She had gone straight to the conference once she had left the transport shuttle and now it was nearly midnight and she had another shuttle to catch in the morning. The only reason she had agreed to speak is because Seven was supposed to speak as well and she hadn't seen her in quite a while. When she arrived, Seven was nearing the end of her speech on the Borg transwarp systems and was gone before Kathryn had even caught her eye.
Many of the former Voyager crew were angry with her for leaving Starfleet without any explanation. Now, Chakotay was the Captain and had left for a mission less than 3 weeks ago. B'Elanna was on the ship, but Tom wasn't, a fact that Kathryn found intriguing. Their marriage couldn't survive the alpha quadrant and Tom was one of the people who left Starfleet. Seven had never joined, and Neelix was in the academy. Most of the Voyager crew had stuck together with Chakotay and she was glad they had each other at all. Voyager had become the outcasts of the quadrant upon their return. They had all picked up strange habits such as constantly rationing, and never using replicators, it was hard for them to be anything but together. But the officers who had quit Starfleet, like herself and Tom, seemed to just disappear into the woodwork. Seven managed to make a living and had an apartment in Switzerland with an aunt.
She hadn't contacted Tom yet, but knew a few places he might be and just needed the motivation to go find him. It would be painful, she knew. But, for now, she cleared her mind of such thoughts and concentrated on the feel of water on her skin and candle light dancing on the walls. She let her eyes drift close, and was nearly asleep when she heard the chime at her door sound. Sighing, she toweled off quickly and dug out her light blue robe, to cover up with. She opened the door and Seven stood looking uncomfortable.
"Seven!" She said, letting her in to the dark hotel room, except for the small amount of candle light coming from the bathroom.
"I saw you speak at the conference." She stated. Seven looked good, Kathryn decided. She wore beige slacks and a black sweater, and her hair was down around her face, instead of pulled back so severely. Her implants were still there, but some people liked to keep their scars.
"I thought you hadn't seen me." she said, quietly.
"I've interrupted you, I should not have come."
"Where are you staying, Seven?" she asked, stopping the woman from leaving.
"My shuttle left an hour ago. I'm not staying anywhere." She informed the older woman.
"You can stay here. I have to leave in a few hours anyway, but the room is paid for an extra day." she told Seven. "I think there is a robe in that closet." She said pointing to the door near the bed.
"Thank you…" She felt Seven hesitate at what to call her, she was hardly a Captain anymore.
"I guess it's Kathryn." Kathryn told her. "I'm almost done in there. I'll be out soon." She left Seven standing uncertainly in the bedroom.
When Kathryn came back out, she didn't feel like sleeping. Sleep was not an easy thing to come by these days, and tonight was no different.
"It's hard to understand that this is what we fought so hard to come back too, isn't it?" Kathryn asked. Seven was standing in the open doorway, letting the night air come into the room, watching the tree outside blow in the breeze.
"Earth is not what I expected." she agreed.
"I want you to know, that none of us knew it would be like this." Kathryn tried to comfort the woman.
"Nothing is ever the same as you expect it to be."
"I didn't think anyone would care so much that I left Starfleet."
"You could've been an admiral." She reminded the older woman.
"I didn't want that."
"Are you doing what you want now?" The words were spit out so forcefully it even surprised Seven. Kathryn didn't answer, but sat on the foot of her bed.
"I'm sorry I can't be with you, Seven." She said into the darkness. The door clicked gently shut and Kathryn was alone.