Two
He couldn't remember the last time he had gone to sleep without the stars glimmering directly above him. It must be years. Chakotay lay on his bed in the chamber the Ellenial had given him, staring at the blank ceiling of his perfectly comfortable room and willing his mind to let him sleep. He'd already cycled through the meditation techniques that would usually send him into a restful night, but for some reason this time nothing seemed to work. He was resolutely awake. Tiresomely so. Tonight he'd even left the sliding doors to his balcony open, hoping that the sound of the waves from the ocean below the cliff edge on which this city was built would lull him to sleep, but to no avail.
With a sigh, Chakotay pushed himself up, shifting his pillows so that he could lean against the wall behind him. Then he reached for the PADD he'd put down just half an hour before, following his last attempt to sleep. If he was going to be awake, he may as well read.
The PADD beeped as he picked it up. He looked at the screen, which flashed with the announcement that a subspace call from Voyager was awaiting his attention. Chakotay frowned to himself.
"Chakotay here," he said aloud, activating the line. There was a second's pause, as if the caller had not been expecting so swift an answer.
"Commander." The gravel of Janeway's voice was not diminished by its passage through subspace. "Did I wake you?"
"No, Captain."
"Pity," she said, drily. "I was rather hoping for payback."
Chakotay felt a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I'm sorry to disappoint. Though not sure what sort of a prize it would have been," he observed, "given that you're clearly awake too."
He heard her sigh across the light years. "Sometimes, Commander Chakotay," she said, "you are entirely too clever for your own good. Or mine."
"Sorry, Captain," he said, without a single note of apology in his voice. "Was there something you needed help with?"
There was another pause. For a moment it felt as if she was hesitating, trying to come up with an answer to his question. Chakotay shifted against his pillows. It crossed his mind to wonder where Janeway herself was sitting. At her desk, presumably. She was probably still in uniform, despite the hour. Although she'd opted for audio only again, which would perhaps suggest… He frowned. "Captain?"
"What's that noise?" she asked. "I can hear something – is it in the background or is that feedback? Could there be an issue with Voyager's communications grid? Listen."
She fell silent again, and Chakotay listened, but could detect nothing. "I can't hear anything, Captain," he said, after a moment.
"Perhaps it's just on my end," she said. "It almost sounds like the rush of air – or water, maybe."
Realisation dawned as Chakotay turned towards his open balcony doors. "Ah," he said. "It's water, Captain. That's what you can hear. It's the ocean. Sorry – after three days here I've got so used to the sound I don't notice it."
"The ocean?" Janeway repeated. "Your quarters there overlook it?"
Chakotay swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up, heading for the open doors. "They do," he told her, as he walked barefoot onto the balcony.
Janeway was silent for a moment, and he could almost imagine her, leaning back in her chair, her head tipped back and her eyes shut, listening to the sound of a distant sea.
"I love that sound," she said, after a moment.
Chakotay smiled, looking down at the white-tipped waves crashing against the cliff below. "It's a little rougher down there than the last time we were on a boat together."
Her laugh stumbled out like pebbles tumbling on the shore. It had been a while since he'd heard it. "Ah, but the holodeck never could compare, could it?" she said, and then added, "Well, Commander – if I didn't envy you being planetside before, I do now. I didn't realise I was sending you to a luxury resort for this assignment."
"We're working hard, I can assure you, Captain. And making good progress, too."
"Oh, I don't doubt it, Chakotay. But still…" the Captain sighed and fell quiet. He leaned against the balcony, holding the PADD and letting her listen to the crash of the waves below. Chakotay saw her in his mind's eye, again with her eyes shut, because despite the distances that were between them now, and in more ways than one, he knew that this is how she would be at this moment. He looked down at the waves and wondered when the last time had been that he'd contemplated the idea of Kathryn Janeway as anything but bolt upright, wide awake and uniformed from ankle to neck. The night breeze brushed against the skin of his arms and chest, because he was wearing only sweat pants and just for a moment, for the first time in a long while, he contemplated the idea of her standing there beside him, instead of light years away.
"I should let you get to bed, Commander," Janeway said quietly, after a while. "It's extremely late."
"Or extremely early," he said. "Depending on how you want to look at it."
She laughed again. "Do you think you'll sleep?"
Chakotay considered and was surprised by the drowsiness that had settled over him. "I think so. You?"
"Yes," she said. "I think so, too."
"Goodnight, Captain."
"Goodnight. Chakotay?"
"Captain?"
"I'll talk to you tomorrow."
He smiled down at the waves, still rolling endlessly on their endless journey below him. "Yes, Captain."
It wasn't until after they had closed the line that Chakotay realised that she hadn't actually asked him anything of significance at all.
[TBC]
