Shut Up/Kiss Me
It's dinnertime for the Alpha shift on Voyager and the mess hall is alive with activity. Neelix is behind the counter serving the crew the latest "delights" to be produced in his kitchen.
At one of the tables, Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres, Harry Kim and Seven of Nine are eating their meal.
"I have to say, Neelix's hair pasta is actually starting to taste edible," exclaims Tom in his usual style.
"Tom, keep it down. You don't want to hurt his feelings. It's bad enough at the moment with things the way they are between the Captain and Chakotay to have someone else upset," says B'Elanna.
"B'Elanna right Tom. Does anyone have any idea what the argument was all about between the two of them?" says Harry.
This catches the attention on Ensign Tilly Watson as she walks by their table. She grabs a chair from another table and sits down with the others.
"Tilly if you don't mind this is a private conversation," says Tom in a condescending tone.
Tilly gets up and said, "Fine, no skin of my nose, but I thought you wanted to know what the argument between the Captain and the Commander was about!"
Tilly starts to walk away. "Tilly wait. Tom just shut up," says B'Elanna. "What have you heard Tilly?"
Tilly looks back at the table and looks at everyone individually, the last being Tom. She sits down, never loosing eye contact with Paris. Sending him her best "don't mess with me!" look. Tom looks away first; Tilly thinks to herself, "that another one to me 'helmboy'."
"Would you two please pit a stop to this constant up-oneship you have going and concentrate on the Captain and the Commander" say Harry. Then under his breath "Man, anybody would think that the two of you were in love with each other!"
B'Elanna started laughing at Harry's suggestion and at the looks on both Tom's and Tilly's faces.
In true Aussie fashion "Not bloody likely!" says Tilly. Harry now joins B'Elanna and starts laughing.
Seven just sat there storing all the information for her next meeting with the Doctor so that they would have something to discuss. Seven has notice that the Doctor seems to enjoy this type of discussion.
"Okay, if you two have finished laughing. I heard on good authority that it all started during a game of velocity that the Captain and Commander were playing about a fortnight ago." Seeing the blank looks on everyone's faces, Tilly realizes that she said fortnight instead of two weeks. Chastising herself for the slip she says "the game they played two weeks ago!" The faces weren't looking so blank now.
"Apparently the Commander made a suggestion to the Captain about her playing technique to which the Captain replied, "What would you know since I seem to win all the time." To which the Commander replied, "That is so typical of you!" To which the Captain replied, "What do you mean by that?" and so the argument went. Anyway the Captain walked out of the holodeck and they haven't been seen together since outside work."
"Wait a minute, this all started because of an innocent comment" says Tom.
"It looks that way. So what are we going to do about it?" says Harry.
"What do we always do? We come up with a plan" Tom grinned mischievously.
"Easier said than done" Harry muttered, thinking of the way Toms plans usually ended. "Maybe we should just let them work it out for themselves?"
"Come on Harry, the two of them are as stubborn as a couple of mules, if we left it up to them, they'd never speak again" B'Elanna said. "And I for one want to see them happy together"
"I do too, its just, well, what if it backfires" Harry looked at Tom, he would be in whatever Tom had planned of course, he just didn't want to get into trouble, or upset the Captain.
"Harry, Harry, Harry, trust me! Have I ever steered you wrong?" Everyone laughed. "Ok, ok, any ideas?" He looked round the table.
Everyone was silent, each trying to think of a way to get their Captain and Commander back together.
A small voice said from under the table "I just think you should make them kiss"
Everyone peered under the table. "Naomi! What are doing down there?" B'Elanna asked.
"Hiding from Uncle Neeelix. He made me dinner, but I hate Leola root!" Everyone laughed.
"Come out from under there, and I'll replicate something special for you" Tilly laughed, moving over to the replicator. "You've just given me a great idea!"
Naomi scooted out from under the table. Aunt Tilly's treats were always special. Returning to the table Tilly handed Naomi a plate.
"What is it?" Naomi asked poking at the brown spongy object on the plate. It was covered in white stuff.
"It's called a lamington. It's a small cake, with jam and cream inside it. The white stuff is coconut, go on try it" Taking a small bite Naomi's eyes lit up.
"mmmmm, its yummy" she said taking a bigger bite.
Tom turned to Tilly. "So what's your idea?" he was a bit miffed that that Tilly had come up with a plan before he had.
Tilly looked at Tom, she knew she had just gotten one up on him. Excitedly she said, "Ok, its talent night soon isn't it? Well I was going to sing something anyway, so what if I sang something that contained a message that they just couldn't ignore?" Looking round the table she could see everyone was pleased with her idea. "What do you think?"
"I think it's a great idea!" Harry exclaimed.
