AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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If Kathryn had any reservations about going through with the plan to try to save his son, she wasn't showing it. Immediately upon hearing Chakotay's decision, she'd called a meeting with senior staff to discuss their possible methods for defending themselves if they were stumbling into a trap or if they should find themselves in battle against the Kazon. Together they'd brainstormed a number of plans and finally settled on one that, though it was unconventional, had some chance of working. They'd create the illusion that they were travelling with a small fleet of Talaxian ships and, in that way, they would dissuade the Kazon from attacking them while offering them a number of a targets to scatter their firepower if they did choose to attack.

Chakotay was moved at how much the crew was on board with helping him. Nobody balked at the idea that they would fight for his son. Nobody even complained about the risks involved. Everyone was simply ready to step up and go to battle if that was what was required of them.

They'd set a course, moving at a slow speed, and Kathryn had ordered as much of the crew as possible to go to bed to get what rest they could before it was time to report to duty once again. There was no telling what the coming day would hold and it would be better for all of them if they were as well-rested as possible.

Chakotay was already in bed when Kathryn was still finishing her preparations for bed. He reached out for her as she slipped between the cover and she immediately came toward him, fitting her body against his in anticipation that he would hold her.

"We haven't even had the opportunity to talk about this," Chakotay said, breathing in the smell of her.

"What do you want to talk about?" Kathryn asked. "I've got a little time. But—I have to warn you. I'm so tired that I can barely stand it. I might fall asleep if your voice is too soothing." She laughed to herself. "It might be more effective if you yell at me while we have this discussion."

Chakotay couldn't help but laugh to himself.

"I don't even know what we have to say. I don't know how I'll live with myself if something happens to you," Chakotay said. "To the baby."

Kathryn shushed him.

"Then don't think about things like that," she said. "Not before you go to sleep."

"How can I not, Kathryn?" Chakotay asked. He held his hand up so that she could see it and gestured at her. "Our baby is tiny. About that big, Kathryn. Delicate."

"But I'm not," Kathryn said. "And it's buried pretty deep."

"Not deep enough," Chakotay said, dropping his hand under the cover and pressing it against Kathryn's abdomen, the soft silky material of her night gown the only barrier between them. Kathryn put her hand on top of his. "You're at risk. Even the doctor said so."

Kathryn laughed low in her throat.

"I'm a Starfleet captain," she responded. "I'm always at risk. There's no shore leave in the Delta Quadrant, Chakotay. We knew that. What if we just—hold onto the hope that everything will simply go well?"

Chakotay leaned toward her and kissed the side of her face. Kathryn hummed at him, a soft sound of pleasure that was almost like a purr, and Chakotay repeated the gesture.

"If everything goes fine," he said. "Then what? Do I bring the baby on board Voyager?"

"He's your son," Kathryn said.

"And Seska too? After she betrayed us?" Chakotay asked.

Kathryn sighed.

"We'll figure it out," Kathryn said. "We'll confine her if we have to."

"What if she's not there?" Chakotay asked. "What if the Maje has done something to her? Then what? Do I bring you the baby, Kathryn?"

Kathryn laughed to herself. She pressed her hand down on Chakotay's, pressing it deeper into her abdomen.

"We talked about two or three—even five or six—children before, didn't we?" Kathryn said. "We talked about making sure that our child had others to grow up with. We both decided it was something we wanted. At the very least it wasn't something we were opposed to. We wanted a big family. I'd be a hypocrite if I were to turn away your son, Chakotay, after saying something like that."

"A son that was born against my will," Chakotay said. "I'm not even sure how I'll be able to feel about the child."

"We'll figure that out as well," Kathryn said. She yawned. "But right now—I'm really tired, Chakotay. And we both need to sleep. We'll figure everything out tomorrow as it becomes necessary. OK?"

Chakotay moved enough to hover over Kathryn. He brushed his hand over her face before he kissed her. She returned the kiss and Chakotay almost hated to let it end. She smiled at him when he moved away from her.

"Goodnight," she said softly. "I love you."

"Sweet dreams," Chakotay offered, settling back down beside her and allowing her to rearrange him so that his arms were around her in a way that she found most comfortable. "I love you, too. More than I can say."

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They'd gotten less than a full night's worth of sleep, but any sleep was better than no sleep at all. Those who had worked during the sleeping hours were relieved of their duties early by others so that they could still what little rest was possible. Chakotay had given Kathryn something to keep her morning sickness at bay and they'd been on the bridge before either of them were even fully awake.

