Mocking Bird Can't Sing
Chapter One: Temper Temper
Summary: Nearly three years after a surprised visitor came into Kathryn's life, the little girl is growing up, but things aren't quite right. Is this typical for a child of her species, or is there more than meets the eye?
Author's note: Well for all those that have read "And Her Hair all Done Up In Curls" FINALLY another story staring that beloved little girl. For those of you that haven't read it, I'd suggest doing so, but you don't have too. It'd just give you a much broader understanding of where this child came from.
- =/\= -
Kathryn was in the middle of a meeting with the Navar, a race that they were hoping to trade with, when the unmistakable sound of Neelix's voice came over the Comm. "Captain, I hate to interrupt but I think I need you to come down here.
"Neelix, I'm a bit busy right now." She looked to the three men and one woman that were in the room with her, "Sorry this will be just a moment."
She moved into the hall just behind her ready room so that she could talk to with him without the others hearing. "Neelix I'm in a very important meeting whatever it is is going to have to wait."
"Captain I don't think this can, it's Sidra" she then caught the unmistakable sound of her daughter screaming.
She sighed; her child always seemed to have the worst timing. "Is she hurt or sick?" she asked worried.
"No, but I think it's something only mom can handle." He stated. He'd been trying to soothe the child for quite some time, but the other children in his care were beginning to become restless with the whole situation.
"I can't come down there every time she has a meltdown, I'll send Chakotay but that's the best I can do" she stated, it sounded harsh and she really wanted to go and comfort her child but she just couldn't.
"Alright" Neelix cut the link.
Kathryn quickly regained her composure and re-entered her ready room, she looked to Chakotay, "Commander could you please go and see to Neelix in the mess hall, there's a situation down there that needs some attention." She was trying to be as tactful as she could. Not sure how her guests would react to knowing fully what was going on.
He nodded the excused himself, he figured he knew what the problem might be and hurried his way to the mess hall.
She then looked at the reaming individuals in the room. "Sorry, about that" she apologized. "Now where were we?" she asked.
The Navarin woman spoke up, "we were looking into what we had to offer you" she stated.
"Right" the now smaller group went back to work looking over what each other had to offer.
- =/\= -
In the mess hall the scene was far from as tranquil as it was in Kathryn's office. Neelix had had Ichib move the other children to the cargo bay and was trying desperately to soothe the young red haired child. The girl only kicked and screamed louder.
Chakotay walked in and quickly formulated where the commotions was coming from, it was coming from the center of the set of couches in the mess. Chakotay knelt down. "Just what is all this about?" he asked, not addressing Neelix but the child.
Neelix supplied the answer, "She kept knocking the other children's projects over, when I tried to put her in time out for doing it she got really upset." He looked at him. "And well I bet you can guess the rest of what happened"
Chakotay looked at him, and nodded before turning back to the child who'd pretty much just ignored him. It was obvious her tantrum had started to wear her down, but she still had more than enough energy to put up a fight when he attempted to pick her up.
She kicked and screamed some more, and managed to make contact with a rather delicate area of Chakotay's body. He set her down quickly. He sighed as the pain subsided. He attempted to lift the child once more, this time he made sure that she couldn't kick him. Though he'd forgotten about the fact that she was known to bite, and she bit down on his hand causing him to drop her. The girl took that moment to escape the two men; she knocked over a chair and managed to get out of the doors, and took off full speed down the corridor.
Chakotay and Neelix hurried as fast as they could, the chair delayed them enough to where when they left the mess they had no idea which way the girl had run. They nodded to each other and both went opposite directions, one of them would run into her.
- =/\= -
The meeting was nearly over when the doors flew open and the small girl came running in. Kathryn was taken a back, but not as much as the three other individuals in the ready room. The child immediately ran and grabbed Kathryn's legs burying her face in them. Before Kathryn could say or do anything Chakotay called, "Ka I mean captain, I think that the…"
Kathryn cut him off, "It's alright I've got her" she stated. She lifted the child up into her lap, and the small girl snuggled in crying.
"She just got away from us" he stated, "I'm on my way back up"
"Alright" she closed the link; she looked back to the others in the room.
The other woman then asked, "And who might this be?"
Kathryn blushed slightly, she wasn't even sure she was going to let them know anything about her personal life, she usually left that information private when she was working but sometimes personal life and business crossed paths. "This is Sidra, my daughter" she stated.
"Daughter?" the woman raised her eyebrow; woman in command on her planet rarely had children.
Noticing the shock on the woman's face Kathryn felt she needed an explanation. "Not biologically, she was sort of dropped off on my door step so to speak.
