a/n: The spawn of my incessant plot bunnies and a little too much coffee. Enjoy!
Incarcerated
'I'm sorry,' Chakotay said, an air of humour gracing his words.
Kathryn gazed at him seriously, narrowing her eyes and surveying him closely. 'No, you're not.'
He laughed, glancing around the small room and smiling in a way that irked her to the core. 'No, you're right.'
She scowled, resisting the urge to yell at him. She paced around the small room, huffing angrily as he stood idly by, watching her with immense satisfaction. Her footsteps echoed off the stone walls surrounding them. The air was cold, and damp.
'How long do you think?' he asked innocently, like he'd just asked her how long until dinner was ready.
She raised an eyebrow arrogantly. 'How long, what?'
'Until Tuvok comes to rescue us,' he said simply.
She sighed and stopped pacing to watch the Commander where he stood across the room, casually leaning against the rock wall behind him. Water flowed off to the side, splashing about angrily and spattering mud onto the sandy floor.
'From the prison you got us locked in?' she asked sarcastically, raising an eyebrow.
His face gave nothing away as he continued to stare at her, casually slanted against the wall and picking idly at his t-shirt.
'I give it an hour,' she said seriously, flicking her head sideways and resuming her pacing.
He smiled, inclining his head slightly and gazing up at the rocky ceiling above. 'I'm confident.'
She stiffened, paused and stood ramrod straight, eyeing him carefully. 'Me too.'
An hour came, and went. The silence in the small chamber had done little to ease the rising frustration between the two officers of Voyager.
The rushing water behind the cavern was slowly, but surely, driving Kathryn nuts. Chakotay seemed unaffected, waiting patiently in various corners of the prison. Wisely, he'd stayed largely out of her way.
'How did we get here?'
Captain Kathryn Janeway glared menacingly at her first officer where he still stood, frustratingly so, a little bit away from her. His back still rested casually against the stone wall, a leg propped up carelessly next to him as he surveyed their surroundings with little interest. His position hadn't changed much since they had been forcefully shoved in here together.
His eyes met her own and he shrugged nonchalantly.
'I don't suppose you'd like to talk us out of this one, Commander?'
For a moment, he looked almost contrite, before once again shrugging casually, licking his lips and letting his leg drop to the sandy floor.
Kathryn could feel her frustration building at his seemingly lack of concern for their current situation.
'Talking is what got us in here, Kathryn,' he stated flatly.
She scowled. 'No, you looking is what got us in here.'
She spun around forcefully, putting her back to him and facing out toward the wide expanse of cave before them. Steel bars blocked the majority of her view, and the heavy water flowing somewhere behind them both did little to assist in her overhearing the guards and their conversations.
She hadn't seen any other prisoners on their way down here. Aside from the water, it was eerily quiet.
Angrily, small hands grabbed the bars and shook them loudly. She resisted the urge to growl.
'That won't help.'
His calm voice took on a deep timbre in the percussive walls of stone surrounding them.
She spun around again, huffing and eyeing him angrily. Bits of hair fell forward into her eyes and she swiped at them to no avail. Her eyes narrowed as he chuckled, still playing with the jagged ends of his t-shirt. Apparently, leaning on the stone wall was beginning to fray the sensitive fabric.
'That's not the right approach.'
She scowled, stating her words primly. 'My approach makes me feel better.'
He pushed off from the wall, striding toward her purposefully. He looked down at her, amusement sparkling in his eyes.
'You need to relax, Kathryn.'
She huffed in frustration, pushing past him and stalking angrily about their small enclosure. 'Relax? Are you serious, Commander?'
'Very.'
Ceasing her incessant pacing, she looked at him squarely, her voice firm. 'Why are you not concerned about this?'
'This?'
Placing her hands on her hips, she spoke to him in a dangerous tone. He merely watched her, eyebrows slightly raised and a small smile ghosting his lips.
'This!' she said, throwing her hands around wildly. 'The fact that we are stuck here, underground, with no jackets, and no communicators!'
'It's not so bad,' Chakotay said easily. He turned around, and lent back against the steel bars casually. 'I've been in prison before.'
She scoffed. 'No doubt, if your earlier behaviour is anything to go by.'
He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off with a frustrated wave of her hand.
'We wouldn't be in here if you'd kept your eyes to yourself!'
He actually smirked, stepping off the bars and coming a little bit too close to her again. His gaze was warm, looking down at her with sparkling brown eyes as he struggled to maintain an air of dignity in their current predicament.
'Where was I supposed to look? They were positively massive. Did you actually see her -'
She bit her lip, and narrowed her eyes, watching him with resentment and scowling.
