Disclaimer: Paramount hogs Voyager and all its characters.
Author's note: here's the sixth chapter, enjoy!
V
Chapter six: Reunion.
Kathryn sat at her desk, her body screaming at her to sleep for a few hours, but her mind telling her hand to lift the mug of coffee to her lips. She picked up another padd, and noticing the word count at the top of it, he groaned aloud, feeling another headache approach.
The buzzer at her officer door went, "come," she called out.
A tall Cardassian that she instantly recognised as Tradjiv entered. "I hope I'm not desturbing anything," he said at her doorway.
"No," she said, rubbing the temples of her scull with her finger tips, "please, come in," she nodded towards the chair opposite her.
He did as suggested, and moved further in towards her office, sitting himself down opposite her. "Until I met you I considered all humans weak and fragile," he said as one of her hands reached out for her mug.
She blushed a little, and smiled slightly, "thanks," she said, "I think."
Tradjiv chuckled lightly, "I understand now that you're all just mad."
Kathryn laughed, "so what are you here for?"
He sighed, "we've had another bomb threat, and after what happened last time, we're not taking it lightly."
She let out an exhausted groan, "so what does this mean? I'm already surrounded by security at all times as it is, there's even security keeping an eye on my daughter back on Earth. Everyone entering the planet has to go through screening, and so do all imports, the new embasy being built will probably be completely bomb proof; I don't see what else we can really do."
"I was thinking we could bring in some help from outside," he started, "I have read that your chief security officer onboard Voyager developed a way of observing people from great distances, maybe we could adapt that technology for our own purposes. Especially with the impending announcement," he added.
Kathryn sighed, "and what if we did do that? We'd be denying people their freedom, we can't become a big brother."
"Big brother?" Tradjiv questioned.
"Have you ever read Nineteen-Eighty-Four?" he shook his head, "it's an Earth book written a few decades before the actual year that it's set in. The writer explores a world that is constantly monitored by an unseen dictator, calling himself 'big brother'. The book served as a warning to my people even a century after it was written. If people had have paid a little more attention to books such as that, the third world war may have been averted," she added thoughtfully.
"So that's a no to my suggestion then?" he didn't seem too disappointed, he's been working with Kathryn long enough to know to expect such an answer.
"It's a 'not yet'," she replied with a short smile, "we'll see how bad things get after the announcement."
He nodded, and there was a short pause of silence between the two of them. "Would you care to join me for dinner tonight?" he suggested.
Although her stomach grumbled she turned down his offer, "I promised Chakotay that I'd call him tonight, he's angry enough with me as it is," she made her excuse.
Tradjiv smiled anyway, "you and this Chakotay, are you together?"
Kathryn frowned, "not exclusively," she answered honestly.
"But you have a child together?"
She nodded, "it's complicated."
"You don't love each other?"
She smiled despite herself, "we do love each other, but as I've said, it's complicated."
Tradjiv nodded thoughtfully to himself, before standing from his seat, "I think I was right, humans are mad."
Kathryn laughed lightly, and watched him as he left her office, her mind wondering to Chakotay.
V
Over a week later.
Chakotay waited at the transport station for Kathryn's arrival. He seemed to go totally unnoticed by the large group to press standing chatting with coffees in their hands. It was always that way whenever he went out of the house, often if he was with his daughter he'd have large crowds around him, but without her he felt invisable. It was at such times when he became invisable that he realised he preferred it that way, and then, with some reluctance, he realised that he could never be invisable or live a 'normal' life as long as he was with Kathryn.
There was an announcement by a computer generated voice that her shuttle had landed. As he stood with the intention of making his way to the door from where she would appear from, he noticed half the room had already made its way over there. He sat back down, and watched distantly as the doors opened and the room was consumed by flashes, loud shouts for attention, and other loud shouts from security to 'move back'.
Kathryn straightened her uniform, again, and looked over to the fromer Gul Trajiv who stood beside her. "Admiral," an ensign came forwards, "I thought I should just warn you there's a large crowd out there waiting for you."
She sighed, there always was. In some ways the trip to Cardassia had been a vacation from all the hassle of the press. "Thank you for the warning ensign," she smiled professionally.
Trajiv noticed the professional smile that she sometimes used instead of her warm and genuine smile, and much preferred the latter, finding her professional tone sometimes a little too perfect.
They stepped forwards and the doors opened, almost blinded as they were assaulted by bright flashing lights. Kathryn smiled curtiously at them all for a brief few seconds, allowing them to get the pictures that they needed, before allowing her face to drop as she looked around the large station's centre.
The platform that they had walked out onto was slightly above the gathering of press, and she instantly spotted Chakotay sitting looking away from the large group at the far end of the enourmous transport centre. Her attention was brought back to the press when she heard the security officers shouting to allow her and the other highly ranking officials through.
