A/N: Thanks again to everyone for your reviews. I will be heading to Colorado for the next two weeks of vacation. So you know what that means! No tears. Please! But I'll keep plugging away on the story. So hope you enjoy this.

Chapter 3: Circling

Commander Chakotay tried to make his way to the child's bedside, but Seven blocked his route. "Commander," the Borg said flatly. "It would not be wise for you to remain." He glanced self-consciously at Captain Janeway and the Doctor as they made their way out of the small office.

When they were alone, Chakotay turned back to study the blonde for a moment. "Why is that, Seven?"

She lifted a brow, letting her eyes wonder. Chakotay sensed this was almost like a tedious chore for Seven of Nine, that he should know why he was not needed. Or wanted, he thought.

"The child may not know you," she said flatly. "It could prove traumatic. It is imperative for us to reduce stresses."

"Ah," he said, looking over the shoulder as the Captain and the Doctor conversed beside the sleeping 7-year-old.

"Whose stress are we reducing, Seven? Yours? Or the Captain's?"

"Neither," she said sharply. "The child's well-being is my concern. As a new crew member, she should be your concern as well, Commander."

Chakotay let his raven eyes around the Doctor's less than private office, as a hand slid down over his taut lips. He had been planning a holodeck getaway for he and Seven for their six-month anniversary for the day, all the rations he could muster. He wished they were there now away from the day-to-day stress and from a child who wasn't his.

"Look, Seven," he said finally in the hushed, tranquil tones he used to sooth his horse. "I'm sorry about all you've been through in the last few hours. I'm sorry a child with your DNA is lying sick on a biobed. But I couldn't in good conscious let you and Captain Janeway forget about our obligations to the ship, this crew and to Starfleet."

As his silky voice began to lilt, Seven let her gaze slowly slide down capturing the essence of the man. The Mayan tattoo emanating from his left temple, the three gold pips and Starfleet command red and the Starfleet-issue boots he stomped angrily in the meeting.

"It's my job," he added when she remained mute.

Finally her blue eyes found his endless black. "When, Commander?"

He stared at her. When Chakotay realized Seven was not going to elaborate, he smirked slightly. Sometimes she was too childish and it "When what, Seven?"

"When did you become Starfleet's drone?"

The smirk slipped from his face, replaced by a glower. Chakotay usually adopted a mentor role with her, one he both thrilled to and abhorred. It brought them together to in knowledge but it separated them as unequal. It seemed to be the role Seven herself was the most comfortable, one she'd adopted even with the Captain.

A few weeks ago, Chakotay and Seven's conversation had slipped into a discussion of authority, command structure and the obligations of an individual to the society and herself. For the Borg, drone was the essential foot soldier. But in the natural world, Chakotay had pointed out, drones were emasculated beasts of burden doing the queens bidding.

The memory suffused his face in a glacier and his lips parted slightly. His eyes bounced furiously between hers. "I can understand that you don't know that this is not the way lover's fight—lover's who want to keep loving. I think you are hurt and I'm truly sorry—"

"Answer my question, Commander."

"Commander is it?"

"Yes, Commander."

"Is that how it is now? Chain-of-command? Because if it is, I should put you on report for what you just asked me."

The sheer boredom on her face was another slap to his face. "By doing so, you merely confirm my assessment, Commander."

He poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue and brought himself to his full height. "Which is?"

"As a Maquis you fought for your ideals. You believed Starfleet was wrong to enter a truce with the Cardassians. And even if you had been the only Starfleet officer to resign his commission, you would have done it. You would have been the one-man Maquis."

He blinked, staring at Seven's passionate face. He'd never seen her so enthralled in her own ideas before.

"Conscientious objector is, I believe, what history calls your kind. And you would have given your life for your belief." Chakotay lifted his eyebrows, wondering where she was headed with this.

"Regardless of regulations." The three words were a second slap, and he shook his head slightly.

"Is this a discussion of my career now?"

Seven pulled back from him, a sad look settling on her face. "No, Commander Chakotay. It is a discussion of your earnest desire to return my daughter to a place and a time where she could be killed."

"She's not your daughter, Seven."

