By Tara Smith <starkitty__@hotmail.com>
Rated G
Submitted May 2000
Summary: A follow-up to the author's "Writers Block" and a companion piece to her upcoming "Threads of Confusion" (Voyager/L&C crossover). Maggie is back, and upset about all the script changes being forced on her!
By Tara Smith <starkitty__@hotmail.com> (yep, that's 2 underlines there! :)
Ok, this is another piece of throwaway fluff that Nan coerced me into sending to the archive for posterity. Parents. Go figure. <shrug>
Anyway, this is another companion piece to Threads of Confusion and a sort of sequel to Writers Block. Just thought I should warn you. :) Enjoy!
***
Maggie walked back and forth, pacing as much as the small space afforded by the Ladies room would allow. She was wearing her civvies and was reading from a thin folder. She muttered to herself as she paced.
"Insult the nearly omnipotent being… yeah, that's smart … fling myself into a deadly situation …" She flipped pages, scanning the writing quickly. "More throwing myself into danger … ooh! Teaching Jim to see through things! Yeah, that'll be great… yet another dangerous situation … good gods, I'm going to turn into Lois!"
Abruptly, she turned and stormed out of the Ladies room. She went down the short hallway without, passing the door marked "Metropolis set" and stopped at another one marked "Voyager scenes—Voyager cast only!" and shoved it open. She stepped through it and onto Voyager's bridge. She was standing at the front of the room, just before the forward viewscreen. She glanced around, then made her way past a startled Tom Paris, Chakotay, Harry Kim, and a couple of nameless extras who were probably filling in for Main Characters while they went to the restroom or ate or something, and went up to Captain Janeway's Ready Room doors.
She walked through the doors without pausing to knock. Lois and Clark, who were standing before Janeway's desk, turned at the sound of the doors opening and the three—Janeway and the two Metropoleans—stared in silence as Maggie marched up to the desk and slammed her now closed folder down on it.
"Guess what," she said flatly.
Janeway exchanged a puzzled look with Lois and Clark. "What?"
"I'm turning into Lois Lane!" Maggie threw a semi-apologetic look at Lois. "No offense."
"None taken." Lois looked at the folder curiuosly. The cover was emblazoned with the red and yellow S-shield on a blue background. Beneath the shield were the words "Threads of Confusion: Metropolis Script". "Is something wrong?"
"Is something wrong? Is something wrong!" Maggie grabbed the script back up and held it up in front of Lois. She pointed at the "ver. 2.1" label hidden near the bottom. "The Author's gone and messed with the script again! Now I'm throwing myself into danger almost every time I turn around!"
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Janeway broke in, "but don't you do that anyway?"
"Well, yeah," Maggie agreed grudgingly, "but I usually have my powers when I do it! Jimmy's got them right now! She's got me throwing myself into all kinds of awful situations and risking death for all kinds of stupid reasons! And why, tell me, didn't Lucy leave any pot holders for me to use when she went over to California, or wherever she went? Huh? Tell me that!"
"What?" Lois looked blank.
"Why? What happens?" Clark asked.
"I burn myself while making pancakes!" Maggie leafed through the folder to a specific page. "See?"
(from living room) Jimmy: The pancakes are probably ready, Mags!
Maggie (glances at pan): I think you're right. (grabs a spatula and the hot pan handle. Yelps and drops pan on floor. Pancake also lands on floor)
"That is pretty pathetic," Lois agreed. "Clark did some similar things when he lost his powers, too, though."
"Really?" Maggie said, dubiously. She shrugged it off. "Well, that wasn't this Author! That was under Levine and her crowd! This Author's agreed to treat us better than that!"
"Maggie," Clark stepped forward and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "That scene was in the original script, too."
"It was?" Maggie looked at the two women for confirmation. Lois and Janeway nodded, sympathetic looks on their faces.
"Darn. I was hoping—" she broke off and turned as the doors behind her swished open to admit Lieutenant Commander Tuvok and a couple of nameless security persons. All three had their phasers at the ready.
They froze at the scene that met their eyes and Tuvok motioned for his men to holster their weapons. Despite the fact that one of them was a woman and the other a Bolian and, hence, not really men, they obeyed him.
