"Excuse me?" Heather asked, leaning over B'Elanna on the couch to stare at Tom incredulously.

"What?" Tom asked in defense.

"What did you just say?" Whitney persisted, her eyes narrowing.

Paris frowned, "You can't cook; remember that one time when you got Harry and me to volunteer to help you make cookies for B'Elanna when she was sick?"

Torres's brow furrowed. "What cookies?" she asked, leaning back before Heather fell on top of her.

Whitney sat back abruptly, blushing. "Never mind." she said quickly.

Harry only laughed. He, Heather, Tom, B'Elanna, Lisa, Kathryn, Chakotay, and Seven of Nine were all sitting outside on the Paris' patio. Samantha and Alyssa weren't home yet, and Admiral Paris and Dana Paris had gone out for dinner, saying that they would leave everyone else to themselves. So now they all had the house to themselves. The Doctor had reported to Starfleet Headquarters for a meeting, and Neelix was looking up a friend he had made a few months ago in Argentina. Both had promised to meet them in a few hours for dinner at the Paris’s house, though.

"What?" B'Elanna demanded.

"Uhh..." Tom and Harry looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Heather, thinking they were laughing at her, regarded them skeptically, then soon joined in.

"Is this something I should know about?" B'Elanna asked, all of a sudden wary.

Tom stifled a laugh. "Oh, sure. It's *hilarious*."

"Oh, is this when-"

Janeway was interrupted with two very enthusiastic nods from Tom and Harry. Kathryn covered her mouth with her hands and tried hard not to laugh. Chakotay smiled, remembering, and Seven merely raised a Borgified eyebrow.

"Can you guys fill us in here?" Lisa asked.

Paris nodded. "All right. B'Elanna, remember how you caught the Bonara Flu?"

Torres made a face.

"I thought so. So *anyway*, Heather gets this idea to-" Tom started laughing again, and Harry took over. Heather raised her eyes to the sky.

"Heather decided to cook something, and in the end she sweettalked Tom and me to help her out. The Delany sisters got Neelix away from the kitchen, and Naomi kept him occupied." Kim explained.

B'Elanna nodded. "Okay." To Lisa, she added. "I never got those cookies. Did I?" she looked over at Tom.

Tom burst out laughing again. Seeing B'Elanna and Lisa's confused expressions, he shook his head.

"I certainly hope not." Chakotay commented.

By now, Torres was clueless. "What happened?" she exclaimed.

Heather rolled her eyes. "Come on." she pleaded with her fiance.

Harry reached over and squeezed her hand. "Heather, it was a nice thought. Really, it was. It's just that-"

"In the end, we all kept on fooling around in the kitchen. Jenny and Meg came back to help out, and I ended up *accidentally* dumping the bowl full of eggwhites on Heather."

Whitney nodded, sarcastically commenting, "Sure."

Tom ignored her. "And she started throwing marshmellows at me."

"Unfortuantly they missed their target." Kim commented mildly.

"We *did* make the cookies." Heather protested.

Janeway smirked. "I'll say." To B'Elanna and Lisa, she added, "I walk in to find a food fight going on in the Mess Hall, and Heather - covered in eggyoke - walks up with a platter of chocolate chip cookies. She offers them to me, so I take one and start to eat it." Kathryn started laughing.

"Unfortuantly, Miss Whitney somehow mixed up the salt and sugar. So instead of sugar cookies, they turned out to be salt cookies." Chakotay relented.

Everyone started laughing.

Lisa smiled. "Heather, how could you do that?" she asked, in mock surprise.

The science officer rolled her eyes.

"And you took cooking lessons, too." Tom teased.

"You took cooking lessons?" Seven asked incredulously.

"Yes," Heather replied in a clipped fashion.

"Care to relent?" Lisa questioned.

Tom smiled until Heather grinned wickedly. The smile vanished from his face. "But of course! Tom signed me up to take cooking as my Home Ec course at the Acadamy during our second year. *I* wanted to do rock sculpture, but by the time I figured out how to undo the prank, it was too late. So I ended up taking cooking lessons for five months." Whitney leaned over Harry to glare at Tom from across the room.

Paris raised his hands, "Well, excuse me, Lieutenant Commander, but *you* were the one who signed me up for dancing lessons!"

"What?" Lisa asked, immediately interested.

Heather sighed. "I signed him up for ballet after Shelly insisted that I get him back for posting pictures of me from the last Sophmore party on the newsboard."