"She shares my DNA—unlike Seska son's—the one you thought was yours. The one Captain Janeway risked this crew and this ship to find for you."

He looked up, remembering when he had told Seven about that harrowing time. "That was different," Chakotay finally said.

"How?"

"I didn't know he wasn't my son and he was in danger."

"Ah," she said. "So the child is my daughter and she's in danger, but—"

"You don't know that she's in danger, Seven. Maybe your counterpart in the alternate timeline wants her back that she—."

And there is was. Proof that Commander Chakotay was willing not only to suggest that Dani be returned from where she came, but to argue and fight unrelentingly to separate her from the girl. No, Chakotay did not love her. His concern was Borg-like, at its most diabolical. Seven had a function and a station that she must fulfill. Anything outside of that was irrelevant and non-essential.

Chakotay had his pick of women on the ship. Seven was one of many. He had said recently he desired commitment. That is how he lured Seven of Nine to his bed, a quick and mildly pleasant experience. But for him now to light against a dream of her becoming a mother. A dream she had shared with Chakotay lying naked next to him in his bed. That was more proof.

With her independence from the clutches of the tyrannical organism like the Borg, the thought of what they had stolen from her seemed more real and she became awash in bitter grief. The Borg had stolen her childhood. Her innocence. They had taken freedom, joy and creativity, leaving only mirthless, mind-numbing work. They had taken her adolescence and her fertility. Her future! She was powerless then. This Seven would not now allow Chakotay to rip from her hand.

With a lift of a cleft chin, the splash of loss and abandonment were submerged. "You are terminated from this relationship."

"I'm...what? Terminated?"

She stared mercilessly at her ex-lover. Then Seven set her blue eyes for the door and turned on her heels.

"You can't just walk away!"

Seven stopped at the entrance of the Doctor's office, and without turning said: "What is it about terminated that you do not comprehend?"

He stepped behind her, both strong, tanned hands on at her waist. In her ear, Chakotay whispered: "You can't mean that, Seven. Every relationship has bumps—"

She stepped forward, effectively out of reach. "This is not a bump, Chakotay." Her bland voice focused the Doctor and Captain Janeway's gaze on her. Seven's eyes seemed to be relieved, Janeway thought, as when the blonde said: "It is an implosion. Our life as it has been is over. From this time forward, we are strangers."

Seven stepped gracefully toward the Captain. "Captain, may I have a few—"

Captain Janeway watched Chakotay, his jaw muscles rippling, as he angrily stalked from sickbay. Then she turned to offer Seven an empathetic expression. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, her placid features once again in place. "I am now, Captain. So may I—"

Janeway studied her crewmember, looking for signs of a crack in the formidable armor. She wanted to take the woman in her arms, but knew that would be completely inappropriate. She was the Captain, after all. Belatedly, Janeway felt eyes burning into her, realizing that Seven was also studying her. "Oh, yes, of course, Seven. Take your time. We'll wait here." Captain Janeway berated herself for enjoying the view of Seven swaying her hips as she exited the room. "Sublime," Janeway muttered.

"What was that, Captain?"

She turned toward the Doctor. "You were saying, Doctor—"

=/\=

As Seven approached the biobed, the Astrometrics Officer felt vaguely displaced. She accepted Captain Janeway's small, warm smile as she leaned over, studying the child's familiar face. Seven of Nine's only memories of children were of boys and girls with wide, frightened eyes and mouths frozen in blood-curdling shrieks just as her assimilation tubules punctured their necks. Seven of Nine the Borg was ruthless and unrelenting. The pity had been irrelevant and even after she was severed from the Borg, the guilt was irrelevant. That is also why Seven of Nine was utterly unprepared for a tenderness so formidable her pull to the child lying on the bed would even defy even the tidal gravitational forces of a black hole.

"Let's get started. Shall we?" The Doctor raised a hypospray to wake the sedated child.

Seven stood to her full length. Janeway could see the shiny blue eyes bursting with unshed tears and a possessive hand curled around the girl's became transparent.

"Doctor, may we delay the hypospray for fifteen minutes? I wish to study the child's physical characteristics." She looked at the Captain, expecting to see impatience because of the delay. Janeway's simple look of affection was heartwarming and Seven actually allowed her lips to curl slightly at the corners.

