"…but the only answer I get is weapons fire." Kathryn's blue eyes were blazing at the Krenim commander.

"State your identity," he said, sounding bored.

"Captain Janeway of the Federation Starship Voya-"

"And your reason for violating our borders," he interrupted. He's following a script, Kathryn realized. He doesn't care who we are or why we're here, he's already made up his mind what to do with us.

"We're simply trying to get home. If you'd kindly allow us to pass through." No one on the bridge thought that was about to happen anytime soon.

"No. You will submit to the Krenim Imperium. I would prefer to seize your vessel before it is too badly damaged. Surrender now and I will forego the execution of your crew."

Oh, well how generous of you, Kathryn bitterly thought at him. "I don't respond well to threats," she stated, holding her chin up a little higher.

Whether it was the way she said it or the look in her eyes, something finally caught the Krenim commander and he sat up. "Then prepare to be boarded." He cut the comm line.

"All hands," Kathryn said, taking her chair, "battle stations." She turned to Chakotay. "This is turning into the Week of Hell."

"Come in. Sorry about the mess." Kathryn didn't need to turn around to know who had so quickly come behind her.

Chakotay smiled at Kathryn's back as she attempted to clean up her ready room. "You should see my place. They haven't looked as bad since my old academy days."

"Is there something on your mind?" she asked, stepping over bits of debris.

"Yes, but you're not going to like it."

"That's never stopped you before." She picked up her computer and futilely hit a few keys. "Broken."

Like everything else, Chakotay thought. He quickly shook himself into first officer mode. "I'll be blunt. Our strategy's failing. It was a good idea to try and create temporal shielding but it isn't working."

"Not yet, but it will. With every attack we're getting more information about their chronoton weapons." Where was he going with this?

"How many more attacks will it take? Before long, there won't be a ship left to protect." His voice rose a little as he spoke.

Yeah, no shit. "We don't have a choice."

Chakotay sucked in his breath and held it a moment before saying, quietly, "Maybe we do."

"Here comes the part I'm not going to like." Kathryn finally gave Chakotay her full attention. He is not going to suggest what I think he is…

"We should consider leaving the ship behind." Chakotay forced himself to go on, despite wanting to take it back. "Breaking the crew into smaller groups. Escape pods, shuttles, each one with its own course. If all goes well, we'll rendezvous on the other side of Krenim space."

He did. "Then what?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, but at least we'd be increasing our chances of survival."

Kathryn was still shocked Chakotay was actually suggesting this. "Abandon ship? The answer's no. I'm not breaking up the family, Chakotay. We're stronger as a team. One crew, one ship. The moment we split apart we lose the ability to pool our talents. We become vulnerable. We'll get picked off one by one. Now, I say we make our stand. Together."

Chakotay sighed, relieved. "To be honest, I wasn't too fond of the idea myself."

"As long as Voyager's in one piece, we stay," Kathryn said with finality.

"We stay," Chakotay agreed. He looked down and saw a pretty China teacup. "This looks like it stayed in one piece," he said, picking it up. "Where does this go?"

Kathryn couldn't believe it wasn't crushed. For a moment everything was perfect. "My lucky teacup. Right over here." She took it and went to put it away, but was almost instantly interrupted by Tom's voice over the comm announcing another attack. She set her teacup on her desk, and forgot it in the battle. When she came back later to find it shattered, she wept. For her cup, her ship, and her crew.

The weeks quickly became a blur of attacks, unfinished damage reports, and more attacks. Everyone was assigned sixteen-hour shifts, but Chakotay was certain Kathryn was working more like twenty-hour shifts. Their quarters were next to each other, yet he hadn't seen her on deck three in nearly a week. He wondered if she ever allowed herself a sonic shower once a day.

But today he was going to be sure she ate, at least. He made arraignments with B'Elanna in advance to get the captain on the bridge at 1500 hours. All he had to do was get her into the ready room where he'd cleaned off the table and set up a candle-lit dinner of emergency rations.

"Computer, where is Captain Janeway?"

"Captain Janeway is in Main Engineering."

Chakotay checked the chronometer. 1459. Well, he'd been fully prepared for them to be a bit late. Kathryn was rarely on time for their dinners when she knew about them; he didn't expect her to be on time for a surprise.

