Disclaimer: Paramount owns Voyager and it's characters.
V
Chapter seven: Most people.
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 finished," 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 positive, 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 regularly 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 perfectly 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 involved, 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 fiercely 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
Chakotay woke the next morning to an empty bed. At first he wasn't sure of his memories of that night, then reminding himself that he was in an unfamiliar bed, he realised that he and Kathryn had slept together. He sat up and looked around the bedroom, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. Then he heard her. She was speaking to a man the other side of the bedroom door. He climbed out of the bed and looked around the room for his boxers, pulling them on, and then found his pants lying on the floor a little closer to the door.
He would have dressed more fully before emerging from the bedroom of the suite, but he knew that his shirt was in the other room, and Kathryn had clearly not bothered to collect his clothes together.
Kathryn and Paul looked up from the sofa when her bedroom door opened and Chakotay walked out, his hair falling all over the place. He looked across at the two of them, sitting, drinking coffee and frowned. She attempted a smile, but felt more than a little awkward, "Chakotay, this is my brother in law Paul," she made the first introduction, "Paul, this is Chakotay," she didn't describe her relationship to him, not knowing herself exactly what it was.
The two men smiled at each other. "Phoebe's husband right?" Chakotay had met Kathryn's sister several times at Gretchen's house, but had never met her husband before.
He smiled, "yep. Yuna's father right?"
Chakotay grinned, still standing awkwardly by the door to the bedroom, uncomfortably aware that he wasn't wearing any thing on the upper half of his body. Then his frown returned, "you don't mind me asking why you're here do you?"
Kathryn stood, "Paul just came to do a check up," she explained, picking up a shirt that was folded on the sofa's arm.
"A check up?" he looked even more confused.
"I'm Kathryn's doctor," Paul explained with a smile, "was five years before she took command of Voyager, and for the past seven months since she got back."
Chakotay was handed his shirt, which he took from Kathryn exchanging a brief smile. "Oh right," he said quietly to himself, still a little tired as he pulled the shirt over his head.
"Plus Kathryn's mother was freaking out a little when you didn't come back last night, so called me to see if you were with Kathryn." He stood up, "but I can see you're here, and fine, and it seems that Kathryn's doing fine also, so I think I'd better make myself scarce."
She turned back round to him, "oh okay," she didn't sound too disappointed, "and tell Phoebe that I plan to visit the three of you in a few days or so."
He just chuckled lightly, "I'll tell her." Paul picked up a case by his feet and stood from his seat. Making his way over to the two of them, he extended his hand which Chakotay shook, "it was nice to meet you at last," he smiled. "And Kathryn," he turned back round to her, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I don't suppose you're going to listen, but I'm going to tell you anyway; take it easy."
She placed a hand naturally on his chest and placed a kiss on his cheek, "I'll see you later Paul," she said, and with no further exchange of words he left the hotel's suite.
There was a pause of silence between Kathryn and Chakotay, before she turned back round to him, "do you want to take a shower, and then come down with me to the restaurant to grab some breakfast?"
Chakotay raised an eyebrow, "you're actually going to eat some breakfast?"
Kathryn smiled gently at him, "it can be our first official date."
He looked at her for a moment, as if he couldn't quite believe what she was saying, then nodded with a grin. "Most people have the date before they sleep together," he pointed out.
She shot him a mock serious expression, "and most people date for at least a few months before they have a child together; we're going to have to face it sooner or later Chakotay: we're not most people."
Chuckling lightly placed a kiss on her lips, "I wouldn't have it any other way though," he admitted, before heading towards the shower, turning just before he reached the doors of the bathroom. "What's Paul's surname?" he asked when Kathryn noticed his hesitation to enter the other room.
She frowned, "Kline," there was a pause, "why?"
Chakotay thought back to the letter that he had received telling him that he was going to be a father, which had been sent from a P J Kline. Suddenly one more thing in the complex universe made sense to him. He didn't say anything significant though, and shrugged. "Just wondered," he replied, heading off to take his shower.
V
End of chapter seven.