Disclaimer: Voyager belongs to paramount.

Author's note: thanks to all those that have reviewed so far, and please keep reading and reviewing. Constructive critism would also be good, I want to know how realistic the characters are, I probably won't go back and change anything, but it would help me for future stories. Thanks!

/

Chapter two: Table manners.

Four months later.

Kathryn sat out on the patio at her home in Indianna reading a book. Although she liked the sun, for some reason it didn't get on with her skin, and so she sat in the shade provided by the house behind her. She heard the back door open and close, and someone walk across the tiles towards the table. It was Phoebe.

"You're really not going to tell me are you?" she sat down and folded her arms, in some form of sulk.

Her sister smiled secretly and turned the page to the book she was reading, "nope," she replied.

There was an annoyed sigh from the younger of the two, "I could make a good guess," she started.

"You'd be wrong," Kathryn placed her book mark in between the pages, and placed in on the table in front of her.

"No, you'd just deny it if I got it right," Phoebe pointed out the obvious truth.

"Probably," there was no point in denying that fact.

The two sisters sat in silence for a few more moments, as Kathryn looked out at the expanse of the garden, and her sister sat and watched her. "Human?"

Kathryn looked over at her younger sibling, to see if she was being serious. She was. That was good, she decided, it meant that she really didn't have a clue. "I'm not going to help you narrow down the possibilities of who the father could be."

"I'll find out soon enough anyway," she replied defiantly. "Does Leuitenant Paris know?"

She laughed at that one, her sister was incredulous. "You can't catch me out that way," she said as she sobered, "But yes, the Paris familly do know. It's no secret that I'm pregnant."

"So if that father knows, then why isn't he here," Phoebe was annoyed on her sister's behalf, although Kathryn seemed less than concerned.

"I never said he knew, I just said that it's not a secret."

"Well, I've narrowed it down to sixty, only about ten of which I think are realistic," Phoebe thought she might as well inform her sister on her detective progress.

"That few eh?" Kathryn raised an eyebrow and smiled teasingly across at her sister, spirits she knew she missed all the sister stuff on Voyager.

She ran a hand through her blonde hair and let out an exasperated sigh. "I know it's definately not that Maquis Captain."

Kathryn looked confused, "why not?"

"He's not your type," Phoebe replied as matter of factly.

"You don't know what my type is," she declared, looking up at the sky, through the edge of the leaves of a near by tree.

"Kathryn, I think I've met enough of your boyfriends to hazard a good guess," she smiled to herself, "he's usually tall; always taller than you. Deep eyes, no inbetweens, crisp blue or dark brown. Hair, hmm," she said thoughtfully, "well, he usually has plenty of it. Broad shoulders. Muscles aren't essential, but you tend to keep the fit ones for longer. Ruggedly hansome, no pampered boy-men. Personality; well, firstly they have to be fearless to date you in the first place," both women laughed, "but not so much so that they dominate. Charming. Intelligent. Considerate. Caring. Loving. Passionate. Amazing in bed..."

"How does that come under personality?" Kathryn cut her sister off.

"It doesn't," Phoebe replied innocently, "I've changed to another topic."

"Well change to another one."

"That was my last one," she admitted, "so, how close was I?"

"You described him," Kathryn gave up and lay back against her chair.

Phoebe frowned, "who? that Commander, or the father?"

She looked over guiltily at her sister, "both," she couldn't be bothered to keep it from her sister any longer. Half the Voyager crew and newspapers had guessed.

Her sister just laughed, "jeez Kathryn, if Chakotay and the father are both so perfect they might as well be the same person."

At that Kathryn just rolled her eyes, "they are the same person Phebes," she said a little tiredly.

There was a moment's silence, before her sister shouted out, "WHAT!?"

/

She had been back in the Alpha quadrant for two months. Two months since they travelled through the borg hub, since her older self had her showdown with the borg queen. Since Admiral Paris had hailed Voyager and welcomed her home.

They were all sat around the dinner table; herself, her sister, her sister's husband, and her mother.

Phoebe kept her eyes closely on her sister, who was being careful to avoid looking in her direction. "So Kathryn," she broke the comfortable silence, "being a Captain must be like dealing with food."

She looked confused, "I really don't see how."

"Well," she took a deep breath, "when you go to the market, you always have to pick your food carefully, you're going to eat it later, and you don't want it to make you ill, so you only chose the best. Like when you're chosing your crew, you know that you're going to have to rely on them some day to save your life, and so you have to pick out the most experienced and reliable." Kathryn had a feeling she wasn't going to like where her sister was going, her feeling was right.

"And then, like certain foods need to be stored, prepared and eaten in certain ways, each member of your crew is individual, and their needs need to be catered for in different ways." She gave her sister a knowing look, "and then, when your food is on your plate, everyone knows you shouldn't play with it, just like you shouldn't play with your junior officers."

