AN: Here we are, another chapter here.

I wrote Chapters 39 and 40 yesterday, so if you missed those, please be sure to go back and read them before you get to this one!

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

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"That's baby's first holo-image," the doctor said. He was beaming and, honestly, it was the first time that Daryl found himself truly liking the hologram.

He'd looked pretty distracted, when they'd first come in, for something with no actual feelings. They were there to make a decision. Did they keep the baby, or were they going to choose the route of simply moving forward without it? Daryl had expected the hologram not to care either way, and he hadn't voiced his thoughts, but he'd actually looked pleased when Carol had requested that he do whatever he needed to do to make sure that everything was as it should be with the pregnancy. They were moving forward with it and, with that decision made, very little mattered more to either of them than making sure that everything went off without a hitch.

Kes had not been as secretive as the doctor about her feelings, and she'd hugged them both and warmly congratulated them the moment that they'd made clear their decision.

The doctor had made quick work of updating Carol's medical files, and she'd accepted, without any hesitation, anything he'd given her or insisted that he needed to take from her to prove that there was truly a little one and it was as healthy as it could be.

Daryl could barely look at the holo-image that was projected from the doctor's scanner—three dimensional so that he could turn it for them to see all sides—because he'd caught a glimpse of Carol's face out of the corner of his eye, and he wanted to watch her, looking like that, for the rest of his life.

He had never seen her look so radiant and so happy as she looked at just that moment. She didn't even look real to him.

"Our alien looks like an alien, Daryl," Carol said.

"Sure does," Daryl offered.

"Would you like to know the biological sex?" The doctor asked.

"You can tell that?" Daryl asked.

"We can accurately detect the biological sex at seven weeks past fertilization," the doctor offered.

Daryl looked at Carol, but the question had caused a slightly panicked look to settle on her face. Nobody else would have likely noticed it, but Daryl did.

"I think—we might wait on that," Daryl said. "Can we wait?"

"You can know any time you want," Kes offered for the doctor.

"Can I touch it?" Carol asked. She reached out toward the holographic image, but her hand passed through it.

"I'm sorry," the doctor said. "The image is three dimensional, but it isn't solid. For now, your little one can't be physically accessed very easily."

"And it's better that way," Daryl said. "Easier to keep safe and secure in there."

"You're sure it's healthy?" Carol asked.

"As far as I can detect, there are absolutely no problems. As the baby grows, we can scan for other developments, but it's as healthy as it can be at this time," the doctor said.

"I just thought—with my age…my eggs might not be healthy and…" Carol stammered, but she didn't complete the thought.

"Your remaining eggs were rejuvenated at the same time I worked on your abdominal organs and other organs," the doctor said. "I'm sorry, I assumed that you understood that. Your remaining eggs are every bit as healthy as they ever were."

"You mean there's more?" Daryl asked with a laugh.

"Absolutely," the doctor said. "Based on her health, and my scans of her ovaries and uterus, Carol should continue to ovulate for at least another five or ten years. We could use the same technology for her, though, that is often offered to women who have busy schedules and are unsure about when they may wish to build families. The body can safely carry offspring long after ovulation is complete. We also use a fertilization and implantation method for helping certain cross-species couples to conceive. We have small cryo-chambers that can hold eggs, in their frozen state, to be fertilized and implanted directly into the womb. If such a thing is of interest, I could easily freeze some of Carol's eggs and you could live your lives without concern and decide when and if you wished to fertilize the eggs."

"Would I have to—do that today?" Carol asked.

"You could do it any time you wanted," the doctor offered. "It's a simple procedure and the small cryo-chambers are as easily stored as any small supply container."

"Would it hurt the baby?" Daryl asked. "Like we should wait on that—if we decided we might be interested in it?"

"It won't hurt anyone," the doctor assured him. "It's a very simple transport procedure. The tools are very precise, so I could easily avoid disrupting the fetus in any way."

"Baby, please," Carol said. "I know it's the same thing, but…"

"You have referred to your own offspring as an alien," the doctor offered. "Forgive me for assuming that fetus was acceptable terminology."

Daryl heard a little evidence in the hologram's tone that he was at least slightly offended at being corrected.

