Seven mentally cursed her high heeled boots as she struggled to stay stable on the soggy forest floor but she knew Chakotay was having even more difficulty trying to shuffle along on his injured ankle. He hadn't once voiced a complaint even as she dragged him along leaning on her shoulder, but she could see the pain of it etched into his face, so vivid that she could almost feel it herself every time the contours of the land jolted him. She could easily ignore the thirst that scratched at her throat as well as the burn of exertion in her legs but the numbness that had begun to effect the shoulder bracing Chakotay was more difficult to avoid and she was too slow to react when Chakotay stumbled over his injured foot and she couldn't save the fractured bone from having to take his weight. The breathless groan of agony that left his lips, although he hurriedly attempted to stifle it, made Seven wince in sympathy and guilt, "I'm sorry Commander." She murmured, immediately dismissing her own aches and pains to reposition herself more supportively.
Chakotay had to bite down on his lip to control his urge to grunt in pain as he stubbornly lifted his suffering leg off the ground again. "I'm okay Seven. It wasn't your fault." To his surprise she didn't accept this, glancing up at him sorrowfully from her place under his arm, and he could see from the deep-set frown which settled on her face as she then looked down at his battered limb that she again doubted the decision to move him. "We have to find that wreckage." He reminded her firmly, in a tone more suited to his superior role on the Bridge than his current dependent situation. "Are we any closer to finding it?"
Seven breathed a heavy sigh as she studied the tricorder she held in one hand. "I calibrated this tricorder to specifically locate any signature from the wreckage, we are apparently heading in the right direction but the nearest fragment I can read is at least two miles away."
"Two miles?" Chakotay echoed, his mouth curling in bitterly as he thought of the hours it had taken to cross half that distance at his snail's pace. He could tell by the sun's position above him that it was already well past noon, night might well fall before they found anything. "And there's no guarantee that the wreckage that's closest to us will have the component you need to try to get us out of here?" He asked, his voice unintentionally sharp as he tried to hide his growing despondency.
Seven's head, already bowed as she held up his exhausted frame, dropped lower in defeat as she shook her head. "No, Commander. As I said, the useful pieces of wreckage could be anywhere but with the hole I managed to create in the shield it is feasible that the main body of the shuttle is still relatively intact, meaning that our best chance would be to find that."
Chakotay sighed bitterly as he shifted to look Seven more fully in the face, ignoring the stabbing pain in his ankle as he did so. "You're going to have to find it Seven." He told her reluctantly.
Seven stared at him in disbelief, her eyes narrowing as his words sank in. "I cannot just leave Chakotay." She stated with incredulous frustration, "You are injured! It isn't possible for me to just abandon you…"
"You wouldn't be, we still have working comm. badges." He pointed out, "Look Seven…" He ran a hand over his damp forehead as he tried to regulate his breathing to shut out the pain from his mind, "We both know I'm in no fit state to search for the shuttle right now, and we need if we're going to get back to Voyager." He watched Seven's jaw clench as she resisted the logic in his words and as her mouth opened again he somehow knew she was going to fight him, "If we're going to argue, can we at least have a rest while we're doing it?" he muttered to her wryly before she could speak.
Seven couldn't suppress the urge to raise her eyebrows at that comment even as she assessed his condition as objectively as she could. It made her heart twist unhappily to realise that he was right. His complexion had turned grey underneath the deceptive flush of heat on his cheeks and his breath was raspy with effort even when standing still. Leaving him might be a risk, but continuing on like this would be torture for him. "Of course." She murmured, unable to keep up the wry tone he'd somehow managed to maintain throughout this ordeal. Her eyes swept over their surroundings and quickly found a large tree nearby with a wide, strong trunk under a pleasantly cool canopy of green leaves. "Come on." She encouraged, forcing him to let her take most of his weight for the few paces to the base of the tree where she carefully helped him to sit down.
Chakotay allowed himself a relieved exhale as he sank gratefully against the tree, but still watched Seven's pensive face as she knelt beside him, trying to arrange his twisted limb as comfortably as possible. He bravely disguised a wince, knowing that she was already deeply reluctant to leave him, and tried to reassure her. "I'll be fine, I'll just sit here until you come back with good news."
Seven blinked painfully as he smiled at her, her heart and mind fighting a violent battle within her. The latter knew that the only rational choice was for her to leave as he asked, but her emotions fought and resented this conclusion. "Yes." She agreed robotically as she scanned him with the tricorder, almost dropping it when she saw his temperature. Longing to disprove the reading, she thoughtlessly pressed her hand to his forehead, flinching when she felt how hot it was even compared to her own sweaty palm.
Chakotay saw the flicker of fear running over her face and guessed what it meant. "A fever?" he whispered, leaving the obvious answer, infection, left unsaid.
"Slight." Seven muttered, her hand, cool to his dazed senses, sliding gently down his cheek before she withdrew it. She cringed herself when she realised what she'd done. There were certainly less…intimate places to check for a temperature than his face! Pushing her irrelevant embarrassment aside, she visually checked over his ankle again, her stomach flipping over as she removed part of his torn trouser and saw the bone poking through the skin. "Commander…" She choked out, fighting nausea and guilt, "I cannot leave you like this…" She felt like slapping herself in frustration, if she'd been more careful in moving him…
"You'll have to." Chakotay pressed with difficulty, acutely aware that now he'd sat down he'd need more help than she could give him to ever stand up. Seeing her stiffen even further, he added emphatically, "I'm not exactly happy about you going to search on your own Seven, but like you said before we don't have another choice right now…"
Seven cut him off as she stood up swiftly. "I know." She replied quickly before reaching into the emergency pack she'd slung over her back while helping Chakotay and pulling out a small container of water. "Here." She offered shortly.
