A/n: I'm sorry I haven't updated sooner but I was caught up in my longest running C7 story "Fascination". I hope you like this new chapter!
The Doctor responded to Seven's call immediately. As soon as he saw Chakotay's confused, pain wracked face he ordered an emergency transport, but Seven shook her head. "The transportation process will only destabilise him further and may send him into another time period."
"Then, we'll need to help him walk to Sickbay and hope that I can stabilise him for the time being while we think of a more permanent solution." Seven didn't need to be told twice, she bent over Chakotay and helped him to stand, murmuring soothing and encouraging words to guide his frightened mind. He obeyed her with difficulty unable to fully comprehend what was happening to him. Thankfully they got to Sickbay just as he began to fade away again and the Doctor could scan him more fully as they laid him on a biobed. "Every molecule in his body is temporally unstable; I've never seen anything like it! Seven you seem to have an idea about what's happening can we do anything?"
Seven tore her eyes away from Chakotay as his body flickered in and out and turned to the Doctor. "There is a temporary measure I am aware of; an injection of Menilizone would stabilize his cells for a maximum of six hours."
The Doctor stared at her angrily. "Menilizone? You can't be serious! That can cause heart failure in humans!"
"Do you think I would suggest it if I knew of any other way!" Seven retorted hotly, "We must do it soon or it will be too late and he will be gone!"
The Doctor heard the sincerity in her voice and knew she wouldn't be suggesting something with side affects if she had no other choice. He glanced at his patient and made his choice. "All right." He didn't rush; the dose had to be just right to avoid cardiac arrest and allowed Seven to hold Chakotay's hand as he did the injection. A few painfully tense seconds passed before Chakotay's body became solid, but an urgent alarm told him that his heart had stopped. Mercifully one shock with a cortical stimulator brought him back with a gasp, his body and mind fully with them once again.
The Doctor looked at a horribly pale Seven dreading to ask the question which needed to be asked. "How long before he destabilises again?"
Seven didn't take her eyes off of Chakotay's still body. "Three hours maximum." She whispered, swallowing the lump of tears in her throat as she saw Chakotay stir.
He was barely awake before he asked after his main concern. "Seven?"
Seven stepped forward and gently took his hand which he grasped for dear life. "I am here…" she murmured. The Doctor looking into their faces suddenly had no doubt that Chakotay knew everything, for he was gazing at Seven with the expression only given to a lover and she no longer hid her emotions from him. The Doctor couldn't feel happy for them, he knew there was too much heartbreak ahead for that but at the same time he felt it was right that they be together again in whatever form.
At that moment Tuvok entered and was instantly made aware of what the Doctor had just realised when the couple let go of each other's hands and turned to face him. "What has happened?" he looked Seven directly in the eye but the Doctor answered.
"His body went almost completely out of sync with the rest of us, the treatment I gave him will only last three hours."
"What can we do to make this cease?"
Seven now quietly but firmly spoke. "He must return to his own timeline."
Chakotay felt grief stab him and it must have been visible on his face for Seven touched his arm as she addressed them all. "The only…cure…for the effect of Temporal Anomaly 8564 is to return to the instant of the event, or else you may be taken into any period of time until your body permanently destabilises."
"How can we send him back?" Tuvok asked.
"The ship must have passed through a temporal rift when he destabilised, we must reach another and use defector pulses to hopefully return him."
"Hopefully?" echoed the Doctor incredulously.
Seven stared back somewhat defiantly but her eyes were glimmering with tears. "Time travel is an unpredictable science Doctor."
"Seven go and trace another temporal rift and get to work on the deflector modifications, get B'Elanna and Icheb to help you." Tuvok ordered. Seven nodded silently and left without looking at Chakotay who was filled with hurt and confusion. They aren't even consulting me! Who says I want to go back! It's either living there or dying here, said another voice in his head. While he was still trying to sort out his thoughts and emotions, Tuvok approached him and promptly asked the Doctor to leave, who did so grumbling all the way out of the door.
Tuvok just got straight to it. "To what extent have you violated the Temporal Prime Directive?"
Chakotay gave a strained sigh. "In every way possible." He admitted.
"Seven told you?"
