AN: big thank you as always to northernexposure, for taking time away from her own stunning new fic 'Across the Sky in Stars' to beta read this, and to the eagle-eyed PG1890 for her invaluable post-messing typo check.
Thank you so much to everyone who left a review to the first chapter here and on AO3. It's lovely for me to hear that people are enjoying the story, and I really do appreciate the encouragement!
Chapter Two
He'd only gone a few steps towards the door when B'Elanna stepped in front of him.
"Where are you going?" She frowned, but didn't wait for a reply. "I need you to come talk to me. Tom's flirting with Kathryn's crazy aunt and I'm feeling like a spare part."
Chakotay inhaled deeply, swallowing a sigh and longingly eyeing the exit. He knew it was quite possible B'Elanna Torres was the reason he was here in the first place. She liked these people well enough, but reading between the lines, she had yet to bond with the extended Janeway family in the same way Tom had. It had occurred to Chakotay that he'd been included on the guest list as moral support. Unwilling to put his own discomfort ahead of hers, he summoned a smile and allowed her to lead the way back in.
He followed her back through the restaurant and out under the stars to the end of the polished wooden decking. For a moment they leaned on the railing, looking out over the thick moving darkness of the sea, breathing in their surroundings in companionable silence. The tide was coming in. The beach had become a thin trim, gradually fraying into the creeping froth of the waves. The occasional fresh gusts of salty air that came their way helped clear Chakotay's head a little.
They were just far enough away from the live music to make conversation possible. So, for a few minutes, he entertained his old friend with more stories of her former crewmates still serving on Voyager, and he encouraged her to share something of her life as a new mother and working parent.
XxX
"You should cut in," B'Elanna told him a little while later, looking back towards the dance floor. "I mean look at them. What that man is doing to this music is just plain wrong!"
Reluctantly, Chakotay turned, knowing that Torres was watching Kathryn and her fiancé. Baldwin towered over Kathryn as they swayed together in a loose generic dinner-dance hold. It was true that Baldwin's stiff posture was particularly ungainly, and it was hard to see a relationship between his movements and the fast, syncopated rhythm of the song the band were playing.
B'Elanna shook her head. "Guy Baldwin is all wrong for her. You know that, right?"
Chakotay shoved his hands in his pockets and scuffed one of his Italian leather shoes against the wooden floor. "Kathryn didn't fall for him because of his dancing ability, B'Elanna," he pointed out patiently.
His friend rounded on him. "You know that's not what I mean. And anyway, how do you know she's fallen for him?"
He frowned. "You're the one who told me they're engaged."
"Yes, but she's been engaged before. And they're engaged; they're not married yet."
"Your point?"
"I just can't see her with Guy Baldwin long term. I mean, seriously, can you?"
"She can. That's what matters."
B'Elanna huffed out a breath. "You know, she's always asking after you. 'Have you heard from Chakotay, B'Elanna? Where will Chakotay be staying while he's on leave, B'Elanna? Has Chakotay found an apartment yet, B'Elanna?' Do you have any idea how many times she's been in touch to ask me whether or not you were going to be here tonight? Maybe she was hoping to talk to an old friend about all this, before she goes and gets herself hitched to that man?"
Chakotay shrugged.
"And if she really is so serious about Baldwin, then why the hell does she keep looking over here?"
Torres's words made him look up. Sure enough, Kathryn's intense gaze singled him out from across the room, staying with him until movement around her obscured him from her line of sight. The hairs on the back of his neck stood to mutinous attention and the tips of his ears burned. Damn things were probably flashing.
Because she still thinks about me sometimes? Because she's wondering where I fit in – if I fit in at all – to her new life? Or just because she's a tease?
There was no denying Kathryn Janeway had sometimes led him a merry dance in the past. In the years that followed that memorable night on the holodeck, he'd lost count of the number of times that she'd stoked up his imagination with the suggestion of what could be, and then invariably pulled back. Each time he'd been left more and more unsure if it was because the time still wasn't right, or if it was just plain rejection.
Chakotay inhaled deeply to shake off the memory. Then he straightened up to his full height to put some distance between the young engineer's mouth and his ear, only to find himself looking over her head straight into the smiling face of Tom Paris. He wasn't in the mood to talk to Tom, and B'Elanna would be fine now that he was back.
"I need to pay my respects to someone," Chakotay said. "I'll catch you two later."
He ducked and weaved his way around the edge of the dance area, towards the champagne flute-littered camp of the elder Janeway stateswomen.
XxX
"Handsome couple, aren't they?" Kathryn's Aunt Martha remarked, her bird-like hand clutching at Chakotay's sleeve. She leaned in conspiratorially, out of earshot of Gretchen Janeway. "You'd think Admiral Baldwin's boy would be good enough for her, wouldn't you? Especially after all that time going without."
Chakotay's eyebrows rose. He had nothing to say to that, so he chose to treat the question as rhetorical.