"So you took her in?" one of the men asked, "But why?"
"I was asked too, very specifically, we don't know much more than her biological father and mother died from an illness, her mother asked in a letter if I would care for her."
"And so you did?" the woman looked around, "that's noble."
Kathryn was thankful that they took the intrusion so well, she wasn't one to let family matters or personal issues interfere with her duty but sometimes things couldn't be helped. "Thank you she stated" the girls crying had calmed down. Kathryn pulled her away from her chest to look her in the face, "now how did you get up here?" she asked. The girl just looked away, the chime rang and Kathryn called for Chakotay to enter. The other people in the room were patient allowing the Captain to take care of the situation.
Chakotay walked in, Kathryn stood up and carried the girl toward him. She attempted to hand her off to him but the girl began to fuss. Kathryn sighed then put the girl on her hip. "Now you need to behave either that or you're not going to get to go to Neelix's class anymore you'll have to spend time in sickbay with the Doctor." Sickbay was where the nursery that had become needed was.
The child didn't seem to care she put up more of a fuss, but this time Chakotay took her and had a decent grip making sure that the child couldn't get anything important, He looked at her, "Come on Mommy is busy and needs to work."
Kathryn looked at him, "Take her home, I'll be there later, you and I have a lot to discuss."
He nodded, "let's go" the girl protested all the way into the lift.
After they were gone she turned back to the group. "Once again I apologize, sometimes family and work well they don't always mesh."
"We understand" they spoke in unison.
"Are there anymore children onboard? We were unaware that this was a colony ship." The man that had been relatively quiet stated.
"Yes, there are several, and no we're not a colony ship, only two of the children were born here, the other's we've sort of taken in from various situations. If you want since we're done here, I can fill you in over lunch?" she stated.
"That sounds lovely" The woman said, and then the group of them made their way to the mess hall.
- =/\= -
It was the end of Kathryn's shift, she'd managed to fill in the Navarian's with most of the information they'd requested, it turned out that they were a very family orientated species, and she found out that the reason the woman was so shocked at the fact she'd had a child is because in their culture most woman in power either had children before they were in power and the children were grown up or didn't because they didn't feel that they could give the child the attention that it deserved. Though they could see that Kathryn was a very good mother by how the child reacted to her. Furthermore they were very curious as to where the commander and she actually stood.
They'd been curious for some time, they sensed that they were very close and worked so well together, and they also confessed that they had very good hearing and had overheard the conversation about taking the child home. She had to admit they were a very interesting species. She confessed that they were an item, but didn't go into too many details. They accepted that in their culture things of that matter weren't discussed in great detail.
The Navarian's had long since returned to their ship, and Kathryn had finished most of the work that she needed to get done in her office, the work that could be done in her quarters was going to have to wait, she needed to have a discussion with Chakotay first.
- =/\= -
Upon entering her quarters it was obvious that Chakotay was in much need of help. He was sitting at the table, Sidra in her high chair kicking and screaming some more. Kathryn moved in to help. The girl quitted down upon seeing Kathryn. She looked toward Chakotay and he relinquished the chair. Kathryn then managed to get the child to eat, and after dinner was done she took her for her bath then lay her down in her bed and a story later and the girl was sleeping.
She then moved out into the living area, and motioned for Chakotay to fallow her into the other room. They'd converted his and her quarters into one large area for the family some time ago. She paused once inside, and after the door closed she spoke, "What the hell was that earlier?" she asked. He knew she'd be upset; she didn't like being interrupted especially when she was in a meeting as important as the one she'd been in.
"I'm sorry, I don't know how she managed to get up to the ready room, she got away from us and took off." He tried to supply an explanation.
"How did she get away from the two of you, she's three years old" she sighed, and sat back into a chair.
"Well for one she has one hell of a kick, and to top that off those little teeth of hers are sharp" he held out his hand, he hadn't had a chance to have it looked at yet.
Kathryn looked it over, and sucked in her breath hard, "are you alright?"
"I'll be fine I just need to see the Doctor, but I couldn't take her down there, she was in too much of a mood." He stated, he took the chair that was next to her.
She leaned her head back, "This is getting ridiculous, it seems like she doesn't want to have anyone but me do anything, I can't be there for her all the time, maybe I'm just not spending enough time with her?" she sighed, the thought that her daughter just wanted her attention was hard. She looked over at him, "I just wish she'd start talking, so we could find out why she's doing the things that she's been doing. She's obviously very smart."
Chakotay laughed slightly, "She sure is, I had no idea she knew how to run the turbo lift."
