Enduring Love
Chapter One: Amazing Discovery
Summary: Set one month after To See You Again, Kathryn and Chakotay are enjoying and exploring their new found love when some unexpected news will change the lives of the command team and its crew, but is this news good news?
-=/\=-
"Hum what are these?" she asked as she looked up to see Chakotay holding a bouquet of small blue flowers. She took the flowers into her hands and smelled them.
"They're forget-me-nots, it's been a month since you got your memories back." He smiled at her.
Her face lit up as she looked up at him, she hadn't even realized that it'd been that long already. "It's been a month already?"
"Sure has, and I must say it's been a wonderful month." He smiled back to her; he took his seat across from her at her desk. It wasn't the first time he'd brought her flowers in her ready room. They'd been spending a lot of time together, but at the same time they had both been very cautions as to how they acted outside of privet. She wasn't quite ready to make their relationship public. She was simply enjoying the freedom to express herself with him when they were far away from the eyes of the crew.
"So what do you want to do to celebrate?" she asked looking into his eyes, he could see her desire in them.
"I don't know, I was thinking a nice moonlight supper, and maybe a nice sail on Lake George." He smiled back at her; he remembered the last time they'd gone out, on Lake George, what he'd wanted to do with her then was well, not at all what they did.
"That sounds wonderful" she said looking deeply into his soul, she had a few ideas of what she wanted to do, and had wanted to do a far more then she'd ever allowed him to do before. She wondered if that was why he'd chosen the setting the he had.
"I thought you might say that, so what do you say 1930?" he asked.
"It's a date." She couldn't help herself she was in such a wonderful mood.
-=/\=-
There was just twenty minutes before the end of her shift, she knew that she needed to at least make her way out to the bridge, it was her custom to do so, but she couldn't even move from where she was sitting. Her head leaned back on her chair, and her eyes were closed. She was trying to figure out what could have caused her to feel so faint so quickly. She'd been fine just hours before. Her mind said that she should call for help, call for the Doctor to either come to her or for her to go to him, but she couldn't even find the energy to reach her combadge, that and she really didn't want to see him.
She at least knew that in about twenty minutes or so she'd be found, though she knew her wish to not see the Doctor wasn't going to come true if she were to be found. She opened her eyes, but closed them quickly as pain shot through them. The light in the room was too bright the sound of the warp engines was too loud, and the chair she sat in was too hard. She'd scarcely heard a sigh come out of her mouth.
She moaned louder when her chime rang, she couldn't even formulate the words come in. The pain pierced though her head again as the chime rang once more, by the third chime tears were flowing involuntarily from her eyes. Thankfully whoever it was outside her door decided to just come inside. She was unaware of who it was, but was sure she'd be seeing the Doctor very soon.
B'Elanna walked into the ready room; she spotted Kathryn instantly and determined that something was wrong. She was by her side looking down at her, in a quiet voice she asked, "Captain, are you alright." She reached her hand out and touched her on the arm. She didn't move, though the contortion on her face showed that she was at least alert.
She knelt down next to the woman that was sitting with her head leaning back on the chair, her eyes were closed but her face was contorted. She was very pale. "Captain?" she questioned again very concerned.
"Lan" she finally managed to say, she whence as the sound of her own voice rushed through her head. She could hear the sound of a tricorder being pulled out; the beeping sounded about fifty times louder then she remembered it being.
B'Elanna ran the tricorder all around her, she started at her head. There was some major vascular dilation in her head, as she made her way towards her abdomen. She caught her breath as she scanned her. She covered her mouth and looked at Kathryn's face; Tom had been right all along. "Captain, I'm going to get you to sickbay, I think you're pregnant." She stated.
Kathryn may have been in agony from her headache but what B'Elanna said caused her to open her eyes and look her straight in the eyes. She had managed to lift her head, but soon the pain became too much and she dropped her head back to the chair and closed her eyes, her body arched with the pain. B'Elanna took this to mean it was time to stop lollygagging around and called for an emergency transport to sickbay.
