Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek – bah!
Author's Note: Hi, it's me again, I'm having trouble loading up documents – is any one else having the problem I dunno? Anyway, some people have said that I'm not focusing on J/C enough in this story, (and I AGREE – I'm beginning to think Shannon's not such a good idea after all) so I've tried to amend that a little. And you know what – I've just realised I've completely forgotten Molly the dog!!!!! Hehe.... grins sheepishly don't hold it against me okay? As always, let me know what you think.
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"What do you think about pink, Captain?"
Kathryn exchanged a look with Chakotay; her favourite Talaxian was just about two words away from being demoted to favourite plasma-relay cleaner.
Chakotay sensing that Kathryn was just about on her last straw, butted in and said, "The Captain and I were thinking more of a blue and silver."
"Blue and silver," Kathryn echoed absently, "I like that..." she said giving away that they hadn't though about those colour combinations before. Actually, they hardly talked about the wedding at all!
"Blue and silver, brilliant choice commander – I'll get the committee to start creating the programme right away."
"Committee?" Kathryn and Chakotay blurted out at the same time.
"Why of course Captain, Tom and I can't do everything ourselves."
"Yes, I understand that Mr. Neelix, but I don't think the crew would be willing to give their free time to the.... Cause," Kathryn suggest diplomatically.
"On the contrary Captain, they've been trying to get you together for ....what's that word..."
"Ions," supplied Chakotay
Kathryn shot her fiancé a look, "Thank you Mr. Neelix – if that'll be all?"
"Captain, there is one other thing?"
Kathryn's head whipped to Chakotay. She had expected Neelix to say that, not Chakotay. He was supposed to be on her side, hadn't they avoided Neelix together yesterday when he had wanted to know how many tiers they wanted on their wedding cake.
"And what could that be Commander?"
"The date."
"That's right Captain," Neelix interrupted, "You and the Commander have failed to set a date."
"I'm not so sure – what... when... would be a good time," she said slowly. "I mean, it has to be when we're travelling through clear space, I don't want any sudden attacks."
"There are hardly any planets in this area Captain, and even those that are around aren't populated. Perhaps you could have it before we leave the region."
"The Commander and I will think about it, thank you Mr. Neelix."
The Command duo watched as the whiskered humanoid hurried out of the room, one hand over his comm. Badge, clearly to report in with his committee.
"Kathryn?" Chakotay asked as she blurted out, "Ions?"
He slipped his hand around her waist, but she backed away, her eyes locked with his. She saw concern, mixed with fear and anxiety, but there was something else too – anger... hostility? She thought she'd fooled him and Neelix, but nothing got past Chakotay – he knew her too well, it was – almost, well.... Scary.
"Kathryn, what's wrong?"
"What do you mean what's wrong – nothing's wrong?"
"You're not setting a date for the wedding. Are you – having second thoughts about this?"
"No," she said slowly.
He gripped her arm, "I don't want you to do anything you think you're going to regret."
"I don't do things I think I might regret," suddenly realising how wrong she was. There had been the array; she regretted blowing it up now – that affair with Micheal Sullivan - lying to Shannon....
"Kathryn, what's it about?" she felt his grip on her arm tighten. She gritted her teeth, and looked at him again. Those dark brown eyes seemed to be telling her that he was afraid of loosing her – again.
"The dress," she blurted out.
"What dress – your wedding dress?"
She looked him in the eye and smiled her crooked grin, "The very one."
"Kathryn?" He flashed her, his dimples.
She felt the colour rise in her face, she wasn't sure if it was because of the fact that she was about to openly admit something she didn't want anyone to know to him, or that that confused puppy dog look made her knees buckle.
"I can't find the right dress," she whispered, "It's not in the database. What if I set a date and still haven't found the right dress by then?"
Chakotay threw back his head and laughed, "And here I was worried you didn't want to marry me."
"Don't tell anyone," she whispered again, sounding childlike. "I mean, Starfleet Captain's aren't supposed to worry about things like dresses and colours like blue and silver."
"But Kathryn who likes shopping should," he whispered back, his face inches from her own. He was amazed at how she could transform from the captain who 'didn't like bullies and threats' to the 'shopaholic' who was worried that her wedding wouldn't be perfect.
He sighed a breathe of relief, before their eyes locked for the third time that day. The closure permitted only one thing. "Chakotay," Kathryn hissed as they broke apart from their kiss, "We're on duty."
"But Tuvok's not...."
"I've replicated macaroni and cheese for you," Kathryn called out to Shannon who sat at her mother's desk trying, but failing to see where she had gone wrong in Tuvok's security report. Perhaps the idea of placing cameras and secret weapons disguised to look like ordinary tools weren't logical enough. She had clearly thought it was a good idea; it had worked for Alex Rider in the book Stormbreaker.
"Thanks, would you consider creating weapons in tricorders and other tools, so if we're ambushed we have secret weapons. You know what? You could hide a small phaser in your com badge."
"And what did Tuvok think?" called Kathryn from her bedroom.
"I didn't say anything about Tuvok." Her mother knew her too well.
"Shannon, you can't keep using what I say to get better grades from Tuvok. You know when it comes to school work, I'm not the Captain. Besides, not everything you read in books is real. I thought you had the brains to know that."
"I do," said Shannon, only slightly hurt.
"Explains why you tried to get B'Elanna to remark your paper when you asked me if I thought shutting down non essential systems when we weren't under attack or going through hostile space was a good idea to conserve energy."
"You said it was."
"I said it would be a good idea and that it would work, if we weren't also a community ship. We're a family; we need this to be a house, not a ship."
"Yeah, but in the paper B'Elanna set, she wasn't talking about Voyager, she was talking about ships in general."
