Chakotay wasn't the only one having trouble getting used to the new status of their relationship. Janeway was appraising herself critically in her bathroom mirror. Chakotay had made her look at herself in a way she hadn't in a very long time. She was sick of her hair. It wouldn't do what she wanted. It was practical, but it wasn't sexy. And for the first time since she found herself in the Delta Quadrant, she really wanted to be sexy. She found herself rummaging for her dermal regenerator, not really knowing what she was planning. She was almost disappointed she found it. Now she would have to make a decision. She turned sideways to check the length of her hair in the mirror. She knew dermal regenerators could be recalibrated to stimulate hair follicles. She absent mindedly clicked the device on and off a couple of times, the glowing tip reflecting in the mirror. She mused to herself, Hmm . . .

Janeway fussed with her ponytail as she walked down the corridor. It had taken her nearly an hour to get ready for bridge duty this morning. The reason she had abandoned more elaborate hairstyles for the simpler one came rushing back. She had tried to tame her now longer hair with ten different styles. The bun? Too Victorian. Besides, it spilled down around her face every time the inertial dampers went off line. Pulled back in a twist? Too Seven of Nine. Enough said. Long, loose and wavy? Too Klingon. And there was that unfortunate problem of it standing on end when she stood too near the warp core. How did B'Elanna keep hers flat? A braid? Too farm girl. She resigned herself to her old standby, the pony tail. She poofed it up around her hairline so it framed her face nicely and secured it with a natural shell clip Chakotay had made her on New Earth. She reached behind her head and stroked its edges fondly. She hadn't had the opportunity to wear it in a long time.

She entered a turbolift. "Bridge." Then she thought better of it. She had a few more minutes before her shift officially began. She decided to go down and get a status report from Engineering in person. They had, after all, installed a new deflector dish in record time last night. Her top-notch Engineering team deserved a few personal pats on the back at least. "Computer, belay that. Engineering." No sooner had she issued the command and the comm system sprang to life.

"Tuvok to Chakotay."

Huh? Was she hearing things? Or was the comm system malfunctioning? Janeway looked down at the commbadge on her chest. She had to fish it out from under the bookcase this morning. She was a little annoyed about that. Seeing as how Chakotay was the one who had ripped off both their commbadges in the heat of the moment and threw them across the room, the least he could have . . . uh oh. She immediately cupped her hand over the commbadge, not that it would have made any difference. She whispered a fierce command, "Computer, close comm channel!" The computer issued its compliance chime. She tried to think of what to do next. "Computer, locate Commander Chakotay."

"Commander Chakotay is in turbolift gamma seven."

Janeway rolled her eyes. She was in turbolift gamma seven. "Ooookaay... Let's try this: Computer, locate Captain Janeway."

"Captain Janeway is in Commander Chakotay's office."

"Like hell she is!"

"Please restate the question."

"Oh, never mind! Just take me to Deck 1, and hurry!"

"Unable to comply. Security override Tuvok One One Pi Alpha."

The turbolift slammed to a halt with little warning and the doors flew open with more urgency than usual. As promised, there was Tuvok, accompanied by his crack security team. Andrews and Ayala had their phasers drawn. Tuvok had his tricorder open and was regarding the situation with suspicion. Janeway's mouth fell open in shock. She didn't know what to say.

"Captain, you've altered your hairstyle."

"And that's worthy of a security alert?!" she blurted.

"In and of itself, no." He scanned her one last time and seemed satisfied with the results. He closed his tricorder. "But an attempt to contact Commander Chakotay was defeated at the source. It was cause for concern. He may have been subdued by an intruder."

Well here's to Vulcan efficiency. She tried to identify some captainly complaint she could address him with. It was an over-reaction. A waste of human resources. But, alas, she was feeling generous today. "Mr. Tuvok . . ." Ayala and Andrews finally had the sense to stand down as she stepped out of the turbolift. "You are undoubtedly the best Chief of Security any Starfleet captain could hope to have. I know my ship is safe in your hands. Thank you for that." Tuvok was somewhat taken aback by her unexpected warmness towards him. "But rest assured, this does not require your attention. Commander Chakotay is fine. It was a comm system malfunction. One which I was on my way to repair myself."

Tuvok had always struggled to interpret human behavior, but after years of serving with Kathryn Janeway, he felt he was pretty good at reading her. The emphasis she put on her last sentence coupled with the look she gave him, told him he should let the matter drop, despite the fact he knew it wasn't a comm system malfunction. "Very well, Captain."

Janeway turned to re-enter the turbolift. "Gentlemen, you may return to your stations." The last thing Janeway saw as the turbolift doors closed was Andrews and Ayala sharing a look behind Tuvok's back.