-=/\=-
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency" the Doctor said as he appeared in the main area of sickbay. It took him only a few seconds to determine who the patient was.
B'Elanna had wrapped her arms around Kathryn's shoulders before they transported, and it didn't take her much to lift her onto the biobed. Once in the laying down position Kathryn's hands and managed to find enough strength to cover her eyes, just laying up facing the lights was making the throbbing worse.
The Doctor could tell instantly that she was in a great deal of pain, the cause or the exact location of the pain was the mystery. He started scanning her head, until B'Elanna spoke up. "Doctor, I believe she's pregnant." She stated and locked eyes with the holographic man.
His own eyes grew wide at what she'd said; he moved the hand that held the scanner down to her abdomen. The readings confirmed what B'Elanna had told him. He just nodded then focused his attention to Kathryn. "Captain, what is causing your discomfort; are you nauseous?" he asked.
She was a little bit, but it was the pain her head that was causing her the most issue. She managed to find her voice, though it was very shaky and the fact that she was in as much pain as she was, resonated though it. "A little." She winced again.
"What is bothering you then?" he asked he'd noted vascular dilation in her head, and was wondering if that was the source. But, without confirming that it was that he couldn't treat her.
"My head" she curled up on the bed as the pain worsen. Her entire body was ridged, and a cry emanated from her mouth. "Make it stop." Was the last thing she'd managed to say before she surrendered to the pain, this was by far the worst headache she'd ever had in her life.
She felt B'Elanna take her hand; the young woman was very concerned with how she was doing. She watched the Doctor as he moved back and grabbed a hypo spray. He pressed it to her neck and her body visibly relaxed and her eyes that were already closed also relaxed and it became obvious that what he'd given her was a sedative. She looked up at him, "why is she is so much pain?"
"I'm not sure; I think that her proneness to sever headaches as made her extremely sensitive to the changes in her body. Until I can come up with the exact cause of the headache I can't treat it safely for the baby." He stated. She saw him look down at her, "I need to run a DNA test on the fetus, to determine who the father is, that is if it's anyone on the ship." He stated, B'Elanna knew exactly what he was implying, that perhaps while she was on the planet she'd had a fling, but she knew that wasn't the case, so she took a gamble and fibbed, though she was very sure who the father actually was she didn't know for sure.
"I know who the father is," she stated looking at him. She was hoping that he wouldn't catch her slight uncertainty.
The Doctor looked at her, "care to enlighten me?" he asked, up until now he hadn't even thought that she'd been sexually active, let alone actually having a relationship with one of her crewmembers.
"It's Chakotay" she said quickly, praying that she wasn't wrong; of course she didn't let him know this.
He nodded, and then pressed his combadge "Doctor to Commander Chakotay, could you please come to see me?" he asked. He closed the link after he'd gotten a response from him.
-=/\=-
He was a bit irritated as he made his way to sickbay, he'd been just about to go and get Kathryn form her ready room so that they could go on their romantic getaway on Lake George, but the Doctor had interrupted him, he guess that she would return to her quarters and get ready then meet him. He was wondering why exactly the Doctor had called him.
He turned the corner and walked into the doors of sickbay. He froze when he saw Kathryn laying on the biobed with B'Elanna holding her hand, and the Doctor scanning her. "What happened?" he asked walking up to the group. He took the hand of Kathryn form B'Elanna who gladly let him.
"I went to talk to her, and she was in obvious pain." B'Elanna stated then became very unsure as Chakotay grew worried; she looked to the Doctor hoping that he'd take over the explanation.
"Commander, I believe that she is suffering from a sever migraine, that is pregnancy induced." He stated looking at the man, trying to judge his reaction. He only blankly starred at him, not sure if he'd heard him right. "I have her sedated at the moment until I can figure out a safe treatment for her."
Chakotay swallowed and looked down at her then back up to the Doctor, "she's pregnant?" he asked.