Chakotay hesitated, "You're the one who's going to be walking in this heat…"
Seven shrugged nonchalantly, "My implants have mechanisms to help prevent dehydration and with all this plant life there is sure to be a source of freshwater nearby."
"Right." Chakotay muttered uneasily as he took the bottle from her took a grateful few gulps of water, heated by the sun but still refreshing enough to be grateful for. He met her gaze seriously, "Keep your comm. badge safe, we need to stay in contact."
"If you require me I will come straight back." Seven assured him, glancing into the forest apprehensively for an instant as she did so.
Chakotay swallowed as he remembered how much Seven hated being alone, maybe he was expecting too much? What if she did get lost? He shunned these thoughts with the same rationale he'd given Seven, deciding to lighten the mood as she continued to hover. "That's an order Crewman." He replied lightly, almost laughing as he saw her brows furrow, he didn't think anyone had dared to call Seven by what was technically her rank before and it was enough to make her nod to him before she headed towards the denser tree line. Despite himself, he felt a chill of fear flee down his spine and called out to her, "You will remember where I am right?"
A tiny smirk pulled at her lips even as her eyes remained pinched with anxiety. "I pinpointed your position in my tricorder." She answered, "I also have a photographic memory."
Chakotay gave her a wan smile, "I forgot about that." He admitted with a teasing but tired laugh, forcing his smile to widen reassuringly as she looked at him in concern. "Good Luck." He added softly, barely able to catch her hasty nod before she turned her back and he then allowed himself to curl his exhausted body tighter against the support of the tree. The line between consciousness and dream began to blur as he watched her blonde head bob out of sight.
The next thing he was aware of was a rustle near his ear, which he blearily assumed was Seven returning. "Seven?" he mumbled, his voice husky with near delirious sleep, but as his eyes opened it was a very different face he saw above him. "Ahh…" He gasped out in shock, trying to move away before belatedly realising that he still couldn't walk. He now saw that there were two men, one significantly older than the other, his long white locks of hair brushing against the hodgepodge of undid fabric and animal pelts that made up his clothes. This man was staring intently at his leg, brow creased in thought and Chakotay saw now that they didn't look aggressive, just inquisitive. "My ankle, it's broken…." He tried to explain, hoping his universal translator would kick in if these people responded to his voice. "Can you help me?"
The younger male's hands moved in a series of fluid, expressive motions in response. Although mostly they were directed at the older man, Chakotay found himself watching in fascination even as he experienced disappointment. These people, although they strongly resembled the Ledosians, were clearly not oral, which meant that his universal translator was useless. The older man responded in a shorter burst of movements, of signs for it was obviously a full language, and then knelt calmly to manipulate Chakotay's leg, which made him cry out in pain. The younger man touched his arm sympathetically as the older one nodded in understanding of the situation. Chakotay smiled at them gratefully, there were other ways than speaking to communicate after all.
Just then however, his comm. badge leapt into life with a loud beep, causing the newcomers to jump back from him in shock. "Seven of Nine to Chakotay." Seven's voice echoed through the badge with her usual stoic clarity, "Seven of Nine to Chakotay…" The younger man reacted then and snatched the badge from Chakotay's uniform in a panic before crushing it with the older man's wooden walking staff.
"Damn." Chakotay breathed in frustration as he watched the shattered badge splutter out one last syllable of Seven's hail before falling silent.
Seven irritably shoved her hair out of her face as she clambered over another moss covered, rotten log in her determination to directly follow her tricorder's readings. Her pace hadn't let up since she'd left Chakotay despite the tiredness gnawing at her and she had no intention of slowing down. The faster she found the shuttle the quicker Chakotay could be attended to in the comfort of Voyager, she'd forgotten all thoughts of attending the conference. In reality, she hadn't walked far, however drained her body and mind felt, and was no more than half an hour away from Chakotay's location, but her anxiety still seemed to build with every step forward she took…
A shrill beep from her tricorder abruptly alerted her to a piece of wreckage within a few metres and she stumbled over to it eagerly, hope and then disappointment flooding her in equal measure as she found only a charred and bent section of the hull, about the length and breath of her forearm. Yes, it in itself was useless to her but it still gave her an idea of where the main wreckage site could be. She methodically scanned the fragment and marked on her tricorder exactly where she'd found it before deciding to give Chakotay an update as well as check on him. "Seven of Nine to Chakotay." She announced clearly down her badge, every muscle in her body tensing irrationally when he didn't reply. "Seven of Nine to Chakotay." She repeated, a little more shakily, before gasping in fear as she heard a low crackle of foreboding from the other end. "Chakotay, answer me!" she exclaimed fearfully down the line, hardly giving herself a chance to gather up both the fragment and the emergency pack before she sprinted off the way she had come.
A/n: I hope my characterisation and plotting is okay in this chapter, I couldn't really remember their exact interactions in this part of the actual episode to use as a basis.