DISCLAIMER: Star Trek: Voyager and all its characters belong to Paramount Pictures; no infringement of copyright is intended. The story however belongs to me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here's a little something that came to me unexpectedly on the way home from work. Inspirational credit goes to Gilly, who provided the wonderfully tempting first line, as well as to Malezita's Secret Summer video which happened to include a certain scene that stuck in my head.

Written August 2013.

Awakening
By Hester (hester4418)

"They fall in love with Captain Janeway, they wake up with me."

That's what she told me when she tried to step back, out of my reach and out of my heart.

"I admire the captain," I said, advancing to close the gap she struggled to create. "But I love you."

"You don't really know me," she tried again, but I wouldn't let her go.

"I know enough." And I do.

I've known since the moment she stepped off of the transporter pad, hands clutched around a necklace she hadn't had when she'd beamed down. When I asked about it later, she handed me a padd with her report, but the tears in her eyes spoke of everything that wasn't said in that official document.

As the captain, she's reserved, yet stubborn and fearless. She was determined to break into that prison to get Tuvok and B'Elanna out, and she did it with all the cunning and bravado of Starfleet's finest. But underneath the tough exterior is a passionate woman who was affected deeply by Caylem's tender care and concern. He drew out a side of her that she thought had no place in the Delta Quadrant. That it cost him his life was only more proof to her that she was right.

I protested, telling her that she could not be expected to be the captain every hour of every day, every day of the week. Even in the Delta Quadrant, the captain has to rest sometimes. I also said that she had to know that her crew would not begrudge her some private happiness this far from home.

She told me then. Told me about the two men whom she had had affairs with during her first command. The first had been a civilian mission specialist, someone outside the chain of command whom Starfleet wouldn't frown upon. He had thought she was the dominant type, as commanding in bed as she was on the bridge, and had quickly tired of her when he found out differently.

The second had been a lieutenant commander, a designated first officer just hitching a ride on her ship in order to get to his new post. It would have been a long-distance relationship, which neither would have minded, but it soon became apparent that their ideas for shore leave dates differed widely. She wanted the relaxed, romantic atmosphere of a beach resort; he wanted the thrill and excitement of a three-day shuttle race around Orion's Belt. He couldn't understand why she didn't crave the adrenaline rush on a daily basis.

The next time she went back to Earth, something clicked between her and a life-long civilian acquaintance. He didn't know the captain; he only knew her. And she thought this would be her last chance at happiness.

I told her she had it wrong, that it wasn't fair to split herself in two like that. And that, like B'Elanna, neither of her perceived halves would be complete without the other.

I'm not sure she believed me.

But when I asked her to show me the necklace, when I told her what I'd read between the lines of her report, her resistance crumbled. She finally allowed me to hold her, and I haven't let her go since.

As I lie here, looking at her sleeping form, I can't wait for tomorrow when we'll wake up together, just her and me, not the captain and the commander.

I know the captain, and I'll serve under her any day. But waking up beside Kathryn will be a far greater adventure than any we've experienced this far.

-==/ The End \==-

I also wrote a companion piece/counterpoint/sequel of sorts from Janeway's POV: "Dawn".