After years as Neelix's chief assistant, Naomi Wildman knew how to plan an occasion quickly. When her mother broke the news that Neelix was leaving Voyager in the evening, she knew there wasn't much time. Maybe she couldn't get a party together, but there was something she could do.

And it would keep her busy enough that she wouldn't have to think about saying goodbye.

Her first stop was the Bridge. She submitted a written request to meet with the Captain and was granted permission almost immediately. She marched into the Ready Room with her shoulders squared with determination.

Captain Janeway saw behind her desk. "What can I do for you, Ms. Wildman?"

"I know Neelix said he didn't want any kind of going away party, but it doesn't feel right to just let him leave without doing something."

"I agree. I take it you have an idea."

Naomi nodded. "Yes, I want to make a memory box."

"A memory box?" The Captain looked at her quizzically. "What's that?"

"It's a Talaxian tradition. Neelix told me about it once. When someone was leaving home for a long time, their family and friends would each put something into a box. No one puts in a card. The idea is that whatever is in the box is tied to a memory so that the person would know just by looking at it who put it in."

"What a lovely idea." The Captain nodded once, then her mouth quirked into a smile and she walked over to the shelves against the bulkhead. Reaching up, she removed a fine china coffee cup and saucer from a set. "Here's your first contribution."

Naomi accepted them with awe. She had admired the delicate cups with the life-like roses painted on the white porcelain for as long as she could remember. "But that's your grandmother's tea set," she blurted out. "Your lucky cups."

"Yes, but some of the best times Neelix and I have had together was when we sat down and shared a cup of coffee." She smiled. "But I can't jut put in one of the generic mugs from the mess hall – he won't know it's from me."

Naomi looked again at the cup and saucer. The memory box had seemed like a good idea, but only now did she realize what it really meant. She was going to have to give up something that she'd rather keep. She had planned to slip in a holo of herself, but after the Captain's gift, that seemed inadequate. This would be harder than she realized. "Thank you, Captain."

"Thank you, Ms. Wildman, for thinking of this. I'll see to it that word gets out."

She was almost to the door when the Captain called, "What are you going to put in the box, Naomi?"

"I don't know," she said. "I thought I did, but now I'm not sure."

"Don't worry. You'll figure it out."

On the way back to her quarters, she realized something else: she needed a box. Probably a big box, too, because she was certain that most of the crew would want to donate something for it. There wasn't anything in the cabin that would be big enough, so she did what she often did when she had a problem she couldn't solve on her own. She went to Cargo Bay 2 to find Icheb.

The Cargo Bay was looking different these days. First an area had been walled off so Seven could have some private space, and then the Captain had ordered a similar room for Icheb. The regeneration chambers were still public, but unless the former Borg were regenerating, they were typically not in sight. Naomi went directly to Icheb's small cabin and knocked on the old-fashioned manual door.

In a moment, it opened. "Hello, Naomi. I did not expect you until later."

"We've got a project from the Captain," she told him as she stepped inside. With a few sentences as possible, she outlined the concept of the memory box and showed him the cup and saucer. "So, I've got to find a box big enough to hold everything."

Icheb blinked. It was the way he showed confusion. "It is impossible to predict the size of the box accurately. You do not know the number of gifts that will be donated, or their size."

"That's why I need help." She spoke patiently; although Icheb was very intelligent, he was a little slow on the uptake sometimes. Lt. Torres had hinted that this was typical of most men. "You have to help me find something from storage that's big enough, but not too big."

He looked doubtful but followed her out and helped her rummage through the containers on the far side of the bay. After nearly twenty minutes, he said, "Here. This one should be adequate."

Naomi looked at the plain, utilitarian Starfleet container dubiously. "It's big enough, I guess, but…" she let the rest of the sentence go unsaid.

"But what?" Icheb asked, looked puzzled. "You said size was the key factor."

"No, I didn't. And that is ugly. We can't give Neelix an ugly memory box."

"I am certain you said-"

"Well, I didn't. You just weren’t listening."

"I always listen, and you were most specific."

"Then you misunderstood. I said-"

"What is the nature of this disagreement?"

Seven's voice cut across the Cargo Bay like a laser knife. Naomi and Icheb whirled, feeling guilty without reason. "We're on a mission from the Captain," Naomi said, and explained.

"I see." Seven looked at them both as if she didn't quite believe the story, then turned and returned to her room.

Icheb frowned as he looked at Naomi. "Do you think she was angry?"

"No." Naomi was confident. She'd known Seven virtually all her life, and knew how to read her subtle moods. She looked again at the container Icheb had pulled out. "It does look like it's the right size. I wish it weren't so, so, functional."

"Why is functional a bad thing?" Icheb asked.

"It is ugly."

They both whirled again, and saw that Seven had returned from her quarters. She was holding a container that was about the same size as the one Icheb had found. "Consider this box my contribution," she said as she gave it to Icheb.

Naomi looked at the box. "That's not a Starfleet container."

"No. We salvaged this from the Raven, my parents' ship. Mr. Neelix will recognize it. He … he brought the ship's logs to me in that box."

Naomi looked again at the container. It had phaser burns on its sides, and some dents that she couldn't explain. It was a different shape than the Starfleet containers and clearly had been through combat. "Thank you, Seven," she said. "It's perfect."

