DISCLAIMER: Star Trek belongs to Paramount/CBS.
A/N: This story is a sequel to "The Luau, The Lounger, and The Lady." It is not necessary to read that one first, but you might miss a few references. Since Coda is the episode immediately following, I had to write this sequel. This is NOT a Lake George story, but rather a missing scene between J and C's return from the planet and the ending sequence of Coda.
***V*V***
Chakotay stared down at Kathryn's pale face and haunted blue eyes where she lay on the biobed. He longed to hold her, to run his fingers through her hair and gently kiss the blood-red gash across her forehead. To tell her how much he loved her. The Doctor hovered on the other side of the bed, though, running scans and asking questions about her experience.
The injuries she sustained in the shuttle crash were bad enough, but the alien presence invading her brain had proven nearly fatal. Chakotay's heart thundered in his chest as Kathryn told the Doctor about living her death again and again, and seeing her father and then realizing he was a malevolent being. Her voice wavered when she talked about watching her memorial service and wanting to remain as a disembodied spirit to learn what happened to her crew. A quick glance at Chakotay conveyed why she didn't mention him being in the visions. Those memories were too painful to share.
"Have a seat on the first bed over there," the Doctor told Chakotay. "I'll be with you as soon as I set up a final scan on the captain."
Chakotay rubbed his wrist while he spoke. "I'm fine, Doc. I should get to the bridge."
The Doctor looked up at him. "Pardon me if I don't take your word for it, Commander. I'm not in the habit of accepting 'I feel fine' from shuttle crash victims. I'll determine if you are fit to return to duty after I have checked your injuries."
"Chakotay," Kathryn said quietly. "Let the Doctor examine you. Tuvok can handle the ship."
He saw the concern on her face. Wanting only to see her beautiful smile, he teased, "You're taking his side?"
"This time," she answered with the smile he so desperately needed.
"All right, Captain." His words were professional, commander to captain. His tone said, "I love you, Kathryn." Chakotay sat on the biobed and waited while the Doctor waved the tricorder over him.
"Hmm," the Doctor muttered. "Just as I thought. The human body was not designed for high-speed impact, Commander. You have a badly sprained wrist and contusions on the right side of your head and on your thigh."
"Chakotay," Kathryn gasped. "Why didn't you tell us you were hurt?"
He shrugged. "I didn't feel it. I remember waking up lying over the console, but then I spotted you unconscious on the deck, and the shuttle was filling with gas."
"When the adrenaline rush from saving the captain's life wears off, you will no doubt become aware of the pain." the Doctor said. "Expect to be sore for a couple of days. I'm taking you both off duty tomorrow."
The Doctor finished running the regenerator over Chakotay's thigh, and then healed the wrist and head injuries. "You are free to go, Commander."
The EMH returned to Kathryn's biobed. "You need to stay a while longer, Captain, so I can keep an eye on your head injury. If you experience no further swelling or severe headache, you may return to your quarters later this evening."
Chakotay fought the urge to stay by her side.
"I will inform Lieutenant Tuvok of the change in the duty roster," the Doctor told Chakotay. "Perhaps you would ask Mr. Neelix to deliver dinner to the captain later?"
"Of course, Doctor."
Kathryn smiled. "I'll see you soon, Commander."
Back in his quarters, Chakotay checked in with the bridge and engineering. B'Elanna was already downloading the shuttle's sensor data to determine why the ion storms had not been detected sooner. He remembered the ion lightning strike that caused the systems failures leading to the crash, but a lot of what happened was still fuzzy in his mind.
Except for Kathryn. Watching her life slip away was as clear to him now as when it was happening. Images flitted through his mind of her body lying where she'd been thrown from the seat, the ugly, bloody gash across her face, and the computer's warning to evacuate the shuttle. His arms felt again the weight of her limp form as he carried her across the harsh scrub brush to the cave.
Painful memories mixed with more pleasant ones as he envisioned her leg folded in the chair while they had teased each other about talent night, and him leaning over her at the panel and catching a whiff of her scented shampoo. He heard an echo of her laughter after he'd told her there was no way he would get up and perform in front of the crew.
Lost in his thoughts, he muttered, "Kathryn, I swear I'll get up on that stage and do anything you ask." The strained words died out in the quiet of his empty quarters. He swallowed against the lump in his throat, and his fingers hovered over his combadge ready to contact the Doctor to ask about her progress. Realizing that only ten minutes had passed since he left her in sickbay, he dropped his hand and sighed heavily. He ordered a cup of tea from the replicator instead, and carried it to the low table in front of his favorite chair.
His boots thudded to the floor and his jacket landed haphazardly over the sofa cushion. He sat down, laid his head on the chair back, and stared through the viewport. The darkness of deep space, cut with streaks of passing stars and colors of distant gaseous nebulas, appeared so innocuous, seemed like it could go on forever without change. But too many times, Voyager's crew had discovered the deception. Space could be deadly.
He sipped his tea, but the beverage tasted bitter. Sitting forward, he slid the cup away from him and decided to take a shower. A twinge of pain gripped his wrist when he pulled off his shirt on the way to the lavatory. Doc was right - now that the adrenaline was wearing off, Chakotay was beginning to feel his injuries. How must Kathryn feel? Was she in pain? Did she have a headache?
