Disclaimer: Star Trek and its world, characters and ideas all belong to Paramount. The story belongs to me.

Thanks to Cat C for her friendship and editing abilities.

Chapter 9

When Kathryn had woken up from her nap, she changed her clothes and now was wearing sneakers, an old pair of blue jeans, a cotton T-shirt and her hair was up in a ponytail. She found Chakotay and her mother in the living room, laughing. She was embarrassed to find that they had been talking about her the whole time. She knew that her mother had many embarrassing stories to share about her, including the original 'Dying Swan' dance. She rolled her eyes, "Alright, Chakotay, that is enough of that. I never said my childhood stories were part of this package!" And she playfully glared at her mother. She turned back to him and said, "I promised you a tour of the farm, are you ready?" When he agreed, she took him outside to the yard.

As they stepped from the kitchen door to the back yard, Chakotay stared in wonder. His family had been farmers, but their farms were not as large as this. This farm had rows upon rows of corn, farm animals of every kind and even a pond. "This place is beautiful, Kathryn. I can see why you missed it so much." was all he managed to say.

Kathryn looked back at him with a broad smile and a twinkle in her blue eyes. "I know. Of course, I always revert to acting like a child when I get home. Would you like to play hide and seek in the rows of corn? It's fun! My sister and I used to play it a lot." As she said this, she ran into the cornfields.

Chakotay watched her run off in a stunned silence. When he realized she wasn't coming back, he walked into the field. He listened for her footsteps and the rustling of the corn and followed her. Once, as he was running between the rows of corn, he was startled when he found a chicken in his path. It was all he could do to jump over it, as he was running and was just about to step in that spot. He tripped, the chicken squawked, and he heard laughing from somewhere in the field in front of him.

"Watch out for the chickens, Chakotay!" She yelled, and ran off.

He laughed, stroked the now upset chicken, and went back to his pursuit. He was able to get an idea where she was, at least, from her yelling. He figured she was heading for the far end of the field, so angled towards the far side. He was now running, and saw the end of the field. He also heard laughing off to his right, and smiled.

Kathryn was straddling a tree limb in a large oak tree just outside of the cornfield. She looked down as Chakotay came out of the field and watched him look all around with a confused look on his face. She tried her hardest not to laugh, watching him search for her, but couldn't hold it in.

She started to laugh again and this time he heard it from above him. He looked up and saw her smiling face and her shoes so close that he could reach up and touch them. He laughed too. He thought, She looks so relaxed here, I wish we would have made it home sooner! He stood there, laughing and looking up at her. "Come on down from there, Captain. A good First Officer makes sure to keep his Captain safe." He said, half-serious. He had never seen her climb a tree before and was afraid she would fall out.

Kathryn saw the concern in his face, and gave in. "Alright, worry-wort!" she teased him. She leaned forward on the tree limb until she was lying down, got both legs together, then turned to swing her legs down. She held onto the tree limb and swung herself down, and Chakotay caught her. She looked up into his eyes as she realized she was in his arms. "I can get down from a tree myself, Commander." She said, with a grin.

"I see that now, but I wanted to make sure you were safe. It's my job" was his answer as he held her. They stared into each other's eyes for a few seconds, blue eyes meeting brown, then she blushed. She squirmed to get down, so he set her down on the ground, gently.

She feigned wiping her pants off to let her face stop blushing. "Well, now you see how I used to trick my sister! I was able to keep from laughing with her though. I let her wander away before I got down." She laughed. She turned back to him and saw him smiling widely at her, dimples in full force. "What?" she asked. "What are you smiling about?"

Chakotay was smiling at her. He was so happy to see her relaxed that he was grinning from ear to ear. "You." He answered. "I'm smiling at you. You are so relaxed here! I never thought I'd see you so happy! It makes me glad I came to visit your farm."

She shook her head, smiling. "Ok, on with the tour!" She grabbed his hand and started running towards the pond.

