By Bratling
VOY J/C (eventually)
Disclaimer: If you think these characters belong to me, you're sadly mistaken. I borrowed them, hugged them, squeezed them, called them George, then gave them back like a good girl. Star Trek and Star Trek: Voyager are property of Paramount and Gene Rodenberry.
Author's Note: Never believed C/7 when I heard about it. Couldn't believe it. TPTB must be crazy to think we'd buy it. So, in an effort to right what the network idiots did, I'm trying my hand at some J/C fic. This takes place seventh season, right after Chakotay and Seven started dating, but before Endgame. I've been told that some may be offended by a certain paragraph in part two regarding Q, but I'm just going with Roddenberry's characterization of him. I guess you could call this the mandatory Q story. My thanks to Kim for beta reading my first try at Star Trek: Voyager fanfic.
Rating: PG-13 - barely R for a little not-nice language
"Sugar and spice,
And everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of."
--Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme
Ah, the joys of children! My favorite female captain may have turned down the chance in several lifetimes to bear mine, but she did straighten Junior out, so I owe her. She wants them. Chuckles does too—and she wants Chuckles as well.
I am Q, after all. I am omnipotent, omniscient, all-powerful. I can do whatever I please. Today, it pleases me to do something different. Besides, it will be amusing to watch.
I never did like that Borg she took under her wing. Kathryn couldn't see past that apparent innocence, even after she found the hologram. Humans. So gullible. Even when presented with irrefutable evidence, they want to believe the best of those they consider to be their children.
Kathryn is no better. Poor deluded mortal. She can't see past the end of her nose when people she loves are involved. In case you don't know it, Chuckles is now dating the Borg Bimbo. It's only a matter of time before she injects him with those nanoprobes of hers and brainwashes him into being her abject slave.
That would make Kathryn unhappy. And I owe her. Big time. The way I see it, I should intervene; make sure she has a chance with Commander Chuckles. What fools these mortals be. If they only acted on their feelings, I'd never have to do this to pay back my debt, and I could have saved it for something like whisking her away to my own private pleasure palace.
Their young are remarkably uninhibited, don't you think? Not afraid to say what's theirs. Not afraid to tell you exactly what they want. And they don't let much stand in their way. Very much like we Q.
I make myself disappear from the Continuum, turn myself invisible, send myself to Voyager, and start to watch. I know what's coming; in a month or so, they'll be home… And then the fun will begin. There's one thing to say about humans, they're fun to watch when they're not being tiresome.
Kathryn reached for her coffee, took a sip, and grimaced. It was cold. She laid the PADD she had been reading down on her desk, recycled the cup, and got another from the replicator. She sat on the couch, picked up another PADD, and drank some of her coffee. She put down the mug and gasped. A wave of dizziness passed over her. She shook her head vigorously to clear it, dismissed the sensation, and went back to her reports.
Chakotay entered the last line in the report he'd been working on and got up. "You have the bridge, Tuvok," he said, then headed towards the Captain's ready room, barely acknowledging the "Aye, sir," that came from the Vulcan.
Chakotay hit the chime, then walked in without waiting for her to acknowledge her. "Captain, I have the report you were asking for," he said, then looked around. Kathryn was nowhere in sight.
A small figure toddled out from behind the desk. Spotting him, it walked over and handed him a cup. "Here," it said, then tripped over the bottom of its clothing. The sleeves of a jacket were over its small hands, and the hem trailed behind it.
It couldn't be. She'd been fine this morning. Chakotay sat down heavily on the couch. Her normal self; not a child. Shit. She made a cute kid, but how in hell were they going to get her back to normal? He forced down the momentary flicker of panic. The only thing he could think to do was to get this pint-sized version of his Captain to trust him so that they could figure out how to reverse whatever had happened to her.
Chakotay examined the child closely, trying to see if there was anything he could do right away. Long, carroty hair hung in slightly-tangled strands down her back, and large, blue eyes looked around the Ready Room curiously. "Kathryn?" he tried.
The toddler turned around to look at him. "No Kadhryn. Me Kadie Janeway. Who you?"
Chakotay put the cup on the table and walked around the desk. A pile of discarded clothes were on the other side, along with a stack of abandoned PADDs. "I'm Chakotay," he answered with a smile as he squatted down to her level.
Katie moved back from him. "Kadie potty," she said with a smile, then squatted in the middle of the room and started to concentrate.
"No!" Chakotay said. He picked her up, tucked her under his arm, hurried to the head, and held her over the toilet just in time. He cleaned her off, headed back to the ready room, and put her back down.
Katie walked over to the wall and put her thumb in her mouth. "Where Mommy, Daddy?" she asked around her thumb. "Go bye-bye?" she said.
