"I love you." (All)
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1.
"I'll see you in a few weeks," says Kathryn. "Oh, and don't forget to bring Molly's doggie bed. She'll be more comfortable."
"Already did," says Mark. "An hour ago."
He gives her his I-know-you-too-well look, which makes her smile even over a small viewscreen. For someone who claims not to be a dog person, his house is the best home she could ask for pregnant Molly and her expected puppies. It's moments like this that let Kathryn know she was right when she chose to marry him.
I love you, she almost says, but blows him a kiss instead. No need to make a big deal about it.
After all, she'll only be gone a few weeks.
2.
"Was there really an ancient legend?"
"No … that just made it easier to say."
Chakotay's eyes are tender and his smile self-deprecating across the table of their shelter on New Earth. It would be easy to accept his unspoken invitation, to be carried away by the warmth she still feels from his touch on her shoulders earlier, but it wouldn't be right.
It would be taking advantage of him, because if his feelings are the stuff of brand-new legend, hers are not.
Telling him she loves him as a friend would be cold comfort, so she lifts up her hand, like a teammate, like the fellow warrior in the story. As he laces their fingers together, she dearly hopes he hasn't misunderstood.
3.
"Mother?"
B'Elanna wakes up in Sickbay with the eyes of someone who's been to Gre'thor and back. She sits up slowly, still weak from her induced coma, and smiles at the familiar room in sudden wonder. "I'm alive!"
Then her eyes meet Kathryn's, and for the first time in all the years they've served together, she throws her arms around her captain in a hug.
You're a daughter to me too, Kathryn wants to say, but this is not her moment. This is between B'Elanna daughter of Miral and Miral daughter of L'Naan, lightyears and possibly lifetimes apart. She's alive, and that's what matters.
"Welcome back."
4.
Seven is dying, and she thinks she's a disappointment.
Four years ago, when Kathryn first saw a human eye in the face of a Borg drone, she knew she had to save her. She didn't know it would work both ways. Kathryn may have reclaimed Seven from the Collective, but it's Seven's questions and challenges that keep the armor of command from swallowing her whole. How can I tell her? Would she understand or even believe me if I tried?
"If I'm having trouble accepting your diagnosis, it's only because I don't want to lose a friend."
Seven is silent. Kathryn leaves Astrometrics with her head down. Only in her quarters does she finally let herself cry.
5.
The Borg Queen's assimilation tubules are ice cold as they pierce Kathryn's throat.
Her knees buckle. Her head swims. Virus and nanoprobes open fire across the battlefield of her body. The sight of her enemy's greenish-white face shifting from smugness to confusion cannot distract her from the fact that she has seconds left to live.
Mom. Phoebe. The crew. She never said goodbye, in case they'd stop her. She left messages, but will they read them? She kissed Tuvok on the top of his head and left him a photograph, but will he even remember her when she's gone?
She should have told them all how much they meant to her.
Maybe in another life, she will.
1.
"I love you all, each and every one of you," she says, her glass of sparkling cider lifted high. "I hope you know that."
"Whoa, Admiral, how much did you have to drink?" Tom jokes. B'Elanna elbows him. Baby Miral squeals.
"That's not even alcoholic," Phoebe whispers audibly. "So you know she means it."
"Humans do tend to state the obvious," says Tuvok, raising an eyebrow. Seven mirrors the gesture beside him. The Doctor lets out a huff of reluctant amusement.
Instead of Voyager's mess hall, her former bridge crew is seated on wooden tables in the backyard of her family home, under a yellow maple, with burgers, sausages and vegetable skewers hot off the grill and enough spicy potato salad to feed an army. Gretchen Janeway hasn't said much, but her barbecue speaks for itself.
It's up to Harry to say what everyone is thinking: "We love you too," he says, turning pink as everybody laughs.
"To family, both born and made." Chakotay raises his glass to clink against Kathryn's.
"To family!"