FEVER FEBRUARY DAY 25: FIXIT FRIDAY
“I'm going to die without a shred of honour. And for the first time in my life that really bothers me. So I have to tell you something. I— ::Warning. Oxygen level at seventy one millibars:: “I have to tell you the truth.” “The truth about what?” “I love you. Say something.” “You picked a great time to tell me.”
Three little, gigantic, mountainous words. Tom doesn’t say them back. This is possibly the most popular, by sheer number of fics, fixit in P/T fandom. Why doesn’t Tom tell B’Elanna he loves her?
Not in Day of Honor, when she admits her feelings for him as their oxygen supply is quickly used up. Not in Revulsion, when she confirms that she meant it. Not in Scientific Method when she questions the veracity of their feelings for each other because of the meddling by those alien scientists. Not in Nothing Human when he begs her to reconsider allowing the Cardassian holo-doctor to save her. Not in Once Upon a Time, when he records his goodbye message to her, or in Gravity (where he actually comes the closest to admitting that he‘s in love with her). Not in Extreme Risk, when he tells her that he’s concerned about her behaviour, or in Barge of the Dead or Unimatrix Zero when he’s really concerned about her decisions. Not when he proposes, or on their honeymoon on the ‘Flyer, or when they discover they’re expecting a baby, and not during the emotional explosion & fallout of that discovery. Not even when he leaves her in sickbay, in labour, to go to the bridge.
This is why some (delusional) people say Tom & B’Elanna don’t belong together in the first place. (What version of Voyager are they watching?!?! Because it’s not the one I love!) But hold on, after that initial we’re-about-to-die-and-I-need-to-die-with-honor confession, B’Elanna never says it again, either. At least not onscreen. They may not speak the words but they do have a love language.
Behold:
Exhibit A: “Stardate 52647, fourteen hundred hours. Subjects quarrel in corridor outside female's quarters. Male returns with twelve flowering plant stems, species rosa rubifolia, effecting a cessation of hostilities. Stardate 52648, oh three hundred hours. Intimate relations resume.”
“How the hell do you know when we're having intimate relations?” “There is no one on deck nine section twelve who doesn't know when you're having intimate relations.”
Tom gives her flowers. And presents. There’s the mysterious box in Random Thoughts which once sparked a fic challenge. And they have lots and lots of loud sex even a year and a half after they started dating. Tom keeps the romance alive.
Exhibit B: For a couple who really don’t seem to know how to talk about their problems, Tom does’t back down from challenging her when he thinks they have one. He starts a pissy argument in Night because he’s fed up with her shutting him out. He genuinely expresses his concern in Extreme Risk when she stops by his quarters with those new shuttle specs he asked for. He pushes her until he gets a real answer in Lineage, then he reassures her that he’ll never leave her and their (two or three) children.
Which brings me to Exhibit C: He encourages her to explore her Klingon heritage, and even joins in when she lets him. From his enthusiasm with the Klingon exercise programme in Displaced:
To his excitement at creating the Day of Honor programme with her (and his disappointment melding into anger that she refused to finish running it):
To his offering to learn Klingon & read the ancient scrolls with her in Barge of the Dead… and can we all appreciate how Tom took ZERO guff from that upstart Klingon jerk in Prophecy and was all-in in his defence of B’Elanna & their baby!
Tom’s love for B’Elanna is expressed in how he’s continually feeding her (just ignore the banana pancakes & blood pie shots; I didn’t want to make another pic collage):
To his wardrobe upgrade (goodbye ugly vests & brown clothing) after they get married. He even looks bad in Maquis leather. And can we talk about how he never wears that one nice blue vest from False Profits again?! And that he has two ugly brown vests in Workforce?!?! …this how he reverts when B’Elanna isn’t around to police his wardrobe.
He offers to lose his Lieutenant’s pip a second time (when he just got it back) to keep her from beaming onto that Borg ship and being assimilated in Unimatrix Zero. He challenges Chakotay’s authority when she’s late getting back.
He offers to take out a shuttle & do a planet by planet search when she goes missing in Muse. He wants to shove the Prime Directive & lead a rescue mission when she’s being held for one stray, angry thought in Random Thoughts. And he risks her wrath by arguing against her choice to allow that Cardassian doctor to treat her in Nothing Human.
He offers to accompany her when she speaks to her father for the first time in 20 years in Author Author (and holds his own tongue), then holds her hand when they leave the astrometrics lab.
He created a holodeck programme of an old movie theatre for her, for date nights (so they can make out).
Her voice in his head is what brings him back in Alice.
He falls in love with her all over again in Workforce, even though his memory of her & them has been erased.
He says no, when he really, really wants to say yes in Blood Fever because he knows if he gives in to her seduction she might never trust him again.
She’s the most important person in the world universe to him.
Tom SHOWS B’Elanna that he loves her. He doesn’t have to say it. But he has, a thousand times, in fixit fanfics.