They'd found the buoy during the night from which the message had originated and, in the morning, they'd decided how they wanted to proceed. They'd followed a warp trail that led away from the buoy. It hadn't taken too long before they'd located one Kazon shuttle that had appeared practically destroyed. There had been no life support on the shuttle, but there had been faint signs of life on board.

The life form, beamed into sick bay, turned out to be a Kazon that Chakotay had already had the unfortunate experience of meeting. Meeting him again wasn't too pleasurable either. The Kazon had some information, though. Seska was dead. His son had been taken and would be made into a slave.

The Kazon was supposed to be helping them. It was in his best interest to avoid the other Kazons because they would kill him if they took him back. According to him, however, it was possible that they could avoid some Kazon ships only to be attacked by other Kazon ships that were nomadic and pledged allegiance to know one.

When the first attack against Voyager began, Chakotay couldn't help but assume he'd been telling the truth.

As the attacks intensified, however, Chakotay wondered what was really going on. There was no way he'd find out, though. There wasn't time to seek answers and he wasn't getting any clear answers at any rate. The only thing that any of them could do was continue to fight in the hopes that their strategies eventually paid off, especially once several Kazon ships had closed in around them.

Chakotay did his best to hide the panic he felt as Voyager suffered more and more damage—much of which they couldn't even explain, including a ruptured plasma conduit—and the situation seemed more and more dire. Kathryn didn't seemed as panicked as he felt, but she was good at hiding her feelings. She knew they were in trouble, though. Chakotay knew that. If she didn't, she wouldn't have allowed Tom to leave Voyager, alone, on a shuttle to attempt to go back for the help of the Talaxians.

Even if they were at risk of losing everything, though, Kathryn rarely showed panic.

"We've lost contact with Mr. Paris's shuttle," Tuvok informed them not long after Tom departed. "He appears to be free from the Kazon fire."

"Godspeed, Tom," Kathryn muttered. "Reports?"

Before anyone could answer Kathryn, another round of firepower shook the ship.

"We're being boarded through the shuttle bay, Captain," Tuvok informed them.

"Computer," Kathryn said quickly. "Activate self-destruct sequence. Set it for ten minutes. Authorization Janeway Pi 1-1-0."

Chakotay's stomach rolled.

"Captain," he said.

He knew this was going to lead to a fight. Kathryn would order them all to evacuate. She'd order him to go with them. She'd tell him to lead them away as best he could. She'd expect him to draw them together, somewhere where it was safe, and figure out how to get them home.

She'd insist that she was going down with the ship, as any captain would.

And Chakotay simply couldn't let that happen. He'd gotten her into this. He'd gotten them all into this. And if she was going down with the ship, then he was going down with her.

He never got to argue his point, though, because the computer immediately responded with the fact that it couldn't comply with her orders. The attacks and the damage done had incapacitated several of their systems. Without repairs, there would be a good number of things that they couldn't do. Among those functions that were lost to them was the ability to set the ship to self-destruct.

They were being boarded by the Kazons and they had no escape. They were simply going to have to suffer whatever the Kazons had in mind for them.

Chakotay's only hope was that it wouldn't be anything worse than the self-destruct sequence would have been.

If they survived this—if they got out of it somehow—he was going to have a lot to make up to everyone.

When the first of the Kazons entered the bridge, one of the crewmen fired his weapon and was immediately met with phaser fire that killed him. The Kazon would quickly have the upper hand and exchanging phaser fire was only going to lose them crewmembers.

"Hold your fire!" Kathryn announced quickly and with all the authority that she could muster in that moment.

Chakotay tried to apologize to her with his eyes from across the bridge, but she didn't seem to notice. She was doing her best to hide her emotions for the benefit of all of them, but Chakotay could see the fear in her eyes.

The Kazons, satisfied that there would be no more fighting, closed in on them and gathered them up. They moved them into one central spot on the bridge and, holding their weapons on them to make sure that nobody thought about stepping out of line again, they forced them to their knees.

Chakotay's first instinct was to apologize a thousand times over. He wanted to apologize for bringing them there. He wanted to apologize for the damage done to Voyager, for her loss, and for the loss of the crew members—however many there may end up being. He didn't apologize, though. Giving into the desire would have done nothing to save them and it would have only made them appear weak in the eyes of the Kazon.

"I want to speak to the Maje," Kathryn said, speaking directly to one of the guards that held a weapon almost level with her eyes.

"That can easily be arranged."

Maje Cullah came through the doors next.

