AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!

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Chakotay thought that he'd be the first awake. The little house was silent and dark. Kathryn had been restless for the first part of the night, and he'd actually distracted her with a story that his father used to tell him about his people. She'd laughed, at first, about the fact that she was too old to require a bedtime story. Still, listening to him speak had calmed her. Chakotay hadn't stopped the playfully protested story until he was certain that her breathing had evened out and she hadn't moved in some time. She was still sleeping when he woke and left his bed as quietly as possible. The rest of the house was dark and silent, so he assumed that he was the first awake. He dressed and made his way outside to greet the morning and to begin to meditate on the best life for all of them and what they would need to achieve it.

He wasn't the first awake, though, and he quickly became aware of that.

The scratching noise had drawn Chakotay's attention—mostly because they had no idea who or what else might inhabit the planet, especially if they'd failed to show up on their tricorders for some reason. He'd followed the noise a very short distance, around the side of the house, to find Daryl sitting and working diligently on something.

"What is that?" Chakotay asked, inviting himself to where Daryl sat, working away at a stick with a knife.

Daryl laughed to himself.

"Your people mighta knowed about this," Daryl mused. "I can see how all your technology coulda got in the way of you identifying it, though. This here is, in the simplest terms, what we would call a pointy stick. Now, when I'm done with it, the pointy stick can become anything from a stake to a spear to—hell, even an arrow."

"You're an asshole," Chakotay said with a laugh. He sat down next to Daryl.

"I've heard that before," Daryl mused.

"I mean what are you making with the sun barely up?" Chakotay asked.

"When the sun's barely up," Daryl said, "I find it's a good damn time to start thinkin' about breakfast. I don't know what the hell else we gonna find livin' around here, but I know that water's full of fuckin' fish. Brimmin' over. So I'ma go down there an' spear up enough fish that everybody eats. And Carol? She can work wonders with anything you give her to cook. The thought of breakfast is already got my stomach growling."

"We could replicate breakfast," Chakotay pointed out. Daryl hummed and nodded. His expression said more than his words ever could. "I know you're suspicious of the replicator."

"It don't work with magic," Daryl said. "I weren't even on the ship long, and I learned that it runs off a power source. One of like a half a dozen that B'Elanna told me powered different things on the ship."

"Right," Chakotay said.

"Look around us," Daryl said. "This ain't a good time to be dependent on power sources we don't got no more. Eventually, the charge on that thing runs out. And then it's us an' our pointy ass sticks out here. I used the replicator this morning. Begged up an assload of tools. Knives for everyone. Tools to build and plant and a shit ton of stuff for cookin' over an open fire. Tools. That's what we need that thing to spit out. The rest? We can make do on our own. When it dies, it's them tools we gonna want most of all."

Chakotay's gut tightened.

"I know you're right," Chakotay said. "And it's a solid plan. We need to reserve replicator power for tools and things we can't easily find."

"Until we find a source of metal, we got stone and wood to work with," Daryl said. "So nails an' shit's gonna go with tools. First thing I'm buildin' today is a bed for me an' Carol to share. Fuck sleepin' on them prison issued cots."

Chakotay laughed to himself.

"On the other end of the house, I think we'll be keeping our cots," Chakotay said.

"Only 'cause you want 'em," Daryl said.

"That's not exactly the case," Chakotay said. "It's not entirely up to me." He reached for one of the sticks that Daryl had piled up, but hadn't started sharpening. He selected a knife that fit his hand well from the pile that Daryl had near him—clearly part of his replicated hoard. "We need to replicate more seeds, too. Neelix sent down a few boxes, but more is always a good idea. We'll find plenty of plants and things to eat here, I'm sure, but at least we can know we'll have a few tastes from home. The planet is comparable enough to Earth that everything we've got should grow well here."

"You won't hear no complaints from me," Daryl said. "You know what you doin' with that stick?"

Chakotay laughed to himself.

"Don't underestimate me," Chakotay warned. "I grew up with my father teaching me everything that I needed to know to survive. I'm perfectly prepared to live without technology."

