Equinox - Diane Carey [16]
"BLT?" he asked. At least his voice didn't crack.
B'Elanna Torres had been eying him all this time, though the two of them had been trying to pretend, for the other's sake, that they had no more reason to call upon one another than upon anyone else. Burke, for himself, didn't want anyone to think he
had some advantage here or had an old friendship to rekindle when everyone else here was starting new. What could he do? He did have more reason than they did.
"Max," B'Elanna responded, and she smiled.
Not an easy smile. She was glad to see him, but holding back. Why would she? She wasn't the type to hold back. Never had before.
Could it have something to do with these two other guys she was standing with?
"I tried to say hello in sickbay," she told him, "but you were sedated."
"I remember," he said. "I thought I was dreaming."
Awkward silence interrupted, finally broken when they managed a less-than-stirring embrace. Burke noticed the other two guys exchanging a glance that may or may not have been charitable.
"So where's my sweater?" Burke asked as he and B'Elanna looked at each other again. "The blue one? Class insignia on the back?"
"Oh..." She glanced at the other men. "Well, I'm sure it'll turn up. We went to the Academy together," she told the others in a tone that suggested she felt obligated to explain.
Burke stuck a hand toward the nearest guy. "Maxwell Burke."
'Tom Paris," the fellow said.
Then the other one seemed more willing to shake hands. "Harry Kim. Welcome aboard."
"First officer," B'Elanna commented, surveying him as if she'd never seen a uniform before. "Impressive.
The last time we talked, you were about to drop out of Starfleet."
What now? Tell her I wish I had?
"I heard you beat me to it," he said instead. "The Maquis?"
A flush of-was it embarrassment?-colored her cheeks. "For a while. Until I ran into these two."
Tom Paris got a funny expression. "It's been hell ever since."
They all smiled, but they didn't all mean it. Oh... now Burke started to get what was going on. This wasn't friendly banter. It was competition.
He'd have to talk to her later. Alone.
"Well, I told your resident Vulcan I'd be right there. Are you free later? I'd love to catch up."
How casual and flat the whole conversation seemed! Here he was, resurrected from certain and brutal death, and he was trying to act like a guy in a club with a bad pickup line.
"Sure!" B'Elanna said, not in the tone he'd hoped. "Why don't we all have dinner together?"
Burke might've been half dead and living in a dream world, but he wasn't a stupid corpse. Not yet, at least. She was avoiding what he was getting at. That meant the old communication was in there somewhere, and she didn't want it to come out in front of one or the other of these guys. Or both.
Nah ... couldn't be both.
Better let her off the hook for now. There'd be time. For once, there really would be.
"Sounds great," he concluded. To Parry and Harris he said, "Thanks for having me."
"Our pleasure," the Asian guy said. Parry. Harris. Harry.
As Max Burke moved off in the direction Seven and Tuvok had gone, B'Elanna Torres folded her arms and tried to act casual under the searching glare from Tom Paris and the careful disinterest of Harry Kim.
"BLT?" Tom asked.
Hate this part. "Bacon, lettuce, and tomato," she explained, irritated. "It was a nickname. My initials."
"How romantic."
B'Elanna wanted to laugh, but this really wasn't funny, and it could be complicated. She wasn't hiding anything from Paris. He was getting it all. "We broke up over ten years ago. No need to go to Red Alert."
"How about Yellow?" he requested.
She shook her head. "You're cute when you're jealous."
"Who's jealous!"
Making a little sound in her throat, she turned to Harry and said, "I'll see you aboard the Equinox."
She strode off, and behind her heard Harry give Tom a clap on the back and say, "Well, 'Turkey Platter'? What do you