summary:my second story Tom mentioned a mouse hunt through a Jeffries tube in one of those episodes with the Hunters "Prey" I think and I've had a lot of mouse problems this year so it is about his little adventure/hunt
Standard Disclaimers I donÕt own these characters Paramount does and I am not making any money off of them.
And is rated PG."Torres to Paris"
"Go ahead"
"Come to my quarters now, . . . Pleeeease"
". . . Ok?"
'Well that was odd', thought Paris 'I've never heard that tone in her voice before, and it was almost panicky and childlike weird'
He had been worried until he actually stepped through the door, then he almost laughed out loud, He could have sworn he'd seen this exact same scene in a cartoon once. If it wasn't for the look she gave him he would have. She was perched precariously on a chair starring at the far corner behind a potted plant were a tinny furry mouse like animal was staring right back at her. "Well don't just stand there do something,Ó she growled out.
"This is why you called me here. To get rid of your rodent problem." He thought it was kind of cute that she could take on any hostile alien twice her size without flinching but she was afraid of an itty-bitty mousie. Course he'd never tell her that she'd rip his head off.
"Just get a box and trap it or fazor it or something . . . pleeease"
"Fazor it, but it's so cute."He teased.
"It is not cute, it'screepyandcrawlyandfurryandit'sgotthesetinybeadyeyesandsharpteethandclawsandit'sjustplaincreepy" 'she was whining like a little girl how cute' thought Tom 'But it was a little disturbing too.
"Okay, just calm down and get off the cha..."
"No! Not until that is gone"
"Fine I'll take care of it" But as soon as Tom took a step it bolted from its hiding space and into an air vent "Well it's gone" This alleviated her little girl panic and drove into a hole new more rational panic, she leapt off the chair and into her bedroom returning with a tricoder and some sort of container with a lid with tiny holes in it, and proceeded to open Jeffries tube door. At Tom's questioning look she said, "We can't let it get into ships systems"
"Your going after it?"
"No, you are going after it" she said as she pushed the tricorder and container into Tom's arms.
"Oh no, I'm not going in their.Ó Suddenly his own irrational fear was coming to the surface. Usually he wasn't afraid of Jeffries tubes but that was mainly because somebody else was with him, if he was lucky.
"Tom, do this for me." Well how could he refuse she rarely asked favors and he would do anything for her, and not just because she was a beautiful woman either, though that did have something to do with it.
"Okay, but you owe me,Ó he said as he started to crawl into the tube, then
"Tom," when he turned around she caught his mouth in a light kiss and said in a husky whisper "I'll keep the door open" and with that he turned around, tricorder in hand and ready for the hunt. Thankfully it hadn't gotten very far it was still on deck Nine section twelve Jeffries tube 17, straight ahead and to the right THERE! He pounced with the contained but the creature was a hair too quick, it scurried off down the tube and out of site but the tricorder could still pick it up and Tome moved off after it. Finally after about 15 minutes of twists and turns, with Tom following as closely as he could given the slow speed he capable of in such cramped quarters, he had it trapped in a corner with no were left to run he dove on it.
"Yes! Gotcha you little bugger." He slid the cover on under it, turned it over and crawled back out the way he came.
"Well?"
"Well, what?"
"Did you get it?"
A sly grin creased his lips and B'Elanna glared at him darkly, then his grin grew into his eyes and he took the container from his back with a flourish.
"My Hero." she said sarcastically but a sincere thank you was implied.
"So what should we do with it?"
"We should probably return it to wherever it came from."
"Agreed, But how do we know were it came from."
Then she gave them that duh look and said "it must be from that planet we set down on a few days ago" then she gave him an I'm sorry I thought you were an idiot, but I love you anyway look and said "but we'll run it by the Doctor just to be sure."
As they entered sickbay and turned on the Doctor and he saw it was his to "favorite" patients, he intoned, "Well what injuries have you two inflicted on each other this time?"
"Thanks for your concern Doc but we're fine, we brought you a little friend."
The Doctor then took the container and asked "what is the problem?"
"There's no 'problem' Doctor, we just need to know if it came from the planet we were on a few days ago or not, so we can return it."
"Give me a few minutes" and the Doctor ran several scans and checked them against the scans from the planet, when he came up with the answer, "You were correct Lieutenant, he is in fact a species indigenous to that planet."
"Well who wants to give the captain the good news?"
"What, 'sorry captain but we have to waste three days going in reverse just so I furry friend can frolic in the fields of Farley Four?'"
Torres' mouth quirked up "That sounded like a tongue twister."
"Rather than listen to you two banter back and forth all day, (as amusing as that is) I will tell the captain the bad news."
While the Doctor called the Captain and filled her in, Tom and B'Elanna sat in the patient area with the creature.
"So," Tom treaded cautiously "Why are you afraid of Mice?" "When she didn't answer he tried for a more playful tone to get her to open up. "Come on, what did they ever do to you, there just cute little, harmless creatures. Did it destroy your favorite hyper spanner?"
At this she glared but answered him anyway "No, and they are definitely not cute, and I am not afraid of them . . . they just give me the creeps."
He gave a 'fair enough' look and let the subject drop when the captain came in to view the creature. She took one look and asked "is it dangerous?"
"No, he is harmless, I suspect it is more scared of Lieutenant Torres than she is of it." At this B'Elanna blushed and glared at the Doctor.
"How could such a cute creature be of any harm?Ó Tom said ironically given B'Elanna's volatile nature.
"No matter how cute it is Mister Paris it still may pose a threat to ships systems, and there may be more of them. B'Elanna get down to Astrometrics the scanners there should be powerful enough to detect them were the regular ones apparently failed, meanwhile Tom set a course back towards the creatures planet, dismissed"
B'Elanna, once in astrometrics began scanning for the pesky critters, now that they new the creatures bio signature they could probably easily transport the rest off the ship. All in all she found 13 more of them scattered throughout the ship, one of them in astrometrics, she froze, Tom was on the bridge and she couldn't call anyone else, there was no one else she wanted to know about her fear, it was enough that the Captain and the Doctor already suspected, but to prove their suspicions correct would be embarrassing. It move near the door but was too small to activate it and their were no vents in the floor in this room they were on the ceiling she was trapped in the room with this thing for who knows how long she thought irrationally she couldn't think straight. For the first time she wished that Seven was with her instead of regenerating in her alcove. As it suddenly skittered across the floor B'Elanna jump onto the console, and stared at it as it stared back. Then it just started to lick itself contentedly. B'Elanna still stared at it moved a little cautiously towards her, almost as if it didn't want to frighten her with any sudden movements. It came to stop just before the console stared up at her and made a peeping noise. That's when B'Elanna realized she was being foolish and she slowly got of the console and stooped to stare at the creature, thought started to return and she realized that she could beam all of them to a holding area until they reached the planet. And so she did.
Two days later they arrived at the planet and said good-bye to their furry friends. Later Tom met B'Elanna in the mess hall.
"Well you must be glad to be rid of our little guests."
"Yeah I guess, they did cause a lot of problems . . . Still its a shame we couldn't keep at least one, they were kind of cute."
At Tom's bewildered and amused stare that she so enjoyed she picked out her food and turned to get a table.
'There is no end to the mysteries of that woman' Tom thought happily as he turned to join her.
The End