Chakotay's heart nearly stopped in his chest when he saw Seska walk through the doors carrying the baby. The next emotion that flooded Chakotay's chest was anger—pure anger. Seska was the cause of all this. Chakotay had a responsibility for having fallen into the trap that she'd set for him, but it was her who had put all of this into motion.

"What do you think about your son, Chakotay?" Seska asked. "He has your eyes, don't you think? Thank goodness he doesn't look too human. You all have such weak foreheads."

Chakotay's ears burned at the very sound of her voice.

"May he grow up never knowing of the contempt that his father has for his mother," Chakotay said.

"I can assure you of that," Cullah said quickly. "I've decided to take the boy as my own. Raise him as my son. A man like Chakotay doesn't deserve a son. No man that would violate a woman under his command deserves a son."

"Is that what she told you?" Chakotay asked.

His heart thundered in his chest. He didn't believe in unnecessary violence. He never wanted to hurt a woman if there was any other solution to a problem. At that moment, though, his vision was practically darkening when he looked at Seska.

"Already he's helped us win the greatest battle in our history," Cullah said.

Kathryn got to her feet quickly.

"Cullah, I'd like to discuss what happens now," she said.

Chakotay was as surprised by what happened next as everyone else was. When Cullah turned around, nobody expected him to backhand Kathryn with enough force that she was taken off her feet. Chakotay barely had enough time to register what was happening and react by getting his arms under her to catch her. With the aid of a few others, he broke her fall and hugged her against him as she regained herself from the stun that the blow had given her. As soon as she could, she pulled herself up to her feet again, but Cullah pushed her back down by her shoulder.

"You'll be given no more respect than any Kazon woman," Cullah said. "Now that your ship and technology are mine, I will tell you when you may speak."

"Allow my crew to live," Kathryn said. "They were following my orders."

"You're even worse than she is," Cullah said, gesturing toward Seska.

Chakotay listened as the Maje gave a speech about women who weren't raised to behave as Kazon women were apparently taught to behave. They were out of control and it was their men that let them get out of control. Chakotay couldn't focus, however, on anything the Kazon said. All he could think about was how they were going to get out of this with as little damage to everyone as possible.

He wanted to ask if Kathryn was OK. He wanted to comfort her. He wanted to tell her not to do anything to anger the Kazon.

But he couldn't do anything. He decided it was better if he drew no more attention to her than she'd already drawn to herself. It was better if he drew no attention to the fact that she was any more important to him than any other member of the crew.

"Take them to a cargo bay," Seska said, her voice drawing Chakotay out of his contemplation. Have the whole crew brought there. Check all quarters."

"What are you going to do with us?" Chakotay asked.

"We'll find a suitable place for you to call home," Seska said, a smirk crawling across her lips that made Chakotay's blood boil worse than it already had been.

The guards forced them all to their feet and pushed them forward. Kathryn hesitated, attempting once more to speak to Cullah, and her hesitation earned her a reproach from one of the guards that came in the form of shoving her forward hard enough that she collided with Harry and Tuvok. Tuvok simply caught her, breaking her forward movement, but Harry reacted—and, unfortunately, he reacted without thinking.

"Hey! Why don't you take it easy? She's pregnant!" He yelled at the guard.

Chakotay felt himself go somewhat lightheaded. Harry's desire was to protect Kathryn, but Chakotay feared he might have done exactly the opposite.

"Pregnant?" Seska asked, latching onto the word immediately. She walked toward Kathryn. Kathryn, for her part, managed to maintain a blank expression. Seska smirked at her. "The captain? Who would be the father?" She didn't even hesitate to think about it. Maybe B'Elanna had been right. Maybe a relationship between the two of them wasn't surprising to anyone. Seska's eyes settled on Chakotay. "Chakotay—I see you've been busy. Our son wasn't enough for you?"

Chakotay looked at Kathryn. She wasn't making eye contact with him at all. She hadn't given it away. Seska had simply known.

Seska turned her attention to Kathryn then. She laughed low in her throat.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm sure we'll find a suitable home for you. And for your child. Take them to the cargo bay."

Chakotay sucked in a breath and continued moving with the crowd. This time, Kathryn didn't fight it. Chakotay moved beside her and, even though he didn't reach out to touch her with everyone watching, he hoped she could pull at least a little strength from his proximity as they made their way, under guard, to the cargo bay.

"I'll take good care of our son, Chakotay," Seska called from behind him. Chakotay simply gritted his teeth against the sound of her voice—one of the most painful things he could hear at the moment—and kept walking with his eyes straight ahead of him.