See part one for rating, disclaimer & author's note
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There was a carnival atmosphere on the bridge that day. It seemed that the entire senior staff had turned out to welcome Commander Chakotay back to work. Captain Janeway sighed and fidgeted with the PADD she held. She didn’t even know what it was that she was supposed to be reading, consumption reports, or was it crew rosters?
It had certainly been an eventful month. The Captain had been
absolutely mortified when she had received the Commander’s farewell message
all those weeks ago. Against all expectation, her first officer had
volunteered for the Doctor’s stasis-chamber experiment and she had gone
down to the cargo bay to say her good-byes only to find that she was too
late. He was already in stasis. Or so she had thought, as she
sat down and proceeded to abuse him for volunteering for stasis in the
first place. At least, that had been her intention. The truth
was she was already missing him and, lulled into a false sense of security
by the confessional atmosphere of the empty cargo bay, she had ended up
revealing something of her true feelings for Chakotay.
That night as she was preparing for bed she had received a rather disturbing message from her absent first officer. Actually, ‘disturbing’ was an understatement. Chakotay had told her that he loved her. She thought then that she might burst with happiness. A kaleidoscope of emotions had ripped through her, forcing her into a series of emotional over-reactions in the following weeks.
Week one had been her angry week. How dare he trick her into revealing
her feelings for him? It was damned unprofessional, to lay there
and pretend he was out of it whilst she ranted on about his dimples and
lord knows what else. And that message of his! Declaring his
love, and in front of the less than discreet ears of Tom Paris, ship’s
gossip and betting pool organiser. Now everyone knew and there was
no escaping it, no place to hide. Damn you, Chakotay, damn you to hell!
Where’s my coffee……
Week two had been her denial phase. She had examined her words and found that she couldn’t possibly have said anything too incriminating. Sure, she might have let slip that she was going to miss his company. Yes, there had been something about needing to see his dimples of a morning. That was only to be expected, right? All the girls liked to see his dimples. Of course, Chakotay knew they did. Had he no shame, flashing them around like there was no tomorrow? And what of his now infamous message? Alright, he had mentioned something about being in love with her. Well, she was the Captain. Everyone was a little in love with her. She would just have to ignore the whole thing and given time it would all blow over.
Week three the Captain had devised a series of cunning plans. The Doctor could erase his memory engrams whilst he was in stasis. Chakotay would not remember a thing. Or perhaps she could pretend that he was experiencing some kind of stasis sickness. That’s it, he was delirious, had dreamt the whole thing. Of course, there was still the problem of what to do with Tom Paris. Could his memory be erased too? Had he told B’Elanna? Had the chief engineer told anyone else? The Voyager rumour mill was a force to be reckoned with. It would take some kind of ship-wide resonance burst to erase everyone’s recollections of that day's events. Janeway had been forced to admit that this was just not possible.
Week four had been her week of acceptance. That is to say, she was trying very hard to come to terms with the idea that unless she were to order Chakotay be kept in stasis for the remainder of their journey, she was going to have to face the consequences of her actions. Kathryn Janeway finally allowed herself the luxury of accepting Chakotay’s love and it felt good.
How had she come to deserve such happiness? Surprisingly, the crew seemed
to pick up on this air of acceptance. Instead of avoiding her they
began to come forward and offer her their support. Kathryn smiled
as she recalled B’Elanna’s hesitant offer of friendship. Harry Kim
had offered his holodeck rations in case she needed some time to herself
and then blushed when she had hugged and thanked him. B’Elanna and
Harry, Maquis and Starfleet, both were working together to support their
commanding officers.
Tom Paris turned to flash her a particularly boyish smile, “So Captain, are you nervous?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Tom.”
“Yeah, right. And Captain, that PADD you’re reading is upside down.”
“Oh.” She leaned back into her command chair and dropped the PADD onto the armrest.
Harry looked up from ops. He too was grinning. “The Commander’s on his way.”
Starfleet training had not covered this kind of scenario. Here she sat, before her entire senior staff, as her body went through a series of entirely natural female responses that she had absolutely no control over. First she went cold all over, and then hot. She was helpless to stop the deep crimson flush that spread across her pale cheeks. Looking up, she caught sight of Neelix crouching before the view screen.
“Mr Neelix, please tell me you’re not filming this.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world Captain,” he effused. Was it her imagination or was he more bouncy and spotty than usual? “Just you be sure to catch A Briefing with Neelix next week. This is big! Really big news!”
There was a chorus of laughter from her friends. “All right, let’s have a little order on the bridge people! This is still a Starfleet vessel. Let’s try to remember that.”
The turbo-lifts arrival heralded an expectant silence. The doors slid open, revealing its sole occupant, Commander Chakotay. He was dressed in a freshly replicated uniform and was looking like a million credits. His smile was radiant as Kathryn Janeway stood and faced him, unconsciously straightening her uniform.
“Welcome back, Commander. It seems you have a welcoming committee.”
A chorus of voices echoed her greeting. Chakotay ducked his head and grinned some more. Kathryn looked pleasantly flustered and hesitant.
“I think you’re right, Captain. And, for what it’s worth, I’m glad to see you too.”
“And now, if you will, Commander, I’d like to have a word with you in my ready room.”
“Of course,” he nodded, studiously ignoring the sudden chorus of disappointment.
“Captain, I must protest.”
Hand on hips, Kathryn levelled a cold stare at her Vulcan security officer who now stood in front of her ready room doors, effectively denying her access. Here it was, the face of Starfleet Protocol. Well, maybe she did need a reminder. What had she been thinking of? There wasn’t room for romance aboard a United Federation of Planets Starship. She was in command of this vessel, a Starfleet Captain, for chrissakes. Give it up Kathryn.
"I must protest," Tuvok continued, "because I believe I speak for us all when I say that we have waited a long time to see you finally confess to your feelings for the Commander."
“Here, here,” Tom chimed in. B’Elanna allowed herself an encouraging wolf-whistle.
“Tuvok….what are you saying?” Kathryn heard a cough behind her and turning, almost tripped over Chakotay who was down on one knee behind her. She looked into his shining eyes and realised that she had been set-up. Again.
“Is everyone in on this?” She looked over at Harry Kim who shrugged.
“Sorry, Captain,” he said. “It was just too good to miss.”
“I see.” She looked back to Chakotay, her heart thudding dangerously against her ribs. A dark flush stole across his handsome features.
“Kathryn?” He spoke slowly and carefully, as though he thought she might make a run for it. She glanced up to the turbo-lift doors to see Mike Ayala blocking her exit. She was trapped. “Kathryn Janeway, would you marry me?”
She smiled, her heart melting in an instant. It wasn’t what she had been expecting. She had been prepared for begging and pleading, for arguments and explanations. Maybe even a romantic, last minute capitulation. But, after all, they had waited long enough. Why not? “Yes, Chakotay, I think I will.”
There was a deafening whoop of joy from friends and well wishers.
Someone had thoughtfully supplied them all with packets of confetti and
in no time the bridge was a riot of sound and colour. And in the
midst of the chaos the two commanding officers came together for the first
time, for a first kiss like no other.
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The End
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