He nodded, "yes she is," he smiled slightly as well, though he was concerned with how severe her headache was.
Chakotay smiled broadly and looked down into her sleeping face, he brushed the hair out of it, "how far along is she?" he had an idea that it would be anywhere from one to four weeks along.
"She's three weeks," he stated, he looked up at B'Elanna she'd been right.
B'Elanna smiled, "Congratulations Chakotay." She smiled.
The Doctor wasn't quite ready to begin the Congratulations just yet. He was worried that she might just not be able to handle the pregnancy, she was only three weeks along, and she was already being hit drastically with symptoms. "I want to keep her in here tonight; I need to figure out the best way to address the vascular dilatation in her brain, it's normal for woman during pregnancy to have some dilation, but in more server cases, the dilation can be more extreme, thus causing migraine headaches. I have a feeling that her love of Coffee might be partly to blame, that and she is already predisposed to migraine headaches."
Chakotay nodded, " I see," he said, her headache must have been atrocious, he'd caught her on more than one occasion with a really bad one but she usually protested greatly until someone drug her into sickbay, but she never went on her own, or with little prompting. "Is there anything that I can do to help with them or help her to prevent them?" he asked wanting to help her out in every way he could.
B'Elanna decided that it was best to let them have some privacy, "I'm going to get going, I think I need to give you all some privacy." She stated. She walked over to Chakotay and gave him a hug, "once again congratulations, when she wakes up can you let me know? I would like to congratulate her in person." She smiled at him, just weeks before she'd berated Tom for his overactive imagination, but he'd been right. "And don't worry, I won't say anything, I know that you wanted to keep things to yourselves for a while." She smiled and then made her way out of sickbay.
Chakotay nodded to her and watched her leave. He then turned his attention back to the Doctor, "so like I was asking, is there anything I can do to help her out?"
The Doctor gave him a large list of things that he could do to help her and suggestions for him to try and give her as well to help prevent some of the more unpleasant symptoms of pregnancy, he then rushed him out of sickbay telling him that he needed to rest as well as the fact that she needed rest as well, let alone the fact that she was still sedated. He decided the best way that he could help with the migraine was to put a cool compress and give her some mild pain relievers; in moderation they shouldn't hurt the baby. He decided to just let her wakeup on her own; a goodnights sleep wasn't going to harm her any either way.
-=/\=-
The pain was much less as she opened her eyes, it wasn't entirely gone but she could manage. She slowly sat up and looked around; it was dark in the room. "Doctor" she called out, her voice was still a bit shaky and she noticed. She placed her legs over the side of the biobed and put her hand on her stomach. Part of her was wondering if she'd dreamed what B'Elanna had said or not. "Doctor?" she called a little louder. She was about to ask the computer to activate him when he appeared from his office.
"Captain you're awake." He stated grabbing his tricorder. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Better, still have a bit of a headache, but it's manageable." She stated looking at him, he was scanning her head. "Doctor," she questioned looking him in the eyes as he scanned her, "Am I pregnant?" she asked wanting confirmation.
He smiled and nodded while he set the tricorder down on the bed. "Yes you are, three weeks." He watched as her expression changed, it wasn't readable at first but slowly it contorted into a smile with tears threatening to spill over.
She looked down at her stomach and then back up to him. "We, I mean I didn't even think about the fact I hadn't had a contraceptive injection." Fear crossed her face, "what am I going to do?" she asked, looking at him. She wasn't really asking him exactly, more like voicing her fear out loud.
The Doctor looked at her and placed his hand on her arm, he looked deeply into her eyes. "I think that is for you and Chakotay to talk about. Though if I know you as well as I think I do, you're going to do fine, there has never been anything that you haven't been able to face." She felt like crying, just everything was so overwhelming. He sensed that she was and did something that he wouldn't normally have done; he pulled her into a hug. She then started to actually cry she was excited and scared all at the same time.