I never really had him

Pt8

In the cherry orchard

When Chakotay had seen Seven and the doctor together, he had to admit that his pride had been hurt. He was despondent, angry, annoyed, and fed up. He decided that he needed to get away. Get away from Starfleet, get away from Earth, and get away from everything.

He sold the house that he had purchased. The transaction had been very quick. Apparently a young couple with twins on the way had been very interested in the property.

His last day in the house, he sat on large porch, drinking a beer. His thoughts wandered to the new couple and to the new lives the wife was carrying inside of her. He vaguely remembered women in his village when they were pregnant, and how odd he thought it was. He remembered telling his father that he never would want women, or a child. He laughed at the memory he held in his youth. He was old now, too old to have a child, and to old to get involved with another women.

Despite all of the time he had spent recuperating, he was tired, dead tired.

************************************************************************A-YEAR-LATER***********************************

Kathryn and Pheobe had decided that they should pick some of the leftover cherries in the orchard. The automatic picker had come through yesterday, but some of the sweet treats still clung to the branches.

Not wanting to carry the ladders around all day, the two of them decided to climb the trees instead. Kathryn giggled as she swung among the branches reliving a part of her youth.

Her sister was lost somewhere in the orchard picking up fruit. She sighed as she sat back entranced in her thoughts. She plucked a cherry off one of the branches and popped it into her mouth. The juice gushed from its core, as the slippery skin got stuck to the roof of her mouth. She was so entranced by the cherry's taste that she didn't see anyone walking down the path.

"Hello Kathryn."

Kathryn's eyes flung open as she looked down from the tree.

"Chakotay?"

Chakotay couldn't help but chuckle as he watched his former captain sat at the top of a cherry tree. "What on earth are you doing way up their Kathryn?"

Kathryn rolled her eyes. "I'm flying a spaceship, what do you think I am doing? I'm picking cherries!"

"Well could you come down here for a second I want to talk with you."

"Well I would but, I really don't want to so I won't. You, however can leave whenever you wish. My sister is around here somewhere why don't you go bother her for a while."

"Kathryn I really need to speak with you it's important."

Kathryn spotted a cherry that she had missed and propelled herself to the other side of the tree. "So why don't you come up here and maybe we can talk."

"Kathryn, I'm frightened of heights, there is no way that I am going up there!"

"Well then stay down there!"

"Look Kathryn all I want to do is talk, that's all."

Kathryn growled. "Well then why don't bloody speak!"

"Excuse me Kathryn?"

Kathryn made her way to some of the lower branches just above his head. "I really don't know why you are here Chakotay. And frankly I don't give a damn. As far as I am concerned you and I are not friends, and we don't even know each other."

Chakotay clenched his fists. He pointed at her. "I should have known better than to come and talk to angry, self centered, stubborn women like you!"

He turned and began to walk away. He was rewarded with a heaping pelt of cherries to his back.

"That's right Chakotay, run away coward, just like you did at the wedding!"

He turned and headed straight for the tree next to the tree that she was in. He grabbed a few of the bottom cherries and through them at her. "What are you talking about? Sometimes I think you are so self centered that you just make things up to make me angry!" He grabbed another glob of cherries meshed them in his hand and threw them at her.

Kathryn armed herself again. "I'm talking about you walking out on Seven at her wedding!"

He jumped as she threw some more cherries in his direction. "I never walked out on her!"

Kathryn screamed. "I was there Chakotay at your wedding; I heard what happened that you walked out on her, that you didn't want to marry her.!"

His voice changed at the very moment. And he began to laugh. He laughed so hard that he nearly fell over. "Is that what you think happened? Good God Kathryn is that what you think happened!"

Kathryn released some of her ammo to the ground. "Well, I was till you started laughing like that, now I don't know."

Chakotay had to catch his breath. "Kathryn, I walked in on her kissing another man just before I was going to marry her. That's why I left."

Kathryn's hold on the branch slipped. She fell, but he was close enough that he caught her. He put her down gently, and she frowned. And for the first time in years Kathryn Janeway was silent.

TBC