Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek and its characters. Sadly I do not. If I did they would have far more fun!
ONE MAN'S TERRORIST IS ANOTHER MAN'S FREEDOM FIGHTER.
Chapter 14
Coffee ice cream.
Chakotay admired the painting of his own tattoo that was in front of him. He wanted to give its artist time to cool off and be alone. He also knew that he had to cool off. He knew he couldn't go and find her if he was angry. She needed him to be calm and supportive. She needed somebody to listen and understand and no get angry at the first sign of something annoying or hurtful.
He spent about thirty minutes contemplating whether or not he should go and run his boxing holodeck program and box the lights out of a Cardassian man for what his beloved Kathryn had just shared with him of her painful encounter with the Cardassians. He hated them even more now for taking from her what was sacred and private and only hers to give.
Realising that thirty minutes had past and he needed to be with her, and sitting alone in the captains quarters waiting for her to come back was not really a good thing to do. He asked the computer where the captain was and discovered that she was on deck 15, the lowest deck on the ship she hardly ever went there, not even on inspection day. He found she was in the starboard large storage locker, well at least her comm badge was. He made his way to the specified part of the ship and opened the door and entered the storage locker (which was in fact no bigger than a broom cupboard or a cupboard under the stairs), he had even had to check where it was using a Voyager spec on the computer, and he had never even known it was there.
He looked around for her but couldn't see her in the tiny broom closet size room. He was about to leave thinking she must have hidden her comm badge among the cargo containers when he heard a tiny voice ask,
"What do you want?" It was Kathryn. Chakotay was confused; unless she had climbed into one of the containers there was no way she was in this tiny little room.
"This might be the only time I let you stand on my head." Chakotay heard Kathryn say with a hint of a laugh in her voice. He looked down and sure enough there below his feet her saw Kathryn's beautiful blue eyes peering at him through the metal mesh that made up the flooring.
"Captain! How did you get in there?" He asked in shock and jumping back so that his feet didn't appear to be standing on her face even though he knew he was only stood on a mettle grid flooring that she was sat under.
She smiled up at him through the flooring as she stood up and pushed hard on the metal above her, Chakotay knelt down to help her and as he did she managed to pull it loose and push it aside above her, leaving a whole above her just at Chakotay's feet just big enough for him to slide down into. As he did so she stepped aside and backed up against the far bulkhead to give him room to enter. As his feet hit the floor he looked around the tiny space where he now stood with his captain and found that the space below the storage locker was actually larger than the space above, he found he was in a room just a tiny bit bigger than the turbolift. As he looked around he had to smile when he saw cushions and paper and sketching pencils scattered around. He knew she hadn't left her quarters half an hour before with any of this and so he knew she must have settled in here before.
"Ok so what is number two?" he asked her as he moved his eye to where she stood.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked leaning forward so that she leaned just past him. Her cheek brushed with his as she leaned above him and pulled the man-whole cover over the gap he had left.
"It's what I have come her for, Number two, what is it?" he asked watching her as she pulled back past him.
As she slumped down along the bulkhead in a sitting position she told him, "A number that comes after one and before three." She wasn't confused or unsure what he was saying she was merely pretending she had no idea what he was asking her.
"Well yes" Chakotay said feeling slightly annoyed with the situation, "but you said that there are two things that you forgiving me would depend on. Number one was to give you a hug so what is number two?"
"To not get cross if I tell you what happened." She said as she stared deep into his eyes.
He looked back at her eyes for a second and then realised she wasn't joking with him so he looked away and mumbled in shame, "I suppose I failed then?"
"I suppose you did." She said as she tilted her head to look at him.
"I am sorry captain." He said looking down at where she sat longing to take her in his arms and hold her tight.
"I know." Was all she said simply without any emotion as he drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them and rested her chin on the tops of her knees and looked down on the floor on which she sat.
"May I sit with you?" he asked, as he wanted her.
"If you want." She said looking up at him with her wide blue longing eyes.
"Where did you find this little space?" he asked as he snuggled onto the floor next to her, their shoulders touching.
"It's not a secret, it is on the ships blueprints." She told him simply with a slight smile as she rested her head against the bulkhead behind her and glancing at him from the corner of her eyes.
"Oh." He said feeling slightly caught out.
"I take it you never studied the copy I gave you when you agreed to be my first officer?" she said with a huge grin.
"I glanced that them." He mumbled and looked away in shame.
"As long as you can find your way to our bridge from your quarters on time I am happy." She told him playfully swatting him arm to show him she was joking with him.