"Most ships have to have their weapons and other systems on all the time because you never know what's going to happen next. They need to be prepared – so do we," Kathryn called out, as she well – wrestled with her mop of auburn hair, "You're smart Shannon, just ... savagely illogical."
"Gee – thanks!"
Kathryn smiled as she hurriedly applied some blush. She was going for the laid back, casual look, but she still wanted to look good for Chakotay. She smoothed out an imaginary wrinkle in her black skirt.
The door bell rang, "Shannon, could you get that?"
"Computer open doors," she said, shooting her mother's room a 'look'. Honestly, one would think you were in the 21st Century with the way people expected you to walk up to a door and open it.
"Too lazy again, huh?" asked Chakotay.
"Hello to you too, mum's still dolling up for you."
"Shannon!" admonished Kathryn.
"You are!" Shannon called back, "She's going for the casual look, that usually take hours," she whispered to Chakotay.
"So tell me, what are your views on shutting down non essential systems to conserve energy on board a star ship?"
"Oh, no you're not. The last time Tuvok gave you an assignment, you asked me if I thought the procedure should be implemented on the ship if we were in the Alpha Quadrant and used it as an argument against Tuvok."
"She did that with you too?" asked Kathryn, hopping out of her bedroom, pulling one strap of her sandal over her heel.
"Hello to you too," said Chakotay, quoting Shannon from earlier.
"You smell nice," said Kathryn huskily as he gave her a quick peck on the lips.
"You look nice."
Kathryn glared at him as she slipped her hands around his waist, "I only look nice?"
"You feel nice too," he grinned, tilting her head up to his.
"Oh, cover your eyes Molly....." Shannon shot them a mocking look, "Not in front of the dog!"
Molly yipped as though in agreement.
"Very funny," said Kathryn still clinging to Chakotay. "Have your dinner and finish that report. When you're done you can go over to B'Elanna and Tom's, Tom requested you join them tonight, they're watching some comedy, but you have to bring the.... Pop... something."
"Popcorn," supplied Shannon.
"Oh, and don't stay up too late."
"You don't either," she winked at Chakotay.
"So where is this 'mysterious' place you're taking me? Some fancy restaurant? A cafe? A moonlight sail?" Kathryn raised her eyebrows suggestively.
"I had something else in mind tonight," said Chakotay, nodding at a passing crewman, who eyed them nervously.
"Oh, you did?"
"I did," he confirmed, "But I think you'll like it."
"I like anything you do for me Chakotay," she said, pausing in front of the holodeck doors.
"Even Leola Root sandwiches."
Kathryn smiled, remembering how he had turned on his heel and walked out of the mess hall, the moment he first smelt the offensive herb.
"You'd have to eat it too."
Chakotay wrinkled his nose, "Well, we can't stand here all day."
"Aww, and here I was having such a lovely time," Kathryn was so happy; she wasn't even sure what she was saying made sense anymore. It was nice, not to have to worry about anything.
"Come on," be grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room.
"Oh no," she said, turning to walk out the moment she took one look around the room. Smack! She walked right into his chest.
"Oh yes. How can you possibly hope to find the right dress, if you don't look?"
"I looked Chakotay, what could you possibly have here that's not on the database?"
"Well – nothing here is on the database. B'Elanna had some old bridal magazines she'd replicated for her wedding and I just got to holodeck to recreate all of them. We'll replicate the one you really like."
"You did all this – for me?" she said gesturing to the large bridal shop. To add authenticity there were other brides being attended to by sales assistants. The shop was completely white, with a small portion of beige and light blue dresses, above the corner was, FOR THE EXPERIENCED BRIDE.
"I take it you don't want me to wear beige or blue."
"I know you look better in beige, but you've got to give white a chance."
"Alright," she said – "But can we delete," she gestured to the other people around the shop, "those other people."
"I'll leave two sales assistants, alright?"
"What are you going to do, while I try on dresses?" she asked, watching as her tall dark Angry Warrior pushed aside a dress to reveal a control panel.
"Watch... and eat," he nodded to the small table of food which had just materialized. "I replicated some tacos and French fries and pizza and to complement the lot, wine – 1937, I heard it was a good year."
"Miss, can I help you?"
"Um..." Kathryn stuttered.
"She's looking for a ... wedding dress – white."
Kathryn laughed; she knew Chakotay was trying to imitate her orders to the replicator for coffee.
An hour later, Kathryn slumped down into the chair next to Chakotay.
"I didn't see that last one," he said, handing her a slice of pizza.
"And you won't – not till... till, how does the 29th of April sound?"
"Praise the spirits," Chakotay hugger her, "She's picked one, hasn't she?" he asked the sales assistant was putting away a rather large pile of dresses.
"A very good dress sir – you will definitely... uh, enjoy... um.. like it."
Kathryn laughed, "I believe we've given away too much already."
"We still have half an hour of the holodeck left, how about a quick stroll on Somerset Boulevard?"
"Thanks for you help," she acknowledge the two assistants.
Chakotay reached for the PADD on a near by table.
"Oh, no you don't," she said, reaching for it before he got it.
"Come on Kathryn."
She laughed and ran out of the building, "Kathryn," he called running after her.
He pinned her against the tree of a near by part, "Oh come on Chakotay, don't ruin the surprise," she said, as she ducked out from under his trap.
"Oh, alright, I'll let you have your fun."
He pulled her down to sit against the tree, next to him and wrapped his arms around her, "So you don't get cold," he whispered.
"Mmmm," she said, "What about out walk?"
"We could just sit and watch the lake instead....."
tbc....
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Author's Note: Well, Molly's back and now I'm sure I'll never forget her again? What did you think of this chapter and the more J/C and less Shannon? Have I finally gotten the balance right? Thanks – KayB
