Disclaimer: I still don't own Star Trek Voyager! If I did a lot more would have happened in those seven years….
A/N: Just a short little oneshot set almost immediately after 'Endgame'. It basically picks up where the episode left off to give it a more J/C ending.
It almost didn't feel real in a way. Nearly twenty-four hours since they'd officially returned from the Delta Quadrant and it still just didn't seem real. Even with the image of Earth slowly spinning on the bridge view screen before them it felt distant, like a dream just on the horizon that you have the urge to reach out and touch, but resist because you're afraid it'll disappear the moment your fingers begin to graze the surface.
Home.
They were home. They made it through the Delta Quadrant, through war torn solar systems, predator infested space, and past the borg all the way back to the quadrant they called home. The proof was right there, right in front of them, but yet….it was almost too good to be true.
The fingers dangling at her side itched to type a few commands into a computer station to scan the sector, just to make sure what they saw on the view screen was in fact really there. She resisted though. Only because the logical part of her brain knew for a fact that it was true, it didn't need to see the read outs for the hundredth time to understand the simple fact that they had made it back.
In all honesty, she wasn't quite sure what to do. She, Kathryn Janeway who always had the right words for a speech and always knew what to tell her crew, simply didn't have the words this time. Were they even really needed? What could she possibly say that the image on the view screen couldn't?
And she knew her crew were seeing the same thing. All over the ship the crew would be peering out windows or at view screens to see the swirling blues and greens of the planet growing larger by the minute.
It was beautiful.
She took a deep breath, blinking away the moisture that had begun pooling in her eyes, and managed to bring her attention back to bridge. She had been right. Every single person on the bridge was staring at the view screen with unmasked awe and joy etched in their expressions. Except Tuvok of course. But even he didn't seem able to tear his suspiciously cloudy eyes away from the view screen.
Her own eye caught movement from the helm station and she let them linger on the three people standing there. She watched with a slowly growing smile as Tom turned to his wife, cupping her cheek adoringly while resting the other hand on his daughter's head. Then, in a slow, deliberate move, he leaned forward and captured B'Elanna's lips in an equally slow caress that nearly brought that moisture back to her eyes at the sheer emotion behind the sentiment.
Somehow that said everything there was to say. And really, she couldn't have done it better herself. She continued watching them for a moment as they pressed their foreheads together and simply smiled at each other, but then she suddenly had the feeling of being watched herself.
Turning her head she was met with the dark brown eyes of her First Officer. He was just standing there, right in front of his chair where he'd been for the last five minutes, staring at her with that deep, almost unnerving gaze.
He looked as if he were fighting an internal battle, as if there was something he wanted, but didn't know how to go about it or even if he should. By the looks of it he wasn't even fully aware that she was now watching him. He just kept boring holes into her with those passionate eyes.
Then suddenly, without any warning, he closed the gap between them, brought his hands up to cup her face, and pressed his lips to hers in a tingling kiss that sent shivers down her spine all the way to her toes.
It didn't seem to last long, maybe a few seconds, before he reluctantly began peeling his lips off hers. As he did so her eyes fluttered open, his doing the same, and they simply stared at each while only inches apart.
They were so close she could feel his breath against her nose, his hands slowly moving down to her neck while they just stood there with their lips still slightly parted. At that moment, while their eyes were locked in a heated stare so intense there were probably sparks jumping back and forth, she knew exactly what to do. Knew exactly what she wanted to do and what she should do.
In one fluid movement she reached up, took his face between her hands, and pulled him back down until their lips met again. Only this time it didn't just end. It kept going, their lips locked together as waves of heat rippled through their bodies while their hearts started pounding almost in unison.
They didn't pull apart. Not even as the bridge crew, including Tuvok, began applauding. Or as Tom gave them a wolf whistle. Even the Doctor reaching out to grab Seven's hand as he pressed a quick kiss to her lips went unnoticed by the command team standing in the center of the bridge with their lips locked in a passion filled kiss that was seven years over due.
No words, not grand speeches, not right now. That could come later. Soon they would be home. Together always, in more ways than one.
This was their beginning.
A/N: So what did you think?