A/n: Thanks to Jedi Master Misty Sman-Esay for updating "Far From Home" and to xXBrightsideBumblebeeXx for publishing a re-edit of her C/7 story "Shreds and Shards". I'm also grateful to Juddysbuddy for giving me some ideas for this chapter.
Chakotay stared at the door Seven had just fled through, an intoxicating mix of guilt, anger and hurt flooding him until he could no longer bear to look at the closed door, instead focusing on the hand she'd pushed away, what had he just done?
B'Elanna's hand coming to rest worriedly on his shoulder, making him jump a little before he forced himself to meet her concerned eyes. "What was all that about?" she asked tersely.
Chakotay felt his chest release a breath for the first time since Seven had left, it whistled anxiously through his teeth as he said brokenly, "I screwed up…" He cut himself off hastily as he saw his old friend frown, "I overreacted, let my anxieties about this whole situation affect my judgement…"
B'Elanna gave a small snort of disbelief. "It wasn't the situation that upset you so badly Chakotay; it was that Seven was in that situation." She replied bluntly, her face softening as his wince confirmed her words, "You lost your temper with her Chakotay, don't you think I've known you long enough to know when you're in deep?" She sighed through her careful smile, "How long have you had feelings for her? Before she became deaf?"
Chakotay's eyes flashed at her, his whole body tensing in offence. "You think I treat her this way out of pity?" he snapped at her incredulously.
B'Elanna laughed under her breath, "Pity? No, worry and protectiveness more like, and besides Tom told me about the two of you and your flirting session on the shuttle before the accident."
Chakotay smiled fondly at the memory before glancing worriedly back at his friend as she knelt to fix a smoking console. "Do you think she sees it like that? Just as me being overprotective? I never want her to think that I don't value her as much as before…"
"Chakotay, you just yelled at her for saving the ship, which was a "screw up" as you said, I'd be angry with you too if I were her. Just give her some time to cool down…"
The synchronised beeps of both their comm. badges interrupted her, the Captain's relieved but exhausted voice echoing through, "Stand down Red Alert. All senior officers please report to the Briefing Room."
"I guess we'll both have plenty of time plenty of time to cool down." Chakotay remarked to B'Elanna as he reluctantly put duty first by tapping his comm. badge in order to reply, "B'Elanna and I will be right there Captain."
Seven grimaced painfully as a bright light insistently burned at her eyes, making her head throb even more. Slowly, as her eyes adjusted, she realised she was lying in Sickbay with the Doctor looming over her, his expression hardened with disapproval as he scanned her with a tricorder, his lips moving in small, unreadable movements she interpreted as agitated muttering. "What happened?" she mumbled in confusion as he lowered the tricorder, the last thing she could remember was running away from Chakotay, her eyes blurring with tears…
"ENSIGN ANDERSON FOUND YOU COLLAPSED IN A TURBOLIFT." The Doctor signed slowly in explanation, "I'VE TREATED YOUR SKULL FRACTURE BUT YOU STILL HAVE A CONCUSSION."
Seven nodded hastily as she sat up, inhaling sharply as she saw the many injured spread around the room, their bodies limp and useless and their faces so contorted with pain that she didn't need to be able to hear to know that they were most likely groaning in agony. "Thank you Doctor, I'll leave you to your more urgent cases." She replied gratefully, yet feeling a little ashamed by her faint in the turbolift when there were so many grievously people around her.
"YOU WERE VERY LUCKY." The Doctor responded. The emphasis which he placed on the sign for "very", a lacing of the fingers in front of the chest before being pulled apart, made her wince, thinking of the close call in Engineering.
"We were all lucky." She replied tensely, swallowing a lump in her throat when she thought of Chakotay's panic as he'd dragged her away from the Jefferies Tube, he hadn't trusted luck.
She watched the Doctor's lips with just enough attentiveness as he helped her off the biobed to see him say, "I don't know what the Commander and Lieutenant Torres were thinking, keeping you down there in your condition…"
She was too angry to bother trying to interpret the rest of his sentence, emotional wounds still bleeding from Chakotay's harsh words earlier making her eyes flash in rage. "It was my own decision to help Doctor!"
The Doctor's mouth dropped open in shock for a moment before it formed the exaggerated movements of an exclamation, "Keep your voice down Seven! All I said was that it was dangerous!"
"It's dangerous for everyone!" Seven retorted hotly, "Would you prefer…" She halted, colour flooding her face as she caught several patients looking at her with fear-widened eyes, she doubted many of them knew how close they'd come to dying in a warp core meltdown. She settled for the more private, but equally expressive, method of signing to continue, "IF I HAD NOT ASSISTED, YOU WOULD HAVE MANY MORE PATIENTS TO ATTEND TO!" she finished, glaring at him as he visibly reeled from her outburst.
He seemed to struggle to recollect himself, and he sighed heavily before saying hurriedly, stiffly regretful, "Go and regenerate, you'll feel better."
"Gladly." Seven whispered sharply as she made her way out of Sickbay as rapidly as she could.
The solitude of the Cargo Bay did not offer the comfort and reassurance Seven so desperately sought. In fact, standing alone in its cavernous confines, more like a Borg Cube than anywhere else on the ship, put things into painful perspective for her as she tried and failed to regenerate. It was a possibility now that after her recklessness, she was quite sure of the Captain seeing her actions as that, she might be demoted to data interpretation for the rest of the trip back to Earth, just to save her from the harm they now obviously perceived her as more susceptible to. This thought of course filled her with resentment, but her main preoccupation was that Chakotay had not come to her. She pushed him away, rejected his intense emotions and had been equally unstable herself. She knew as she stepped into her alcove for another attempt at regeneration, that he might decide she wasn't worth the effort.
