DISCLAIMER: Paramount owns Star Trek and all its characters. I own a dog named Frisky and two cats, Marshmellow and Sheri. My pets are not in this story, I just like bragging about them. Authoress's Note: Don't hate me cause I'm realistic. I feel if Voyager does get home, after eleven years in the Delta Quadrant, this would be a viable reprocussion. In addition, I am trying to be true to all the characters, not overly sentimental. You and I know Tom and B'Elanna are two decent people. We have had the honor of watching them these past three years. The jury in this story has not. Remember that. Also, I am not a physicist or a meteorologist, so if my science is off, a thousand pardons.CLOSING ARGUMENTSby Arianwen P.F. EverettThe Bolian attorney stood, unbuttoning his vest, and pushing back the right half of his jacket. "Okay, let's look at this situation. Can people change? Of course. Has Thomas Eugene Paris? Has B'Elanna Torres? Can we take the chance? We have three beautiful children in the balance. Now we..." B'Elanna Torres gripped her lover's arm, at the mention of their kids. It almost felt like a bad dream, being here in court, their babies slipping through their fingers. She gripped Tom's arm even harder at the thought. He turned his head, and retracted his arm, grasping her hand tightly, as she returned the jesture. They clung to each other. They had had to these past three months.THREE MONTHS EARLIERHome! Voyager was back in the alpha quadrant, almost eleven years to the day they'd entered the badlands and 'disappeared'. It was exactly that anniversary, when Voyager docked in Starbase 1, just beyond the Terran moon. And they were all still together, Star Fleet had pardoned all the Maquis, though the pardon was conditional on the use of tracking anklet bracelets for five more years, to make sure no one reenlisted in the renegade force, as small as it was now. B'Elanna had accepted this compromise, as had all the former Maquis. It had seemed such a small price to pay for freedom, considering none of them intended to go back. None of them could anyway. They'd never be accepted back. They'd spent too much time 'in Fleet'; the Maquis would never take the chance. The anklets were a token gesture for the Cardassians. The Federation had everything under control. Now, sitting here in this stale courtroom, B'Elanna knew that that acceptance had been the first mistake in a string of mistakes that lead them here. Tom had half-heartedly tried to get her to reject the compromise. Take a criminal trial. Risk probation. After all, most of their crimes had been absolved, only the assault on two Cardassian supply ships couldn't be. No one had been seriously injured in those raids, and with the public humiliation of Seska the treaturous Cardassian spy looming over them, the Cardassians hadn't officially gotten involved in the prosecution. And they were heros now, having given up their rebelious ways to serve on an ordered Starfleet vessel, and surviving against great odds 70,000 light years from known space. She had been offered a job at Starfleet Headquarters Engineering Division. She had moved into the beach house Tom's mother's family owned and lent them. She was three months pregnant and already had twins, a boy and a girl, Harry and Kes, the latter named after their deceased Ocampan friend, the former after their still living best friend. It was the Federation dream incarnate, a perfect life. How could she have given it up? She had deluded herself. Tom sat next to his one true love, and desperately tried to calm himself. They had always been two strong feeling people, and it almost seemed now as if their fears and rage at what was going on, seemed to flow through them, accross their joined hands and into the other. One closed circut of emotion. He knew she blamed herself, thought that if she wasn't wearing that damned anklet, they could run away, find a small class M planet outside of Federation space, and settle down. By the time the judge was any the wiser, they'd be out of his reach, as well as that of all his cronies. Perhaps it would have worked, but then she would be an escaping fugative, defying her terms of probation. He'd be called her accomplice, and if they were ever caught, especially with his prior record. They'd definitely loose their kids. Either way they lost. The way Tom saw it, the real mistake was his. He had trusted his father again, and again his trust had been betrayed. ONE MONTH EARLIER B'Elanna Torres Paris was in labor, three months prematurely. It couldn't have happened on a worse night, Hurricane Justine, even