A/n: The words in italics describe what's happening in Chakotay's logs.

Seven fled from Chakotay's quarters as fast as her legs could carry her, reaching her cargo bay before she even stopped to properly catch her breath. Her body couldn't allow her to continue and she was on the floor without wilful command from her mind within seconds, curling into herself, unable to keep the distraught tears from bursting free of her mental floodgates and flowing relentlessly. She didn't know how long she lay there until her inherent need for self control kicked back in and she began to analyse what had happened. She knew her outburst had enflamed an already impossible situation and she regretted her actions for she knew Chakotay well enough to know he would also now be suffering and that was the last thing she wanted. Grief fuelled anger still persisted in its assault on her but she could no longer direct it at Chakotay. He hadn't wanted to come here; it wasn't his fault that his very presence caused her almost intolerable pain. He would need to go back, if they didn't help him return the temporal anomaly could take him anywhere. Fear stabbed her, losing him again, despite it all, wasn't a possibility she was willing to consider. Feeling his touch, his kiss once more had pushed her love for him she'd suppressed back into her heart at full strength. Her emotions told her it was irrelevant where or when he came from, she loved him just as much as before.

A sigh of exhausted frustration fluttered through her lips, the worst thing about being a human individual was the conflicted aspect of emotions, she wanted him gone, to end this painful cycle but she also wanted to cling to him and kiss him and beg him not to leave. In that moment she longed for the Collective, its unity of thought and purpose, the simplicity her life had once had compared to the dilemmas she now faced. Suddenly she hated being in that cargo bay with all the residual memories it held and she left abruptly.

Without thinking she sought out her children, silently entering the small side room of Tom and B'Elanna's quarters where they slept. She stood watching them for several minutes knowing she shouldn't wake them but she gave into her impulse and gently lifted a sleeping Isabel out of her cot and held her close.

Isabel stirred and blinked awake. "Mama?" she asked in questioning surprise. "Night."

Seven managed an affectionate if sad smile down at her sleepy daughter. "I know its night time baby, Mama just wanted to see you."

Isabel accepted this, she wasn't the type to object to a cuddle, and huddled against her mother's neck and chest. "Seepy." She stated drowsily.

Seven stroked her hair and kissed her, before hearing a sound as Luke turned over in bed, she approached the bed and sat down on the edge, pulling the cover back and climbing in, gently holding both Luke and Isabel close against her. Isabel fell asleep again almost immediately but Luke opened his eyes in confusion. "Go back to sleep my love." Seven murmured. Luke responded with a mumble and buried his head in her shoulder. She leaned into his ear and whispered, "Tonight is special, and I'm not going to do this every night okay?" He smiled in his sleep and she kissed him. Maternal love, it was different from other emotions, uncomplicated, pure and constant, if only everything was this simple, she would have to draw on all of its strength to do the right thing. Surrounded by her family rather than by the Collective Seven drew comfort from this which allowed exhaustion to take over and she fell into a deep if troubled sleep.

Chakotay meanwhile couldn't take comfort from anything around him and his emotions were just as conflicted as Seven's. He just sat with guilt, love and sorrow being his overwhelming emotions along with confused thoughts which struggled to make sense. Eventually an all consuming desire to know everything that had happened forced him to think logically and begin to decrypt Seven's algorithms which were blocking access to his logs. It took him over four hours but every time he felt like giving up something inside him pushed him on until finally a list of log entries were his reward.

First he watched a recording of their wedding, which touched his soul with the obvious sincerity of both Seven and his future self and then he compulsively, despite the ever increasing grief he felt for both himself and Seven, began to watch the recordings of his logs.

"Stardate 7935.8, 25th of March 2379." His future self said directly into the camera. "Captain's log. Today was the funeral of Captain Kathryn Janeway, killed during a Sultin attack three days ago. I'm Captain now but our mission won't change, I intend to get this crew back home…" Chakotay put his head in hands and breathed heavily. A visibly pregnant Seven appeared behind him and squeezed his shoulder before sitting down beside him.

"Leave it for now my love, no one would expect a log today." She murmured softly. Chakotay was surprised, Seven was a stickler for order and he knew she logged everything that occurred, but perhaps concern for her husband was overriding her concern for efficiency.

