"Chakotay to Voyager, anyone there?" Chakotay asked desperately as the shuttle rallied up and down through turbulence.
"Voyag.. here, what is…akotay?" The captain's voice came through the comm line, with static cutting it off.
"We nee… beam Harry a.. Neelix ab…. with all the sup… because we are under att… from the Kazo…" the comm link cut off.
"We have a lock on all four of you, and Tuvok has cleared up the comm link a bit better, can you hear me now?" came the captain's reply.
"Yes that's great, but only take Ensign Kim and Neelix, me and Tom are going to try and bring the shuttle back, but keep a lock on us in case."
"Okay Commander, if you're sure, we'll keep you on screen on the bridge so we can see what's happening out there, Janeway out."
The comm line cut off quietly and the shuttle was returned to the hissing of steam from all vents and the screeching of phaser bursts.
Paris and Chakotay watched as the other two men and their recently acquired supplies disappeared slowly.
The ship jolted as a Kazon phaser directly hit the hull.
"Tom, where's the screen?" Chakotay asked hurriedly while attempting to get weapons online.
"It went offline, along with the long-range sensors and weapons when they breached the hu-" he was cut off by another phaser hit, causing a warp core breach. "Warp core breach in 30 seconds" sounded the Starfleet warning program.
"Chakotay, what's going on down there, we are going to beam you out, stand by, Janeway out."
Another direct hit to the hull caused Voyagers lock on them to start disappearing, the interference in the comm system came back through.
"Shields at 24% and dropping, 19%, 14%, and holding, shields at 11% Commander"
Tom faded out as he realised Chakotay probably wasn't listening, and probably already knew. He watched the commander working at his station and began to think about B'ellanna, he wondered how she was taking this, and if she even knew.
"Chakotay, we've got interference, Tuvok is trying to clear it up now, hold tight. Janeway out."
"Warp core breach in 15 seconds" The silent of the shuttle was returned, again.
"Tuvok, can you get a lock on them yet?" came the Captains desperate voice.
"Not yet Captain, but I am close" Came Tuvok's stern reply.
B'ellanna stopped working at her console, and just sat back in her chair. She pulled her knees up underneath her chin and looked, mortified, at the screen in front of her, crying softly and silently.
A friendly arm wrapped around her and she looked up dizzily, at the blurry figure before her. The two of them were brought back to the present by an explosion on the screen and pieces of the former shuttle craft spreading across space.
"TOM!" B'ellanna screamed, sobbing furiously into the Captain's shoulder. The silent comforting was broken by Tuvok's steady voice; "Captain, Lieutenant Torres, I managed to lock onto them, I beamed them straight to sick bay"
B'ellanna's knees fell out from under her as the Captain held her steady, she was almost immediately in the turbo lift after she regained her strength.
"Deck 5" B'ellanna imputed nervously.
"Sickbay to Lieutenant Torres, are you there Lieutenant?" The EMH's voice cut off quickly and B'ellanna replied instantaneously.
"Torres here, what is it Doc?" B'ellanna tried to sound calm but the distress broke through anyway.
"You are registered as Lieutenant Paris' emergency contact, you are required at sickbay immediately, sickbay out."
B'ellanna felt immediately nauseous, why would Tom need his emergency contact if they were beamed out in time? She felt weak again, but as the turbo lift doors hissed open all her strength gave her the ability to run along the corridors. The doors to sickbay hissed open and she came in to see two faces looking at her.
"Chakotay, you're okay?" B'ellanna asked puzzled, looking around for Tom. Finding him in a bio-bed, unconscious and covered in blood, she felt traumatized and collapsed. A couple of minutes later, she was brought back to consciousness by the EMH, she looked over at her lover to find him a cleaned up, but still unconscious. She was tempted to run over and hug him when the EMH looked at her sadly, and sat down next to her.
"Lieutenant, I have bad news and good news. The good news is Mr Paris is going to make a full recovery, he had a fractured skull, 3rd degree plasma burns and a broken leg, but he is completely healed and in recovery."
B'ellanna looked puzzled as to why he said there was bad news, this is the best news, and he is alive and well.
"The bad news is, the fracturing of the skull and bleeding may has caused slight amnesia, it's not a definite, but if he does he will not remember the past 3 years of his life."
B'ellanna's eyes clouded over, her head was pounding, how could this have happened? He wouldn't remember their relationship or any of their best memories.
"What are the…stat..statistics?" B'ellanna said sadly.
"It's a 50-50% chance I'm afraid, but the bright side is we will know almost immediately, I suggest you head back to your joint-quarters, get a good night's sleep and by tomorrow evening we should know. B'ellanna nodded dumbly, hopped down off the bio-bed and exited sickbay.
"Enter" The captain said sadly, through her tears.
She walked through to her ready room from her bedroom, after hearing the doors open and close. She wiped her eyes and walked through to see Chakotay stood in the middle of her ready room, looking in perfect health. Without any thought, she ran straight across her ready room into his arms, hugging him closely and crying into his chest. He wasn't sure whether it was relief, happiness or sheer shock but he held the Captain close, and it felt like the world melted away.
"Kathryn…" Chakotay said quietly into her hair, "Are you okay, what's wrong?"
"Oh Chakotay, I thought you were dead, I couldn't live with myself, I was mortified, but you're okay, I was so worried, I missed you so much…" she trailed off, realising him and walking towards her couch, indicating for him to join her.
"Kathryn..." he began, joining her on her ready room couch, putting his arm along the back of the sofa, allowing her to lean into him, then wrapping his arm allowed her shoulder.
"Do you really think I'd ever leave this world for the next, without telling you how I felt?" He finished, looking down at her as she shuffled around to look at him. She lifted a hand and traced her finger along the tattoo on his forehead until running her hand down his cheek, cupping it and looking into his dark eyes, he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, to test if it was okay, she made the next move by pressing deeper into his kiss, he picked her up, and carried her through to her bedroom, where they lay for the entire night, content in each other's arms…..