Note: Okay, I know this has taken years too long to finish up. Explanation at the end. Yeah, this is now hopelessly out of Kirsten Beyer's canon. I'm cool with it. I hope you are, too. Enjoy.

Part 7

As Nancy's door slid closed, Harry leaned against the bulkhead and sighed happily.

After her shift, she'd joined him at Sandrine's for a light meal and a pleasant conversation – pleasant enough that when she'd asked him to her quarters for a nightcap, he had jumped at the chance to spend more time with her.

Two very pleasant hours later, he found himself leaning against the bulkhead outside her door with an easy, satisfied grin.

He closed his eyes, sighed again and shook his head at himself.

"Is there a problem, Mister Kim?"

The deep voice caused him to straighten suddenly. He looked up to find Seven and Hugh Cambridge strolling down the corridor, hand in hand. "Uh, no, Doctor. Just visiting a friend."

Seven lifted an incredulous eyebrow at him. "Really. Just visiting."

Harry chuckled. "Yes, just visiting, Seven. And in fact, I was just leaving." He eyed them skeptically. "But what are you two doing out so late?"

Cambridge shrugged. "I'm just walking Seven to her regeneration chamber."

Harry looked back down the corridor in the direction from which they'd arrived. "From your quarters, Doctor?"

Eyes narrowed, the three friends regarded each other for a long moment, until Seven raised her chin at both men. "This conversation is irrelevant. I need to regenerate."

Harry laughed and gestured down the corridor. "By all means," he said. "Don't let me keep you."

He watched them stroll stiffly along the corridor and out of sight. Then he turned and headed back to his own rooms for the night, still sighing happily.

=/\=

Back aching and unable to sleep, Tom drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, his mind still whirling with possibilities. B'Elanna stirred in the bed beside him. She touched his arm lightly. "What is it?"

Tom shook his head in frustration. "What if he refuses to grant our request?" he said softly. "What if he says 'no'?"

B'Elanna sat up beside him and leaned against the headboard. "I don't know," she said. "I guess we go back to Earth, at least for a while."

He looked down at her. "But don't you want to raise the kids here, with all our friends around us?"

"Yes, but..." She lowered her eyes, as if looking inward. "I just have this feeling, Tom, that everything is going to be all right."

"You do?"

She nodded. "A few hours ago I didn't, but now..." She looked up at him and smiled. "Something has happened."

He rolled his eyes at her, but found a small smile somewhere. "You think so?"

She burrowed into his arms. "Chakotay is going to say 'yes.' I can feel it."

=/\=

"Chakotay?"

He suppressed his smile, loving again the way she said his name in that soft, sleepy voice. That voice had haunted his dreams for most of a year, the melancholy echo of a day that broke his heart but that he prayed he would never forget. He kept his eyes closed and hoped she would treat him to his name in that cherished voice again.

"Chakotay?"

"Hmmmm?"

"Are you awake?"

"Hmmmm. No."

"Oh. I thought you were."

"No." He rolled over to his side and waited while she fit herself into the spaces of his bigger body and wrapped her arms around his neck, skin against skin. "You're just imagining it."

She wriggled against him and smirked. "For a figment of my imagination, you seem awfully solid."

"That's because you have a very vivid imagination." He kissed the tip of her nose. "In reality, I'm not even here at all."

"No? If you're not here, then where are you?"

"Hmmmm. I'm…hiking in the Deam Wilderness Area in the Hoosier National Forest."

"Sounds nice."

"Oh, it is. It's a warm day in May, the sun is shining, and the wind is whispering through the trees."

She ran her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck and he shivered. "Are you alone there?"

"Nope."

"Someone else is there with you?"

"Yes."

"Can I guess who it might be?"

"Can you?"

A smile warmed her voice. "It's Tom, isn't it?"

He kissed her forehead. "No, it's not Tom."

"I thought sure it was Tom and B'Elanna fighting over whose turn it is to chase Miral when she runs off the trail again."

He smoothed one hand down her bare back in a soft, slow caress. "No, it's not Tom and B'Elanna and Miral. But good guess. Try again."

She nuzzled his chin. "Is it Harry?"

