by Dakota

A crash of padds on the table heralded Miral's arrival in the mess hall and nearly made Kyle drop his fork.

"Did you talk Mitch and Gary into sharing a room yet?"

"They're sharing with Jason."

"They're what?" Miral's surprise was tinged with anger.

Kyle looked at her for a long moment. "Go get your lunch. I'm not going to discuss housing assignments until you're eating."

"I already ate." Miral was defiant.

"No, you didn't. You've been down in the shuttle bay with your mom tinkering on that new shield generator trying to get it to work on our systems." Kyle picked up his fork and continued eating. Miral stared at him then stalked over to the serving line to get a sandwich and some fruit. She returned to the table and sat down.

Kyle watched her eat for a few minutes before he spoke. "That's better. Now, what's the problem with housing?"

"I thought you were going to share quarters with Mitch and Gary. When did Jason get included?"

"I thought about it but decided to stay where I am so he took my spot."

"You're living with your parents!"

"Yeah, in the best quarters on the ship. I've got my own room and my own bathroom. Ever since Chad and Cody moved in with Robbie, it's been great."

"But you're still living with your parents." Miral hissed.

"They're hardly ever there when I am. As long as I don't mess up the living area they pretty much let me alone."

"But still, we'll never get a chance to be alone."

"Sure we will." Kyle sounded confident. "Think about it. Jason will be moving out in the next couple of days. That means it'll be just you and your parents. When they're off duty, what are your parents usually doing?"

"Entertaining their friends or plotting our demise with the coursework, which is about the same thing."

"Who are their friends?"

"Your folks, and…" Miral's voice faded away as she realized what Kyle was thinking.

"Exactly. Your folks and my folks usually get together most evenings or work on the Academy classes at least an hour or two. We'll be in whichever quarters they aren't. We both have some of the best quarters in the ship and more privacy than we would if we moved out."

Kyle watched the expressions on Miral's face change as she considered the possibilities. When a predatory smile slowly spread across her face, he laughed.

"Don't even think it. I told you we'd take things slow and I meant it. You agreed. We're going to use the time to study and get to know each other."

"That was a year and a half ago. We're half way through our Academy courses and I'm still a…" Miral's voice had been rising but she let it drop abruptly before she finished the sentence.

"Me, too." Kyle reached across the table to take Miral's hand. "I love you. These last two years have been so much fun. We were always friends but now you're my best friend." Kyle chuckled. "Dad always says that about Mom, that she's his best friend. I always thought it was kind of dumb because they were married and all that. Well, I understand it now and it's how I feel about you."

"I love you, too, Kyle." Miral had calmed down. "You're my best friend. I understand why you want to take things slowly but we only have two years before we finish the Academy courses. You and I aren't going to have a lot of time together then. I'm already unofficially the third ranking engineer and whether you'll admit it or not, you're going to be on the fast track in command.

"I want children and I'm beginning to think if we don't have them before we get out of the Academy, we'll never be able to make the time." Miral sighed. "I'd like to be able to really enjoy being together before we're commissioned. Once we get our commissions, we're going to be working double shifts for years and there's no guarantee we'd even be on the same shifts."

"We would be. It's been policy since before we were born."

"What do you mean?"

"Dad makes sure married couples at least sleep on the same shift unless there's an emergency."

"Married?" Miral was surprised.

"Of course." Kyle was equally surprised. "Aren't you planning on marrying me?"

"I… yes. You just never mentioned it before."

Kyle sighed in relief. "Good."

"What was that?" Miral hesitated. "A proposal?"

"No." Kyle spoke without thinking and realized his error as soon as he saw pain and disappointment flash across Miral's face. "At least, not officially. When I ask you to marry me, I want it to be special and completely unexpected. All right?"

"All right." Miral agreed as she stood up. "I promised Mom I'd help out on that shield generator another hour or two. I'll see you at dinner, I guess."

Kyle grabbed her hand before she left. "I mean it, Miral. Someday when you're least expecting it, I'll ask you that question for real."

"I believe you. I really do have to get going." She leaned over and kissed his cheek before leaving.