'That's enough, Commander!' she barked.
He smirked again, and pulled back, flicking bits of dust with the toe of his boot. 'I didn't know it was an offence.'
'Well, apparently, it is!' she protested loudly, waving a hand to again indicate their current situation with a little more force than what was probably necessary. Her voice resonated in the small cave.
'She didn't seem too offended by it,' he offered lightly.
Kathryn rolled her eyes. 'Of course, she didn't.'
The air was chilly, and her thin turtleneck was doing absolutely nothing to keep herself warm. Suddenly, she regretted even suggesting that herself and the Commander come on this away mission. Tom's pre-mission report hadn't indicated any aggressiveness on behalf of their captors, but it had also failed to mention that looking at any woman would land you in prison.
Because, apparently, it does. Lieutenant-so-to-be-Mister Paris was going to have a stern talking to when they got back to Voyager.
She was busy stewing on the events of the previous hours as Chakotay seemed to notice her sudden, quiet attempts to stay warm. He picked up his discarded turtleneck from the sandy floor and approached her quietly.
She opened her mouth to stop him in his tracks, but he cut her off firmly, shaking his hand in her direction with the large, grey garment in his hand.
'You can at least take this to stay warm,' he said, holding out his turtleneck to her.
She snatched it, tugging it on with less grace than she would have liked. It was about three sizes too big, hung down past her knees and the sleeves all but swallowed her hands. But, she was starting to warm up and was quietly grateful her first officer didn't seem as affected by the cold in their prison as she was.
Her hair was in her eyes again, and she pushed it away angrily. She decided in that moment her hair was much better off in a bun. She folded her arms in front of herself, and looked up at him again. 'How long do you think now?'
He shrugged. 'Two hours. Tops.'
She sighed, and settled back into the rock wall, mimicking his earlier pose. 'I'm confident.'
Leaning against the cool wall, and closing her eyes, she relaxed surrounded by the scent of him.
'Me too,' he uttered into the darkness of their prison.
Startled, her eyes jerked open and looked around in the bleak light. Chakotay sat over to her left, watching her quietly as he continued to trace patterns in the sand with the heel of his boot.
She'd obviously slid down a little as she now found herself planted firmly on a sandy floor with a distinct pain in her spine. Her head lulled forward on her chest, in a rather painful position if the thumping in her skull was anything to go by.
'It's been more than two hours,' she observed, rolling her head sideways and stretching out the kink in her neck.
'I know.'
She sat up a little straighter, pulling the long sleeves of his turtleneck further down to completely cover her hands again. The coldness of the sand was beginning to seep through her pants, and her legs had begun to stiffen involuntarily.
She was too old to be loitering about in alien prisons.
She stood up, dusting her hands on the front of her pants. She could feel Chakotay's eyes following her and she resisted the urge to grimace outwardly.
Striding confidently over to the bars, she tried without much success to peer through them and down the dim light of the stone corridor. The guards had changed from the last time she'd looked, but the incessant pounding of their waterfall had yet to cease, and she couldn't hear anything.
'You can stare at them all you like, Kathryn,' Chakotay said flippantly from the back of the cell.
Kathryn turned around, leaning against the cool steel and regarding him. 'What's your point?' she ground out, omitting his rank entirely and placing a hand on her hip.
He picked annoyingly at a callous on his right hand, pausing before answering her slowly. 'They aren't going to help us.'
'And, you know this because you've been in prison before?' she said cautiously, a little sarcastically.
He smiled, meeting her gaze with a tinge of naughtiness ghosting his face as he answered. 'Never with you.'
His answer caught her by surprise, and she could feel a blush creeping up her neck despite the cold. Bristling, she turned away and resumed her pacing. She felt his eyes unnervingly trace her every move.
She imagined that she looked completely ridiculous, standing with dirty trousers and an oversized turtleneck that just happened to have a rank bar instead of Captain's pips. Her hair was almost certainly everywhere but where it was supposed to be, and she had a feeling that her perfectly-applied make-up was looking a little less than perfect.
Chakotay, by contrast, looked completely normal and relaxed, like he was on shore leave on Risa.
And, she was beginning to hate him for it.
'You're going to wear a trench into that sand, Kathryn,' Chakotay smirked from somewhere behind her.
'I wouldn't have to wear any trench into any sand if you didn't get us stuck in here!' she growled angrily, stomping each foot into the sand with more force than she intended. Suddenly, the sand flicking out from under her sole seemed quite satisfying.
She heard him sigh, and mutter sarcastically. 'Aye, Commander.'
Pausing, she glared at him in the dark. 'Did you just demote your Captain?'
