The now defunct handcuffs rattled around Chakotay's wrists as he ran, crouching low and trying to ignore the shouts of the Cardassians and the prison guards as they tried to figure out what had happened and extinguish the burning building which was continually throwing toxic smoke up into the sky. Chakotay didn't dare to pause even for a second as her plunged through the smoke and out the other side, where he saw Tom and B'Elanna running up a steep hill which the prison's perimeter fence, now sparking with an interrupted electrical current but otherwise inactive, backed onto. Without thinking of the consequences of electrical shock, he followed them, his frantic feet tearing gouges out of the hillside as he saw Tom and B'Elanna disappear into the forest above. Forcing his screaming muscles to give him one final spurt of energy he reached the top of the hill, only to see B'Elanna, her face wracked with pain, being pulled up from the ground by Tom. "What happened?" Chakotay asked breathlessly, glancing behind him to see if they were being followed, but the prison seemed to be in absolute uproar.
B'Elanna gestured angrily at the gnarled root that was wrapped around her ankle, "I tripped…my ankle…"
"We'll carry you, we have to keep going or else they'll catch up to us." Chakotay told her.
"I was trying to get her to lean on me but she…" Tom began to explain in a frustrated tone as he gently extricated her foot from the root, "I think it's just a sprain."
"And how would you know?" B'Elanna asked scathingly as she pulled herself up by a tree branch rather than by Tom's proffered arm.
A stoic, if slightly breathless voice answered her, "He knows because he is a trained medic, which is of course only if he and the Tom Paris I know are the same in that regard."
Tom smiled at Seven, who had appeared from nowhere looking slightly the worse for wear, before shooting B'Elanna a look, "She's right, I know what I'm talking about."
"Yeah, right." B'Elanna muttered under her breath as she watched Seven reach into the large bag she had with her and throw three small devices at them, which matched the one pinned to her top. B'Elanna agilely caught hers and studied it in confusion, "What are these?"
"Scanner frequency blockers, we won't show up on their scans." Seven replied.
"Aren't those illegal? Were did you get them?" Tom asked incredulously.
"I built them." Seven answered simply with a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders. "And this whole exercise is illegal."
"You built these? How…" B'Elanna began; staring at the other woman is disbelief.
"Enough!" Chakotay cut in with icy sharpness, "We have to get moving!"
Seven frowned at his uncharacteristic outburst and tried to reason with him. "It will be some time before they can trace us Commander, besides my devices you took the most inaccessible escape route behind a burning building, we have time. I have a change of clothes for each of you, and I can remove your restraints…"
Chakotay glared at her, ignoring the bag of provisions at her feet. Under normal circumstances he would have praised her preparedness but at that moment he was far too angry to even consider speaking directly to her, instead addressing them all. "We'll make time for that later when we're nearer civilisation, for now we have to go." He ordered in an unequivocal tone. Turning his back on them, he set off at a brisk sprint, despite his anger feeling relief surge through him when they fell into step behind him.
After more than an hour of walking in silence, during which they'd managed to put the prison far behind them, Seven took a deep, fortifying breath and went to Chakotay's side, asking quietly, "Where exactly are we going Commander? Tom says B'Elanna's ankle is swelling up and that we'll soon need to stop to attend to her…"
Chakotay abruptly whirled round to face her, his expression thunderous. "Didn't you plan that out while you were on the way here? Or did you think the probability of us getting out was too low to even consider that?" Seeing shock and confusion flash across her face, he ran a frustrated hand through his hair, "What the hell were you thinking? Did you want to go to prison too? There was a reason I told you to lie low! Now they're looking for all of us…"
Seven cut him off, understanding and her own anger settled on her face, "I apologise for disobeying your orders but without me you'd still be in there! Who do you think blew up the building when they were going to leave with you ahead of schedule? Who do you think planted the virus which deactivated the shields and every other piece of security in the place?"
Chakotay held his ground despite her bombardment of logic and grasped her arm tightly. "It was still too dangerous! Even if we had failed, you could have stayed here and bided your time…"
"You talk as if it's simple to conform to another person's life!" She snapped back, jerking away from his grip and running off ahead as Chakotay stopped dead, shocked by the tears he'd seen rolling down her cheeks.
"Well, I for one think you should talk to her." Tom remarked in a piece of unsolicited advice as he caught up with Chakotay, carefully supporting a limping B'Elanna.
B'Elanna nodded, surprised to find herself agreeing with Tom Paris on anything, despite an unacknowledged enjoyment of his closeness. "She did kind of save our butts Chakotay."
"No one asked you…" Chakotay muttered but then glanced at Seven walking far ahead of them and sighed deeply before leaving Tom and B'Elanna in the dust.
When he was safely out of earshot, Tom said, "So what do you think? Are they together or not?"
B'Elanna winced at his uncanny ability to read her mind and shrugged. "Who knows? The Chakotay I know always has liked blondes."
Chakotay reached out and touched Seven's arm as he finally caught up with her, unnerved by the relief mixed with fear which passed over her features as she saw him. "Look Seven, I'm sorry for what I said back there, I was out of line…"
Seven shook her head. "No, you were correct, I was reckless and this has been a very stressful situation for both of us."
He nodded, smiling wryly. "You've got that one right." He replied softly, remembering her tears and cautiously approaching what he thought might be the cause of it. "So, do you mind telling me what you've experienced since you woke up here?"
Seven flinched and ducked her head before swallowing hard, "It has been…an unnerving few days for me." She took another breath and met his now kindly, sympathetic eyes before looking intently down at her feet again, visibly bracing herself to explain, "First I woke up in bed with her fiancé…" Seven didn't notice Chakotay's flinch when she said the word fiancé, "…then I found Captain Janeway, retired, married and with three children, and then I had to deal with her family…" She gulped as Chakotay gasped in horrified sympathy.
"You…you met your parents?" he whispered, shocked and worried for her.
Seven stiffened. "My parents are Borg drones Commander, but yes, her parents and sister are here."
"Oh Seven… I'm sorry, I didn't know…" Chakotay began.
"Why would you?" She replied heavily before her gaze moved back to the land around her. "From my study of local maps I believe that if we head in a north-westerly direction for another 3.2 miles we should find a main road, does that sound feasible to you?"
"Very." He replied, reluctantly allowing their previous subject to drop. "Go and tell Tom and B'Elanna." She nodded in agreement and turned away from him, but not before he had gently grabbed her elbow. "And thanks for telling me all that, I know it must have been painful for you." She nodded once more in reply, although whether it was in acknowledgement of the pain he wasn't sure, and he let her go.
A/n: Sorry this chapter is so rubbish and doesn't have a Voyager section, (there will be one in the next chapter, I promise!), but I've been feeling so tired for the last couple of days and so don't feel like writing much. PLEASE REVIEW anyway! :D