Gretchen and Paul almost spat out their dinners at Phoebe's words, but Kathryn looked cooly across at her sister. She opened her mouth to retort, she had the perfect one lined up, but changed her mind at the last moment, deciding that two months was too soon to be falling out with her younger sister. So she picked up her fork and continued eating, not giving Phoebe the satisfaction of a full response.

/

Later that night whilst Kathryn was sat out on one of the swings at the bottom of the garden. She heard someone come up towards her, but assuming that it was either her mum or sister she didn't bother to look up. She was suprised when she looked over to see Paul standing hesitantly close by. She smiled pleasently across at him. "You want to be alone, or can I sit and join you?"

Kathryn just shrugged, "I've been out here alone for about half an hour now."

He smiled and sat down on the swing next to hers. "I asked Phebe what she meant earlier at dinner, and she told me that Commander Chakotay was the father."

"She never was good at keeping secrets," Kathryn admitted.

"It's not like you to be careless," he pointed out.

She had to shoot him a smile for that, "I wasn't careless, reckless maybe."

He laughed at that, tilting his head back, "that's the Kathryn Janeway I remember." Their laughter subsided and he turned to face her, "you know I had this massive crush on you when we first met."

"I know," she admitted.

"That obvious was I?"

"Ashley told me."

"Bitch!" Paul cursed their old friend, but shook his head, "anyway, obviously when I met Phoebe it was like 'Kathryn who?', let's face it, you were too much for me, and the moment I saw your sister I knew that she was perfect for me."

Kathryn sighed, "is there a point to any of this?"

Paul nodded, "yep," he replied, "when you and Chakotay were attending all those press conferences those first two weeks you were actually back on Earth, I saw the way he looked at you, there's not doubt that he thinks your perfect for him."

She shrugged, "I turned him down one too many times Paul, that's the reason why he left, and the reason why I didn't try to stop him."

"Why didn't you tell him?"

"He would have stayed."

Paul shook his head in disbelief, "that's not what you wanted?"

"I want him to be happy," she replied, "he's got... lots of unfinished business, lots of ghosts to lay to rest, he's got his entire life to figure out, and I didn't want to get in the way."

"Don't you think he should at least be given the choice whether or not he wants to father your child?" he asked evenly.

Grabbing the chains of the swing she leant back, her weight pulling on her extended arms. "I've thought this through Paul, I'm a big girl now, I know what I'm doing."

"Okay, I just think if it was me that I'd prefer to know and make my own choice."

She didn't respond to that.

/

A month later.

Chakotay lay on the grass beside Sekaya. The hot summer sun was toned down by a cool breeze and gentle shade from the trees. They had just been swimming in the lake, and were allowing the water to evaporate off their skins. "Did you know you haven't stopped talking about Voyager since you got here?" she asked.

He turned his head to face her and smiled, "so? I spent seven long years there, they're some of my favourite memories."

"So you're only sharing your favourite memories with me?" She said thoughtfully, "so that must mean this Captain Janeway is one of your favourite people."

"Most of the time," he replied, he knew she was going to tease it out of him sooner or later, so decided it might as well be sooner.

"No fun!" she complained, "you're not even trying to be coy!"

He chuckled.

She leaned onto her side, and looked curiously over at her older brother, "so how close were the two of you?"

"We're very good friends," he replied, almost a little too quickly to convince her.

"Nothing more?" a grin had made its way on to her face.

"Yes," he sat up, running a hand through his near to dry hair, "we're best friends."

This time she laughed, "my brother doesn't do best friends with women."

He didn't try to argue, he knew he would lose. So he lay back on his folded arms, and looked up at the cloudless sky, through the leaves of the trees.

"Hmm," Sekaya said thoughtfully, her eyes still intent on Chakotay, "I believe it's called Stockholm syndrome."

Chakotay turned his head and raised an eyebrow.

"I think you're in love with your captor," she went on teasingly.

His playful smile dropped and he sat up, running his hand through his almost dry hair. "She wasn't my captor."

"What ever way you want to look at it," she replied evenly. He shot her a glare and stood up. "Okay, I'm sorry Chakotay, I didn't mean to upset you," she said as she came to her feet also.

There was a moments silence as he just looked out at the lake before him, then he turned to her, "you're right about one thing Sekaya, I did find myself falling in love with her on that ship."

"What about now?" her voice was deep and had lost its earlier light tone and jovility.

He shrugged, "my feelings haven't changed, but after years of rejection I'm not going to continue to run after her, if she wants me, she's going to have to come and get me." He turned round to her and beamed widely, "race you to the lake."

Before she could accept the challenge he ran off, leaving her to try and catch up.

/

End of chapter two.