Chapter Eight
The two of them fell asleep quickly, and though both woke up at various times throughout the night due to noise or the strange conditions or a blast of cold when the wind would pick up the door for just a moment, they managed to make it through until dawn. Kathryn was the first to awaken, her back stiff and her head hurting, but she was warm, and it was due to the man who held her. Drawing a deep breath, she noticed that they were both in need of washing, but she didn't pay it much mind – after all they had walked the majority of the day yesterday, run for their lives, hid from danger in a dank, dark pit formed by a fallen tree, and sheltered in what amounted to not much more than a ditch. Her body was telling her it was time to get moving, and as Kathryn's hands idly spread against his chest, she wondered how she was going to extricate herself without waking him.
It didn't matter; he was sleeping so lightly that the barest stretch was enough to wake him. Chakotay moaned as he was pulled from sleep, but was immediately aware of where they were and that she was in his arms. Looking down to find her gazing back at him, Chakotay smiled. "Morning."
"Morning." Her hands lifted with his chest as he drew the same deep breath she had a few minutes before. "How'd you sleep?"
"Great," he quipped. "This beats the bed in my quarters any day."
She smiled, but it faded as they lapsed into watching one another, not quite ready to leave the warmth of their little nest. Each started to speak at the same time, and they laughed at the awkwardness of it. "You go first," she suggested.
His face grew serious. "I hope that I wasn't out of line yesterday…when I kissed you. I don't know what came over me."
Kathryn noticed the words he'd used – not 'I'm sorry', not 'I didn't mean it'. Her thoughts about it from the day before came back again, and with time to reflect on it, she realized that it wasn't the great travesty that she'd always thought it might be. "I didn't expect it," she said carefully, "but it wasn't unwelcome."
He looked down at her in surprise. "Honestly?"
She nodded. "Truth is, I have wanted to kiss you for a long time. But I had a pretty good idea of where it might lead, and I wasn't ready for that."
Swallowing hard, he told her, "I had a feeling that was the case."
Now came the part she was hesitant to admit. "And…I didn't know if you felt that way about me anymore."
That, he could definitely understand. After all, things had gotten so bad that even he had wondered himself. Deciding to be honest, he told her, "It's waned from time to time, but it's always been there."
This time, Kathryn was the one that kissed him, a sweet and gentle contact that let him know that she understood. When she pulled back, she gave him a small smile. "We should probably get going."
Knowing that they would discuss this later on, he helped her sit up, and unzipped the jackets as quickly as he could so that she wouldn't lose too much body heat. She insisted on checking his shoulder before he put his on, and after removing the door, had enough light to see that it had stopped bleeding completely, but appeared red and angry under the bits of bandage that she was actually able to pull away from it. A good portion of the scab had dried into the fabric, however, and she left it alone. "It doesn't look too bad," she told him before describing how it looked to him.
"Well, all the more reason to get ourselves home," he said as she helped him into the jacket. "Let's go find that road."
Kathryn threw him a mock salute. "Aye, sir."