It Felt Like Home

Workforce Redux

A Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction

by

CanonAntithesis

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Chapter 6

Tom felt an immediate lose when Kathryn rose from the sofa.

"Mmm, is it time to get up?" he mumbled, his voice heavy with sleep.

"No, it's still early yet. I just need to use the bathroom. Go back to sleep." She tucked the blanket in around him and he rolled onto his side, already fast asleep before she turned away.

Kathryn started shivering as soon as she moved out of the warmth of her lover's arms. Spying Tom's shirt on the floor, she snatched it up and pulled the long sleeved t-shirt over her head. Sometime during the night, Tom had discarded his pants and shirt, but not because he was cold. As he had admitted to Kathryn earlier, he found he slept better with his skin touching hers. And she admitted to him that she slept better with just having him with her.

Tom's shirt was comically large on Kathryn's small frame. She felt like a child playing dressing up, but she did feel considerably warmer. Rolling the long sleeves up to expose her hands, she padded quietly across the apartment and opened the door to the bedroom. Funny, she didn't remember closing it. Her way was adequately lit by the glow from the full moons shining through the windows, so she didn't activate the lights. Kathryn was half-way across the room when she spied a wadded up white cloth lying on the floor.

It was probably Tom's towel from his morning shower. Even though she loved him dearly, Kathryn had quickly noticed that he wasn't the tidiest man on the planet. Sighing to herself, she picked it up with the intention of hanging it up in the bathroom. However, she found it wet and darkly stained with a sticky substance which had a distinctive metallic smell.

Her eyes grew wide in realization and fear. It was blood. She immediately called the lights on and turned to go back out to Tom, but it was too late. As she turned, the fugitive, Chakotay, was standing awkwardly against the, now, closed bedroom door.

He had a weapon leveled at her and he was breathing heavily due, no doubt, to the large wound on his left arm near the shoulder.

"How did you get in here?" Kathryn asked, a quiver in her voice.

She was frantically thinking of all the possibilities of how this could go very, very wrong.

She could scream for help and he could shoot her.

She could scream for help and he could shoot Tom.

She could not scream for help and he could still shoot her and then, calmly walk out of the room and shoot Tom while he slept.

There was no simple and safe way out of this.

"I needed a place to hide. I, um, borrowed your EIC and let myself in." His eyes slid briefly to her dresser where her identification card lay, covered in Chakotay's blood.

"You've been in here the whole time." It wasn't a question.

Reality and timing dawned on her. Despite the seriousness of her situation, the little redhead felt the blush rise from her chest, burn its way up her neck and settle onto her cheeks. She silently cursed her pale, Irish ancestors.

"I lose consciousness before you came home. I only awoke when I heard you coming in here," he answered too quickly.

She knew he was lying. He must have heard them. She was so embarrassed by this entire exchange that she almost forgot how much danger she was in.

"They say you had something to do with the disappearance of a woman at the plant."

"I did. Her name's B'Elanna. She was brought to this planet against her will. Something was done to her so she'd forget her real life."

Kathryn was skeptical. "And what, you helped her get home?"

Chakotay sighed. At least she wasn't screaming. You didn't know what he'd do if Paris came barreling in here right now. "That's right. There are other people in this city who I'm also trying to help. I'm not here to hurt anyone. You have to trust me."

"Trust you? You stole my EIC and broke into my apartment. Now you have a weapon pointed at me."

Chakotay looked guiltily at the weapon in his hand. Deciding that this Kathryn had enough of Captain Janeway still in her to make her trust him, he slowly placed the weapon on the floor. The motion caused him to grimace and he leaned his head back against the door in resignation.

"Go ahead, report me, but if you do a lot of innocent people are going to suffer. All I'm asking for is a place to stay until my friends come back for me."

She would never know why she trusted him, just that she did and she hoped Tom would too.

"We're going to have to do something about that arm," she stated with a confidence she didn't feel.

/***\

It wasn't easy to convince Tom not to kill Chakotay on sight. In fact she had to place herself bodily between the two of them to stop him. In a gesture oddly familiar, Kathryn placed her palm flat against Tom's chest to stop him from advancing any further on the injured alien. Kathryn thought it was the truest test of Tom's faith and love in her that he finally agreed to help. Plus, Tom had an innate distrust of authority which made him want to help, if not completely trust, the man.

Kathryn demonstrated her ultimate trust of Tom by leaving them alone while she retrieved a dermal regenerator from the plant. Of course, nothing ever went completely according to plans.

Kathryn found the tool in the medical locker and was just closing the door when the Efficiency Monitor appeared from out of nowhere.

"Your shift doesn't start for three hours," Annika stated in her no nonsense way.

