A/N: Thanks for all the kind reviews. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
Time Enough
Chapter 6: Temptation
Captain Kathryn Janeway tugged down her tunic with both hands. It was oh-five-hundred hours and she was standing outside of the VIP suite across from her quarters.
She pushed the nagging thought that she was being a coward out of her mind. She was merely preserving a professional relationship with a crewmember. She most certainly was not avoiding another tantalizing good morning kiss from Seven of Nine.
The Captain used her authority to enter the locked quarters. It was tactical mistake. She knew it the moment she saw the blonde's creamy bare shoulders exposed. She stood still, holding her breath. She considered making a hasty retreat, but then Seven tossed her head back. The slightest curl of Seven's lips and the sensual curve of her neck smacked the Captain around.
"Kathryn," she said smoothly. "How fortunate you are ahead of schedule."
Kathryn looked around the suite, noticing small personal touches. A rubber band-propelled toy boat, an Earth globe and a leather-bound copy of "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz."
"It seems you're settling in, Seven," she said as casually as she could while her stomach roiled.
Seven stepped to the doorway, peering out. "Yes, those were gifts from the crew. The toy boat from Lt. Paris. The globe from Ensign Kim and the book from Neelix."
Just as Kathryn felt her heart beat pulling into the slow lane, an unexpected hand burned itself into her shoulder. She jumped away in the opposite direction. "I did not mean to startle you, Kathryn." She presented her back to the tense woman. "Could you please provide assistance?"
"I don't see why not." Kathryn stepped closer.
The Captain could see the woman's muscles ripple in a shiver. She spread her fingers, hovering enough to raise the fine blonde down she found. She wondered what it would feel like to caress Seven. Kathryn closed her eyes, allowing the thought to comfort her. To have one night in a thousand where she could feel the warmth of another human being, instead of the simulated heat of a bulkhead.
"Kathryn?" Seven caught the raised eyebrows and the closed eyes, all the look of pure rapture.
Quickly, the Captain brought a hand up, carefully avoiding tender flesh to tug the zipper up. It buzzed up quietly to the accompaniment of Kathryn's heavy breathing.
Seven whirled to face the woman she dreamed about last night. She carefully took Kathryn's face between two hands, brushing her cheeks with her thumbs. Seven smiled at the mixture of fear and desire warring on the beautiful face. Slowly, she lowered her mouth to Kathryn's unyielding lips. This was the beginning of her dream.
When Seven had been severed from the Collective, her deepest longings pervaded her every sleeping moment. For many months, she dreamed of reuniting with the Borg. But as time passed, the unexpected delight she found in her own work, her friends and even her sexuality turned the dreams to nightmares. Bloody drones pursued her relentlessly to strip it from her. "You will be assimilated," the monsters droned. "Gratification is irrelevant."
But last night's dream was the first of its kind for her. The bedroom of the VIP quarters was candlelit. Shadows played upon the naked landscape of Kathryn Janeway's small body. Seven's mouth tasted her peaks and her hand delved the deep waters. When Kathryn cried out her name, Seven felt her own intense quaking build and explode in her own body.
Seven's eyes had snapped open, finding herself sweaty in the VIP quarters at oh-four-hundred hours. Between her legs, Seven felt the aftershocks of a curious trembling. A computer search revealed it for what it truly was. The female orgasm. Seven believed she had felt pleasantries the few times with Chakotay. She had always merely thought that chroniclers exaggerated the intensity of the orgasmic bliss. But this! From a mere dream! Cold, scientific words did it no justice.
How powerful indeed were her feelings for Kathryn that simple nocturnal images could give her what she had been denied as a Borg drone. This was not lust or random musings. It was love. Of that, Seven of Nine was certain.
Seven pulled Kathryn by the hand to seal them into her new quarters, spinning the redhead around when she again lowered her lips to the Captain's. The light union met fierce resistance at first. But Seven relentlessly pulled Kathryn closer, allowing her hands to roam the body of which she dreamed. Seven became lost in the sensations of heat and softness.
Slowly, slowly, Kathryn yielded, her lips becoming pliable and then her mouth opening. Kathryn could almost hear the runaway thudding of Seven's excited heart. It was both hymn and temptation. This was no measured response to stimulus. Seven jumped willingly into the experience with both eyes open. Seven's embrace gently pulling the other woman close was an invitation.
