Okay, the final but longest part of the story... don't say I didn't warn you about the angst.

Part 3: Better Together

Chapter 11: Promises

Five years and one month

Sat at the table in the kitchen with a newspaper and enjoying a freshly brewed pot of tea Chakotay sighed inwardly as the yelling and screaming in the next room continued and he realised he would have to intervene. Slowly and purposefully he stood from the chair and made his was across the tiled floor which followed through into the lounge to see his two young children fighting on the same rug they had been playing contently with one another only ten minutes previously.

"Is everything okay girls?" he interrupted from the doorway, and two brown sets of eyes quickly turned up to look at him.

They were both silent a moment as they assessed their father's mood, he looked stern and unimpressed with their behaviour and although both felt inexplicably guilty from the look he was giving them, neither one was willing to take the blame.

"She won't give me back Sally-Ann," Ellie burst out, indicating her favourite doll now in the arms of her sister.

"It's my turn to play," Layla insisted.

"It's my doll," Ellie countered but not to her father, this time she turned back to the other girl.

"I don't see your name on it," Layla pulled a face, and Chakotay had to force himself not to laugh out loud.

"Aunt Lana gave it to me."

"Daddy," Layla turned back to her father, "tell Ellie to share."

But before Chakotay could say anything Ellie stood and launched herself at the doll trying to pull it from her sister's grasp before she had time to react. Layla with a wail held tighter to the toy and in one swift movement got up and ran in a beeline for their father. "Enough," Chakotay boomed as Layla hid behind his legs desperately clinging to the doll and Ellie came to a standstill a few feet away.

The two girls had personalities that he found himself at a loss to trace. Neither were anything like their mother or himself for that matter. Layla was easy going, usually good tempered, chatty, free spirited and perhaps a little flaky. She danced with every movement, never worried or cared what was going on around her, and was very content in her own little world where everything was magical and every memory was twisted into her own fantasy which she recounted to all who would listen to her.

Elliot on the other hand was the more dominant of the twins, she was demanding, and difficult to deal with, but she was always eager to help, patient and had the kindest heart he had ever encountered. Many people would say that she reminded them most of Kathryn, and perhaps she did on the surface, but deep down she was very much her own person. She wasn't stubborn or reckless like her mother, but careful and thoughtful, her mind was never set but always willing to adjust and reflect. She was a wonderful listener, which was good considering how much Layla loved to talk, and in that way she was like her father.

Neither of them had any love for science or rules or order for that matter as could be clearly demonstrated by the mess of their rooms and mayhem of their day to day lives. Chakotay was coming to the realisation that neither of them would ever find a place in Starfleet, and for that reason, he was determined that no one should push them in that direction as he knew was bound to happen given Kathryn's reputation.

"Layla, that's Ellie's doll, if she doesn't want to share it with you then it's her choice and you have to respect that," Chakotay said calmly, placing a hand on his daughters loose and long light brown ringlets. He knew that Layla's lack of personal space and Ellie's need for one would be the basis of arguments for years to come, and he wanted them to learn to accept one another, not force them and fail to become the same well behaved drones that so many parents wanted. "Give the doll back to your sister."

Layla hesitated as a rush of thoughts passed through her mind: betrayal, anger, confusion and finally a grudging defeat as she knew better than to argue with her father and came from behind Chakotay and slowly (out of reluctance) handed back the toy.

Ellie grasped the doll desperately in her arms, she felt no pride at having won it back as she had never considered it a battle, but was only grateful at both Chakotay and her sister. "Ellie," he wasn't finished as he turned to the other girl, "do you remember aunty Lana gave you each a doll?"

Elliot nodded slowly, it had been for their fourth birthday only a couple of months previously. "And do you remember how she lost it at that party?" he spoke of Voyager's fifth reunion only two weeks later, where Layla against her father warnings had taken her doll and in all the confusion and fuss around them both had parted with the present and cried bitterly that night when she realised it was gone. "If you lost your toys wouldn't you be grateful if Layla let you play with hers?"

Again Ellie nodded, her father always had a point, and it was usually a good one, but she still wasn't certain what he was getting at. "Then consider how happy it would make your sister now if you let her borrow Sally-Anne from time to time."

With an amazement that he never tired of he watched as Ellie processed his words and searched for an empathy she was still too young to fully comprehend, she must have found it as her next movements were timid and maybe a little guilty as she held the doll out to her sister. Layla took it with a smile, "ta," she remembered her manners, although making Chakotay cringe a little inside as she again persisted on using her first speaking word for 'thank you'. Ellie understood clearly enough as she smiled back knowing that she had done something good, not because she was told, but because she had decided to. Together the girls moved back to the rug and continued to kindly play together forgetting their father's intervention.

