offered?"

  "As soon as we get them out of there. Whoever did this has access to the top of Starfleet Command. Maybe even the President himself."

  *****

  "Are you insane?" K'Leena raised her voice in disbelief.

  "Do you have a better idea? I'd love to hear it, because I'm trying to avoid an interstellar war." His mate's eyes narrowed at the sarcasm and he was sure he heard her growl.

  "Lucas, you can't navigate a trans-warp conduit through a tetryon field. The hull stresses will implode the ship!"

  "Our shields and hull plating are stronger than standard Federation design. We'll use the deflector to enhance them."

  "You're going to do this, aren't you?"

  "K'Leena, we don't have a choice. Even if we use the auto-destruct there will be enough debris to identify us as a Federation vessel. The trans-warp conduit won't set off the sensor net."

  She looked at him for a moment, feeling all the desperation and anger with him, and then turned to the helmsman.

  "Get up," she commanded.

  "K'Leena, Pren is a good pilot, he..." Lucas began.

  "I know he's good, but he's not me. Dammit, Lucas, if you insist on going through with this suicidal plan you need me at the helm." She was right and he knew it. With a nod of his head Pren relinquished his post.

  Can you do this?

  Hell if I know.

  *****

  "Captain, we're receiving a transmission on an encoded Starfleet phased carrier wave. It's from the Valiant." Seven informed Tom.

  "What does it say?" he asked, concerned at her sudden intake of breath.

  "They are going to try and use a trans-warp conduit to pass through the tetryon field."

  "For the love of Kahless!" B'Elanna unconsciously reached for her husband's hand.

  "Red Alert! All hands to battle stations. Have sickbay prepare for casualties. If they make it through they're going to be in bad shape. Commander put us a safe distance from that sensor net."

  "Aye, Captain." Harry glanced up at the face of his best friend. It seemed to be cut of stone. No emotion, no fear, no nothing. Except for the death grip he had on his mate's hand.

  *****

  "Are the deflector modifications completed?" Lucas asked his tactical officer.

  "Aye, sir."

  "You ready, K'Leena?"

  "As ready as I'll ever be," she muttered.

  "Do it." Lucas ordered.

  K'Leena took a deep breath and engaged the trans-warp drive.

  "We're approaching the tetryon field. We'll hit the edge of it in twenty seconds...fifteen...ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...

  It was like nothing K'Leena had ever flown before. It took everything she had, and some she didn't, to control the ship.

  --Hull stresses exceeding acceptable tolerances.-- The computer informed them.

  "How are we doing?" Lucas looked to his Ops officer.

  "We've got hull buckles forming on all the outer levels. Shields are holding, barely. We'll clear the tetryon grid in two minutes. The Enterprise is holding position just inside Federation space."

  How about you?

  "Lucas! Get out of my head!" Was he trying to get them all killed?

  *****

  "Captain, there's a trans-warp conduit opening directly in front of us."

  "On screen." Commander Kim said.

  The entire bridge crew held their breath as the conduit opened and the ship emerged.

  "They have taken heavy damage to the outer hull, but all the other systems appear to be operating within normal parameters."

  "They're hailing us."

  "Open a channel."

  A collective sigh of relief was heard when the crew of the Valiant, plus one well-known pilot, appeared on the viewscreen all in one piece.

  "Captain Riker, do you require our assistance?" Tom asked, his eyes never leaving his daughter's face.

  "Permission to transfer my crew to your ship, Captain. We are in need of some repairs over here."

  "Granted. Welcome home, Captain."

  *****

  "Daddy, it was like nothing I've even flown in. You wouldn't believe it. I still don't know how I held it together." Tom was just grateful she had. B'Elanna's hand came to rest on his shoulder, she understood.

  "Tom, I think K'Leena should get back to her quarters and get some sleep. We can talk more tomorrow."

  "I won't be here tomorrow. I'm leaving with the Hood tonight." She told her parents, hoping they didn't question her on it. They had joined up with the Hood to transfer some personnel since the Enterprise was going to stay with the Valiant while she was being repaired.

  "Really?" Tom asked, uninterested. "Well I suppose you want to get back home. Your mother and I will be back on Earth in a couple of weeks anyway. I have an Admiral's office to decorate."

  B'Elanna looked at her husband like he'd lost his mind.

  "You still need to get some rest, I'll walk you back to your quarters."

  *****

  "K'Leena, what's going on?" B'Elanna asked as soon as they were alone in her quarters.

  "Nothing, why?"

  "You've been avoiding Lucas since you beamed on board this morning. And you seem to be in an awful big hurry to get off this ship."

  "I'm not avoiding Lucas."

  "Your behavior isn't very honorable." B'Elanna knew she was pushing it with her daughter.

  "You're lecturing -me- on Klingon honor?" K'Leena was in no mood to be charitable. Her voice was harsh.

  "Why are you running away?" B'Elanna asked.

  "I'm not running anywhere. I'm returning to duty."

  "There are many ways to run, K'Leena. Trust me, I've used them all."

  "I have nothing I want to run from, Mother. You're imagining things."

  "Then you didn't take Lucas as your mate? That wasn't your bite on his face?" B'Elanna asked with false innocence.

  "It was nothing. A single night. I am old enough to have sex. I needed someone. It was a difficult week. Okay?"

  "So it was just sex. Nothing more?"

  "Nothing more. Now if you don't mind..."

  "Does Lucas know?"

  "Does Lucas know what?" K'Leena asked tiredly.

  "That it was just sex."

  "Of course he does. Men like Lucas know the score. It's -never- more than that for them."

  "You might be surprised what 'men like Lucas' know."

  "I doubt it. I've watched the endless parade of women in his life."

  "Appearances can be deceiving."

  "Look, even if everything happened the way you think it did. It still doesn't mean anything. We didn't perform the ritual. The words were not spoken. We are not mated."

  An echo from the past whispered to B'Elanna. <>

  "The rituals are -meaningless-! Being Klingon isn't about pain sticks and blood wine. It's not about what's here," B'Elanna touched her cranial ridges. "It's about what's here." She placed a hand over her heart. "You underestimate him, K'Leena."

  "Lucas isn't Klingon, mother, he's human."

  "So are you." B'Elanna reminded her then walked to the door, she turned to face her daughter as it slid open. "By the way, the most honorable Klingon I know doesn't bleed pink when you cut him."

  K'Leena stared blankly at the closed door. Well, she had convinced her mother. Now all she had to do was convince Lucas.

  *****

  B'Elanna stormed into their quarters. Tom looked up from where he was sitting on the couch. A small smile pulled at his lips while he watched his wife prowl the room in anger, looking for something to throw.