His future self must have been thinking along those lines because he said, "I never thought I'd hear you say that, you log everything." He teased her, but his voice had a sad undertone.

"I know, but many things have changed." Seven stated heavily.

"What am I going to do Seven? It was the Captain's wish that we get home but I'm not sure I'm willing to risk…" His voice became more agitated. "I mean she got herself killed trying to…" He glanced at his wife's swelling figure. "I just don't have the conviction she had…some things are too important to risk…"

Seven took his face in her hands. "You have every conviction possible…the crew will support you, no one expects you to be Captain Janeway and you shouldn't expect that of yourself…we will confront problems as they arise and you won't be alone."

He pulled his wife against him. "You don't know how much I rely on you sweetheart."

"The sentiment is mutual…" She sighed as she said that.

"What's wrong?" He asked her in concern. "You're supposed to be on bed rest and you were on your feet at the funeral all day…"

"I wasn't going to miss the Captain's funeral!" she snapped. "I'm sorry, grief and pregnancy hormones do not seem to mix well…"

He stroked her face. "I know…try and get some sleep…"

A sob broke through her lips. "She'll never get to see the baby…"

He visibly swallowed. "You know…she suggested a name for him…"

"Really? What was it?"

"Luke."

"Then Luke he will be. Are we agreed?"

"Decision made. Let's go to bed. Computer, end log." Chakotay was transfixed and with every further log he watched his sorrow deepened. The interdependency and love between his future self and Seven was more obvious with every snippet of affectionate, supportive conversation caught in the logs. Every exuberant recording of baby Luke's every move, how he was on his father's lap during almost every log, being encouraged to interact with some very cute results.

Stardate 8093.5, 28th December 2380. Captain's log." Luke was sitting on his father's knee. "Papa's log." He said cheerily, bouncing up and down. Papa? Thought Chakotay slightly confused, he must have picked that up from Seven, she called her father that. It's cute.

"Yes, it's Papa's log. Do you have something to say?" Chakotay asked his son affectionately.

"No." He hopped off his father's lap. "Bike!" he shouted excitedly. Chakotay had to shout to be heard over the sound of Luke crashing into things and laughing.

"Luke, you're giving Papa a headache now." Chakotay told him, but he just giggled.

A heavily pregnant Seven appeared behind him and he turned to her. "If this is what he's like now, what will he be like when he hits the terrible twos in May?"

Seven shrugged. "It was your idea to get him a bike for Christmas."

"I know, I know, stop rubbing it in. I've learned my lesson; our little girl is getting nothing but dolls and nice calm toys like that."

Seven laughed, "Who says dolls are calming? Miral makes hers fight battles!"

"She's B'Elanna's daughter all right…"

"You've left your log running again. You do that all the time, no one is going to glean useable information from these…"

"Luke might want to see them someday. Computer, end log."

God, it must have hurt Seven when Luke didn't recognise him. No wonder she'd got so upset when he'd confronted her with it. Guilt coursed through him and he bitterly realised that from when that log was taken he had less than a month to live. It had been wrong to break the Temporal Prime Directive he knew, but he couldn't face this future not happening on some level so he kept watching.

"Stardate 8111.4, 1st of January 2381. Captain's log." Chakotay was surprised by his future self's beaming happiness and the fact that the log was being taken in Sickbay until he remembered that this would have been Isabel's birthday. "Seven and I have a daughter; she's beautiful, perfect, born at 0235 hours this morning…"

"Chakotay?" Seven's weak voice came from the biobed behind him and he rose to go to her. This movement gave the camera and the watching Chakotay a clear view of the couple and Isabel in the incubator. "What happened?"

"You had the baby."

"I remember that! What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing. She's perfect. She's beautiful and looks just like you."

"She's seven weeks premature, she must not be well or else you would be letting me see her!" Seven snapped tearfully.

"She just needs a little time to mature just like Luke did, he's fine and healthy now and she will be soon enough. The Doctor says both of you will need to stay here for three weeks for observation."