When she grabbed his hand and started running, he had to run to keep up with her. He imagined that she and her sister used to run this way as children. He saw that they were heading towards the pond.

"So, are you ready to get wet?" she asked mischievously. She looked back at him and dropped his hand.

"I do not have a swimsuit on." was his reluctant answer.

"Doesn't matter!" she laughed while running for the closest tree. There was a rope swing hanging from one of the thicker limbs of the tree. She ran up to it, grabbed it, and swung a few times before jumping into the pond. The pond was fairly deep in the center where she landed. "Come on, Chakotay, try it! It's fun!"

He watched her, shook his head and caught the now empty swing as it swung towards him. He had no idea why he was doing something so crazy, but he was bound and determined to follow his Captain. As he was swinging, he heard her yell at him, "Aim for the center, Chakotay. It's deepest at the center!" As he watched her, he saw her move away from the center of the pond to where it was shallower and watch him. He swung forward, let go of the rope swing and landed in the middle of the pond. The resulting splash thoroughly soaked her.

She moved over to where he landed and was dripping and laughing, as he surfaced. "That was fun!" She splashed him. "That was for splashing me as you jumped in.

He looked at her wide-eyed; did she just splash him? He wasn't going to let her get away with that! He splashed her back. That led to an all-out splash war between the two of them, both laughing the whole time. He was laughing so hard he was sputtering as the water cascaded down his face. She was splashing furiously at him, without letting up so he took his only recourse. He grabbed her around her middle so that her arms were pinned to her sides. This was to keep her from splashing him. He looked up at her, saw that her face was dripping wet too, and started to laugh again, but didn't let go of her.

She looked down at him, startled to see he had pinned her arms. She laughed, "So, now what? You know I'm just going to splash you again when you let go of me!" She waggled her eyebrows.

Chakotay grinned up at her; "Not if I do this!" he laughed. He picked her up and carried her out of the pond. Since it was hard to carry her through the water, especially since she was kicking and laughing so much, that he flopped her on the ground as soon as they left the water. He fell; exhausted, on to the ground next to her.

Kathryn laughed the whole time he was carrying her. When he dropped her onto the ground, she was laughing hysterically. As he fell to the ground beside her, she looked over at him laughing; "I haven't had that much fun in a long time, Chakotay. Thank you!" and she lay back on the grass.

He rolled over to his side and took her hand, "That's quite alright, Kathryn. I haven't had this much fun in a long time either!" He rolled over to his back, still holding her hand, and looked up at the clouds. He stared at them a while and said, "Hey, that cloud looks like a Ferengi!" while pointing with his unoccupied hand.

Kathryn noticed that he had not let go of her hand, but didn't say anything. She held his hand as well. It felt comfortable to be holding on to him. She had been thinking a lot the past few days about the fact that they, more than likely, wouldn't see each other much now that they had reached Earth. She knew they would see each other at the debriefings and the ensuing trials, but they would not be as happy and comfortable as they were here. She did not like the thought of not having him around. She let down her guard enough to accept holding his hand. She followed where his hand was pointing and laughed. Indeed, the cloud did have the odd shape of a Ferengi head. They laughed and spent another hour lying in the sun pointing out clouds with familiar shapes, holding hands the whole time.

The fact that Kathryn did not object holding hands was not lost on Chakotay. He enjoyed himself immensely for the next hour. He realized that she was starting to break out of her command mode. He knew it would take a while, but was happy to go slowly if it meant having her in his life, and he was determined to do that. She was the only woman he had ever really loved. There had been lovers but none that he had held any true feelings, he knew that now. If love was laying soaking wet in the grass, holding hands and looking up at clouds, he was deep in it.

After an hour, Molly found them and pounced on Kathryn. She wanted to play, so Kathryn found a stick and threw it in the pond for her to chase. That was one of Molly's favorite games. Molly kept bringing the stick back to her and to Chakotay a few times. Neither of them let go of each other's hand to throw the stick.

