Disclaimer: I only wish Voyager was mine, but Paramount owns them and it is our duty to speculate what they don't see fit to reveal in the series, and are too lazy to make a movie. If only they would see it our way...
Banned From Coffee Chapter 17 - A Pregnant Houdini
The quarters Kathryn Janeway shared with Chakotay were in a complete mess by the time Kathryn had been restricted to quarters for six weeks. At six and a half months pregnant with twins, Kathryn really couldn't be bothered cleaning up the mess she or baby Miral Paris made during the day. Even Chakotay had abandoned cleaning up after his wife, his last atempt resulting in him visiting Sickbay.
Kathryn, currently lying on the living room floor, was playing around with a padd in front of her. The contents of her padd displayed the plans for Chakotay's quarters, the empty space being renovated into a nursery for their twins, to be completed in time for their birth, atleast one month away.
Her eyes starting to droop, Kathryn looked at the chronometer on the wall. 0017 hours it read, well past the time she should be in bed, trying to overcome the insomnia that had settled in recently, from her lack of activity. At 0017, the night shift would be well underway, with Ensign Kim in command.
'Harry,' she thought. 'Now there's someone who won't kick me off my Bridge.' Kathryn rose from her comfortable position, buried in pillows on the floor, ready to sneak out of her quarters and visit the Bridge. 'Lucky Chakotay's asleep,' she thought again, as the doors closed behind her, shutting their quarters away from the corridor before her.
Since it was an ungodly hour of the night, there were very little or no people patrolling the corridors of Voyager, so Kathryn could peacefully approach the turbolift without being discovered. 'Bed rest really was getting boring, so a midnight field trip wouldn't do any harm' she thought, just before ordering the lift to the Bridge.
Instead of hearing the complying 'beep' and the lift speeding towards the top deck, a very familiar and unwelcome voice interrupted her.
"Sorry, Kathryn, but you are not allowed on the Bridge, remember. It's a thing called maternity leave." The Doctor had managed to manipulate the internal sensors, probably with B'Elanna's help, to monitor her every move.
"So, Doctor," she said, directing her voice towards the ceiling. "Are you spying on me?"
A chuckle came through the comm system. "No Captain, I would never do that," he said, sarcasm barely disguised in his mocking tone of voice. 'I'm just your guardian angel, watching over you and protecting you. And keeping you out of trouble."
Kathryn could hear the smirk on his face, but submitted to his requests anyway. "OK, Doctor, I'll return to my quarters, but only if you send me some entertainment. This insomnia is driving me insane, and I really need something to do."
Before she could say anything, Kathryn felt the turbolift move. "Doctor, what are you doing?" she asked sceptically.
The doors opened and Janeway saw the Bridge spread out in front of her. "Doctor, are you doing this for me?"
"Captain on the Bridge," came Harry Kim's voice from her command chair. "Kathryn, what are you doing on the Bridge?"
Stepping out of the turbolift, Kathryn turned to see the night shift all staring at her. "As you were," she said, acknowledging their salute with a warm, appreciative smile.
"Harry, Harry, Harry," she said after a moment, turning to face the ranking officer of the shift, who was 'keeping her seat warm'. "You have been listening to the Doctor too much. As it happens, he let me visit the Bridge."
Harry had a cheeky grin on his face as he turned to look at his very pregnant commanding officer. "Would you like to sit down?" he asked, gesturing to the chair his body had recently vacated.
"Thanks, Harry," Kathryn said, sitting down in her command chair, though she had no authority to do so.
Sitting down in the first officers chair, Harry Kim leant over the console to quietly ask Janeway a question. "Kathryn, if you don't mind me asking, does Chakotay know you're here?"
A sheepish grin this time plastered itself across her face, before it was covered with a look of mock astonishment. "Me, Harry, tell Chakotay where I am in the middle of the night, never. Do you honestly think I would wake him up at," she looked over to a chronometer on the wall. "0035 hours in the morning?"
A chuckle escaped the lips of the senior officer in command of the Gamma shift, before he quickly regained his composure. "Yes, ma'am. So, how are you enjoying your bed rest?"
Another look of mock horror spread across the woman's face yet again. "Harry, how would you like it if you were comfined to quarters, only allowed on the holodeck and in Sickbay?"
"Right, stupid question," he said.
Grinning sarcastically at the man she had almost raised over the past eight years, Kathryn's thoughts ran back to her quarters, where her sleeping husband would tear the ship apart if he couldn't find his houdini.
Looking back at the ensign commanding the night shift, Kathryn noticed Harry's lips were moving, obviously talking to her.
"Sorry, Harry, I missed that," she spoke, redirecting her attention to Mr Kim.