"So it's decided, we'll carry on at a maximum of Warp Two until the plasma manifolds are fully stabilised." The Captain concluded as she heard the last of her officers' status reports, "And Tom…" she added, glancing over at her pilot to her left, "Avoid Zephellian territory at all costs."
"With pleasure Captain." Tom replied, flashing her a slightly more subdued version of his characteristic jovial grin.
"Good then, you're…" The Captain began to dismiss them but stopped as the Doctor shuffled tiredly into the Briefing Room. "How many casualties Doctor?"
"27 major injuries, 39 minor Captain, none life-threatening." The Doctor replied calmly.
"Thank God." The Captain murmured before turning her attention to the issue at the back of her mind. "How's Seven?"
"I sent her to the Cargo Bay to regenerate after treating her injuries." The Doctor replied coolly, noticing out of the corner of his eye how much Commander Chakotay's complexion paled at the word "injuries". "Captain…" He started after taking a fortifying breath, "I don't think we can avoid reassessing Seven's duties for a more permanent basis, I believe this uncertainty as to her new role on the ship put her in danger tonight."
The Captain heaved an unhappy, resigned sigh. "I know Doctor." She agreed quietly before studying the pensive faces around her. "I think we need to come to a conclusion about what we consider s her correct role on board."
"Why should it change?" Chakotay asked in a challenging tone, his voice thick with guilt, "She's just as capable as she was before…" He swallowed hard, "She proved that tonight."
Janeway arched her eyebrows in his direction, her tone slightly bemused. "I don't understand Commander, from what I gathered you were very concerned for her, even angered by her actions. Don't you consider her deafness an unacceptable vulnerability in certain situations?"
Chakotay lowered his gaze from her direct one as he thought out a measured answer. "It is, but was wrong to be angry with her. We can't put our desires to keep her safe in the way of her happiness."
Janeway's fists curled in slightly as she replied tightly, "I'm not saying that we have to, I'm just saying that she has to adapt…"
Tuvok cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention. "Then it would be our logical course of action to help her to adapt. Seven of Nine's knowledge and ingenuity is too big an asset for us to lose because we refuse to change our way of thinking."
The Vulcan's argument sunk in for a moment before Harry cautiously raised his hand. "We could at least rig up a new comm. badge that vibrates so that she knows when someone is approaching her…"
"I can go one better than that, I can make up a comm. badge that transcribes what we're saying onto words on a monitor, I might be able to link the system into the Computer interface too, so that she doesn't need to be constantly at a console to get new information." B'Elanna interjected enthusiastically.
Janeway smiled proudly at her crew. "Pursue all these avenues as soon as you can, I think we're going to need to make this vessel as deaf-friendly as possible."
Seven jolted her back painfully against the back of her alcove when she woke the next morning to find Chakotay standing at the foot of the machine. "Chakotay…" She choked out, hoping her voice didn't sound as conflicted as she felt at the sight of him.
Chakotay stepped decisively forward, his dark eyes fixed on her as his hands signed firmly, "WE NEED TO TALK."
Dread made Seven's legs shaky; she didn't dare step out of the alcove to his level lest her knees buckle beneath her. "Yes…we do." She conceded quietly.
A weak smile of relief lingered on his face just long enough for Seven's stomach to clench. Did he really think she wouldn't talk to him? "DID THE CAPTAIN TELL…" His hands froze in the way they always did when he couldn't think of an appropriate sign and he lapsed apologetically into speech. "Did the Captain tell you about the technology being designed for you?"
Seven nodded hurriedly and forced herself to step down beside him. "Yes, she informed me of the plans last night. They sound…promising."
Chakotay bit his lip at her uncertain tone, although he knew it was better for her not to get her hopes up too much there was still some convincing to be done as to her suitability for active duty. Biting the bullet, he broached the subject he'd come here to confront. "I'M SORRY." He excessively repeated the circular movements on his chest as she watched him silently, "I WAS WRONG."
Seven twisted her face away awkwardly, "We were both wrong, my impairment could've easily put others in danger and I disobeyed your orders."
Chakotay gently took her arm and pulled her back around to him. "Maybe, but I overreacted and I'm sorry." He whispered, signing again as he tried to get his most important point across, "I WANTED YOU TO BE SAFE…" He unconsciously exaggerated the sign for "safe", crossed arms with open palms which faced the chest before clenching into fists as the arms parted, showing his emotion to Seven more than any lip movement could as continued, in speech now, "…but I forgot for a few frightened minutes that you need to be happy, and wrapping you in cotton wool won't do that, will it?"
Seven shook her head in agreement, although shocked by his frank confession. "No, it won't." She sighed heavily, "I know it is your impulse, everyone's impulse perhaps, to shield me now, but I am not ill and I have adapted to so much already…" She took a deep breath, "I was irrational to snap at you, I know you care for me, but your words hurt me more than the dismissive words of the others. I suppose because I care more for your opinion…" She swallowed hard as her eyes filled with tears, blinking them back rapidly.
Chakotay felt confident enough now to wrap an arm around her back. "I just so scared of losing you. I think I would've reacted like that whether you were hearing or deaf." He admitted thickly.
"You won't lose me…" Seven murmured, tracing a fond finger over his lips as they stopped moving. "Forgive me."
"Of course!" Chakotay replied, hugging her hard, "What can I do to help you forgive me?"
A shy smile played across Seven's lips as she signed something rapidly. "Give me…" Chakotay began to translate, but couldn't get the third, most important sign.
Seven obligingly repeated it more slowly, pressing her thumb against her top fingers in a pinching motion near her mouth and then making it lightly meet the other hand which was in the same position. When he still looked clueless, she gave him a translation by kissing him deeply.
"I'll need to remember that one." Chakotay chuckled as she pulled back before he reciprocated eagerly.
A/n: PLEASE REVIEW! :D