Janeway leaned heavily on the turbolift wall and exhaled deeply. I knew it. She thought to herself. This is why fraternizing among command staff is discouraged on starships. She could picture the Starfleet regulation in her mind's eye: "Paragraph 471, subsection 12. At no time shall a first officer rip his captain's commbadge off in the heat of passion." Janeway made herself laugh. "This is why we have rules, people!" she said aloud as she slapped her hands together. That just made her laugh harder. The turbolift doors opened to reveal deck one and she tried to pull herself together. Luckily, no one was around to see her little break from sanity.

She strode past the bridge doors and chimed Chakotay's office. No answer. She let herself in. No Chakotay. Hmm. He must be on the bridge already. Trading their commbadges just got a lot trickier.

oOo

The bridge looked weird from this angle. Tom Paris had rare reason to stand, let alone sit at Tactical station. Tom reviewed in his mind how he ended up at this wholly inappropriate post. Tuvok had taken off with Andrews and Ayala to address some mini-crisis on Deck 2. That left him alone on the bridge with Harry who was only too eager to tell Tom the story of a strange encounter he had with Chakotay that morning. Tom was about to reply with the story of his own odd run-in with the commander when Chakotay's entrance via the deck 1 corridor put the kibosh on their conversation. Chakotay asked why they were so short staffed and then, in a brilliant display of command prowess, he ordered Tom to cover tactical while he took the helm himself. An odd choice, Tom thought, considering the man couldn't even seem to drive a turbolift this morning.

Tom drummed his fingers on the security console in boredom. The bridge was so quiet, even he wasn't brave enough to break the silence. Tuvok, ever diligent, had of course remembered to engage the password lockout on his station, so he couldn't even explore the chief of security's vast database. What few command prompts he could see were in Vulcan anyway. One icon was decidedly larger than the others and was just begging to be pushed. Tom couldn't help but reach for it. I wonder what this one does.

"You are relieved, Lieutenant." Tom twitched. Darn Vulcan snuck up behind him again. He wasn't going to hang around long enough to complain about it. "Aye, sir" He made his escape in the direction of Harry's station with larger strides than usual. It was unfortunate he didn't foresee Captain Janeway's entrance to the bridge.

She appeared suddenly in his path. Tom's eyes flew wide and he slammed to a halt mid-stride. "Neeeyaaah!" Tom didn't recognize the sound that left his own mouth. He shot both his shaking index fingers at her as if to accuse her of something.

Janeway was not amused. Her countenance turned from one of jovial greeting to annoyance. "Well, good morning to you too, Mr. Paris."

That's the same hairstyle she had in my dream. I haven't seen her wear her hair like that in years! Freaky. He became immediately aware of his awkward posture and straightened his arms to his sides. He gave her what he hoped was a gracious smile and fanned his hand out to his right to invite her to pass. "Sorry captain, you, ah... startled me."

Harry shot him a look that clearly said what's wrong with you? Tom waved him off. He decided the best course of action was to find his helm chair, sit down and shut up for the rest of the morning.

Ok, so the new hairstyle's O for two, Janeway decided. No matter. She didn't care what Paris or anyone else thought. There was only one man on board whose reaction mattered to her, and for the moment, he was playing aloof. She knew he knew she was on the bridge, but he had yet to acknowledge her presence. Her first officer was doing a very good job of pretending to be buried in a report on a PADD. Pretending, she was certain, because she could see from her position behind him, that he was holding the PADD upside down. She walked with deliberate slowness down the steps to the command deck.

When ignoring her any longer would have been suspicious in and of itself, Chakotay shot his planned casual glance in her direction. He did an involuntary double take and his quick glance turned into a look that lingered over her. Aha. Gotcha. Now that's the reaction she was going for. She turned unnecessarily towards the engineering station as if to check on something, she was really just making sure he got a good look. When she was satisfied that he had seen all that she wanted him to see, she glided towards her chair and slid into it with a comfortable sigh.

"Reviving old . . . habits?" he asked. The PADD perched in between his thumb and forefinger had long been forgotten.

She had the capricious desire to whisper dirty things in his ear, but the bridge was far too quiet for her to get away with it. Her voice remained convincingly level. "Well, you know I got to thinking this morning. Over the years we've been in the Delta Quadrant, I came to give up on certain things, believing the effort wasn't worth the reward. I now know I was wrong." He was watching her with such a dreamy, far off look in his eyes, Janeway wondered if he was actually listening to her words. "Besides," she said with a wry smile, "long hair is so much more . . ." she paused to stretch her neck out of her collar and roll her head lazily to one side "versatile."

Chakotay's fingers went limp and the PADD escaped his hand and flew to the floor with a smack as loud as the crack of a whip. Every eye on the bridge snapped to their location. Well whaddya know, Janeway's eyes twinkled with amusement, he was listening to me.

Tom, like everyone else on the bridge, had directed his attention to the source of the broken silence. He had turned his chair around in time to see Chakotay leaning over to pick a PADD up off the floor and clear his throat before muttering a rather sheepish "Sorry, everyone."