Everyone - minus Tom - burst out laughing.

"Did you get to wear a tutu?" Chakotay asked.

Paris glared at his former senior officer. "Very funny, Commander."

"What about the dress code, Heather?" asked Seven.

"We thought of that, too." Whitney admitted. "And all the girls thought it would be pretty funny to see Tom all dressed up in a tutu. Unfortuantly, that never happened."

Kathryn burst out laughing at the thought of Tom in a dancing leotard. Try as she might, she couldn't imagine it.

Lisa looked over at her fiance. "I always wondered why you were such a smooth dancer." she teased gently.

Tom sighed, "Gee, thanks Lisa." he joked.

Lisa laughed.

B'Elanna whispered something to Seven, who smiled widely. "Now I can imagine that." commented the former drone. Catching B'Elanna's gaze, the two started laughing.

"I bet your cooking hasn't improved." Paris commented, a daring look in his eyes as his blue ones met Heather's.

"Uh huh. How much do you want to bet?" Whitney leaned forward and propped her head on her hands.

"Ten bars of gold press latinum." Tom replied smoothly. *I'm never going to let her live this one down.* he thought gleefully. Heather would never change. She was just as easy to fall for the bait as ever.

Whitney grinned slyly. Although she wasn't the best cook in the world, she had helped Neelix out in the Mess Hall on several occasions recently, and Harry had taught her how to make elegant dishes. Adding all of her skills together and combining her thoughts, she was almost sure she could pull it off. Almost. "Done."

"I never knew you had that much latinum." Kim whispered to the half-Batazoid.

Torres suddenly spoke up. "Tell you what; me, Kathryn, Heather, Seven, and Lisa will cook dinner. If we screw up and its a total disaster, then we're at your mercy for twenty-four hours. If we prevail," B'Elanna chose her words carefully as she spoke, "Then you're at *our* mercy for twenty-four hours."

The men grew quiet, looking at each other.

Then Chakotay spoke up, "You're on."
*****
Half an hour later, Lisa stomped her foot. "I can't *believe* you! Do you know the stuff Tom can think up?" she cried, her eyes narrowing in B'Elanna's direction. The women were all in the kitchen, and Kathryn was looking for the cookbooks.

"Yes." B'Elanna muttered. A few seconds later, she looked up at Lisa, a soft smile on her face. "Trust, I know Tom *very* well. And one of his worst weaknesses is that he can get a little bit too overconfident." Heather snorted, remembering the times Tom had chased after B'Elanna. Torres looked in her direction, but didn't comment. Lisa slowly nodded. "Then don't you want to see the look on Tom's face when we cook an immaculate dinner?"

"Kodak moment." Whitney muttered to Seven and Kathryn.

Janeway laughed while Seven was confused. "Lieutenant Commander, I do not understand what you mean by a 'Kodak moment'." stated the former drone.

Whitney giggled. "It's a figure of speech." Then she smiled widely. "Lanna's right, you guys. Let's make the best dinner we've ever had."

Seven slowly nodded. "I have to agree with Heather on this one. There is no way we'll live it down if we don't cook up a fantastic dinner."

Janeway glanced over at Doav. "Are you in?"

Lisa paused, then slowly nodded. "Bring out the cookbooks!" she proclaimed with a sly grin.
*****
B'Elanna almost cried out in shock when she felt a cold substance splash against her neck. She whirled around to face a sheepish Heather Whitney, armed with pastry dough. "Oops!" the half-Batazoid said quickly, but it was too late. Seven was trying hard not to laugh at the sight of Voyager's chief engineer covered in pastrey dough, and Lisa was doubled over with laughter.

"Not funny." Torres said, her eyes flashing. Then she went back to washing the lettuce for the salad.

Heather, surprised at the half-Klingon's lack of retaliation, went back to making the apple pie. Lisa sat on a stool next to the island in the middle of the kitchen, peeling apples. Seven was busy preparing potatoes, and Kathryn was getting the lamb ready. After pouring over cookbooks for twenty minutes, all fiveomen had a rough idea of what they were doing. Janeway only prayed Heather didn't start throwing marshmellows - she didn't want to think of the scenarios the men would come up with if they got their way.

B'Elanna glanced out of the corner of her eye, then thoroughly soaked a sponge. She then proceeded to wring it out - over Whitney's head.

Whitney shrieked, emitting a loud: "Iiiiyyyeee!" Then she gasped as the water went down her shirt. "Oh, you are *dead*, Torres." she growled, grabbing the bowl full of apple slices. Much to Lisa's dismay, the science officer dumped half of the contents over B'Elanna.