Chakotay felt his hackles rise in anger. "None of this is Seven's fault! She didn't want to tell me…I cornered her in the worse way possible…I knew you were all hiding something…I was falling in love with her in my own timeline…I just had to know…"
"It is always highly inadvisable to alter a timeline…"
"I'll make things better!"
"No timeline is perfect…without loss and sorrow…they have existed since time began. You must prepare yourself that you may not like what you create."
"I'm willing to take that risk…truly I am." Chakotay said with conviction.
Tuvok must have believed him for he withdrew a pad from his pocket and handed it to him. "This is a list of all the deadly encounters we have experienced in the last five years. If you have decided memorise it for you will not be able to take it with you." With that as his only parting words he left, Chakotay stared after him, maybe he had been wrong and Tuvok had made a good Captain after all.
After an hour of memorising the information, Chakotay finally got permission to leave Sickbay and seek out Seven, finding her in Astrometrics as he had expected. For a few moments he just gazed at her before he had the courage to form words. "Have you found what you've been looking for Seven?" he asked his voice full of emotion he couldn't fully express.
Seven couldn't bring herself to look at him and her answer sounded hollow. "Another temporal rift will occur in twenty two minutes…the deflector is ready."
Chakotay choked, "Twenty two minutes! Is that all we're going to have Seven?"
She let herself look at him now, "Yes…"
He couldn't stop himself anymore; his previous declarations seemed worthless now. "Seven…I wish…I wish…"
"I know…it doesn't need to be said." She told him with difficulty.
"Can I see the children?"
Seven let tears slide down her face, "Yes of course…they'd like that…" She pressed her comm. badge. "B'Elanna can you bring Luke and Isabel here?"
Within a few minutes Luke bounced in with Isabel at his heels, but his face fell when he saw Seven and Chakotay's expressions. "What's wrong Mama?"
Seven wiped her face and smiled sadly down at her children. "Chakotay's going home and he wants to say goodbye to both of you."
"No!" exclaimed Isabel, the sorrow in the room affecting even her.
Chakotay knelt down to her. "I have to go honey…but you keep a doll for me okay?"
This perked Isabel up slightly, "Yesh, good!" She patted him on the head, which made him laugh for he had done the same thing to her. "Bye, bye."
"Bye, sweetie." He said with gentle affection.
Luke now shyly approached him. "Is your home nice? I bet it's not as good as here."
"No, no it's not, but I have to go back." He leaned over and whispered in Luke's ear, "Look after your Mama for me, won't you?"
That provoked an unexpected response, Luke hugged him quick but tight, murmuring "I will" into Chakotay's ear. Chakotay hugged him back and then both he and Isabel left. Chakotay stared at the door for a couple of seconds before Seven's sobs made him turn around.
Seven was leaning heavily on the console, sobs wracking her body, for it had just now fully hit her how final all this was, she was losing her children forever, they wouldn't even exist. Chakotay knew this without asking and took her in his arms, "Seven, don't worry…I love you so much…"
Seven lifted her head, "I know you do…now, but when you're back in your timeline these feelings will fade…"
"I know my own heart Seven, they're not going to fade!"
"I want you to remember that there is no obligation, do not feel guilty about anything…"
"It wouldn't be obligation, it would be love alone…will you give me something to remember you by?"
"You know me…" she replied in confusion before a thought passed through mind and she took her engagement ring off and pressed it into his hand. "Give this to whoever you wish, with my love and blessing."
His hand closed around it and he took her arm. "Trust me Seven." What his eyes said told her more than the words.
"You must go to Engineering, you are soon to return."
Quicker than he'd ever thought twenty two minutes would pass he found himself standing in Engineering as they activated the deflector, the last thing he saw before he blacked out was Seven's face.
He opened his eyes to find himself standing in the corridor outside his quarters. "Computer, date and time!" he shouted, his heart racing.
"Stardate 7652.6, 2nd of May 2377. 1930 hours" He was back to exactly when he'd left, he doubted if anyone had noticed his, for them, momentary absence. Had it really happened? He looked down at his hand and saw Seven's ring glittering in his palm. What am I going to do now?
A/n: Please review, I'm not done yet! I know the conversation between Chakotay and Seven could have been longer but I was getting upset writing it. (I'm so pathetic!) I also know that using the deflector as a solution is a Star Trek cliché but all the shows do it so why shouldn't I? I'll try and update soon.