"Would you like to know what has been happening over the last six weeks?" he asked again.
"Sure Harry, if you tell me your story I'll tell you mine," Kathryn gave Harry Kim a warm smile as she spoke, then turned in the command chaor to face the officer, ready to share the event of the last six weeks with eachother.
The alarm in the quarters Chakotay shared with Kathryn woke him up at 0500, bringing him from his dream straight back into reality. Looking around their bedroom, the acting captain realised the other side of his bed was empty, and cold.
Automatically reaching up to the left side of his chest, Chakotay went to tap his comm badge, then realised his chest was bare. Turning to the table flanking the king sized bed, he finally found his communicator and tapped the emblem.
"Chakotay to Janeway," he called, before seeing his wife's comm badge on the opposite bedside table. "Damn," he muttered.
Rising from his comfortable surroundings, Chakotay walked out of the bedroom to search their quarters. After successfully searching the bathroom, living area, kitchen, office and lounge, just to find his wife wasn't there, Chakotay decided to have a look in his old quarters, the ones which were being renovated into a nursery for his unborn children.
Having to exit his main wuarters and enter the nursery in the hall, Chakotay was glad it wasn't shift change time when he realised he only had boxer shorts on, and they were printed with images of Voyager.
The extremely disorganised room hid nothing from the worried man's search efforts. After rumaging through the main room, bathroom, kitchen and baby's rooms, Chakotay still couldn't find his wife.
"Houdini," he said, walking out of the nursery quarters and into the hallway.
"What was that you just said?" Tom Paris asked, appearing in the doorway of the quarters he and his wife resided in.
"I was calling Kathryn a 'houdini', since she has dissapeared and left her comm badge on the bedsode table." Chakotay looked at the married man in front of him, one person who probably had the most restless partner on the ship.
"Yeah, B'Elanna's like that sometimes, but atleast I know she is generally in Engineering. Have you tried the Bridge yet?"
Paris watched his commanding officer and friend as a look of reelief washed over his face. "Yes, the Bridge, that's where she must be," he replied, the far-away tone of his voice telling the helsman he was already with his wife, in spirt.
"See you on duty, sir," Tom said, then stepped back into his quarters, leaving the commander in the corridor, alone in his boxers.
Returning to his quarters, Chakotay quickly had a sonic shower and dressed in his unoiform, ready to take over the Bridge at 0600 for the Alpha shift.
"Chakotay to Bridge," he called to the computer.
"Kim here, sir. Anything I can do for you?" Harry had an inquiritive tone in his voice, obviously curious at what the commander was going to ask.
"Harry, my wife wouldn't happen to be on the Bridge, would she?" he asked, knwing all too well that she probably was.
"No sir, Kathryn is not on the Bridge. Have you tried Sickbay?" Chakotay could hear Harry trying not to giggle over the comm link, and a distinctly familiar giggle in the background.
"Not yet, Harry. I'll see you in a minute for the Alpha shift. Chakotay out."
Puzzled, Chakotay walked slowly out of his quarters and towards the turbolift, quite certain about what he would find at the command centre.
The turbolift doors opened to reveal the Bridge in front of Acting Captain Chakotay's eyes. He looked instinctively towards the command deck, expecting only to see Ensign Kim in the Captain's chair. Instead, he saw Kathryn sitting in her chair, still in her maternity pyjamas with a silk gown over the top, talking to Harry Kim, who was occupying the Commander's chair.
"So much for being confined to quarters," he called from the back of the Bridge, directing the sarcastic comment towards the heavily pregnant woman who wasn't suposed to be anywhere near where she was.
Kathryn and Harry looked up from their current conversation and giggling fit to see a very angry yet amused Chakotay staring at the pair, a look of disbelief plastered across his face.
"As I said before, so much for being confined to quarters, Kathryn. I thought you were restricted from accessing the Bridge..."
A sheepish grin appeared on the pregnant woman's face. "Chakotay, last night I couldn't sleep, I had insomnia, so I tried to escape to somewhere I hadn't been in six weeks. So, I crept into the turbolift, had an arguement with the Doctor, then spent the last five or so hours up here talking with Harry." She stood up and stared her husband directly in the eyes. "Is that a problem?"
Standing in a posture of defeat, Chakotay looked at his wife and the person commanding the night shift. "Well, I suppose I can accept that, but only if you leave the Bridge now and report to Sickbay after you have changed into something more appropriate and have taken your comm badge."
"Yes, sir," she said, mock saluting her husband. "Right away sir."
"See you tonight," he called after her slow moving swollen body as it reached the turbolift.
"Yeah, yeah," she threw over her shoulder. "Only if you're cooking."
