Note: Yeah, it's been a while. Maybe I have my mojo back. We'll see. Enjoy.

"The Day I Found Out"

Part 2: Harry

The day I found out? Sure, I remember it.

We were a few months past the Hirogen incident and things were quiet. No hostile aliens, no dangerous anomalies, no systems breakdowns. It was going pretty well, all things considered…but we were bored.

That's right, bored. Life in the Delta Quadrant was feast or famine sometimes, you know? I'd be lying if I claimed we didn't relish the downtimes when no one was shooting at us, but if the inactivity went on long enough… Well, life inside those bulkheads could get pretty tedious after a while.

So, yeah. We were bored. Some of us had found things to do. Tom had the Holodeck, B'Elanna had her engines, which were always in need of tuning, at least as far as she was concerned. Tuvok had his orchids. The Doc was teaching himself opera. Seven was doing…well, whatever she did when she wasn't working or complaining about B'Elanna. I was composing a new clarinet piece. Everybody had found something to pass the time.

The Commander had found a way to pass the time, and I guess it was also a way to keep us all occupied and out of each other's hair. Besides boxing, that is. He always had that. Anyway, in that quiet region of space he'd started leaving the ship a lot on side missions. Two- or three-day supply runs, negotiations for the use of recreation facilities or star charts, a couple of scouting missions to planets we wanted to know more about, that kind of thing. He always took someone with him.

Tom joked that was because the Commander had such rotten luck with shuttles, but I think the real reason was that he and the Captain were putting together evaluations. We were back in contact with the Federation, after all, even though it wasn't as regular yet as we would've liked. I suspect the Captain was already thinking about how to justify field commissions and promotions in case the brass ever questioned her. So she sent the Commander on these little side missions with a junior officer or crewman, just to see how we'd react.

When it was my turn, it was a routine scouting mission into an asteroid belt. Some of the asteroids were giving off just enough radiation to jumble our sensors at long range, and we thought there might be minable materials in the belt. The Commander told me to pack my bag and be ready at 0900 the next day for a three-day mission.

Privately, I thought he should have taken Tom. Asteroid belts present a tricky navigation problem. I'm not saying the Commander wasn't a good pilot; he was. But if the nav sensors or shields were to go down in a belt as dense as that one was, we'd both be dead in a hurry. It just made me a little nervous.

Okay, more than a little nervous.

I was up way too late the night before trying to figure out a way to improve the sensitivity of the shuttle's nav grid, and at 0700 the next morning, I was pretty sure I knew a way to do it. I downloaded my proposal to a PADD and headed for the Commander's quarters.

There was no answer after when I rang for entry. I didn't think anything of it at the time. He's a morning person and I knew he'd be up, but maybe he was working out or in the galley. I asked the computer for his location and got the expected answer: "The Commander is in his quarters."

So I rang the chime again, and after a few seconds the door slid open.

He was standing in the middle of the room in his trousers and turtleneck, not a hair out of place, a cup of coffee in one hand and his boots in the other. "Good morning, Ensign," he said. "What can I do for you on this fine Delta Quadrant day?"

I smiled. "You're very chipper this morning, sir. Looking forward to today's getaway?"

He chuckled and sat down to pull on his boots. "The getaway, and the homecoming, Harry." He winked at me.

I wasn't at all sure what to make of that, so I held out the PADD. "I've been thinking about the navigational hazards of that asteroid belt, sir," I said. "I think we can increase the sensitivity of our nav sensors with these modifications."

He finished pulling on his boots and took the PADD. He read it over while he drank his coffee, and I took a minute to look around the room.

I'd only been in his quarters a few times, and everything looked the same as it always had. Sand paintings on the walls, a patterned blanket on the back of his sofa, an incredibly tidy desk. His bathroom door was closed but the bedroom was open, and I could see his uniform jacket folded across the foot of the freshly made bed. Nothing unusual about any of that.

After a minute or two, the Commander handed me the PADD. "This is good work, Ensign," he said. "Is this something you feel comfortable implementing en route, or do you want Nicoletti's prep team to get started now?"

"Actually," I said, "I gave Sue the new specs when I dropped off my gear in the shuttle this morning. She's already laying down the code, but she hasn't uploaded anything to the shuttle yet, pending your approval. I hope you don't mind."

The Commander stood up and smiled. "Not at all. Proactive thinking, Ensign. Well done." He headed for his bedroom. "Have you had breakfast, Harry? I want to stop off at the galley before we take off. I hear Neelix is doing wonderful things with waffles today."