Chakotay tried to think of something to say to her. He hated lying, especially to children. "Um, yes... they had to go bye-bye, Katie."
Katie's face crumpled. "Wand Daddy. Wand Daddy NOW." Her lower lip started to quiver and tears began to roll down her face.
Chakotay moved closer and picked her up. "Shaa, shaa," he murmured, patting her on the back. It took a few minutes, but she quieted down and rubbed her face on his shoulder with a sniffle.
Katie pulled back and looked at him through tear-wet eyes. "Lub you. My 'Koday," she said with a small, crooked smile.
Chakotay's heart melted. He'd dreamed of children that belonged to himself and Kathryn who had that smile. It was possible that this wasn't a younger version of his Kathryn as he suspected. There was only one way to find out; he had to take her to Sickbay. "We're going to see the doctor, Katie," he said gently.
A stormy look passed over her small face. "NO!" she yelled, then squirmed in his arms, trying to get down. "Docdors OWIE!"
With practice born from years of babysitting nieces, nephews, and village children, Chakotay held on grimly, not letting Katie escape. "Yes," he said firmly. "It won't hurt, I promise."
"No, no, no, NO!" Katie screamed, then started to cry and beat her fists against his chest. She squirmed some more, then got away.
Chakotay caught her again and left the room. "Tuvok," he said grimly, "we have a problem."
Tuvok got up from his chair and walked over. "I see," he answered. "Since we did not have a red-haired child on Voyager a few minutes ago, and the one you are holding looks remarkably like the holopictures that of the Captain from when she was approximately two years old, logic dictates that somehow the Captain has regressed in age, and that you are holding her."
"That would be my guess," Chakotay said dryly.
Katie buried her face in his neck. "Scary man," she said. "No docdor."
"I'm taking her to the Doctor to see if she's okay, and try and find out how this happened." Chakotay said.
"Docdor OWIE!" Katie protested. "NO DOCDOR," she proclaimed.
"Sorry, Kathryn, but you're going to the doctor," Chakotay said as he headed for the turbolift.
"NO! NONONONONONONONONONO!" Katie screamed.
Chakotay stepped into the turbo lift. "Sickbay," he told the computer, then looked down at the screaming child in his arms. "I guess that answers one question," he grumbled good-naturedly. "You've always been this stubborn, and you've always avoided doctors like the plague."
Katie's screams degenerated into quiet sobbing. She looked pleadingly at him through big, tearful, blue eyes. "Pwese? No docdor?" She pointed at her right arm. "Docdor owie."
Chakotay rubbed her back. "I promise that the doctor won't hurt you, okay, Katie?"
Katie threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "My 'Koday," she mumbled.
Chakotay sighed and kissed Katie on the forehead. Normally, he wouldn't mind it if she called him hers, but the fact that she was a baby when she was doing it made him feel... odd. Especially since she obviously didn't remember being an adult.
He'd heard of the temporal anomaly that had caused some of the Enterprise crew to regress in age, who hadn't? But if that had happened to Kathryn, she'd still remember being Captain, and Katie didn't remember that. It was almost as if she had switched places with her younger self, or her memories had been suppressed.
The turbolift opened, and he hurried down the corridor and into sickbay. He deposited the child on one of the biobeds and the doctor came out of his office. "Commander, who's my new patient?" he asked.
Katie stuck her lip out in a pout. "Docdor OWIE," she said.
"Doctor, I need you to run a DNA scan," Chakotay said with a sigh. "It appears that the Captain has... regressed, for lack of a better term."
The EMH shot a doubtful look at the little girl. "Certainly, Commander. If you can get her to lie down..."
Chakotay turned back to Katie. "Katie, can you do me a favor and lie down, please?"
Katie slipped her small hand into his and seemed to consider it for a few minutes. "Okay, Mine," she said with a smile before she obeyed.
When the doctor came close to her, she started squirming away from him. "Docdor owie," she repeated.
Chakotay leaned down and whispered something in her ear. Katie held still and allowed the doctor to scan her with the tricorder and then take some deeper readings. "What did you say to her, Commander?" he asked.
Chakotay shrugged. "I offered her ice cream if she held still," he explained. "Can you tell me if there's any record of why she starts throwing tantrums when somebody mentions doctors?" he asked.
"Well, Commander, this is Captain Janeway; the rest is confidential medical information. She appears to be in perfect health for a child between twenty-four and twenty-nine months in age."
Chakotay grimaced. "Any ideas how this happened?"
"I'm not equipped to scan for chronoton particles," the Doctor said. "Have you asked Engineering?" He walked over to the replicator. "One red lollypop with a safety handle," he said. After it appeared, he pulled off the wrapping, walked over and handed it to Katie. "There you go; that wasn't so bad, was it?"