Torres, who had been laughing, grabbed the lettuce and started throwing it at Heather. Unfortuantly, she didn't aim correctly and it hit Seven instead. Seven grabbed a bag of chocolate chips that were lying around, opened it, and started throwing them at B'Elanna. Soon, all five women were intensely involved in a food fight, all thoughts of the bet forgotten.
*****
At the sound of crashing pots and pans coming from the kitchen, Tom stopped talking. He looked at Chakotay and Harry, but they didn’t have any idea what it was. “Should we go see what’s the matter?” Harry suggested.

Chakotay nodded. “Come on.” He got up and walked down the hall. Tom and Harry followed, hot on his heels.
*****
At the sound of somone knocking on the door, Lisa immediately stopped shoving ice cubes down B’Elanna’s shirt. Torres, taking advantage of the situation, dived across the floor and landed on the other side of the kitchen. Heather looked around at the kitchen, which was a mess. *Uh oh.* she thought. *This is not good.* Realizing that the kitchen looked like a disaster zone, she winced. *Definetely not good.* "Is everything okay in there?" She immediately recognized her fiance’s voice. "Yeah!...Uh, everything’s fine here. The situation’s under control."

Kathryn couldn’t help snorting at the half Betazoid’s ridiculous comment. “Are you all right? We heard some pans crashing-” Janeway interrupted her husband quickly. “We’re all fine. Go back into the living room. We’re almost done!”

Now it was B’Elanna who snorted. *Yeah, right.* she thought. Seeing the old-fashioned door beign pushed open, she slammed herself up against it, using all of her body weight. The door slammed shut. “Ow!” came Tom’s indignant comment. Torres had to smile at the pilot’s tone. }Sorry!" she called.

Lisa giggled. Hearing the men’s footsteps grow softer and softer, she breathed out a sigh of relief. She looked around. “We’re doomed.”

Whitney raised her eyebrows. “Oh, really? Listen, Lisa, lemme tell you something. This is *not* doomed. Doomed is being trapped on a Borg cube about to be assimilated by drones with no way out." At Doav’s incredulous look, she relented. "All right. This is pretty close to doomed." she commented. She paused, then her blue eyes gleamed with an idea. "Listen up. Here’s what we’re going to do..." She lowered her voice and filled the other women in on the details. When she was finished, Seven nodded. “That is a most adequete plan."

"High praise coming from Seven," Torres joked.

Heather rolled her eyes. "Come on; we have work to do."
*****
Half an hour later, Seven finished setting the table. She placed the candles in the center and lighted them. Standing back, she surveyed the scene. *Very nice indeed,* she thought to herself. Sighing with relief, she went back into the kitchen, where the rest of the women were busy finishing up the cooking. "The table’s set!" she called. The Doctor and Neelix were both in the family room talking with the rest of the men. Neelix had pleaded with her to let him help them, but Seven had firmly used her both "Borg are superior to all other life forms" voice and told him on no uncertain terms no.

“Great!” Janeway said, bringing out a platter of steaming hot cut up sweet potatoes from the oven. She relinquished it over to Seven. "Can you put this in there?"

"Very well, Kathryn." Seven nodded, and entered the dining room again. B’Elanna and Heather were busy bantering playfully while they set down the vegetables and the ham. "“It is *so*!" Whitney was saying.

Torres shook her head. “Sure, Heather.” She turned to Seven. “Hi, Seven!" she said, smiling. The two weren’t exactly the closest of friends, but they had gotten over their mutual dislike of each other. Some things just took time.

"B’Elanna," Seven intoned. She smiled briefly. "I am so glad you came up with that idea, Heather. I was afraid we would be at their-" she gestured with her head towards the living room, "mercy."

Whitney grinned. "Thanks, Sev!"

Seven rolled her eyes at the use of her unwanted nickname. “Seven of Nine” had been shortened to “Seven”, and now Lieutenant Commander Whitney was shortening it to "Sev".

"Leave Seven alone, Heather." B’Elanna said, leaning against a chair. Her brown eyes sparkled in the candlelight. Then her soft smile disappeared. It was true that it was the little things that reminded you of something. There had been numerous candles lit in his quarters when Tom had... She shook her head. This was *not* a time to dwell on the past.

"Okay, ‘Lanna."

"Heather!"

"What’s she doing now?” a familiar voice teased.

