Klingon Hearts 11 Controlled - Limitations of the Mind

by Tracy Sobieski

  A smile lit her face when she saw Sherise sitting at the table with Melanie.

  "Oh, good. Sane company."

  The other women laughed. "So," K'Leena began, grabbing a mug from the rack and reaching for the coffee pot. "What's up?"

  Melanie stood up and swiped the carafe off the counter before K'Leena could poor any into her cup. "Sit down, and let me do that before you spill something. Geeze, K'Leena don't you *ever* ask for help?"

  The young mother frowned slightly as she sat at the table. "I just don't think if it. I can pour a cup of coffee one-handed."

  "Why should you?" Melanie sat the cup down on the table in front of K'Leena. "Sherise and I were both just sitting here and you never even considered asking."

  "But I didn't need help."

  Melanie rolled her eyes. "Stubborn."

  "Runs in the family," Sherise muttered.

  "What did my dear brother do now?" K'Leena grinned behind her coffee mug.

  "Arrogant, controlling, stubborn.... I can't believe we're mated. He never even told me, did you know that? Just up and married me like it was all his decision! He never even ASKED!" She stood up and paced to the other side of the large, sunny kitchen.

  "So," K'Leena shrugged. "Divorce him." Robbie was going to kill her for this, but as far as K'Leena was concerned; it served him right.

  Sherise looked at her in shock. "Just like that?"

  "Sure." K'Leena shifted Michael to her other shoulder before she continued. "The Federation recognizes a Klingon mating ritual as a wedding ceremony, and they recognize a Klingon divorce as well. Although, since you only performed the ritual and didn't speak the words, I'm not even sure you are married, but...."

  "K'Leena." Melanie shook her head in warning. "I don't think you should get involved in this."

  "She has the right to know. Robbie married her under Klingon law and tradition, she has the right to know she can divorce him under those laws."

  "How?" Sherise demanded grimly.

  Melanie's eyes widened at Sherise's determined tone. "K'Leena--" she warned again.

  The defiant part-Klingon continued on anyway. "All you have to do is say, 'I divorce you.'"

  "That's it?" Wasn't that too simple, Sherise wondered. Should divorce be long and drawn out? Painful?

  "Yep, that's it."

  "And he can't fight me? I just say it and it's done?"

  "That's all you have to do," K'Leena nodded her head.

  *****

  Tom and B'Elanna met Harry and Seven at the San Francisco spaceport when they beamed down from the Enterprise. Starfleet Command only allowed incoming personnel to beam down at certain approved points on the planet. Even the captain of their flag ship. It took another half hour to clear the check out procedure before they could make their way back to the estate in Tom's private shuttle. It was a good thing the flight was a short one. Tension was high in the small craft. Tom knew as soon as they landed, he was going to have a fight on his hands with his best-friend. The argument was not something he looked forward to.

  It was only a matter of seconds after B'Elanna took Seven to see Tessa before Harry spoke.

  "I'll do whatever it takes to stop you, Tom." Cold determination resounded in Harry's words. This was his family that was being threatened. Friendship or no, he would not allow anything to happen to Tessa.

  "Harry, please," Tom sighed. "I know what you're going through....."

  "You don't have a clue about what I'm going through!"

  Enough. He'd had enough. Why was everyone so convinced he didn't know what he was doing?

  "How dare you say that to me!?" Tom ground out, advancing on Harry.

  "I don't know what it's like?" he asked. "I've never been here? Do you remember what happened the day K'Leena was born, Harry? Because I sure do. It still haunts me at night. And I'm still paying for that decision. Lucas can't even look me in the eye he hates me so much. And now I find out K'Leena has remembered parts of that life and is blaming herself for everything! So don't you stand there all righteous and self-serving! I watched my daughter die to save my life and there wasn't a DAMN thing I could do about it!"

  "This isn't the same thing!" Harry flung out his arms in frustration. "And you know it! If they don't go, people will die! Thousands of people, Tom!"

  "People who were supposed to die in the first place, Harry! We don't have the right to change that! Not then and not now! Don't you understand? I have no choice!"

  "Dammit, Tom!" Harry yelled. "They have to go! You can't alter history now! Think of the ramifications. My God, Tom! Think of the paradox!"

  "That's what I am thinking about!" Tom replied angrily. "All the paradoxes, Harry. All of them."

  "You can't do this. You can't take her from us now."

  "Do you think I want to? I love her too. But I don't have a choice. The Temporal Prime Dir...."

  "I don't give a damn about the Prime Directive, temporal or otherwise. This is my life! My family! I won't let you endanger Tessa's life, Tom," Harry reaffirmed, ice coating every word.

  "Neither will I," Mike stepped forward, making his presence known for the first time.

  "Mike," Tom began feelingly. "You don't...."

