A/N: This is my little addition to the Season 6 episode, Pathfinder. I wish they had elaborated on the topic of Maquis acceptance (or not) by Starfleet just a bit more. Can't we just give these poor guys a break already? (Thanks to MiaCooper and Mary S for helping me figure out how many Maquis there are.)

I saw this coming. Long before she did, in fact. Or at least, long before she cared to admit out loud. For the action I took well enough in advance, I will be forever proud. It's not easy to be a step ahead of Kathryn Janeway and it's even harder to get something past her. But by Spirits, I did it this time. Of course, I did it for her as much as I did it for my old crew. And to be honest, the look on her face when Admiral Hayes first broached the subject via communique almost made me show my hand. Instead, I politely accepted her invitation to lunch and helped her to craft what we now call "the cover letter."

"I'm anxious to know the status of your crew, the Maquis…." She parroted back to me for what seemed like the hundredth time. With each recitation her voice grew more condescending and sarcastic than the last.

"Kathryn, you're really worrying about nothing here."

She was pacing, wearing a path in the carpet by the dining table. Her food was left mostly uneaten, which was a shame because mine was delicious. I thought about stealing the pickles from the side of her sandwich, but instead I focused my attention on helping her create a first draft. Truth be told, it was going nowhere.

"I just don't know what to say to these people," she exasperated, throwing her hands up in the air.

"You mean your superior officers? The ones that hold all of our fates at their mercy?"

"You're not helping," she deadpanned back to me.

I had to stifle a chuckle at that one. "Sorry, I just feel like you need to take a deep breath, sit down before you exhaust yourself, and speak from the heart. You're overthinking this."

She stopped short of finishing her last lap and listened to me for a change. "It's been so long I've had to talk the talk of subordinate. So long since I actually reported to someone."

"Welcome to our lives…." I muttered, but she ignored me.

"I'm not sure how to do this so that I don't offend anyone but at the same time sound convincing. I am the best hope for the former Maquis to be accepted in the eyes of Starfleet. Not to mention have all of the charges dropped. Chakotay, if I screw this up…."

"Someone's thinking rather highly of themselves today," I teased lightly. "You're putting entirely too much pressure on yourself, Kathryn. And while it's true that you may not have had to deal with the brass in a while, you've certainly had to be diplomatic."

She let out a controlled sigh. "You're right, of course."

"Nothing you say in this letter is going to put our heads on a chopping block. And even if it did, that's a long way in coming. You heard Hayes, we have years before we see another ship and even more before we get home."

"I want this to be an open and shut case Chakotay. I don't want to lose any more sleep over this."

"I didn't realize it was keeping you awake," I offered. But of course it was. This was one of about a million things that clearly haunted her in the long hours of night.

"You can't honestly tell me this hasn't been on your mind."

I shrugged. Honestly no, I couldn't say that. I knew better than to put my trust fully in the hands of the Federation's upper echelon. But I had every faith in her and my renegade band of survivors. Regardless, her ruminations were getting us nowhere fast. We had an approaching deadline and I'd be damned if I was going to listen to her churn about this for the next thirty-five days.

So, I offered to get us started. Once she finally took my lead and climbed down off the soapbox she had so adeptly situated herself on, we did fairly well. By the time we were done, we had burned away the rest of our shift in her quarters and were both satisfied with the result. The final draft was concise but elaborative. Polite, but blunt. Diplomatic, yet somehow, not. And there might have been an implied threat that if the former Maquis weren't going to be accepted fully and "without hesitation" she'd start looking for a suitable planet for the entire crew. She doesn't mince words, I'll give her that.

With only a few hours before our window closed I was all too happy to take the letter to B'Elanna myself – after I stopped off and got my stack of secret weapons, that is. And, if she followed my advice, maybe Kathryn went to take a nap. More than likely she'd simply replicated another pot of coffee then moved on to the next item of worry on her long list.

"Chakotay, there are over three thousand letters here," B'Elanna said as I watched her thumb through the nondescript index. "Don't tell me you've taken up writing to pen pals….or, I don't know, every cadet at the Academy."