He looked up, eyes sparkling in the inky light as he half smiled and shrugged. 'You demoted yourself,' he said seriously.
'Excuse me?' she said, her voice low and dangerous. Her hands found her hips again, the ends of the oversized sleeves swinging with her abrupt movements.
'You're currently a Commander,' he pointed out innocently, nodding at the rank bar on the collar of his turtleneck, currently wrapped around her.
Her hand flew to her collar, slender fingers brushing over the metal there. It felt strange to her, and the bumps of her own pips sat unevenly beneath the collar around her neck.
'Huh,' she mused. She resumed her pacing.
'That hasn't happened before,' Kathryn muttered.
She heard him laugh deeply behind her.
'I know it hasn't,' he said confidently.
'You know this how?' she asked sceptically, pausing her pacing to face back toward him and glaring at his smug face.
He winked at her in the dark, folding his hands in his lap casually.
'Because, I'd never let anyone else wear my clothes, Kathryn.'
'Do you ever do anything but pace, and drink coffee?' he questioned idly. Behind him, the rushing water continued to pound.
It was really getting on her nerves. So was her Commander.
Soon-to-be former Commander.
'Do you ever do anything other than sit down and watch me?' she bit back.
Chakotay folded his arms over his chest. 'You're interesting to watch.'
'I'm glad I amuse you,' she said dryly.
He smiled. 'Always.'
Kathryn resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and continued to pace the floor. Her tracks were well-worn, and her usually shiny Starfleet-issue boots were now coated in a fine film of dust.
'It's been hours,' she said flatly. Her eyes looked around, tracing the patterns of the rock as she searched for any sign that she could start chiselling through the rock to make their escape.
She was getting desperate.
'Imagine what Tuvok will say.'
She snorted, answering dryly. 'He will never let the two of us go on an away mission again.'
Chakotay glanced at her, smiling flirtatiously. 'Damn.'
'One thing is for certain though,' she said casually, ignoring his attempt at flirtation, eyes flicking up to meet his own. 'You're never getting another shuttle from me.'
He nodded contritely, a smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth.
Her glare found its way to him across the dark expanse as she ground out a single word. 'What?'
'I didn't intend for us to end up in prison,' he offered.
'Well,' she said arrogantly. 'Maybe you'll learn to keep your eyes to yourself.'
He didn't answer, and she heard him sink slowly back down to the floor as they waited their rescue.
She hated this, not being able to do anything to help her own situation. Her First Officer's flippant attitude was wearing thin and she reminded herself to speak to Tuvok immediately about his timing when it came to their rescue.
When he found them.
The silence was filled by the rhythmic pacing of her footsteps on the sand, followed by the scratching of particles shuffling with the movement of Chakotay's heel, tracing idle patterns in the floor.
'How long?' she asked finally, the husky voice emanating throughout the cave.
'Now?' he questioned. His amusement at her discomfort was beginning to ebb, and he pulled mindlessly at the loose threads in the hem of his t-shirt.
She figured that he had about six hours until there was no more t-shirt to pull at.
Kathryn sank to the floor beside him. 'I give it three hours.'
'I'm confident,' he said quietly, pausing in his thread-picking to straighten his rank bar on her collar. His impossibly warm fingers brushed her cool skin.
'Me too,' she whispered, her breath rising in swirly puffs within the frigid air around them.
She pulled the sleeves of the turtleneck down over her hands, and leant into the shoulder of her first officer, closing her eyes.
'How long?' she asked, teeth chattering in the cold. They had been seated together at the back of the cave for what felt like hours, and Kathryn was almost certain her backside was devoid of all feeling.
She was cold, hungry, and completely fed up with being here.
Chakotay chuckled. 'I give it five minutes.'
She smiled, and pushed her cheek into the muscles of his bicep. 'Really? That's optimistic.'
He shrugged, and tightened his arm around her shoulders. 'I have to be. Your nose is cold.'
'Tuvok had better hurry up,' she grumbled, tucking her arms tighter around her body. 'It's freezing.'
His fingertips traced idle patterns on her shoulder, and she found herself relaxing against him. Her eyes involuntarily began to close again, and she pushed herself further into Chakotay's side. He was beginning to lose his warmth.
'Still angry at me?' he asked, his own teeth beginning to chatter.
She responded quickly, poking him in the side with a freezing finger. 'Yes. Even more so now I'm absolutely freezing.'
'Then, Tuvok had better be quick,' he responded, shifting away from her prodding finger.
'You said five minutes,' she countered, arching her eyebrow as if to indicate that Tuvok should suddenly appear.
