My fanfiction is currently following a linear story, it's a bit like the show, it has seasons [stories] and episodes [chapters]. Just like a tv prog, you don't need to go back to the beginning, be welcome to jump right in! I'll give you a quick summary to help you on your way.
The story started with 'coming home with you' paired with 'between two heavenly bodies' a counter point of Janeway and crew on one hand, and Chakotay on the other, as they finally come together in the last 24 hours on voyager, and chakotay turns away from Seven and chooses Kathryn during and after one crazy big party celebration. There's a lot of reflecting on the past, and Naomi is a star attraction. Janeway adopts Icheb, Harry pairs up with Jenny finally - her POV.
There are some interlocking sequels [please look at my profile] before we come to the next main story, 'Crossing the Rubicon' which moves from debrief into the first action adventure in the alpha quadrant. It is supposed to be an easy diplomatic mission to showcase te Voyager team, and spread a bit of peace and love. Unfortunately, there is an adversary, as yet unknown, who has a very creative sabotage. For this adventure, they pair up with Enterprise and the Next Gen crew and showcase some of the Voyager tech and learning. Janeway meets an enemy from the past. A will they/wont they get to survive [they do of course, just in the nick of time]. The adversary is still out there though for some future machinations. Along the way, Seven is adopted into the Janeway clan, Mike vacillates between his ex-wife and Megan, and Kathryn and Chakotay get some surprising but good news.
This work follows on directly, and is therefore approximately 2 months following the return to the alpha quadrant. Since I also start with an internal monologue recap, you might not need to read the previous fics, but on the other hand, you might want to. After all, who can resist a J/C endgame resolution. This fanfic aims to have a weekly update. Oh, and please comment if you enjoy! TY TrekDr
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Janeway
I put away Captain Janeway, bright hero, fearless embodiment of starfleet values a person that I became over seven years. The enterprise is cleared to depart DS9, and this straightforwards diplomatic mission is most definitely over. As straightforwards as anything ever was in the delta quadrant! Another case of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. the tickertape has finished falling on us for now, fednews has its positive story, the 'maquis' have made their contribution and maybe oneday people other than us will realise we are truly one crew. We have negotiated peace with the Cardassians and the DMZ managed to escape from a cunningly contrived trap, though we have yet to ascertain the adversary or their true intent. file that for later Janeway! Behind the scenes, there are homes for some eager Voyagers on DS9, and Kira and I reviewed a potential apartment for me to use when i pass that way, depending on what my future plans are. Hopefully, possibly a stepwise home between Earth and the Dorvan system. Maybe. Her uncertainty around me is starting to thaw. I can see that she would have made a good partner for Chakotay, as all those trashPADDs insinuate in their rehashing of supposed dates. Passionate, decisive, stubborn and spiritual. A fighter for her people and what she believes in. rebellious. Yes, I can see the comparison. We will become friends over time. I am, however, blindingly angry to be considered a love struck rival in an amorous triangle. Casting me as betrayed. Too close to home for a while, but the wrong triangle, the wrong betrayal. different lives, different circumstances, different futures.
Time to start truly considering my future, all my future, not just professional, not just in relation to my crew. What do I, Kathryn Janeway, really want from my life next. Goodbye to trying to focus only on being Captain! I tuck her back into the recesses of my mind. Is it a sign of madness that even I am starting to consider myself two separate people? I am hoping not to see her for most of the rest of this week. She deserves a rest having put on a damn fine show with D'mek on DS9, even if I say so myself. It feels...right...to have set some of my demons to rest, finding a Cardassian that seems trustworthy, that believes in enough of the important things that we can start a friendship. Someone who has also started a tentative friendship with Chakotay, earnt his respect. Building bridges. Creating better futures. He asked what I wanted for Gul Emen, and I realised that I have no personally driven opinion. I am free. Due process according to law. Another burden of my past, lifted even if not removed.
