They'd gotten into a sort of comfortable predictability.
Chakotay would usually wake up first and take his time getting ready, tiptoeing around the room, tidying the couch where he slept, and sharing an early coffee with Owen.
The older man had retired once the case against the New Irish started to wrap up. He stayed on as a consultant, but for all intents and purposes he was on the break he long deserved. Chakotay and Kathryn's testimonies as well as evidence found in Rom's car and at the site of the fire lead the police to Cardie. Rom and Cardie were brutal and efficient in their business, but didn't have the decades of knowledge Liam Janeway had- they'd been just sloppy enough to get caught. Many of their associates had been implicated as soon as the counterfeit plates had printed into circulation. The broken plate that'd been left behind had quickly allowed them to comb for the bills and effectively pin the source. Owen's retirement also allowed him to help Chakotay and Kathryn both, giving them a place to stay with him and his wife while they got back on their feet. It was duly necessary, as Owen was still worried about their safety while the dust settled.
After a while, they'd hear the muffled creak from the floor above them, the slight steps of Kate as she found her way to the bathroom, donned a borrowed robe and joined them downstairs. She treaded carefully, the carpet soft beneath her bare feet, so she wouldn't wake Julia.
Owen would get her a coffee as she sat next to Chakotay and offered her hands to him, a tube in one, which he plucked and opened. He'd work the salve into the angry skin. This was much easier than it had been in the beginning, as he'd lifted bandages and cleaned mangled tissue, careful of the fragile, fractured bones, then re-wrapped the digits diligently.
He'd often look up to catch her watching him or watching his hands as he caressed her skin. It was the same look she gave him when he grabbed the book from her lap, begging her outside to enjoy the fall sun as he pulled her on short walks to get ice cream, sit and watch the water, or ride the bus in circles, making up stories for the passengers as they came and went, carrying about their afternoon.
The first two weeks after she was discharged from the hospital, Kate had rarely left the spare room. Initially, she'd continued to sleep, slowly regaining her natural healthy coloring and gaining strength. The broken bones in her hands and feet, the trauma in the long bones of her arms and ribs and the soft tissue damage slowed her down significantly. After ten days at the house, she was sick with cabin fever and frustrated with her dependency on him and Julia.
Though she and the other woman became fast friends, Kate still balked on her perceived imposition in the house. She felt useless. She pleaded for something helpful to do. It was very difficult for everyone. Owen was sad to see the pain and anger in his pseudo-daughter. Julia was angry that someone could do such things to a girl like Kate when, as she got the younger woman to open up, she realized what a glowing spirit Kate had. Chakotay was pained as he watched the difficult recovery and the cloud of misery that seeped through her seams whenever her mind wandered to the big picture. Kate found it was easy not to think about everything if she just tried to live in the moment and think of life one minute at a time. Occasionally though, her denial failed her and everything seeped in- the kidnapping and subsequent near death, the destruction of the pub, and the deaths of everyone in her family, even Quincy whom they'd found dead on his boat in the ashes of another fire after getting a report of a fire on the water by a coastal resident.
For the last month, most of her days were spent sorting out the deed to the pub or other legal obligations including the estates of her father and grandfather now that Q was gone. It allowed her to stay at Owen's home and recover, but she still had her hands in everything. When all of that was sorted, it had been time to go to court. Scars and all, she stood as a pillar of strength, testifying against the men she'd watched closely her whole life, giving the court an even broader picture of the darkness of Dogpatch than they'd ever imagined. Those days had been the worst. She often broke down, against her will, at the mercy of emotional and physical exhaustion when they got home. Sometimes as soon as they got to the car. She barely ate or left the house those weeks.
Now, she got up and dressed every day, went for progressively longer walks, and buried her nose in paperwork necessary to fund and reopen the pub. She knew that Chakotay and Owen had taken most of the responsibility for the rebuilding and trusted their judgement as they ran everything by the insurance company and the lawyers. They'd even mentioned a small grant that Julia had wrangled from the local historical society to cover some of the restoration and eventual registration of Voyager's as a historical site.