"Me too" B'Elanna smiled.
"I fail to see the relevance of how a song will make the Captain and Commander forget they are fighting, however, I have no other suggestions to make" said Seven.
Taking that as a yes from seven, Tilly turned to Tom. He started to say "All we need to do now is come up with a song, I should be able to..."
"I've already thought of one" Tilly looked smugly at Tom. "It's an old song from Australia. From the late 20th Century. It should do the trick. The chorus goes something like... " Tilly sang a bit of the chorus. Everyone started grinning, even Seven.
"If that doesn't get them to kiss, I don't know what will" B'Elanna commented. Harry looked troubled.
"Hey Harry, what's wrong don't you like it?" Tom looked at his buddy.
"No, I think it's a great idea, its just, well, how are we going to make sure they turn up? Chakotay might be there, unless he finds out the Captain will be there, but, well Captain Janeway hasn't been out socially since they started fighting, she hides out in her quarters, or in her ready room"
"Well we are in the middle of negotiations with the Tusdrewon's, in one of the reports I read it mention that the Tusdrewon's are very interested in sharing their cultural with other races and vice versa. So why don't we turn the talent night into a cultural exchange night and invite the Tusdrewon's to share with us some of their cultural entertainment and we do the same" said B'Elanna.
Everyone nodded his or her head in agreement with the idea. "Both the Captain and Commander would have to be there because it's official ship business. We should get Neelix in on the plan so that he can organize this with the Captain's approval" said Tilly.
Tom and Harry brought Neelix up to date on their plan. Neelix of course thought that it was a great idea and was more than willing to help out.
Neelix approached the Captain with the suggestion to have a cultural exchange night with the Tusdrewon's. Janeway, knowing that it would be a prefect ending to the trade negotiations, gave her approval.
Both Janeway and Neelix contacted the Tusdrewon's and invited them to the cultural night and invited them to present a number of items. The Tusdrewon's were trilled to be asked to participate in the event, that was organize two nights later, just before Voyager was to continue its journey home.
Neelix informed his co-conspirators that everything was organize and that it was schedule for the night before Voyager left orbit.
"Okay, so apart from Tilly, who else should we have perform?" asked Harry.
"Well, how about you and Susan do something," said B'Elanna, "And maybe askTuvok to do something also."
Tom looked at B'Elanna in shock, "Are you crazy, we want people to enjoy themselves, not go asleep," he said.
"I wasn't talking about him reciting Vulcan poetry. I was thinking that maybe asking him to play his lute," said B'Elanna as she hit Tom on the arm for calling her crazy.
"That's a great idea B'Elanna" said Tilly.
"The Doctor has requested to be allowed to do an item or so, he also has asked for myself to join him," said Seven.
"Seven I didn't know that you could sing?" said Tom.
"The Doctor assures me that I can," said Seven.
"I wonder how he knows that?" said B'Elanna.
"It would have been when the Hirogens were on Voyager and the World War 2 simulation was being played out," said Harry.
Everyone who was apart of the Hirogen's simulations had read the report from Harry and the Doctor but still had no memory of it.
"I look forward to hearing what you and the Doctor perform," said Tilly to Seven.
"Okay, that sounds like enough if everyone does two items or so, agree?" said Tom. Everyone nodded his or her head in agreement. "Okay then B'Elanna since it was your idea to ask Tuvok to play his lute, why don't you do the honors."
"It will be my pleasure," said B'Elanna.
"Tom we will need to add some additional programming to our program to allowed for the Tusdrewon's," said Neelix.
"Okay Neelix. Well let's get to it everyone," said Tom.
Everyone left and went about preparing for the cultural night.
The idea of the cultural night with the Tusdrewon's was great and Chakotay was really looking forward to it, but having to spend time socially with the Captain was the last thing he wanted to do at this moment.
The two of them haven't spoken to each other since that day on the holodeck. 'It was a classic case of Janeway knowing better than anyone else,' he thought to himself, 'no that's true. It was more of a case of his feelings of not being able to convince her that they could work together and still have a relationship as more than friends.' These feelings were starting to slip over into their friendship and if he didn't sort it out, then they wouldn't even have the friendship.
With that thought in mind, Chakotay decided to start mending their friendship, the most important thing to him was their friendship.
Kathryn was getting ready for the cultural evening. She has been informed that Tuvok was playing his lute, Harry and Susan were performing as well as the Doctor and Seven. The thought of Seven singing was still foreign to her, Kathryn was going to be interested in how Seven does.
Tilly as also singing, something which Kathryn always enjoyed. Tilly always seemed to find the right song to set the right mood for the crew. Kathryn was always grateful to have her on board because of that.
