One Choice by Cheshire

“I thought I told you to leave me alone.”

“You did.”

“Then why are you here?”

A flippant response floats through her mind, but she knows he wouldn’t appreciate it and shrugs instead. “What you want and what you need are two different things.”

He rounds on her, closing the distance between them in two steps. “I could’ve killed you.”

It takes a lot to stand her ground and not back the step away from him that she instinctually wants. “You didn’t.”

Her argument is not as strong as she wants it to be. She knows he heard it, the slight wavering of her voice. 

His dark eyes search her face; he sees the lingering fear that most wouldn’t. “You have no idea how close it was.”

The phaser had been pointed at her; she’d heard him give the command, and she knew Tuvok well enough to see the decision in his expression to depress the trigger.  She was very aware of how close a thing it had been. 

“But. You. Didn’t.” This time she achieves the steel in her voice that she needs. “You chose not to.”

Hesitantly, he nods.  And for now, it’s enough. It has to be.