Disclaimer: Star trek voyager belongs to paramount. It does not belong to me, however, the air does not belong to me and I still breathe it.

Note: There's a section just below that describes events before the first J/C scene, just to clear up any confusion.

In answer to a review, and in response to another. No, there is not any J/C romance in the homecoming books, but they are together in the last scene. And agreeing with another review, yes the books are badly written, and the plot could be so much better, but she did get rid of the C/7 idea for us, and we should all be very thankful to her for that.

V

Chapter 2: Interrogation

Voyager had been back four months, give or take, but they had been forced to remain on the ship for the first two weeks to debrief the crew and allow them to adjust to being back.

The first seven weeks of being on earth had been one disaster after another. There had been an outbreak of a Borg virus infecting all those with weak immune systems, and voyager had been blamed. Janeway had been in and out of intelligence head quarters trying to convince them that Seven and Icheb had nothing to do with it, but they didn't listen to her, and kept the two of them locked up.

The whole thing had been kept top secret. As it turned out it was one of the heads of Starfleet intelligence its self that had been at fault, and Seven and Icheb had been allowed to walk free.

Janeway was trying to convince herself that it was getting over those stressful weeks that was getting to her. But she knew that it wasn't.

Chakotay stood next to her, to gaze out of the window and at the city below them, draping his arm casually over her shoulders. They looked out in a comfortable silence at the lights below them. Towers of fairy lights stood against the black sky in a futile attempt to light it up. She put her arm round his waste, "you think it was worth it?" she asked him.

He didn't answer straight away, to firstly collected his thoughts together. "Yes," he said eventually and with absolute certainty.

They stood in silence a while longer. "Do you ever think of new earth?" he asked, breaching a topic which neither of them ever spoke of.

She did, of course, but wouldn't say so. "Occasionally," she under exaggerated.

"I don't think that I've ever seen you so a peace with yourself, as you were on new earth."

What was he getting at? "Oh!?" the tone of her voice no longer soft.

He didn't even know what he was getting at. She felt his body shift from behind her, before she knew what was going on he was standing in front of her, a hand resting gently on her waist, the other hand came up and tenderly tilted her chin up to his own face.

"Chakotay," she breathed, moments before he leaned in and brushed against her lips. She returned the kiss, allowing his hands to explore her. Locked in an eternity he began to deepen the kiss, she wanted to go with him, but broke off, resting a hand on his upper arm.

She looked away, not wanting to see his disappointment, "what's wrong," he asked gently, he was confused, she had begun to return the kiss, but broken away from his lips. He noticed that she hadn't broken away from his embrace, he loosened his arms around her, not wanting her to feel trapped by him.

"I'm sorry," she looked up at him, so many memories flashing back. He lifted his hand to wipe a tear from her cheek. He was caught, not knowing what to do, at any moment she would reject him again, he didn't want to lose her. But he didn't want to push her away by rushing things, he leaned in again kissing her cheek, he felt her move her body closer into his, and so moved down onto her neck. That was where she lost.

V

For arguments sake he was called Paul. Although he didn't have a name. He needed a trigger, MRT usually required the subject to be exposed to a condition in which their minds began to redeveloped what they lost.

The main problem with Janeway, he mused, was that she kept a very accurate personal log. It was how he had found out about it in the first place, and how he eventually found the trigger. But what really annoyed him was that he had to look beyond the words, and that had only given him half an idea, it was Chakotay's logs that had totally given it away. No, he took it back, Chakotay was her main problem.

V

He hadn't slept in days, he never did though when he was on transport ships, especially civilian ships. He had learnt the hard way thirteen years ago not to let your attention slip while travelling through space.

It wasn't really Tad's fault what had happened. Well, that's what people told him anyway. But he blamed himself, he always did, he was that sort of person. Everything was his fault, that's why he went to Cardassia, that's why he would help anyone no matter who they were.

He looked out the window to see the earth gradually grow bigger as he approached the destination. He would visit his grandmother first, he decided, then probably Kathryn if she wasn't too busy.

V

Alex Kemp marched into the classroom, he was really pissed off. He had been for a week now, Kathryn had tried to calm him down, but they had ended up arguing about something completely different, and hadn't spoken since.

The room stood to attention. There were about forty cadets, he marched across the first line that stood like tree trunks in the middle of the room, looking at each cadet knowing that one of them was to blame.

The door behind him opened and he looked around, a petit girl with long blond hair tied neatly back entered. Despite her short stature, she walked with an air of importance and confidence that made her seem much taller than she was. "Sorry I'm late Alex," she said, walking over to a desk.

Some of the class smirked at the revelation of the admiral's first name. Alexander, however, didn't. "Why are you late?" he walked over to the young lady sitting on the desk.

"I don't think that's any of your business!" she said loudly for the whole class to hear. Then she added, "my menstrual cycle has nothing to do with you!"

At this most of the students laughed, except Icheb, who didn't understand why this was supposed to be funny. "Outside Felicity," Admiral Kemp shouted, and when she didn't move he added "now!"

It was then that she got up from the desk and headed towards the exit, "I want to see you in my office," Alex stated as she left the room. He was certain that she had heard him and so proceeded with the interrogation.

V

That was a week ago, since they had made love. She had declared her love for him so freely that night, and then cringed at the way she had treated him afterwards. Why couldn't things be simple? She thought to herself. Again she tried to return to her work, but it was useless, all she could think of was Chakotay.

Maybe she should call him. No, what would she say to him? He wouldn't want to talk to her anyway. So instead Kathryn got up from her desk to make herself another coffee, she had really got to finish her work.

She had just poured herself another cup when the door chimed. She walked in the direction of the door to open it by hand, who would call at this hour?

"Chakotay!" who else? Shock spread over her face, "your, you," she collected herself with a breath, something which had always amazed him, "what are you doing here?" her voice didn't sound as shocked, but it wasn't totally controlled.

He stood in the doorway, arms hanging by his sides. "Can I come in?" he attempted a weak smile.

Kathryn suddenly realised that she had been blocking the door way, and stood to one side allowing him to enter.

The last time the two of them had spoken was the morning after they had made love, she had wanted to apologise then, for the way she was acting, but Alex had been there, and so he had just walked out of her apartment, with a simple 'bye'.

"I'm sorry," she said, as the door closed behind him, wanting to get things out into the open. "I shouldn't have let it go as far as it did."

Always direct, to the point, she was trying to shake off what had happened, trying to convince herself that it wasn't something that she had wanted, something both of them had wanted. But she wasn't convincing any one and she knew it.

"But it did," he stated, his voice calm. She turned round to face him, studying his face, trying to figure out what he was thinking, it was useless, he was perfecting his own captain's mask. "Can we talk?" He broke the tension that was mounting, they were already talking, but somehow the question relaxed the atmosphere.

"Coffee?" she asked.

V

End of chapter 2.