Speaking aloud to herself, "I wish Tilly could fix the problem between Chakotay and myself."
Kathryn has noticed that Chakotay was trying to mend their friendship in the last couple of days. She wanted to do the same, but something was holding her back and she didn't know what.
Speaking to herself again, "I suggest that you stop thinking about your first officer and get ready, otherwise you are going to be late and that really wouldn't look good."
The evening had gone really well so far. Neelix and Tom programmed a nightclub setting with the all around a dance floor and a stage at the front where the holographic band was. As an extra touch, Tom programmed Sandrine as the hostess for the evening. Naomi was her assistant.
Nobody had gone to sleep during Tuvok's performance as Tom excepted. In fact everyone was amazed at the emotions which Tuvok produce in his playing and everyone gain a new respect for the chief of security.
One of the Tusdrewon's recited poetry that started to have the same effect that Vulcan poetry had on the Voyager crew, but before anyone disgraced himself or herself the recital was finished.
Harry and Susan performed effortlessly, but the real surprise was the Doctor and Seven. They performed, as the Doctor announced it, "A comparative study of duets in popular musical theatre from the later part of the 20th Century and the early part of the 21st Century." Not only did they sing but in some cases acted the roles. Watching the Doctor and Seven perform 'A little fall of Rain' from Les Miserables, made everyone wonder if in fact Seven was gaining her sense of humanity back, it was a very powerful performance.
The last performer was Tilly who sang a little bit of Blues and so on. Then the plan when into action.
"The next song what I will sing tonight is from the later part of the 20th Century from Australia. I have been requested by one of my fellow crewmembers to sing this song for someone that they care about. They also asked that I just say that they wish things were sorted out between them and that they could move on," said Tilly, taking a huge gamble that it would work and she wouldn't be put in the brig.
Harry leaned over the Tom and B'Elanna and said, "Did either of you know she was going to say that?"
"No, it took a lot of guts if you ask me. I just hope that it works out," said B'Elanna. Tom nodded his head in agreement.
The lights went down and the music began. Tilly's pure voice came drifting through the room as a spot light came on her.
- I was caught by your smile, under a blushing moon,
- you were the only one left, there
- words poured like wine, over and over
- and you were the only one left, there
- with sky born, blue grey eyes.
- sky born, blue grey eyes.
- Pale light falls, over a broken bed,
- you were the only one left, there
- cold hands in mine, lips, bruised and black
- you were the only one left, there
- with sky born, blue grey eyes.
- sky born, blue grey eyes
- Shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now, kiss me now.
- I have been patient, the patience is gone
- Shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now, kiss me now.
- All of my vision has blurred into one,
- oh just
- Shut up, just shut up, just shut up, and kiss me now.
- Dew of the night, fell on us like a ghost
- you were the only one left, there
- I wept as a child, wept for the life I'd lost
- you were the only one left, there
- with sky born, blue grey eyes.
- sky born, blue grey eyes (shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now, kiss me)
- sky born, blue grey eyes (just shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now, kiss
- me)
- sky born, blue grey eyes
- Shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now kiss me now.
- I have been patient, the patience is gone
- Shut up and kiss me now, kiss me now kiss me now.
- All of my vision has blurred into one,
- oh just
- Shut up just shut up just shut up, and kiss me
- Shut up just shut up just shut up, and kiss me
- Shut up just shut up just shut up, and kiss me know.
Kathryn was wondering who requested the song and what had happen between the friends when the lights went down. But as soon as Tilly started singing the song mesmerized her. It was almost as it was talking to her.
As the song progressed, the words hit home with Kathryn and realize how she was going to handle the situation with Chakotay. She looked towards Chakotay who was sitting on the opposite side of the table. Chakotay was looking at her, his feelings were clearly seen.
Chakotay always enjoyed Tilly's choice of songs, they always brought another dimension to the evening. But this song, it felt as though it was written for him and also for Kathryn. Sky born blue grey eyes, kept repeating in his head.
He looked at Kathryn and watched her face and saw the change that was occurring. He loved her and he was now more the ever going to make her realize that they belong together not only as friends but also as lovers.
He saw Kathryn look at him directly. The love that he knew was there behind the 'protocals' was clearly shown as her face.
He decided then and there to do something about it and got up from the table and walked over to where she was sitting.
The song had just finished and the lights came back on just as he open his mouth to speak. He paused for a moment and then said, "Kathryn we can keep going on like this….."
Kathryn held up her hand to stop him and said, "Just shut up and kiss me." Chakotay smiled and bent his head down to hers and kiss her.
A cheer went up from the Voyager crew at the sight. There were a few "We did it!" from the conspirators. The Tusdrewon's just looked at the scene before them and smiled.
The End.
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