"That I can do ma'am." He told her smiling back her equally as jokingly.
"Good work commander!" she said meeting his eyes and his smile, his dimples were making her feel very content sat next to him.
"Captain?" Chakotay asked her wiping the dimpled smile from his face to show her he was being serious.
"Yes?" She asked wiping the smile from her own face and suddenly going serious.
"You said our bridge."
It took Kathryn a few seconds to understand what he was meaning and then smiled widely with her blue eyes flashing joyfully as she told him "Well it is rather large to keep all to myself."
"Yes I suppose so." He said braking into a smile himself.
"I often allow Tuvok, Harry and Tom as well as occasionally some others to sit there polluting it up" she said waving her hand in the air in front of her as though she were telling somebody to go away, her eyebrows were drawn closely together in pretend annoyance, She then rested her head on his shoulder as she smiled and told him in her deep husky voice "but I like to think I share it with you. I know it wasn't easy for you to sacrifice the Val Jean to save Voyager. We are a command team," She then took his hand in hers and stroked his knuckles with her thumb, "together we command Voyager."
"Thank you Captain, it is my honour." He said tightening the grip on her hand.
"No Chakotay" She told him shaking her head where it still rested on his shoulder. "The honour is all mine, to have you with me is an honour."
"So you forgive me?" he said resting his other hand on her knee and hoping he wasn't being too presumptuous.
"For what? Insulting my dead father and the man I see as my father or for saying I was disgusting for having a half Cardassian child?"
"Both." He said stroking her knee gently and hanging his head in shame for what he had said and done.
"Hummm I suppose I could do that." She said with a smile as she took his hand that lay on her knee in her other hand.
"You are so beautiful." He told her as she sat up and his eyes met with hers, "But I have a question."
"Oh?" she asked looking at him unsure what he could want to ask her.
Smiling he looked at her forehead and asked with a grin, "Were you planning on getting a tattoo?"
"A tattoo?" she asked him, confused as her deep blue eyes shot to the dark lies of his tattoo above his left eye.
"Hum yes," he said smiling richly at her and reaching up and rubbing his thumb gently over her left eyebrow he laughed, "one just here where you seem to have smudged some black paint."
"Oh no, I am sorry Commander." She said in shock turning from him and trying to hide her face.
"Sorry?" He asked watching her and feeling slightly amused.
"I don't want you to think I was making fun of your tattoo." She told him still turned form him covering her face with her hair but her hands still held tightly in his.
Letting go of her hands he reached up and brushed her hair from her face and gently guided her beautiful face to face his, "With that beautiful picture you have in your quarters?" he asked.
"You saw it?" she said with a gasp and pulling away in shame.
"When you ran past, the covering fell of." He told her and then looked at her with deep love as he asked "Why did you hide it from me?"
"I'm sorry." She mumbled looking intently at her hands in shame.
"You don't have to be sorry for coving it, But I love your work please don't hade it from me." he told her looking at her intently.
"No I mean I am sorry I painted it." She said turning to him looking sad.
"I am not so why are you?" he asked honestly.
"I didn't want it to be an offence to use your tribes design."
"An offence?" He gasped at her in disbelief. "Oh no captain it is an honour."
"An honour?" she repeated with her wide eyes looking searchingly at him.
"Yes, that you, such a beautiful artist of such beautiful work would use a symbol so sacred to me for one of her paintings."
"I like the design, it mesmerises me every time I look at you." She told him turning to him and staring at his tattoo.
"Thanks, Your beauty mesmerises me every time I look at you." He told her gazing into her eyes.
Her eyes flickered from his tattoo down to his eyes and then she looked down at the floor and told him sadly, "I have no beauty."
"Yes you do." He told her sincerely.
"Somewhere a long time ago I had beauty, but that was before the Cardassians clamed me for their own." She said turning from him as more tears threatened to fall.
"You were realised from the Cardassians." He reminded her.
"Not inside of me I wasn't." she whispered.
"What did you dream of today?" he asked her with a slight change of subject. All the crew had spent the day hallucinating after being taken over by a hostile alien. Each member of the crew had seen visions of the person that they wanted something from the most; Tom had seen his father and was looking for his approval. Tuvok had seen his wife and Harry had seen his girlfriend Libby who he had been forced to leave behind in the Alpha Quadrant. B'Elanna had seen her dear friend and mentor Chakotay but instead of merely caring deeply for her she had seen him desiring her sexually.
"Oh you know, this and that." Kathryn shrugged, as she was ashamed to tell Chakotay what her visions had been of.
