Wins and Losses
Paramount owns everything, not me. Rating PG Thank you to the wonderful beta JoAryn. Written for VAMB's Secret Drabble extchange 2014 for DocBevCulver. All mistakes are my own.
"Did you lose a bet?," B'Elanna asked snickering, as she watched Chakotay waddle on to the turbo lift.
"Not one word," Chakotay growled, chagrined as he adjusted the very hot, and stuffy duck suit, "B'Elanna, a word of caution, never, and I mean, NEVER underestimate the Captain," he replied, as he fixed the head of the costume.
Voyager was running on a skeleton crew the night of Naomi's 2nd birthday party.
The turbo lift opened on deck six to the whole crew lining the corridor. Although the crew stood at attention, they all struggled not to laugh at Commander Chakotay as he waddled to the holodeck.
Captain Janeway waited to receive the other half of her payment for Chakotay losing 5 games of hover ball in a row. Despite her command training she couldn't contain her mirth upon seeing Commander Chakotay waddling down the corridor in a yellow fluffy duck suit.
"You quack me up," Janeway chuckled, as Chakotay rolled his eyes.
"Very funny Captain, let's get this over with," Chakotay sighed, knowing full well that Captain Janeway had something worse up her sleeve.
"Alright, Chakotay," Janeway chortled as she followed Chakotay through the doors to the holodeck.
The holodeck was programed to look like an over-sized nursery for a small child; the walls were painted in baby blues, and bright yellow baby ducks. There was an enormous crib in the middle of the far wall with a huge baby blue blanket hanging down to the floor, that was to act like a curtain, with several giant plush baby animals, and blocks laying around the room. In the middle of the room was an aisle with several rows of folding chairs on both sides as if it was set up for a performance.
Behind the blanket was a chair for him to sit in while he was waited on Janeway to give her little speech. As Chakotay mused about potential payback he didn't notice the lights dim and a spot light come on, let alone what Janeway's speech was about.
"And now, as Naomi's birthday present from Commander Chakotay and myself, here is Commander Chakotay with a well-known nursery rhyme, Five Little Ducks," Janeway said and as the crew applauded she stepped behind the blanket. A few seconds later Chakotay stepped out reciting the rhyme,
Five little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said
"Quack, quack, quack, quack."
But only four little ducks came back.
Four little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother Duck said "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack"
But only three little ducks came back
Three little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother Duck said "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack"
But only two little ducks came back
Two little ducks went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother Duck said "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack"
But only one little duck came back
One little duck went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother Duck said "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack"
But none of those little ducks came back
Old mother duck went out one day
Over the hills and far away
Mother Duck said "Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack"
And all of the five little ducks came back
By the end of the rhyme, little two-year-old Naomi was waddling, quacking, and flapping her arms like Commander Chakotay when he came to the word Quack in the rhyme, which had the entire crew who was present laughing. Afterwords, Janeway came out from behind the blanket carrying a small round two layer yellow cake with two duck candles on it for Naomi to blow out. Neelix had a large sheet cake in the corner of the room by the holodeck door behind the stack of blocks so that Naomi wouldn't see it when she came in, for the adults. Tom requested a small child's table from the computer, for Naomi to sit at while she ate her cake.
The crew all had presents for Naomi and the toddler ripped the paper off of the gifts before her mother could open the cards that went with them. And later, the Doctor floated around taking holo-pictures for Naomi's scrapbook that Sam was putting together, as the rest of the crew mingled together.
Two hours later Chakotay, still in the duck suit, escorted Janeway back to her quarters carrying the duck's head under one arm. As they stopped outside her door, "You know Kathryn, the next time we bet, you will lose," he smiled.
"Careful, Commander, talking like that is how you got into this mess to begin with, remember?," she chuckled and winked at him before disappearing into her quarters.