I chuckled. "You heard that, too?"

He came out of the bedroom with his uniform jacket in his hand. "Naomi tipped us off this morning."

I frowned as we headed out of his quarters and into the corridor. "'Us?'"

He hesitated for just a fraction of a second. "She commed the Captain a little while ago to give her the good news."

"Miss Wildman takes her duties as Captain's Assistant very seriously."

"Indeed she does. And then Captain commed me."

"I see. I heard it from Tom. He says the waffles are good if you can get past the color, and the syrup tastes as close to Vermont maple as he's ever had."

"Sounds like the perfect last meal before we're on shuttle rations for a few days."

"Sure does, Commander." As we were walking and talking, he shrugged into his uniform jacket.

Or he tried to, anyway.

He jammed his fist into the sleeve, and the follow-through from the Maquis Mauler's ruthless right hook popped the shoulder seam like the stitches weren't even there. The entire sleeve tore away from the body of the jacket, slid down his outstretched arm, and fell to the deck.

It wasn't his. It couldn't be his. That jacket, the very one I'd seen him pick up from the foot of his own bed, was about three sizes too small.

Suddenly the closed bathroom door in his quarters, which I'd chalked up to his excessive neatness, and the words he'd used this morning, seemed to mean something entirely different.

I stood there and watched him staring at the too-small jacket and the sleeve on the deck for a good five seconds, just trying to think of something to say. How do you say to your commanding officer, "Hey, is that a woman's jacket you picked up in your quarters, sir? Good for you, you old dog!"

Tom might be able to get away with something like that, but not me. Not Harry Kim.

He bent to pick up the sleeve and mumbled something about replicator files, and I finally realized something: I'd thought the jacket was his…because it was command red.

Very few women on Voyager wore command red, and even fewer would wear a jacket that tiny. In fact I could only think of one.

My eyes just about popped out of my head, I was so shocked.

I still hadn't found my voice when the Captain came flying around the corner with a much larger command red jacket in her hand and said, "Chakotay, you picked up the wrong …"

She skidded to a halt, saw the ruined garment in his hands and the astonished look on my face, and knew immediately that I knew.

It could have been perfectly innocent. It could have been that they'd…had an early meeting over coffee and she'd left her jacket…on his bed?

Right. I couldn't even convince myself with that.

It could have been innocent, but it plainly wasn't.

And just as plainly, they weren't ready for anyone to know about it yet.

I cleared my throat. "Do I need to look at the replicator files in your quarters again, Commander?" I asked, and to this day I'm proud of the way I said it with complete confidence, as if I were not, in fact, helping my commanding officers to cover up their early-morning wardrobe malfunction. "I know they've been acting up lately. Looks like you got the wrong size jacket this morning. I can fix that for you."

He shifted his weight from foot to foot and glanced at the Captain before answering. "Thank you, Ensign. But it can wait until we get back."

"Of course."

Without exchanging a word, the Captain and Commander traded garments.

"Join us for breakfast, Captain?" I asked.

She held up the two pieces of her ruined uniform. "I need to get a new jacket, and then I have a meeting with Commander Tuvok. Rain check?"

"Of course, Captain. Will you be seeing us off at 0900?"

"No, I'm afraid not." She gave the Commander a sidelong glance. "But I'll definitely be there for the homecoming."

I almost laughed out loud.

"Safe travels, gentlemen," she said, and sauntered back down the corridor.

The Commander was tense all through breakfast – which really was as wonderful as Tom and Naomi had promised, once I got past the lime green waffles – and our preflight check list. I kept smiling to myself, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When it did, we were already well on our way toward the asteroid belt. The Commander put the nav system on autopilot and turned to me. "Harry…" he began. "What happened this morning…"

I decided to put him out of his misery. "Nothing but a couple of routine replicator malfunctions, sir," I said. "They won't even make it into the Ops log."

He scowled at me. "Not a word?"

"My lips are sealed," I said. And then something, I'm sure some impertinent streak I picked up from Tom, made me keep talking. "But try to keep it down the night of the big homecoming," I said. "Your quarters aren't that far from mine, and I'm a growing boy. I need my sleep."

For just a second, he looked like he was going to treat me to the same right hook that destroyed the Captain's jacket. Then he just leaned back in his chair and howled with laughter.

And that's how I found out.

###