Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own these characters, mother episode, or anything related to Star Trek: Voyager. Song lyrics from Jon McLaughlin's "So Close," as featured in Disney's Enchanted. Thanks to the wonderful actors that brought the characters to a whole new level in this particular episode.

Stolen

by Dax's10thHost

So close was waiting, waiting here with you

And now forever I know

All I wanted to hold you

So close

B'Elanna.

Her name falls through his thoughts, a stone plashing into a pool of water. The ache spreads through him like ripples, growing, swelling, sliding across the waters of his heart. Outward, ever outward, they spread, until they strike the walls of his grief. The sheer, black, impossible walls of sorrow and agony over love lost. The aching ripples strike them, and glide back, lapping around their origin.

B'Elanna.

His lungs refuse to work, and the pain carries him back in time. Was it really only six hours ago? Six hours since she'd run to him, her face aglow in the holographic sunshine? He can still picture the grains of gold an errant sunbeam had scattered through the russet of her hair. The laughing sparkle in the happy brown of her eyes still shines in his heart, and the sweet timbre of her voice still rings in his ears.

B'Elanna.

Closing his eyes, he is there, on the holodeck, turning at the sound of his name leaving her lips. His arms reach out to welcome her, and those laughing, beautiful eyes seek his own as she kisses him.

B'Elanna.

He can feel her lips brushing his, and the warmth of her small waist against his arm. Her scent washes over him, gentle as an ocean breeze, subtle as the dew on a flower. She is there, in his arms, touching his shoulder. Stealing his heart.

B'Elanna.

The memory fades, its magic dimmed with the passage of time. The death of the heart. Anguish engulfs him; the ripples meld silently together, weeping, calming, stilling.

B'Elanna.

His eyes slowly open, spilling the pain gathered there. So real, so laughing, so impossibly beautiful. So alive. His heart she'd stolen, clasped tightly in the sparkling vigor of her eyes.

B'Elanna.

Six hours had robbed him of the one he loved more than life. She had stolen his heart, and six hours had stolen her.

B'Elanna.

Silently, he leans down to kiss her one last time. Her lips are cold, lifeless against his. And yet, he does not recoil; death will steal no more from him. Gently, he slips his hand from hers and rises, his pain dripping down his cheeks.

B'Elanna.