Epilogue
Three months later, Kathryn would find herself again with a view of Earth outside the window—except, this time, it was there to stay. She had met another version of herself in the process of getting home, a very lonely admiral who hadn't had the benefit of Q's intervention. She felt sorry for the woman—a resonating, painful sorrow—and she empathized deeply with her losses. Kathryn pushed away the thought of just how close she had come to winding up in the same place.
For the moment, Kathryn sat in her living room, in the same chair where she had slumped to exhaustion after her voyages with Q. Her door chimed, quite expectedly this time, and Chakotay entered.
He paused just inside the door and looked at her. "I think this is our stop."
She nodded and made a slight motion with her head for him to come join her. He came up behind her, put his strong hands on her shoulders began to massage her neck. She closed her eyes and relished in his touch, in the peace she was drawing from his mere presence.
"I guess you didn't have to wait the full seventy years after all," she quipped with a smile.
"I'm not complaining," he said, glancing to the blue-green planet that was now so close. "And, I don't want to belabor the point, but I am still waiting."
His hands paused their work as she turned to him. Wordlessly, rising from her seat, she vowed to remedy that very fact.
Given all they had been through, Q thought it was only fitting that all of time should stand still at this moment. And so, as their lips met for a deliciously satisfying first of a lifetime of caresses, the universe waited for them for a change.
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