It always took longer than he expected to get them ready for going out as he found if he left one to do something by herself she would quickly become side tracked and wander off to do something else. Finally though, he got them out of the front door of their comfortable cottage on the outskirts of Crémieu and after locking the door each one of them placed a hand in each of his and they walked up through the front garden and out onto the old dirt track.

It was now September and the summer was starting to fade, as air was became milder, the days became shortened and the rain threatened them more often. Chakotay had gained a lectureship at the University of Lyon in France a short distance away, and they had moved into the cottage only a month previously in anticipation for the new term. This time was to be full of changes for all of them, as not only had they moved house, but Chakotay was to start a new job and his daughters were starting school and would be away from their father more often and for longer than they had both become accustomed to. He doubted either of them would have any trouble leaving him, but what was becoming more apparent as they neared the school gates was that he was going to find it difficult to part with them.

During the short walk he remembered the first time he had ever seen them as he visited Kathryn's home in Indiana. By then they were both over a year old and starting to crawl and clamber around and oblivious to their father's arrival. He had watched them from the doorway of the living room for a long time before he had dared to introduce himself as he had been scared of what he might or might not feel towards them. If he had ever considered leaving again then all thoughts of ever parting with them had vanished quickly over those first few days as he got to know them. He didn't realise he loved them until the time had come for him to return to Phatar and finish his PhD, and then he had been forced to make some difficult choices. Those choices he was now grateful for making as he felt more at peace with the family Kathryn had given him than anything else before in his life.

He walked with his daughters up to the gates of the school which were opened out onto the playground. He instantly recognised Mrs Deschamps who was to be their teacher for the next year and approached the elderly empath. She smiled kindly at him and took the two girls from him with a reassuring wink as she lead them to an area where all their class mates were already gathered and playing happily. He stood and watched the two of them, telling himself that he was making sure they would be okay, but really he wanted to make sure that he would be okay. Layla was nervous as she looked around the new faces, but he saw Ellie grab her hand reassuringly, and as soon as the two girls were linked Layla found the confidence to introduce them both to the other children.

The twins weren't identical, unlike Layla, Ellie's hair was darkening to her father's colour, it was perfectly straight and always brushed and neat. Layla's hair was much fairer and struggled to be straight, but it grouped into ringlets and as she never bothered to tidy it, was always a mess on her head which everyone found adorable. They both had his eyes and Layla had his dimples, but when Ellie smiled and laughed he held his breath in awe of how much she looked like her mother. There was only a marginal difference in height which fluctuated occasionally, however Layla had inherited some of his build and had chubby cheeks which were always rosy.

"The first day of school is always tough," he heard a female voice from behind him interrupt his thoughts and turned to see a tall dark haired woman nearing her forties.

Chakotay looked worried, "do you think they'll be okay?"

She laughed, and he was unsure why, "they'll be fine," she sobered, "it's the parents who find it difficult."

He allowed her a guilty grin, "I guess I am a little over protective of them sometimes… it seems like only yesterday they were babies and needed me for everything, and now they're growing up and telling me that they want to tie their shoe laces for themselves."

"I'm Erin," she introduced.

"Chakotay," he replied, "I just moved into the town a few weeks ago."

"I know," she shot him a sly look, "you're part of the Voyager crew right?" he could tell the question was rhetorical so only nodded, "news that there was a celebrity in our midst spread through the town quickly."

"I'd hardly call myself a celebrity," he said sternly, he always felt jumpy around people who had heard of him, not knowing what they did and didn't know.

It turned out that Erin knew very little as she asked him: "usually it's the mother who brings the children on the first day. Is your wife working?"

Chakotay smiled pleasantly and held up his bare left hand, "I'm not married," he explained.

Purposefully she gave him a once over that he was quick to recognise and decided to enjoy, "you're partner?" he could tell she was testing.

Now Chakotay found himself in a situation he often tried to avoid and for a moment he was uncertain how to answer. "My children's mother hasn't been with us for a while now," he decided on the basic truth.

Erin shot him a sad look, "I'm sorry to hear that."

He shrugged, "it was a long time ago… well over two years in fact," as he said the words he found himself amazed that so much time had past by so quickly. "So you have children at the school?" he decided a change of topic was in order.

"Yes," she smiled, "two boys: ten and nine, and I have a daughter I left at pre-school earlier this morning who's just two."

He grimaced remembering when his own daughters had been at that age, "I still can't decide if they get easier or more tricky as they get older."

"Both," she rolled her eyes, "in different ways. Well, it was nice meeting you Chakotay," she started to bring their short chat to a close, "I guess I'll see you at home time?"

