They walked into sickbay to the sounds of Gretchen trying to break up a fight between Katie and the Doctor. Kathryn was impressed with the set of lungs on her daughter, and somewhat bemused to see that the child hadn't only inherited her looks…she had also clearly inherited her distaste for sickbay.

"I want to go back now! Call my parents and tell them to come get me. I'm tired of being in here!" Katie shrieked at the Doctor.

"Ms. Janeway, you suffered a life threatening head injury! You're going to have to act like a big girl and just stay in sickbay until you're well enough to leave."

"I am well enough!"

"Katie, you need to listen to the Doctor. You hurt your head really bad-"

"Grandma, I feel fine, and there's nothing to do in here!"

Edward was the first one to catch sight of them near the doors. He hurried over to them unnoticed and Chakotay picked him up. "What's going on?" he whispered in his son's ear.

"Kathryn's throwing a tantrum." Edward whispered back.

"What else is new?"

"Oh, I forgot, we can't call her Kathryn anymore. Every time we do she turns purple. She says it's Katie and that Mommy is Kathryn."

"We'll try not to make that mistake." They headed over to the fray and Katie, immediately noticing them, began to ramble on to her mother about the injustice of being stuck in sickbay. The Doctor quickly interrupted.

"Captain, her head injury was nothing to sneeze at. It could have been fatal, and I can't in all good conscious allow her to wander around the ship and behave rambunctiously."

"What sort of parents do you think we are, Doctor?" Chakotay asked. "We're not likely to let her be 'rambunctious' after what she went through today."

"After what we all went through." Gretchen said wearily. "The last two days have been an emotional roller coaster, and I for one am ready to get off."

"Really, Mom?" Kathryn teased. "You wouldn't even want to stay on for my wedding?"

Gretchen looked at her daughter sharply. "What wedding?"

"The wedding we're having on New Earth in a few short hours. I do hope you're not too exhausted to be there."

Katie bounced on the biobed. "Oooo, a wedding! Like the one in the stories, Daddy?"

"Well, not quite. But it's the same idea."

"Here? Kathryn, why can't you just wait until we get home?" Gretchen asked in dismay.

"What's wrong with here?"

"Well, what's the rush? Your sister and her family will want to be there, and Aunt Martha and your cousin Jenna…Aunt Jeannie would be crushed if she didn't see you get married! Uncle Ken and Aunt Myra live back on Earth now and I really think that it's terribly inappropriate for them not to be there. Uncle Ken is Daddy's brother, for God's sake! He gave Phoebe away; I would assume he'd do the same for you! Kathryn, please, let's just go home and we can have a proper wedding there."

"Mom, none of these people have seen me in a decade. I really think they'll survive if they're not at my wedding."

"What about Phoebe? She's your sister, Kathryn."

"And she'll understand that after everything I've been through, I want to get married now!" Kathryn's yelled. She caught herself and took a breath. "Look, I've had two failed engagements, four years seventy-thousand light years from home, and five years lost of my children's lives. So excuse me if I want to be 'inappropriate' and maybe a little selfish and not wait for the next huge trauma in my life to take something away from me. Chakotay and I are getting married today, on that planet. If it bothers you so much that Aunt Jeannie won't be there, then we can just have another ceremony when we get home. But I want to do this now, today."

Gretchen rolled her eyes. "Fine, Kathryn. You don't need to get defensive about it."

Kathryn just shook her head in exasperation. "As for who will be giving me away, I asked Tom if he would do the honors. His father was very good friends with Daddy, and he's always been there for all of us, so I would be honored if his son were to give me away. B'Elanna will be my matron of honor. So there you go, two official witnesses. Now as for you two," Kathryn smiled at her children and took Edward from Chakotay's arms. "Kathryn…Katie. Katie, I would love it if you were my flower girl. Do you know what that is?"

Katie shook her head.

"It's when you get to wear a pretty dress and toss around flower petals. Sound like fun?"

Katie's eyes lit up. "Yeah!"

"And Edward." Kathryn looked into her son's serious brown eyes. "We would be honored if you would be our ring bearer. That means you get to hold the rings Daddy and I will wear to show we're married. You give them to us when Tuvok says so, okay?"

Edward nodded and smiled.

"See, Mom? We're all set. Now, Doctor, would we be able to persuade you to release Katie from sickbay? You'll be there, too, so you can keep as much of a hawk eye on her as you want."

