Disclaimer: Paramount owns all these lovely characters, I just borrowed them for a little while. No harm done.

Dedications: Since this is my first story, I would like to dedicate it to my fellow members of the Collective. Thanks for being just as crazy and insane as me. And for my best friend Caitlin, who started a fanfic with me that we never finished. We might some day...

Sighing, Samantha Wildman plopped down into her usual seat right next to Freddy Bristow. This was just minutes after she had finally gotten Naomi to fall asleep. Sam put her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. Sue Nicoletti entered the room, having just finished her double shift down in engineering. She was surprisingly wide awake and ready to talk. Joe Carey was the last to arrive. He wasn’t quite awake, but he was at least going to try and hopefully not collapse onto the floor. The four friends and took their regular seats around the room, all within earshot of the others.

"Hey Joe, what stories do you have for us tonight?" Freddy smiled. Lieutenant Carey always seemed to have his eyes and ears open while roaming the ship. Especially when anywhere near their latest topic of discussion: a certain engineer and her relationship with a certain pilot.

"First of all Freddy," His superior laughed. "You owe me two replicator rations." The younger officer raised his eyebrow. "The chief won’t be taking a second look at you anytime soon." This caused both women to turn their heads. "This morning in the mess hall..."

...Joe Carey played with his food. He wasn’t in the mood to eat, especially eggs and bacon. He turned around just in time to see Lieutenants Paris and Torres stride in together. They took their seats at the table right next to Carey’s, keeping him within perfect earshot.

Joe glanced down at his chronometer. He had only two minutes left before his shift in engineering. Reluctantly, he stood up and left the mess hall, wondering what else the two senior officers were discussing...

"I didn’t stand a chance anyway." Bristow sighed.

Carey laughed. "Now you know that’s not true. She almost agreed to that dinner date a couple of weeks ago."

"Almost."

Nicoletti ended the argument. "I have a story that could cause some debate." All eyes turned to her. "A few nights ago, I was headed toward engineering after a discussion with the captain. It must have been...oh...0300 hours..."

...Sue stopped just several inches from Tom Paris’ quarters. She hid around the corner after seeing the door open. No one was around to question her actions, so she figured she could get away with a little eavesdropping. Peering around the corner, she spied B’Elanna Torres step out wearing her off duty clothes. It was a sleeveless dark blue and royal purple dress that came to her mid thigh.

So the pilot is sneaking the engineer out of his quarters in the wee hours of the morning? Interesting...

Her three friends all wore similar smirks as she finished the story.

"You know, the rumor mill is going crazy with rumors about B’Elanna being pregnant." Freddy began. "And she was in sickbay earlier this week. I saw her leave."

Sam shook her head. "I don’t think so. I’d know if she was. I work in sickbay."

Nicoletti giggled. "Sam does have a point. And we work with her."

Joe agreed instantly. "I bet that the two of them will be engaged within the year. Or at least make their relationship a little more public."

This was something that Joe and Sue did not agree on. "Tom isn’t one for settling down. I can’t picture him as a father. He’s going to be a bachelor ‘til the day he dies."

"Do you want to make a bet on that?"

"Absolutely Lieutenant. Three replicator rations?"

Carey nodded and they shook on it. Freddy shook his head and smiled. At least his rations were being put to good use. Wildman decided to tell her story at this point, hoping to keep Carey and Nicoletti quiet for a couple minutes.

"Hey, you three won’t believe what I did see in sickbay the other day." That shut them up. Sam laughed. "Anyway, our two lieutenant friends came in directly from the holodeck. Apparently they were doing some sort of Klingon program, and you know the rumors about those..."

...Sam Wildman looked up as the doors to sickbay opened. Paris and Torres entered, both completely out of breath.

After everything had been fixed, the officers left the room and went separate ways...

"I saw them again later that night. They were walking into Lieutenant Paris’ quarters together. I guess they made up." Wildman finished her story. She glanced around the room and realized that Joe Carey had fallen asleep on Sue’s shoulder and Freddy was leaning against the wall almost asleep. She couldn’t help but laugh at that. Sighing rather audibly, she stood up and headed to the door. Before she got to the door, she heard a loud thud coming from the wall panel across the room from Bristow.

***

B’Elanna Torres giggled as she heard the end of Wildman’s last story. Tom silenced her with a kiss and attempted to roll out from under her, which was quite difficult because of the small amount of space a Jefferies tube allowed. His movement resulted in a loud thud and B’Elanna laughing even more. He leaned over yet again and kissed her softly, letting it grow into something a little more passionate.

All of a sudden, the panel opened and Sam Wildman peered in. Paris and Torres were in a very compromising situation. Sam’s face reddened with embarrassment as she realized what she and her friends had just been discussing. B’Elanna looked at Sam first and smiled before crawling out of the Jefferies tube. Tom quickly followed her.

After glancing around the room, she turned to Tom. "You owe me two replicator rations Paris. The whole ship does gossip about us during their off time."

Wildman reddened even more with that comment.

This is the last time I ever take part in Joe’s little discussion groups.

Tom smiled at the junior officer’s reaction and pulled B’Elanna up for another kiss before leading her out of the room.

Sam collapsed into a chair just as her three friends woke up. "Who were you talking to?" Freddy asked, yawning.

Sam laughed. "The topics of our latest discussion."

The End