"But-" Icheb said.

"It's perfect," Naomi repeated.

With a little impatience, Icheb said, "I do not understand. This box is uglier than the one I found."

"But this box has history that Neelix will recognize," Naomi informed him. "That's what this is all about."

She placed the cup and saucer carefully in the box and returned to her quarters. Even before she had a chance to set the box down, the door chime rang. Lieutenants Torres and Paris came in. "We hear," Lt. Torres said, "that you are planning something for Neelix."

Naomi nodded. "A memory box."

Torres handed her a large, stiff card and a bag with something icky in it. "This is my contribution."

She took it, but frowned. "What is it?"

"The card is a recipe for banana pancakes. The bag is a piece of cheese. Don't worry, Neelix will know what it means."

The bag of cheese was strange, but Naomi looked at the words written on the card. Lt. Torres, the ship's Engineer, the person who was the most technically adept, had written a recipe by hand. She smiled. "He'll like this."

Then Lt. Paris handed her a small bag. "At the risk of being obvious, this is from me."

She opened the bag, and pulled out a deck of cards and three walnut shells. "I don't understand."

"That's all right." Lt. Paris only smiled. "Neelix will."

Naomi nodded. After all, that's what this was all about. When they left, though, she frowned. She still had no idea what her own gift would be.

Then Ensign Kim came, and he handed Naomi an envelope. "It has a song," he explained. "The score and a recording. It's the duet that Gerron and I did last year, the one Neelix liked so much. We named it 'Talaxian Dawn.' He'll recognize it."

Naomi smiled broadly. "I remember. You wrote it and he said it was like you'd been to the Godo Mountains at sunrise. He loved it. Thank you, Ensign Kim."

An hour later, she sighed. The box was almost full, and she still hadn't decided what her gift should be. Mr. Tuvok had contributed an orchid, perfectly dried and pressed into a frame. Naomi wasn't certain, but she thought it might be the same orchid that caused the transporter accident that created Tuvix. The Doctor had brought two gifts, both holo-photos that he had taken and framed. One was of the entire senior staff in the mess hall, and the other was of Kes. Her hair was long and wavy in the picture, so Naomi guessed it was taken just before she left the ship. She didn't remember Kes very well, but the image in the photo had a sweet smile and intelligent eyes.

Commander Chakotay brought a small, flat stone on which he had carved a design. "It's the Great Tree," Naomi said, marveling.

The Commander smiled. "Yes. I should have known you'd recognize it. The stone comes from the War Memorial planet. I was going to give it to Neelix at Prixin." His smile faded. "Prixin won't be the same without him, will it?"

Naomi bit her lip. "No, it won't." She was trying hard not to think about things like that, about how odd it would be to go to the mess hall and find someone else in the kitchen, or to have someone else check on her when her mother worked the night shift, or Prixin.

More of the crew stopped by with gifts for the box. Ensign Telfer brought a small jar with some white liquid in it. "Neelix told me it was a special Talaxian health tonic. It's really just some soymilk with spices, but I didn't know that for a long time." Others added things Naomi didn't understand. Crewman Chell dropped a necklace in the box; Jenny Delaney, a shell. Even Icheb made a contribution, a copy of his report on Voyager's history; he said Neelix helped him with the many of the details that weren't in the ship's logs.

She watched one gift after another fill the memory box and desperation began to build. What could she add to the box?

By the time Samantha returned to their quarters, Naomi was despondent. "I don't know what to give him, Mom. I want it to be special, but I don't know what it should be."

Samantha smiled. "That's all right. I have something that can be from both of us." She went into her bedroom and returned with something in her hand. " I thought we'd put this in the box."

Naomi's eyes widened as she saw what Samantha held. It was a small cube of crystal that held a bright yellow lock of hair. "My baby curl?"

Sam nodded. "Neelix was with me that day. You needed a haircut so badly, but I didn't have the heart to take off those sweet curls. He stood right beside me and played silly games with you so you held still while I snipped. It was his idea to save the curl."

"But I thought you were saving that for my father."

"Yes, sweeting." Sam ran her hand over Naomi's head, smiled, and set the crystal in the box.

Unaccustomed tears stung at Naomi's eyes and she flung herself into her mother's arms. "I don't want him to go, Mom."

"I know. We're all going to miss him." Sam held her tightly. "But we have to be happy for him. He's found a family of his own."

"I thought we were his family."

"We are. But families grow and change. Someday you'll start a family of your own. It won't mean you love me any less; it just means that it was time for you to move on. It's part of growing up."

The tears stopped, and Naomi straightened. "I know what I want to give him." She went into her room and walked over to the bed. The Flotter doll propped against the pillow had been her nighttime companion for as long as she could remember. She still slept with it. Neelix had told her stories about Flotter night after night until she was old enough to go the holodeck.

With a deep breath, she reached for the doll and rushed back to the main room and laid it in the box. Samantha touched her shoulder. "Are you certain?"

Naomi nodded. "Yes. He told me that as long as I had Flotter, I'd always have a friend. It's the right thing for me to give him, isn't it?"

"Yes," her mother said. "It's just the right thing."

Her hand shaking just a little, Naomi reached for the lid and closed the box. "Goodbye, Neelix," she whispered. "I'll miss you."

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