Kathryn contemplated for a moment, then a realization hit her, "How did she use the lift, she can't talk unless she's been holding out on us, the only way she could have used it is if she's able to remember sequences very well or she can read."
He looked at her thinking as well, "I don't think I've ever used the control panel when I've had her; have you?" He asked.
"I'm not sure, I usually only use it if communications are down." She stated, "And if that was the case I doubt I would have had her with me on the way to the bridge."
Chakotay was about to say something when a shriek pierced the stillness of the room. Kathryn rolled her eyes slightly then stood, "I'll go check on her, I think you might want to get your hand taken care of." She said as she started toward the other room, he stopped her for a moment.
"Kathryn, we'll figure something out." She nodded and he gave her a kiss, then another scream rang out.
"I'd better go" she said and then hurried toward the child's bedroom.
He nodded and watched her disappear across the room; he then made his way to sickbay to get his hand taken care of.
- =/\= -
"Computer activate the emergency medical holographic program," Chakotay spoke into the vast empty sickbay.
When the doctor appeared he stated his customary greeting. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." He looked around and saw who'd activated him. "Commander what brings you here?" he asked moving toward the man.
He held up his hand, it was pretty obvious what had happened to it, the impression of little teeth was surrounded by some nice redness and some bruising. "Battle scar." He simply stated.
The Doctor nodded, "So who won?" he asked preparing a dermal regenerator.
"She did," he stated as he hopped up onto a biobed. "She got away from Neelix and me and managed to get all the way to the ready room."
"Really, I had no idea she knew how to use the lifts" The Doctor began to repair the damage done to his hand.
"We didn't either," he looked at him, "do you think she can read? I mean I know Neelix goes over letters and numbers and such, but I didn't think she was getting it."
"It's possible, children are far more capable the a lot of people give them credit for." He said, "There good as new."
"I know but she can't even say ma ma yet, how could she have enough of a handle on language to know how to read, it doesn't make any sense." He was confused and was hoping that the doctor could offer some help.
"Well we don't know how her species develops; perhaps they are one that has written language and gestural language only, without having any knowledge of what is typical for her I have no basis to say that she isn't just developing the way she's supposed to. I think the best thing to do is give her time to learn, after all she is still very young." He'd closed his tricorder and placed both the dermal regenerator and the tricorder down on the table.
"Your right, it's just been hard, it seems like she wants to have nothing to do with anyone else aside from Kathryn, and there's no reasoning with her, she seems to ignore anyone when they are trying to get her to do something, and frankly she won't behave for Neelix, and when he tries to punish her she goes absolutely crazy. I can't get her to do anything; all she does is scream and cry when I try." He was frustrated, not just for himself but for Kathryn as well, he was trying to be of help, be the other parent but it seemed like more and more the child was pulling away from him, only wanting her. Kathryn couldn't run the ship and take care of her all day long every day, it was impossible.
The doctor smiled, "She's probably just going through a Mommy phase, and many children do that. I wouldn't be too worried, just keep trying and taking responsibility for her, she'll have to learn that Mommy can't be there every time she wants her to be."
Chakotay nodded, "I know, it's just hard."
Laughing the Doctor placed his hand on Chakotay's shoulder, "welcome to being a father" he smiled.
"I should get going, I hope that she isn't putting up to much of a fuss, Sidra was crying when I left." Chakotay stood to leave. The Doctor bid him a fair well and a good luck as he disappeared behind the doors.
- =/\= -
When he arrived home, he saw Kathryn sitting at her desk reading. The room was quiet. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "Everything alright?" he asked.
She leaned back into him sighing and placed the padd she'd been reading down on the desk. "Yeah, I'd forgotten to turn on her night light."
She was enjoying the feeling of him holding her. She'd closed her eyes and smiled as she felt him place a kiss atop her head. "Hum that all?" he asked.
"Yeah" she opened her eyes and looked up into his. "How'd things go with the Doctor?" she asked.
"Fine, good as new" he moved his hand out so she could see it.
"Very good" she smiled, and moved out of his embrace then stood. She made her way around the chair and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I'm done for the evening, how about we turn in for the night."
"I think that's a wonderful idea" Chakotay smiled back at her as he placed a kiss on her forehead again. Before taking her hand and leading her to their room. Once inside she let out a slight startled scream as he lifted her off the ground and placed her on the bed.
She playfully hit at him for startling her but stooped when he kissed her. The kiss deepened and became urgent; it'd been a long time since they'd had some 'alone' time and they both were going to make the most of it.