"Mmm...mm..."

She opened her eyes slowly, as even the very dim flickering light pained them. She was lying on something soft, looking at a stone ceiling in an invitingly warm and comfortable room. Somewhere near her was a blazing fire, and she smiled subconciously in the contradictory warmth.

Her last memories were of the cold...So cold. Snow, sleet. Biting winds, walking with Chakotay and--

Her eyes opened further, her lips parted as she remembered her last few moments of conciousness. Had he said what she thought she had heard? And if he had, had he meant it? Her own memories from the night of the dance filtered through her mind again. Had she dismissed it too soon, too quickly?

"Oww..." Thinking too hard made her head hurt, and she chose to take a moment to enjoy the warmth without thought.

"Captain?"

She opened her eyes, which had drifted closed again without her consent, and found herself looking into the blurrily concerned, utterly welcome, yet still somehow school-boyish face of Tom Paris.

"Tom?" she asked, her voice audibly hoarse. She tried to sit up, but his gentle hands pushed her back down onto what she now suspected were several blankets with a soft cushion under her head. Suddenly, the cold flooded back through her and she shivered.

Janeway watched as Tom took a dripping cloth from a basin, squeezed it out a bit, and laid it across her forehead softly. The warm water it was filled with eased some of the lingering frosty chill, and she gave him a weak smile of thanks.

"How do you feel?" he asked her.

"Tired...A little cold...But I'm alright. Where are we?" It was certainly a building somewhere, but that was about all she could tell.

"In a Neolin village," he replied, taking the cloth, dipping it, squeezing it, and laying it back in its place on her forehead. "I was able to initiate a site to site transport near these coordinates before the crash, but I couldn't get you and Chakotay."

"Chakotay...Where is he? Is he alright?"

He smiled slightly. "He's just fine. Right now he's speaking with some of the Neolins." Tom shifted into a more comfortable position beside her.

She nodded almost invisibly. "So how did we...that is to say, he and I...get here?"

"I convinced some of the Neolins to help me search for you two. It wasn't too long before we found you, you had actually made it quite a distance. We found Chakotay carrying you through the storm."

"Storm?" That explained the exceptional amount of sleet and snow. "Ow." She closed her eyes again, the feeling coming rather painfully back to her fingers. It felt as though thirty thousand hot needles were being jabbed into her fingertips.

"Are you hurt?"

She smiled wearily again, not opening her eyes. "No...I'm just defrosting..."

"Sleeping Beauty awakens, I see," said a familiar voice. There was a sliver of dull daylight amidst the glow of the fire for a minute as some kind of door opened, and she watched it disappear as it closed.

"I do look well rested don't I?" she mused, her voice still not at...peak efficiency.

"You look thoroughly frozen." Chakotay said as he crouched beside her.

She opened her eyes halfway to look at him, and her gaze met his. They watched eachother for a split second, before Chakotay looked around to Tom. "I've told them what happened, and they're willing to help us to contact Voyager. They say they have ships in the vicinity, and they'll try to get word to our people about what's going on. I'd like you to go meet with their navigators and give them Voyager's last coordinates before we lost contact."

Tom nodded and stood. "Right," he said, turning and leaving the room.

There was a moment of silence before she decided they needed to talk. Taking a deep, silent breath, she began with two simple words. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For not leaving me, even when I told you to."

"That's one order I will never follow," he said, smiling down at her.

She smiled slightly and looked at the wall, watching the firelight flicker and cast shadows over it. "And...What you said..." she finally ventured, tentatively. "When you said.."

"When I said that I loved you," he finished for her.

The uncomfortable knot in her stomach tightened. "Y-yes. Then...I heard right.."

"Yes." His face remained unreadable.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position slowly, wrinkling her nose with the effort. "Then...I know it was cold..and you were trying to get me to go...But...Did you...mean it?" She winced visibly as soon as she had finished.

There was a moment of silence, a moment that almost made her wish she had been left out in the snow. Then she felt a hand around the back of her neck, and next thing she knew, her eyes were closed again, and they were kissing.

When he drew back a little, Janeway stared at him, her heart hammering painfully against her ribs. Her lips were parted, but he didn't look phased. "Does that answer your question?" he asked softly.

Her expression still dazed, she nodded slightly, a few strands of hair falling into her face. "Y...yes.."

He smiled slightly, brushing them back. "Good. Can I ask you a question now?"

She cocked her head, though she had a feeling she knew what he was going to ask.

Chakotay seemed to hesitate, weigh the words before he spoke them. "What about you?" he asked finally, watching her.

Her heart gave another leap. Yes, she had anticipated it, but that didn't make answering it any easier. "I...I..."

He looked downward. "I see," he said, starting to stand. On a sudden impulse, without even thinking, she reached out and caught his arm. "Wait..."

He turned back to her and she met his gaze steadily. After a moment of thought, she nodded. "I...yes...Yes," she decided. "I do...I love you, too..."