A/N: Huge thanks, as always, to MissyHissy3 for her input and speedy beta reading.

Twenty-Two

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.

Ariel, The Tempest

The garden was gone. Someone had taken wire cutters to the gate and removed the locks keeping it shut. The tattered remains stood wide open, compressed earth carried in tread patterns that trailed out onto the blacktop beyond in a testament to how the deed had been done.

The trees had been wrenched from the ground, their branches severed. In some places the green wood had been scorched, as if someone had tried to burn them. The young turf had been trampled and brutalised. The rows of Kes's vegetables had been crushed beneath the tyres of motorcycles that had repeatedly circled and spun over their patch until the earth was churned and the plants themselves were mere smudges of green amid the chaotic soil. The fence that Kathryn and Chakotay had begun together and that he had finished alone was smashed beyond recognition. As she stared at the mess, Kathryn realised that he had done exactly as he'd said he would. Chakotay had carefully planted each of the six passion flowers, which were now mere stubs in the ground, their stems and leaves so torn and mashed elsewhere it was impossible to identify them.

There was nothing left whole. Not a thing.

Kathryn took in the damage with a quiet nod.

"I'm sorry, Ms Janeway," Neelix said, wringing his hands as they stood together with Tom and B'Elanna. "There was nothing we could do. We saw it happening, but-"

Kathryn rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right. Given what else happened last night I'm just thankful everyone here is safe."

The little man nodded. "I'm so sorry about Mr Chakotay. I didn't know. I would never have called and bothered you if I had realised. That poor, poor man. And what you must have gone through, being there with him…"

She dropped her hand and lifted her chin. "Don't think about me for a moment, Neelix. I'm fine. The question is-"

Her cell rang. Kathryn pulled it out of her pocket, looked at the screen and then glanced at B'Elanna and Tom.

"It's the hospital," she said. "Excuse me for a moment."

She stepped away, turning her back and walking a few paces across the torn earth before answering the call and putting the phone to her ear.

"Kathryn Janeway here."

"Ms Janeway, it's Doctor Zimmerman. Do you have a moment?"

She put her free hand on her hip, widening her stance on the uneven ground. "Of course. Go ahead, Doctor."

"I thought you would like to know that Chakotay is out of surgery. He's now in the ICU."

Kathryn nodded, focusing on the downed carcass of one of the apple trees. It still had one branch attached. Its wilting leaves were shifting in the slight breeze, a false semblance of life, fading. "What's the prognosis, Doctor?"

Zimmerman paused, as if a little taken aback by her tone. Kathryn was aware that she sounded very different to the last time they had spoken; that she sounded brusque and perhaps even cold. But falling apart wouldn't help anyone, least of all Chakotay. Whatever news was coming, she was going to have to relay it to others. Someone had to keep it together. And she'd always been good at that, hadn't she?

"He is very ill," said the doctor. "You need to speak to his surgical team to get all the details. I know that it was a difficult surgery. He's still very much in danger, I'm afraid."

Kathryn nodded, gaze fixed on the middle distance. "But he's alive."

"He is, yes. I also wanted to thank you. The information you gave us allowed us to contact his family. I understand that someone is with him already."

Kathryn turned and looked back towards B'Elanna. The girl was standing stiffly amid the chaos of destruction around her feet, her eyes resolutely fixed on Kathryn. "That is good news," Kathryn said quietly, into the phone. "Doctor, do you think I could visit, and bring someone with me? I know that one of the students Chakotay mentors would appreciate being allowed to see him."

The doctor hesitated. "It would be up to the family as to whether they would permit anyone else to see the patient. And really," he cautioned, "Chakotay will not look himself. His injuries were severe, Ms Janeway. He's on a ventilator as one of the bullets collapsed his left lung. He is not conscious."

"I understand, Doctor," Kathryn said. "But even so, I think B'Elanna would want to make the effort."

"All right," said Zimmerman. "Let me talk to the next of kin. If she's comfortable with you visiting, I'll call you back."

"Thank you, Doctor."

Kathryn said goodbye and hung up, then walked back to the others. "He's out of surgery," she told them, and saw the girl visibly sag with relief, as though she'd been barely holding herself upright. Tom put an arm around her shoulders as Kathryn went on, "They're going to let us know if we can visit, but B'Elanna – you need to be prepared. The Doctor was clear – Chakotay is very sick."

B'Elanna nodded, briefly resting her head against Tom's chest. For a split second, Kathryn envied them that simple, elemental measure of support. She found herself wishing that Mark was there. She could call him, of course. Whatever Phoebe's complaints about him, Kathryn knew Mark would move heaven and earth to get home if she asked him to.

"I know that this can't possibly be as important right now, Ms Janeway," said Neelix, interrupting her thoughts. "Not with what's going on with Mr Chakotay. But – but what are we going to do about the garden? This can't be it, can it? We can't… we can't just give up. Not now. Can we?"

Kathryn looked around again. "I certainly don't want to give up, Neelix. To do so makes me feel as if we'd be letting the gang win. And to my mind, they don't get to do that."

Neelix puffed out his chest a little. "They don't in mine, either."

"But they've made their intentions clear, and the levels of violence they're prepared to use," Kathryn pointed out. "I don't want anyone else hurt. Not because of a garden that few people here seem to want anyway."

Neelix was about to say something else when her cell rang again. It was Zimmerman.

"You're welcome to come at any time," he told her.

Kathryn looked at B'Elanna. "We're on our way now, doctor."