"I just don't see why you…" Kathryn cut off her comments to Chakotay as the door to their quarters slid open and two surprised faces looked up at her from her desk. She slowed nearly to a stop and turned and looked at the man next to her before turning back to the two faces. "What are you two doing?"

"Studying." Kyle answered for them both.

"Care to explain why you're using my terminal instead of yours?"

"We tried using my terminal, Mom, but someone," Kyle glanced at Miral out of the side of his eyes, "couldn't keep her mind on studying in my room."

Chakotay hid a smile and looked down at the floor while Kathryn struggled to keep a smile off her face as she nodded her consent. "As you were, Cadets."

The older couple continued to their room and allowed the door to close behind them.

"How could you?" Miral was on her feet and clearly angry.

"How could I what?"

"Tell the captain I…."

"I told my mom why I was using her desk."

"Now she'll tell my folks and…" 

Kyle stood and put a finger on her lips to silence her.

"She'll tell them nothing they don't already know. You've complained about me being an old… 'fuddy duddy,' was it… to your parents half a dozen times when I was around."

"Still, you didn't have to tell her."

"She asked. I answered… with the truth. She accepted it."

"Now she'll think I'm…" Miral was at a loss for the correct word.

"She'll understand how you feel just like your mom understands. I'm the one they don't understand."

"What?"

"You and our moms are alike. You want to express your feelings." Kyle waited to see if Miral understood what he was saying. "Can you honestly see your mom waiting until your dad felt like kissing her if she wanted to kiss him?"

Miral shook her head. "Are you crazy?"

"Well, my folks are like that, too."

"Why don't they understand you?" 

"My dad would never have tried to hold my mom at arm's length for years." Kyle said. "They got married three weeks after their first kiss and the twins were born less than a year later."

"Robbie was born the same year my folks got married." Miral reached her arms up around Kyle's neck. "Does that mean that we can have a baby as soon as we get married?"

Tactically, he had no intention of answering her question, so Kyle leaned down to kiss the young woman in his arms and stopped thinking about his parents and his physics test the next day. For a little while he allowed the center of his universe to be his entire universe.

"Something occurred to me in botany class today." Miral slid into the chair across from Kyle.

"I don’t suppose it had anything to do with plants, did it?" Kyle looked up from his books. "And I accept your apology for being late."

"You never answered my question a couple weeks ago."

"What question?"

Miral looked around and lowered her voice. "Whether we can have a baby as soon as we get married."

"We're not even engaged and already you're talking about kids."

"Don't you think it's better to discuss it before than after? I mean, what if we completely disagree?"

"Look, I know you want kids and so do I. So what's to discuss?"

"How many and how soon for starters."

"Honey, do the math and count the bunks. There isn't enough room for many more on this ship and we're still years from Federation space. One is all we really should plan on."

Miral sighed in frustration. "Then we should have our one and only as soon as possible."

"It would make more sense to wait a few years. We've got ten years before you're even close to your mom's age when she had Robbie, and it would be close to twenty before you were as old as my mom was when the twins were born."

"I'm not waiting that long."

"There's nothing wrong with waiting for a few years after we're married."

"Nothing, except you want to wait a few more years to get married. All these few years add up."

Kyle stared at Miral a moment then stood up. "Let's get our dinner before the shift changes."

"I'm not finished with this conversation yet."

"I know."

The two stood and walked toward the serving line. When Kyle tried to take her hand, Miral brushed his hand away. Kyle accepted her response and followed her to the line. When she paused to pick up a tray, he stepped next to her and put his hand on her waist. "We'll share a tray. I'll carry it if you pick out the food."

Miral sighed in frustration and turned to tell him "no" but he merely smiled at her. The brown eyes and dimples drove the frustration away but enough pride lingered to keep her silent. She merely turned back toward the food and started picking out their dinner.

Kyle carried the tray back to their table and pushed his books aside before setting it down. He took their desserts and set them on the far side of the table.

"You know one of the reasons I like my dessert so much?" Kyle's statement was phrased as a question but was really a comment. "Anticipation. Waiting for it and knowing how much I'll enjoy it make it all that much better."

