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CHRISTMAS ANGEL
CHAPTER 5
CHRISTMAS EVE, 2380
On the verandah of their luxury home overlooking Lake George, Kathryn and Chakotay stood side by side and looked out at the fierce blizzard that had put paid to their plans of attending B'Elanna's Christmas Eve party. They were dressed for the event, Chakotay wearing a black shirt over black pants and Kathryn a classy blue velvet gown, but the snowstorm was so severe that transports were prohibited in the area. As Kathryn was eight months pregnant, they did not want to risk making the trip in a shuttle, so they were having to spend Christmas Eve alone in their new home. And, given the choice, neither wanted to be anywhere else.
"It really is a blinder," Kathryn said, leaning against her husband. "The last time I saw a snowstorm this bad was when I was fourteen years old. My parents had taken me and Phoebe to a log cabin in the alps for Christmas and it stormed so bad that we were snowed in for three days. Phoebe hated it, as she'd been looking forward to skiing for weeks, but I didn't mind so much. It was a good excuse to work on my math project."
Chakotay laughed. "You really were a swot, weren't you?"
"Oh, absolutely. But what can I say? I thrived on it. To me it was as essential as eating."
Chakotay turned to her and gently put his hand on her shoulder. "Well, how about we go inside and eat ourselves some dinner?"
"Sounds good. What do you fancy? I'll make it...by replicator, of course."
"I'll have whatever you're having. But I insist on making it. You go and sit down."
"In that case," Kathryn smiled, "I'll have a pizza. Lots of tomato. I just can't seem to get enough!"
Chakotay laughed. "Then pizza with lots of tomato it is."
After planting a kiss on Kathryn's forehead, Chakotay went inside. Kathryn followed, and walked through their spacious and elegant lounge to the sitting area. Her back was hurting, as it had been all day, and she hoped that sitting down would ease the pain. Their couch was a sumptious one of green velvet and was cozily situated before a magnificent chimney of gray stone. The chimney, like the house, had stood for over three hundred years, but while the chimney had once been ablaze with a real fire, the fire inside it now was holographic. Before the fire, sleeping on a colorful rug, was Scout. The cat loved the rug and hardly ever slept anywhere else. Next to the fireplace, out of the way in a corner, was their Christmas tree. It was so tall that it reached the ceiling and was surrounded by dozens of presents. The tree, which was artificial, glittered with all kinds of decorations and, amongst them, were the three baubles that a little Christmas Angel had delivered. They sparkled in the light and twinkled as brightly as the angel-doll on top.
In no time at all, Chakotay had replicated the pizzas, and they ate them together before the fire, talking and drinking as they did. When they'd finished, Chakotay cleared away the plates, but as he was doing so, Kathryn groaned from the couch. Anxiously, Chakotay left the plates on a table and went over to her.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"I don't know," Kathryn cried. "But it hurts."
"Sit back and take deep breaths," Chakotay said calmly. "You're probably having one of B'Elanna's famous false alarms."
Kathryn had to smile at that. "Well, it certainly feels like I'm contracting...oh...definitely contracting."
"I'll call The Doctor. However, he may not be able to transport here in this storm."
"Won't be able to, you mean. But go ahead, call him."
Chakotay did so right away, but it was a while before The Doctor could speak to him as he was performing surgery. When he did, he was neither eager to risk death by transport, or of the opinion that his presence was needed. A false alarm, he said it was, and that the Admiral was being as much of a hypochondriac as B'Elanna. His advice was to relax, think sweet thoughts, and then the pains would pass.
"Easy for him to say," Kathryn said, "he's not the one in agony. Oh...Chakotay...the baby's coming, I feel it."
"Your waters would break first," Chakotay reasoned.
"Maybe they have but I didn't notice. Sometimes women don't and...Oh...she's coming."
Kathryn was clearly in a lot of pain, much more than a false alarm would cause, and Chakotay's concern increased.