  "Don't what? Don't understand?" Mike shook his head in disgust. "The hell I don't. I understand everything. I understand that sometime in the near future we're going to be tangled up in some type of paradox. The results of which is what's been stalking us for almost a year now. We thought it was you they were targeting. But it wasn't, was it? It's always been us! Something we have yet to do is what this is all about. And Tessa," he took a deep breath before continuing. "It's a lot more than that with her. The only reason she exists is because of what is still to come. Tessa herself is a paradox, isn't she?"

  "Mike, we can't...."

  "You don't have to," he cut Tom off sharply. "Tessa told me how her mother was unable to have children. And how, by some miracle, Dr. Bashir was able to reprogram Seven's nanaprobes to support Tessa instead of destroy her as a fetus. If I remember my biology and Borg history the only way he could have done that was to have a sample of Tessa's DNA before she was conceived. And there's only one way he could have gotten that."

  *****

  Seven slowly opened the door to her daughter's bedroom. The curtains had been drawn closed and she was just about to back out of the darkened room when Tessa stirred.

  "Momma?"

  The broken plea tore at Seven's heart. She was beside her daughter in an instant, gathering her in her arms like a small child.

  "I'm here, Tessa. I'm here." She rocked back and forth unconsciously in a effort to sooth the trembling girl. No, woman. Her daughter was a woman now, she needed to remember that.

  "Why?" Tessa sobbed. "Why did he kill my baby?"

  "Shh." It was all the consolation she could offer. She couldn't explain it even if she wanted to. Which she didn't. Tessa didn't need to know why. It would only cause more pain.

  "There will be other children," she lied to her daughter. "You and Mike are young and healthy."

  Tessa pulled away from her mother suddenly angry.

  "Why does everyone think that makes this all better?" she demanded to know, dashing the tears from her eyes. "I can have more babies, so this one doesn't mean anything? Is that it?"

  Seven smiled sadly at a distant memory. "I remember asking the Doctor that once myself. And I remember being just as angry as you are now. No, honey, it doesn't make it all better. Nothing does. I think people feel the need to say it because it gives hope."

  Tessa sighed. "Does it get better?" Right now she didn't believe it possibly could.

  Her mother reached out and took her hand. "Eventually."

  *****

  Lucas turned off the consol in front of him with a deliberate 'click.' Damn. Pren's update had been disheartening. It was worse than he thought. Gellis had spent years planning all this. He'd left nothing to chance. No clues to his whereabouts. No indication of his next move. Nothing. The only thing
Lucas knew with absolute certainty was that the estate was no longer safe. Tessa's miscarriage proved that. Neither was the Valiant or the Enterprise. That left them with one place left to go. One place that gave them a fighting chance. When K'Leena and her mother first suggested it, he'd been incredulous. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

  *****

  "I divorce you, Robert Paris."

  Robbie's eyes widened in shock. "What?"

  "You heard me. I divorce you. The Federation recognizance's a Klingon divorce as well as a Klingon marriage. So, we're divorced."

  "Like hell we are!"

  "If you can marry me without my permission than I sure as HELL can divorce you without YOURS!"

  "Sherise," he growled softly. "You're just upset and emotional because of the preg...."

  "You arrogant son-of-a-bitch!" she seethed. "This has gone on long enough! I am no longer your "mate" so you have no say over me. Understand? I make my own decisions, Robert Paris. Whether you like it or not. Stay away from me. Once the baby is born we can work out some type of shared custody, but from this moment on...you are my EX-husband!"

  "Don't do this, Sherise," he warned again. "You don't want this anymore than I do.

  "You have no idea of what I want. You never did."

  The quiet certainty in her voice cut at him. He reached out and softly touched her arm. "Sherise...."

  She stilled. "It won't work, Robbie. We're too different."

  "We have something special, going here. Give it a chance," he implored.

  "The only thing we have going, is sex." Her voice was bitter with the admission. "It's always been physical, Robbie. From day one. Remember?"

  "Obviously better than you," was his grim reply.

  "I'm tired." Her shoulders drooped in exhaustion. "I'm going to bed. Alone."

  She didn't wait for his reply, instead turning and leaving the room with her head held high and her spine painfully straight. Why did this hurt so much, she wondered. This was what she wanted. Right?

  She tried to tell herself it was just the pregnancy hormones that were making the tears fall from her eyes as she undressed for bed and crawled between the empty sheets.

  Across the hall, Robbie was still standing in the same spot she'd left him in, his hand clenching and unclenching as he tried to get his anger under control.

  He was going to kill his sister. He had no doubt it was her that had given Sherise the recent lesson in Klingon mating rituals. This time the runt was going to pay. She'd gone too far. With a determined stride, he went in search of her.

  "Goddammit, K'Leena!" Robbie roared when he found his sister in the kitchen. She jumped slightly at his enraged stance. "How DARE you interfere in my marriage!"

  Her eyes widened. "I didn't interfere!" K'Leena defended herself. "She had the right to know, Robert! You don't own her!"

