Seven set down her glass of water on the table and sat down in the chair closest to the window, parting the thin curtain with her fingers to peer down at the world below. The early rising sun of late June warmed her face and lit up the streets, just beginning to awake to start another day. Seven thoughtfully ran her finger round the rim of the glass, all those individuals, unknown to her and she unknown to them, she smiled softly as she realised the thought no longer disturbed her. Perhaps she was finally becoming accustomed to life on Earth. Good, it had taken her long enough…
She jumped in surprise as warm hands went over her eyes but relaxed as she heard his familiar voice in her ear. "Good morning birthday girl…" She smiled as he kissed her ear and neck, gently taking his hands off her eyes and kissing them before turning round to face him.
"Good morning." She replied, kissing him softly as he wrapped his arms round her waist.
Chakotay looked at her lovingly. "What are you doing up so early on your birthday? Wait, I didn't get the date wrong did I?"
She laughed at the anxiety in his voice. "You were correct. Today is the 24th of June 2378. I am now thirty years old using the Earth calendar. Why would I change my sleeping patterns because of this?"
Chakotay let out a sigh of relief before answering; it would have been embarrassing to not know your girlfriend's birthday. "Well, birthdays are special…I just thought you would have had a lie in that's all." He paused to gaze at her face. "You looked deep in thought when I surprised you, depressed about getting a year older?"
"Ageing is inevitable." She stated bluntly, "I was thinking about my…" she blushed slightly, "…our life here…"
Chakotay put an arm around her shoulders, "I know. I can't believe it's been over a year now."
"I was thinking that I am finally becoming somewhat accustomed to it…"
"Somewhat?" He put his hand under chin, "Sweetheart don't push yourself so much, you've done so well. I'm very proud of you, okay?" He looked at her for acknowledgement and she nodded. Changing the subject he said, "So I've taken the day off, what do you want to do for your birthday?"
Seven stared at him for a moment. "Why did you take the day off? I'm briefing Starfleet Headquarters on my new project today."
Chakotay's mouth fell open, "That's today?" She nodded and he cringed, his detailed plan falling to pieces before his eyes. "Can't you reschedule?" he begged in a last ditch salvage attempt.
Seven shook her head, unsure as to why he was taking it so hard. "I promised Admiral Janeway…" His face fell further, knowing that that meant no and she tried to reassure him. "I should be able to return here by early evening."
"Really? That's great!" he exclaimed, hugging her tightly.
"I must go and prepare." She told him firmly, disentangling herself from his arms.
Seven left that morning feeling very confused by Chakotay's actions for once she was ready he had practically pushed her out of the door. Chakotay meanwhile sighed deeply as soon as she was gone, immediately pulling out the engagement ring he had got from the alternate future Seven he had met and closing his hand around it. What was he supposed to do now? He had had his heart set on a lovely birthday and then the proposal and now she wouldn't be back until the evening! An idea hit him and he ran to the phone to call the restaurant. If he had learned anything from Seven it was how to adapt.
He looked up at the clock for the fifth time in as many minutes, it was only four o'clock, he still had at least a couple of hours to go before she returned. He wished he could settle down to do some work but his heart was too nervous and alert. He paced around their bedroom before looking at himself in the mirror, would she really want to marry him? The optimistic part of his brain reminded him that she had accepted him in two different realities but rather than taking comfort from this information it just made him feel worse, since they had never discussed time travel again since the incident with the future Admiral. He held the ring between two fingers, hoping she wouldn't mind that it wasn't in a box. Maybe she will, I wouldn't be surprised if the Doctor showed her what the prefect proposal should be in those social lessons of his!
He knelt down in front of the mirror and looked at himself, he looked so awkward! Repositioning until he was at least balanced, he decided to practice what he would say. "Seven I…want to marry you…" No, he would need to put more thought into it than that! "Seven, you're the most beautiful, intelligent…headstrong woman I've ever known, I love you and I want to marry you…" No, that didn't sound right either! "Seven, you know how much I love you…I want us to be together for as long as fate gives us…please marry me…"
It was only now that he heard a faint sound behind him and looked in the mirror to see Seven standing at the room's threshold, pale and wide eyed. "Seven! What are you doing here?"
"The briefing…took less time than I anticipated…" she stammered, openly staring at him.
