TITLE: Chakotay's Holidays: The Things We Do For Love
AUTHOR: Brenda Shaffer-Shiring
RATING: PG
CODES: C/T
PART: 18/20
DISCLAIMER: (To the tune of Queen's "Bicycle")
I love to write my Star Trek fics, I love to write my fics
I love to write my Star Trek fics, and yes! my fics for Voyager
But though I love to write my fics, I do not own Star Trek
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to my faithful beta, DianeB.
SUMMARY: In honor of Chakotay's birthday, B'Elanna tries to reconnect with the spirit guide she tried once to kill. A familiar presence comes to her aid.

The desert sun beat hot upon her back, and made shimmering waves of heat rise above the sandy dunes of the Baja desert. Above her, the sky was clear and cloudless, no aircar or other traffic marring the brilliant blue expanse. If not for the presence of a single hovercar, parked twenty meters behind her, B'Elanna Torres might almost have believed herself to have travelled back to the time of her human ancestors, rather than to a place merely a short ride from contemporary San Francisco.

And if not, of course, for the presence of the man who sat facing her. Though Chakotay, today, looked almost as if he were himself of a piece with their ancestors' times, with the tribal tattoo arching above his brow and the simple, geometric-print shirt covering his broad chest and broader shoulders. Then he smiled that big, heart-stopping smile of his, and was for the moment simply himself.

"B'Elanna," he said, "you know you don't have to do this to please me."

"I know," she said, hoping impatience cloaked her nervousness. "Maybe I just want to see if I can get it right this time."

"Just don't try to kill your spirit guide, and I'm sure you'll be fine." They shared a laugh then, though B'Elanna's had an edge to it. The first – and to this moment, the last – time Chakotay had led her on a quest to find her animal guide, she had been so enraged by the nature of the creature that she had attacked it, failing to kill it, but succeeding in driving it off. What if, because of that disastrous first encounter, it refused to return to her?

She gritted her teeth involuntarily. Well, if it did, then it did, that's all. If Chakotay could risk getting his head bashed in for the sake of honoring her ancestral customs, then she could certainly risk the rejection of an ethereal animal for the sake of honoring his.

Besides, this was one of his birthday presents. And while she knew he'd been sincere in his appreciation of the new computer software she'd given him – programming that would enhance the presentation of his doctoral dissertation – she also knew that this was a gift he would value far more highly. "Let's do it, then," she said.

He took her hands. "Easy, B'Elanna," he counseled softly. "No need to force it."

That's what you think, she mentally contested. But in the heat and stillness, and in the face of his own, almost tangible, calm, she drew in a single deep breath and let the thought fall away. She nodded, once, and he began.

"Akoocheemoya. We are far from the sacred places of our grandfathers. We are far from the bones of our people. But we call to the powerful being who once embraced this woman, that that being might give her the answers she seeks." His steady, constant gaze held B'Elanna's. "Allow your eyes to close," he murmured to her. She closed her eyes, seeing and feeling the warm sunlight through her eyelids. "Breathe to fuel the light in your belly and let it expand until the light is everywhere. Prepare yourself to leave these sunlit sands and return to a place where you were the most content and peaceful you have ever been. You can see all around you and hear the sounds of this place."

She opened her eyes then – and discovered she had gone from one landscape of sunlit sands to another. About her were the spun-sugar-white beaches of Pacifica, which she had shared with Chakotay and Miral on a vacation not so long ago. Overhead the sky was a deep, vivid blue only a shade or two darker than the crystal blueness of incoming tide. Lacy white spume vanished swiftly against the white, white shore.

Sensing more than hearing footfalls in the soft sand, B'Elanna turned, half-expecting to see her spirit guide, half- (despite knowing the nature of this place) to see Chakotay. She saw neither. Instead, Miral Torres stood before her, curly graying hair glinting and leather armor gleaming in the sun. "Mom!"