"Oh, Kathryn!" Seven's lips moved against the woman's ear.
For Seven, it was so easy to use hands to gather, rather than drive away. To use lips to worship, rather than sting. To use her body to please, rather than seduce. Even her very breath was an offering of union. What intimacy could be greater than to share life-giving exhalations? She loves me! Kathryn exulted. How could I deserve such a precious gift? It's a gift I can't even accept.
The thought constricted a barbed wire around her heart. Kathryn reluctantly freed Seven's mouth, pushing palms against Seven's shoulders. "No, we can't." She turned her head away, from Seven, from love.
"But why not, Kathryn?" Seven could not yield, not this time. Her hands still clasped around the shorter woman.
Kathryn stared at the small hollow centered at the base of Seven's neck. "Because fraternization is against Starfleet regulations."
Seven dipped her head, her open mouth finding Kathryn's. But it was the older woman who swirled a tongue in Seven's mouth. A sexy, rumble stirred in Kathryn's throat. For a brief moment, her hands strained to draw Seven in. Then just as suddenly, Kathryn wrenched herself back as hard as she could from the Borg's vise-like grip. "I'm ordering you to release me—!"
In one swift move, Seven curled a hand at the back of Kathryn's neck and pulled them together again. She was surprised when Kathryn's resistance dissolved with another small whimper. Seven's lips traveled down along her jaw to find a sweet spot at her throat. Kathryn threw her head back.
Kathryn's hand held the back of Seven's head. "Why must you always defy me, Seven?"
Seven felt the vibrations against her lips and when she laughed, the tremors merged into pure sensation and light. Seven took Kathryn's face between both hands and stared lovingly into the gray-blue depths. "I only defy your voice, Kathryn." As Seven placed a gentle kiss on the older woman's neck, she let a hand meander down to lightly pinch a nipple. Kathryn arched into the touch, a throaty gurgle expressed equal parts dismay and desire. "Your body's response begs me to persist."
Kathryn's arms had snaked up to encircle the taller woman's shoulders, bringing them closer. But her voice was razor sharp. "This is insubordination."
Seven palmed Kathryn's small bosom as her lips once again found Kathryn's. "Then insubordination feels...." Kathryn could see Seven search for the right word and she inhaled sharply when the luscious lips revealed it. "Wondrous."
Kathryn tipped her head, her expressive eyebrows curved down and her lips curved up. "Oh, Seven," she said, part longing and part sorrow. "I'm your commanding officer."
"Then command me," Seven replied evenly. "Command me to make love to you. To never leave you. To make you supremely content."
For one brief moment, as she felt Seven's breasts nudging her own Kathryn considered a future with this woman in her arms. Kathryn's arms tightened around the taller woman for just one moment. Then Janeway's responsibilities crowded her mind, cutting off the pleasurable sensations. It was mere friction, she told herself. Then she loosened her grip. "Oh, Seven," she whispered.
She allowed the Captain to pull away, letting Seven search her face for a long, long moment. "Do not fear, Kathryn," she murmured, still reaching for her. But Kathryn stepped beyond her reach.
Kathryn loved this woman and Seven knew it. Her ruse had failed. Seven never believed her attraction was purely lust. Never. The Captain's only recourse now was the truth.
Janeway reached for Seven's hand, connected but still at arm's length. "Not fear, dear Seven," she said, staring at her without a blink. "But duty."
Janeway dropped the hand that obstinately gripped her own. She turned her back on Seven, but at the bedroom door, Janeway stopped. "I am sorry, love," she whispered without turning.
Seven stood frozen. Even with her eidetic memory, Seven only heard the last word. Love. Yes, that's it. She felt it in her body, aching to strum under Kathryn's nimble fingers. That promise would sustain her until Seven could find a way to keep Kathryn Janeway close.
=/\=
The Doctor's appearance in the VIP quarters smothered the awkwardness that may have ensued. It was that and his new customized cranial folds and prominent earlobes.
As he indignantly objected to re-testing the girl, the two women stared unashamedly at him. "What is the matter with the both of you?"
The Captain stood up, her eyes never leaving the Doctor's head. Instead of his customary bald pate, the Doctor had Klingon ridges from the bridge of his nose all the way to the top of his head. His wreath of hair was gone in favor of two large Ferengi-like ears. Captain Janeway touched her chin and her voice came out jagged. "Doctor, you seem to, ah—"
"Someone has altered your imaging processors for humorous effect." Seven reached for a hand-held mirror.
