Chapter 2
The next day, Kathryn and Chakotay were the last to beam down to Earth from Voyager. They stood on the bridge together, seven years of memories flooding their thoughts.
"Are you ready?" he asked, coming over to her and taking her hand in his.
"No," she said. Her eyes welled with tears.
"I'll be right beside you, Kathryn," he said, squeezing her hand. "I know it may not seem like it, but I always have been, and I always will be."
She smiled at him and nodded. Then tapping her commbadge, she gave the order.
"Janeway to transporter station three. Two to beam down."
Hand in hand, they materialized on the outdoor transporter pad at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco, which was surrounded by a sea of Starfleet uniforms and their civilian-dressed families. Kathryn saw someone waving emphatically in the crowd.
"Katie!" the woman called. She pushed her way through until she reached Kathryn and Chakotay, and flung herself at Kathryn.
"Mom!" Kathryn exclaimed, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Oh, mom."
"My darling Katie," Gretchen cried. Kathryn's younger sister, Phoebe, rushed up behind them, enveloping them both in a giant hug.
"Katie, I can't believe you're home!" Phoebe wailed.
The three women held each other for several minutes. When they finally broke apart, Kathryn stepped back next to Chakotay.
"Mom, this is—"
"Chakotay!" Gretchen exclaimed, giving him a big hug. "Oh, my boy, are you a sight for sore eyes! Katie wasn't joking when she said you were handsome."
Kathryn's cheeks flushed and she gave Chakotay an apologetic look. She should have known her mother, in all her candidness, would divulge what she had written in her letters.
"It's great to finally meet you, Mrs. Janeway," Chakotay replied.
"Oh pfft, call me Gretchen. Or mom!" she said, winking at Chakotay.
"Mother!" Kathryn shrieked in a mortified tone, as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Chakotay just laughed.
Gretchen gave him a crooked smile; now he knew where Kathryn got it from. "Is your family here?" she asked him.
He frowned. "No. My sister is too far away to have been here by today. I'm going to meet up with her in a few weeks, take a trip out to my homeworld."
"I thought Chakotay could come back to the farm with us," Kathryn interjected, holding onto Chakotay's arm and giving it a squeeze.
"Oh, of course!" exclaimed Gretchen. "I wouldn't have it any other way!"
Phoebe finally moved around her mother and sister to get a better look at Chakotay. "Damn, Katie. I'll trade you Fred and the kids for this one, how about it?"
Kathryn groaned. Chakotay studied Phoebe closely. Her appearance was nearly identical to Kathryn—which sort of frightened him, in a way—save for the gray color of her eyes and the darker shade of her hair. She also had more freckles on her nose.
"You must be Phoebe," said Chakotay, taking her hand and kissing the top of it. "Pleasure to meet you."
"Oh, the pleasure is all mine..." Phoebe replied alluringly.
Kathryn grabbed her by the arm. "Time to go!" she said, pulling Phoebe away from Chakotay. Chakotay could tell she was agitated and put a strong hand on the small of her back.
"Yes, it is. We have Fred looking after the kitchen, and I'm worried for my pot roast," said Gretchen.
"You haven't worried until you've seen Kathryn cook a pot roast, ma'am," replied Chakotay. Kathryn smacked him in the chest.
Gretchen chuckled. "Oh, Katie isn't allowed in my kitchen. Not after—"
"Mother, that's enough," said Kathryn. "Let's go."
Gretchen nodded, deciding that she was done humiliating her eldest daughter for the moment. The four of them made their way to the transporter pad. Kathryn turned back to look at her crew, all happily ensconced with their families and friends. She had said all her formal goodbyes earlier in the day, but she knew she would see many of them in the coming weeks at various social functions.
Gretchen's voice brought Kathryn back to reality. "Bloomington, Indiana, please," her mother asked the transporter technician sweetly.
xXx
"This is a beautiful property, Mrs. Janeway," said Chakotay as they crossed through the gate of a white picket fence and walked up the dirt path towards the farmhouse.
"Gretchen, please," the older woman said. "And thank you. The farm has been in our family for generations."
Kathryn and Chakotay held hands as they made their way up the path. Suddenly, the front door swung open and two dogs came barreling towards them.
