Disclaimer: See previous

AN: I probably played a little fast and loose with the world of medicine for the purposes of this story. 24th century medicine would probably be more advanced than depicted here.

Undeniable

The insistent buzz of the comm finally penetrated Chakotay's slumber. He blinked sleepily, and slowly got up from the bed. He noted with surprise that Seven was sleeping next to him, curled up on her side. Since she was also able to regenerate, the times where she did come to bed with him were getting farther and fewer between. The comm buzzed twice more as he stalked into the dimly lit living area.

"All right, I'm coming," he said grumpily. He sat in front of the small viewscreen, and activated the channel.

B'Elanna's urgent face greeted him. "Chakotay." She said nothing else, for a moment, her expression grim. Dread filled him.

"B'Ela, what's wrong?"

"It's Kathryn's daughter, Kaya. There's been an accident. Kathryn was hysterical; they had to sedate her. But she asked for you. I know what happened between you two, and she's never asked you for anything. But she needs you; she doesn't have anyone. Please come," B'Elanna pleaded.

"But where's Kaya's father?" he asked, trying to make sense of the situation.

B'Elanna gave him an odd look. "Chakotay, what ar-" She shook her head impatiently, and didn't finish her thought. "She's asking for you."

"Of course we'll come," said Seven over her husband's shoulder. Chakotay started, and glanced up at her, wondering how much of the conversation she had overheard. She laid a hand on his back. Her expression gave nothing away. "The captain needs you. We'll go. She has relied on you for a long time."

"Please hurry. We're not sure how much time –" B'Elanna's voice strangled on the last word. "If we lose that little girl.." her voice broke again. She jerked her head to one sign, trying to stem violent emotion, and broke the signal.

A transport to Earth left 20 minutes later. Chakotay and his wife were on it.

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B'Elanna came at them at a run, throwing herself into Chakotay's arms, as they arrived on the children's floor of Starfleet Medical. Tom followed her, and shook Chakotay's hand, looking pale and stoic.

"How is Kaya?" Chakotay asked.

"Holding on," Tom replied. "But the prognosis isn't good. Her pelvis was shattered, skull fracture, and bad internal hemorrhaging. Her kidneys have been very badly damaged. They weren't able to attain any tissue for cloning." Chakotay's eyes must have asked the question, because Tom continued, "Some teenage kid hotdogging on a speeder hit her. Out in the middle of nowhere on the far end of the Janeway property. Flipped his toy a few times, and it hit a tree and exploded. It was almost 30 hours before they found them. Kid was dead. Kaya was barely alive. No chance to get any viable tissue from her kidneys."

"What about a transplant from a donor?"

"Kathryn's not a match. Neither is her mother." Tom's and Chakotay's eyes met for a long moment.

"Where is she?" Tom pointed down the hall.

"In A-17," he said simply. Seven started to follow her husband down the hall, but something in Tom's eyes made her stop. She looked at him without comprehension.

Chakotay tapped on the door lightly, but did not wait for a response before he entered the room. A-17 was a large ward, for critical care patients. There were 8 units in the ward, but only 2 beds had patients in them. A doctor and two nurses consulted PADDs at the far end. His eye immediately went to Kathryn, slumped in a chair at the head of one occupied bed.

"Kathryn?" he said her name softly. She looked up at him bleakly, for a moment not recognizing him. When she did, her face crumpled.

"Oh, Chakotay, you came." He knelt beside her and she placed her head on his shoulder. "They said it's only a matter of time." She gulped back a sob. "She loved to wander all over the place. It was our land. I thought she'd be safe. I shouldn't have let her go alone. She's only 5." Her voice was barely intelligible through the tears.

"Kathryn, it was an accident. You can't blame yourself."

"I do anyway," she whispered.

"Where is her father?" He asked abruptly and firmly. The truth had been stealing over him slowly, but truly grasping the enormity of it was more difficult. Kathryn's shoulders sagged, and she averted her eyes from his. It told him without words what he needed to know.

He moved around Kathryn to peer at the tiny figure in the bed. Her face was puffy, with trace bruising that the dermal regenerator had not been able to fully resolve. Her left leg was clamped into an osteoregenerator that was whirring softly. There was some kind of stasis field around her midsection, preventing her pelvis from moving at all. Her dusky skin stood out against the white sheets, even in her pallor, and her hair was a tangled black nimbus around her head.

She was the image of him, recast in a feminine mold. If he had seen her clearly at the Parises', he would have known instantly. Emotion washed over him, and he felt his eyes fill with tears. The culmination of everything he'd ever wanted lay prone in a biobed, with a sentence of certain death.

He beckoned to the doctor. "Can you test me for a tissue match?" He asked tersely.

"Who are you?" the doctor queried, not unkindly.

"I'm Kaya's father." The impact of those words coming from his lips was like a physical blow. Kathryn made a strangled noise behind him, and Chakotay's eyes slid closed. He leaned over to place a careful kiss on Kaya's forehead, and followed the doctor over to a lab unit glassed off from the rest of the ward.

TBC