"No, not Harry. Harry's back on the ship waiting for Nancy's shift to be over."

Kathryn opened one eye and peered up at him. "You need to do something about that."

"I already have. He'll get the memo when his shift starts."

She poked his chest. "Hopeless romantic."

"Guilty, as charged." He cupped her backside and drew her closer to his body. "So Harry's not there. Try again."

"Let me think." She threw one leg over his thighs and brought both hands between them, her fingertips against his belly. "It's Hugh, trying to explain to Seven that humans need time in nature to center themselves and find their emotional and spiritual equilibrium."

He chuckled. "And she's just asking when she can get back to the ship to regenerate."

"So it's Seven and Hugh?"

"No, actually, it's not. You have one last guess."

She pressed her lips against his neck. "Is it me?"

"It might be."

"What are we doing?"

He wrapped his arms around her. "We are walking hand-in-hand along the trail. We've been hiking all morning, and when the sun is highest in the sky, we emerge into a meadow of wildflowers."

"What kind of flowers?"

"Blue phlox and wild hyacinths. The meadow is a sea of pale blue blossoms on top of a high bluff. When we look down, we can see the whole valley below, all green trees and golden sunlight."

She smiled against his skin. "It sounds beautiful."

"Oh, it is. Very beautiful. But you are wearing a dress that's the color of the sky on a hot August day, and you are so lovely you put everything around us to shame. I can't keep my eyes off you."

"Flatterer."

"It's true. You pull me back to the middle of the meadow because I'm so fixated on you, I almost lose my footing and fall off the bluff."

With a soft chuckle, she caressed his chest. "And what do we do in the middle of the meadow?"

"We just stand for a moment, hand-in-hand, listening to the sounds of the forest around us. Songbirds, insects, a soft breeze. When the time is right, I turn to face you. I kiss you very softly, like this." He turned her face up to his and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. "Then, while your eyes are still closed, I take a sliver ring out of my pocket, and I lower myself to one knee before you."

She drew in a sharp breath. "Chakotay…"

He smiled. "Protecting your heart for all these years, Kathryn..." He paused, searching for the right words. "It's been nothing less than a privilege. I've loved you for so long now I can't remember when I didn't love you. But I can remember what it was like to be without you, and I never want either of us to go through that again. I want a home, a life, a chance to grow old together. It's a risk, but a risk I'm excited to take. You are the sun of my days, the moon of my nights, and the stars that will always lead me home. Kathryn Janeway, will you marry me?"

She was still and silent for a long moment, then she twined her body around his and buried her face in his neck. "Kathryn?"

She gave her head a little shake. "Why last night?" she asked, the question catching him off guard as much as the tears he felt against his skin. "You could have waited until tomorrow morning to tell me about Tom and B'Elanna and the baby."

He shook his head slowly, feeling the tears come into his own eyes. "No," he whispered. "I couldn't."

She took his face in both hands and pulled his mouth to hers.

They came together explosively, as if they were loving each other for the first time all over again, rocking away the years of loneliness and sadness that had kept them apart. Chakotay gripped her hips, fuller now but no less enticing than in the years before, and showed her all the power he'd kept under tight control for so long. She opened herself to him, reveling in the feel of him over her and on her and within her. He groaned aloud at her release, the sound and smell and feel of it sinking indelibly into his skin.

He was not aware of withdrawing from her; hair and sweat and tangled sheets conspired to knot them together. He sighed.

"What?" she whispered.

He smiled against her hair. "One of us had better say 'yes' before we wear each other out."

Epilogue

Harry Kim dashed onto the Bridge ten minutes after duty call, hoping no one would notice his tardiness.

It had been a long night.

He knew that was no excuse, of course, but there was really more to it than just too much carousing in Sandrine's and the late night with Nancy. It was the ship that made him late. When he'd walked through the sad corridors between his shift and Nancy's, he could never have expected how cheerful the place would be at 0730. And so he'd lingered over breakfast longer than usual, just listening to the people talk and laugh in the galley, he'd strolled leisurely through the corridors smiling and chatting with everyone. It was a happy ship again, an unbelievably happy ship, and he was at a bit of a loss to explain the sudden dramatic change in mood. And that was why he was late. But how to explain that to his commanding officer, who'd been so out of sorts just twelve hours ago?