B’Elanna whirled around to find Tom leaning against the French doors that led into the family room. "Don’t ask.” she merely commented, grinning.

Tom eyed the chief engineer thoughtfully, who only smiled back. He turned to Heather. “Heather?”

"Watch it, Flyboy." Whitney shot back over her shoulders as she went back into the kitchen. After looking from B’Elanna to Tom, and then back to B’Elanna, Seven followed, deciding to leave the two Lieutenant Commanders alone.

“She’ll never change will she?” Paris commented, more to himself than her. To his surprise, B’Elanna looked vaguely startled. She gave him a long, searching look. “Heather’s changed a lot, Tom.” she said quietly, reverting her gaze to the white candlesticks that were burning at either end of the table.

Tom cocked his head to one side, eyeing her thoughtfully. “So’ve you.” he said.

B’Elanna laughed, but there was no humor in it. “And you haven’t?” she questioned, meeting his gaze. Tom was surprised at how beautiful she looked. *Like that would ever change...* his thoughts trailed off as soon as he realized what he was thinking. *B’Elanna’s my friend. I love Lisa, not her.* he told his concious. He could’ve sworn he heard mirthful laughter. He was about to reply when Lisa and Kathryn burst through the doors, carrying bottles of wine.

"Dinner’s ready!" Janeway called through the open doors, then she sat the wine down on the table. “Chanteau, year ____.”

"Sounds great." Torres replied.

Neelix, the Doctor, Chakotay and Harry walked into the dining room. Heather nearly laughed at the shocked expressions on their faces. “You thought we wouldn’t be able to pull it off?” she asked incredulously. “Boy, you guys *are* idiots.” At Harry’s withering glance, she merely laughed. “Just kidding,” she added, kissing her fiance. She glanced around at the people in the room and smiled softly. This was the group of people she had grown to love as family during the past few years. Well, all except for Lisa, of course. And Tuvok was due to arrive the day before the wedding. She sighed happily, then smiled. “Shall we eat?”

Across the table, B’Elanna smiled. “And if I remember correctly, you three are at *our* mercy for the next twenty-four hours.” she added snidely.

Chakotay, Tom, and Harry paled visibly.
*****
"We ended up getting lost for the rest of the morning.” Lisa was saying, telling everyone of her and Tom’s romantic trip to London, England. Of course, she was leaving out some of the parts, like how they had kissed in the cathedral- She shook her head slightly, clearing her mind of those rather...wonderful thoughts.

“We were not lost!” Tom contradicted, taking a sip of his wine as he gazed at Doav.

Her ____ eyes sparkled, “Then how come you had no idea where we were?” she shot back teasingly.

Tom rolled his eyes. “I knew where we were, its just that we took a wrong turn down that one street-”

Heather, sitting next to Harry and B’Elanna, burst out laughing. “Oh, jeez!” she cried out, then buried her head in her hands. She shook with silent laughter, trying not to howl. “I’m sorry,” she replied, looking up with tears in her blue eyes. “It’s just that-” She started laughing again. Seeing Tom’s confused glance, she added. “Remember that time during our last year at the Acadamy? A bunch of us went to Risa to celebrate that we had all more or less passed the finals, and one day we decided to go horse-back-riding. We ended up getting lost, and Tom and Brian insisted that they knew exactly where we were. Turns out we had to spend the night in the wilderness because of them.”

“That clearly implies how much mature women are than men.” Seven commented, setting her fork down. Her blue eyes twinkled impishly.

Kathryn groaned. “Oh, no. Let’s not start this discussion again.” There had been a two week Battle of the Sexes aboard Voyager after Tom had implied that men were the superior sex during a conversation with a certain chief engineer. The conversation had rocketed in the Mess Hall, drawing Harry and Heather into the conversation. It had sky-rocketed throughout the ship. Needless to say, choas and havoc had reigned onboard Voyager then.

“Besides, why should we bother? We *know* who’s superiour, anyway.” B’Elanna added in a dull voice.

That only egged Tom more. “Oh, very funny, ‘Lanna. You can’t help admit that you fell for that one prank.” he shot back, taking a bite of the ham. He remembered the prank well; it was one of the best he had pulled yet. He had talked a rather reluctant Torres into having dinner with him, saying that they should call a truce. The evening had been rather romantic, until he had-

“Shut up, Tom.” she replied simply.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “Please, lets not have any broken bones. After all, the *last* time this was discussed-” He stopped when both Torres and Paris turned to stare at him. “Never mind. But seriously, holograms are the superiors hands-down. After all, we don’t have to eat, sleep, or reproduce.”