"Ok, Kathryn," he said. "I'll take a look. Let's lie you down."
Gently, he helped her to lie down and propped her up by cushions so she was comfortable.
"I don't want her to come..." Kathryn panted, frightened tears in her eyes. "Not here...not like this..."
Chakotay took her hand in his. "If it's her time, it's her time. Just take deep breaths. You're in good hands. Remember, I helped deliver two of my sisters."
"But what if there are complications and..."
"Then we'll have to risk an emergency transport. Just take deep breaths, Kathryn, and try to relax."
Kathryn did her best as Chakotay assessed her condition, but then she cried out again. "I need to push, Chakotay...Oh God!"
"That's because you're right," he declared, "the baby's coming."
"She is?"
"Yes. So push, Kathryn. Follow your instincts!"
Kathryn pushed, pushed with all her might, and after a while a little cry filled the air. Breathless and sweating, Kathryn strained her neck to see. "Is she...?"
"She's perfect," Chakotay smiled. "Just perfect."
Kathryn laughed from joy and relief and then Chakotay placed the crying baby in her arms.
"She sure has a set of lungs on her, doesn't she?" Kathryn said through tears.
"She sure does," Chakotay smiled, his eyes moist.
"But she's really ok? I mean, she's early and..."
"She's fine, Kathryn. Three weeks is neither here nor there. But I'll get a medical tricorder and check."
Kathryn smiled. "Thanks, honey. I'm so proud of you..."
Chakotay kissed her damp forehead. "Not half as proud as I am of you."
He then left for the kitchen. As he did, Kathryn cuddled her precious little girl and, in the warmth and safety of her arms, the child stopped crying.
"Looks like she's settling," Chakotay said when he returned.
Kathryn nodded.
Aswell as the tricorder, Chakotay had replicated a few essentials and he placed them on a nearby table.
"But we must keep her warm...allow me."
Gently, he cut the umbilical cord, which was still attached, cleaned the baby's face, and then wrapped her in a soft towel. The child cried, her mouth wide open, but soon settled when she was in her mother's arms again. Then Chakotay scanned her.
"Just as I thought," he smiled, "she's perfectly fine. Now, let's see how Mommy's doing." He scanned her and then spoke. "Mommy's fine too."
Kathryn smiled and then gazed at her daughter while Chakotay pulled up a stool and sat beside them. "I can't believe she's here," she said, a tear running down her cheek, "can't believe she's ours."
"Neither can I. But she is. She's here and she's our little girl."
Kathryn turned to him. "Our little angel. Our Angelica."
"Is that what you'd like to call her?"
Kathryn nodded. "Because it's Christmas Eve and...because it's always been her name." She paused. "The baubles on the tree, my special ones...she gave them to me. I mean, a future her. I've never told you because time is so fluid and there was every possibility that the future she came from was gone. But it hasn't and she's here."
"How did she give them to you?"
"She visited me. Twice. The first time was seven years ago this very night. I was alone in my quarters on Voyager and was feeling very discouraged. So discouraged that I couldn't face going to the annual Christmas Eve party. But then she came, out of no where, and brought a Christmas tree with her. She was about six or seven years old and was so beautiful, Chakotay. She had long black hair, adorable brown eyes, and she was wearing an angel costume. She said that she was my little girl in the future and had been sent by Q to cheer me up. She gave me a bauble, the green one, and when I saw Q inside it, I kind of had no choice but to believe. She told me not to be sad, that I would get Voyager home. Then you came looking for me and she disappeared. The second time was last Christmas Eve. She looked exactly like before and came with another message and another bauble...the red one. She told me that you were sick, that you needed me. If she hadn't of come then, then I wouldn't have known."
Chakotay said nothing, but he didn't need to. Kathryn knew he felt the momentousness.