And so Harry burst onto the Bridge as if shot from a particle accelerator, hoping no one would notice.

He slowed considerably when he realized the Bridge was virtually empty. Seven was there, of course, but there was no sign of Tom, Janeway or Chakotay. Just a few relief personnel milling around. Harry crossed to his station. "Report," he said crisply.

"The Lieutenants Paris are in the Captain's Ready Room," Seven replied with precision, "as are Admiral Janeway and Captain Chakotay. And you, Mister Kim, are late."

Harry shrugged and settled in at his station. "Not that anyone who matters would notice," he muttered. He glanced from time to time at the Ready Room door. Without having to ask, he knew what they were talking about in there: Tom and B'Elanna's Baby To Be.

But that wasn't all, of course. Underlying the whole situation was the Admiral and Captain's relationship, and how the addition to the Paris family had thrown the budding romance for a loop.

Harry hoped against hope that the rift was temporary. The Admiral and the Captain belonged together and always had. Sure, they'd taken their own sweet time to acknowledge it, even after their responsibilities to the Voyager crew – the first iteration of it, anyway – had ended.

Harry glanced at the Ready Room again, trying to avoid Seven's curious stare. He wondered, not for the first time, what Seven really thought about the vagaries of human emotion. Her romance with Chakotay hadn't lasted more than about half an hour after Voyager's initial touchdown, and while her relationship with Hugh seemed to be progressing there was still something…odd about it. Chakotay and Hugh seemed to have absolutely nothing in common, aside from their age.

Did Seven have a thing for older men?

Harry tapped his fingertips against his console. It would certainly explain a lot.

Presently the Ready Room doors whooshed open and B'Elanna and Tom emerged. But instead of the despairing looks he had feared, Harry saw joy in their faces. Tom gave Harry a thumbs-up sign before he crossed to his seat, and B'Elanna grinned at him from the Engineering station. Harry let out a little whoop of surprise and elation. Seven winced.

Harry glanced back into the Ready Room, intending to nod his thanks to his commanding officers as they emerged. But neither of them took notice of him, or moved to leave the room. They watched their officers depart, then turned to each other tentatively. Chakotay reached for her as the doors began to slide shut. Janeway stroked his cheek with one slim hand. As the doors closed, Harry caught a glimpse of something on her left ring finger: A simple silver band, glinting in the starlight.

Harry's mouth fell open with shock. He swung around to face Tom, who shrugged, and then B'Elanna, who laughed and tapped the wedding ring on her own left hand.

"The Admiral and Captain - "

"Have a request," Tom cut in smoothly, thumbing open the shipwide comm channel. "Attention all hands," he said. "The Admiral and the Captain have requested the presence of all available personnel, including senior officers, in Cargo Bay Two beginning at 1900 tonight. There will be a buffet of Alpha Quadrant cuisine available for the duration of the gathering. Feel free to rearrange duty rosters as needed so that all personnel who wish to attend may do so."

Harry found himself grinning so hard his cheeks hurt. "What's the occasion, Commander?" he called.

Tom smiled right back at him. "The occasion? Well, it seems Admiral Janeway and Captain Chakotay have a little announcement to make. Bridge out." Tom thumbed the channel closed and sat down in the center seat.

Harry leaned against his console. "I have a feeling this is going to be a good day."

Tom and B'Elanna both laughed. Seven raised a pale eyebrow at him. "Indubitably, Mister Kim. A very good day, indeed."

Harry chuckled to himself. So that was why the ship felt so right. The beginning of a beautiful relationship.

He glanced at the chronometer, already counting the minutes until the end of the shift. He couldn't wait to listen in on today's little end-of-watch chat.

-END-

Note: Kirsten Beyer's writing drives me completely insane, for reasons I won't go into here. Let's just say I've read all the novels that came after The Eternal Tide and decided I had no desire to make this story fit with her in-books canon, because I find her canon kind of infuriating. I'm sorry this took so long to finish, though.