"The alien's just—it's like a pet name," Daryl said. "We like it. We don't mean that it's actually an alien. We aren't idiots. We know the difference."

"Fetus just sounds cold," Carol offered.

"Nobody wants to sound cold," Kes offered. "The doctor's programming is fully adaptable, though, and this is hopefully only the beginning of welcoming new lives to Voyager. It's good to know that humans prefer the vocabulary of 'baby' over 'fetus' when discussing their gestation."

Daryl nearly laughed at Kes's words. There were always going to be some differences. He was still adjusting to being categorized as Carol's "mate," and he assumed that they'd both adjust to discussions about her "gestation" as time moved on.

"It's OK," Daryl offered, wanting to soothe things over. "Nobody's offended and feelings ain't hurt. Can we have the image, though? To—show everybody?"

Kes smiled.

"I'll load the images on a PADD for you," she said. "It won't be like this, but you can manipulate the image to see all sides."

"We'd appreciate it," Daryl said.

"I take it you're going to start telling everyone?" Kes asked.

Daryl laughed to himself. They'd discussed it that morning. There was no need to keep it a secret. Besides, the more people that knew about it meant the more people that would simply be looking out for the little thing.

"Soon as we hit that hallway," Daryl said, "we're tellin' everybody we see an' we ain't stoppin' until the whole damn ship knows."

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"Do you prefer the term fetus or baby?" The doctor asked. "I was told, this morning, that fetus is too technical."

"Baby," Kathryn said without even a second of hesitation. Clearly the word created the same kind of uncomfortable feeling it must have created in the person who had tried to educate the doctor. Chakotay assumed it might have been Carol, but he couldn't be sure since they'd all but issued a ship wide decree that everyone should go forth and multiply.

"Very well," the doctor said. "In another week, we should be able to determine the biological sex of your baby. If you're interested in knowing."

"We'd love to know," Chakotay said.

"Would we?" Kathryn asked.

Chakotay looked at her. He hadn't thought that they might have different opinions about this. He hadn't even thought about his answer until it escaped his mouth.

"We'll have time to talk about it this week," he offered as a correction. Both Kathryn and the doctor accepted it.

Kathryn was clearly still a bundle of nerves, but she seemed dedicated, at least, to her decision. She handed herself over to be fully examined, and she waited out the collection of samples that the doctor wanted to examine as he updated her file to include the pregnancy.

"Have you decided when you're going to tell everyone?" Kes asked.

"We'd like to keep it between us for a little longer," Chakotay offered, already knowing the correct answer to that question. They needed time. They needed to discuss things. They needed to spend a little time just letting things settle in, and they needed to see what it was like for Kathryn to go through a normal day with the knowledge that the baby was there.

When it had settled in as reality for the both of them, they'd be ready to share it with the rest of the ship.

"You have plenty of time," the doctor offered. Their baby, after all, was miniscule and hardly there.

"We certainly do have time," Chakotay agreed, reiterating what he kept saying to Kathryn when her panic swelled up a little. She had time to deal with everything she worried about. They didn't have to have all the answers today.

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Carol had wanted to tell Neelix, and she'd wanted to do some cooking. She hadn't protested at all, then, when Daryl had declared that he'd like to tell B'Elanna, and he had something he wanted to request of the woman. Carol had kissed him, wished him a good day, and practically jogged toward the mess hall.

B'Elanna was off-duty, and Daryl was happy to find her in her quarters. She welcomed him inside, without hesitation, and she hugged him upon seeing him.

He hugged her back, surprised at how overcome with happiness he felt to see the half-Klingon again after so long on the planet. He'd assumed that, like everyone else on the ship, he'd simply never see B'Elanna again.

"It's good to have you back, Dixon," B'Elanna offered. "We didn't have enough cowboys on the ship while you were gone."

Daryl laughed to himself.

B'Elanna knew nothing more about cowboys than what Tom—her boyfriend, even though she didn't really call him that because, maybe, she hadn't realized that's what he was— had told her, and Tom knew nothing about cowboys beyond what his collection of old movies and old television shows had told him. Still, Tom had pointed out that Daryl was something like a cowboy—perhaps because he'd existed in something of a lawless land while they'd survived Walkers at every turn—and it was something that stuck for B'Elanna.