"I apologize, Captain," Tuvok said formally. "I was in the mess hall when I received an intruder alert signal and instantly assumed the standard."
"Which is, of course, why you brought along a couple of nameless security persons," Captain Janeway said, laughing. She would have said officers or even men, but her contract with Starfleet Command strictly forbade her from being politically incorrect when speaking to or about her crew. Fortunately for her, she had some leeway with the hostile and homicidal aliens they were constantly running across. "That's quite understandable."
Tuvok motioned for his underpersons to return to their stations in the standard way.
Maggie rolled her eyes. "It's too bad the Author won't let me use my telepathy like that! It would sure come in handy sometimes!"
Everybody in the room laughed except, of course, Tuvok, who merely raised an eyebrow at her. Maggie figured that if he actually laughed, his head would probably explode, him being a Vulcan and all.
"Perhaps I can be of some assistance," Tuvok said. "Is there a new problem with the script?"
"Actually," Janeway said, looking at Maggie, "we were just about to find out what the problem is."
Maggie sighed and flipped to the last page of the script. A handwritten page had been stapled to the inner cover there. She held it up so everyone could see it. "This is the problem."
"That is the newly revised ending," said Tuvok, once again stating the obvious. He did that a lot, but Maggie figured it was just part of his contract as token bridge alien.
"What's it say? I haven't gotten my new script yet!" Janeway went around the desk, a delighted smile on her face.
"It says that this is only part one! There's going to be a sequel!"
"A sequel?" Lois and Clark said simultaneously. Lois held a hand out for the script. "Let me see it."
Maggie handed it over. Lois glanced over the last two pages, then scrutinized the newest addition.
"Hey, she can't do that!" Lois objected. "I was supposed to get back to Metropolis and back to work after this! I'm going to have to have a little chat with the Author!"
"It doesn't even say how long the second part will be!" Maggie said. "Or even what it'll be called! Just 'Threads 2'."
Abruptly the door to the bridge opened again to admit a new person. This one was slightly built, with long wavy blond hair and delicate features. Her ears swept back delicately in a way very familiar to everyone in the room.
"Kes!" Janeway hurried forward and enveloped her in a hug. "What are you doing here! It's so nice to see you again!"
"Hello, Captain. Tuvok." She grinned at Maggie. "Hi, Mags! It's nice to see you in person finally."
Janeway shot Maggie a curious look. Maggie grinned. "Kes and I have been pen pals for awhile, now. I never thought we'd meet in person. So, what brings you here, Kes?"
"The new script, actually." Kes pulled out two folders, one labeled 'Threads of Confusion part 1' the other labeled 'Threads of Confusion part 2'. "I just got ahold of the newest scripts and I knew you'd be irritated. I talked to the Author about it and she said I should come talk to you."
"That's the script for part 2! Can I see it?" Maggie eyed the folder hungrily.
Kes shook her head. "Sorry. I had to agree to not let you know what happens in part 2. I can't even tell you the title. What I can tell you, though, is that I'm going to be in it."
"You are? How's the Author going to do that?"
Kes laughed. "I can't tell you. Sorry, Maggie. I can tell you that she wanted to fit me in to part 1, but couldn't quite manage it. So I'll be in part 2."
"Cool!" Maggie grabbed her script back from Lois. "Let's get crackin!"
Just as Kes and Maggie turned back to the door to leave, a familiar strawberry blond appeared in a flash of white light. She had her hair pinned carelessly back and curls tumbled down her back. She was wearing an Amazon outfit straight out of Xena: Warrior Princess—in green, of course. It set off her figure to great advantage. She was holding a clipboard and a pen as she appeared and fixed Maggie and Kes with a stern look.
"Are you two finished now? We have to get this show moving again."
"Hi, Mary Sue!" Maggie greeted her. "Yep, all done."
"Great. I need you two to get off the set and back to where you belong. Lois, Clark, Janeway, Tuvok—you four get back into position. We have to do this scene all over again." She paused to flash a dazzling smile at Clark, before she led the way out of the ready room.
Maggie waved at Lois and Clark before she bounced off back to the Metropolis set.
THE END