"You're inviting me to your wedding?" The Doctor said, his chest practically puffing up with pride. "Well, I'm honored. Of course Katie can leave with you. Just don't let her overdo it, and I'll want to see her after the ceremony for a check-up."

"Nooooo!" Katie whined.

"Kathryn Sekaya." Chakotay said sharply.

Katie pouted and looked away, and Kathryn looked impressed. "You'll have to show me how you do that." She whispered in his ear. He suppressed a smirk.

"Speaking of check-ups…" The Doctor grasped Kathryn's shoulders and led her over to a biobed. "It seems to be time for yours, Captain. Sit down."

Kathryn groaned. "You just did that this morning!"

"Captain, you were dead a day or so ago. I would hardly complain about a few scans if I were you. Better safe than sorry." He said cheerfully. She glared at him, but he just smiled. He held up the tricorder and began scanning. "Mmm-hmm…mm-hmmm…Very nice. I have to say, I'm still at a loss to explain your quick recovery, but I'm certainly not going to question it. Tell me, Captain, Commander…were either of you ever ill on the planet?"

"Kathryn got sick during the first winter…pneumonia. It was a fairly mild case, but she was laid up for a few days. I had a lingering cold nearly every winter, and my allergies acted up in the spring, but we had sufficient medication for that. We were all in fairly good health."

"And you still are. Captain, you are in perfect health. I'll want to check you again tomorrow, and once a day for the next week, but then I think I'll be able to safely proclaim you 'out of the woods', as Mister Paris is fond of saying."

"Lovely." Kathryn said sarcastically. She hopped off the biobed. "Then I'll look forward to out little tête-à-tête tomorrow."

"I look forward to it as well." The Doctor said, oblivious to her sarcasm. "In the meantime, I'll prepare for your nuptials. How exciting! We haven't had a Voyager wedding in quite some time."

Kathryn tilted her head quizzically. "I'm curious…was a wedding ever performed on Voyager?"

"Just Tom and B'Elanna's. They felt it was the most appropriate setting. But we didn't have an opportunity for a wedding while we were in the Delta Quadrant…we made it home only a few months after we left you here."

Kathryn smiled sadly. "That's what I heard." She said quietly. "Well, we'll see you later, Doctor." She joined her family near the door and smiled at her daughter, who was safe in her father's arms. "Let's go replicate you that pretty dress, shall we?"

Katie beamed at her. "We shall."

B'Elanna sat down wearily on the couch and gratefully accepted the glass of orange juice her husband handed her. He sat down next to her and pulled her feet onto his lap. Removing her boots, he began to rub her feet, as he did every day when they ended their respective shifts. "Oh, that feels so good." B'Elanna moaned. "You're a keeper."

Tom laughed. "Good to know. Rough day?"

"Not so rough, really, but I did a lot of walking. There was a little glitch in the transwarp drive that I wanted to check up on, and it involved going back and forth between Engineering and the Bridge."

"You should have had one of your lackeys do it."

"I trust myself the most."

"Well, you're getting more tired with this pregnancy than with Miral. Try not to overdo it."

"I won't." B'Elanna leaned her head back. "When do we need to be down on the planet by?"

"Two hours. Tuvok has assigned crews to put together a nice setting for them to get married in…there's a bit of a sentimentalist in him, B'Elanna."

B'Elanna snorted. "If you say so." She thought for a moment. "I have to say, I'm a bit surprised that Captain Janeway asked me to be her matron of honor. I mean, obviously I'm honored and I've always had the highest respect for her, but I didn't think she felt that close to me."

"You were the only other woman on the senior staff. Out of all the women on this ship, she more than likely knew you the best. The only other person I can think of that she might have known better was Kes, and well…" Tom cleared his throat. "I'm really not surprised she asked you to do this. In fact, I would have to say that in the future, you and the captain could probably be…friends."

B'Elanna raised an eyebrow. "Friends? Captain Janeway and me?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I really think that she's changed. She doesn't seem like the captain so much anymore. She seems like…like a woman, like a mother. She seems calmer and softer somehow."

"I hear dying can do that to you."

Tom laughed. "Well as inappropriate as that was, I suppose in a way it's true. Or maybe living on this planet was what did it, I don't know. All I know is that she's changed, and from what I gather, she doesn't want to be in Starfleet anymore. If she's not our captain, that leaves her open to be our friend. And maybe you and I standing up with them is the first step in that direction."

