Author: MoiraShipper
Summary: For the pink October, from the episode "Timeless". R&R please
Timeless October
And I'll carry you home
I'll carry you home
If she had wings she would fly away
And another day God will give her some
Carry you home-James Blunt
2375
Cold. On Voyager you could only see the white of the snow that was surrounding them. Kathryn felt her head throbbing, but couldn't move from her chair. She looked around seeing the snow entering the ship and Paris almost frozen over the dashboard.
She tried to reach the pilot, wanting to check on her crew, but her body wouldn't obey, almost frozen and with a groan, she thought about Chakotay and all the wasted opportunities to tell him that she loved him, but she knew he and Kim were safe.
2390
Tessa wanted to give Chakotay some privacy, who walked through the frozen bridge. He was distressed, thinking of the last moments of the crew, and that he hadn't been next to his captain.
"My chair used to be here..." But instead of his chair or frozen bodies, there was only one cryostasis chamber. Inside he saw the face of Kathryn Janeway, white as snow, yet relaxed, as if she was asleep.
Allowing himself a few seconds, Chakotay ran his gloved fingers over the glass, as if caressing the woman's face he loved more than anything, releasing a little prayer before going to business.
"Chakotay to Harry, I've found something."
"It's Harry, I've found five cryostasis chamber on the sickbay."
"What does that mean?"
"I'll transfer you the codes I've found in the doctor's files to open them safely."
With the codes and his heart pounding, Chakotay opened the lid. He crouched beside the chamber, waiting. The face of fifteen years ago began to fill with life and when the bluish eyelids trembled, opening and staring at his black eyes, all Chakotay managed to say, with difficulty was:
"Hello Kathryn."
"Hello Chakotay." She said hoarse, noting that aging had been gentle to him, turning some strands of his black hair in gray, as she stood up.
Seeing her in that thin uniform, so small and with her hair accumulating some snowflakes, he took off his coat and put it around her while Kathryn lost herself on the man's scent on the fabric. When she zipped up and looked up at him, they kissed.
Chakotay's lips seemed to warm the captain's, who kissed him with passion, and the felt an electrical discharge, until slowly, they broke the kiss.
Kathryn recovered from the shock of seeing him and he helped her to sit carefully over the chamber, bending down and picking up her cold hands in his, warmer, but before one of them could say anything, Kim interrupted them in the comm badge:
"Chakotay, we're opening the chambers." Hearing Harry again, Kathryn felt relieved to know that he was okay.
"Hello Harry." She said gently.
"Captain..." He seemed shocked and then ecstatic. "It's good to have you back."
After he hung up, the couple looked at different points for a few seconds, looking from the falling snow to the frozen panes...
"I'm glad that you've found us." She finally said looking at him fondly, giving him a smile.
"What happened?"
"After the collision, most of the crew died." Kathryn said with her eyes shining with tears. "Tom, B'Elanna, Ayala, Sam, Naomi and I survived, but we were badly injured and I couldn't contact anyone. Gradually Voyager energy system started to shut down and the doctor decided to put us in stasis, so that we might have a chance. And so we waited."
"And we arrived." Chakotay added with a smile, as he explained his part of the story. When he finished, they were both touched.
"I love you Chakotay." Kathryn surprised him, deciding it was time to left the protocols aside.
"You...?" Without waiting, he pulled her into his arms, kissing her several times. "I love you so much, my Kathryn..."
After a while, he said with difficulty: "I don't know if I have the courage to change the past."
"Chakotay." She said seriously, grabbing his face with her hand, making him stare at her. "We must do it, the life of the crew depends on it."
"I know. And I'll do it, but it'll be hard."
Kathryn denied and seeing the knife in his pants, she took it, holding a strand of her reddish-brown hair. He looked at her curious, before understanding.
"You understood what I'm going to do, right?" She cut the strand. "I won't forget that kiss because on our last night together, I researched about the culture of your tribe. Many women used to gave a piece of her hair for their loved ones, so they could return to them and give it back."
When she put the strand of hair in the pocket of his shirt, he touched the spot, closing his eyes and letting a tear fall. Everything would be fine. With her sitting on his lap, he hugged her, nuzzling his nose in her hair, which now accumulated some snowflakes and then whispered in her ear:
"It'll be the first thing you'll see when we get back to October 2375."
"Yes." But then he noticed that she absently touched her right breast.
Remembering what she had said about the accident earlier, he asked:
"You said the doctor failed to treat all wounds?"
"The doctor noticed that there was a lump in my breast." She admitted with a sigh, making Chakotay's blood run cold. "Breast cancer, something so easy to be treated nowadays, but with our basic supplies, there was no way to do it and so he decided to put us in stasis."
Still shocked, he removed her hand from her breast and began to touch it, not in a sexual way, but looking for the deadly nodule, and when he found it on the breast's side, he used his thumb to feel it better. His touch was so gentle that she felt nothing but comfort and hope.
"Hey, I'll be fine." She murmured, touching his hand.
"I know, you are a warrior woman, I just... I'm just scared and relieved at the same time. Could have lost you again..." He admitted.
"I confess that at first I was afraid." She also admitted, staring at his with eyes that had tears too. "Knowing that the doctor had to remove my breast, a piece that symbolizes me as a woman... While we were still awake, Tom and the others supported me, and then Naomi suggested, so small and so smart, they used a pink pipe, symbolizing the fight for breast cancer... but then the doctor saw that only removing it wouldn't solve and seeing all our losses, I let that fear aside to help those who were left to survive..."
"Hey, even if he had to remove your breast, it wouldn't make you less of a woman, but the warrior woman I'm pleased to serve..." He said softly, staring at her beautiful face that broke into a smile. "With what we've brought, we can treat you and I will be by your side all the time." He swore, touching his forehead to hers, giving her a peck and her hand closed over his, on her breast.
"Thank you, my angry warrior."
Chakotay and Tessa had said goodbye with a hug that had spoke everything they had spent together before she left for the Delta Flyer. With B'Elanna and Kim working on the message on Seven, the doctor administered the cure for breast cancer and Janeway and Chakotay, who was at her side in the biobed, started to record their messages to themselves from the past: Chakotay look for the strand of hair on your pocket, and she recorded: Touch and examine yourself, every woman should remember that even in the 24th century, and look for the missing hair. And they found a way to send that hair to the past and minutes later, the future changed.
2375
Kathryn Janeway was in front of her mirror, with her pink robe open, touching her breasts, pleased to find nothing there, after reading the message from the future. She looked at her bed with love, seeing Chakotay's boots next to it and he, quietly asleep, and then she turned her attention to her stand, near the perfumes, where a strand of her hair was, locked with a Pink Ribbon. Timeless pink october.