By 1515, B'Elanna and Kathryn were finally en route to the bridge. The climb through the jefferies tubes was, for once, uneventful, and they were there by 1525.

"Captain, may I see you in the ready room?" he asked as he helped her out of the tube.

"Can it wait a couple of hours Chakotay?" Kathryn looked exhausted. She was pale except for the large dark circles under her eyes. He also noticed she was dripping with sweat. The environmental controls in Engineering must be down again. "I'd really like to work on getting life support back on deck nine and then grab a nap."

"Actually, it's rather urgent. B'Elanna, can you handle deck nine life support by yourself?"

"Oh yeah," B'Elanna piped up a little too quickly. "It's really a one-person job at this point."

Kathryn looked suspiciously from her first officer to her chief engineer, and back to her first officer. "I smell a conspiracy."

Chakotay smiled. "If we're conspiring, it's for your own good." He put his arm around her shoulders and gently directed her towards the ready room. "Come on, B'Elanna can handle it."

Kathryn shook her head in defeat. But as they approached the door, she said, "This had better be–"

She stopped abruptly when she saw her ready room. The debris had all been pushed to one side of the room and the coffee table had actually been washed. There were three candles on the center of the table with a small plate of rations and a glass of water on either side.

"It's not exactly a three-course meal," Chakotay said, smiling, "but unless I'm mistaken, it's more than you've eaten in two days."

"Actually," Kathryn chuckled dryly as they walked over to the couch, "it's probably more like three or four. But I've lost count." She realized it might have even been longer than that when she bit into a ration bar and was immediately sure she'd never tasted anything as wonderful in her life.

They sat in silence for a while. Kathryn ate slowly at first, so as not to make herself sick.

"It's time to condense crew quarters," she said.

Chakotay blinked at the random statement, but waited for her to explain.

"I was thinking earlier, it seems like we lose another deck everyday." Kathryn's voice was bitter and angry. "If we move everyone to just a few decks, it might be easier to maintain." She paused a moment. "I also thought this should apply to the senior staff as well. At least one roommate for each of us."

"I can arrange it. Any roommate requests?" Because I certainly know who I'd like to request… Chakotay quickly pushed the some-what lecherous thought out of his head.

Kathryn swallowed her last ration bar quickly. "Actually, if you want to move a couple people into my quarters, I can sleep here." She put her feet up on the table and leaned back, allowing herself to relax for the first time in as long as she could remember. "Now that the cleaning I've been neglecting in here is done." She smiled at Chakotay.

"If I let you do that, you'll never sleep anymore."

She blinked slowly at her cup, not acknowledging Chakotay's statement. Her eyelids were feeling very heavy at the moment.

"Kathryn?"

She took a deep breath and looked up at her first officer. Now or never Kathryn. Might as well go for it. "Sorry. I was just thinking."

"Oh?"

"You…you've been a very good friend Chakotay. And an exemplary first officer. And I've asked things of you that…Thank you Chakotay. Thank you for everything."

Chakotay silently let out the breath he'd been holding. He sat up to face Kathryn and reached out a hand he really wanted to place on her cheek, but settled for her shoulder. "I'm always here for you, Kathryn. Whatever you need, whenever you need it."

Kathryn smiled and wrapped her hand over the top of his. I'm a coward, she realized.

In one fluid moment, she put her cup back on the table, moved closer to Chakotay, and settled back in the couch.

Chakotay looked into her blue eyes and returned her warms smile. He was certain he'd have no choice but to kiss her if one of them didn't speak soon.

"Well, then, lunch is over. Time to get back to work." I am an enormous coward. Kathryn spoke first and started to get up, mentally cursing herself.

But Chakotay held onto her, not allowing her to walk away. "Take a nap Kathryn. I can keep an eye on the ship for a while."

"Chakotay, there's – "

He gave her a tug so she fell back onto the couch and then stood up over her. "I just told you I'd be here for whatever you need. Right now you need sleep. No one will disturb you for the next eight hours."

"Eight? No way. Two hours."

"Six hours."

"Four hours and I'll eat another meal today."

"Deal."

She had been furious when she woke up and realized he'd let her sleep for ten hours.