I can't deny that I am still enjoying the exuberance of success, now not just our return to the alpha quadrant, but in this diplomatic mission. even the damn diplomatic meet and greet have a gloss of joy. I am near giddy with the relief that our voyager team still works, if anything better now they all have chance to spread their wings and influence others. I just hope that we really can make the adjustment. If I can ignore the peril we were in, from failing to bring our delta quadrant pessimism and expectations of the 'overwhelmingly negative unexpecteds' to what we perceived as our safe haven, we damn straight showed our colours. Nailed them on the mast. Those p'tak admirals who can't move on and view our unified crew with disfavour cannot help but be impressed. No doubt the official view of the Mariner and Enterprise having much larger roles will be more to their taste, but no-one can ignore the triumphant success of 'Lanna's engineering fixes. the potential posts for her are pouring in, to match them, she will leapfrog to a full commander.
my mind spins onto the suggested promotions that Owen has sent through. A laugh formed from pure joy that our homecoming has exceeded my wildest hopes, both for myself and my crew, draws a look and smile from a pensive Chakotay before he ducks his head down at the PADD in hand.
My mind spins, hopping from past to present to skirt around future. Dammit, I am not sure whether it is post mission euphoria or thank hell we are all alive, pregnancy - and let me pause there for that to sink in, hell, pregnant! Chakotay's! After all, he loves me! the voyager party, the kiss on the holodeck, our joint encounter with a bulkhead in my quarters! Blush, put those thoughts away- of the upcoming relieving of command of voyager, but my emotions are in free fall. I would speak to Deanna, but she is post mission too, with her own whirlwind of euphoria.
I can't focus, my PADD stays in my hand, partially read, I have a stream of messages to respond to. Family, friends, requests, thinly veiled commands. Instead, I gaze out at the stars and continue to try and imagine my future. I have rarely dared to imagine my future. For seven damned long years I resolutely lived only in the present, focused on my role and a goal that seemed near impossible. Living in a torchlight's beam, not looking to the side, not seeing clearly the end, focusing on that thin pencil projection leading us home. I needed to be that person who would carry the hopes and dreams of other peoples futures. I needed to be the person that the crew could believe would get us home. I forcibly molded myself into that person. Otherwise, we would have drifted, fallen apart and no doubt met our end by attrition. It meant I rarely dared to sit and look at the stars, imagining a future, imagining beyond the moment that we would get home. Even more rarely did I let myself imagine what I really hoped for in that future. Now, I find that I am sitting in that future, and it still feels dangerous to imagine, still feels that I will court disaster to allow myself to imagine ... our family, myself, chakotay and our child.
When I told Chakotay to set the pace of our relationship that bright morning afterwards, that perhaps was also perhaps a cowardice rather than a gift as intended. Still living in the moment and not daring to dream of what the future might hold. Not hoping for a home, a commitment, a family. I think I am still treading water. I need to be brave and decide on a future, we need to move onwards, together.
It is nice to sit, looking at the stars, and instead of feeling the tightness of concern, worry threaded through with bleakness, I feel at peace. I have friends within the family that we made. I have new friends, now I can court openness. And, I have beyond all hope, Chakotay, lover and best friend. It is time to try and daydream, to imagine this child that I so wonderingly carry, and us, together as a family. We will choose our future together. I want this future too much to trust to the fickle outcome that continued sleepwalking may determine. I look at the stars from our quarters on Enterprise, and let them spin a story of a garden, children playing, a father and older brother spinning them around and laughter whilst a mother nurses her youngest. My dreams are now about family. I have made my achievements for starfleet, I am proud of our legacy, I need to focus on something more primal next. Damn, is this really Kathryn Janeway talking! Love and pregnancy, safety and resolutions. I think I might be ready for the future after all.
Chakotay? Hmm, I think he might still be in a bit of a tailspin too, des..pite the joy of our pregnancy. He has always claimed to live in the present rather than a tomorrow that may never come. Not trusting to a future that might be destroyed like his past has been. Hard for him also to accept that we have the opportunity to believe in the future again, and make a home together. I want to know that he can believe in our future. The thoughts of my as yet unwrapped present still hurts, that it feels that he has not accepted it. I know that he loves me, I need to let my expectations rest until he is ready. i did promise. I worry about the effect that the explosion of commitments around us will have, Mike and Megan, Harry and Jenny - he finally saw the light with the twin conundrum, Will and Deanna, and I think hovering may be Picard and Beverly. Back awaiting us I believe Tal and Billy. All these friends grasping the future with both hands, surfacing his contrary nature. I do understand, let us hope that I have patience.