Miral stared at Kyle a minute before reaching out for her dessert and picking up her fork. "I learned as a child to get my dessert when I could because if I didn’t someone else was likely to get it instead."

"I think your 'dessert' is safe from your brothers."

Miral looked at Kyle and started giggling. She pushed her untouched dessert back to the side and started eating her salad. "Just so you know, I haven't given in yet."

"I know. I don't expect you to. Just don't expect me to give in either."

Further conversation was cut off as other cadets joined them and started complaining about a quantum mechanics test earlier in the day.

The cadets were in the middle of exams for the end of the second year Academy classes and the ship's senior officers had been working on the classes being taught in the coming year. Kathryn and Chakotay entered their quarters expecting to find Kyle and Miral huddled over their notes. Instead they walked in to find Kyle sprawled on the couch sound asleep.

Miral looked up from the dining room table. "Hi Captain, Commander." She glanced at Kyle, "Try not to wake him."

"Why not?"

"I told him I'd only let him sleep an hour. That was over two hours ago. I think he needs the sleep more than he needs to study."

"What has him so concerned?" Chakotay kept his voice low.

"His command class exam tomorrow."

"He knows that material cold. What's he so worried about?" Kathryn was teaching that class.

"He's been spending so much time studying for his other exams he thinks he isn't ready for this one. I think he is so I let him sleep."

"Why is he so worried about that class?" Chakotay was curious.

"He hasn't actually told me but he wants command and somewhere along the line he decided that means he has to master all the sciences and engineering."

"Where did he get that idea?"

"From you, Captain. You're the standard he's trying to meet." Miral stood and picked up her notes. "Look, I think I'll get going before he wakes up. If I'm not around, he can't start a fight."

As the door closed behind the cadet, Kathryn started for her room.

"Aren't you going to wake him?"

"I can't go around making sure every cadet sleeps in a bed instead of on a couch."

"They're aren't sleeping on our couch."

"I can't give him special treatment because he lives here."

"He lives with his parents, not his commanding officers." Chakotay reminded her. "He won't be this close for much longer."

Kathryn walked over to the couch and put her hand on Kyle's shoulder. "Wake up, sweetie."

Kyle roused and sat up. "What time is it? Where'd Miral go?"

"It's 23:30 hours and she just left. I think you'd better get to bed."

"I have to finish studying."

"Get some sleep first. You can get up early to study."

Kyle stood up and sighed as he stretched. "No can do, Mom. I have to study."

Kathryn reached out and took the padds off the table. "Miral was right. You need the sleep more than you need to study."

"Mom," Kyle managed to drag the word out to at least four syllables but didn't finish when he saw her expression change. "All right. Good night, Mom." He leaned over to kiss her cheek then nodded at his father. "Night, Dad."

Kathryn and Chakotay watched as their youngest son walked into his bedroom muttering about parents pulling rank before they turned toward their own.

"Why'd you let me sleep?"

Miral looked up from to see Kyle hovering next to her chair with his breakfast tray. She had never seen him quite so angry.

"You needed to sleep more than you needed to study."

"That's your opinion."

"It's the truth and you know it." Miral's temper was rising. "Your exam isn't until this afternoon. You can go over the material again before then."

"I have a four hour shift in astrophysics this morning and I have to relieve the engineering bridge officer at noon. I'll be lucky to have ten minutes to study."

Kyle had started to calm down but Miral's anger was still growing. She stood up, grabbed her padds and tray before looking angrily at Kyle. "Fine. Since studying is so important to you, I'll leave and you can use the fifteen minutes we could have spent together to study for your exam."

Kyle was left standing with his tray wondering what had just happened and why.

"I'm telling you this will work." Cadet Miral Paris was insistent.

"It's not ready to test, Cadet." Lieutenant Torres was struggling to control her temper as she cut off the argument. She forced herself to calm down. "Look, it's a good idea and it might work but I want to study the set up more thoroughly before we try it out. We've spent months on it already, a few more days won't make much difference."

"I've studied the set up and gone over all the things that could possibly go wrong. It will work."

"Maybe. But I'm still the chief engineer and I'm saying we wait." Voyager's Chief Engineer seldom pulled rank on any cadet, but she wasn't going to take any chances with the shield generator much less her daughter. "Is that clear, Cadet?"

