Disclaimers: Paramount owns these characters, but would never in a million
years allow them to be so silly.


Chakotay surveyed the bridge. It was the middle of alpha shift and it had
been a very slow day. Everyone looked a little bit bored. Paris was
fidgeting and Ensign Yorgenson had not quite managed to suppress a few
yawns. Beside him, on the other hand, Kathryn seemed rested and cheerful. He
couldn't understand it; she'd been up as late as he had. He'd stopped by
the holodeck last night to say hello, and they'd wound up talking until 0300
hours...

The turbolift doors swished open and Neelix emerged.

"Greetings everyone!" he said, happily. "Captain, might I have a word with
you?"

"Hello, Neelix" Kathryn smiled "What's on your mind?"

"I've been researching an ancient earth holiday, Valentine's day; it sounds
like a great deal of fun!" Neelix enthused. "With your permission, I'd like
to have a party." He added softly to the Captain, conspiratorially, "It
would be wonderful for morale..."

Kathryn glanced his way and Chakotay smiled and shrugged. She said "That
sounds lovely, Neelix."

"I knew that you would approve!" Neelix said triumphantly. "So I took the
liberty of preparing the invitations!" He bustled about the bridge
distributing them. "I hope to see everyone there!" he called as he left the
bridge.

Chakotay opened the envelope that Neelix had given him. In addition to the
Valentine's party invitation, it contained a half dozen small colored
hearts. He studied them. They appeared to be edible and they each bore a
printed message. He frowned at one which was emblazoned with the words fax
me. He had no idea what it meant. He popped it into his mouth and ate it.
He cringed; it was disgustingly sweet. He noticed Paris and Kathryn with
similar expressions of distaste on their faces. He smiled. 'Well, at least
this woke everyone up!' he thought. 'Leave it to Neelix!'

As he read the remaining hearts, he got an idea. Fatigue had apparently
emboldened him, because he couldn't believe that he was even considering
this! It was probably going to earn him one of the Captain's good-natured
"death glares", but he just couldn't resist. He glanced surreptitiously
around the bridge. Everyone was reading their little colored hearts, well,
except for Tuvok, but he was occupied at one of his security consoles and
was partially turned away. He picked up a purple heart which said My Girl
and slowly reached over to deposit it on the arm of Kathryn's chair.

Out of the corner of her eye he watched her desperate struggle to keep a
straight face. He clamped his jaw shut tight to keep himself from laughing
out loud. She couldn't even look at him. Clearly the good-natured death
glare was going to be out of the question. 'I'm going to hear about THIS
later!' he thought. Gradually, she regained control. He grinned at her.
After doing her own casual scan of the bridge, she smiled almost wickedly,
then reached over and put one of her hearts on the arm of his chair. It said
Hi Love.

He did smile this time. A small smile, not anything too obvious. He could
not believe this! She was flirting with him! On the bridge, no less! Well,
he probably had better not push his luck. He tried to get absorbed in the
fuel consumption report, but his eyes kept returning to the little hearts on
his chair. 'What the hell!' he decided. He glanced over his shoulder at
Tuvok; he knew if Tuvok caught him he'd get "the eyebrow", but Tuvok was
still occupied with more important, professional matters. This time, he
placed a yellow heart which said Be Mine on a PADD and handed the PADD
casually to the Captain.


She was able to muster up her glare this time, but it was tempered with a
small smile. She scanned the PADD and returned it to him. To his surprise,
it contained a different yellow heart. This one admonished him to Be
Good. He looked over at her, and she gave him another scowl and half smile.

And he tried to be good, he really did, but before long he found himself
reaching over again to the arm of her chair to deposit a pink Hug Me
heart. She rolled her eyes and pointedly ignored it. He sighed and
returned to the fuel consumption report. This time he read it through, added
his comments, and initialed it with a thumbprint. He handed it to the
Captain, and she began to read it. When she returned it to him, it contained
an orange heart which commanded Kiss Me.

He couldn't keep a look of mild shock off of his face as he looked at her
with his mouth open. She smiled broadly at him, winked, and blew him a kiss.
He nearly fell off of his chair. "What could she possibly be thinking?' he
asked himself. She had very likely underestimated Ensign Kim's powers of
observation. Harry had an incredible vantage point of the bridge and
Chakotay was sure that the almost blatant exchange between the ship's C.O.s
had not escaped his detection. Harry would tell Tom at lunch, and, of
course, it would be all over the ship by dinner.

He was clearly in over his head, here, he decided. It was a good thing that
he didn't have any candy hearts left. Kathryn was studiously absorbed in
what was on her command console. He reached for another report. As he
shifted in his seat, his saw that he'd been mistaken, there was one more
heart left, a white one. He almost stopped breathing when he saw what it
said.

These two words, he knew, were the bottom line. If he were to be completely
honest with himself, these two words were what he truly wanted from her. He
knew the depths of his feelings for her, and was pretty sure of the depth of
her feelings for him, although she probably hadn't admitted it to herself.
He thought it over for some time. The expression "in for a penny, in for a
pound" entered his mind. It was something she often said. The two pink
words practically jumped right off of the white heart. They said Marry
Me.

Without looking at her, or anyone else, he placed it gently on the arm of
her chair.

He didn't even try to busy himself with a report. He was studying her
peripherally. Her expression hadn't changed, but he could see a stunned look
in her eyes. She hadn't taken it as a joke, clearly, which was good, because
he hadn't intended it as such. But it didn't give him much of an "out", did
it. He continued watching her, subtly. Now her expression had changed a bit,
she looked upset. He cursed himself inwardly. 'I just couldn't leave well
enough, alone.' he thought, ruefully. 'I've made her uncomfortable and
unhappy and how will we ever get past THIS?'

He was about to ask to see her in her ready room, so that he could
apologize, but the look on her face stopped him. She really looked
distressed. He actually thought that she might cry. He picked up a PADD and
pretended to look at it. He figured he'd give her time to compose herself
and get good and angry, then he'd ask to speak with her in private and face
the music.

He was so successfully pretending to be occupied that he was startled to see
her hand appear at the arm of his chair. She gingerly placed her last candy
heart there. Yes Dear, it replied.

He stared at her in complete disbelief. Was she serious? Her expression was
unreadable, for once. He had to know. Now.

"Really?" he said, out loud. He suddenly realized that he'd gotten out of
his chair and was standing in front of her.

He also abruptly realized that he had the undivided attention of the entire
bridge crew. Most of them were smiling and looking perplexed. Well, not
Tuvok, of course... Kathryn was looking down at her hands. Her mouth was
closed tightly, but she seemed to be smiling a little. She was rubbing her
temples. "Commander, will you join me in my ready room." she asked, with an
infuriatingly normal voice.

"Yes, Maam" he replied, shakily. He still couldn't read her expression. She
looked faintly amused. But her expression had a serious undertone to it as
well. She rose smoothly and headed for the ready room. Before he turned to
follow her, he caught a glimpse of Tuvok and couldn't help smiling, despite
the situation. He had indeed gotten "the eyebrow". As he entered the ready
room behind Kathryn, he heard Paris, chuckling softly at the helm.

The doors swished shut and she turned to face him.

FIN.