Chakotay undressed and stepped into the sonic shower. Kathryn preferred her bathtub, and he smiled with the memories of watching her curvy hips as she slipped into the water and sighed happily. Always, she sighed and leaned back until her head rested on the edge and her breasts floated just under the surface of the water. A couple of times in the weeks since the luau and their first night together, he'd sat on the floor beside the bathtub and talked with her while she soaked away the cares of the day.
Those conversations felt deeply intimate, like a privileged moment he was allowed to glimpse, a window into Kathryn the woman, with no trace of the captain's mask hiding her from him. When she had finished her bath, he'd held out a towel while she stepped into it, then wrapped it around her and gently dried her soft rose-scented skin and squeezed the water from her hair.
Chakotay shook his head to bring himself back to the present and turned under the sonic waves. Kathryn would probably want to bathe when she was released from sickbay. He would do that for her - run the water and watch the bubbles rise to the top of the tub, then help ease her aching body down until she was immersed up to the slope of her shoulders that he loved to pepper with kisses.
He needed to take care of her to reassure himself that she was alive, that he had somehow managed to keep breathing life into her until the Doctor and Tuvok arrived. The first groan from her lips as she had risen to consciousness had been a sweet music he would never forget.
Chakotay finished his shower, pulled on a pair of loose pants, and sat down on his bed to put on a tee shirt. Something on the night stand caught his eye, and he picked up one of Kathryn's barrettes, left there when she'd stayed in his quarters two nights before. He had cooked dinner for her, and they'd eaten by candlelight as she told stories about her father's service in Starfleet.
He could have listened to her all night, her voice firm with the pride she held in following the footsteps of the man who had been her biggest hero from the time she was a small child. When she had stalled in her telling with the pain of her father's death, Chakotay had led her to the couch and pulled her down on top of him, soothing her. She hadn't cried, only grown quietly introspective until she'd lifted her lips to his for a comforting kiss. Then, her grief had turned into need for affirmation of life, and she'd led him to the bedroom.
They had made love long into the night, slowly and tenderly, until he'd thought he would die from the passion stoked by her caressing hands. They'd lain on their sides wrapped in each other's arms and when he'd entered her, she had clung to him with her leg over his hip, and kissed him until he couldn't breathe. When at last he'd lost control and climaxed deep inside of her, she had cradled his head in the crook of her neck and whispered to him of her dreams for their future.
Chakotay lay down on the bed with the barrette clutched in his hand, trying desperately to remember that Kathryn from two nights before, instead of the one dying on the planet's surface just over an hour ago. With the adrenaline rush now replaced by fatigue, he drifted off into a restless sleep as he wondered what she was thinking while she lay in sickbay. Was she remembering making love to him, or was she reliving watching him and the crew mourn her death?
He jerked awake after only a few minutes, his hand clamped so tightly that the edges of the metal barrette cut into his palm. He loosened his fingers and laid the clip back on the table. With a grunt of frustration, he rose from the bed, finished dressing, and walked to Kathryn's quarters. At least there, he could program dinner into her replicator and get the bed ready for her.
As he keyed in the code, a voice behind him teased, "Breaking and entering, Chakotay?"
He whirled around to find the chief engineer standing in the corridor. "B'Elanna! The captain is still in sickbay."
"I was looking for you and saw you leave your quarters. You still haven't answered my question."
His tenuous control was slipping, and her smirk bothered him in his worry for Kathryn. Chakotay leaned against the bulkhead beside the door and closed his eyes. Opening them slowly, he said, "Please, not now."
B'Elanna noted the lines of worry around his eyes, the set of his jaw, and the sag of his broad shoulders. She stepped closer to him so she could speak quietly. "You're seeing her, aren't you?"
"I'm seeing to the captain's dinner, at the Doctor's request." A slight twist of the Doctor's words, but not exactly a lie.
B'Elanna recognized the evasive look. "That's not what I mean and you know it. I knew you cared for her, but something's changed. You just watched someone you love die on that planet, didn't you?"
"She's not dead!" he growled, his hand fisting at his side. Lowering his voice and forcing himself to calm, he said, "The Doctor wants to make sure her head injury is stable before he releases her. I'm supposed to make sure she eats a good meal and doesn't try to work this evening."
"Chakotay."
He cut her off. "B'Elanna, not now. Kath… The captain will be released soon. Have you finished the analysis on the shuttle already?"
"No, that will take a while longer."
"Then whatever you have for me, can it wait until later?"
His friend eyed him closely and then nodded. "Sure. It can wait."
"Thank you." He turned to the door and paused. Keeping his back to her, he said, "B'Elanna, don't say anything to anyone. I promise we'll talk soon."
"Yeah, okay. Call me when she's better."
He walked into the room and waited for the door to slide shut behind him. Dealing with the accident was proving difficult enough. The crew discovering their relationship was too much to think about. He pushed the conversation with B'Elanna out of his mind and concentrated on readying Kathryn's quarters for her return.