cassievalentine | (no subject)

Just a little ficlet I wrote for the 15 minute ficlet over at a message board. The word was "Gluons"

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"What on earth are you doing?" Kathryn asked as she came into her ready room, only to see Chakotay helping Naomi riffle through her desk. Naomi's eyes grew wide as she shrunk behind the Commander. He, on the other hand, simply stood up and smiled.

"We're searching."

"For?" she asked as her hands landed on her hips.

"Gluons," he replied with a smile as he looked down at Naomi. The girl nodded and smiled weakly, wondering what on earth the Captain was going to say about this.

"Gluons," Kathryn repeated. "Why on earth are you looking for sub-atomic particles."

"Not those gluons," Chakotay said as he removed a small something and slipped it to Naomi before ushering the girl out of the ready room. Kathryn shook her head as they left, but quickly went behind the desk and looked in the still open desk to see what they had taken.
***
"Are you sure she's not mad?" Naomi asked as they took the turbo lift down a few decks.

"I am," Chakotay answered. He hadn't been paying attention on the duty schedules and had sent Neelix on an away mission while Sam was on duty. He had done the only thing he could and volunteered to take the girl for the day.

"Where to next?" she asked eagerly as she followed him off of the turbo lift.

"Right here," he said as he led her into Kathryn's quarters and straight to a small box. "Pick something out of here."

"Are you sure these are gluons?" she asked as she looked in the box. "They seem a little big."

"I'm sure," he chuckled and helped her pick out a few items before doing the same in his quarters. The pair finally returned to the Wildman's quarters to get down to business.
***
"They've been sneaking around all day," Tom said to B'Elanna and Harry as they sat in the mess hall after their shifts. "Collecting gluons."

"Gluons," B'Elanna said, not believing this.

"Yeah. I heard him tell the Captain that they weren't THOSE kind of gluons," Tom added.

"There's only one kind of gluon, Tom," Harry countered. The helmsman simply shrugged and drank his better-than-coffee substitute.

"I think you're hearing things," B'Elanna said with a shake of her head. The trio became silent as Commander Chakotay and his charge came into the mess hall, taking a moment to riffle through some of the baskets Neelix kept in the open for snacking when he wasn't present.

"Gluons?" Tom called.

"Gluons!" Naomi said with a smile as she held up her latest treasure.

"Told ya," Tom said with a smile as they watched the pair leave.
***
"Go on then," Chakotay nudged Naomi forward a few days later. The pair found themselves back in Kathryn's ready room to finish their project.

"I, um, I mean we. . . " Naomi trailed off, her hands shaking as she tried to steel herself to face Janeway.

"What have you got?" Kathryn asked as she came out from behind her desk. Naomi thrust the heavy paper at Kathryn.

"We made it, for your wall," she finally got out. Kathryn looked at Chakotay who simply smiled, dimples and all before she opened the paper and looked at the picture. They had made a lovely little scene from earth.

"This looks like home," she said with a smile.

"The Commander told me about a tree you used to climb," Naomi said, her nervousness being forgotten. "He helped me find stuff to use as gluons," Naomi said, pointing out the coffee grounds they had used for dirt as well as dried plant leaves for the tree. Kathryn laughed when she heard the term gluons used again.

"Thank you very much, both of you," Kathryn said with a smile and a tear in her eye as Naomi helped her put the picture on her wall.
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