Respite
Summary: Seven takes a little respite between Star Trek: Picard episodes 5 and 8. C/7, be warned!
Disclaimer: Don't own anything.
So, I'm fully aware that I'm butchering Seven's back-story and her character development in Star Trek: Picard but I wanted to give her a slightly less dark back-story since Voyager got back from the Delta Quadrant. So, I made this a C/7 story because I'm still shipping them.
A contented sigh escaped her lips as wakefulness slowly claimed her. It was still early in the morning but the rising sun had already started warming the air. The chill of the night still lingered, though, and the light breeze coming from the open window prickled the skin of her bare back. Instinctively, she burrowed into the inviting warmness that was the bulk of her sleeping husband and smiled when his arms tightened around her, chasing away the goosebumps.
There were no words able to describe how grateful she was to be home. To be back in Chakotay's arms. That was her safe haven, a place to find respite in the madness their world had become.
The last few weeks have drained her and her encounter with Bjayzl has left her emotionally raw.
She knew that revenge would not ease her pain of losing Icheb but she was, at least, relieved that that bitch was out of commission for good. She was not naïve to assume that her operation would cease to exist but that was for another day.
She frowned as her conversation with Picard came to her mind, unbidden. She hadn't contemplated her humanity in a very long time.
Damn that man!
Her body shook with a shiver that had nothing to do with the quickly warming weather outside their bedroom.
She hadn't thought about those weeks that almost broke her… robbed her of her humanity she'd been working so hard to regain on Voyager. She had never let herself revisit those memories.
Her sigh was shaky as she burrowed even further into her husband's embrace and tucked her head beneath his chin.
Twenty years ago, she had to make a conscious choice: she was human. She'd lived every damned day of her life clinging to that conviction. She was human.
Damn that man!
She felt Chakotay shift and, soon, he brought the sheet up from around their waists to cover her back. She pulled back a little to be able to look at his face. He slowly blinked open his eyes as she gently caressed his face wrinkled by time and an unjustly hard life. She felt her body relax and her mind settle as he slowly kissed her good morning.
"What's on your mind, darling?" he asked in a husky voice and Seven's smile was sincere when she shook her head.
"Nothing important."
That was the truth. Twenty years ago, they tried to take away her right to her humanity in order to exploit her. She'd just embraced her humanity in full and was trying to envision a future where she was independent and, yet, not alone. She was with Chakotay. They took everything from her: her freedom, her dignity, her humanity. They very nearly took her life. She was utterly alone; they had made sure of that.
"I missed you," she said in a low voice, drinking up his presence so unfailingly constant in her life. "I love you."
She was broken when he found her. She was ready to give up. She was waiting for it all to end because it was preferable to being so utterly alone... feeling so empty. Being used and abused in the name of science.
But Chakotay had never given up on her.
"I love you, too." His dark eyes held her blues and she cherished the warmth that filled her under his gaze.
He stood by her side for better and for worse. He cared for her, trusted her. He loved her. And slowly, not only her tortured body began to heal but her broken soul as well.
She had made a promise to him. And she had made a promise to herself. With a renewed conscious effort, she had built up her humanity again. And this time, it was hers alone. There were no expectations to fulfill and no disappointments to face. It wasn't an exercise to complete; it was life.
Yes, she told the truth to Picard. She was still working on regaining her humanity. It'd always been a work in progress after all. However, the old man was wrong in assuming that choosing the high road would have made her feel any more human. Chakotay told her as much the previous day when she confessed her actions on Freecloud. He admitted that he would have been concerned if she had been able to detach herself from her pain and anger that was her constant companion. Making the 'right' choice wasn't what made someone human. It was making a choice and being able to live with the consequences, however hard that might be.
She could live with her choice.
She would make that choice again.
"Ready to face the day?" Chakotay asked, he himself not sounding too keen to do just so.
She might be angry at the world, she might be struggling with her decision but when she was with Chakotay, she could forget the world for a little while. She was at peace.
"Not yet," Seven shook her head then promptly buried her face into his chest.
"They'll say that I'm monopolizing you," Chakotay remarked in a bemused voice. He might be right, too. She'd been away for weeks and the previous day, she arrived home so late that the kids had already gone home or had gone to bed by the time she'd have had a chance to see them. Feeling just a little bit guilty, she was glad for the peace. She'd been away for so long and she longed to be with Chakotay. So, before joining Chakotay in their bedroom, she only pressed a tired kiss on Danica's forehead while the little girl was sleeping peacefully tucked under the covers, and caressed the messy curls of Dorian as the teenager was lying sprawled on his bed dead to the world, silently reaffirming her promise to Icheb that his son would be safe.
She would make sure to spend time with the kids but, for now, her husband got her full attention.
"Well," she raised her head to look at him with renewed awareness as she pushed him flat on his back and straddled him, "you have every right to monopolize me in any way you wish."
"Is that so?" he beamed up at her, getting hold of her hips.
"Affirmative," she breathed against his mouth.
THE END
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