"They what?! What do I look like?" The Doctor had been somewhat vain for a hologram and this was a particular blow to his developing self-esteem. His horrified look only compounded the ghastly combination.
"I look monstrous!" His face turned grim as he studied his head. "I have been...violated!" He yelled, with an involuntary Klingon grunt. He dropped the mirror from view. "This is an outrage!" Then as if to fuel his rising fury, he looked at himself again. "Who would do such a thing?"
The Captain and Seven shared a knowing look. Then Seven looked up as she spoke. "Computer, who accessed and redefined the EMH image processor?" Despite covering her tracks, Seven was able to isolate the time stamp and the terminal used, eventually narrowing the codes down to one Elizabeth Eridani Janeway.
"Dani did this?" He tried to scratch his head. But the valleys and hills on his head seemed unnatural to him, so he dropped his hand. "I should have known this particular patient would significantly try my long-suffering nature...." He tried to arch a brow, but the weight of his additional flesh made it feel strange. "...given her relationship to my other two most difficult subjects."
Janeway ignored his insult. "Her work is...." The Captain stepped around the Doctor, taking in the entire three-dimensional affect as she searched for an apt description.
"Thorough," Seven supplied. "Precise."
"Fiendish!" the Doctor added. "Pre-meditated!"
Janeway could tell that the emotional sub-routines for the EMH were carrying away the Doctor. She stopped to face him squarely.
"But why? Why would she do this to me?" He shrugged, unable to understand the malice.
"Let's find out."
In the darkened bedroom, the child lay in soft sleep, her eyes moving rapidly under her lids. Her mouth was slightly open and a hand under her ear.
"Dani," Janeway said calmly. "It's time to get up."
Dani turned her back on the three adults.
"Computer, raise ambient lights to full," Seven said.
Dani squinted at the bright lights, pulling the covers over her face.
"Dani," Janeway said. "It's time to get up."
She lifted her head and opened one eye to glance at the chronometer. "Too early." The response was muffled.
Janeway worked her jaw, at a loss to properly motivate a seven-year-old. She wanted to yell that it was an order, but somehow she knew the response would be a long, drawn out yawn. Suddenly, Seven put a hand on her shoulder. "Kathryn, please escort the Doctor to the living area. I shall endeavor to roust her."
She glanced back at the child, who was snoring quietly. "Do it!"
=/\=
Dani was glowering as she walked out of her bedroom. A white, fluffy towel was flung over one shoulder. On closer inspection, Janeway noticed that the child's hair and collar were more than damp. She gave Seven a look of admiration, as she herded the girl toward a seat.
Dani rubbed an eye with a hand, yawning again. "I want pancakes," she said, her voice rough with sleep.
"Later," Janeway said. "Tell me, Dani...." She crossed a leg, straightening her back. Janeway projected her steeliest stare. "Why did you vandalize the good Doctor?"
Dani stopped abruptly, looking up with large, innocent eyes. "Huh?" She looked at the Doctor, her mouth twitching with a smothering laugh. "I didn't do that." Then Dani turned icy blue eyes on the photonic. "Morons can't do that stuff."
The Doctor pounded his fists onto his hips. "Is that what this is about? Your test results?"
She crossed her arms, her eyebrows bunching together over blistering eyes.
"I demand that you revert me to my former appearance, young lady!"
The girl jumped at the shouting, running to stand behind Seven where she hid her face against her mother.
"Doctor," Seven said in monotone. "Raising the volume of your voice will not compel cooperation."
"Oh, no?" His mouth was a thin line of aggravation. "How about a paddling—?"
Janeway leapt to her feet, raising her hands to calm him down. "Now, Doctor—"
"If my skull!..." The Doctor threw up his arms in frustration. "If my head and ears can be modified then so can my 'first do no harm' restriction." He glared at Dani's shoulder, the only part he could see around Seven. "I've never paddled a child, but I'm willing to...adapt, shall we say."
"Doctor," Janeway said, painfully aware that she hadn't had her morning coffee yet. "I believe you are overreacting."
"Overreacting! I most certainly am not! Do you realize I have dress rehearsals today? I can't go out on stage looking like this. Not to mention the patient appointments I have!"