"Then we oughta do pretty damn good," Daryl said. "Just gonna be Kathryn that's gonna struggle."

Chakotay hummed.

"Don't underestimate Kathryn, either. Besides her courses on survival at the Academy, she's been in quite a few situations where many others wouldn't have survived. She enjoys creature comforts—like anyone, maybe, but she's entirely able to survive in even some wildernesses that you couldn't even imagine."

"Duly noted," Daryl said.

"Still, we—we welcome all the advice and expertise you can offer," Chakotay said. "You and Carol have, by far, spent the most time using your survival skills."

"How about we all just work together?" Daryl asked, some humor slipping into his tone of voice. Chakotay accepted with silence and whittled away at the end of the stick to make it pointed and proper for using as a spear to gather fish. "You don't think Kathryn's science experiment's gonna work out," he offered after a few moments of silence.

"What?" Chakotay asked.

"Her science experiment," Daryl said. "You don't think it's gonna work out. You're tryin' to pretend you think it is—for her benefit—but you don't believe it." Daryl looked at Chakotay when Chakotay looked at him. Daryl shrugged. "Don't underestimate me, neither. I'm real damn observant."

Chakotay laughed to himself.

"I already knew that," Chakotay offered. "I'm pretty observant myself." He sighed. "I believe she could find a cure. That shuttle is only Warp 4 capable, though."

"We ain't never catchin' up to Voyager," Daryl offered.

"And you can double or triple the seventy-year plan," Chakotay said.

"Forget that shit," Daryl said. "I don't normally speak for Carol, but I'ma speak for her now. You two pull outta here in that shuttle an' you goin' on your own. I've seen cans from fuckin' Costco that was bigger'n that shuttle. Carol's claustrophobic as hell. She might can be sedated long enough for you to stuff her in that tube when it was hooked up to Voyager, but she ain't gonna make it in no little shuttle like that. Besides—figurin' we got seventy or eighty years together, I'd damn sure rather spend it here, livin' the best we can—livin' a full damn life—than hurtlin' through space in a tin can. No offense, but you go—you two are goin' alone."

"I think we both know we're not leaving the planet," Chakotay said.

Daryl hummed to himself.

"But you ain't gonna tell her that?" Daryl asked.

"It means so much to her," Chakotay said. "And right now—if that's what gets her up in the morning and keeps her going?"

"I get it," Daryl said quickly. Chakotay looked at him and Daryl nodded his head before he went back to working on another stick he'd picked up. "I do. I get it. You wanna—give her hope. You wanna give her somethin' good. Somethin' to look forward to. Keeps her carin' about the future and workin' toward it. Somethin' that makes her happy. You'd give every fuckin' thing you got to give her what the hell you know would make her happy. Really, truly, happy."

"You want to make Carol happy," Chakotay said. He didn't mean it as a question. He only meant to prompt Daryl to keep talking. It worked.

"All I want," Daryl said. "Wanted it since—I seen how bad she was hurtin'. She never deserved it. Got out from under the asshole she was married to and then…lost everything. Life just fuckin' hit her in the face every which way she turned. You know? I shoulda been closer to her when them monsters went after Sophia. It shoulda been me that went after Sophia. It weren't. It was Rick that went after her first. Got there first. I did everything I could to put Sophia back in Carol's arms—back where the hell the kid belonged. But it weren't 'til later that I knew that every damn thing I done was in vain. Rick left her when he went after her. She was dead 'fore he made it back to the highway. I was lookin' for a corpse the whole damn time I went lookin' for her after that, and the whole time I was prayin' I could put that lil' girl back in her mama's arms."

Chakotay swallowed. His brain knew and understood everything Daryl was saying. His stomach, though, found it uncomfortable simply because he hated the idea of suffering—and he especially hated it for someone that he'd come to know as a warm, friendly, caring person.

"Her daughter?" Chakotay asked, already knowing the answer. Daryl ignored the stupidity and obviousness of the question. Instead, he simply hummed.

"Lost two little girls she—adopted. Ended up with. After Sophia. Then she adopted a son. Had to see his fuckin' head on a damn pike," Daryl said.