"I suppose you'll want some privacy. I will just practice my play. I will be starring in MacBeth in two weeks. I hope you'll both come." He looked down at the slumbering child. "Dani, too." Then he de-materialized.

Seven bent at her waist and placed the back of her fingers on the child's smooth, creamy cheek. "So soft," she whispered, her breath on the fine, white down of the child's cheek.

The Captain rubbed a thumb over a dimple in Dani's chin. "She got this from you, Seven."

Seven shifted her eyes to see the divit, affectionately caressed by the Captain. Then she brushed a few strands from her face. "The light red hair is from you, Captain."

"Strawberry blonde."

"Captain?" She looked up briefly.

"That's what light red is called. Strawberry blonde."

Seven regarded the child once again, rising to her full height. "It is nearly midway in hue between yours and mine."

"I'm sure that won't be the only feature we will find that belongs to both of us."

Seven let her fingers trail down the girl's soft arm, finding bone where muscle should be. "The child has not consumed sufficient nutritional biomatter."

The Captain finally laid three fingers on the girl's shoulder. "She is a scrawny thing."

"And quite tall." Seven scanned the child with her ocular implant. "Exactly One hundred twenty-seven-point-two centimeters." The Borg noted, secretly pleased to have passed on something of her Nordic heritage. Then, Seven looked gravely at the Captain. "Is it wise to subject the child to Mr. Neelix' cooking?"

Seven's expression was so grave that the Captain had trouble keeping hers serious. A crooked smile slowly stretched across her face, lighting it up. "Is it wise for any of us, Seven?" She looked down at the slumbering child, her fingers dipped into the small hand.

"Indeed." Seven lifted the child's hand, studying each fingernail working her way up to the seven-year-old's lean shoulder. "Captain, do you believe that we loved this child?"

"Oh," she said, watching the Astrometrics Officer inspect the girl with a profound sense of awe. "I'm certain we did." Janeway tipped her head to the side, caressing the girl's cheek. "How could we not?"

Seven pulled the covers back to study the girl's bruised legs, wincing at what she found. "I have a powerful drive to protect her." She looked into the Captain's eyes, wondering why she had never seen Janeway's compassion and vulnerability before this. "Though I am not acquainted with her."

"The maternal instinct is very strong."

Seven turned her attention to the child, running a finger over a scar she found on the child's forearm. "Do you feel this, as well?"

"Oh, yes."

"Do you think we could make another one?"

The thought startled Janeway out of her own thoughts. "Excuse me?" she said in an uneven croak.

"If we made another baby, you and I, would she be identical to this one?"

"We haven't even made this one, Seven. Not really."

"We did somewhere, in some alternate timeline," she said, looking up at the biobed instrument panel. Seven saw many other new, exciting possibilities she'd never considered. Finally, her eyes narrowed on Janeway. The smaller woman was quite attractive. The Captain was stimulating feelings in the Borg that she found both pleasant and disquieting. "Do you believe we loved each other?"

Janeway thought about the question. The more she pondered it, the more she realized it was an astute insight into motivations. "They must have, Seven. No one willingly shackles herself to shrieking and incontinent infants."

Frowning, Seven looked down at the girl. "The girl is not incontinent now?"

"Oh, no!" The Captain waved a dismissive hand. "Just for the first year or two. But she's not far from adolescence. And that's an entirely different sack of potatoes."

Seven belatedly realized that the Captain had deftly changed the topic. She wondered if Janeway did not have sexual feelings for her in this universe. Do I desire her? Seven wondered. She watched as Janeway lightly touched each of Dani's toes, as if doing a roll call. When the woman actually kissed the top of the foot, Seven was so charmed a brilliant smile stretched her lips showing Janeway her straight, even teeth.

"You know, Seven, I don't believe I've never seen your teeth before."

With even a hint of mirth, the younger woman responded. "I do not believe I have ever seen you kiss someone's foot before."

In a heartbeat, a suggestive grin touched Janeway's lips before it disappeared as if it had never existed. Seven registered movement on her lips, but no words were spoken.

"What did you say, Captain?" In fact, Seven knew very well that she had not spoken.

