Sorry for the sporadic posting and whatnot. Hoping to wrap up soon. Good things coming.

--

Chapter 8

The debriefings continued. Day after day, one week, and then another. Kathryn could feel herself shrinking into herself, feeling like she was walking through a fog. She just had to power through it, make it through. She sighed and shook her head as if to physically shake off the shroud she felt over her head and shoulders. She and Chakotay had argued again last night. He didn't feel comfortable on Earth, awaiting a decision from StarFleet about his future career, one that he didn't even know if he wanted. He couldn't make a decision on the other job offers from the Universities until he knew his discharge status and the resulting limbo was leaving him on edge.

The last thing Kathryn wanted was Chakotay making himself miserable for her sake. Sekaya has been trying to convince him to go back to Dorvan. Chakotay had said he didn't want to take such a long trip while decisions were being made, but stasis was not in his nature. Instead Chakotay had come up with a compromise. He and Sekaya were leaving in two days for Central America, to connect with the lands of his ancestors.

Kathryn thought she only had 1 or 2 more weeks of hearings. She hadn't said so directly to Chakotay out of fear of derailing his own tenuous process of adapting to being back on Earth, but she was feeling slightly on edge about her own future and legal status. The overwhelming support and celebration she had felt at their arrival was wearing off with time and with the illumination of the details of some of her command decisions. The hearings were non-judicial, but all the information was released to those with security clearances and she knew discussions were being made. It was part of why she encouraged Chakotay to go. She didn't want him getting wrapped up in any legal battles that weren't his own. She knew that wasn't good for their relationship, but if it came to the worst, she didn't want him involved. She sighed and rubbed her neck again as she stared out the window at the fog. If she was charged in a military court for some of her decisions, she knew it would destroy their relationship. She would never allow him to be a part of it and that would destroy him, and any hope of reconciliation thereafter.

Chakotay and Sekaya had been gone for almost two weeks when they told Janeway the following day would be the last. Conclusions would be announced the following morning. After that she would be free to go, and to expect a list of final decisions on promotions and new postings for the entire crew, at least those that remained in StarFleet, within the week.

She sent Chakotay a message saying tomorrow would be the end. He was expected back within the week. She had half-heartedly planned a reunion party to be held at her house in Indiana for after the hearings and after people had received their orders, kind of a celebratory event. That was before the antagonistic turn her hearings had taken and her heart wasn't in it anymore. She didn't want to host a party to celebrate new beginnings if she wasn't going to have one herself.

--

As promised, the hearing concluded just before noon the next day. Conciliatory handshakes for everyone went around. Janeway made small talk with a few Admirals worth talking to, then made a hasty exit. She didn't have plans for that day but she was making them quickly, weighed down by her own emotions.

A couple hours later, Tom and B'Elanna got a message from Admiral Paris asking if they had heard from their Captain.

"No," Tom replied to his father. "We haven't seen her since last week. She came to see Miral and stayed for dinner. She looked terrible though, Dad." The Admiral nodded in acknowledgement. "Haven't talked to her or anything? I haven't been able to reach her, her Comm badge is on Do Not Disturb, she's not answering her home Comm either."

"Why do you want to talk to her so badly?" B'Elanna asked, already suspicious.

"Her hearings ended today, and I don't think she is going to take some of the information very well. I just wanted to talk with her about it," he replied, somewhat cagily.

"What decisions?" Tom asked pointedly. "What happened?"

Admiral Paris sighed and rubbed his face. "They made some recommendations that she's not going to like."

"Like what?" B'Elanna asked bluntly.

The Admiral looked down at his desk and then met their eyes. "The commission declared she met the requirements for a court martial. Three of them actually. It's just a non-binding, non-judicial-" He was cut off by the protests and exclamations of his son and daughter-in-law.

"How could you? Did she know this was going to happen? Why? How did this happen? FOR WHAT?!"

He tried to calm them down and eventually succeeded and shared what he could. The transcripts would be released later that day for everyone to read. No one had heard from her since she'd left headquarters earlier that day. No communications, no one answered at her home.

"Perhaps, you could check with Commander Chakotay?" The Admiral asked discreetly. He'd wondered if there was more to that relationship because he knew Kathryn Janeway, but there was no professional reason to contact him.

"He's off in the jungle in Mexico somewhere, finding his roots," B'Elanna scoffed. "But we'll call him. I guess she might have called him."

They eventually closed the communication and immediately called Harry. He was more than happy to meet them at their place.

"Where do you think she went?" Harry asked. "Do you think she'd go back to Voyager?"