"Not exactly," I chuckled. "There are three thousand, two hundred and seventy six. Plus the cover letter," I informed her. "And every single one is important. Just tell me it's not too many to send at once…."

B'Elanna glared at the tall stack of PADD's on her desk, sighed and thought for a moment. "None of them seem to be very large in size but the number of individual files will make it a little complicated. Still, it's not more than the logs we've already transmitted." She eyed me curiously. "Is there a reason you couldn't condense these into something more succinct? They are all going to the same person."

"I'm trying leave an impression."

B'Elanna shot me a look. "Opening thirty-three hundred attachments will certainly leave something."

"Can you do it by the time our window closes?" I asked knowing full well that she could. B'Elanna probably could have transmitted the entire ship if someone asked her the right way.

Then she gave me that sly smart-ass smile. "For you? Of course."

"This is actually for all of us," I corrected, but stopped before giving any further details. "But thank you, this means a lot to me."

"And the Captain," she stated bluntly as I turned to leave.

"Uh, yes. Her too."

"Chakotay, does she know that you're attaching these to her letter?" B'Elanna's face betrayed a knowing look and I let her have her suspicions.

"Just let me know when they've gone successfully."

"Yes sir."

I knew that when Pathfinder eventually delivered its next transmission, and presumably a response to "our letter," the look on Kathryn's face would be priceless. And I would be damned if I wasn't going to be there to see it. So after a month of patient waiting, I was right on her heels as she headed for the ready room.

She looked back curiously at me. "Something Commander?" She asked me as the doors slid closed behind us.

"I thought I'd listen in on Admiral Hayes' response."

"Oh you did, did you?"

I simply nodded at her and she furrowed her brow then sighed. "I guess you've got as much riding on this as I do. Sit down." Then she offered me something to drink, which I declined.

Admiral's Hayes' round face appeared on the monitor and I smiled despite myself. She eyed me warily as if she knew something was up, but couldn't quite place her finger on it. I've found she has a sixth sense about these things.

Captain Janeway, I hope this transmission finds you well.

She waggled her head back and forth as if to say "get on with it you bloody old fool." I had to bite back a smile. The admiral tugged at his uniform jacket and continued.

Your, ahem, response to my last communique gave the other Admirals and I quite a lot to talk about, Captain. That is, once we were able to appropriately review your transmission in its entirety.

I watched from the corner of my eye as her face turned a peculiar shade of pink and I imagined her skin was beginning to feel hot from the inside.

In fact, we only finished reading all…. The admiral consulted a PADD on his desktop briefly. Three thousand, two hundred and seventy six letters a few day ago.

"What on Earth?" She exclaimed, rising quickly from her seat with both hands flat on the desktop. I could no longer hold back my grin. Her eyes burned questions at me as the Admiral continued his response.

In all my years, and I've had a lot of them, I've never seen such personalized, impassioned pleas for leniency and acceptance. Say nothing of the sheer volume. I'm not sure if it was you who orchestrated this….this letter bombing, but whoever it was certainly proved a point.

The admiral's face displayed a rare smile while Kathryn's morphed into something decidedly different.

We especially enjoyed the list of everyone's favorite foods.

"Chakotay…." She whispered. Her voice and her stare was half-curious, half-seething at the now obvious deception on my part. The admiral, oblivious to our soiree, continued.

I felt it was important to have this particular part of my response ready for you today. So I personally spent a long night of crossing T's and dotting I's with President Bacco's staff. As of this morning, all charges, formal or otherwise have been dropped against every former Maquis member of your crew.

I released a heavy breath I didn't know I was holding. It wasn't likely that the Admiralty would balk at this evidence, but then one can never be too sure when appealing to the brass. Looking at Kathryn, I could see the weight rising from her shoulders as well. The relief was palpable. She cupped her hands around her mouth and I averted my eyes for her benefit.

And, by the time you hear from us again Captain, you have my word that all of the provisional rankings that you have bestowed will be fully granted. You'd better start replicating pips.

Keep up the good work. Hayes out.

Kathryn's stare, fully locked onto the computer display, continued long after I tapped it off. Then her eyes finally met mine.

"I guess we did a good job with that letter," I offered nonchalantly.

