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VARIATION ONE: DECAFFEINATION
Chapter Rating: K
Kathryn sipped at her seventh cup of coffee of the morning, silently lamenting the lack of caffeine rush she kept expecting; it wasn't that she was particularly in danger of falling asleep, but she wished she could recapture some of the alertness she'd been sorely lacking of late, and cursed her body's rapidly increasing tolerance for her drug of choice. It didn't help that every time she lay down to rest, her mind raced off into worries about the ship, about her family back home, about her crew, and about her future.
Chakotay watched as the captain greedily sipped at her usual morning beverage and noted the way her uniform hung upon her body, as she no longer possessed the gentle curves the material had in the past hugged tenderly. As she sipped, the usual sigh of contentment, the way she closed her eyes in ecstasy as the liquid ran down her throat, the smile that peeked out from beneath her impassive mask after that first cup – it was all lacking, and he missed it, but more importantly, worried about where it had gone.
As she looked out above the rim of her mug, she caught her first officer eying her, and immediately plotted to duck into the Ready Room at her earliest convenience, knowing that, of all the bridge crew, he was the one that knew her best and might attempt to take action to remedy what he saw as an ailment. She could not allow it; once safely cordoned away, she would shuffle the duty roster to make sure he was nowhere near her during her next few morning shifts.
He knew immediately what she was doing when she ducked into the Ready Room, and began immediately to plot his counter-strategy. He'd recognized immediately the signs of severe sleep-deprivation, days ago even, and even though it was not his place to question her judgment or her health, it was coming to the point where someone needed to intervene, and if he didn't do it, nobody would; he only hoped she would come to appreciate his efforts, even if her initial reaction was anger, or worse.
It was not long before an excuse arose to visit her in the Ready Room, and eagerly, he brought in the reports, hoping she would not dismiss him before he could speak. Luckily, she was too preoccupied to preempt his query as to her well-being.
Once uttered, the query demanded an answer, and she gave the one she always gave, "I'm fine." She needed not raise her eyes to see the look of disbelief in his, and only met his glance in surprise after he promised to fix her problem – surprise, because she hadn't even told him what the problem was.
The next few days, she found herself more and more lackluster during her shifts, and contemplated asking the doctor for a stimulant, though she knew the EMH would refuse, and probably relieve her of duty. Thus she bore the fatigue, even as her eyelids began to droop, and finally, she found herself embarrassingly nodding off in the captain's chair.
The next thing she knew, she was waking in her bed, feeling surprisingly refreshed, and a glance at the chronometer revealed she'd slept for nearly fourteen hours. Immediately, she commed Chakotay, and proudly, he revealed that he'd tampered with the replicators, decreasing and eventually removing all caffeine from her orders, and that he'd transported her to her quarters after she fell asleep on the bridge.
He thought she'd be angry, but her only response was a quiet, "Thank you, Chakotay."