Just One More Day
Disclaimer: I do not own star trek or it's characters, but Katrina's all mine.
A/N: I want to thank everyone who commented, here's the next chapter, as promised. I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as I can, but my teachers have decided to conspire against me and give me loads and loads of work, all due by Friday/next week.
Enjoy!
Chapter 12
"Is anyone inside?" Naomi asked Katrina who was trying to find a way it.
"How should I know? You're the one looking for the window, not me."
"Right, right. It doesn't look like anyone's inside."
"But someone has to be. How does a shuttle just appear from no where?"
"Maybe we should go back and have the adults look at it later," Naomi suggested, her headache having subsided somewhat.
"That's a good idea. Maybe they'll know how to open the door."
They crept back to the town and peered down the hill, careful to stay out of sight. The hardest part about sneaking into town was the hill, because it could be seen from any point in town and contained no hiding spots. At the top, one could see the entire town — and where every one was. Lying at the top of the hill before going down had become a habit of theirs, wanting to make sure the coast was clear before heading into the open.
They looked down into the village and expected to see no one but gasped as they saw two men walking from the base of the hill into town. Neither Katrina nor Naomi recognized them, until they looked at their outfits.
"OMG, Naomi, they're Starfleet," she said, recognizing their uniforms to be like her mother's, which she no longer wore.
"The shuttle, the crew, they must be looking for us."
"We have to get to them," they both said simultaneously. They smiled at their timing, then got up and ran — as quietly as possible — down to the people. They ran up behind him and when they felt they were close enough to get their attention and not wake anyone in town, they called out, "Hey!"
It was enough to cause Chakotay and Tom to turn around. Both were surprised to see Naomi and Katrina running toward them at this hour.
"Katrina?" Chakotay asked, having to be sure.
"Oh, Daddy, it is you," she said, hugging him. Chakotay hugged her back, feeling slight déjá vu. He looked down at her and smiled. He looked down at her, noticing something was different about her.
"You're younger," he finally said.
"Younger?" she asked, looking at him curiously. "Younger than what?"
"That last time I saw you." She gave him a puzzled look, not understanding.
"But Dad, we've never met. Believe me, I've spent fourteen years dreaming about it."
Chakotay looked over to Tom, who looked back just as confused.
"Come on, you two, let's go wake the senior staff. We have a lot to discuss."
"Is one of those things how you're going to fit over two hundred and seventy people into that shuttlecraft of yours?" Naomi asked as they walked.
"Possibly," Tom answered slyly. Naomi rolled her eyes. She had heard Tom was a jokester, but they all had forgot to mention that his jokes weren't funny. "But then again, we could just be talking about how to throw over a thousand belated birthday parties without anyone ever suspecting." Well, at least not all of them, Naomi admitted as she laughed.
The four of them walked into the town and Katrina lead them to a house. She opened the door and went in, signalling for the others to follow.
"Wait in here," she whispered. As she turned to head deeper into the house, she stopped, seeing someone standing in the hall. She remained still, until she could be certain of who it was.
"T'Lana?" she asked, curiously. The figure stepped closer, allowing everyone to see her.
"Katrina, why have you come?"
"I need to get your mother."
"My mother? For what purpose does she serve?"
"You see these people?" she asked, pointing to Chakotay and Tom. "They are from Voyager, and they need to speak to your mother. Can you get her, T'Lana?"
"Yes."
T'Lana stared at the two men for a moment longer, then turned to wake her mother. Both Tom and Chakotay couldn't believe what they had saw. Standing in front of them had been a girl about twelve or thirteen, with long, dark hair tucked behind Vulcan ears. What surprised them most was the faint cranial ridges on her forehead, which belonged only to a Klingon.
"Would either of you mind telling us who T'Lana's parents are?" Chakotay asked both girls.
"Vorik and B'Elanna," Naomi answered.
"Vorik and B'Elanna got married?" Tom asked, unable to believe it.
"Yes, within a year of arriving. T'Lana was born a few months later," Naomi explained. I can't believe I lost B'Elanna to a Vulcan! How could she give up on me so soon? That's right, she didn't realize I had feelings for her, of course. How stupid of me. He wasn't looking forward to seeing B'Elanna as much as he had before, feeling it would only depress him. He became silent and waited for T'Lana to arrive, leading B'Elanna behind her.