If he'd wanted to, Daryl could come up with any number of monikers to use to harass B'Elanna, but he was careful not to do that. She was sensitive. Being called cowboy didn't hurt his feelings, and he wouldn't do anything to hurt B'Elanna's feelings if he could help it. He stuck with what he knew didn't bother her—at least not when it came from him.

"Good to be back, Klingon," Daryl said with a laugh. "I figured you couldn't run this ship without my ass."

"That's why we went back," B'Elanna said. "But don't tell the captain."

"I'm glad you ain't on duty," Daryl said. "You got—somethin' you doin' right now?"

B'Elanna raised her eyebrows at him.

"Have you got something you think I should be doing?" She asked.

Daryl laughed to himself. He felt his face grow warm. It was his first time telling anyone. He had permission to tell B'Elanna. He had Carol's blessing to share the news with any and everyone.

It was still going to be a little difficult to say, though, because his mouth wasn't quite used to forming the words.

"Found out somethin' when we got onboard," Daryl said.

"Is this related to that clearance problem yesterday?" B'Elanna asked. Daryl nodded. "I was told it was just a problem with the scanners. A malfunction because of the Vidiian parameters we set on the contamination filters."

"It was," Daryl said. "And it weren't. Not entirely. There was somethin' that triggered it. We found out that—Carol's pregnant. It was the baby that triggered the whole thing to think there was some kind of contamination or parasite."

B'Elanna's furrowed brow gave her a slightly fierce appearance. Daryl was accustomed to her, now, though, and he wasn't at all bothered by it. She was simply processing things and her processing face appeared angry and aggressive. Then it softened.

"Carol's pregnant?" She asked.

Daryl smiled, pleased that she'd latched onto the right part of the whole discussion. He nodded.

"I'ma be a daddy," he offered. He didn't try to keep the smile off his face. "She's ten weeks and two days, according to the doctor."

"Congratulations," B'Elanna offered sincerely. "I have to find her. Tell her congratulations."

"Later," Daryl said, stilling her before she could try to leave her quarters to go and find Carol. "Listen—I need somethin' from you."

B'Elanna stared at him a moment. The look of processing her thoughts hadn't completely left her face.

"Why did Carol's pregnancy end up triggering the contamination alarms for Carol and the captain?" B'Elanna asked.

"Bug in the wirin'," Daryl said quickly.

B'Elanna looked at him in question, and he simply mirrored the expression for her. She was absolutely not done with that train of thought, and that's what Daryl was most afraid of when it came to trying to keep secrets from the ship's Chief Engineer, but at least he'd distracted her a little. He fully intended to distract her more.

"Look—Carol's a little worried. I'll explain it all to you, if you want, but we had some bad luck in the past. I got her calmed down and told her that—I'd help protect the baby against anything that come our way. But it don't look too promising if I can't even break up a fight between you and that asshole, Vorik."

"Hardly anyone could have broken up that fight," B'Elanna said.

Daryl laughed to himself.

"You're a master at them holo things," Daryl said. "Chakotay said so. I want—one that'll teach me to fight things like Klingons."

B'Elanna smiled at him.

"You want to fight Klingons?" B'Elanna asked.

"Prove to Carol that—I can take care of her," Daryl said. "Even here."

"You must really be a man in love," B'Elanna teased.

Daryl felt his stomach clench and his face run warm, but it didn't matter.

"I never pretended I weren't," he said. "You gonna help me or what?"

"I have a program," B'Elanna said. "And I've got some time. But—I want a trade."

"I don't got shit to trade nobody," Daryl said.

"I found some programs on the Millennium Plague in the database. Tom's been obsessed with it since you two came onboard. He's been researching the Plague and everything related to it. It's his new favorite thing. I'd love to learn to play the game with someone who's really experienced. Really knows what they're doing. I'd love help making it as realistic as possible. Then I could introduce Tom to it. If I teach you how to train with Klingons, will you teach me how to survive the Millennium Plague?"

"Walkers?" Daryl asked.

"Reanimated dead," B'Elanna said. "What do you say, Cowboy? A game for a game?"

Daryl laughed to himself.

"You got a deal, Klingon," he offered.