Just then, the Doctor materialized.

Startled, Janeway started. "I really wish you wouldn't do that."

"And five, four, three, two and...time's up." Without waiting, the Doctor pressed the hypospray to Dani's neck, then stood back.

Dani's head began to move slowly side to side and a small moan escaped her cracked lips. Her long eyelashes swept open to reveal eyes the exact color of Seven's. She blinked at the tall blonde, her eyes filling with tears. She bolted up, her feet landing with a thud. In no time, Dani pressed herself to Seven's body, wrapping her arms around the woman's waist and burrowing her face into her mother's chest. "Mommie!"

Seven absorbed the blow of Dani's body to hers as she met Janeway's shy gaze with a look of pure raptured bliss. Automatically, one of Seven's arm brought the child close while the other luxuriated in the short pale russet strands. Just when she thought she could not be more content, the child looked up into her tall mother's eyes. "It's really you," she said, before burying her face again to laugh joyfully.

"Well," the Doctor quietly. Captain Janeway was astonished to see the sarcastic Doctor moved to silence. "I believe I will let the three of you get—"

At the sound of his voice, Dani turned with a gasp at the site of Kathryn Janeway standing beside him. She paled and wobbled, before burrowing further into her mother. "I see a ghost," she whispered, gritting her eyes closed until she saw red spots.

"A ghost?" Janeway and Seven exclaimed together.

Without turning, Dani pointed in Captain Janeway's direction. "I see her."

Janeway frowned inwardly. She hadn't even spoken to the child and here she was already frightened by her. Terrific.

"Do you see her?" Dani looked up at her mother again.

Seven kissed the top of her head. "Yes, Dani. I see your mother. She's no ghost. Take a look."

Slowly, Dani laid her cheek on Seven's chest. Through her long, reddish eyelashes she watched the figure smile at her. Only after her eyes had rolled over the figure of her mother did Dani push gently away from the blonde, still gripping her hand. "They told us you died."

Kathryn's faint smile was sad as she tipped her head. She knew that she couldn't pollute the timeline with more knowledge than Dani needed, in case it was imperative she be sent back. But the urge to chuck it all to hell nearly overwhelmed her duty. But she held firm for the love of a girl she hardly knew. "I'm right here, love."

At the sound of her voice, Dani sobbed. "You even sound right," she whispered. She tucked her chin, releasing Seven's hand. Kathryn took that opportunity to open her arms wide in invitation.

Dani ran and flung herself into Kathryn. "Oh, Cappie," she cried.

Janeway looked up at Seven, who had another rare smile spread her lips. "Cappie?" Janeway mouthed. Awful.

"You feel right, too." The girl inadvertently wiped her leaking eyes and nose with the Captain's tunic.

"You do, too," she said, stroking her hair. Kathryn continued to enfold the girl tightly, cooing words of comfort when her eyes lifted to find a Seven who looked completely and totally enshrouded in a mist of delight. Kathryn closed her eyes, a single tear squeezed from each eye. I'm silly, she told herself. None of this is real.

Dani lifted her head, watching a tear fall on her shoulder. "Why're you crying?"

Kathryn wiped the other drop away, smiling warmly at the child. "Oh, it's been a long time since I've seen you. That's all."

"My Cappie," she whispered. Dani pulled back to look into her mother's eyes. "They told mom and me you were dead. But you aren't!"

Janeway smiled, relishing Dani's childlike love. She had no intention of trying to explain alternate universes to a seven-year-old. For now, Janeway convinced herself to allow Dani to call her Cappie.

"They were mistaken," she replied.

Just then the Doctor rematerialized with a bowl of soup and a beverage. He started to speak, but the site of a tender moment between Janeway and the child stopped him again. Instead he set a plate down.

The girl opened her eyes too and sniffed. "Somethin' smells."

"Yes, well, I usually don't bring food around to my sickbay. But, since you're special, I made an exception. You certainly could use the calories."

The Doctor indicated for Dani to sit down a round, white table. She looked at Seven. "Will you stay and eat with me?"

"I do not require nutritional supplements at this time," Seven said. But a shadow of fear and loneliness moved across Dani's face and the Borg relented. "However, I will sit with you while you eat."