"The third bauble," she went on, "the blue one, my older-self gave me when she came to get Voyager home. She'd had a visit too. That time the message was not to give up." She paused. "She came at the times when we most needed her and...and I've cherished those visits. They gave me hope that someday she would exist, that someday we'd be a family...and now we are."
Suddenly, a white light flashed before them and Q appeared. He was dressed as Santa and was holding a glittering gold box in his hands.
"Well," he said, "isn't this cozy?"
"Q," Kathryn smiled.
"Never let it be said a bit of snow stops a Q getting about! Ho, ho, ho! You mortals, such babies! Speaking of which, congratulations, K and C!"
"Thank you," Kathryn replied. "And thank you for...you know what."
"Oh, all in a night's work! Isn't that what Mr Dickens says? Great fella him. Oh, we had some fun together."
"You met Charles Dickens?"
"Of course. The spirits of past, present, and future. Who do you think gave him the idea? Why, me, me, me! Oh, it was such fun gallivanting through time and space with a genius. I can't take all the credit for the tale of Mr Scrooge, of course, the miser was his idea, but he says the face of your doctor inspired him. Which reminds me..."
He clicked his fingers and suddenly Kathryn was in a white satin robe and Angelica was wrapped in a sparkling pink blanket.
"No rush for the medic man," he smiled. "You're as good as new and Angie Pangie is just dandy!"
Kathryn smiled back. "If I've ever said a word against you, Q, I take it back. Thank you."
"Just the one, Kathy? What about the other 999!"
"Each and every one, Q."
"Then are we friends? Please...pretty...please?"
"Friends," Kathryn smiled.
"Ho, ho, ho! After three thousand millenia of trying, I've finally done it! Katie is my matie!" He then presented the parcel to Chakotay. "For yo, yo, yo? Oh, no, no, no! It's for the little she, she, she from little me, me, me!" He then stepped away. "Now it's time to go, go, go, so ho, ho, ho!"
With that, he clicked his fingers and vanished.
"Well," Chakotay smiled. "This really is turning into quite a night."
"Yes," Kathryn laughed.
"How are you feeling? Are you really recovered?"
"To be honest, it's kind of hard to tell. I'm feeling so euphoric right now that I'm oblivious to any pain...or lack of it. But I think I am."
"I'll scan you to be sure."
He picked up the medical tricorder and quickly scanned her.
"Yes," he smiled. "You're just fine. No afterbirth, no soreness, but you're still lactating."
"I hope so," she teased, "or my new friendship with Q might just be in jeopardy."
Chakotay laughed softly.
"Speaking of the man...or the Q...open the present. I can't wait to see what he's given her."
Chakotay picked up the box and carefully opened it. Inside, nestled in silver silk, was a beautiful angel-doll. She had a gorgeous dress of shimmering white, glittering silver wings, and long black hair."
"Oh, Chakotay," Kathryn exclaimed, "she's beautiful."
"And she has a name," Chakotay said, reading an embroidery on her dress. "Angelina."
Kathryn smiled. "Angelina for an Angelica. Q's inventiveness really must have inspired Dickens!"
Chakotay laughed. Then he spoke. "There's something else in here," he said. "Another bauble, I think."
He pulled the something else out and, to Kathryn's delight, it was indeed another bauble. A shimmering gold one.
"Just perfect," Kathryn said. "It's the same as the others...even the letters."
"Letters?"
"If you look closely, you'll see our initials entwined...K, C and A"
Chakotay looked and indeed saw their initials delicately carved all over the bauble.
"All these years," Kathryn said, tears filling her eyes, "through everything we've endured...the heartache, the loneliness, even the battles...in these baubles our love, our family, has been with us, telling us that all would be well. And now...and now I'm getting blubbery again."
Chakotay gently put his hand on her shoulder. "A new mother's privilege." He then kissed her cheek. "Shall I put the bauble on the tree?"
Kathryn nodded.
With a smile, Chakotay squeezed her shoulder, kissed her again, and then went to hang up the bauble.
END OF CHAPTER 5