Katie grabbed the candy and stuck it in her mouth.
"What do you say, Katie?" Chakotay asked.
"Dank you," she replied around the candy.
"It always works for Naomi," the Doctor said with a smirk.
"Go bye-bye, Mine?" Katie asked, holding her arms up.
"I'll take her to Engineering. Thanks, Doctor." Chakotay picked her up and headed out of the room. "Okay, Katie, we're going to see a good friend of mine."
"Lub you, Mine," she said with a winning smile.
"So I'm 'Mine' now, hmm? What ever happened to 'Koday', Katie?" Chakotay touched her nose playfully.
Katie frowned for a minute and it looked like she was concentrating. "Mine 'Koday?" she offered.
Chakotay chuckled and kept walking. It wasn't long before he reached engineering and headed towards B'Elanna's office. "B'Elanna?" he called. "I've got a problem that I could use some help with."B'Elanna came out from behind the conduit that she'd been working on. "Chakotay," she began, then she caught sight of the Captain. "Where did the kid come from?" she asked.
"Me Kadie," she said.
"B'Elanna, I need you to see if there are chronoton particles hanging around her," he said. "This is the Captain, she's just... de-aged."
B'Elanna rolled her eyes and held out her hands to Katie. "Want to come over here, sweetheart?" she asked.
Katie launched herself out of Chakotay's arms and into B'Elanna's. "I'll scan her, Chakotay, but why haven't you gotten her anything to wear? We don't know how long it'll take to figure out how to reverse what's happened to her, and she can't wear this."
"I didn't think of it," he said defensively. "There hasn't been time; I had to take her to see the doctor."
"Mine, come here." Katie demanded imperiously, pulling the lollypop out of her mouth. Willingly, Chakotay came closer he opened his mouth to say something else, and Katie stuck her half-eaten lollypop in his mouth. "Kadie share!" she said, clapping her hands.
B'Elanna snickered. "So she calls you 'Mine'?" she asked.
"Can we just scan her?" Chakotay asked as he pulled the candy out of his mouth and surreptitiously put it in the recycler.
"Let's get her a diaper and clothes first before she makes a mess," B'Elanna said. She walked over to the replicator, punched in a selection, and pulled out a set of clothing the right size. "She can pay me back once we get her back to normal," she muttered.
B'Elanna handed the clothes to Chakotay. "Okay, 'Mine,' you get her dressed while I go get my tricorder."
Katie giggled and held out her arms. "'Koday!" she called cheerfully. "Mine!"
A slow, evil grin spread over B'Elanna's face. "You do realize, Old Man," she began, "that the two of you are going to be teased about this until we get home?"
"Don't remind me," he said with a groan as he cleared a spot on B'Elanna's desk and diapered the baby clumsily, then started to pull the too-large top off her.
Katie frowned at him. "I do," she said, then tried to take the jacket and turtleneck off herself.
B'Elanna tried not to laugh as she programmed the tricorder and started scanning the captain. "No sign of anything unusual, including chronoton particles."
"Thanks, B'Elanna," he said with a grimace. Chakotay wrestled the new clothes onto Katie, then picked her up again. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her; she's too little to leave alone, but I'm going to have to call a meeting to see if we can figure out what happened so that we can reverse the process."
B'Elanna smoothed her tunic down over her pregnant belly. "Talk to Sam Wildman," she suggested. "She's managed to cope with Naomi, and I bet she'd know somebody who'd be willing to baby-sit while you take care of stuff; she's been telling me how she handled things when Naomi was a baby."
Chakotay rubbed his eyes with his free hand, then looked down at Katie, who was busily engaged in playing with his rank bar. "I should've thought of that, but—"
B'Elanna chuckled and leaned against the wall. "I'd be distracted, too, if my best friend was suddenly a two-year-old kid and I was going to have to be Captain until we figure out how to fix it."
Chakotay pushed a strand of ginger hair out of Katie's mouth. Katie frowned at him, then got distracted by his tattoo. She patted it curiously, then laid her head on his shoulder. "I don't know what we're gonna do if we can't find a way to reverse this," he said.
Katie looked up at him and flashed a bright smile. "Mine no be sad," she said, and then pulled at his collar. Without thinking, he leaned down slightly, and she gave him a wet kiss on the cheek.
"Oh yeah," B'Elanna said. "You two are never going to hear the end of this—-I now have enough stuff to tease you about for the next sixty years or so."
Chakotay just shook his head and left Engineering. He hoped that Ensign Wildman had some short-term solutions about their new childcare problem so that they could work on getting the Captain back to normal. While he wanted children--preferably his and Kathryn's--he didn't want Kathryn to be a child. He just couldn't see raising the woman he had fallen in love with so many years ago.
TBC...