Disclaimer: Paramount owns Voyager and her crew.
The Voyager reunion.
The first Voyager reunion was much like the main 'welcome home' celebration, in that it was a banquet. But this time, instead of being a reunion of different families, it was the reunion of the one large Voyager family.
Kathryn muttered something about sticking large cactus' in inappropriate places when she saw the swarm of press by the entrance, but she felt Chakotay's hand come down reassuringly to the small of her back and strode on confidently with Yuna held securely in her arms. With only yards to go to sneak in without being spotted, some young enthusiastic journalist turned around, "Admiral Janeway," he shouted, drawing attention from the rest of the media locusts.
"I'm sorry," she said with a smile, "no interviews today."
Her saying it didn't seem to make much difference, they all started asking questions simultaneously anyway. "Maybe you should just answer a few questions," he said into her ear, "to stop them hassling us this evening."
She turned round to him and nodded, he had a point, "okay," she grumbled. "Just a few questions," she announced in a voice the quietened them all quite quickly.
Chakotay stayed by her side, as someone shouted out the first question, "Admiral, could you please state your position on Cardassia joining the federation."
Inwardly she groaned, but outwardly she nodded, "I am currently helping to oversee that all the correct procedures are followed through with."
"Have you any plans to return to Cardassia?"
"Not for the next few months," she answered quickly, her attention quickly divided to another area of the ring that had formed around them.
"Richy Chambers of the Galactic Express," a guy stepped forwards, Kathryn gritted her teeth, but seemed to smile politely, "do you and Mr Chakotay have any plans to marry?"
She paused. "Maybe one day," Chakotay offered with a wide smile, which seemed to please the press. She briefly shot him a frown, but he just shrugged, and then she was distracted with another question.
Miral and Yuna sat side by side in their high chairs, Chakotay feeding his daughter, and Tom feeding his. B'Elanna turned her attention from the crowd of Admirals standing chatting at the far end, and back to the table, "well Kathryn seems to be enjoying herself," she noted.
"Who's she with?" Chakotay asked, not bothering to look up.
B'Elanna looked back round, "I'm not sure," she said slowly, "some Admiral, tall, sandy brown hair..."
"Oh," said Tom suddenly, leaving his daughter to eat her finger food, "that's Admiral Swayze," said Tom, showing off his superior knowledge of the Admirals within StarFleet.
"Oh yeah," Chakotay finally looked up, "Kathryn said they served aboard the Crusader together before Voyager, apparently they became quite good friends."
B'Elanna raised an eyebrow, "I'd keep an eye on her friends if I were you Chakotay," she said, noticing how frequently their former Captain would reach out and touch his upper arm.
Her old Maquis friend smiled to himself, "Kathryn and I have reached an understanding called trust B'E, it's a strange thing that means we're not constantly checking up on each other."
Tom near to choked on his melon, "sorry," he said in a hoarse voice, looking up at the table.
Harry reached across and patted his best friend on the back, it didn't do much good, but he thought he should at least do something. "So are the rumours true?" he asked Chakotay.
The older man shrugged, dipping the spoon back into the jar of pureed food, "which ones?"
"The ones that say you and the Admiral are planning to get married?" for some reason Harry still had to drop the rank, whilst everyone else was calling her Kathryn.
"I hope you mean Admiral Janeway," Chakotay looked sternly at the lieutenant, "and Kathryn Janeway for that matter," he added.
Harry pulled an impatient face, "so?"
"So I think it's something me and Kathryn should discuss before I start discussing it with other people," he replied, putting the matter to rest for that evening.
"So what positions did this Admiral Swayze and Kathryn take aboard the Crusader?" B'Elanna went back to the earlier topic before they slipped into an uncomfortable silence.
"Captain and Commander," Chakotay replied naturally.
Everyone looked around when Tom suddenly started to choke again on his food, this time they could all take a good guess as to why. "Hmm," she said thoughtfully, "and you say that they became good friends?"
Chakotay decided to ignore the sniggers coming from around the table. "You know, you can think what you like, but I'd prefer it if you didn't share any of your thoughts with me," he said with an edge of finality to his voice.
Kathryn spent the first half of the evening talking with various Admirals and so called 'honoured guests' at the banquet. Eventually she managed to break free of them, and slowly made her way around the room, catching up with her former crew, and meeting their families for the first time in some cases. Everyone was half way through desert when she finally made her way back towards where Chakotay was sitting.
When they had first arrived, B'Elanna, Tom, Miral and Harry, had been the only ones sitting at the table, but she was pleased to see, as she approached, that Tuvok and his wife had also made it, and the Doctor, and of course Seven. The oval table was large, and would happily have seated eight, but Tuvok's wife, Miral and Yuna, meant that extra chairs had been bought around. She was glad to see that Seven had stayed a respectable distance from Chakotay, and seemed content to be sitting beside the Doctor, with his arm around her.
"How perfect," she muttered under her breath, eventually reaching the table and finding that there weren't any seats left at the table, or for that matter near by.