Tom worked at the site during some of his spare hours on the weekend, mostly to catch up with Owen and Chakotay. He'd been instrumental in the plans they planned to reveal to Kate when they took her over today.
oOoOo
Chakotay looked beside him to make sure Kate kept her eyes closed. Tom glanced over as well, just as excited as Chakotay about the surprise. Owen and Julia were in the front seats of the car, their younger friends squished together in the back. Unfortunately, Kate's small stature relegated her to the dreaded center spot between the other two men, but she didn't seem to mind the opportunity to lean into Chakotay. He held one of her hands loosely in his on his lap.
"Almost there." Chakotay whispered into her ear as the car turned the corner onto Indiana.
He reigned in his nervous energy, resisting the urge to fidget. It would only make Kate nervous and push his knees into Julia's seat. They'd spent so many weeks reviving the pub, from filing the insurance claims and Tom digging for the blueprints for the original building to working with the volunteers in the community to furnish much of the finished structure with small things that the insurance hadn't covered. For such a relatively brief time, the people of the neighborhood had banded together to accomplish amazing things to get the business into top shape again, things that might have taken Kate years on her own.
Owen pulled up to the walk right in front of the new pub, the car coming to a halt gently. On the sidewalk, a small group of people, those who'd religiously come to help, even if it was for fifteen minutes a day, waited to greet Kate. She hadn't been back to the site, both afraid of what she'd find, and still uncomfortable with the memories she now associated with her home. They'd listened intently when he updated them on her recovery and they were all ecstatic to see her now. He'd been working her up to this visit, but he hadn't told her of the progress or the scope of the project. She only anticipated the skeleton of the pub and the beginnings of building.
Kate kept her eyes closed as Chakotay lead her out of the car. He put his hands on her shoulders to turn her towards the storefront.
"Can I open my eyes?" She asked hopefully as his fingers lingered on the soft cords of her light sweater.
"Yes." His voice narrowly contained his delight.
Kate's eyes popped open and she gasped, toppling back into Chakotay as her wide eyes surveyed the clean lines of the front, the freshly painted sign above the door, the wide plate glass expanses, and the new bench and flowers under the windows.
He moved beside her, an arm around her shoulders as she silently surveyed the sight in front of her, then gazed up to him with watery eyes.
When he released her, she stepped towards the small crowd as they beckoned her, with happy hugs and words of joy at her improving health, to go inside the pub.
As everyone followed her in, Chakotay stayed at her side, explaining what had happened.
"All the people here chipped in, many more as well. They started cleaning everything up as soon as they could. The electricians, carpenters, plumbers, they all prioritized their work here and put in a lot of volunteer hours to boot. Others made sure you had everything you'd need in the office, and Bella and Julia coordinated everything upstairs once it got together. There were a few changes to update things or make things more efficient, but Voyager's is pretty much back to her old self."
Kate still gaped, taking in the freshly stained wood and the warm colors in the upholstery as she ran her hands along tops of chairs and smooth walls. Eventually she made it behind the bar. All the glasses and spirits were in the proper place. The fixtures were an updated stainless, shiny and new.
The kitchen shone with a new refrigerator, flat-top, burners, and utensils.
"The freezer was one of the few things that survived the initial fire, but it didn't survive the demo after. It wouldn't have been up to code. We situated it a bit better though, so we were able to make the space bigger." He stayed back as she pulled the door open to look inside. "They'll be here to deliver tomorrow so we can get situated and open Tuesday if you want."
Carefully, she closed the heavy door and turned back to him.
"It's amazing. It's beautiful. I don't know if I believe it's real yet…The whole neighborhood helped?" The tears in her eyes flowed past her eyelashes, streaming down her cheeks.
"And Mr. Carey will be bringing over dinner for all of us tonight to help celebrate." He rested his hand on her lower back to guide her out into the main room of the pub.
