"State your purpose?" Seven asked as she saw Leonard come into her storeroom. Her alcove was humming quietly in the corner as she interfaced with her computer. He was carrying a towel and a particle ray in his hand.

  "Here to clean your shoes." He said thrusting out his chin in defiance.

  "A waste of time. The cleanliness of my foot wear is irrelevant." She told him flatly.

  He paused for a moment as if milling it over in his mind, then shrugged.

  "As you wish. Anyway I wanted to apologize."

  This made Seven's brows raise in question. "Explain."

  He scratched the back of his neck, even though it didn't itch, and came forward a bit more so that he'd be within more comfortable low speaking tones with the tall blonde knock out.

  "I apologize for putting you on the spot like that.... sorry about that. Really." He could be charming at times, and a few wisps of white hair weren't going to change that.

  "The spot?" She looked at the floor to see if there was anything indicating an area she was in.

  He realized it was the same lack of slang that also kept her from expressing herself. He bit his lower lip apologetically. "Well, for what it's worth, we weren't really thinking about YOU when we chose you as a protector, we were thinking of ourselves. And we got together, and well, we'd like you to have this..." He pulled a small box out from behind him.

  Seven took the box and opened it as if it might be a new shipment of weight lifting equipment. But she gasped when she saw what was inside. The small box had an even smaller crystal clear box in it, and inside that was a perfect replication of Voyager, right down to the battle scars from the recent Borg encounter.

  She gazed at it's flawlessness and expected to see people walking around in the windows it was so perfect.

  "It is... beautiful." Seven watched his reaction to see if she'd chosen the appropriate word. Evidently she did because he was becoming very emotional about it.

  "So you'll always remember, you're a real hero to us, no matter what size you are." He gave her a hug whether she wanted it or not and was surprised when she wordily put her arms around him for a moment and then returned to her tasks.

  "Perhaps I shall require footwear cleaning at a later time. They are..." She looked at her feet again. "Sufficiently clean at this time." She tried to diffuse the situation with humor.

  The Doctor had counseled her on it many times. Sometimes humor eluded her though. This time it may have worked.

  Leonard smiled at her and left with a quick step. Seven would have preferred a fight to human interaction, but somehow she was more at ease knowing she wouldn't be despised for causing the whole incident in the first place. Her family aboard Voyager seemed to have an infinite capacity of forgiveness, and showing even more fondness for her since her blunder.

  "Curious." She thought to herself.

-     -     -

  Marla was an officer now, and the other Equinox crew members were taken off the shit list as well.

  Janeway had visited with her a time or two as the ship was put to rights and they were underway at full power. She'd even had the chance to do some things with B'elana out of the picture for the time being.

  The tall blonde was dreading seeing the half Klingon again.

  Suddenly she was rewarded with a little party.

  James had replicated them dinner and brought it to her quarters. She was thrilled that her "little man" was happy with her work as a protector. They'd worked together so often that they just now were getting to relax a bit around each other. James was feeding her crackers as they played some comfortable music.

  "One thing I don't get..." Marla asked as she ate and kissed him between bites.

  He was smiling as he rubbed her thigh in between treating her like his princess. "What?"

  She was thinking about the whole Borg incident since it happened.

  "Well, if WE were the ones that made the Queen that took over the cube, why don't we have the Borg technology?" She wondered. James just kissed her again.

  "Don't ask me, I don't know any more than you. I was just a passenger, remember?" He pulled open her uniform top to check out her breasts. Marla had long since lost all bashfulness around James and he quickly exposed the area he'd been riding as a tiny tag along to his protector. Marla looked down at her own exposed breasts.

  "And they didn't get us any closer to home." She pouted a bit.

  "But I wouldn't say we came out COMPLETELY empty handed...." They both knew what he meant.

-     -     -

  Elsewhere aboard Voyager, there was a trail of clothes, and a Borg inspired device sitting in the corner pulsing.

  Nearby, Susan Gaines was talking in a low murmur.

  "If the other women aboard the ship knew you could do this, you'd be promoted from cook." She said suggestively. She turned the Borg device on again and suddenly Neelix was grown to normal size again.

  "I'd rather not do it for just anyone, let's make it our LITTLE secret." Then he took the Borg sizing device back to the weapon's room where he'd "borrowed" it on his way back to the kitchen.

  Nope. Not completely empty handed.

THE END

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