Chakotay looked up, as if he sensed that she was close by, and gave her an almost relieved smile, then, noticing her dilemma, he placed Yuna (who had been sitting on his lap) back into her high chair, and summoned her forwards with his hand.
Everyone else turned around as they saw their former Captain stride up to the table, and stand behind Chakotay, placing her hand gently on his shoulder. She exchanged 'hellos' with all those that she hadn't yet seen that evening, and then proceeded to sit down on Chakotay's lap. For some reason, and to many of their own surprises, they didn't seem to find this action at all out of the ordinary, as if it was something that often would have happened on Voyager's bridge.
Moments later, the chatter around the table continued. Another half hour passed and eventually former crew members started to approach the table in a steady stream to say farewell to everyone, especially their old commanding officers. Seven and the Doctor were two of the first to leave the table, whilst everyone else stayed on for at least another half hour. But, eventually, as they slowly came to realise that they were the last ones left, they too, were forced to say goodbye, and left the large banquet hall.
It was eleven at night when Kathryn and Chakotay finally returned to her apartment in San Francisco, deciding to spend the night in the city, than to spend half an hour travelling back to Indiana. They entered through the doors, with Chakotay carrying their six month old sleeping baby against his chest. Kathryn immediately started to remove her Admiral's jacket, and chucked it on the floor. She kicked off her boots, and headed straight for the kitchen area, "coffee?" she called over her shoulder, before the door had even closed behind him.
"Sure," he replied loudly, "I'll just put Yuna to bed though."
Some minutes later when he entered the lounge, he saw her sitting with her feet up on the sofa and a mug of warm coffee in her hands. Her head was leant back on the arm rest of the sofa, and classical music played quietly in the back ground. "Comfy?" he asked with a grin starting to take over his face as he took the picture in.
She looked across at him briefly, before lying her head back. "My feet are sore, from walking around all evening, my shoulders are killing, and I have a head ache coming on. But other wise; I am quite comfy."
He made his way over to her and tapped her leg, she instinctively pulled her legs up to allow him to sit, he did so, picking up his coffee from the table in front. She lay her legs back across him, tilted her head up slightly, and took a sip of her drink. "I've lost count of how many times people asked me what our plans for the future are today," she broke the comfortable silence.
"I counted nine, from five different people," he commented, "but that's not including the reporters, and that's only me."
"And where are we headed?" she asked the inevitable question.
"Where ever you want to go," he replied safely, reaching across and starting to massage her bare feet.
The distraction worked for a moment or two, but she eventually pulled her feet away from him, and crossed her legs, turning to face him. "What do you think I want?"
Chakotay swallowed hard, "marriage?" it was less like an answer and more like another question.
"Is that what you want?"
He shrugged, "I can't see why not; we love each other, we already have a child together, we're already living together, and we're in this for the long term, we might as well make it a little more official."
She sighed, "maybe," she said almost to herself.
"You don't sound too convinced," he pointed out.
"Well you're not exactly making it a very appealing prospect Chakotay; marriage is supposed to be a big thing, and you're just making it sound like one of those things that 'we may as well have a go at'." She looked back at him expectantly.
"I'm sorry," he said with a short smile, putting his coffee back down on the table. Instead of sitting back up on the sofa, he slid onto the floor, on his knees, keeping his eyes carefully trained on hers. He shifted position slightly, so that he was only on one knee, and taking her hands in his smiled up at her. "Kathryn Janeway," he started, and she rolled her eyes at his sudden serious manner, "I love you, and intend to spend the rest of my life with you, so, would you therefore, do me the honour of being my wife?"
She looked at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was being a serious or not, his face told her that he was, and the smile dropped from her face. "And you're asking me now?" she sounded almost annoyed, "where's the candle lit dinner? The champagne? The roses?"
He looked across at the clock on the wall, "it's ten minutes to midnight Kathryn, if you say yes now, then we can become engaged exactly a year after Voyager emerged from the borg hub."
If she hadn't known that he was being serious she would have laughed at his comment; instead she found it less than amusing. "At least Justin had a ring, and Mark proposed shortly after sex, I'm not even drunk enough to find this even remotely romantic Chakotay."
He glanced over at the clock once more, "it will be a challenge to do in ten minutes, but we could have a go at all three if you want?"
Kathryn rolled her eyes, and he stood from the floor, "I'd better go to the replicater then," he explained, and loosened his grip on her hands, but found that they were still entwined together. He met her gaze and frowned, but she just smiled, pulling him towards her.
"I don't need any of that to know I want to marry you Chakotay," she said, as he sat back down beside her, "well, not yet anyway."
"So that's a yes?" he needed to be sure.
Looking over at the clock, she saw it was still before midnight. "Yes," she said, closing the gap between them, and kissing him on the lips. She broke their connection for a moment, as she climbed across the sofa, and straddled across his lap, brushing her lips against his again, this time much more passionately, and in a way that told him there was probably more to come.
End of chapter ten.