"My daughter." The older woman looked bemused. "So this is the place a warrior visits in her dreams?"

B'Elanna felt her lips tighten. "I'm not a warrior," she said, the old argument.

"No?" Her mother's eyebrows raised. "And yet I remember a time when you fought for me, daughter. And not so very long ago, you were a she-cat guarding your man."

The blood went to B'Elanna's cheeks. "Yeah, I did that."

"And would you not fight to protect your daughter?"

"Mom, we're in the middle of the Federation. I'm not going to have to—"

Miral regarded her steadily. "Would you not?"

"Of course I would."

"If you fight for those you honor, and for those you love, you are warrior enough, then." The glint of amusement was back in Miral Torres's eyes. "And a warrior may visit where she pleases in her dreams. Especially if it is the place where she discovered her heart."

B'Elanna tried to think of an answer to that, but could not. It was true; this was the place where she had first realized that she loved Chakotay, not with the irrational longing of her youth, nor with the calmer bond of friend to friend, but as a woman loves her partner and equal.

"I am pleased," her mother went on.

B'Elanna blinked. "Even though he's not a warrior?" After his showing at the Day of Honor, Chakotay himself could hardly claim otherwise. His lack of fighting prowess mattered little to B'Elanna, but she'd expected it to mean rather more to her full-Klingon mother.

One corner of Miral's mouth lifted. "He is out of practice," she conceded. "Yet he was a warrior when you met him, and in his soul he is a warrior still. Did he not help you to find the courage in your own soul?"

B'Elanna could only nod.

"As for the rest,' Miral shrugged, "have you not agreed yourself to teach him?"

"Yeah." B'Elanna's mouth quirked upward. "I guess I have."

"Then you are well matched."

"Yeah. I guess we are." They stood together peaceably for a few moments. "I have to say, Mom, you're not who I was expecting to find here."

"Oh? And who were you expecting?"

"Well," B'Elanna hesitated, unsure how to explain or even whether she needed to. "My spirit guide."

"Ah." Miral nodded in understanding. "The animal who comes to you in this place."

"Umm….yeah."

"The one you tried to kill, the last time he came to you?"

B'Elanna fought an urge to shift her feet. "Yeah."

"He recognized my greater right, and waits for my departure."

"What?" B'Elanna was bewildered. "He's waiting for me?"

"Of course." Miral looked surprised at the question.

"Even though I tried to kill him?"

Miral barked laughter, hands on her hips. "Especially because you tried to kill him! He knows something of Klingons, after all."

B'Elanna shook her head, bemused in her turn. "I guess he would."

Miral hugged her daughter in strong, warrior's arms. "Be well, my daughter. Be happy with this man you have chosen."

"Mom….are you happy?" After what she had risked, what she had given, B'Elanna had the right to ask.

The brown eyes that met B'Elanna's were filled with love and pride. "My daughter fought to win my way into Sto-Vo-Kor! She gave our line a strong girl-child! And now she stands before me having found her worthy mate. How could I be anything other than happy?"

B'Elanna could not help smiling. "Thanks, Mom. That's good to know."

"And I will tell it to you again as many times as you wish, B'Elanna. If you wish to speak to me here, you have only to come and ask. But for now," her eyes twinkled, "there is another who wishes to speak to you." With that, she was gone.

B'Elanna had time for one moment of regret before she heard the growl.

She had not seen the knife before, but she snatched it up from the sand, diving quickly to her left as the targ charged. She rolled and came back up, and the battle was on.

She opened her eyes to see Chakotay sitting opposite her in the Baja sands. "You look pretty pleased," he observed, a smile playing about his full lips. "I take it things went better this time."

"You bet." She and her guide had led one another a wild, exhilarating chase. "Thanks." She leaned forward and kissed him, and was even more pleased. "But you were wrong about one thing." She didn't explain it right away, instead enjoying the look of confusion on his face.

NEXT: "And to All a Good Night" (Christmas)