Voyager's first officer was definitely out of sorts this morning. Tom stole a surreptitious look at Janeway. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something different about her too. And it wasn't just the hair. Tom wondered if he should be worried. Alien influence? Alternate timeline? There was that chronometric anomaly last night. Or maybe the command team was high on some alien pharmaceutical. Maybe they were sleeping together. Yeah, right. Tom snickered to himself. I think we can safely rule that out.

Janeway caught him staring at her. She addressed him casually "What's wrong, Tom?"

Tom let loose a scream that was, thankfully, contained inside his head. Dream flashback! DREAM FLASHBACK!!

"Nut-" Tom's voice cracked and then he lost it completely. He swallowed hard. "Nothing, captain." He promptly spun his chair back to where it belonged. Just what the heck happened on this ship last night?

Janeway shot Chakotay a questioning glance. He raised a finger at her, indicating he wanted her to wait for a moment. Using his PADD to type out a message, he then passed it to her discretely. She looked down at it in her lap.

Tom may know something.

She mouthed the words silently back at him "Know something?"

He motioned for the PADD, she passed it back to him.

In Engineering, just before I initiated the warp pulse, you sent Tom to the upper level to secure the Kazon weapons in the storage locker, remember?

It took Janeway a moment to absorb what this meant. A fuzzy, chronometric particle induced memory of that first daring kiss that started it all seeped into her mind. A barely audible "Oh" escaped her lips.

With typical stealth, Tuvok appeared suddenly in front of her command chair. "Captain."

Startled, Janeway flipped the PADD against her stomach. "Yes, Tuvok."

"I just wanted to inform you that several crew members, all of whom Commander Chakotay indicated in his report were recipients of the Doctor's chronometric particle infused serum, have begun to report memories of alternate timelines. I am curious captain, are you experiencing such memories as well?"

"Ah . . ." Janeway looked to Chakotay for help. He was seeking refuge in yet another upside down PADD. ". . . yes?" She sounded unsure of her own answer.

"Fascinating. I expect you will have some important insights into our encounter with the anomaly that you will no doubt want to address at this morning's briefing."

"Ah, well, it's all still a little . . . fuzzy."

"Nevertheless, I would appreciate any further information you can provide about the incident. Considering the importance of the encounter, I am sorry to say that Commander Chakotay's report was surprisingly lacking in detail."

Janeway turned to her counterpart with mock aggravation. "Is this true, commander? And after all that time I gave you to work on that report!" She slapped the PADD down on her knee with punishing emphasis.

Tuvok raised a disparaging eyebrow. He never understood the human phenomenon of feigned anger. It serves no logical purpose. "Yes, well, as Chief of Security, I expect a full report on last night's activities from you both. The future safety of the ship could depend upon it."

And with that, he left them both with their mouths hanging open.

Tom absent-mindedly lifted his hand to his neck and rubbed. Chronometric Particle Infused Serum. Where have I heard that before? A flashbulb went off in his mind. He was seized by the image of Captain Janeway holding a hypospray to his neck. Another dream? No. They were . . . where were they? The mess hall . . . The helm controls blurred out of focus as Tom attempted to probe the deepest recesses of his mind for answers.

"What about you, Lieutenant?" Janeway jerked him back from his state of deep reflection.

His back stiffened to attention, but he didn't turn around. "Ma'am?"

"Any visits to alternate timelines lately? Any strange memories that seem out of place . . . disjointed? You know, stuff that never actually happened?" Her voice developed a sharp edge during that last sentence. He could feel her burning a hole in his back. Slowly, cautiously, he rotated his chair around to face the command deck. He was disturbed to discover he was the subject of intent focus from them both. "Well . . . now that you mention it . . . yeah, actually." Their attention on him only increased further, they both leaned forward in their chairs. Tom shrunk in the face of their scrutiny. He looked at Janeway, then at Chakotay, then back to Janeway.

"Seska." Harry chimed in from across the bridge. "I remember Seska. In Engineering."

Harry's declaration broke the spell and the tension Tom sensed, be it real or imaginary, evaporated.

Janeway turned in her seat. "Yes, Harry, that's right. Engineering was experiencing the time when Seska had taken over Voyager. You were instrumental in helping us subdue her so we could restore the shattered timeline."

Harry basked in the glow of his captain's praise. Tom let out the breath he had been holding. He was just happy the focus was no longer on him.

The briefing room doors opened unexpectedly and Belanna's head popped out. "Ah, isn't there a meeting of the senior staff scheduled for 9?" Everyone looked at Belanna. No one said anything. "Well, we're all waiting." she prompted with an annoyed twitch in her neck.

"Ah, yes. Right you are B'Elanna." Janeway sprung out of her chair with more motivation than usual. "Sorry, I guess time just got away from us."

Stay Tuned for Chapter 3