Dani peaked around and giggled again. "I think you look nice."
"I liked the way I looked before!" He leaned over, trying to catch the girl's gaze, but quickly she hid against Seven's back.
"But you were bald," Dani pointed out, half muffled against her mother's body.
"Yes, I was! And there's nothing wrong with that." He waved a hand in her direction.
"Dani," the Captain said, summoning her vast diplomacy experience. "No one has the right to change someone else's appearance."
"But his can be switched every day, if he wanted."
"That's the point!" The Doctor yelled, frustrated at trying to reason with a seven-year-old. "I don't want! You have red hair!"
As he grew louder, she tried to burrow deeper into her mother's back. "I can't change my red hair," she hissed. It was evident from her prickly tone than Dani wanted to.
Seven put an arm around Dani, keeping her close, but bringing her around. She patted the girl's back, but addressed the EMH. "Doctor, I will see that Eridani resets your original image parameters and I will ensure that she is sufficiently contrite. Is that adequate?"
His glare melted as he looked down at the angelic face with blue eyes the exact color of Seven of Nine's. He'd once loved Seven, perhaps he still did. Because of that, he found he would do anything for the girl.
"Very well," he said, trying to sound only marginally appeased. "I do see your point about the intelligence test, as well. It seems Dani is more advanced than even I anticipated. I will even consider more appropriate test measures."
Just as the Doctor made as if he were ready to leave, Janeway crossed her arms. "Hold on, Doctor."
She tugged on Dani's arm. "I think an explanation and an apology are in order. Don't you, Dani? If you are more intelligent than the tests..." The comment brought a glare upon Janeway, making her hastily add—"and there is no question that you are, why did you deliberately fail the test?"
Dani pursed her lips, casting her eyes out of the large window. Seven and the Captain wondered what she was looking for.
"Captain, how do you know she deliberately sabotaged herself?" The Doctor heard a resentful burble in the girl's throat.
Janeway handed the padd that Seven had used last night to reprocess the answers using multiple algorithms.
"It's a rudimentary picture," he said, flabbergasted. "Of a..." He turned the padd around three-hundred-sixty degrees, trying to make sense of a three-sided shape inside of a circle. "The starfleet insignia?" The Doctor looked up at the Captain, and then Seven. "Why would you do that?"
Seven raised an eyebrow, turning to watch Dani ignore him. "Eridani?"
She stubbornly tightened her mouth, tweaking an unexpected anger in the Captain that she found difficult to stifle. "Eridani, please respond."
"The questions were for babies," Dani finally admitted with an eye roll.
"Babies?" The Doctor was being too literal.
So Janeway boiled it down. "I believe, Doctor, that Dani found your test...tedious."
"To say the least," the Doctor added. "That would certainly explain why she answered the rather simple question about the number of wings a bird has with six." He looked up at the women. "I'm sorry. I should have reviewed the results more closely, especially when..." the hologram glanced down at the padd. "...she answered fairly simple questions with absurdities." He looked between both women. "Again, I apologize. I shocked you both into a Tarelian coma."
The Doctor's face was shifted between consternation and agitation and back again when he looked down at the little redheaded wonder. "Why didn't you just say you thought the questions were too easy? Did you really have to modify my image?"
She shrugged. "It was fun."
The Doctor stared at Dani for a few minutes, remembering her post-traumatic stress disorder. "Perhaps you did need to blow off steam," he conceded. "I will find more difficult tests for you, Dani."
She tipped her head to one side. "You can try," she said with a challenging look. Dani's stomach growled loudly. Then she turned to her mothers. "Am I getting pancakes or not?"
Only after Dani apologized for adulterating his appearance and promising to rectify it was the matter dropped. The Doctor graciously absolved the confession and agreed to re-test her, before dematerializing.
=/\=
For long moments, the trio ate breakfast in silence, except for the clinking of silverware on ceramic. Finally, Janeway shifted in her chair, pushed her plate forward and brought her coffee cup close.
"The Doctor believed you had countless learning disabilities as a result of your answers."
Dani tucked her chin, but lifted her eyes. She merely chewed and waited.
Seven placed her plate on top of Janeway's. "The Doctor appeared to be on the verge of deleting his emotional subroutines. He thought they were malfunctioning just as he was required to inform us that you were dyslexic. Among other things."
Dani watched a forkful of food with feigned fascination as she brought it to her mouth.
