Title: In the Middle of the Night
Author: Singing Violin
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Summary: In the middle of the night, Chakotay is worried about the captain.
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: The Star Trek characters and universe are not mine.

Commander Chakotay startled awake, wondering what presumptuous intrusion had roused him from his slumber. Blinking, he surveyed his quarters and saw nothing amiss. Then, straining, he listened. A sound, barely audible, was emanating from the wall...

He held his breath for a moment, and concluded that the disturbing noise was, in fact, a faint sob amidst intermittent sniffling. He then realized that the wall from whence it came was the one that separated his quarters from the captain's. His heart jumped at the revelation, and he immediately wondered which upset crewmember had visited her tonight.

Curiosity mixed with jealousy and a hint of annoyance at having been woken drove him to an underhanded action: he queried the computer as to the occupants of the captain's quarters.

The mechanical female voice claimed she was alone.

So...either she was deliberately hiding her visitor — quite a distressed visitor, from the sound of it — in which case, he felt that as her first officer, he really should be made aware of the situation — or Kathryn Janeway, unflappable captain of the Federation starship Voyager, was crying.

Either way, he was determined to make an appearance and resolve the issue.

Hastily, he dressed and headed out into the corridor, where he rang the chime of his next-door neighbor.

Not entirely unsurprisingly, there was no answer, so he keyed in his override code and entered the darkened room, listening carefully for the continuation of the sound that had awoken him.

He traced the noise to the captain's bedroom, and only for a moment did he consider that perhaps it might be unwise to proceed any further. A dim light filtered out from the doorway as he approached.

Finally, he found her, alone as the computer had promised, sitting cross-legged upon her bed. He saw her raise a hand to her face, and observed that the hand contained a crumpled-up tissue. He waited as she loudly blew her nose, then spoke her name softly as he approached her side.

"Kathryn..."

She looked up abruptly, then, and gave him a watery glare. "What the hell are you doing in my quarters at this time of night?"

He rose a hand to his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "I was asleep, but you woke me, I..."

"I'm sorry, Chakotay," she interrupted, not sounding the least bit apologetic. She then continued, almost hissing through her teeth, "I'll try to be more discreet in the future."

He sighed. "That's not what I meant. I was concerned about you."

Her glare increased in intensity, even as stray tears made their way down her cheeks. "What am I now, some damsel-in-distress? Do you have knight-in-shining-armor fantasies, Commander?! Don't you think I would have called you directly if I needed your assistance?"

The use of his title was not lost on him, and he became flustered as he attempted a reply, but then regained his composure as anger suddenly rose within him. "No, Captain, you wouldn't. And do you know why? Because you never need help from anyone...or at least, you never admit it. And that makes it damned hard to take care of you."

If she was simmering before, she was boiling over now. "And what makes you think that I need taking care of, Chakotay? I'm a grown woman and a Starfleet captain; do you think they would have given me the job if they didn't think I could take care of myself?"

He shrank before her. "My job as first officer is, at least in part, to take care of the captain."

She stepped off the bed now and faced him, looking up into his eyes as she stepped so close as to nearly breathe into his chest. "You may be tasked with protecting the captain, but taking care of her, I don't think so, and certainly not while you're both off-duty."

He stared back at her, utterly unconvinced. The words were out of his mouth before he could censor them: "I disagree."

"Fine, then you're relieved of duty until further notice. One more infraction and I'll confine you to your quarters for the remainder of the journey. Unless you'd prefer the brig."

He gathered his strength once again, building himself up, using his height to his advantage. He internally acknowledged his mistake, but refused to let her retain the upper hand. He called her bluff. "For the next several decades? I don't think so."

Her stubborn nature would not allow her to acquiesce. "I will if I have to."

He grabbed her shoulders then, figuring that if what he'd already done warranted brig time, he couldn't make the situation any worse.

"Get your hands off me," she demanded instantly, before he could speak.

A little voice in the back of his mind told him to quit while he was behind, but he ignored it, pressing on. "No. Not until you at least tell me why you were crying. Even if my job is only to protect you..."

"It isn't anymore. I've relieved you of duty," she interrupted once more. "Shall I summon Tuvok from his slumber as well, so that he may escort you out?"

He dropped his arms and attempted one more strategy. He lowered his voice and gave her the kindest look he could muster. "Fine, say I'm not your first officer anymore. I would like to think that I'm still your friend, and as your friend, I would like to know why you were crying."

All at once, the anger seemed to dissolve from her body as she finally acknowledged his good intentions. She turned away, grabbed something off the bedclothes, turned back, and shoved the retrieved item into his hands. "Have you read this?"

He quickly examined the vintage book and instantly went beet red. "Yes. I'm so sorry. I cried too when I read that."

"I bet you did," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "Look, Chakotay, let's make a deal. No more late-night intrusions into my quarters, and I'll try to be a little quieter when I'm indulging in fiction." Or reality.

He nodded. "I'll agree to that, with two conditions."

Her eyes implored him to elaborate.

"First, you give me my job back."

"Fine," she conceded. "And what's the other term of your agreement?"

"Add 'taking care of the captain' to the job description. Only when she needs caring for, of course, which every human being does, from time to time."

"I can't guarantee any work under that job description," she shot back. "And no, I refuse to add that to the first officer's job description. It's not the first officer's job."

He sighed in frustration. "Then whose job is it? Our doctor's a hologram, and we have no counselor."

She lowered her voice to a whisper. "It's the job of a friend. Didn't you say you would still like to be mine?"

He broke into a grin. "Deal."

She raised an eyebrow. "Now get out. And try to get some sleep: you've got an early shift in the morning."

"Yes, Captain," he answered, feeling distinctly as if he had just dodged a phaser blast with the weapon set to kill. He couldn't stop grinning as he virtually waltzed out.

As soon as the doors to her quarters hissed shut, she wiped the remnants of tears from her eyes, hugged the book to her chest, and smiled too.