Right on time, blue light finally surrounded her, and she shielded her eyes. Suddenly, they found themselves seated on the floor of the transporter pad. Her backside was most certainly numb as she struggled to move to a standing position.
'Welcome back Captain, Commander.'
Kathryn let out a sigh. 'Great timing, Tuvok.'
The Vulcan stepped forward, offering a warm hand down to her. Unfolding herself from Chakotay, she took it gratefully, wincing at the way his warm hands stung her frozen fingers as she climbed up from the transporter pad.
'You found us?' Chakotay asked, groaning as he pulled himself from the floor.
Tuvok shrugged, his eyes roaming over the Commander's face. 'Regrettably it took some time.'
Kathryn reached back and tugged at the knot forming in her neck. 'Any idea why they took such an offence to the Commanders… uh… actions?'
'It is against their laws to gaze upon a member of the other sex when you are a bonded pair,' Tuvok explained calmly. 'They thought it prudent to confine the two of you.'
The Vulcan inclined his head, arching an eyebrow simplistically. He held out a jacket that look suspiciously like the Captain's and she took it gratefully.
Kathryn blanched, and paused before shrugging on her jacket. 'Bonded pair?'
She could almost feel Chakotay's heated smirk on her back.
'And, confining us was their solution?' Chakotay asked cynically. 'So, we could what? Fight it out?'
She snorted, glaring at Chakotay. 'Evidently, that worked well.'
Tuvok continued as if he didn't notice anything untoward between the two command officers. 'Yes, Captain. It would seem that your captors mistakenly believed yourself and Commander Chakotay to be bonded.'
She huffed sarcastically. 'Oh, they did?'
'It would seem,' Tuvok started, standing between the two officers smoothly. 'That Lieutenant Paris neglected to inform them otherwise.'
Kathryn chewed the inside of her lip, looking between the Vulcan and her first officer. 'Well, remind me to have a little chat with Tom Paris.'
Chakotay smirked, bringing a hand up to swipe at his mouth, covering the humour with graceful ease. Tuvok nodded idly.
'I will leave you both to return to your respective quarters,' Tuvok spoke evenly, glancing between them as he stepped back and exited the room.
Turning, Kathryn found herself staring awkwardly at Chakotay, bemused by the rather attractive smirk still on his lips. The same damn smirk he'd been sporting in their prison cell for the last seven hours.
'Well, that was fun, Commander,' she said primly, quirking her mouth up at the corner.
'I'm glad I was stuck with you,' he chuckled, bending down and whispering in her ear. 'Commander.'
Immediately, her hand flew to the collar, and she realised all too late that she had neglected to remove Chakotay's turtleneck before shrugging on her own jacket. It was little wonder the jacket had felt a little tighter.
Her back stiffened, and feeling the need to get out of there, she sauntered off through the transporter room doors in front of Chakotay, leaving him standing in the middle of the room. She strode with purpose toward her quarters, trying her best to keep a straight, if not, scowling face at crew members bustling past.
Kathryn had to admit, she found it mildly amusing at the way their eyes flicked to the rank bar on the Captain's collar, before glancing awkwardly down at the floor and scuffling off again. The rumour mill would certainly be in overdrive by morning.
She could feel Chakotay's eyes on her back, boring holes through the thin layers of both turtlenecks as he followed her, smirking, toward deck three. He was certainly not doing anything to make it any easier.
Her annoyance at him was beginning to flare up again.
It seemed that the length of deck three had lengthened exponentially in the time they had been in the prison. He took advantage of the mostly empty corridor to stride out and catch up with her outside the door to his quarters.
'Kathryn?'
She paused, turned around and watched him with expectant eyes. 'Mm?'
'You can keep the shirt,' he said, winking at her. He keyed in his entry code swiftly before disappearing into his quarters.
In the wake of his disappearance in the empty corridor, the corners of her mouth quirked up in a smile as her fingers touched the rank bar on her collar. She paused for a moment, before striding toward the door to her quarters.
She'd give the rank bar back to him, with the shirt, after she'd given him something else to look at. Something that wasn't the rather hard-to-miss chest of the alien woman that had landed them in the prison seven hours ago.
The zip to her jacket began to slide down, and she made a spur-of-the-moment decision, striding back to his quarters and shrugging the jacket off her shoulders.
She smiled to herself, the small flicker of excitement and anticipation gathering in her belly as she pressed in her override code.
The jacket fell to the floor as she stepped into his quarters, and she tugged down the sleeves of his turtleneck, once again covering her hands.
'Chakotay,' she called out huskily into the darkness, grinning when she saw his form in the doorway to his bedroom. 'I came to return your shirt.'