"What?" She stumbled for a minute, and if I didn't know better I would have thought she was upset. "What did you do?"

I shrugged and answered honestly. "I asked for help."

"Help?"

I nodded and she waved that hand at me that said "continue talking or I'll have your head."

"When project Pathfinder found a way to send communications to us, I knew it was only a matter of time until this topic came up. So, I spoke with some people…."

"Some people?" She asked me, voice laced with sarcasm as she finally retook to her seat.

"Okay, all of the people," I granted. "All of the non-ex-Maquis on the ship. From Tuvok right down to Harren on Deck Fifteen. I didn't ask her directly, but even Naomi Wildman got involved.

"The favorite foods," she realized.

I smiled. "All one hundred and seventeen of them came through, and in record time I might add."

"And what exactly did you ask them to do?"

"I asked them to be honest. I didn't order them. I didn't really give them much guidance at all. I just requested that they relay personal stories, experiences, observations, that sort of thing about each of the twenty-seven former Maquis specifically and separately. Even a simple 'I don't know him well, but I've heard he's a hard worker,' would have been fine. I left myself off of the list, but apparently they wrote about me as well. And I assured them it would be for Admiralty eyes only."

"You didn't ask everyone Chakotay."

At first I didn't know what she meant. Then it dawned on me. "You sent our official service records, anything personal from you may have appeared tainted in light of your….convictions to have us exonerated."

"And where are these letters now?" She asked. I wouldn't presume to say that she would read such private correspondences, but there was a reason I did what I did with them. Curiosity and the cat, so they say.

"I deleted my copies once the transmittal went through. Though from what Naomi told me, we might want to stock up on French fries and chocolate ice cream."

Kathryn smiled that beautiful pure smile I am only gifted when I've done something really right. It made me feel warm from the inside on so many levels.

"You didn't have to keep this a secret."

"I didn't want people to feel pressured, I also didn't want you peeking," I replied. "And I like to keep your life interesting."

She shook her head at me. "You know," she said, rising from her chair to a decidedly more formal stance. "You tampered with an official communication between superior officers."

I nodded.

"I'd be remiss if I didn't reprimand you."

"I expect nothing less," I replied.

She smirked at me. "Your penance is to work with Neelix," she said with a wry smile playing over her lips. "I think this calls for a celebration."

Epilogue

I didn't return to my quarters until nearly 0100 hours. The party was a success and I'm fairly certain it would go well into the night as Beta shift joined the festivities. It felt good to finally know that my former crew, my friends, would be safe - though there was never really any doubt in my mind on the eventual outcome. Once word was finally free to spread regarding the circumstances of the pardon, a renewed sense of camaraderie spilled out into the halls.

I tossed my old leather jacket onto the chair. It felt strange to wear that garb again, but Neelix insisted it would be both appropriate and fun. And he was right. The flashback party was a well-earned good time.

Upon my return, I found a PADD waiting for me on my desk. I tapped it active.

=/\=

Subject: Request for the Acceptance of Rank for Provisional Lt. Cmdr. Chakotay
From: Captain Kathryn Janeway, Federation Starship Voyager
Transmitted: Stardate 53417

To Whom It May Concern,

It is my personal request that former Maquis Captain Chakotay, having disavowed himself of that organization six years ago, be officially reinstated to the full rank of Lieutenant Commander while he serves in the capacity of Executive Officer of the Federation Starship Voyager and for any subsequent postings henceforth. Mr. Chakotay has served honorably and dutifully, within the rules, regulations and command structure of Starfleet and in the full spirit of the Federation since joining the Voyager crew in April of 2371.

On a more personal note, Mr. Chakotay has been invaluable as my closest advisor and friend. He has greeted each day and every task with a vigor and enthusiasm that at times even I find hard to muster. He has kept me true and steady through this journey and all of our lives have been made better for it. Even in times of disagreement, and we have had disagreements, his devotion to me, the crew and Starfleet has never once wavered.

I await your approval on this matter.

Sincerely,

Cpt. Kathryn Janeway

Ps. I've learned that Mr. Chakotay's favorite food is mushroom soup, as long as I am not the one who prepares it. And apparently, he also likes pickles.

Reviews inspire and are always appreciated.