Kathryn left the warmth of the house and closed the door behind her. In the cold air, her breath formed a white, puffy cloud every time she exhaled, and her eyes had to adjust to the darkness before she could start walking. The lights of the houses grew darker with each of her steps, and she heard nothing except the frozen grass cracking under her boots.

After seven and a half years in the Delta Quadrant it was still hard for her to believe that everything around her was real, that she was indeed home. She had known that, despite how much she had hoped to get home, the chances of success were minimal at best and never had she envisioned that she would long for the life in the Delta Quadrant. But she did. She missed Voyager, the daily routine aboard, and her crew, all the people she considered family. And most importantly, she missed Chakotay.

Smirking sarcastically, she shook her head at herself. The last time she had seen him was only a few hours ago, at the finalization of the debriefings. To not know when she would see him again made her heart ache, though. They hadn't been apart for longer than a couple of days since they'd been stranded in the Delta Quadrant and it was hard for her to accept that he wasn't a part of her life any longer.

Downhearted, she stopped and raised her head. The view of the sky was clear and she could see all the stars and constellations of Earth's Northern Hemisphere winter night sky. She remembered the last time she watched those stars. It had been on the holodeck, about five years earlier, and she had been as sad then as she was now.

Suddenly, a shooting star appeared beneath Orion and she remembered her mother saying she could make a wish and it would come true. It was superstition, a shooting star was nothing more than a tiny fragment of an asteroid burning up when entering Earth's atmosphere, but she had nothing to lose. She wished for familiar footsteps behind her. Warm, strong arms encircling her and never letting her go. She knew it was pointless. He was with Seven now. He wouldn't come.

The cold was crawling under her clothes and as she shoved her gloved hands deep into the pockets of her warm coat she began to hear footsteps behind her; familiar footsteps, footsteps she would recognize anywhere. This couldn't be real, she thought and waited with anticipation while the footsteps came closer.

Finally, without turning to each other, he stopped next to her. "Hi," he said softly.

"Hi."

"Stargazing?" he asked and she could hear a smile in his voice.

"Yes."

"I can see why," he said with wonder and raised his head to the faint shimmering light of the Milky Way above him. "It's beautiful."

"It is."

"I can't recall the last time I looked at those stars."

"I remember the last time as if it were today."

He turned his head to her, surprised. "You do?"

"Yes," she nodded and looked at him. In the darkness she could only see his silhouette but she knew his face by heart. "The last time I stood here was shortly after our stay on New Earth," she told him.

"Oh?"

"I created the holodeck program to help me focus on my goal, but frankly the only thing I really wanted was to turn the ship around and go back."

"I didn't know."

"I never told you."

They got quiet and she took a deep breath and braced herself before she spoke again. "Chakotay, what are you doing here?"

He looked down and shuffled his feet on the frozen grass. "I missed you."

"We saw each other today," she teased him, smiling, relieved that he obviously felt the same way as she did.

"I know. But the thought that it was the last time for I don't know how long was hard to take. Too hard. Until today we have seen each other almost every day. I don't know if you remember but you told me once that you couldn't imagine a day without me. Well, I can't imagine a day without you, either."

"I remember," she said and her heart began to beat faster.

"I looked forward to the debriefings every day, no matter how difficult or boring the subject was, simply because I saw you there."

She nodded. "I liked seeing you there, too. And I missed you, too. Before you came, I thought about the last time I stood here. I'm sorry that I never told you the reason for my behavior after we left New Earth but it was too hard, too painful. I had just started to settle down, looked forward to our life together and then it was snatched from me again."

"It was hard for both of us," he assured her. "But we're here now." He closed the space between them and she couldn't believe it was really happening. Raising his hand, he touched her face softly. "We can build a new life on the old Earth," he whispered.

"I'd love to," she said without a second thought.

Smiling, he bent down and kissed her gently. She returned the kiss and he reached around her, pulling her body to his.

After they parted she turned in his arms and rested her back against his chest. They enjoyed the feeling of being close to each other and watched the stars quietly as suddenly another shooting star appeared.

"Make a wish," he whispered into her ear. "It'll come true."

She smiled, contentedly, and snuggled deeper into his embrace. "No need to. It already did."

The End