"My friend, Tom, he sprained … a muscle." She couldn't believe she just said that, especially given the history between the three of them.

Annika's brow arched skeptically. "He isn't an employee and therefore, he isn't entitled to the use of our medical equipment."

"I know, but in his line of work, he doesn't have access to proper treatment."

Annika didn't want to know any more than necessary about the personal life of Employee 8584, plus she had research she needed to do concerning Employee 8583. She had become determined to learn more about the dark-skinned man ever since he attacked her and tried to initiate some sort of mental link between them. She had been experiencing odd visions or memories since their contact.

Kathryn saw that the woman was distracted and hoped she would let this pass. "I promise I'll have it back first thing in the morning."

"Be sure that you do." Annika walked away without a backwards glance.

/***\

Kathryn walked back into the apartment to find Tom pressing Chakotay against the wall. Tom's face was red with anger and Chakotay looked like he was about to pass out. She quickly made her way across the room.

"What the hell is going on here?" she shouted as she grabbed Tom's arm and pulled him away from the larger, but weaker, man.

"I'm trying to find out what he did to B'Elanna." Tom's chest was heaving from exertion and barely contained fury.

Without Tom's strength to hold him up, Chakotay slid quickly to the floor. Kathryn hurried over to him.

"Help me get him up."

Tom reluctantly helped and they moved him over to the sofa. Kathryn squeezed her eyes shut when she noticed their clothing from earlier littering the floor around the sofa. Tom understood her discomfort and quickly scooped everything up while Kathryn worked on Amal, or whatever his name was.

She gently ran the dermal regenerator over his wound while Tom sat in a nearby chair and glared at the man suspiciously. After several minutes, she pulled the regenerator back and examined her handiwork. This instrument would help, but it wasn't enough.

"You need a Doctor."

"That'll have to wait till I'm back on Voyager."

"Voyager?", Kathryn asked.

"My ship."

Tom guffawed loudly. "You live on a ship?"

Chakotay nodded. "For almost seven years."

Tom leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "That's ridiculous. Why would anyone want to live like that?"

"We're trying to get back home."

"Home?" Kathryn asked, "Where's home?"

"The Alpha Quadrant. Earth."

"Earth?" scoffed Tom. "And why would anyone want to go back to that place?"

"It's not so bad..."

"Not so bad? It's horrible! It's..." The chirping sound interrupted them. "What's that?" Tom moved protectively closer to Kathryn.

Chakotay held up his wrist where the Doctor had embedded a communications device. "My people are trying to contact me," he explained. He tilted up his wrist and spoke. "Chakotay here."

"Are you okay, Commander?" Harry Kim's tinny voice asked through the communicator.

"For the time being. Can you get me out of here?"

"No, sir. We're eight light years away."

"How are you transmitting a signal that far?"

The Doctor, or Emergency Command Hologram answered, "We're using a triaxialating frequency on a covariant subspace band. It was B'Elanna's idea."

"B'Elanna?" Tom questioned with concern. "Is she okay? Have you hurt her?"

"Tom!" Harry shouted through the comm badge. "It's great to hear your voice, buddy!" One could hear the joy in the young ensign's voice.

"She's responded well to treatment, Mr. Paris," the Doctor answered. "In fact..."

"I'm right here, Tom." B'Elanna sounded calm and self-assured. "I'm fine."

Tom smiled in relief and grabbed Kathryn's hand. She smiled lovingly back at him.

She leaned forward and spoke. "B'Elanna? It's me, Kathryn Janeway. How's-"

Anticipating the older woman's question, B'Elanna said, "The baby's fine too. It's good to hear your voice ... Captain Janeway."

Kathryn turned to Tom and mouthed the word, Captain, to him in disbelief. Chakotay could hear the slight hesitation in B'Elanna's voice and wondered what she knew about the Captain's and Paris' relationship on this planet.

She continued, "Now listen to me, both of you." The timid, brow-beaten B'Elanna was gone. This woman was self-assured and speaking very rapidly. "You need to listen to everything Chakotay tells you. You belong back on Voyager. I know it's hard to believe, but trust me on this, okay?"

Tom looked sideways at Chakotay and nodded to Kathryn. "Okay. I suppose."

"Harry?", Chakotay interrupted. "How soon can you get back into transporter range?"

"We need a couple more days to finish repairs. What about the shield grid?"

"I have an idea how to shut it down."

/TBC\

Author Notes:

I so sorry it's taken so long update this fic. I hope there's still someone out there who even remembers it. Real life has been a bitch lately. Hopefully, I've found enough time to work on this t and give it the time it deserve.

Thanks for reading and reviewing.