after being modified by the weather control net, still heaving the Florida surf about wildly, knocking over trees and transport stations, and anything not fused down. Even if one had been operational, the tumoltuous atmosphere around the most peaceful planet in the Alpha Quardrant's North American continent, would have made transporting a pregnant halfbreed iffy at best, or so their obstetrician had said over the vid-comm link. They had hated him anyway, perhaps a bit over sentimental, they only wanted their Holo-Doctor, Kenneth Van Gogh, to help deliver their children. But Dr. Van Gogh was off on a recently refitted Voyage on its first mission without them. Their baby needed help, and shuttlecraft was the only alternative, but getting there was half the problem. They had two frightened three year olds and a nervous nine year old Tabitha Wildman, whom they were sitting for, to drag behind them. B'Elanna had let out a wail, as she started to bleed through her pants suit, and the kids shrieked in terror. Taking them was not an option now. They had to be stashed away with an adult, but with all their friends and friendly kin off-world, the only alternative was almost out of the question, One Admiral Owen J. Paris. It had been ALMOST out of the question. Tom had nervously knocked on the door of his father's South Carolina house. The senior Paris male, had opened the door, a cross look overtaking his face. It was a look Tom knew well. He decided to jump right in. "Look, Dad, my girlfriend B'Elanna is in premature labor. I have to fly her to the hospital due to the storm, and my other two kids and a friend's daughter we're minding are freaked out! I can't have them tagging along. I have no one else to turn to, or I wouldn't be here! I need..." "Send the children in. They can have your and your sister's old rooms. Get your 'GIRLFRIEND' to the hospital," Owen Paris said coldly, and with finality. Tom controled his temper, worry for his love and unborn child keeping him in check. He turned, running to the shuttle. Once the kids were safely inside, he jumped back in and speed off. The baby had survived, though for the first week it had been touch and go, but baby boy Gavin Rafeal Paris was a fighter, just like the human ensign, Gavin Rafeal Lavoy, who had taken an energy discharge to save Voyager's chief engineer not five months before their return home. He had died a week later, but he had fought death remarkably. Now a tiny infant bared his name, would someday carry his memory, and in truth, existed, in part, due to his sacrifice. Gavin was so tiny, his parents couldn't hold him. Tom had sat by the baby's incubator, stroking his little ridged back. He was lost in the soft feeling of the baby's skin, paternal pride filling his heart. His boy was out of the woods, as of this morning, and in three weeks, he could come home. He had spoken to his father briefly this morning, and he had arranged to pick up the twins later this evening. He had allowed his father to keep them the week as he was spending all his time with B'Elanna and Gavin. He was a bit unsure about leaving his kids with his father, but his oldest sister had made severall visits, and had told him how well they were getting along. And little Harry and Kes had nothing but happy faces, when he spoke to them. They wanted to visit their granpa next summer and ride the ponys on his ranch, and despite his own anger towards his father, he said he'd talk with B'Elanna about it. his kids deserved a grandfather, and they seemed happy and well with him. He knew he would never completely trust the Admiral, and he'd watch him and his children like a hawk. They would never go through what he had with that man! That he'd sworn the day the twins were born. But perhaps his children could have something good with thier grandfather. But that had been wishful thinking. Owen Paris never did anything half way. Before Tom and B'Elanna had left the hospital that day, his father's lawyer had filed for custody, and Tom and B'Elanna were kept off his property by security goones. B'Elanna's maternal instincts were in full force, and she had nearly killed one of the guards. The charges were dismissed as Owen Paris knew he had broken the law, but the incident had been tristed and made to look real bad against B'Elanna and Tom. Currently Kes, Harry, and Gavin were with Samantha and Tabitha Wildman, while their parents spent the last three weeks in court, but Tom feared in a few days, they would be lost to him. He and B'Elanna were totally boxed in, and their powerlessness rocked them to their very cores.