"Was it the Cardassians?" He asked her.
"No!" She spat in horror at the idea.
"Was it Justin?" Chakotay pressed on.
"No." Replied Kathryn looking sad as she said this word.
"Mark?"
"Well, sort of." She said as her eyebrows drew closer together in confusion.
"Sort of?" Chakotay asked for clarification of her meaning.
"He was cross with me, but it is not like Mark to be cross." She sighed feeling confused and hurt by the visions of the day.
"It wasn't Mark, you have to remember that, the real Mark is in the Alpha Quadrant and he loves you." Chakotay pressed on trying to reassure her.
"You don't know that." She said as tears began to fall from her eyes.
"How could he not? He is your fiancé." Chakotay told her trying his best to reassure her.
"That's the problem. Mark, well the Mark the alien pretended to be, was cross with me because he thinks I moved on." She told him as she quivered and wiped tears from her eyes.
Chakotay watched her for a second and then asked her, "He thinks you have moved on?" Slowly she nodded at him and more tears fell from her eyes. "Captain, he is not the real Mark. If he was cross with you for moving on then it's not Mark who was cross with you and only you can say if you have moved on or not." He told her wrapping his arm around her.
"What if I have?" She asked him worriedly.
"I think for now you just have to take each day as it comes."
"But he thinks I am cheating on him with Lord Burleigh." She told him as tears began to fall even faster from her eyes.
He watched her wondering who Lord Burleigh was but he saw how important the need to reassure her was. "It's not Mark it's your minds representation of Mark. I think it's you who is has perceived that you are cheating on him with Lord Burleigh." He told her wanting her to see in a rational way what was happening around her.
"Maybe." She told him looking absentmindedly at the bulkhead in front of her as her eyes turned a greyish colour.
"Errr captain, if I may be so bold, who is Lord Burleigh?" He asked her tentatively as he stroked her shoulder lovingly.
"Oh." Said Kathryn in surprise as she turned to look at Chakotay. "He's one of the Characters from the holonovel I have been playing, his character has just declared his love to my character." As she said the last words more tears flowed helplessly from her eyes.
"Firstly he's a holocharacter programmed to declare his love for you and second just because he has declared his love for you does not mean that you are in love with him. So that does not mean you are cheating on Mark. Don't worry."
"I thought it was you." She said almost ashamed as she turned from him again.
He really wasn't sure he had heard her right so he said in a slight confused and shocked tone, "Pardon?"
"Yes well, I was hallucinating about the characters from my holonovel, but I thought it was you." She told him shifting very uncomfortablely where she sat next to him with his arm around her.
"Me?" he asked very confused, "You thought I was in your holonovel?"
"No!" She said smiling "I mean I was walking down a corridor and it started when I heard a voice, a man's voice, declaring his love for me. For a second I thought it was you, I turned around," waiting for a second while she debated if she should say it or not, then taking a deep breath she told him almost in a hurry to get the words out "I hoped you would be stood there," Then she turned from him sadly and told him "but there was nobody." Then with a smile and a slight tilt of her head she told him "Well there was Crewman Black but he was just going through a door."
"Crewman Black declared his love for you?" Said Chakotay with a laugh and his dimples flashing as he joked with her.
"No." so told him hurriedly and than when she realised he was teasing her she pushed him gently and laughed saying "your naughty!" Shaking her head she said more seriously, "no it was Lord Burleigh, well a hallucination of him. It wasn't until I saw Beatrice that I knew."
"Beatrice?" Asked Chakotay shaking his head to show he didn't know who Beatrice was.
"Lord Burleigh's daughter." She said matter-of-factly as though this were obvious.
"But this Beatrice is a holocharacter too." He told her and then quickly added, "Right?" to be sure.
"Naturally." She told him nodding. He nodded back at her with relief.
"And she was wondering around the ship, as well as the disembodied voice of her holographic farther who declared his love for you." Said Chakotay trying to be sure he fully understand what she was saying but still hoped that in his words she would see how silly what she was saying sounded.
"Right!" She said in reply to his question and then beginning to see how silly she was being worrying over nothing she said "unless it was Crewman Black!" laughing heartily as he pretended to scowl at her.
"Now who is being naughty?" He asked shaking his head at her with pretend disapproval.
"Or maybe it was you!" She smiled wide-eyed and hopeful at him even though she knew it wasn't him who had declared his love her.
With a slight cough Chakotay quickly turned away from her and asked, "So then what happened? Where does Mark come into it?" hoping to change the subject.