"I'll see you then," he said as she walked away from the school and back onto the road. He looked back up at the playground and after assuring himself one last time that they would be okay, he made his was back to the cottage.

V

Two years, three months

Chakotay sat reclined in his desk chair and waited patiently as Kathryn spoke to someone outside of the scope of the view screen with the channel on mute. Whoever she was talking to had just told her a joke as he saw her face light up and chuckle, he watched her eyes look at something in the distance before finally she turned back to him and reactivated the audio. "Sorry about that," she apologised.

"Who was it?" he asked quickly.

She seemed a little taken aback by his abruptness, "it was just Cal," she said, then seemed to remember who she was speaking to, "ambassador Caleb Enfield."

"I know who he is," Chakotay assured her, "what's he doing in your office? I thought the two of you broke up weeks ago?"

Kathryn frowned, "we did. But we still have to work together."

He wanted to make a comment about how it didn't look much like work, but decided to hold his tongue: it wasn't his place to say anything, and he felt he had little right to be jealous. "So the wedding?" he prompted.

"Oh yes," she remembered where she had been before the interruption and smiled as she started to recall the events of a few days ago. Chakotay had already heard most of it from B'Elanna, but her version of events was always laced with sarcasm and criticisms. He loved the way that Kathryn told stories, how her face lit up as she repeated a joke, or her eyes rolled when she told him about anything that had upset the evening.

"Did you take the girls?" he asked when she had finished telling him about Tom and Harry's drunken performance of various old sailor songs. He noticed that both women hadn't mentioned their presence. The last time B'Elanna had ever said anything to him about his daughters was a while after they had been born and she told him their names; his unimpressed expression and lack of response had been enough to put her off mentioning them since. In the past couple of months since his encounter with Kathryn on deep space five they had been in frequent contact with one another, but he noticed that she didn't often mention the children to him. At first he had been grateful, not sure if he was quite ready to hear about what he was missing out on, and now he felt that if he was ever going to amend his friendship with Kathryn he would need to show an interest.

"Yes," she answered after a moment's hesitation, surprised that he wanted to know. "I had Ellie on my hip most of the night and Layla was quite happy to be passed around. If it hadn't have been for Tom and Harry, and Harry's beautiful bride of course, they would easily have stolen the evening as everyone was fussing over them…" she came to an unnatural finish as she realised she was starting to get carried away, "but they were very well behaved."

He nodded a little to himself realising that maybe it still was too early to be talking about them. "Hopefully I should be able to come down for the reunion later this year, by then with some luck I will have switched to writing up and I can move closer to Earth."

"I know a lot of the old crew would be happy to hear that," she said, "I think many of them miss your council, I certainly know Ayala would have appreciated an ear to bend during his custody battle for his sons."

Chakotay was silent a long while, "I don't think I would have been a very good listener back then," he didn't need to say because of the problems in his own life... as she had been the cause of many of them.

"What I'm saying is that I wouldn't be the only one glad to see you a little closer to the Sol system," she felt a little clarity was in order.

"Do you mean that?"

She gave him a long and sincere look, "of course I do." There was a short silence as she allowed him to consider her words, "Chakotay I found out a few days ago that I'm being asked to attend some diplomatic meetings at the federation embassy on Romulus. I leave in two days and I'm going to be out of contact for a while."

"How long?"

"Three, maybe four weeks. This will probably be the last time that we can speak until then," she added.

"I suppose you'll be going with ambassador Enfield?"

Kathryn nodded, "actually that was why he popped in earlier for, just to give me the specific dates."

Chakotay looked past the screen at the far wall of his office remembering watching the news vids as the two of them turned up to events together and hearing the media speculation about them. He had met the man in the first few weeks of their return and had instantly recognised his intentions towards Kathryn. He also knew what she was like around men like that: chatty, genuine and even flirtatious, how she used to be around him, and a part of him worried that a romance would again start to blossom between them if they were working closely together. She seemed to sense his concerns and her next words put him off guard, "Chakotay, we haven't made any promises to one another, and I'm not saying we should, but when Caleb and I ended our relationship it was a mutual decision, we're not going to go back down that road."

"Perhaps we should make some promises," he said thoughtfully.

"Chakotay…" she protested.

"Nothing completely committal," he reassured her, "but just a promise that we'll keep it on the cards until it's a little more practical for us to spend time with one another."

She considered his suggestion, "I think it would always be on the cards Chakotay, whether we like it or not."

He chuckled lightly, his dimples reminding her once again of why she was so attracted to him, "I guess you're right."

Kathryn smiled softly at him across sub-space, "I have to go now."

"Okay," he sat up straighter in his chair, "I suppose I'll speak to you in a few weeks."

"I look forward to it," she replied, and as their eyes met for one final exchange she terminated the channel.