"Yes, ma'am." Miral yielded. "Can I at least check the calibrations? I might be able to figure why they shift so quickly."

"Good idea. I'll be in my office studying your proposal if you need me."

Kathryn walked into the main classroom to find her husband and youngest son involved in what appeared to be a serious discussion. She didn't know whether it was personal or professional, but she did know that she was giving an exam in about three minutes.

"Aren't you supposed to be on the way to the bridge, Commander?"

Kyle turned. "It's my fault, Captain." He turned back to his father. "I still don't understand, Dad, but I'll take your word for it."

Kathryn watched Kyle take his seat before she turned to Chakotay. "What was that all about?"

He kept his voice pitched low so no one would overhear. "He and Miral had a fight this morning because she let him sleep so long last night. He doesn’t understand why she's upset because he was angry about it. Do you?"

"Of course."

"Well, I don't. At least not exactly, which is what I told Kyle. I also told him to get used to it."

Kathryn sighed and shook her head trying not to smile. "Did you tell him anything useful?"

A dimple flashed. "I told him making up was a lot of fun."

Kathryn stifled a laugh and slapped him gently on the arm. "Get to the bridge, Mister, before I put you on report."

"Aye, Captain." Chakotay raised his voice as he turned to leave.

He was almost to the door when the ship rocked and nearly knocked everyone who was standing off their feet. The captain regained her balance and slapped her combadge. "Janeway to the bridge. Report!"

Paris's voice answered. "There as an explosion in shuttle bay one. They are beaming casualties to sickbay."

"How many?"

"Reports are still coming in, Captain."

"Carry on, Lieutenant. I'll be in sickbay."

"Captain, permission to leave the bridge?"

The captain exchanged looks with her first officer who had crossed the room to join her. If Tom wanted to leave the bridge, someone in his family must be injured. "Permission granted. Meet me in sickbay."

The captain turned to her class. "Cadets, your exam is accessible from your terminals. You're on the honor system for this one."

The captain and first officer turned toward the door when they were interrupted.

"Captain."

Kyle was standing staring at his parents, pleading mutely to go with them. The captain nodded her head and turned to the door followed by her exec and an extremely worried cadet.

"This is a pretty important exam, Cadet." The captain commented.

"Miral was supposed to be working in the shuttle bay this afternoon. I'll retake the class if necessary."

Lieutenant Paris was on the turbolift that stopped for them. 

"Who was injured, Tom?" Chakotay asked.

"I didn’t wait for a report from sickbay. B'Elanna and Miral were going to be working down there all afternoon."

The lift door opened and the captain led the small group toward sickbay. They found B'Elanna pacing in the corridor by the door. When she saw Tom, she rushed into his arms.

"Miral was hurt. They haven't told me how badly."

"Do you know what happened?"

"Not exactly. Jenkins was working on one of the control panels and I guess asked Miral to help him with something. The panel overloaded and blew a relay that cause the explosion near them."

Long years of friendship brought the four senior officers together as the older couple tried to comfort the frantic parents. Kyle paced between the four and the door clenching and unclenching his fists.

Finally, the door opened and Kyle turned to confront the doctor. "How is she, Doc?"

The doctor pointedly ignored Kyle as he spoke to the Parises. "Your daughter is going to be just fine. She has a concussion and received some second-degree burns. Right now, she needs to rest, and I'll be keeping her overnight just as a precaution. She may have one visitor for a few minutes."

The last comment had been directed at B'Elanna Torres but as she started to walk into sickbay, Tom Paris touched her arm. "B'Elanna, I think there's someone else who needs to see her more than we do."

B'Elanna looked at Kyle and saw the fear in his eyes, but the fear couldn't overshadow the love. She nodded her head at him and stepped closer to Tom.

Kyle didn't hesitate. He was through the door and across sickbay before the doctor could comment. He stopped next to the biobed and stared at its occupant. She looked small and defenseless and completely beautiful.

"Miral?"

"Kyle? She opened her eyes. "Why aren't you taking your exam?"

"I had to make sure you were all right."

