The room was dead silent. No one moved, no one breathed, all eyes on their Captain, their friend, Kathryn Janeway.
Kathryn looked down at Chakotay once more, on his knee, arms outstretched, he was asking her to be his. Forever. He wanted to be a true family, to be together they always dreamed they would.
And she smiled, she loved this man, and she always would. There was no other way and with no one else whom she wanted to live her life.
"Yes."
And with that one word uttered wistfully, the crew stood and cheered. They jumped and held each other, many of the women crying and many of the men pretending like they weren't. Gretchen's hands covered her mouth and she cried tears of pure joy for her daughter, her daughter that was finally letting herself be happy.
Kathryn was oblivious to the chaos around them as she looked into Chakotay's eyes. She saw nothing but love, pure joy and tears of happiness.
Never once breaking eye contact he stood and slipped the ring onto her finger. Kathryn watched as he did so, noticing how it fit her perfectly and complemented the color of her skin. She looked up at him then, unable to wait any longer, and pulled him into a crushing kiss.
The crowd cheered even louder as they kissed. Kathryn's arms wrapped around his neck, Chakotay pulled her to him and lifted her off the ground, spinning her in a circle before letting her down and breaking away.
Kathryn realized then that they weren't alone and looked around the room, everyone smiling, crying, and bursting with joy, she beamed up at Chakotay.
"I can't imagine a day without you."
And she kissed him briefly once more.
The Academy President, who had known Edward Janeway, was cheering and crying with the rest of them. But at the prompting of one of the Admirals next to him he sat and attempted to make the crowd quiet a bit.
"Friends!" He said loudly. "My friends, while this is an even happier day now, we must draw this ceremony to a close."
People began to sit and quiet their clapping, but it took a few minutes. Kathryn and Chakotay were standing together holding hands looking at nothing but each other. Chakotay was trying to memorize every feature over Kathryn's happy face, the squint near her eyes, the small coughs of happy laughter, the brilliant smile; and Kathryn was mesmerized by the love she saw in his gaze, she was home.
When everyone was settled Kathryn and Chakotay continued to hold hands and looked at the podium. The President cleared his throat then began.
"Kathryn Janeway, we welcome you to our ranks and look forward to working with in our endeavors to continue exploration. We hereby grant you the title of Vice Admiral."
The crowd cheered briefly once more then the president spoke again.
"Admiral, you, and your Fiance, may now join your crew in celebration in the main hall. Dismissed."
There was shuffling and suddenly Kathryn and Chakotay were surrounded. Gretchen was hugging Kathryn and crying while Phoebe stood back with tears in her eyes as she clapped her hands happily. The crew were there with many congratulations, all wanting to shake their Captain's hand, Be'lanna had wrapped Kathryn into a bear hug with Miral who was happily laughing and clapping her hands for her Auntie Kathryn. Chakotay was receiving pats on the back from the crew, hugs from the women and basically being tackled by his old Maquis crew, his sister was there beside him holding his hand and watching with tears streaming down her cheeks as she saw the love people had for her once angry brother.
Even the admirals were thrown into the mix, congratulating and celebrating with the rest of the crew, the happiness was infectious.
Eventually the crowd maneuvered into the dining hall and there was suddenly a buffet lining two walls and a full bar that had a steady stream of people grappling for wine and champagne.
Kathryn and Chakotay were separated for a while as they were whisked away by their families and friends. Chakotay was now talking and reminiscing with a bunch of people near the bar, holding a beer in his hand, and Kathryn was sitting at table with a gaggle of women asking her all about the wedding plans and what their future looked like. People were asking both of them what their career plans were, wanting to know if the two were going to sail off into the stars together on their next mission. Both of them realized that they were unable to answer many of these questions, having much of this being a surprise.
After almost two hours, Kathryn excused herself to go and find Chakotay. As she stood she felt a slight bout of dizziness and realized only then that the champagne she had been drinking was definitely not synthohol.
She waited for her vision to stabilize and began to push through the crowd. She didn't make it more than two feet before she was stopped by someone else congratulating her, and this pattern continued as she attempted to find Chakotay.
She was talking with Tom Paris when Be'lanna and Miral walked over.
"Hey Tom, sorry but I have to steal Auntie Kathryn from you."
"Aunty Kath-yn!" Miral said in her cute voice.
"Well I guess." Said Tom playfully, and he gave Kathryn a hug and walked over to talk with Ayala.
"Now, Miral, let's show Aunty Kathryn our surprise." Before she could ask what Be'lanna was talking about, Miral had a hold of her hand and was quite forcefully pulling her along. Kathryn looked to Be'lanna for help but she just laughed and followed along.
As she was led along by Miral, she couldn't help but remember when she was little at her father's admiralty celebration. Smiling at the similarity and enjoying the girls enthusiasm, she cooperated as Miral led her across the ballroom and to a set of double-doors she didn't recognize.
With Kathryn parked in front of the bug doors, Miral ran back to her mom and leapt up into her arms.
Kathryn looked at Be'lanna, expecting her to go through the doors with her, but Be'lanna shook her head in answer to the question Kathryn hadn't asked.
"Go on, close the door quick so people don't try to follow you to find you."
Kathryn nodded and opened the door just enough for her to get through, slipped inside and quickly spun around to close the door once more.
When she looked at where she was, she was stunned.
There in front of her, stood Chakotay, with a big bunch of roses and two glasses of champagne. She then noticed that they were on a small balcony overlooking headquarters and the gardens surrounding.
She sighed at the peace the scene brought to her, and walked to Chakotay to pull him into a kiss.
The kiss was slow, and gentle. Nothing but love was conveyed. They stayed that way until Chakotay pulled back and kissed her nose.
"Hi." he said.
"Well Hello indeed."
"I figured you needed a break from the crowd as much as I did." She nodded and picked up her glass of champagne and took a sip before setting it down to pick up one of the roses from the bouquet.
"This is lovely Chakotay, yes I did need a break." She held the rose to her nose and looked at him across it.
"I suppose we need to go over everything. We haven't had much time to talk."
"I would say so." She said and placed the rose back on the table.