"Three weeks!" she gasped in horror, "Oh, I should have been able to stay pregnant for longer…"

Chakotay wrapped his arms round her. "Listen, I don't want you beating yourself up…she's here now and you're both going to be fine."

"She needs a name."

Chakotay paused, "How about Isabel?"

"Why Isabel?"

"Because it means beautiful and she is, just like her mother."

Seven smiled at him. "You're going to make both Isabel and I very vain if you keep complimenting us like that."

"I doubt it!" he laughed and Seven cuddled into his shoulder with a tired sigh.

"I'm more tired this time."

"I can believe it, that labour was twenty two hours long, you need some sleep."

"Okay…" she murmured sleepily.

"Computer, end log."

Chakotay felt tears stream down his face at the unfairness of it all, he'd had under a month with his new daughter and Seven had been left alone and bereft. He'd seen all he needed to see, he wasn't going to improve the situation by procrastinating, he needed to speak to Seven.

He found her alone with Luke and Isabel in Tom and B'Elanna's quarters. "Seven? May I come in?"

Seven flushed in his presence having to use all her determination to meet his eyes. "Yes, of course."

Chakotay couldn't think of a way to atone for the night before, much as he wracked his brain and instead approached Isabel who was happily playing with Miral's dolls. "Hey..." He addressed the little girl gently and she looked up at him. "You're Isabel aren't you? Can I play with you?"

"Yesh." She said, extending a doll out to him. He took it with a smile and began to play with her, feeling himself relax as he did so. After half an hour of this Luke, hovering protectively near his mother began to feel jealous in spite of himself and he picked up a toy car from the floor and walked cautiously over to Chakotay.

"Cars are better than dolls." He stated knowingly.

Chakotay looked at him, happy that Luke was finally interacting with him of his own accord. "Why don't you bring some over and show me then?"

Eventually the three of them were chattering away happily, but Chakotay couldn't help glancing over at Seven every five minutes, she just watched them still as stone until suddenly she called B'Elanna up on her comm. badge. "B'Elanna, can you take Luke and Isabel for a little while?"

"Yeah sure, I'll come in a minute."

"Mama, why are we going?" Luke piped up.

"Because Commander Chakotay and I need to have a talk." Seven said quietly.

"But Mama, you don't like to talk." Despite the seriousness of the situation Chakotay couldn't suppress a laugh.

"It is necessary." B'Elanna entered at that moment but didn't say anything. "Now both of you come and say goodbye and I'll see you later."

Both Luke and Isabel jumped up and got their hugs and kisses before joining B'Elanna. Isabel waved at Chakotay and Luke mumbled a shy "Bye."

Chakotay smiled at them, "Bye, have fun. I'll see you both again."

They left and Seven broke the silence. "You're so good with them." She murmured with a sad wistfulness.

"Only because you've raised them so well." Seven lowered her head but he persisted. "I'm telling you the truth Seven, I always have." He went to her and knelt down grasping her hands. "I know that I've hurt you…I'm sorry Seven."

"None of this is your doing, I also must apologise…I…I overreacted."

"No…don't say that." He told her, squeezing her hands before continuing. "I'm going to ask you something and I want you to be honest with me okay?" She nodded. "How long…after Ledosia did it take me to ask you out?"

Seven was stunned and paused before keeping her word. "Three days."

"Three days! Seven, if you knew that, you know I have feelings for you. Why do you keep saying otherwise?"

"This isn't exactly a normal situation! You shouldn't feel forced into anything, forced to love me, I love you too much for that!"

He kissed her hands over and over, she flinched slightly but didn't pull away. "Seven, if I can stay with you and the kids I will! This timeline has continued to exist so far with me here…"

Seven swallowed hard and he could see tears in her eyes. "If…if only it was that simple…"

Pain suddenly surged through Chakotay and his vision went blurry. "What's…happening?" he choked out.

Seven could see his whole body flickering, this was what she had feared. She held him and shouted down the comm. line, "Doctor, medical emergency!"

A/n: A bit of a self indulgent chapter but I hope you're still enjoying it, please review! I haven't forgotten about Fascination and Lost and Found, I will be updating them soon I promise!