"Oh my god. Mollie?" Kathryn said in disbelief. She dropped Chakotay's hand and ran to the Irish Setter, whose muzzle was now a nice shade of gray. "Mollie! Oh, Mollie!" Kathryn cried as she knelt down and hugged the dog. The other dog, a younger Irish Setter, tried to butt its way into the reunion.
"That's Cinnamon," said Gretchen to Kathryn. "She's one of Mollie's pups. Mark kept them for a while, but eventually he thought they should remain here with me."
As Kathryn occupied herself with the dogs, Phoebe came up behind Chakotay.
"So, you and my sister. How long?" she asked.
"Since yesterday, actually," he replied as-a-matter-of-factly, watching Kathryn walk up the stairs of the front porch with the dogs trailing happily behind her.
"Yesterday?" Phoebe asked incredulously, crossing her arms over her chest.
Chakotay merely smiled. "It's a long story," he said as he headed up to the front porch, leaving a very confused Phoebe in his wake.
xXx
After Kathryn and Chakotay were introduced to Phoebe's husband, Fred, and their two children, Fred Jr. and Katherine (whom Phoebe had named for her sister), Gretchen seated everyone at the table.
"Losing a daughter is a terrible thing," Gretchen began as she stood at the head of the table. "But without tragedy, you can't begin to appreciate the good that can come from it. I cannot tell you how elated I was when Owen told me the news. That you were alive. That you were trying to get home."
Tears pricked the corners of Kathryn's eyes. Chakotay took her hand under the table and squeezed it.
"When I saw you today, I thought my heart would explode. Katie, we are all so very glad that you are here with us. Words can't express how much we missed you."
"And we're also glad you brought home this handsome fella," interjected Phoebe, pointing at Chakotay. Kathryn rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Chakotay," Gretchen continued. "Katie wrote so much about you in her letters. Thank you for looking after her and giving her strength when she needed it most. We all owe you a debt of gratitude."
Chakotay shook his head. "Don't be so sure. I wasn't able to break her coffee addiction," he teased. Everyone laughed. Kathryn jabbed him in the arm with her finger.
"Well, dig in, people!" said Gretchen. "This food didn't make itself!"
Much later into the meal, there was a knock on the front door.
"Oh, Katie. That'll be for you," said Phoebe, shoveling a forkful of pot roast into her mouth.
Kathryn looked at her quizzically before wiping her mouth with her napkin and standing up from the table. The dogs immediately got up and followed her to the front door.
She opened it and gasped.
"Kathryn," breathed the gray-haired gentleman standing at the door.
Kathryn stared for a moment before launching herself at him. He hugged her back with just as much fervor.
"Mark," she whispered, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Oh, Kath," he said into her hair, "Oh, how I missed you."
The dogs ran around the pair, Mollie squeezing herself between their legs. When they pulled apart, Mark placed a kiss on her forehead.
"I thought I'd never see you again," he said, holding her hands. "If I'd have known…" He trailed off, averting his gaze to the floor. Mollie sat beside him, looking up at him expectantly, while Cinnamon ran back into the dining room.
"Mark, no," Kathryn said. "You did the right thing. You moved on. I'm happy for you."
Gretchen bustled into the foyer after deciding she had given them enough privacy. "Mark, my boy, so good to see you," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Would you like something to eat?"
"No thank you, Gretchen," he said.
Suddenly, Chakotay appeared in the foyer, holding a stack of dirty plates. Cinnamon had her jaw clamped around his pant leg and was dragging him around as he tried to keep his balance.
"I was trying to get to the kitchen but someone wanted to take the long way," he huffed, trying to gently shake the dog loose.
"Cinnamon!" Gretchen snapped. The dog let go immediately. "Sorry. She can be a handful," she said, shooing Cinnamon into the other room as she took the plates from Chakotay.
"Must be a female Janeway trait," Mark joked. Kathryn smacked him on the arm. Chakotay looked at the two of them and smiled faintly.
"Oh, Mark," said Kathryn, moving to stand with Chakotay. "This is Commander Chakotay, my first officer."
"Ah, yes, the Maquis outlaw," Mark commented jokingly, shaking Chakotay's hand. "I've heard a lot about you from Gretchen. I'm Mark, Kathryn's...well, Kathryn's friend."