When Molly was exhausted, they continued the tour of the farm, ending up at the barn. Kathryn found the cow and saw that she needed to be milked. "Have you ever milked a cow, Chakotay?" she asked.

He looked at her to see if she was serious, realized she was and laughed. "No. I helped my father plant the corn, but never took care of the animals. Are you really going to milk her?"

Kathryn chuckled. "This was my job as a girl. I took care of the animals. Phoebe took care of the crops. We hired people for planting and the harvest, but took care of this place by ourselves most of the time." She brought the stool and the bucket over from the shed and set them down. She led the cow into the main room of the barn and tied her harness to the wooden post. She sat down on the stool next to the cow and began milking her.

Chakotay watched her milk the cow for a few minutes. He grinned, "So you really do know how to milk a cow! That doesn't look too hard. Let me try."

She looked up at him, "This isn't as easy as it looks, let me know if you need help." She got up from the stool and watched him sit down.

He sat on the stool, looked at the udder and placed his hands each on one of the teats. He squeezed it but nothing happened.

Kathryn chuckled. "No, that's not how you do it. You do it like this." She leaned over him, placed her hands over his hands and began to milk the cow. After a few minutes, she looked down at him. She then realized that he was not paying a bit of attention to what his hands were doing.

He was sitting with his eyes closed, reveling at her touch. Knowing that if he looked up, he would see her face just above him, and it would be too tempting to kiss her. He felt the warmth of her hands over his, kneading the teats of the cow. Being a man, he envisioned himself doing the same to her. He looked up at her, seeing that her eyes were also closed and that her nipples were erect, he wondered if she was thinking of the same thing. He studied her face, and saw her turn to look down at him. He thought he saw the same look in her eyes that he had in his, but dismissed it. He knew she wasn't ready for that, yet. He grinned up at her, "Well, this doesn't seem so difficult."

She pulled her hands away from his and cleared her throat. "I figured it'd be easy to teach you." She murmured. "You've always been good with your hands. I still remember the massage you gave me on New Earth. Every time I get a stress headache, I remember that massage and I feel better." As she said this, she sat on the floor next to him. She looked at the cow. "Well, I need to finish her off so she can go back to the field." She waited for Chakotay to get off of the stool, and she sat down, milking the cow.

He looked over at her, watched her milking the cow, and stood behind her. She liked my massage? He placed his hands on her neck and began to knead her shoulder muscles. His hands made their way across her shoulders, down her back, back up to her neck and back to her shoulders again. As he worked her shoulders, his hands began to knead the front of her shoulder muscles, down to her collarbones. The two of them, with eyes closed, continued until the cow was completely milked. If the cow had any more milk in her, he would have worked his way south.

Kathryn looked back at Chakotay, "Excuse me, Chakotay, I need to get this milk into the pasteurizer." She stood, picked up the bucket and walked over to the machine. She poured the milk in and turned it on. "That should be ready fairly soon. We really do have more modernized ways of milking the cows, we hook them up to milking machines that do all of the work, including pasteurizing. I just wanted to show you how it worked." She said, grinning. "Thanks for the massage. It felt wonderful."

Just then, she heard her mother ring the dinner bell. "We had better head in, it sounds like Mom has lunch ready." She flashed him a grin, took his hand and they walked to the house.

"I'd like to see the machines that milk the cows too. That sounds interesting, but not as much fun!" he teased. They walked slowly to the house, talking about what they had seen and what they had not seen. "I'd love to see the horses after lunch, if we can."

Kathryn grinned at him, "That was my plan. Can you ride horses? It would be a faster way to see the property."

He nodded. "It's been a long time, but I think I can remember how to ride." He laughed, "I hope I don't get saddle sore!"

She grinned, "Ok, we'll do that after lunch. Come on; let's go eat. I'm starved!" She pulled him the rest of the way to the house.

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