Chapter 7
A/N: I loved the last one so much that I knew right away that I needed to write a companion for it.
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"Kathryn…." he started. But the look in her eyes was so genuine that he had to force himself to continue. "Do you know what you are doing?"
"Yes," she answered simply. "I'm ready."
"Are you sure?" he couldn't quite believe it. He had been waiting, ever since that night on New Earth he had been waiting and hoping that there would eventually come a time when she was ready to return the love that he felt for her. At times, he wondered if that day would ever come. But he knew her and he knew that she did care for him deeply. He had been confident then that she would give the box back to him someday. He just didn't expect it to be so soon.
They had only been back on Voyager for a little more than a year when he had found her in his quarters one evening. She hadn't tried to surprise him with dinner; she had done that once before and it resulted in a damage control team, a security team and an engineering team all reporting to his quarters when the alarms began to sound. He had worried then that the whole experience might have scared her off. But apparently not.
He had found her sitting at his table, her hands fiddling with that small wooden box he remembered so well. His breath had caught in his throat when he first saw it, but then he began to notice how Kathryn kept fiddling with it. He should have known something was up the minute that word popped into his brain. The bombshell this time was a silent one. She stood up and handed him the box, a small smile on her face.
"I've been ready since the moment you first gave this to me," she said, a few tears forming in her eyes but her smile strong. "I just didn't know it then."
"I…" he stopped. He could barely find his words. "Kathryn…" he tried again. "You'll marry me?"
"Yes," she repeated, wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you for waiting."
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