"I should have known with the cucumber sandwiches." She said staring up and biting her bottom lip.
"Cucumber?" Chakotay asked in confusion, he really wasn't following her now.
"When was the last time you saw cucumber sandwiches Chakotay?" She asked him as she still stared absentmindedly at the bulkhead in front of her.
Not really sure what cucumber sandwiches had to do with anything he watched her for a while and then realised she was being serious in her asking he hoped she wasn't going mad when he told her, "I don't know, perhaps the last time I was at Starfleet command. They always had silly posh foods like that." Still watching her intently he worriedly asked, "Why?"
"Nothing." She said hurriedly shaking her head. "I think today stirred me up quite bad." She whispered. She was feeling quite scared and vulnerable now.
Chakotay stroked her hair and took her hand in his to offer some comfort, "When did you last eat? Maybe we could head back to my quarters and get some dinner?" Then he looked around the tiny space they had been occupying he said; "Besides it's slightly cramped in here."
Looking across at him suddenly like she had only just realised where she was she said, "Yes, sorry there is barely enough room for one, though I do like to come here." Standing up and reaching up to slide the man whole cover from above them as he stood to join her she answered his question by saying, "I did have lunch with our friend the Telaxian."
"Yes I saw that. It made me feel happy." He said with a very big grin on his face, much the same as the one he had given to her on the bridge when she agreed to have dinner with Nelix, she just hadn't seen his grin because she had her back to him at the time.
"I bet it did!" She exclaimed scowling at him and then rolling her eyes she told him, "You should have seen the way Tuvok and Harry looked at me when he suggested it. I could hardly say no!" She said as she pulled her self up and out of the man whole swiftly to stand on the floor of deck 15, they had been at the very underbelly bottom of the ship, Chakotay stood amazed at her skill and swiftness at getting herself back up and truth be told couldn't work out how she had done it. "I was waiting for you to pipe up but lucky for you, you didn't say anything." She shouted down as she smiled watching him struggle to scramble to the deck where she stood.
Finally getting up to join her he watched as she knelt and replaced the cover as he said, "After the way you were with me this morning, I was silently doing my duty! But it did make me very happy when you went with him."
"Thanks food wise maybe!" to told him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face has she took his hand in her own, "But you know how annoying he is!"
"Ha!" Shouted Chakotay, "payback!"
"Payback!" She said stopping abruptly and looking at him with her hands on her hips.
"Yes for yesterday!" He told her, when she still looked at him confused he said, "When you let him go scouting the ship with me!"
"I see." She said scowling but continuing to walk with him towards he quarters, she wasn't really annoyed with him.
Smiling at her as he watched her display pretend annoyance Chakotay told her, "No really I am very glad you ate lunch, even with Nelix."
"During the hallucination I was going to have Coffee ice cream later in my quarters" she told him but then looking away slightly she continued, "but then I thought I heard Mark and Molly." This made her feel slightly ashamed.
"Molly?" he asked her fearing there were more holodeck characters in her rather interesting holonovel.
"My dog, oh you would love her." Said Kathryn as she joyfully walked with him through the corridors of Voyager towards the turbolift. She was so happy she even felt like skipping.
"Yes I have seen her picture in your quarters, the one you display of her and Mark with you, the three of you look very happy together." He told her with a smile walking just behind her and placing his hand on the small of her back. She didn't pull away and the two walked like that. Chakotay sometimes feared he was being to forward with the slight affection he showed towards her, he still could not forgive himself for all he had done to her recently. She acted like she had forgotten that only weeks ago his anger had driven him to threaten to rape her leading him to end up in her brig, he had not forgotten.
"We were a little family, Molly was pregnant, and I was going to be a grandma!" She told him happily as she entered the turbolift, she turned to face him as he entered behind her with a slight cheeky smile on his face, "Hay Chakotay don't knock it! I was happy!" She told him almost laughing.
He simply nodded at her.
"She mattered a great deal to me!" She told him as they exited the turbolift and moved in front of the door to his quarters where she waited for him to key in the access code.
"I bet," he said as she watched his lean brown fingers key in the code, "come on! Lets get you some coffee ice-cream you deserve it." He told her as they entered his quarters.
"It was good of you to come." She stated as she sat on his sofa without waiting for invite this time, something Chakotay noticed and felt very pleased about.
He ordered her a large bowl of coffee ice-cream from his replicator and handed it to her as he joined her on the sofa saying, "Well you ran off and I knew my anger had upset you."