Chakotay struggled to collect himself, turning on his knees to face her. "This isn't how I wanted it to be…it was going to be romantic I promise! I booked a table at a restaurant and everything…" Seven came out of her shocked paralysis and ran to him, kneeling down and kissing him full on the mouth, tears staining her cheeks. Chakotay pulled back, feeling her silent acceptance. "How much of that did you hear?"
"All of it." She told him, crying and laughing.
Chakotay began to blush fiercely, "Even the part about you being headstrong?"
Seven kissed him repeatedly, still laughing. "Yes…yes…yes…"
Chakotay began to laugh uncontrollably as the joyous ludicrousness of the situation set in. She allowed him to slip the ring on her finger and take her into his arms.
A little voice began to make itself known on the edge of Chakotay's sleeping consciousness, he groaned and batted it away with his arm but it persisted, growing louder until the weight of something landing on him jolted him awake to the sight of a little boy with bright dark eyes and light brown hair peering intently into his face. "Papa wake up! You promised you'd build the new swing today!"
Chakotay blinked blearily, the memory of the promise to the boy to get him to sleep the night before slowly returning. "Papa!" moaned the boy impatiently.
Chakotay sighed at his own stupidity in thinking he would forget the promise. "Luke, what have Mama and I told you about jumping on people, especially when they're asleep?"
Luke had the grace to appear slightly abashed. "That it's bad...but it was necessary, you need to wake up."
Chakotay smiled fondly at his two year old even being able to say the word necessary let alone use it in a sentence. "Well, I'm awake now so…" He grabbed Luke by the waist and began to tickle him.
Luke began to laugh riotously, "Papa…Papa…stop…" His hands struggled to try to defend himself against his father. "Mama! Papa's tickling me!" he cried as he noticed his mother in the doorway watching them.
"You did wake him up Luke." She pointed out bluntly, shifting her arms to better accommodate the little girl squirming in her arms.
"Down, Mama, down!" she cried insistently. On getting her wish she ran comically across the floor and grabbed the edge of the duvet, desperate to join her father and elder brother in the fun.
"All right Izzy, all right." Said Chakotay leaning over and lifting the little girl onto him for a cuddle, getting a mouthful of her soft black hair in the process as she clung to him like a limpet. "How's my girl this morning?"
She mumbled something incomprehensible against his neck, before Luke, getting a bit jealous held up a toy. "Look Isabel I've got your rabbit!"
The reaction was immediate and resulted in Luke running from the room, rabbit held aloft, Isabel valiantly trying to follow. This having been a regular occurrence since Isabel had learned to walk, their parents just ignored it, Chakotay sinking back into the covers with a laugh. "Active morning Seven?" he asked his wife jokingly.
"Average." She responded, coming over to his open arms for a hug, kissing him impulsively. "Remember I have to go into the city today, it's unavoidable but the Doctor scheduled my maintenance for today too so I won't be back until after the children should be in bed."
"They'll be in bed if we're lucky!" he laughed but as he pulled back he felt a shiver. "Seven, what's the date today?" He didn't know why he'd asked that but now that he had he had to know.
"Stardate 8251.1 2nd of May 2382." Seven registered his sudden smile. "Is the date a significant one?"
"No, not really." He reassured her, watching her back as she left to attend to their children. Today was the day he had come to in the other timeline! If only he had been able to tell that Seven how well things would work out when he'd left her…
Seven left for San Francisco as planned and Chakotay spent the day out in the garden trying to keep Luke and Isabel entertained while he attempted to build their new swing set and having a shameful amount of difficulty. The day wore on and Chakotay was becoming exasperated, the pieces just weren't coming together. Luke suddenly came up behind him, "Papa, it goes like this." He stated knowingly, picking up two pieces and easily clicking them together.
Chakotay examined what his son had just done and smiled in awe and approval. "Well done son. You leave it to me now and you'll get to play on it soon." Luke gave him a sceptical look that made him want to laugh before nodding his head and running off to the slide.
Luke's scepticism proved unfounded, Chakotay did manage to complete the swing, the difficulty was in getting Isabel to come off. Chakotay stood in front of her sitting on the swing. "I'm not going to push you anymore Isabel. It's time to come in the house."