Dani spun around to take the Captain's hand. "Cappie?"

The Doctor's amused eyes met the Captain's. A withering look stabbed into him. "Yes, Cappie, perhaps you could join them," he said, humor lacing his words.

The Captain's icy glower disappeared when she looked down at Dani. "I think I can manage some time."

The Doctor's brow arched. "It's not like these few hours will ever compare to the double and triple shifts you've pulled."

Captain Janeway knew it was the responsibility of the Chief Medical Officer to oversee the crew's well-being, including hers. But sometimes, he was such a pompous ass, she wanted to just unplug him.

"After we eat can we all play a game?" When their gazes became dubious, Dani tipped her head. "Please," she said, pulling out the word with as many musical notes as possible.

"Will you consume all of your nutritional supplement at this time?" Seven asked her, after remembering a time when Naomi's mother Ensign Samantha Wildman had used the same technique.

She looked down at the bubbling red soup on her plate. Her nose crinkled and her lips curled in obvious disgust. "What is this?"

"Why don't you try it?" The Captain said, loosening her tunic a bit. She looked down at her hand, faintly grimacing. She wiped her hand on her slacks and used a napkin on the stain. Kids, she thought. She really wished she would have gotten in a sonic shower and, now, that she could change her uniform. She had a feeling it was going to be a while until Dani went to sleep.

Dani sat in the corner of a chair she didn't bother to pull it out. She spooned some of it up and let it fall to the bowl.

"I believe that is Neelix's feragoit goulash," Seven said, peering over the table at the dish.

"It looks like ferret guts, all right." Dani sniffed the spoonful of goulash, earning a raised eyebrow from her taller mother.

"Neelix has claimed that his goulash is a delicacy in twelve star systems."

Dani ignored the Captain. "And it smells like ferret guts, too."

"I was not aware that you were a connoisseur of the intestines of small, domesticated carnivores," Seven said, a typically placid face. She waited for Dani's reposte, but the girl continued to glare at the watery soup with floating white chunks. "Perhaps it would be wise to sample the dish before drawing conclusions."

She loudly slurped some from a spoon, after blowing on it. "Hmm." Dani sipped the goulash with a loud serious of slurps. "Tastes like Gee-gee's Irish stew." She gave a beaming smile to Kathryn.

Both of the women glanced involuntarily at each other, wondering whether they should inquire just who Gee-gee was.

Dani stopped her spoon mid-air, looking straight at the Captain, who was trying to smother her dismay of the predicament. "Will Grandma Gretchen stop by today?"

Janeway's face lit up with understanding. Ah, Gee-gee. Of course. "No, your grandmother is not in this...parsec of space." She watched the child chewing enthusiastically, smiling at her with the simple joy of a child. "Do you enjoy it?"

Before she realized it, Dani was done eating. "What's for dessert?"

Seven glanced down, finding only an empty tray and spoon. "What would you like? I could program—"

Seven paused at the look of shock and concern on Dani's face. Dani looked over at Kathryn expectantly.

When the surprised child didn't speak, Kathryn leaned back on her chair. "What, Dani?"

Dani raised her eyebrows and her eyes became golf balls. "Cap, are you gonna let Andy zap me up a chocolate cake?"

Kathryn's intuition was telling her that this situation was more than met the eye. First, she presumed that "Andy" was really Seven, though she didn't understand the significance of the name. For that matter, she realized that they didn't even know Dani's complete name. "Zap" as it relates to the food replicator...Hmm, that sounds like Gee-gee, Janeway mused.

Kathryn and her sister, Phoebe, were raised in Indiana by traditionalist parents who shunned such modern conveniences such as food replicators and transporter technology. She remembered growing up that she and Phoebe couldn't play Parisi Squares or Kadis-kot like the other kids. They played checkers, hopscotch and jump rope. "God forbid that you and your sister should actually grow up as friends playing in the sunshine," she remembered her mother saying at the time. It was dismal for a child to be different. Now she appreciated the traditionalist values. But perhaps the alternate Kathryn invoked the same rule for their family.