"I would say I'm sorry, but that doesn't seem like enough to say," Chakotay said.

"What the hell else is there to say?" Daryl asked. "Now it's three hundred years in the past and—we got a whole new life here. Right? A whole new lifetime ahead of us. And I don't care if I'm spearin' fish for the rest of my life, I'd be a fuckin' fool not to take advantage of what I got. Find the happiness we can have here. Make sure she gets as much of it as I can give her. And—I'ma start by spendin' this afternoon workin' on a bedframe we can share."

"I'm sure she's going to like that," Chakotay said.

Daryl hummed.

"I'ma start on it right after I get some fish, build a fire, an' set it up so Carol can cook," Daryl said. "And then I'ma walk around to try to figure out what else lives out here. See what's good for trapping and what we need to be careful of."

"You're sure there are animals out here we need to be careful of?" Chakotay asked.

"You know as good as I do how an ecosystem works. Prob'ly the same on just about any planet. This place is fertile. It's like Earth. We picked up that there was some animal life. Now—if there weren't predators, the place would be overrun with smaller prey. Somethin's gotta keep it in check or it would be crawlin' with whatever could procreate. We don't know what's here, but there's a whole damn world around us. So, I'm a do a little trackin'. Set a couple traps and snares. See what we get. I'd appreciate the—the wisdom of your people. If you got any of it to offer."

Chakotay laughed to himself.

"I'll see what I can do," he said. "I'd like to do what I can to help. I'm not bad at building things, either. I've built a lot, actually, in my life. I'd be happy to help you make the bed you want to build."

"That's fine," Daryl said. "But—what are you makin' Kathryn? I know your ass is planning something. I can see it all over you an' there weren't no damned reason for you to come out here this early if it weren't to start figurin' it out."

Chakotay swallowed down the smile that he felt creeping across his lips.

"That obvious?" He asked to the ground beside him where the wood shavings were going now that he was working on a set of smaller sticks that would clearly be arrows for a bow that he assumed Daryl would either make or replicate.

"Were you tryin' to hide? Because you ain't hidin' shit," Daryl said, laughing to himself.

"Kathryn doesn't know," Chakotay said. "She doesn't realize. Or she doesn't feel the same."

"Kathryn's scared," Daryl said. "There's a big damn difference. She ain't hidin' shit neither. And if you don't see it? It's 'cause you too much like a puppy followin' her around to see it." He laughed to himself again. "I talked to Carol about it. Last night. Couldn't sleep, so we talked. I mean—we're a damn good pair to talk about the mess you got, but…I made Kathryn get her ass in that room. The rest is up to you."

"It's not that simple," Chakotay said. "If she's not interested…"

"Scared and not interested ain't the same thing," Daryl said. "That's one thing me an' Carol both figured out. We'da given ourselves a whole lot more time together if we'da figured out that we were both scared shitless, and that didn't mean not interested. Listen—if I had more of that matin' fever handy, I'd cough all over Kathryn for you, but I don't have it. So that means you're stuck doin' this the hard way. Meaning—your move, Romeo."

"You're playing matchmaker?" Chakotay asked.

Daryl put his stick down and lit a cigarette.

"I replicated tobacco seeds, too. We gotta start workin' on a plan to get shit in the ground," he said. Chakotay ignored his digression. Daryl came back to the topic at hand, as Chakotay knew he would. "Listen—it's obvious you both got feelings. Forever's a long time if we play our cards right. If we don't find nobody else on this planet, there's four of us and—I'm willin' to fight over Carol. So—that leaves the odds pretty damn decently skewed in your favor. Hell—even back during the damn plague my odds weren't that good. You fuck this up? That's on you. The universe can't hand it to you no damn easier."

"She's devastated," Chakotay said. "Losing the ship. Her command. Everyone and…any chance of getting home."

Daryl hummed and stood up, gathering up some of his sticks.

"Sounds like she could really use some comfort," Daryl said. "Maybe you know somebody that's got some to spare. I'm goin' fishin'. You welcome to come if you want."