Author:Lady Firebird
E-mail Address:cchardee@hotmail.com
Rating: G
Summary: A special day, every year for Kathryn and Chakotey
Note:These stories may not be copied or distributed without permission.
Disclaimer: All things Voyager belong to Paramount, and the various locations belong to themselves. The idea to bring them together, though, is mine. I'm doing it just for fun; a check of my bank account will prove I'm not making any money from this!
Prologue
Six months, now. Six months since she'd made the decision that stranded them all. Six months since they'd begun their journey through the Delta Quadrant.
She was beginning to wonder how many more months it would take. More than once, they'd thought they'd found the way home, but every time there had been a problem. They'd come nearly five thousand light-years on their own, now, but seventy thousand more -- an almost unimaginable distance -- remained.
The hope that this would be a brief detour was fading a little more every day.
Kathryn Janeway sighed and leaned back in her ready room chair, taking a break from reviewing the logs. It wasn't a pleasant chore, but it demanded her attention and today was one of the days she needed her attention focused somewhere else. Anywhere else but on the topic that was really going through her mind.
Today was February 13, 2372. Tomorrow was Valentine's Day.
She and Mark had always done something special for Valentine's Day, but it was obvious that this year, that would be impossible.
She missed him terribly. She wondered if he missed her too, or if after six months, he would have assumed that she was gone, never to return.
She hoped not.
The door to the ready room hissed open, revealing the tall form of Commander Chakotay. "Good evening, Captain."
"Good evening, Commander. Come in. What's on your mind?"
He seemed to hesitate before he answered. "You."
"Me?"
"Forgive me, but you've been acting a little down lately. I was wondering if you needed to talk."
Was she that obvious? Kathryn shook her head. "Thank you for offering, Mr. Chakotay. It's a kind offer. But I think I'd rather be alone with this."
"I see," he answered. "Then I suppose inviting you to the holodeck tomorrow afternoon would be out of the question."
"To the holodeck? Is Neelix planning something special?"
"No...I just thought you could use a distraction. I have something I like to do every Valentine's Day. I think of a place I'd like to be and imagine myself in it, enjoying myself, pretending there's nothing else in the world. I thought you might enjoy the chance to do that, too. This year, I was planning on using the holodeck."
She thought about it for a minute. Chakotay could be awfully perceptive at times. Maybe he was right -- a chance to take a break, forget Voyager, even for an hour or two, would improve her emotional state.
"I think I'd like that," she said slowly. "If the offer's still open, that is."
"It is. 1600 hours tomorrow?"
"That sounds good. Where are we going?"
The ghost of a smile crossed Chakotay's face. "It's a surprise. But I think you'll like it."
Continued...
