For a moment there was ringing in my ears, the sensation of excruciating pain, the smell of death and things burning loomed in the air, the feeling of your surroundings rushing faster around you than the Earth can spin on its axis. Then it all stopped as my eyes made contact with your body, lying still on the ground.
The ringing stops, the pain I felt and the smells faded into nothing, everything around me was suspended in time other than the pounding of my heart in my chest, my raspy and heavy laboured breathing and the concerning slow rise and fall of your chest, all seemed to be to fast to keep up with. Nothing else mattered but you. Nothing else registered in my mind but you. She's the love of my life and I'm watching her as she stands on deaths doorstep, waiting to be allowed entry, I needed to stop her from going inside.
I started to move towards her but my legs felt heavy, like led and it seemed like an eternity before I finally reached her side. I leaned down to listen to the sound of her heart beating in her chest and the exhale of her breath. I let out the breath I didn't even know I was holding. She was okay. Then in a split second she wasn't. She stopped breathing. I began to panic as the sounds of people screaming started to fill the previously silent air, things around me started to move. I didn't know what to do.
I placed my fingers against her neck, shivering at the shock that the contact between my hot, burning heat reacted with the icy cold skin that was hers. I couldn't find her pulse. Compressions. I started pounding on her chest. The sound of her ribs cracking under my strength made me cringe. I knew it was a good thing but I felt terrible causing her more pain. I opened her mouth and pinched her nose, transferring a breath of life from my lungs to hers. My arms started to tire, my panic becoming more prominent, had I lost her? But I had to keep trying; I couldn't let her leave this world. She couldn't leave me in it alone.
Suddenly, just like it was magic, her eyes flew open, revealing a tiny part of that sparkle they usually contained, that sent my heart racing. She took in a deep but shallow breath before coughing it all back out from her lungs. She came back from deaths doorstep. The colour started to return to her face and warmth slowly returned to her battered body. I had been so afraid I would never see her again; to tell her those three words I wanted her to always remember.
'I love you.' The words came out shaky and soft but I knew she heard them because she replied with 'I love you too.' The world around me froze completely now as I crashed my lips to hers. Feelings of longing, lust, passion and pure bliss circulated through my body like electricity, creating sparks upon contact with her delicate skin. I pulled away, not wanting to send her back into cardiac arrest and remembering the situation we were in. But she pulled me close to her, I could now feel her warm breath against the exposed skin of my neck.
'Don't leave me Chakotay.' So I didn't. I curled up beside her and held her. She was in pain, I knew that but she didn't show it. For the first time I took in the wreck around me, the events that led to our current situation came flooding back. We had come to this planet for shore leave, we were meeting with the government officials, and then it happened. A man with a bomb waltzed into the building and pushed the trigger, sending people into panic and chaos. I now realised what seemed like hours had only been minutes. Her communicator chirped and I was grateful to hear the monotonous sound that was Tuvok's voice.
'Voyager to captain Janeway. Prepare for emergency transport. ' I took her comm. badge off her uniform and informed them of our situation.
'Chakotay to Voyager, the captain is injured, beam us directly to sickbay.' I took her hand in mine as I started to dematerialise into a sparkly blue light. I looked to her to see her looking at me; I looked into her eyes and saw that sparkle burning bright like it always had and in that moment I knew she would be okay and I knew that we would be together forever.