Kathryn tugged her ear, tipping her head to one side. "Oh, I don't know, Dani. Don't you think our reunion is a special occasion so that we could bend one tiny rule for today?" Then she gasped as she finished speaking at the significance of what that really meant for her and Seven.

Dani seemed to consider the words, before nodding once; while Seven's eyebrows were nearly in orbit. "Yeah, okay, Cap," Dani said, in such a conciliatory way as if she were conceding a grand point. "I guess I could let you guys slide this time."

The Captain tousled the girl's head until she heard a faint, playful growl. "My, perhaps you should be caged."

Seven caught her breath to see a small replica of a crooked smile grace the child's face.

"After cake," she said, picking up her fork, eyeing Seven with anticipation and a lick of her lips.

Seven rose and stepped toward the replicator, after receiving a secret wink from the Captain. She knew that B'Elanna Torres had mentioned her love of chocolate, as had other women on the ship. She was reasonably confident that the replicator included that data file. "Very well, chocolate cake."

"With lots of icing," Dani added helpfully. "And don't forget the sprinkles."

Seven pivoted back to place a slice of chocolate bedecked with colored sprinkles. "Your dessert." Seven placed a two-layered chocolate cake and glass of milk in front of the child.

"Where's yours?" she asked crestfallen.

Seven gave a small curl of one corner of her mouth, pivoted back and pressed more buttons. She returned to the table with two more plates. "Captain," she said.

Just as Seven's fork was poised to dive into the dessert, she caught an odd expression on the child's face. Kathryn realized that Seven called her Captain, hardly a name a woman called her wife. Like a parent groping in the dark for direction, Kathryn did the best she could. She provided a diversion.

"So, Dani. Checkers?"

Dani's eyes snapped over. "I'm red!" A few crumbs of cake flew out and her parents were treated to the sight of a mouthful of cake.

Janeway gave Dani a mildly admonishing look. She had the good sense to blush and apologize.

=/\=

Later, Kathryn, Seven and Dani were playing a game called Borg Chess. The special gridded, triangular board has been warped from a cube into a flat two-dimensional playing surface. The peculiar board allowed parallel paths to intersection and intersecting paths to become parallel. Of the nine sets of triangular pieces that started the game, Dani had three remaining, Seven had four and Kathryn five.

Kathryn raised her hand to move one of two remaining queens, placing it near the apex of her quadrant. As soon as Janeway relinquished the piece, Dani's eyes clouded.

She threw herself back on her chair and folded her arms. The seven-year-old brushed furiously at tears. "I'm not a baby, Cappie."

The contradiction between her conduct and her words nearly made Kathryn offer an infuriating smile. But she remembered those from her own youth and quashed it out of hand. "I didn't think you were."

Dani's thin, light copper eyebrows shot up. "Why're you letting me win then?"

Janeway's expression pleaded with Seven, but she was only offered more pretzels. When Janeway looked again at the girl, she noticed that her pale skin was the color of her freckles. Janeway opened her mouth, but closed it. Of course, she'd set her queen up to be gobbled. She and Seven had been pandering the entire game. Isn't that what parents were supposed to do? Kathryn inhaled deeply, laying a hand on the table near Dani.

"I'm sorry, Dani—"

Dani swung her arm across the table to nab her drone and then fired it at her mother's taller piece, knocking the queen off the table. Her own piece landed across the room, both shattering to bits. "I knew it!"

The outburst startled both women. Janeway thought an admission would have smoothed everything over, instead they were treated to a seven-year-old tantrum. The women watched Dani angrily sweep all of the game pieces into the pretzel bowl, before folding the board and laying it on top.

"I guess we're done," a stunned Janeway managed. Not even her younger sister had been quite so volatile.

The Doctor materialized by the table. He frowned at the game pieces in the bowl and at the huffing girl. "It appears I've arrived just in time for your next antibiotic injection." He smiled pretentiously at Dani.

"I have to pee," she growled, bolting to her feet. Dani was standing in the middle of sickbay before she stopped. Without turning she asked: "Where's the head?" She pounded her fists to her waist waiting.

The Doctor toward the ensuite in the far corner. They all saw her hesitate slightly. "Do you want one of us to go with you, Dani?" Janeway said, rising to follow through with that offer.