B’Elanna wondered briefly if he was trying to act like that hologram on the ship the two of them had discovered shortly after her Day of Honor. She pushed it aside. If he was, he was doing a pretty good job of it. “Very funny, Doctor. Just remember, I can delete your program if I wanted to.”

Chakotay covered up a smile, remembering the numerous times B’Elanna had threatened to do so. The Doctor had gotten so agrivated over it that he had come to the first officer and demanded that a copy of his holo-matrix be kept in safe-keeping.

“Now, now. Let’s not get into that topic again.” Neelix said. “Lieutenant Commander Whitney-” At Heather’s helpless glance, he started again. “Heather, would you mind if I got a copy of the recipe for this sauce? It tastes delicious. I wonder if I could use leola root in it...”

Inwardly, the half Betazoid groaned, but she didn’t say anything negative. “Sure, Neelix. Its in one of the cookbooks.” she said half-heartedly.

“So, Lisa, what exactly do you do?” Harry questioned, glancing at Tom’s fiancee curiously.

Lisa smiled. “I’m an archeologist, but I guess you could throw in scientist and designer in along with that, too.”

“Really?” Heather perked up.

Lisa nodded. “Starfleet actually asked me to design a state-of-the-art starship for them. I haven’t really started yet, but I’ve got the basic sketches done. It’s not really good-”

“Oh, you’re too modest. Lisa is one of the best artists I’ve ever met.” Tom commented. “Her starship designs are spectacular.”

“Have you ever designed clothes before?” Whitney asked Doav interestedly.

At Lisa’s blank look, Tom had to laugh. “You have a one track mind, Heather. Clothes and shopping.”

Whitney set down her fork and glared at the pilot. “Oh, yeah? Well-” Harry gave her a reapproaching look and she stopped. The last thing she wanted was for the two of them to get into a fight.

Kathryn raised her eyebrows and shared a glance with Chakotay. Starfleet had suggested that they have a full-time archeologist onboard, since they were about to go on a series of long-term missions to distant planets that had once been inhabited. *I wonder...* “Tom, are you going to come back to Voyager or am I going to have to go looking for another “damn good” pilot?” she asked, leaning forward so she could look down the table at the man.

Paris smiled at her comment. “That depends.” he stated, but didn’t go into any further detail.

Heather nearly stomped her foot. *He is so unfair!* she whined telepathically to B’Elanna and Harry. *He’s never going to come back to Voyager! That’s just not fair!*

Harry’s dark eyes widened and B’Elanna clamped a hand over her mouth. “Life’s not fair, Heather.” she managed to comment.

Kim shook with laughter, and Whitney looked wistful. “How come I’ve heard that before.” she muttered.

Janeway, knowing all too well what Heather was talking about, almost burst out laughing. “Actually, there is a solution for this. I don’t know if its really long-term, but it could work out in everyone’s advantage.” At Tom’s raised eyebrows and Lisa’s interested look, she continued. “Voyager has been ordered to go on a three month mission to scout another region of barely explored space in the Beta quadrent. I know as a fact that we would be digging up ruins and mining previously inhabited worlds. I could use a good pilot, and quite frankly, I could sure use an experienced archeologist. The last time we went digging Jenny Delany accidentally broke an ancient artifact.”

Lisa brightened. “You’re serious?” she asked, astonished.

Her mouth curved into a small smile as Kathryn replied, “I wouldn’t have said it if I hadn’t.”

Meanwhile, Heather was busy muttering to B’Elanna and Harry: “How come Starfleet is always sending Voyager on ‘long term’ assignments to uninhabited parts of the universe?” At Torres and Kim’s blank looks, she added. “I swear they want us to get lost again. And I for one do *not* want to go back to the Delta quadrent.”

Harry and B’Elanna both started laughing. The EMH, who had heard the science officer’s comment, had to smile. “Actually, I think they just want to ditch you, Commander Whitney. After all, we were fine before you came along.”

“Oh, shut up!” Heather replied, but she, too, was laughing.

Chakotay cleared his throat. “Ahem.”

Everyone who was laughing sobered up. Tom was nodding. “I’d have to check with Starfleet but I’m sure they’d let me. Lisa?”

“That sounds absolutely lovely. Thank you, Kathryn.” Doav added.

Janeway only smiled. “You’re welcome.”
*****