Set after the events of "Repression" (S7, Ep 4), and a follow-up to "Decompression". Mentions of "Threshold"—my apologies in advance!
"Have You Ever?"
The Voyager crew was gathered in the mess hall, clustered around tables laden with shot glasses and various bottles of alcohol, as yet untouched. Neelix stood in the middle of the room, holding a large bowl.
Looking around the room, Janeway wondered if this ice-breaker would go as Neelix hoped it would—it was the first social gathering since Teelo's mind-controlling mutiny, and she could sense the discomfort from both Starfleet and Maquis alike. Several Maquis had quietly sought her out to apologize—poor Crewman Gerron had actually burst into tears when he'd come to tell her he was sorry. Many others looked down at the ground, shamefaced, if they passed by her.
The Talaxian spoke out in his usual determinedly cheerful fashion, "All right crew!" He called out, gesturing with the bowl, "In here I have questions, submitted by yourselves for this game of 'Have You Ever?'. The rules are simple—I will pull out a scrap of paper, read the question on it, and if you've done it, then you take a shot! Any questions?"
The mess hall was dead silent. Neelix looked around, a bit put off by the lack of response. "Well, then," he chuckled nervously. "Why don't we start off with one that I think everybody can drink to for practice? Have you ever been to the Delta Quadrant?"
The crew looked around at each other, uneasily, fidgeting with their shot glasses. Tom and Harry—bless them—both stood up and called out, "Yeah!"—and downed their shots.
Chakotay also stood up quickly—and Kathryn quickly rose to her feet as well. Chakotay called out, "And I'm still here!" A few small, humorless laughs floated out as he swallowed his drink in one gulp. Kathryn followed suit, and saw out of the corner of her eyes that the rest of the crew also took their drinks, encouraged by the command team's example.
Neelix smiled broadly. "Good, there we go! Now, for the real questions!" He reached into the bowl and pulled out a scrap of paper, reading off, "Have you ever gotten space sick?"
A few groans, made in recollection, sounded as nearly a third of the crew took another drink. A few hushed conversations started up—Kathryn heard somebody say, "Oh, right after that incident at—" before Neelix cut off with another question: "Have you ever gone skinny dipping?"
Genuine giggles burst out randomly around the room, glasses clinked, alcohol sloshed. Kathryn found herself looking to Chakotay as she lifted her glass to her lips, noticing that he was watching her over the rim of his own glass. She heard The Doctor explaining to Seven, "No, it's *not* like a bath, it's—" When again, Neelix drew another question: "Have you ever set something on fire while cooking?—oh, I'm glad I'm not playing!"
"Drink up, Captain!" Somebody shouted. A wave of laughter rippled around the room. Kathryn stood up, holding her glass in hand, cheerfully calling out, "I keep telling everybody that replicator has it in for me!" before downing her drink to the roaring approval of the crew. She sat down, and caught Chakotay grinning broadly at her. She grinned back—to her surprise and delight, the game was working. More questions came, some mundane enough that everybody had to do a shot, some more naughty in nature, causing cheers and teasing. With the chatter rising and her quickly hitting a pleasant buzz, she was missing some of the questions—then a shout of, "No fucking way! HARRY KIM, of all people?" cut across the room. She glanced to where the yelling had come from to see Dalby standing on a chair, pointing at Harry in open mouthed surprise, while Harry had a wicked grin spreading over his face. "You get your ass over here and tell me that story!"
Laughing, Harry yelled back, "A gentleman never kisses and tells!"
"That's not the act of a gentleman, Harry, so start telling!"
The room rumbled with laughter and shouted answers to questions as more liquor flowed. Kathryn herself started to lose track of how many shots she'd had, and dreamily let her gaze flow over the room, watching people huddle together, giggling and talking like before. It was wonderful.
Through her alcohol-soaked haze, she heard Neelix call out, "Have you ever kissed Tom Paris? Oh my—"
"I put in that one!" B'Elanna shouted, laughing and throwing her arms around her red-faced husband. "Don't be shy!" Leaping to their feet, the Delaney sisters clinked glasses and drank—and they weren't the only ones.
Kathryn suddenly jumped to her feet, loudly calling out, "Does it count if we were both lizards at the time?"
A loud "OOOOOH!" exploded in the room. Harry doubled over laughing; tears were streaming down Chakotay's face as he was gasping for air. Across the room, she saw B'Elanna saying something to Tom—and then Tom was dashing across the room, jumping over a chair and landing in front of Kathryn—and before she knew it, a swift kiss was planted on her lips by the young pilot. Screaming and cheering, the entire room stood up yelling encouragement for Kathryn to down another shot. Over the roar of the crowd, she heard the usually-quiet Mike Ayala yelling, "Hey, if that's how we're gonna do it, then I have a question—have you ever kissed Captain Janeway?" Turning, he waved at his group, "C'mon, guys!"