"Apparently he's not," his diminutive companion went on. "Phoebe says he'll never get Katie down that aisle, because she's carrying a secret torch for some alien man."
Chakotay's brow furrowed this time as he moistened his lips. He couldn't find a response to that either, so he settled for a polite nod and helped the grande dame to yet another flute of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter.
Kathryn had another love-interest lined up?
He watched Aunt Martha slowly drain her glass, and for the first time in a while, Chakotay felt old.
XxX
"Right. Give me your jacket." B'Elanna demanded. "You're dancing with me. Now."
"I am?"
"I can't bear you standing there brooding."
His surprise and displeasure at her words were probably evident. He wasn't aware he had been brooding. All things considered, ever since he'd joined her at the bar, he thought he'd been doing pretty well. The fourth glass of champagne had helped.
B'Elanna took his jacket from him and hung it over the back of a chair. Resigned, he allowed her to lead him onto the dance floor. The wedding guests were moving to the music however they saw fit, some dancing in small groups, some in couples. Chakotay and B'Elanna went straight into hold and began to dance.
Both Chakotay and B'Elanna could salsa. The waitress, who had become more than a waitress to Chakotay back in the day when she had taught him to dance Cuban style salsa, had also taught the basics to a few of his Maquis cell. Even though B'Elanna hadn't spent particularly long on the dance floor, she was a natural. Provided she was dancing with a strong lead like Chakotay, she could follow pretty much anything. It was years since they'd danced salsa together, but this was a style of dance rooted in improvisation – loose, fluid and forgiving in its forms – and it lived on in muscle memory forever.
"Nice moves, you two!" Tom called.
Feeling the eyes of others on them, Chakotay failed to stop himself looking towards where he knew Kathryn and Baldwin to be, only to find she was already looking in his direction. She smiled at him. Instantly uncomfortable all over again, he guided his friend as far away from Kathryn Janeway and her fiancé as possible.
B'Elanna allowed him to take her through a few simple twists and turns, apparently enjoying herself well enough. The minute he brought her back into hold, however, she returned to her previous topic. Intense brown eyes looked up at him. "I don't think Kathryn is happy. Neither does Tom."
Chakotay pursed his lips. He began to lead her into another spin, but she ignored his signal and pulled against his hand instead, propelling herself back into his arms.
"So, will you talk to her? You used to care about her. I'm willing to bet you still do."
Rather than reply, Chakotay brooked no resistance this time, skilfully leading her through a complex set of turns that obliged her to concentrate on picking up on his every subtle cue. He was a master of evasion when it came to enquiries about the nature of his feelings for Kathryn Janeway, and this was just a new spin on an old tactic. Once upon a time he had been more open with others about his feelings. But soon after he first acknowledged how he felt about his erstwhile commanding officer, he'd gotten used to keeping things to himself.
Once B'Elanna was facing him again, there was still an expectant expression on her face. He frowned. "I already talked to her. She seemed just fine to me. And she is here with her fiancé," he enunciated crisply into B'Elanna's ear. "So, could we please just dance?"
Chakotay ignored his sense of musicality and stopped responding to the dynamics of the song in favour of leading his loquacious partner through moves that made it harder for her to continue her verbal onslaught. The dance was becoming less and less enjoyable by the minute. Mercifully, before too long, the song ended.
As Chakotay came to stand beside her, B'Elanna jerked her head towards the couple he had been trying all evening not to look at. "If you get her on her own, maybe she'd open up to you. You know her better than we do."
Chakotay closed his eyes for a second to stop himself snapping. "Knew her better, B'Elanna."
There was a natural lull as the band started their next number. It began with the percussion section, the other instruments joining in one by one. The energy the musicians were putting into it made it seem likely this would be their big finale. The sound built up gradually until it filled the whole room.
It only took a few seconds of the main refrain for Chakotay to recognise it. The band was performing a version of the same song he had chosen for his and Kathryn's salsa performance-that-never-was, on Voyager's first ever talent night. True, it was one of the better-known traditional Cuban salsa tracks to have survived the centuries, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that the universe was trying to tell him something. An acoustic guitar picked out the simple refrain over which the vocalist began to sing.
As Chakotay felt the lively rhythm pulse through him, it challenged him to do something, just as B'Elanna had said. Maybe it wasn't the right time, but maybe there would never be one? He didn't have a plan, but, in that moment, it wasn't enough to stop him. Suddenly unable to stand immobile where he was a second longer, he set off across the room towards Kathryn Janeway and Guy Baldwin.
Tom Paris was approaching jauntily and attempted to intercept him.
"Chakotay," Tom started, a knowing smile on his face. "Just the man I was looking for."
"Catch you later." Chakotay nimbly sidestepped him, patting him on the back.
"Wait, I-"
"Sorry, Tom. There's something I need to do."
[TBC]