"I know who you are," said Chakotay kindly, taking a step back and wrapping his arm around Kathryn's waist. "I often wondered how you went about winning Kathryn Janeway's heart. Not an easy task."
Kathryn's eyes grew wide and her heart flopped in her chest. Having her current lover and her former lover in the same room was too much for her tired mind to handle. She opened her mouth to speak, but the voice she heard was not her own.
"Well, by the looks of things, I presume you've figured it out," Mark said to Chakotay, looking between the two of them.
Kathryn cleared her throat. "Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" she asked in an attempt to divert the conversation.
"I'm fine, Kathryn, but thank you," Mark replied. "I actually better go. But it was great to see you. I'm just glad you're home safe and sound. And I'm glad you're happy."
He smiled warmly at her and leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek. After shaking Chakotay's hand once more, he wandered out the door into the cool Indiana night.
"Nice fellow," said Chakotay, pulling Kathryn closer to him and burying his face in her hair to kiss the top of her head.
"Yes," she replied. "But he's not you." She looked up at him and gave him one of the crooked smiles he loved so much. "I think I finally got it right this time."
Chakotay laughed. "It only took you seven years to figure it out, but yes."
Kathryn swatted his arm. "If you keep up with the sarcasm, mister, you won't be getting any dessert!"
"I better stop, then," he whispered conspiringly in her ear. "There's only one kind of dessert I had in mind and I definitely don't want to miss out on it."
"You're incorrigible," she muttered, although still smiling.
Phoebe poked her head into the foyer. "Hey, get a room, you two! Okay, just kidding, coffee and dessert are ready. Did you hear me, Katie? Coffee. And mom made caramel brownies!"
"Bye!" Kathryn said as she pushed Chakotay out of the way, nearly knocking him over, and ran into the dining room.
Chakotay sighed as he resigned himself to the fact that she may never love him as much as coffee and caramel brownies.
xXx
"Pink, Kathryn? Doesn't seem your style."
Chakotay dropped their duffel bags on the floor of her childhood bedroom. Phoebe, Fred, and the kids were also staying the night, leaving no other free rooms at the Janeway inn. Gretchen had refused to let Chakotay sleep on the couch, despite some of her old-fashioned tendencies.
"I didn't choose the color," she said, gesturing to the walls. "I think my mom wanted me to be girly. Good thing she got Phoebe!"
Chakotay chuckled. "You're girly," he said, walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her. "In a Kathryn Janeway sort of way."
She snorted. "Yes, the sort of way that burns pot roasts and doesn't like the color pink and prefers Starfleet boots to high heels."
"I better not tell you about the outfit Phoebe picked out for you for the homecoming party, then," he mused.
"What? Oh, no. The last time she picked out an outfit for me was when she forced me on a date, some time after Justin died," Kathryn said, sitting on the double bed. "Let's just say I kept fearing a wardrobe malfunction the entire night. So no, Phoebe is not dressing me for the homecoming party."
"Too bad, here's your dress," Phoebe said as she barged into the room carrying a garment bag by the hanger. "And your shoes." She shoved a pair of shoes at her sister.
Kathryn gingerly took the four-inch gold stilettos as if they were riddled with a disease. "I can't possibly wear these."
"You can and you will," said Phoebe. "Time to return to planet Earth and hang up your uniform for once. Remember, family is invited to this shindig too, so I'll be there to make sure you're properly dressed. Plus, I'm sure Chakotay will appreciate the getup." She winked at Chakotay before leaving the room, closing the door behind her.
"You Janeway women are all the same, aren't you?" he laughed. "Won't take no for an answer." Kathryn hung the garment bag in the closet. "Aren't you even going to look at it?" he asked.
"No. The shoes are enough of a glimpse into my future." She rolled her eyes and flopped back onto the bed.
"Your sister is right, you know," he said, laying on the bed next to her, propping his head up with his elbow. "You need to get out of your uniform. I think right now is a good time, don't you?" His other hand trailed down to the zipper of her jacket.
"Hm, well, you did mention some other kind of dessert earlier. Can I assume you're still hungry?"
His eyes glinted mischievously. "For you, always."