"No" she said taking a large spoonful of the wondrous ice cream. "I mean, after the hallucinations while I was still in sickbay."
Remembering the dread and worry that had flushed over him when he had been informed that she was in sickbay and appeared to be going crazy he felt once more very worried, he had gone to see her in sickbay without a second thought, he had needed to see her. "I was doing my duty." He told her simply not wanting her to know how worried he had been. He watched her adoring her ice cream and had to keep telling himself that she was fine.
"Oh so you didn't care I was seeing things that weren't really there?" She joked with him.
"You know I did, I was very worried for you!" He exclaimed, he wanted her to be sure to know that he did care, he wanted no doubt in her mind, He then went on to explain to her why he had seemed distant with her when talking in sickbay, "But I was trying to be careful not to be too friendly. I knew I had annoyed you."
She looked up at him like a little child begging for more and handed him an already empty bowl, she licked the spoon the threw it into the bowl in his hand where it landed with a clatter. She then leaned in and snuggled up to him as she was desperate for his tender touch, "Chakotay," She began in a cautious whisper, "What you said to me, the promise you made to me in sickbay before all this really began, well I want to thank you."
"Thank me?" Asked Chakotay staring at her who was resting her head on his shoulder and playing with the ends of her hair and then looking to the empty bowl now in his hands and feeling very bemused.
"Yes, what you said to me, well it touched me. I could see you cared when you told me that there was a reason I was hallucinating and you wouldn't stop until you found it. You had faith it wasn't me, it wasn't that I was going crazy." She said with a husky loving voice still playing with the tips of her long hair.
"I knew you weren't crazy, I have seen crazy and that's not you." He told her standing and moving to place the bowl in his recycler.
"Oh?" She asked standing to join him, "You have seen crazy?"
"My grandfather died a crazy old men, it runs in my family, its what I fear the most but I knew it wasn't you. It is me who should be thanking you."
"Oh? Why is that?" She said with a sly grin as she watched him. She couldn't help but want to flirt with her handsome First Officer.
He turned back to her and nodded slowly a he stood before her, it was his turn to feel vulnerable now, "After all I have done, after I froze yesterday, after what I said to you last night and the argument we had in your ready room this morning you still trusted me enough to put me in charge and not Tuvok."
She smiled at him; she slowly walked towards him and whispered, "I will always trust you Chakotay." As she reached up and traced the black lines of his tattoo with her soft fingertips, she loved to do that and could do it all day if she wanted to.
He stepped back and cleared his throat quickly saying, "So, coffee ice-cream?" It wasn't that he felt uncomfortable with her doing that it was more that he felt a little too comfortable, it was only less than an hour ago that she had been concerned about cheating on Mark, her fiancé she had been separated from not by chance. Thinking quickly of something else to ask he said, "Some more coffee ice cream before or just after your dinner?"
"How about both?" She asked smiling in a giddy child like fashion.
"If you want captain." He said half shaking his head disapprovingly as he ordered a second bowl from his replicator.
As he handed it to her and she took it eagerly she told him, "coffee ice-cream is like coffee, I can have it anytime and want it all the time!"
"I see!" He said laughing as he watched her hurriedly devour the second bowl in less than five minutes.
"So commander, who did you see?" She asked shuffling herself onto the table to perch there eating her ice cream.
"I didn't see anybody on the view screen, only the alien." He told her truthfully.
She looked at him slightly cross that she had sheared with him and now he wouldn't share with her, she pulled a spoonful of ice-cream from her mouth and waved the spoon at him saying, "But, Chakotay everybody saw who they wanted to be with the most, come on commander, don't be shy, tell me."
He watched her spoon another load of ice-cream onto her spoon and smiled as he decided just to be honest with her, "I didn't see anybody on that view screen because the person I wanted to be with the most was stood right next to me."
She was really hurt and annoyed now; she couldn't understand why he wouldn't just tell her. She went on to tell him what he thought, "but when the-" but then stopped when she went on to realise exactly what he was trying to say to her, "Oh!" She shouted wide-eyed as she had just pushed the spoon into her mouth and held it there feeling like she didn't want to move.
"I'm sorry captain, I was out of line." Said Chakotay turning from her.
Quickly pulling the spoon from her mouth and standing to be closer to him she said, "No it's just I feel like I have had to explain myself to Mark, I left him. He's had to live without me, it's just what if I am cheating on him?"
"With me? Or Lord Burleigh?" asked Chakotay trying to understand the exact meaning of her words still stood with his back to her.
