Chapter Thirteen
Captain's Log: Supplemental
With our food supplies restocked and our energy shortages ended, we are moving on from Frela and have resumed our course for home. Seven of Nine reports that the recalibration of Astrometrics revealed that the sensor assembly we obtained on Kaluamat Prime was faulty, and that after repairs, she is detecting nearly two hundred percent more than on the readings taken before we discovered Frela. It looks like a number of them are uninhabited M-class worlds, so hopefully we can continue to rebuild our reserves as we move out of this area.
Kathryn turned off the recorder and leaned back in her chair, eyes wandering lazily around her quarters. As she had told Tuvok the previous day, both she and Chakotay were now on three days' rest, and for once, she was going to take full advantage of it. Her coffee cup was empty, so she got up to go to the replicator, groaning as her muscles protested. She ached all over, and not just from sex – this trip had involved more running, jumping, crashing and falling than she'd done in some time.
Standing in the middle of the room and inhaling its sent, Kathryn took her time to savour the first sip of a fresh mug of coffee. Remembering Sach doing the same thing, she chuckled. Another thing that was universal. But one thing that was not universal was her bathtub, and spending some time soaking in it sounded like a very good idea.
No sooner had the thought popped into her head, the door chime rang. Chuckling at the memory of the last time, she called out, "Come in."
Chakotay stepped through the doors, looking around until he spied her near the windows. "Tuvok's report on his dealings with both Frelan governments," he told her, offering her a padd.
"Anything I should know?" she asked as she took it from him.
"Nothing more than what he's already told us, really. He thinks that we just 'simply arrived at Frela at an inconvenient time in their history'."
Kathryn laughed at his passable recitation of Tuvok's conclusion. "Well, I guess there really isn't much more to it than that," she said as she put the padd down on the table. When she looked back at him, she saw that he was watching her with a guarded expression, and she had been expecting it. Setting her coffee down beside the padd, she said, "Chakotay, I want to tell you something."
He drew a breath to steady his nerves. "What's that?"
"I'm going to take a bath."
Kathryn waited for her words to sink in. He blinked, and his jaw dropped. "You what?"
She grinned. "I've come to the conclusion that I need to be spending a lot more time taking care of myself. And I do some of my best thinking in there."
Finding his voice again, he asked her, "Wha – what do you have to think about?"
Walking over to him, she ran her hand down his arm. "About how good making love to you was. And about how overdue it was." Taking his hands in hers, her voice was filled with meaning when she told him, "I can't promise I'll be the easiest person to live with, Chakotay. I'm set in my ways. But I'm willing to try."
Stunned again, he echoed, "Live with…?"
She nodded, her hands now snaking up to link together behind his neck. "If you want. Not right away of course, but eventually."
It takes a man a little while to process it when the thing he wants more than anything is suddenly his. Chakotay, who had almost given up hope, lit up when her words hit home. "Eventually," he whispered, his hands resting on her hips.
Kathryn stood on her toes and kissed him, fingertips swirling in the short hair on his nape. Then she extricated herself without a word, leaving him standing and staring at her as she headed toward the bedroom.
Trying not to give away his happiness completely, he managed to stifle giddy laughter long enough to ask, "Want some company?"
She turned back to him, a glint in her eye to go with her brilliant smile. "I thought you'd never ask."