What The Heart Wants

Free Coffee. And a man she thought she had forgotten.

Kathryn Janeway sat strumming her fingers against the armrest next to her. The seat next to her was unoccupied and the airport terminal was nearly empty. Every so often a name was announced over the loudspeaker, informing passengers of urgent messages. None were going to be for her she knew that for a fact.

But there had been a time before she was promoted to Admiral where it seemed no matter where she was, there was always a message waiting for her. There were messages from Starfleet, from her sister, and always from him.

To this day she never could figure out who he had done it. She would land in a new city, and there was always coffee waiting for her, and a new message from him. But that was many years ago. He had married another woman, and since then the free coffee perks had disappeared.

But that first time was still etched in her mind.

10 years earlier-

After 7 years in the Delta quadrant Captain Janeway's crew was finally home. There were endless nights of parties and weeks of debriefings. And slowly most of her adopted Voyager family slowly returned to their former lives. They were debriefed and started a new journey without their former family and former captain.

Chakotay and she had shared a quiet dinner together, and a bottle of Champagne. Kathryn was trying to get up the nerve to tell him how she felt about him when he spoke to her in that soft voice of his.

"Kathryn, I need to tell you something as my friend. Especially now that were are back in the Alpha quadrant."

This was it Kathryn began to shiver waiting to hear the words she had always wanted to hear from him. She had waited so many years for this moment. She took a deep breath and looked up from her dinner plate.

Chakotay cleared his throat, and looked her directly in the eyes.

"I'm going to ask Seven to marry me."

In that single moment everything changed for Kathryn. It was as if every dream she had ever had was based on a lie. Apparently her former self knew how deeply this was going to cut her, and that is why she warned her ahead of time. But even though she already knew, the shock was still extreme.

She didn't object she his ego had been hurt for years, waiting for her. He deserved better then her constant oath to Starfleet. Chakotay was still a handsome man even though the years had given him a few grey hairs, and he should have a desirable woman by his side. She always thought it would be her, but Kathryn had been wrong about many things in her life.

Kathryn gave him her blessing and after that night she discontinued communication with him. He had invited her to the wedding ceremony, but she simply bought a gift and had it sent. Her heart was still in pieces and could not take any more piercing.

So instead of going to the wedding she had scheduled a trip to Denver. She had never been to Colorado and she looked forward to just getting away for awhile.

As the plane descended into Denver the mountains captured her attention. Kathryn had grown up in Indiana, and everyone knows the only state that is flatter than Indiana is Nebraska. It was not like Kathryn had not seen mountains before she had traveled a lot since her younger days, hell she had even traveled across the galaxy and seen mountains no other human had ever experienced. But somehow this time these mountains captured her imagination.

She had just exited the plane and was walking into the terminal when one of the attendants pulled her aside and told her that she had had a message waiting for her. Kathryn was surprised because no one knew that she was coming to Colorado, she had not told a soul. Curiosity got the better of her and she followed the agent to a section with comfortable chairs and a screen where she could retrieve the message. Kathryn took a deep breath and activated the pad in front of her.

The pad in front of her beeped indicating that the message was text only.

To Captain Janeway-

I hope you enjoyed your flight. I know you need to relax and take some time off so I will make this brief. I was informed that The Rocky Mountain Coffee blend is one of the best coffees Earth has to offer. And I was sure that only a true coffee connoisseur would appreciate. There is a blend waiting for you in the café, along with me if you will give me another chance.

I have thought of you ever since that kiss we shared.

Kashyk

Kathryn sat stunned. This was obviously a joke. How on earth could it not be. Kashyk was thousands of light years away, in another quadrant, and how on earth would he even get to Earth, let alone know she was in Denver.

It is probably Phoebe playing a prank on me she thought. Kathryn slid her pack on her shoulder and walked through the terminal thinking about how she was going to kill her sister for this particular prank.

TBC