"Both" She said steadily as she gently placed her second empty bowl and spoon of the evening down on the table.
He turned to face her and took her hands on his, "I don't think you are cheating on him. You're a very faithful woman, you have never been unfaithful."
"Lord Burleigh kissed me." she told him as her blue eyes met his back eyes.
"Lord Burleigh is a holocharacter," he said and then as he voice deepened a little he told her "though he is managing to make me feel very jealous."
"You are cute when you're jealous. Like today in my ready room! – Cute!" She said with a smile and a twinkle in her eye.
"The ever supportive captain." He replied slightly sarcastically.
"Sorry, I wasn't making fun." She told him placing a delicate hand on his chest.
"Your cute! With your paint tattoo, just there." He said reaching up with a grin and stroking the black paint smudge that was still above her left eyebrow.
Smiling back at him she copied his gesture telling him, "Your cute with your real tattoo just there."
"Thanks. - I think." He said feeling like is male ego might have just been smashed if those words had come from anybody but Kathryn Janeway.
"So ok, maybe you weren't hallucinating while we stood on the bridge but I saw you in the trubolift." At her words he blushed ever so slightly but she didn't really see, "I wanted to kiss you, You were very cute." She told him with that twinkle back in her deep blue eyes.
"Thanks captain, but as far as I was concerned you were kissing me." He told her turning to face the bulkhead directly in front of him but he could not bear not knowing her reaction to his words so he glanced a look at her from the comer of his eye. There he saw her biting back a smile and her cheeks had turned a brilliant shade of pink, this made him want to smile.
"Chakotay!" She exclaimed in mock shock and anger.
"Sorry ma'am. You did ask." He told her standing to attention.
"That I did." she laughed and playfully swatting his arm.
He sat next to her and she rested her head into his chest. The two snuggled together that way wrapped arm in arm for a while and it felt good and safe for both of them.
It was Chakotay who broke the silence after a few minutes by saying, "May I ask a question?"
"Go on." She nodded but not breaking from her resting position on his chest.
"What did you name your son?" Chakotay asked her steadily and calmly tightening his grip on her to show support.
"My son?" She asked feeling like she was suddenly dropped from heaven to a painful hell. "I didn't give him a name." She said shaking her head at him.
"Why not?" he asked her simply looking down at the top of her head and planting a kiss there.
"Well I knew they wouldn't let me keep him and I didn't want to become too attached." She told him truthfully as she began to quiver with the emotional pain.
"Do you ever think of him?"
"Not a day goes by when I don't" She replied, then after a long pause she said to him, "I asked you a few weeks ago if you ever wanted to be a father and you told me you did once before you saw what the Cardassians did to your people."
"Yes." He nodded to agree that he had said that.
"But Chakotay, a child is a hope and a freedom, more than we could ever dream of. I think you would make a wonderful father."
"My father would disagree."
"Why is that?"
"My people call me contrary, my father and I would fight a lot."
"Why was that?" she asked intently tracing invisible circles on his chest with her forefinger.
"He always wanted me to learn the ways of my people, I didn't want to know."
"Really?" She said in shock, "That surprises me! You are so proud and true to your beliefs now." She was now propped up from his chest by her elbows on his lap and looking deep into his eyes.
"That is more to honour my father than anything else." He told her stroking the long think hair that flowed down her back.
"Oh." She said simply resting her head back down on this chest.
"But I do believe in much of it though."
"I love it when you tell me of your people." She told him as she wrapped her arms tighter around his body.
"I love it when you rest your precious head on my chest." He told her planting another kiss on her head.
"Why?"
"Because I want to protect you. You have seen and felt enough pain." He told her the sound of deep love in his voice.
"I want some fun Chakotay." She told him with a sigh.
"Then fun you will have." He said patting her back and shifting his body to stand up and leaving her resting in a lying position on the soft. "After dinner. What do you want?" He asked looking down at her relaxed and curled up body lying on his sofa.
"Coffee Ice-Cream!" She mumbled.
"I know that! But what do you want for dinner?" he asked crouching in front of her face and brushing the long hair from her face where she lay.
Her eyes were closed and she looked almost exhausted lying there like she was about to drift off to sleep, slowly she told him, "A roast dinner."
"Beef?" He questioned.
"I would love it!" She said with a half smile still lying there with her eyes closed.
He smiled back at her, brushed her hair from her face and then kissed her forehead before standing up and telling her, "Then roast beef dinner you shall have my lady."
End of chapter 14…. Chapter 15 NOW UP! …. Reviews very welcome…