Admiral Benson, being the attention seeking arsehole that he was, stayed on the platform and started to speak to the press. Giving Kathryn an oppertunity to walk down the few steps and leave the group of officials to the mercy of the press, as she crossed the expanse in the direction of where she had seen Chakotay.
At seeing her emerge from the doors with a wide smile he'd turned his head from the scene, obviously she hadn't missed him at all in their three weeks apart. Sure, she'd called him from time to time, but their conversations had always been short, and centered around their daughter, who Chakotay had left with Gretchen, now wishing that he'd just stayed at the house.
He looked up sharply when he felt eyes on him, and saw Kathryn standing before him, clad in her uniform with a wide and genuine smile on her face. Chakotay stood quickly from his chair, and returned the smile, moving to wrap his arms around her.
At first she was reluctant to embrace him in a public place, littered with press, but couldn't hold back as she quickly realised how much she'd truely missed him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled back just far enough to come face to face with him. He frowned, but didn't move away when she kissed him, instead chosing to return the kiss. They deepened the kiss a little, and didn't break apart from each other, until they were both aware of a crowd around them.
Chakotay pulled back, and noticing the photographers around them, grinned sheepishly. Kathryn gripped his hand, and with the help of some security made her way out of the group, with Chakotay closely behind. They eventually made their way towards the transporter room, where they transported directly to another transporter room, this time in a hotel.
V
He wasn't quite sure what to make of her decision to take a double room, but followed her into the lift, then down the corridor, and eventually into the relevant room. Chakotay then realised that Kathryn's hand hadn't left his since the reunion.
They stepped through the doors of the hotel room, and Kathryn let out an exhausted groan as she dropped his hand, looking around the room for a replicater. She spotted it and made her way over towards it. "Coffee?" she asked over her shoulder.
"Tea please," he said, sitting down on one of the sofas in the large suite.
Some moments later, she placed a cup of tea on the short table in front of him, and sat back on the sofa beside him, with a mug of coffee in her hand. "I'm so sorry about the past few weeks Chakotay," she confessed.
He shrugged, "you're back now," he said, looking around the suite, wondering why she'd brought him there.
She sighed, "back but not finised," he looked sharply across at her with a confused expression. "I still have a lot of work to finish off, and then I'll probably have to go back to Cardassia in a few months."
"Why?" he wasn't sure if he was more disappointed or angry, but to Kathryn his voice sounded hurt.
Kathryn looked at him for a few seconds, wanting desperately to tell him everything, but she was sure that his reaction would not be possitive, and the last thing she wanted was for him to become unpredictable. "I'm sorry Chakotay, I can't tell you that," she told him at last.
He nodded, although annoyed by her response. "Can you tell me why you've brought me here?" up until that point he would have been more than happy for her to use him in anyway that she would have wanted, but her refusal to trust him forced him to raise some barriers.
"I'm going to be staying here for the next week or so," she thought she might as well come right out and say it.
"Right," he said slowly, his anger boiling beneath the surface, he'd assumed when she'd said she was on her way back, that she was actually returning to be a mother to their daughter. "What about Yuna?"
Kathryn bit her lip, knowing that Chakotay wasn't going to like whatever she said, (he wasn't in the mood to be pleasant). "I'll be able to visit you reguarly now that I'm back on Earth," she tried to make it sound like a reasonable suggestion, but even she realised that it wasn't enough before she even opened her mouth.
He looked away and considered her proposal for a moment, then turned back round and met her gaze, "no," he shook his head, "our baby is a month old already Kathryn, and you've seen her for what? Two days."
"Well I can hardly help being in a coma for the first eight days of her life," she said in a clipped tone.
"And what about these past three weeks?" he looked at her expectantly. She looked away from him, but he continued regardless. "She wouldn't even recognise you if went and picked her up and held her for a few moments. Hell Kathryn, you wouldn't even recognise your own daughter."
She turned back sharply at that, her anger showing through her prefectly constructed mask, "what do you want me to do Chakotay? I'm trying to make a difference here! Do you want me to stand back and tell StarFleet that I can't do my duty until my daughter's started school."
"Yes," he replied honestly, "I want you to tell StarFleet to find someone else."
"Chakotay I can't," she confessed, "I'm too far envolved, and even if I wasn't," she turned back to him, "I wouldn't know how to step back."
Chakotay looked at her for a few moments, considering everything, considering what to say, what to do. He was angry at her, and frustrated by what she was doing, but somehow he managed to calm himself down, and utter the words, "I love you," to her.
Kathryn swallowed hard, calming down instantly at his words. Slowly she leaned forwards, and again kissed him on the lips, this time tenderly and with a gentleness unexpected from such a fiercly respected Admiral. Part of Chakotay's mind screamed at him to stop, warning him that he was going to get hurt if he returned the kiss, but he ignored that part of his mind and deepened it. There was no way that he would ever be able to refuse her, he realised as she started to undress him, and so he left himself to her mercy.
V
End of chapter six.