Suddenly, Naomi's headache returned, even stronger than before. Katrina turned her attention to her, helping her stand up straight.
"Did the headache get worse?" she asked Naomi.
"Yes, very intense for a moment there, but now it's better," Naomi explained.
They began to hear footsteps and T'Lana's pleading voice. "Mother, you must come. Naomi and Katrina have brought people to see you."
"Who could they have brought at this hour?" B'Elanna asked.
"Them," T'Lana said, pointing. B'Elanna looked, but found only Naomi and Katrina.
"Girls, this is not funny," she said sternly. T'Lana froze when she saw Naomi and Katrina standing alone. It took them long to realize, but when they did, they both began explaining in a panic, at the same time.
"One of you at a time. Now why did you drag me out of bed this early in the morning?"
"My Daddy was here but then he vanished."
"And he had a friend," T'Lana added.
"Tom," Naomi clarified.
"What?" B'Elanna asked, stopping her rage before it even began. "What did you say?"
"I said Tom was here, too."
Naomi had expected B'Elanna to get mad and throw something, or at least yell, but instead, she turned around and walked off. Naomi and Katrina couldn't tell why, but T'Lana could feel her mother's tears that were readying to fall.
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Chakotay and Tom found themselves still in the house, but the light was brighter. Chakotay would guess it was around mid-day. They looked around for Naomi and Katrina, but they had gone missing.
However, the did notice one little girl, staring at them. She looked terrified. Chakotay made one move to calm her when she screamed as loud as she could.
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"Why are we the ones always put in charge of the toddlers?" Katrina asked Naomi.
"Probably because they figure we have more energy because we're younger," she answered.
"Well, it's getting annoying," she said. "This is the eighth time this month one of them's escaped while the others gang up on us. We're only a pair of eleven and twelve years olds," Katrina dragged on. Naomi looked older, of course, closer to sixteen, but Katrina always said she looked her age: "Older than me," she would joke.
"There she is," Naomi said, spotting Claire. They knew the drill, Naomi goes in from front and Katrina the back, surrounding her. Then, seeing Naomi, Claire tries to run, as they always do, but ends up caught in Katrina's arms.
"Come on, let's go back to town," Katrina suggested, holding Claire securely in her arms.
"Sure-aghh!" Naomi reached for her head, feeling a horrible headache. She waited a few minutes and it left, but she had to stay sitting for a moment.
"Naomi, are you alright?" Katrina asked, worried.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She got up, just to prove it, then heard screaming.
"That's T'Lana," Katrina realized with horror. They both began to sprint toward T'Lana's house, Katrina not letting the extra weight of Claire slow her. They made it to her house and opened the door to find T'Lana with two men she had never seen before.
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B'Elanna heard her daughter's screams and knew her daughter needed her. She dropped the basket with the vegetables she had been picking and ran to her house. She grabbed a stick on her way. Getting to her house, she prepared to use the stick when she stopped, frozen in her tracks.
Dropping the stick, she walked in, straight to the two men. She touched the one with blond hair, then gave him a hug with tears of joy, holding on for far longer than necessary. "Tom, you're really here."
Then, turning to the second man, she smiled and gave him a quick hug, then punched his shoulder.
"What was that for?" he asked.
"That, Chakotay, was for not getting here sooner."
Katrina stared up at the man B'Elanna had called Chakotay and tears came to her eyes.
"Daddy?" she asked.
"Yeah, Pumpkin, it's me," he said, pulling her into a big hug.
"Oh, Daddy." She couldn't stop the tears of joy from rolling down her cheek. Naomi watched them. I wonder if it will be like that when I meet my father. She hoped it would be because seeing Katrina and her father was the most amazing thing she had ever seen.
After peeling her eyes away from watching Chakotay meet his daughter, B'Elanna focused her attention on soothing T'Lana.
"Sweetie, these are my friends. You don't have to fear them."
"I should have suppressed my emotions better, like Father taught me," she said, looking at her feet.
"You had every right to be frightened, seeing two strangers suddenly appear in your home. Do you understand that it's okay to be afraid?"
"Yes, Mother, but . . ." T'Lana stopped mid question, unsure if it was a proper thing to ask.
"What, sweetie?"
"How did they get here?"
To Be Continued . . .
What do you think? Comments are always welcome.