B'Elanna smiled softly. "Yeah. And I can already see a huge advantage to being 'friends' with Captain Janeway and Chakotay."

"What's that?"

"Playmates for the kids."

Tom shook his head with a smile. "How very opportunistic of you."

"It will be a little weird at first. I mean, Chakotay has always been one of my best friends, but we've all changed, and I think we'll have to get to know each other all over again. And then there's the whole idea of getting used to them being a couple…that'll take some time. I mean, I see them, I see the kids, but sometimes believing isn't just seeing, you know?"

"I know. I mean, there was definitely always chemistry between the two of them, and I certainly had no doubt as to what would have happened over these years, but it's still something of a shock. Especially those kids."

"They are cute, though." B'Elanna said, grinning.

"Yeah. The little guy is so loveable and their daughter…she's a piece of work, all right."

"Well, this looks like a case of happily ever after to me."

Tom brushed a lock of hair out of his wife's face. "I thought you were suspicious of happily ever after. I thought you didn't believe in it."

She clasped his hand. "Every day I believe a little bit more. I have you to thank for that."

"The feeling is mutual. As surprised as we were at them, I'm sure they were surprised by us. We didn't really get off on the right foot from the beginning."

"I thought you were an arrogant, self absorbed pig."

"Aw, honey, don't hold back, tell me what you really thought."

"Seriously. I was not impressed."

"Flattery won't get you any more foot rubbing." Tom looked thoughtful. "Do you think I've changed?"

"A lot. Now you're a stubborn, domineering pig."

"That's how I keep you in line, wife."

B'Elanna chuckled. "Honestly, we've both changed. I'm not such a raging temper tantrum on wheels, and you're not arrogant or self absorbed. You're a warm, loving, considerate man. I wouldn't have married you if you weren't. And you're a wonderful father."

"And you're a wonderful mother." He said with a smile.

She sighed and leaned her head back. "I only hope they'll be as happy as we are. Or, as happy as we've become."

"We weren't happy for a long time." He said quietly.

"No, we weren't." she looked at him. "But you helped me through that pain, Tom, even when I knew you just wanted to wallow in your own. You had been through so much, and you came home to so much more, and the first thing you did was to be there for me, even if it was to the detriment of your own emotional state."

"It helped me to help you, B'Elanna. Everything I went through paled in comparison to what you went through."

"You never got to see him." She whispered.

"But you did. And that's good enough for me. We'll remember our son in our hearts, and that's what matters most." He smiled weakly. "Enough of this sad talk. We have a wedding to celebrate."

"So we do." She smiled. "Is the skeleton crew okay with being left on the ship, you think?"

"I don't see why they would have a problem with it. Tuvok was careful to only assign crewmembers who came onboard Voyager after we made it back to the Alpha Quadrant."

She frowned. "There aren't that many. Ten or twenty, I think."

"It should be sufficient for a few hours."

"Why don't we just land the ship?"

"Because…" Tom frowned. "That's an interesting idea. I wonder why I didn't think of it." He tapped his combadge. "Paris to Tuvok."

"Yes, Mr. Paris?"

"B'Elanna and I were just talking…instead of leaving a skeleton crew, why don't we just land the ship? After all, the skeleton crew is mainly ensigns and crewmen. There won't be a single commanding officer left onboard. And it does seem a little…discriminatory, really, to tell them they can't come just because they weren't on our maiden voyage."

There was a pause. "I see your point, Commander. Report to the bridge. We can extrapolate a sufficient landing area and prepare the ship."

"On my way." Tom closed the channel and sighed. "I knew that was gonna get me extra work. Thanks, B'Elanna."

"Anytime." She said smugly.

He stood up to leave. "But you see what I mean? He may act like a stuffy Vulcan, but he's really a sentimental softy at heart."

An hour later, Voyager could be seen lowering orbit and disappearing into the atmosphere of the planet, which the entire crew had taken to calling New Earth after hearing Chakotay referring to it as such. Soon, there was no sign that the ship had ever been in orbit, and the planet revolved undisturbed as it had for billions of years. The solar system was quiet.

Then there was a ripple. A mild disturbance in the fabric of space could be seen for an instant, and then it was gone.

And as for what it was hiding…that made its way closer to the planet.

TBC

The next chapter will be up soon...and it will be the wedding! Yay! And perhaps we'll find out who their nemesis is!