"No!" But she remained turned away, showing them the chopping lengths of uneven hair. Then as if the clouds had rolled by and the sun was out, Dani's voice became so small. "Doctor, would you stand by the entry?"

"Post traumatic stress disorder," he whispered to the women before making his way to the other side of the room.

When the ensuite door slide closed, Janeway gave Seven a fatigued look. "I think you've spoiled her, Seven."

Seven quirked the eyepiece at her left brow. "Perhaps Gee-gee did." Her emphasis on Janeway's mother's nickname made the older woman actually snort. "It is illogical that I would allow such behavior."

Janeway clicked her teeth. "I don't know, Seven. Her tantrum was very efficient." Slowly, Janeway's small grin found an unamused Borg drone.

"The child possesses red hair." The quick nod of her head for emphasis was greeted by a beaming crooked grin.

"Let's call it a draw." Janeway tossed a pretzel in her mouth. "The irony is, Seven, we were both holding back." She'd watched Seven give away so many pieces to Dani the competitive drive in Janeway nearly compelled her to cry foul.

"Of course, Captain, but I believe the rules are different for us. You are the...." Seven stared up, considering the most precise description. "You are the spur and I am the...feather."

"The spur?! Why am I the spur?"

"Because, Captain. As you spurred me on, so do you also inspire the child."

"Easy for you to say. Feather." Janeway's eyebrows peaked at the top of her nose, sloping down and out with a wry look twisting the corners of her mouth. Seven had come to know this as Captain Janeway's playful expression.

"What I meant, Captain, was—"

Janeway pointed a clawed finger at Seven. "That's another thing, Andy."

Seven crossed one arm over the other, an eyebrow arched high. "What is the other thing and who is Andy?"

"You're Andy. Evidently, it's my designation for you."

"How did you reach your conclusion?"

"Intuition." Janeway said the word, emphasizing each syllable. She knew the ex-Borg would be tweaked by the very concept.

"That is a human fallacy." Her monotone voice still managed to infuse the insolence of an entire galaxy. "Does your intuition know the significance of 'Andy?'"

"Not yet. But it will."

"Perhaps we should make an inquiry with the child."

"No!" Janeway glanced over her shoulder at the ensuite door. "She'll be aware of her timeline shift. It's better not to confuse her."

"This is...inefficient, Captain." Seven of Nine's frown on her full lips was just about the cutest one Janeway had ever seen. She wanted to reach across the table and kiss the pouting lips.

"Don't call me that in front of her, Seven. Her reaction when you first used it was...shock."

Seven stood to collect their cups for recycling. "Very well, then. I shall call you Cappie."

Janeway's eyes narrowed and her lips thinned. Her voice dropped in register. "You can't do that." She carried the other dishes and game pieces to the replicator station.

"Why is that?"

"Because that's Dani's name for me. Intuition tells me you've given me a different nickname."

"Perhaps you are...Three of Three."

Janeway stared up at the tall blonde. "No, I don't think so." Janeway finally shook her head. She'd never really realized that Seven had a sense of humor. How good was entirely debatable. Of course, the fact that they wrangled at nearly every crossroad may have obscured that fact.

"Intuition?" The mockery in Seven's voice was thick meringue.

"Yes," Janeway said curtly with a hint of wry amusement. Seven turned toward the replicator, as Janeway leaned her shoulder against the wall beside the replicator: "The same intuition that told me..." Janeway tapped a finger lightly against Seven's shoulder. "...to sever you from the Borg."

Seven keyed in the program before watching the dirty dishes dematerialize. Then the blonde turned on her heels, resting her forearm on the wall above Janeway's head. The move put them within a breath from each other. Seven's lips parted as she stared at Janeway's.

Janeway laughed self-consciously, falling back to the wall. She seemed relieved to be out from under Seven's shadow. "You were saying, Seven." She'd tried to keep her voice smoothly modulated, but it cracked at the end. The Captain pretended it meant nothing.

Seven swung the palm of her hand over, trapping Janeway against the wall. As she spoke, the taller woman allowed her gaze to roam over the woman's face and upper body. "I do not believe I have ever expressed my gratitude to you for freeing me."