-and Kathryn found herself rushed by all the bodies in the room. Ayala managed a quick kiss on her lips before being crowded out by everybody else kissing her cheeks, hands—someone got the top of her head. Seven appeared next her, Kathryn caught her saying, "—understand?" with The Doctor answering, "It's in the spirit of fun—" Seven didn't appear convinced, but awkwardly kissed Kathryn on the cheek all the same—she heard somebody yell Chakotay's name, then a few more calls of, "Chakotay!" "C'mon Chakotay!" A lone chant quickly started: "Cha-ko-tay! Cha-ko-tay!" More voices were joining in: "Cha-ko-tay! Cha-ko-tay! CHA-KO-TAY!" The shouting grew louder, more deafening, with people pounding on the tables in rhythm until her First Officer was in front of her, eyes sparkling and dimples in full view. Placing his hands on her cheeks to a chorus of loud cat-calling, he dropped a soft kiss on her mouth before pulling back to the joyous roar of the crew. Tom and Harry, she saw, were hamming it up as if they'd walked in on their parents having sex. "Oh come off it, Harry, were do you think little ensigns come from?" Somebody slurred out drunkenly, causing another wave of laughter that drowned out whatever retort Harry was giving. People broke off into giggling groups, hugging and leaning into each other. Murmurs of apology, acceptance, pledges of love and friendship floated through the room. Neelix had pulled it off—he'd broken the ice, gotten the crew back together.
Kathryn and Chakotay looked at each other, wide, happy smiles on their faces, when suddenly Ayala lurched against Kathryn's side, with two arms wrapping around her, clasping her into a side-hug and dropping his forehead on to her shoulder. "Cap'n Janie!" He burbled out. "My favorite cap'n ever!" He squeezed her tightly.
Chakotay shifted forward a little, gently tugging one of Ayala's arms away from her, "Hey, what about me, Mike?" He teased. "I was your captain once."
"Yesh," Ayala answered agreeably. "But she's a redhead," as though that explained everything. He pulled his arm away from Chakotay, hugging Kathryn close to him again. Chakotay was visibly fighting back laughter, and Kathryn felt it bubbling up in her own throat as well.
"I suppose I can't argue with that," Chakotay chuckled, again trying to peel Mike's arm away from Kathryn. Ayala was a bit more cooperative, letting Chakotay guide his arm away, before shifting it around Chakotay's shoulder, pulling the command team in for a huddle. If they'd hoped to sober up, being that close to Mike's breath wasn't going to do it.
In a hushed, conspiratorial tone, Ayala said, "You two belong together," he nodded a little before continuing, "Cuz you two love each other very much. Is beautiful." He kissed Chakotay on the cheek with an, "I love you, man!" before kissing Kathryn on the cheek and saying, "But if he doesn't marry you, then I wanna." The command team both laughed softly. Ayala dropped his head to Kathryn's shoulder again before looking up at her with what was meant to be a seductive face, but just looked goofy drunk, "I'm sorry I was bad, Cap'n," he slurred out. "You wanna punish me?"
"Oh-kay," Chakotay broke in, laughing outright. "C'mon, Mike, no monopolizing the Captain, the rest of the crew wants to love her too. How 'bout we get you over to a couch?"
"Okay," Mike agreed cheerfully, dropping his arms and letting the First Officer lead him away. Kathryn watched with amusement as Chakotay valiantly tried to usher Ayala across the room, sticking with the task even as the lieutenant randomly launched himself at crewmembers, bear-hugging them with declarations of, "I love you!" spilling from his lips.
"If you ever wondered why you don't see Mike drink much, there's Exhibit A for you," came B'Elanna's voice at her side. Kathryn turned to see her Chief Engineer standing there, grinning. "He might've drunkenly accosted the entire Cardassian Empire with declarations of love, given enough alcohol."
Laughing, Kathryn replied, "Or he might have knocked them out from all the fumes on his breath."
B'Elanna burst out laughing, wiping tears from her eyes. Kathryn gave a grin, looked around the room—Chakotay was *still* trying to get Ayala over to a couch—gave a small sigh, and shifted her weight.
B'Elanna's face grew morose. "I know that look," she said sadly.
"I'm sorry?" Kathryn replied, puzzled.
B'Elanna waved her hands expressively, "One last look around the room, sighing, moving your legs like that—the classic 'I'm going to take my leave of the party because I'm convinced the crew will have more fun if I'm not around' stance." Kathryn blinked, surprised that she was so easy to read. B'Elanna continued, "Captain, you just got kissed by your entire crew and got a drunken marriage proposal from Mike, I think it's safe to say we feel pretty damn comfortable cutting lose with you around. In fact, we all wish you'd stay. A lot of us….." she stopped, taking a deep breath with her eyes beginning to water suspiciously, "…..well, we feel pretty horrible about what happened…."
"B'Elanna…." Kathryn reached out, placing her hand on the younger woman's shoulder. B'Elanna reached up and grasped it, squeezing firmly.
"I am so sorry, Captain," she whispered. "I really do love you. I think of you as family—" With that, the half-Klingon suddenly pulled Kathryn into a hug.
Kathryn embraced her firmly in return. "I think of you as family too, B'Elanna. And I didn't blame you for being under mind control, I want you to know that." She felt B'Elanna nod against her, before pulling away, sniffling as she did so.
"Then you'll stay?"
Kathryn smiled. "I'll stay."
FINIS