He stood at the window looking out. He heard the bedroom door open but didn't turn around.

"I'm leaving now" a voice said from behind him.

"I'll have the rest of your things sent on." He said solemnly.

Suddenly there was a hand on the back of his head and a pair of lips softly touched his cheek. He spun around and grabbed her wrist.

"Don't…" his eyes flashed and it scared her slightly "Don't go!" she pulled her arm away.

"I have to."

"I love you" he stressed. She bit the inside of her lip. "I love you Kathryn." He repeated.

"It doesn't matter now" she took a step back.

"How can you say that?"

"Chakotay please just let me go. My mother is expecting me."

"How can you leave? How can you just walk out?"

"I don't have a choice." She felt tears prick the corner of her eyes.

"Why not?" he strode towards her.

"She's pregnant!" she finally snapped. "Pregnant. You and I both know that you will want to do what is right and if I stay you'll have to make a choice."

"I want you!" he took her hands in his again.

"You're too noble to leave this child grow up without a father, without you."

"I don't have to be with Seven to be there for my child."

"Chakotay…" she started.

"No Kate!" he pulled her in closer to him. "You have been looking for a way out of this since it started. You're terrified and you're using this as an excuse to run."

"Run!? Run from what?" she whispered now, her face inches from his.

"Me. From me and everything there is between us. You can't tell me you've felt this way before because I sure as hell didn't even know it was possible to love someone this much." She'd stopped pulling away now. "To need someone this much"

She didn't say a thing. She couldn't. then a thought crept up and entered her brain.

"Then why is Seven pregnant?" he gasped and dropped her hands. She hadn't realised the thought had escaped. He stepped away. "I'm sorry I didn't mean that." She closed her eyes.

"You obviously did." He shook his head. "I thought we'd gone over this. I needed to try let you go!" she smirked at the familiar line. "We had seventy years ahead of us and I needed to stop loving you." He sighed. "But I couldn't."

"You stayed with her when we came back." She shrugged finally letting everything out.

"For a week! You never gave me the slightest hope. We got so close on New Earth and then nothing. You shut me out, closed off your heart. Seven was there. I fooled myself into thinking I could love her."

The silence that fell between them was deafening. She'd never experienced anything like it.

"You're having a child. That is the most amazing news." She said after a lifetime passed. "You need to focus on that. I'll be in touch." She reached out to touch him but decided against it. "Take Care."

This time he watched her pick up her bag and leave.

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It seems only right my 80th story should be about my first true ship

3

grace