No." she replied stubbornly, fixing her big blue eyes on him.
Chakotay glanced at the looming dark clouds above them. "Isabel it's going to rain, you don't want to get wet do you?"
"Iwwelevant." Chakotay almost choked, had she just said what he thought she'd said? Seven was going to have a heart attack when she heard her beloved sixteen month old say that! At the same time he couldn't stop the wide grin coming to his face, it sounded so cute.
"Listen madam, that doesn't work when your mother says it and it certainly won't work with you, so just come on." He lifted her up and she submitted without any argument. He smiled as he took her into the house; wait till the crew heard about this!
Seven walked in the door that night to see her husband and children half asleep on the couch watching one of those 20th century "Disney" movies Tom Paris had introduced the children to. She tried not to disturb them knowing that if she did they would all have to watch the movie again to get them to fall asleep. Unfortunately her plan failed almost immediately, Luke jumping up wide awake once again at the sight of his mother. "Mama!" he cried joyfully, hurtling himself into her arms.
Despite her disappointment at waking him, she instinctively held him close and kissed him. "Hello my love." She murmured, she always missed her family intensely when they were apart, she wasn't the sort of person who enjoyed being alone.
Isabel now woke up too, lifting her arms up, but Seven sat down on the couch and put her in her lap. "Miss you Mama." Isabel said softly.
"I missed you too baby." Seven replied, kissing her face. She turned to Chakotay, who was waking. "Good evening…"
"Hey, everything fine at work and with the Doctor?"
"Fine." She said shortly, not wishing to have the conversation she knew she was going to have to have. "What are you watching?"
"101 Dalmatians." Chakotay whispered as Luke settled between them.
"Again?" asked Seven incredulously, the children had watched that film for the last three nights in a row, surely they realised it was a physical impossibility for a dog to have that many puppies?
Chakotay glanced down at Luke and Isabel, sitting agog. "They insisted."
"Stubborn."
He laughed softly, "And where do you think they get that from?"
"Both of us." She retorted affectionately as they settled down to their duty.
As the credits rolled Seven glanced down at Isabel, sound asleep in her lap and Luke nestled in his father's shoulder. "I think they can be put to bed now."
Chakotay nodded and stood up with Luke in his arms, Seven following with Isabel. "Can we get a dog?" Luke mumbled, obviously not as deeply asleep as they had thought.
"No." said Seven and Chakotay in unison. Thankfully he was too tired to argue and he and his sister were put to bed without incident.
The couple returned to the couch and settled into each other's arms. "How was your day?" Seven asked.
"Well, it was hectic as always. That swing set was harder to put together than a warp engine and I thought it couldn't get any worse than when I tried to build the cribs…" Chakotay both felt and heard Seven swallow hard. "What?"
She freed herself from his arms and sighed, "You're going to have to build another crib…"
He stared at her, "You're…you're pregnant?"
Seven couldn't meet his eyes. "I suspected…the Doctor confirmed it today."
"We're going to have another baby! It's wonderful Seven! Finally a surprise…"
Seven looked at him, "They were all a surprise to me!" she exclaimed.
Chakotay backtracked remembering that Seven didn't know he'd seen Luke and Isabel in another timeline. "I know…I know…I just always thought we'd have two but a third one is great."
Seven sank back into his arms in relief, "We're going to have three children under four…"
He stroked her hair, "We'll adapt darling, we always have." She nodded into his chest. Chakotay marvelled at it all, because of time travel he had it all, the love of his life, their children and a third one on the way. Was it fate that he had been taken and then the Admiral had decided to come back? "Seven, do you believe in fate?"
She turned her head up to look at him. "Predetermination? There is not the evidence to prove or disprove the theory."
"But do you believe?"
She kissed him softly, "Does it matter?"
"No…" he whispered as he deepened the kiss. May fate never have to intervene with them again.
The End
A/n: Thanks to: SweetDeath04, DestinChild, MidnightVampireCharlotte, Rono777, EMcKinney, juliaw, jordikov, AmaryllisBird, St4wberries and Cream, h3llfrz, Frodanerin, RawenclawBabe, The Ninja Elle, Saissa, JustDeadStarsForDeadEyes, lizzy74656 and everyone else who read, reviewed and story alerted! Please review since the story is finished.