A/N: Because scifiromance has been bugging me on and on and on and on and on about doing this fic, I've decided to finally release it out into the public eye. I really hope you like it Oh, and from the first =A= and the second =A= scifiromance wrote that! She's a star!

Summary: What if Chakotay and Seven couldn't get out from beneath the barrier in 'Natural Law'? This is my version of the episode, and what happens after it.

=A=

Seven of nine, tertiary adjunct of the unimatrix zero one and Chakotay Amal stood side by side staring at the useless piece of equipment that had done nothing to help their situation of being stuck underneath a shield, with a tribe called the Ventu. The girl whom had helped Seven get back to the tribe and showed her the mystical waterfall stepped forward, and reached her hand out.

"No!" Seven shouted, but it was too late. The girl touched the metal, and her body convulsed into a series of jerks as it fell backwards. Seven ran to the girl and mechanically checked her pulse. It was slightly fast, but the only problem she could see on the young child was burn marks on her fingertips.

"Is she okay?" Chakotay asked Seven as he kneeled down next to her. Two others kneeled down as well, and being as it was a man and a woman, it was easy to assume that they were the girl's parents.

"She should be fine. Hopefully. Take her into the cave…"

Chakotay nodded, and wrapped his arms underneath the girl's body, lifting her up. He walked with the girl in his arms, her parents, and the tribe leader followed him as he walked with Seven. Eventually the rest of the Ventu tribe followed them to the cave, watching with apprehension as Chakotay laid the unconscious girl on the grass laden rock bed.

The tribe leader tapped Chakotay on his shoulder, and he turned round, to see him sign something he didn't understand quite yet. The tribe leader saw the puzzled look on his face, and pointed to the girl, then did the sign for 'well'.

Chakotay understood this time. He wanted to know if the girl would be okay. Chakotay slapped his left hand over his right, saying 'yes' in the native language

When he turned back, Seven was sitting beside the girl, idly stroking the side of her head. "We're stuck here…aren't we?"

The former commander sighed and nodded, "Yeah…I think we are."

=A=

"Chakotay!" Chakotay looked up from the warm fire he was dreamily studying in

the Ventu's cave to see Seven enter, in Ventu dress since she'd given up on

her biosuit as impractical a few days after their shuttle crash.

He smiled at her warmly, raising an eyebrow when he saw her phaser lying

limply in her hand and nothing edible in her arms. "No luck?" he asked.

She shook her head as she joined him by the fire, wrapping her blanket around

her legs to keep out the slight chill in the evening air. "I believe that the

animals are adapting to my hunting methods." She admitted.

"Well, maybe you should trade in your phaser for one of these." He replied,

pulling out not only his sling but the small dead mammal, similiar to a

rabbit, he'd killed for their evening meal that morning.

Seven stared at him in disbelief, "You can use that...weapon?"

He laughed. "Obviously!" His laugh earned them amused glances from the Ventu

at other hearths and he watched them discuss their alien visitors in their

fluid, emphatic sign language. "Do you think we should teach them to talk?"

"Perhaps, but their language seems to serve them perfectly adequately."

"That's easy for you to say, you're practically fluent!" Chakotay responded in

a teasing tone, smiling as she blushed. It was true, after Seven had accepted

they weren't leaving, she'd spent the last four months putting her

photographic memory to good use and learning the Ventu language, although

Chakotay knew she was as aburpt in sign as she was in spoken language.

"You were the one who realised it was a complete language Chakotay." Seven

pointed out with an apologetic tone in her voice.

He was about to reply when the older brother of Seven's friend appeared at the

cave entrance, Chakotay had taken a dislike to the man, the lewd looks he

sometimes shot Seven's way made his chest tighten in anger, although Seven, as

she had with the Doctor and Harry, appeared completely unaware of the

attraction. Now though, the man looked frantic, and Chakotay caught the words,

"youngest brother", "fall", "help". Seven understood more of it for she was up

in an instant, helping as the young boy, bleeding from his head, was carried

in and Chakotay immediately brought over the tricorder, though he could

immediately see it was hopeless. He shot Seven a look but she ignored him,

continuing to try and resusitate the child. Finally, as the Ventu seemed to

realise the situation and cry, he placed a hand on her shoulder, "Seven..."

She didn't let him go any further, bolting from the cave at full speed, he

felt he had no choice but to follow her and within a few minutes found her

collapsed against a tree, her body shaking. The sound of sobs, a sound he'd

never heard from her throughout their four month ordeal, broke his heart, as

did her next words, "I'm...sorry..."

"For crying?" He asked incredulously, "Seven that's natural, you just saw

something horrible, you did all you could..."

"No! No I didn't!" She burst out, "We're still trapped here aren't we? If

I...had found a way to..."

Without thinking, he was down on his knees beside her and had pulled her into

his arms. "Don't you dare feel guilty about this... Without you, we'd have

been fried on that sheild."

Seven stiffend in shock at the hug at first but found herself relaxing into it

in relief as his sincre, soothing words washed over her and she allowed

herself to take comfort from his physical closeness. Finally, unable to bottle

in four months worth of guilt, grief and fear, she let herself cling to him,

weeping into his chest.

=A=

The boy had been the tribe leaders youngest son, and his blood had stained the sandy floor of the cave. The Ventu had tried to rub it away, but Seven had convinced them that it would do them no good. The boy had been called A'Kirinta.

Seven pushed her body into Chakotay's at A'Kirinta's burial. The body was taken out into the depths of the forest, and was put into a deep hole in the ground. The women then placed large leaves over A'Kirinta's body, and the men scooped the soil up with their hands and filled the hole back up again.

Through the entire procession, Seven had remained as still as a statue, her eyes wide in grief. A'Kirinta had been Ol'iande's brother. Ol'iande was the tribe leader's second child, and the irl who had followed Seven on her first night with the grieved for Ol'iande and her family. This was the moment she seen how easily life was broken by nothing more than mere soil and trees.

"Seven?" Chakotay asked her in a small voice, wary of her actions. But what he did't expect, was for Seven to turn into him and tightened her arms round him. She let one, lone, single tear, drop from her eyelid.

A/N: How was it? I hope it was okay, took me forever to think about the right context to use in this :L Anyways, please review! Love, Chaz x