Tom stayed behind with Neelix. They both wanted to make a start on the garden, and besides, Kathryn felt it best not to crowd Chakotay and his family with visitors.

"There's no point, you know," B'Elanna said, as they drove towards the hospital.

Kathryn looked over at her. B'Elanna was still pale, her eyes were still red. There was a hard edge to her jaw now, though, that hadn't been there earlier. The shock was ebbing, Kathryn realised, slowly being replaced by anger. Better anger than guilt, she thought, although she hadn't forgotten the girl's tortured outburst about the gun. Kathryn wondered how long she could keep B'Elanna with her. She knew only too well the rabbit hole down which the girl could slip. It would be so easy. B'Elanna was already perched on the slope, and it was slippery with rage, guilt and recrimination. Kathryn wanted to grab her by the scruff of the neck and hold on. She wondered if this is how Chakotay had felt when B'Elanna had first appeared at the doors of his gym.

"There's no point to what?" she asked.

B'Elanna stared out of the window. "Trying to rebuild the garden. You shouldn't waste your time."

Kathryn flexed her fingers on the wheel. "It's not a waste of time."

The girl turned to stare at her, hard. "They'll just tear it down again. You do get that, right?"

"Maybe they will," Kathryn agreed. "But it still won't have been a waste of time. The only way it would be a waste of time is if we give up, because then they'll have won. You do get that, right?"

B'Elanna made a sound in her throat and shook her head. "Bitch, they don't need to win. Hasn't this taught you anything? They own this place. When are you going to understand that? When are you going to understand that you can't change how things are by sticking a few plants in the ground?"

"They can't shoot all of us, B'Elanna."

"Yeah? Just how sure are you about that?"

They drove on, the silence thickening the air between them. It continued until Kathryn pulled into a parking space in the hospital car park. B'Elanna went to get out, but Kathryn flicked the locks. She waited until B'Elanna turned to her, noting the defiant glare in the girl's eyes.

"Two things," Kathryn said, quietly. "One: The garden became more than just plants in the ground the second one of those bikes trampled the first leaf. Now it's a symbol, and we can let it be a symbol for them, or we can let it be a symbol for us. I for one know which of those I'm opting for. I will re-build it alone with my own two hands before I stop trying if that's what it takes. Two: You ever use the word 'bitch' when you're addressing me again and I will bar you from setting foot in that gym so fast you'll think you've been knocked out by Ali himself. Respect others and you respect yourself, isn't that what Chakotay says? Well, that's your first strike with me, Torres, and you damn well know I've been lenient so far. Understand?"

There was a moment of silence in which they stared at each other. Then B'Elanna nodded. Kathryn would have liked an apology, but didn't expect one and wasn't going to push for it. She unlocked the door and got out without another look back. She hoped she'd gauged it correctly when she'd surmised that what B'Elanna needed at this moment was guidelines, not leeway.

As Kathryn walked away she heard her passenger door open and close, and then B'Elanna's footsteps echoing across the concrete as she followed.

Inside the hospital, they followed the signs to the Intensive Care Unit. It was on the second floor, closed off through two pristine white double doors. Kathryn paused before she pushed them open, turning to B'Elanna.

"Do you want to wait here?" she asked. "I can go in and then come back and get you if-"

"No," the girl said, quickly. "No, I'm coming with you."

Beyond the doors, there were individual rooms on both sides of a corridor. Most of the blinds were closed, leaving the hallway in which Kathryn and B'Elanna stood lit only by the unnatural and inadequate blue-white glare of strip lights.

"Can I help you?" asked a uniformed nurse.

"We're looking for a friend of ours," Kathryn explained. "His name is Chakotay. I understand his family is here. They said we could come…"

The nurse was already nodding. He pointed down the hallway. "Go to the end and turn right. You're looking for room 16."

"Thank you."

Room 16 was the third on the left. Kathryn found herself slowing as they approached. The blinds were closed over the window, but there was sunshine flowing through the oblong of privacy glass in the door. From inside came no sound except a faint, regular beeping. She looked at B'Elanna. Then she raised her hand and knocked gently on the glass before pushing open the door.

Chakotay was lying on the bed that dominated the room. He was surrounded by machines, wires feeding from them to him, vanishing into his skin beneath strips of white adhesive tape. The ventilator hushed and hummed, keeping pace like a metronome, breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out as it pushed air into the mask that hid most of his face. His torso was a swathe of thick white bandage. His arms rested placidly by his sides.

For a moment Kathryn was unable to move. Less than 12 hours before, those arms had held her so perfectly that tearing herself out of them had been almost unbearable.

"You must be Kathryn Janeway."

The voice came from the woman sitting beside Chakotay's bed. She stood, cupping his hand in both of hers. Her face was streaked with dried tears, but she tried to offer a smile.

"I've been told you kept him alive, and also that it was thanks to you that they knew who to call."

Kathryn blinked. She'd expected Chakotay's sister to have his colouring – dark eyes and dark hair. But this woman was strikingly blonde.

"I didn't know who to call," Kathryn corrected her. "I just told them-"

"That he was a teacher at Maywood High," the woman finished for her. "Yes. They called the school's out of hours number and got Chakotay's 'in case of emergency' contact." The woman looked down at his hand, still held between both of hers. She seemed on the verge of fresh tears. "I don't know why he hadn't changed it from when we were together. It makes me hope that perhaps… he's missed me as much as I've missed him."

[TBC]