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Notes: This is going to be quite a long story, with six or more chapters. The chapters will be published as they are written but there maybe changes and revisions made to the early chapters when new ones are written. Inspired by Dido's song 'Thank You'. This wasn't written to go under any challenges but this chapter does loosely fit under Jupiter Station Challenge #407

Chapter 1

Kathryn woke up with a headache as usual. Lately it seemed as if she permanently had a headache, something which she contributed to being a '20 cups a day' coffee drinker. Slowly she extracted herself from the covers and padded over her dresser, looking in the mirror she no longer saw Kathryn Janeway, she hadn't seen Kathryn Janeway for a long time. Instead she saw a worn-out looking woman with dark circles under her eyes and such pale skin it looked almost transparent. At first she hadn't noticed the change in her pallor; she didn't notice that she was gradually applying more and more make-up to hide it. Kathryn's thoughts were interrupted when her door opened and admitted a visitor.

"Captain are you ready yet?"

The caller was Tom Paris. Suddenly yesterday's events came back to her, like a dam breaking, and her mind was filled with the images and sounds of yesterday's party in the mess hall.

It had been Chakotay's birthday and Neelix had organised a magnificent party to celebrate, she'd been working late in her ready room nurseing a throbbing head and a now lukewarm cup of coffee when Mr. Paris turned up, on Chakotay's orders properly, and dragged her to the party. She vaguely remembered feeling light-headed then her world plunged into darkness. On regaining consciousness, only a few seconds after blacking out she was greeted the anxious faces and questions of her crew. She'd of course told them she was fine and that it was just a migraine but everyone insisted she go and rest and see the doctor in the morning, so she had agreed to go back to her quarters. B'Elanna had decided to escort her 'just to be on the safe side'. She recalled informing the young woman that it was just the migraine she got at that time of the month and that she really didn't need to see the doctor, but the engineer would have none of it and decided that she would accompany her captain to sickbay the next morning, to make sure Kathryn went.

Kathryn groaned she really did not want to explain this to the doctor. Her sleep filled brain then realised that Tom was alone. "What's he doing here?" She thought.

"Captain you okay?"

"Fine, Lt. What did you want?"

"Oh, yea, B'Elanna had to do an extra shift in engineering so she asked me to take you."

Kathryn's mind was busy thinking up a list of things to call her Chief Engineer next time she met her.

"Thank you, but I can manage it down to sickbay just fine."

"Captain, your getting me off-duty this morning because of this, anyway if anything happened to you B'Elanna would cut my….Never mind. I'll be waiting in the lounge"

Kathryn sighed realising there was no point arguing and walked towards the bathroom to get ready.

Ten minutes later she was fully dressed and ready to go. She and Paris made the walk silently to sickbay.

In sickbay the doctor was hovering around Lt. Carey, literally hovering. Apparently the EMH program had a glitch and somehow while trying to fix it Carey had broken his arm, which was now being repaired.

"Be with you in a minute" The Doctor said.

It was actually twenty, during which time Kathryn had nearly left twice.

"Now Captain what seems to be the trouble?" The EMH asked after Carey had left and Tom was working in the office, gesturing for her to sit on a bio-bed.

"Um…..well, I blacked out yesterday at Chakotay's party, I told everyone it was nothing, that it was just to do with the migraine but they badgered me into seeing you"

"Migraine?"

"Yes…ugh…I get a migraine sometimes, I usually get them with my period" Kathryn said the last bit quietly so that Tom wouldn't overhear.

"Ah yes you have complained of migraines around menstruation before, I told you to cut down your coffee intake" Tom looked up from the office, the Doctor had spoken loud enough for him to her. Kathryn's face coloured in embrassement "Have you cut-down?"

"A bit"

"Well I think that you're right, the blackout was probably related to the migraine but I would like to run some quick tests just to make sure."

"Do your stuff" Kathryn said as she reclined on the bed and after a short while feel asleep.

Go To Chapter 2