As Chakotay approached her door he considered turning back, but he figured he would at least offer to make her dinner or something, he knew her well enough to know she wouldn't have eaten yet today. He was about to ring the door chime when he heard a faint clatter and a thud. He punched the chime and there wasn't any answer, he punched it again. Still no answer. "Computer! Security override on the captains quarters, authorization Chakotay Pie Omega!" As the doors slid open he saw her lying there on the floor, coffee cup on the ground.

"Chakotay to Doctor Medical emergency Captain's Quarters!" He almost shouted as he rushed to her side. "Kathryn... Kathryn can you here me?" he knelt beside her and hesitated then, grabbed her shoulders and tried to get a response.

"Kathryn wake up.." he whispered as he pulled her into his lap. He checked her pulse and found it was faint but there, and she was taking slow shallow breaths. He gently reached up and touched her cheek with his hand, she was freezing.

At that moment the doors opened and the Doctor along with a small medical team rushed to their side. "Doctor what's wrong with her? What happened?" Chakotay panted.

"Well, I was about to ask you the same thing Commander." He stated matter-of-factly.

"I don't know.. I was coming to check on her and I her a crash, when she didn't respond, I came in and I found her like this."

"Mhmmm.." was his only response as he ran the tricorder over her.

Chakotay just sat there and held her while the doctor analyzed his readings. He gently rocked her, probably more for his own comfort than anything. "How did I let this happen?" He thought. "What's wrong... what could I have done..."

His musing was interrupted when the Doctor closed his tricorder with a quick snap. "Well?" Chakotay said.

"Well, her blood sugar is low and her neurotransmitter levels are erratic, as far as I can tell she is physically uninjured but hasn't been eating. I will have to take her to sickbay to run further scans on her brain, the neurotransmitter levels may not be the only thing off."

"Of course Doctor. Ensign Kim."

"Yes Commander." Harry said over the comm.

"Beam the Captain directly to sickbay."

"Yes sir."

Chakotay watched as Kathryn start to shimmer and then she faded from his arms. "Commander."

"Hmm.."

"Commander." The doctor repeated, sounding almost concerned. "She will be fine, come by in about an hour and I will let you know what I have found. For now, go rest, you look exhausted."

Begrudgingly, Chakotay stood and exited Kathryn's quarters with only a curt nod in the Doctors general direction.

When alone in his own quarters, Chakotay ran through the last few months in his head. It hadn't been long after they discovered how large the void was when he had noticed Kathryn starting to act weird. She always got a bit reclusive when something was particularly stressful aboard the ship.

But about a month in, he knew that this was different, she was starting to neglect her duties as Captain, which were normally the one thing that she was diligent about keeping up with when stressed. She started to come late to her shifts, she would always go directly to her readyroom, sometimes not even bothering to ask for a report from the bridge crew.

She was thinner than he had ever seen her, her eyes always a bit glazed over with her small smiles never quite reaching them. The bags under her eyes were a permanent purple-ish color, even though he could see when he was close enough that she had applied copious amounts of concealer.

Spirits how could he have been so blind? How could he have stood by in silence, even his spirit guide had suggested talking to her, but he had ignored it airing on the side of caution, not wanting to make things worse instead of better. He sat defeated on the couch with his head in his hands, and waited to hear from the doctor.