"Have you nothing to say for yourself?"
"I already said I was sorry."
"Your contrition seems contrived, Eridani."
Seven's directness could be a definite asset when dealing with headstrong children, Janeway thought. She admired the way Seven had handled herself and the child this morning.
"I think, Andy," the Captain said calling Seven by her supposed spousal nickname as if she had been doing it for years. "That assisting the Doctor for a week during the our shifts would help Eridani learn some much-needed sympathy."
Dani did not seem to be alarmed or interested in the topic of her volunteer opportunity. She slowly lifted her glass and drank her orange juice. It galled her parents somewhat that the punishment seemed to have little effect on the girl.
When Dani rose from the table, Seven ordered her to bathe and dress. "But I bathed yesterday!" the child protested.
"You will bathe today and every day," Seven informed the child.
"But—" A long whine pounded itself into the eardrums of the adults.
"Please do not debate this small matter, Eridani," Seven warned. "It is an inefficient use of your time."
Only after the grouchy child retreated to her ensuite, did Janeway finally turn to Seven, with a little, sardonic grin. "It seems bathing may be more of a penalty than spending seven days with the Doctor."
"Indeed," Seven said, as she gathered the plates for recycling. She stood up and Janeway watched as the woman swayed past her to the replicator.
"I still believe that Dani has your knack for..." Janeway flourished her hands. "...shaking up the status quo."
Seven laid the dishes inside the replicator and pushed a button. When she turned, her eyes were narrow and her chin lift. "Incorrect, Captain."
Janeway noted the unmitigated arrogance that Seven assumed by default. "What makes you say that, Seven of Nine?"
"On at least three occasions, you knowingly violated the Prime Directive. On Stardate 48315.6, you destroyed the Caretaker's array to prevent the Kazon from acquiring its technology thus stranding your crew and the Maquis in the Delta Quadrant."
Janeway took a sip of coffee, waiting for her to continue. Her eyes said she was more amused that annoyed at Seven. "On Stardate 48832.1, you aided and abetted a known war criminal by allowing him use of Starfleet technology."
Janeway seemed undisturbed by the accusation, as she allowed her eyes to drink in the sight of the entire length of Seven's lanky form.
Seven seemed to enjoy the scrutiny, as she stood in full view. "On another occasion, you authorized the rescue of a Maquis who had already betrayed the crew to the Kazon. As a result, you and your entire crew were stranded on a deserted island while Voyager was commandeered. On—"
"My, Seven," the Captain said, dragging her eyes up to meet Seven's gaze. She gave the tall blonde a fond smile. "I'm flattered that you have followed my career so closely."
"Flattery is irrelevant," she said with more condescension. "I am merely identifying instances where you challenged the most important and cherished Starfleet ideal."
"These were not indifferent acts of mischief, Seven." Janeway studied the Borg, remembering some of their conflicts. Now to tweak an unsuspecting drone, she thought. "Or of defiance for its own sake."
"Explain." Seven's voice was pointed.
"Do you recall defying my direct order to open a singularity for Species 8472 on Stardate 51652.3?"
"I have a eidetic memory, Captain."
Janeway smiled as she let her head bob. Then when the Captain looked up at Seven's curious eyes, she nodded. "Yes, of course." Janeway almost laughed when she said, "You are Borg!"
Seven correctly identified the wry mocking tone, but remained unruffled. She watched as the smile evoked by the gentle taunt remained, making the Captain's face both peaceful and beautiful. A lovely combination and Seven seemed proud to evoke it in such a powerful woman. Without hesitation, she closed her eyes and nodded graciously. "I may concede a minor point that Eridani may have inherited civil disobedience from both lines."
The Captain enjoyed watching Seven lower her guard to reveal a genuine smile, something she was not noted for. She wanted this moment and the one earlier to last. She stood up abruptly. "I am due on the Delta Flyer at twelve hundred hours."
Seven walked Janeway to the door, neither touching except for occasion brushes of elbows. "Please avoid unnecessary risks on this away mission, Captain."
"Aye, aye, Andy!" she said off-handedly as she nearly bolted out of the door. She had been afraid she would have buckled under another goodbye kiss. Seven's lips still burned themselves into her flesh. It was going to be a long day away from her.
=/\=
A/N: In the next chapter, all the fun will start. You'll have to buckle your seats for all the adventure.