"Maybe," Tom replied. "But we'd know if she tried to access the ship."

"Did you think maybe she didn't want to be found?" B'Elanna asked. "She probably doesn't want to see the crew, we are all mad that she's taking the fall for us. She won't want to see Chakotay for the same reason. She won't want to see anyone in the brass. I'm assuming your father called Indiana?"

"I'll check," Tom said. "But even if she doesn't want to be found, I'm not willing to let her stew about this alone, are you?" he asked.

The other two shook their heads.

"So, where would Janeway go when she was mad at the world and didn't want to see anyone?" Tom asked the others. They all thought quietly for a minute.

Then B'Elanna said, "I found her in Sandrine's once." The other two looked at her in surprise.

"It was after Seska. The first time, when we found out she was a traitor." She went on, "I was angry and looking for a fight. I broke a couple chairs before I saw her in the corner drinking a whiskey."

"What did she do?" Tom asked.

B'Elanna smiled at the memory. "She restored the program and then offered me a drink."

"Do you think...?" Harry asked.

"The REAL Sandrine's?" Tom asked. "I've been looking for an excuse to pop in there. It's as good of a guess as any."

--

A little over an hour later, after making a few last calls and dropping the baby off at Tom's parents, the trio arrived in France. It was already early evening there, and wet and cool. The three hurriedly followed Tom through the small, ancient streets. The ducked into the warm light of the bar just as it started to rain. Tom grinned and B'Elanna and Harry stared in amazement. It was JUST like their Sandrine's, just a tad different. The holo-characters weren't there, replaced by real live French people.

Belanna and Harry went to sit at a table after Tom scanned the room and didn't see the actual Sandrine. He approached the bar and evaluated the bartender carefully. He didn't know this person, but then again it had been almost 10 years. He wondered if Sandrine herself still actually spent her evenings there.

He ordered three drinks and as he was waiting, he talked with the bartender. "I'm looking for a friend that I think might be here. Nice looking woman, brownish red hair, short, a little older than me. Probably acting like she's the boss of you and doesn't want to be found..."

"If she doesn't want to be found, why are you looking for her?" The bartenders thick accent came through even with the translator.

Tom gave a little shrug as if he wasn't concerned about his critique. "I said acting like she didn't want to be found, not that she actually didn't. I'll be over there if you think of anything." He gestured to the table by the wall where Harry and B'Elanna sat. He turned with his drinks in hand and almost stepped directly into a woman with messy curls and bright lipstick. "Sandrine!?" He said almost in disbelief. He immediately regretted it. She had been ingrained in his memory, but there was no guarantee that she remembered him. He'd been a foolish kid a decade ago the last time he'd been here.

She narrowed her eyes at his familiar use of his name. Then her eyes widened. "Thomás!?" she said in thickly accented standard. "This I cannot believe." She stepped back and studied him. "You have grown up. And cleaned yourself up, I see."

He grinned at her and said "I want you to meet someone." He urges her forward towards their table as she peppered him with questions that he didn't answer.

"Harry, Bellana," he said. "Meet Sandrine. Sandrine, this is my friend Harry Kim. And THIS," he said proudly, yet softly, "is my wife, B'Elanna Torres."

With that she let out a shout "Your wife! Thomás has a wife!" The surprise and shock and joy she felt was contagious and the three couldn't help smiling along with her.

"Sandrine, we're actually here looking for a friend," Harry started. Always goal-oriented, he spoke with a familiarity that he regretted immediately when he remembered this wasn't a person he'd met before.

Tom jumped in to save him, "A friend of ours, we think she might have come here for a little...escape. About B'Elanna's height, reddish brown hair."

"And looking like she wants to get away from everything outside these wall? That's what everyone comes here for, Thomás." Her eyes flickered to the back of the room and her eyebrows raised. "You should understand that sometimes people come here for escape for a reason..."

Tom's eyes followed Sandrine's to the far corner. "And I would know better than anyone, the importance of a good friend saving you from yourself." He clapped Harry on the shoulder without saying anything more.

Sandrine gave them a stupendous, knowing smile and sauntered her way across the room. B'Elanna and Harry watched her go, but Tom had his eyes locked on a figure sitting at a table in the back of the bar. The table was in the corner, behind a half pillar that hid most of the person from view while still allowing them to see a good portion of the bar. Tousled brown hair sat at her shoulders, which were slumped. Her head was downcast. The person wore a dark brown sweater with a loose cowel neck and fitted sleeves. Delicate fingers held a half-filled glass of whiskey and the bottle sat on the table.