  Robbie just barely bit back a growl of frustration, slamming his hand on the table instead.

  Lucas and Mike came into the room a second later

  "What the hell is going on here?!" Lucas asked, immediately noting just how angry his brother-in-law was and how defiantly his wife was standing in front of him. What had she done now? Didn't they have enough to deal with? People were trying to kill them, for crying out loud! The last thing they needed was a family feud.

  "I'm going to kill your wife, Lucas. Get out of the way."

  Mike grabbed a hold of Robbie before Lucas got to him and pulled him back. "Sorry, big guy. If I can't kill her, you can't either."

  Lucas turned to K'Leena, ready to wring her pretty little neck. "How many other people in this house have you pissed off today? Am I going to have to stop Kyle and my Dad from killing you too?"

  She tossed back her head and flounced out of the room in a huff. A very derogatory "Men!" could be heard from the hallway.

  Lucas shook his head in disgust. K'Leena was spoiling for a fight like no one's business.

  *****

  With a very unladylike curse, Melanie threw back the comforter on her bed and sat up. It was obvious she wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon.

  "Arrogant jerk," she grumbled while pulling on the rose satin robe that matched her nightgown, cinching the sash with a vicious tug.

  "'I mean when,'" she mimicked with a snort, jamming her feet into the slippers on the floor next to the bed.

  "Just who does he think he is? God's gift to women? Like I'm going to just *fall* into his bed because he decrees it."

  "I mean when. I'll show him when. When hell freezes over, that's when."

  "Go get him, tiger." The laughing taunt brought Melanie up short. She looked around in shock. When had she left her room?

  K'Leena was nursing Michael on the small sitting room couch that was just off the set of bedrooms they'd all been using. A broad grin lit her face at Melanie's confusion.

  "Um, sorry," she apologized self-consciously for interrupting the new mother.

  "Don't apologize! You're the most entertainment I've had all night."

  Melanie didn't know how to reply to that, so she just turned and left with a shake of her head. She was losing it. Kyle had officially driven her insane.

  "Get used to it," K'Leena's soft voice followed her retreat down the hall.

  K'Leena's smile disappeared when she felt Lucas enter the room from the other doorway.

  "Can I get you anything?" he asked softly.

  "I'm fine." She didn't bother to look at him. Michael was half-asleep, she should probably lay him back down and go to bed, but she didn't think she could lay next to Lucas tonight.

  He sighed. "I'll sleep out here if you want," he offered.

  "Might as well." She flipped her hair back. "You're not willing to give me what I want."

  "'Leena, please...."

  "Just go, Lucas. I've accepted the fact that you don't want me anymore. I'm sorry my body has changed and it isn't attractive to you anymore, but I can't help that."

  Lucas bit back an angry retort. She knew damn well that had nothing to do with it. She was as beautiful to him now as she ever was. Maybe even more so. The sight of her bared breast nourishing their son had made him hard the instant he'd entered the room. She knew it, too. She felt it. She was just baiting him with this nonsense.

  "I'm not going to do this, K'Leena," he told her calmly.

  She growled softly. "You don't do much of anything lately."

  Lucas crossed the room and took their sleeping child from her arms, lifting him up to his shoulder, patting his back lightly. "It's time for bed, big man," he said quietly then strode back into their room.

  K'Leena glared as he disappeared into the darkness. With a snort of disgust, she grabbed the old blanket off the back of the sofa and laid down to sleep.

  When Lucas came looking for her again, after settling down Michael, he shook his head at the sight of her sleeping on the couch. With a muttered curse, he picked K'Leena up and carried her to their bed. She curled her body into his, melting in his arms with a sigh.

  "Love you," she mumbled in her sleep, momentarily forgetting her anger at him.

  Lucas dropped a kiss on her forehead as he laid her down. "Love you too."

  He stood over her for a long moment, watching as she slept. He didn't know how much longer he could stop himself from giving in to her. He wanted her so much, it hurt.

  With a sigh, he tapped the vibrating Alpha Team communicator imbedded just under his ear to shut it off. He hoped his orders had been carried out. They needed to move fast.

  *****

  Tessa was awake when Mike crawled into bed that night. She was laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling. He was surprised. After bringing her downstairs to have dinner with the family and seeing how much it took out of her, he'd been sure she'd be sleeping the minute her head touched the pillow.

  "Are you okay?" he asked quietly, propping his head up with his hand to look down on her and reaching with the other to stroke the petal soft skin of her pale cheek.

&n
bsp; Her eyes met his and instantly filled with tears. "No. Are you?"

  "No." Mike pulled her into his arms, cradling her against his chest as silent tears fell. "I'm so sorry, honey." Unshed tears of his own made his voice deep and husky.

  "I want you to find him for me, Mike," she demanded suddenly, shocking him with the venom he heard in her. "Find him so he can explain why. I need to know why."