"Having a good time Captain?" Tom asked the Captain as she stood by herself momentarily when Henley excused herself.

"Actually yes." Janeway smiled but Tom could see the fatigue in her eyes.

"I'm glad. Things were a little too tense today for a while." Tom mused. Kathryn looked at him sharply. Not another one. Tom had something up his sleeve and she knew what it was about although she didn't exactly know what it was.

"Yes they were." She said simply.

"I'm glad the former Equinox crew members came tonight, it will give us a chance to get to know one another a little better before we start serving with one another. Whose idea was it?" Tom asked, a little too innocently in Kathryn's book. She decided to let this play itself out. She was too curious to do otherwise.

"It was Chakotay's," Tom laughed at that. "Figures, that guy is way too predictable and boring at times, yet it would be hard to imaging this crew without him as the First Officer. No offense, but given a choice between Tuvok and Chakotay, I prefer Chakotay anytime, him I can get to."

Janeway put on one of her more famous looks and smirked at him.

"Oh I don't know, I think you do a very good job at rattling Tuvok"

"I wonder if any of the Equinox crew gave Ransom or even Max Burke a hard time. I bet it would be Sofo. He has a twisted sense of humor."

"Oh?"

"If you don't believe me, go over there yourself and see."

Kathryn now looked at Tom directly. He was the picture of innocence. She wondered how he managed to keep that look with a straight face when she felt she was being smacked upside the head with a wet noodle.

"I think I will"

One thing Kathryn had to give Tom credit for was that she didn't know if the point of the conversation was to make her realize how happy people were to have Chakotay as a first Officer, or to see beyond what the Equinox crew did in the Delta Quadrant for the sake of integration of the crews……..

Or both.

"I have a really good Hoverball program. If we have time off together, we should play."

"Yes sir," All of a sudden, Tassoni seemed to come to attention. As he was glancing over Harry's shoulder, Harry turned to see who was responsible for the change of the crew man's demeanor. He wasn't surprised to see the Captain standing there. All the others from the Equinox seemed as nervous as Tassoni while the Captain was standing there watching them with one of her unreadable expressions.

"If you will excuse me." Harry got out of there. He felt bad for leaving the Equinox crew alone with the Captain, but quite frankly he didn't want to be there. He had enough of the clashes between the two crews when the Captain was present.

"At ease all of you." They tried to relax, but Kathryn could see that they were not quite making it.

"I'm glad to see all of you here. I know that it was a request and you're probably only here because you feel like you dare not disobey even that, but it's important that the rest of the crew get to see you and to interact with you because you will be working closely together. Out here, we depend on one another and I know in time, we will be able to depend on you after you earned our trust. I have reviewed each of your files. You were fine officers. I expect that time to be short. Is that understood?"

"Yes Captain." There were looks of relief amidst the looks of puzzlement. But Kathryn knew that they would eventually get used to her as they did their former Captain.

"Hello Commander"

"Gilmore, how are you enjoying it?"

"I must admit, when you first asked me to come, I was a little unsure of how this would be. But people have been pretty tolerant. Especially the senior officers."

"They're a fine crew and I expect that one day we will be proud of you all as part of that crew."

"You're talking about the Captain and yourself aren't you?"

That surprised Chakotay. He hadn't realized that he had said "we" until Gilmore pointed it out to him. So even now, even to those who just met them, they still functioned like one united command unit. More than that, he still considered himself a part of the royal "we" of Voyager. This remark coming after he had spoken to Tuvok and B'Elanna, Chakotay had felt as if he were being hit over the head with a rubber hammer as far as how well his relationship with Kathryn worked for the crew and individual members of that crew.

"Yes, I am."

"You and Captain Janeway are an interesting team. The crew talks of the two of you as a unit, but it is obvious who the Captain is even if she wasn't called by rank. And they talk of you fondly as a First Officer, except when it comes to ship functions and duty, then the respect and the authority as the First Officer comes into the play. It was very different on the Equinox."

"How so?"

"Rudy and Max were very different. Sometimes we'd wonder who the Captain was. Rudy was never the same after we encountered the Krowtonan guard. We lost over half our crew during that encounter and I think after he started doubting his ability to lead us. He gave the order to keep going when we found out that we had violated their space. After that, he seemed to rely more and more on Max for support and deferred to him. Until the end. I think that meeting Captain Janeway, seeing how well all of you have feared after years of travel, made him start remembering who we are and what we were supposed to be. It was good to see our old Captain again even if it was for a short time."

They had been facing the viewport and while she was speaking, Chakotay could see her eyes reflected in the transparent bulkhead off the blackness of space. They were full. All of a sudden Gilmore caught herself and turned suddenly to face him.

"I'm sorry Commander. You must be sick of us already, I didn't mean to……."

"Don't worry about it Gilmore. You all have been through a harrowing set of experiences here in the Delta Quadrant and have done terrible things in the name of survival. I expect all of you will need to talk about what you have been through. We don't have a counselor on board, but the Doctor is neutral and I would recommend, Neelix or Ensign Parris and Kim and my door is always open if you need an ear."

"The crew says that about you to Commander. They say you've helped a lot of people through difficult times, including the Captain. I just hope that you don't think that any one of us is beyond redemption."

Chakotay smiled at that. "No, I don't."

"Chakotay."

"Kathryn."

The use of the first names did not escape Gilmore, but she noticed it was the only time that she had heard Captain Janeway called by her first name to her face. And it had been spoken by her first officer.

"If you will excuse me." Marla left them with that.

"I was about to head out, so I wanted to say goodnight."

No, you didn't

"I'll walk with you."

"Thank you." There was a look of relief on Kathryn's face. It confirmed Chakotay's suspicions.

"How's Gilmore doing?"

"She's OK."

"It looked like the you two were having an intense discussion back there."

"She was just talking about her experiences aboard the Equinox and how much different it's going to be here, especially in terms of leadership and authority. It seems that you and Captain Ransom are a lot different in the way you command your crew."

Kathryn made a face. Chakotay did not miss it but decided that he wouldn't press the issue. They were on shaky ground as it was. If she wanted to say something, then he would leave it up to her.

They walked along in silence. It was punctuated by the given commands to the tubolift, but it wasn't as easy or as comfortable as it used to be. When they reached the Captain's door, he found that Kathryn had trouble looking at him. He was puzzled at that, she seemed to do fine when they were in the Mess Hall, but he realized that it may have been because there were a lot of people around. Maybe she felt that now that they were alone, he would be waiting for an explanation, or maybe she just felt that one was needed in order to keep the lines of communication open between them.

He put his arm on hers briefly and finally she did look up at him.

He read her indecision, her confusion, her shame and her disappointment in herself, on her face. But until she gave him more to go on, there wasn't much else he could do.

"Goodnight Kathryn." He gave a small smile and then left