Janeway's eyes snapped to Seven's. The blonde began a deliriously slow descent toward Janeway's lips. Seven heard a humming moan so faint it required her Borg-enhanced senses to record it. She does want me, she thought.

Just as their lips hovered a whisper apart, Janeway pushed against Seven's shoulders. "Please," Janeway pleaded. "Please don't."

Seven straightened, but kept her arms firmly in place. "You do not wish to be thanked?"

Janeway's eyes tracked to the Doctor standing patiently by the ensuite door, reading a padd, oblivious. When she looked back at Seven, her cloudy eyes were rimmed red. "I do not wish to be kissed."

Seven dropped an arm, but her body rippled from the force to keep herself there. "But, I believe.... Did I misperceive, Kathryn?"

The Captain's given name sounded like a symphony on Seven's lips. But "duty" crashed inside of her, drowning out the melody with a wild, deafening caterwauling. Janeway suddenly felt the heat of the woman's shoulders under her palms, reluctantly letting them drop to her side. Janeway focused on the starburst at Seven's right cheek. "No, Seven. I sent a message I had no business sending."

Seven's confusion was heartbreaking. Captain Janeway felt a lump form in her throat, but she swallowed hard against it. "I'm sorry," the older woman whispered.

Just then, the whistle of Janeway's communicator propelled Seven away from her. "Lt. Tuvok to Captain Janeway."

The Captain squared herself and swallowed her lips briefly before replying, her eyes never leaving the gorgeous figure turned away from her. "Janeway here."

"Captain, I believe your presence on the bridge is required."

"What is it, Tuvok?" Her impatience with her oldest friend was razor thin, but she knew it would breeze by him effortlessly.

The ensuite door swung open and Dani looked at Janeway from across the room. Fear and regret passed through her eyes like lightning on a mountaintop.

"Apologies, Captain, but we are being hailed by three Mencari vessels."

The Captain nodded, more for Dani's benefit. "I'm on my way, Tuvok. Janeway out."

With only a flutter of her fingers in departure, Captain Janeway turned on her heels, the door swishing closed behind her.

=/\=

The Doctor watched Dani's features twist and darken.

"Are you feeling all right, Dani?"

The question drew Seven over to her, seeing an anguished young face. "Are you ill?"

She shook her head, still staring at the door. "Do you think Cappie's mad at me?"

Seven smoothed the child's pajama collar. "No, I do not believe your mother was in the least threatened by your childish display. She has faced the Hirogen, after all."

Dani swiped nervously at another tear. "I'm...I'm..."

The Doctor immediately started running his tricorder around her, watching the displays intently.

Seven draped an around the girl's shoulders. "You are tired."

"And you've been through quite a traumatic experience, Dani," the Doctor said, frowning at the data. "You are still adjusting, it seems."

"Doctor, could you tell Cappie that? That I'm—"

"Out of sorts?" he asked.

The girl nodded, pleadingly.

"Since it's quite true, I will include that in my report that your mother ordered...on her desk...with bells and whistles before she reprograms me as a cookie dispenser."

The tension was broken when Dani giggled. "I like cookies. Snicker doodles are my favorite."

"Good to know," he replied, urging her to sit on the biobed. After administering a hypospray, the Doctor produced a lollipop, earning him a brilliant smile.

She sniffed it. "Strawberry. My favorite."

"That is mine as well," Seven replied proudly.

"Sorry, Seven. I only had one lolly," the Doctor confessed.

"I shall endeavor to carry on, Doctor."

Before Dani popped the candy into her mouth, she stopped with it poised mid-air. "Mom?"

Seven noticed that the Doctor busied himself at the workstation, but he seemed to be merely brushing his hands over the keys. But his ears were perked.

"Yes, Dani?"

"Why didn't Cap kiss us on the way out?"

Seven raised an eyebrow, considering her reply carefully. "I do not know."

But slowly a mischievous grin stretched out on Seven's lips languidly. "Perhaps you should ask Cappie yourself."

The Doctor half turned, a smirk and a gleam signaled his enjoyment of the suggestion.

"That's not like her." The girl stuck the lolly in her mouth, smiling at the flavor. It seemed as if the events of the day were rolled off of her. But looks were deceiving.