It isn't just formalising romantic relationships we need to consider. I have a new son, who I love, and cherish. As a pair, Chakotay and I need to consider how this relationship continues to work. I have a new sister, damn my mother for surprises, but on reflection this does seem to be an inspired resolution to Seven's concerns. Something else though for Chakotay and I to navigate, as well as the renewed relationships with our families, and my perhaps troubled one with his sister. my mothers adoption of Seven has made me think more widely, and about 'Lanna in particular. She has been swept into the heart of the Paris family, but her own is missing since Miral's death and her father's hesitancy. I can't push her to look further into her biological parent, lets face it, you can't push 'Lanna full stop! But Chakotay has always considered her his little sister, and I wonder whether there is something in his culture to acknowledge foster sisters? I am interfering and should pull back! This coming week back on Earth has the opportunity to become interesting. I have had enough of thinking.
Looking over at Chakotay, he is reading his PADD in a half-hearted way, picking up the mug I know is empty of tea. And is surprised by that again. We are allegedly looking at mid crew choices. Baytart, Delaney's , mike... There are a number that might want to go back out with voyager, if she goes out again, if the family is still there. Nechayev is concerned that we should break up the family more. I am trying to write a reply that changes her mind, focussing on the longer picture, get people settled and gradually mix. Diffusion rather than forced separation. I think have done it and send with my thumbprint. Job done.
The biggest thing is to determine what the senior crew are doing, the rest will fall into place. It takes us back to Voyager. So that takes us right back to Chakotay. Chakotay, who is staring at a message blankly. I am presuming it is the one offering him the choice of first officer on the enterprise, an academy position, or...or voyager, as captain, mission to be determined, but suggesting the diplomatic run to DS9 where the cardassian diplomatic headquarters will be based and on to cardassia prime - thank Chakotay's spirits that they are not going to have us visit Chin'toka for this- and dorvan to bring the DMZ back into the fold from non-aligned worlds status to independent protectorate. There is an admiral that will be based partly earth, partly ds9 to assist. I know this because that is one of my options, as is an academy position, leading a delta quadrant research facility or remaining voyagers captain specifically without Chakotay as first Officer. Therefore the look at a potential home on DS9. A foray into planning a future.
I ping the DS9 appartment details to Chakotay's PADD , with my review of his preferences noted with what I would see myself and senior crew choosing if any of these came to fruition. I further rank my choices, diplomacy followed by research being my preference, clearly in some seven months I will be re-adapting. I will look at my other messages later, but agree that we will stay with mother, icheb and Seven for a family celebration and that we will also watch the doctor singing in 'the space pirates of penzance' at least this must be better than some of the singing with the Qomar! That's enough work. I think some distraction is in order.
I look at chakotay, who is now leant back with his eyes closed, no pretence of reviewing anything, and quietly rise from the couch. Even before I get to him I see the grin steal across his face, and those dimples of desire starting.
'damn! am I ever going to surprise you?' dropping a kiss on his forehead. Even a kiss so gentle has his arm whipping up to catch me in a more passionate embrace. Drawing me down onto his lap, PADD officially tossed aside.
'you are always surprising me Kathryn! but not by sneaking up.' he looks me over quizzically 'do I need to go to red alert?' his lips are twitching into a grin again.
'chakotay! what would make you say that?' affronted denial! no, I am not even wearing a comm badge, it is on my jacket over a chair and my hands are wrapped around him, following the lines on his forehead. There is definitely no 'tell'. I grin back. 'do you want to?' and give a wriggle whilst kissing his nose. damn but the man doesn't stop being irresistible. I think those hormones are making it worse!
'mmm mmm' and all the business talk, and discussions on our futures flies from my head as his lips kiss my jaw and follow the curve to my ear. Definitely a superior tactition, and I savour the physical closeness that is still so new for us. By the time his lips are passionately kissing mine and definitively robbing me of the power of speech, the amorous intent of our bodies is clear and the only future both of us are currently considering is one of passionate release. We have damn near seven years of passion to release.
So it is that we miss what 'Lanna claims to be a million comm calls from her.