Most of the people had seated themselves in small groups, talking animatedly. Owen and Julia approached Kate and Chakotay, embracing them both.
"You should go check out the upstairs while I get the plates and napkins situated for lunch, hm?" Julia smiled slyly and urged the two towards the back staircase.
For the last couple of weeks, Julia had been subtly flexing her matchmaking muscles, much to the amusement of her husband.
Chakotay didn't mind the overtures, neither did Kate, it seemed. They already spent so much time closely together, and he had to admit they had an undeniable chemistry. It was never the right time to move to something more. Over the last months they'd become fast friends, but more, he found himself driven to make her life easier and push her to relax. In kind, her touches became more frequent and intimate, moving from his arm to his chest, until he found her hand lingering when it fell to his thigh, or her head resting on his shoulder when they went to the movies. She sighed contentedly in their quiet moments.
They'd continued to become closer since the fire, but they hadn't broached the topic of a more intimate relationship. They hadn't even discussed what to call what they had. Decorum while they were guests meant they hadn't pursued anything, but maybe now…once they got the pub settled, they could explore things further. He smiled to himself.
Once they reached the landing, Kate reached for the key hanging on a length of twine from the handle on the door.
Turning the key, she revealed the brightly lit apartment. To her left, the kitchen had been restored close to the original specs, but instead of a wall separating it from the living room, there was an overhanging counter opposite the appliances that could be used as a pass through.
Past the short hall the living room was light and open, the sun showing through the windows and warming the bare floors. The décor was spartan, but Bella wanted to give Kate as much opportunity as possible to make it her own. Here it wasn't the absence of a wall that signaled change, but a new wall. Before, Kate's room had been part of the studio, partitioned off, but not a wholly private space. The apartment hadn't been meant for such, but rather as a meeting space or private party room in Liam's hayday. Quincy had sold his grandfather's house after the death, blowing the money or hiding it away in shady accounts, leaving Kate little choice but to move to the second floor of the pub, as the space was rarely used and she already slept in the office a few times a week. She'd never realized that her grandfather left her nothing tangible with his death because he didn't want her to have a reason to stay until recently, for the very reason that they were forced to rebuild. He'd underestimated her devotion not only to her family, but the extended relationships she had with so many in the district.
There was more than enough room when they rebuilt to divide the apartment and give her a bedroom and closet while still leaving a substantial common area.
"I don't know what to say, Chakotay." She shuffled away from him towards the new wall, cautiously opening the door.
Underneath the wide window, the expansive bed was covered with new, soft linens in cool pastels. A wide dresser sat along one wall, while a comfortable chair and a small bookshelf lined another.
"This is too much." She sat on the end of the bed, breathless.
"It's just enough. Kate, everyone chipped in…you've helped a lot of people. They just wanted a chance to show you their gratitude." He sat next to her. "You can stay here tonight if you'd like."
"What about you?" She looked panicked.
"I can take over the spare room at Owen's, he offered to let me stay on until I found a place."
"You don't want to stay here anymore?" She bumped her shoulder into his, her voice taking on a playful tone.
"Do you want me to stay?"
"Not downstairs." Kate took the chance with her proposition.
"With you? Up here?" Chakotay wanted to be sure.
"You don't want to?" Her voice sounded a tad insecure.
"More than anything." Surprising her, he turned fully towards her, his hands finding their way into her hair to turn her towards him.
He looked into her eyes, watching her expression as she realized what he was about to do and acquiesced, joyfully, meeting him halfway as they kissed.
Minutes later, the two jumped apart when they heard someone clear their throat from the doorway.
"Kids." Owen smiled at their wide, startled eyes. "They have lunch ready downstairs. We're just waiting for you."
"Well, we can't have that." Chakotay stood and offered Kate his hand, a practical and symbolic gesture now that everything was looking up.
Finally, they had a chance to explore what could be and they were going to face it together.