"I am." She smiled weakly. "Don't I get a hug?"

Kyle leaned down and carefully touched her shoulders. Miral managed to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him closer. She heard him whisper something in her ear but didn’t understand.

"What did you say?"

"Will you marry me?"

"Officially? We can tell people about it officially?"

Kyle nodded, "Yes."

"Of course I'll marry you." Miral tried to tighten her grasp but couldn't. "I love you."

"And I love you."

The doctor cleared his throat across the room.

"Look, the doc says you have to spend the night here. I'll try to come back later tonight. I'll definitely be here in the morning to take you home." Kyle straightened slightly and brushed her lips with his.

"All right." Miral smiled up at him through sleepy eyes.

"Sleep well." He brushed his lips across her forehead as her eyes closed.

"You don't really expect me to approve this, do you?" Chakotay demanded as he looked up from the request Kyle had submitted when they returned from dinner. "There is no precedent for this and I'm not about to make you the exception."

"I think you should ask the captain about the request I submitted to her before you decide, Sir." Kyle stood his ground. "If she turns me down, I'll be withdrawing that request anyway."

Chakotay turned to look at the captain.

"I have no reason not to grant his request, Commander. The precedent on this ship has been clearly established for several decades. All I need is to hear Miral confirm the request." She looked at Kyle. "Have you discussed this with her?"

"Yes, ma'am. She agreed this afternoon."

"Well, Commander, if that was a request for joint quarters, I see no reason for you not to approve it… as soon as they are married." She turned back to Kyle. "How soon did you have in mind?"

"I thought I'd let Miral make that decision."

"Tonight?" The captain was only half teasing but Kyle took her seriously.

"I'd have to ask her but I think that might be soon enough to suit her."

The captain considered the question for a moment, and then shook her head. "No. Today has been too stressful on all of us. You need to sleep on it at least one night. If you have no doubts in the morning, we'll go see how Miral feels about the idea after breakfast."

"Thank you, Captain."

"Did you ever take that exam?"

"No, ma'am."

"It's on that padd on my desk. Get to work. You have one hour."

"Thank you, Captain."

Miral was dressed and waiting impatiently for Kyle the next morning. She sat up on the biobed as he approached. Ignoring the doctor, she pulled his head down to kiss. 

"Where have you been?" 

Kyle never had a chance to answer because Miral saw their parents in the room. "What are they all doing here?"

"I told them what you and I discussed last night."

"You did?" Miral brightened then realized it didn’t actually answer her question. "Why are they here?"

"They asked me when we planned to get married and I told them I'd let you decide."

"You did?" Miral sounded like she didn't believe him.

"I did. So? When do you want to get married?"

"Right now would suit me just fine, but I imagine…" 

"That good enough for you, Captain?" Kyle interrupted Miral.

The captain nodded. "If you're serious, Miral, you can get married right now."

"You're serious?" Miral turned to Kyle. "No more taking our time?"

Kyle smiled and nodded. Miral threw her arms around his neck for a second, and then grabbed his hand to drag him over to the captain.

"Let's get started, Captain, before he decides he wants to take things slowly again."

Miral and Kyle slipped into the door of their new quarters after enduring over an hour of teasing and crude comments from their friends in the mess hall. They looked around at the few boxes that still needed to be unpacked, exchanged looks, and walked over to the sofa.

"I have never been so glad to get away from our brothers in my life."

"I know." Kyle put his arm around her shoulders. "But it was kind of fun, wasn't it?"

"A little." Miral leaned her head on his shoulder. "We don't fit in with them anymore, do we?"

"No, we're on our own for a while until someone else gets married."

"I think I'll like that." Miral sounded surprised. "We'll have lots of time together."

"I like that part, too. But we still have to keep up our studies."

"I know." Miral glanced up at him out of the side of her eyes. "I didn't expect to spend our first night as husband and wife on the couch talking about school work."

"I told you we'd take things slowly and I meant it." Kyle kissed her gently then gradually pulled her closer. "We're going to take everything nice and slow tonight and really get to know each other."

Miral pushed him back along the couch as she mumbled against his lips. "Slow will do fine… for now."
 

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