A/n: You're lucky that my life is boring and I have nothing better to do than post new chapters. Please review!

Chakotay came home that night to a house so silent that it made him uneasy. "Seven?" he called, but the only reply he got was the echo of his own voice. Surely she hadn't worked overtime again, not after last night's argument? Deciding to call the Observatory just to check he went to the phone and called Seven's boss, who answered almost immediately. "Hello? Oh hi Chakotay, what can I do for you? Seven feeling any better?"

This threw Chakotay off, "I…I don't know, I was calling to see if she was still there…"

"She's definitely not here, I sent her home over two hours ago because she didn't look well…she's really not with you?"

Chakotay tried to hide his anxiety from the man. "It's okay; I probably just haven't looked in the right places…"

"Okay, when you find her tell her not to worry about coming in tomorrow."

"I will thanks, bye." He quickly cut off the conversation, before noticing the phone had a message on it, maybe it was from Seven. He activated the message but quickly realised it was not from Seven. He watched it with a sinking indignant heart, how could someone be so callous as to bring up wills and declaring people dead in a phone message? He hoped to God that Seven hadn't seen this, for he knew it would shatter the fragile truce she had with her memories of her parents. All he knew was that if he found Seven curled up crying somewhere he would hunt that lawyer down and give him a piece of his mind. Desperately hoping that she would just be regenerating he made his way up to their room but found it empty. Glancing around, he saw the photographs and picked them up. He had never seen these…she must have seen the lawyer's message… His thoughts were cut off when he looked through the bathroom door and saw Seven lying lifeless on the floor.

Dropping what he was holding he ran in, what he saw before him horrified him. Her face was pallid and bloodless, very visible implant sparked with sinister electrical surges and her gold hair was stained with crimson blood which was rapidly oozing out over the floor. "Oh my God, Seven!" He choked out, having enough presence of mind to check for a pulse, almost sobbing in relief when he felt it faint though it was. He tried to lift her head, feeling the blood on this hand, "Seven, Seven…talk to me…" he pleaded pointlessly only now dimly realising that she must have cracked her head on the tiles when she fell for whatever reason. The emergency medical beacon! Why hadn't he thought of that before? Leaving her there, he began to rummage through the bedroom drawers, unable to remember where she had put it or even what it looked like. Finally his hand found it in the top drawer of her bedside table. He hurriedly clipped it on to his wife's motionless body and activated it watching as she was immediately beamed away.

As shock began to grip him he sat staring at the bloody patch on the floor. Why couldn't they have transported him too? This thought pushed him into action and he was being transported to Starfleet Medical from Flagstaff's transporter station before he remembered that he probably hadn't been in a fit state to drive there from home, oh well he hadn't crashed. As he ran past the hospital's reception desk he was stopped by security. "What are you doing?"

"Finding my wife!"

"Check in at reception."

"Listen, I've just had to get my pregnant wife transported here from home, I need to see her!"

"Check in at reception and they'll tell you where to go…"

Chakotay ignored him and just than the well known route to the Doctor's offices, finding him bent over Seven's unconscious body lying on a biobed. "Doctor!"

The Doctor turned to him with a strained expression. "Oh good, you're here."

"I would've got here quicker if you'd have transported me with her! Is…is she alive…"

"Yes, I've stabilised her…"

"What about the babies?" Chakotay asked, feeling sick to the stomach.

The Doctor smiled at him reassuringly. "They're fine; her body seems to prioritise them over her at the moment. From what I can tell her implants began to destabilise and caused her to faint, she had a severe concussion but I've healed that…"

"So she's fine now?" Chakotay had never felt so relieved.

"I wouldn't say that…if pregnancy's making her implants destabilise this early into it, she's going to have to be on bed rest until she delivers."

"She's not due for another twenty weeks!"

"I know…I know. Do you want to break it to her or shall I?"

"I will." He said shakily and the Doctor roused Seven out of unconsciousness. After several seconds her eyes fluttered open and she looked around the room in panic.

"Where I am?" She took one look at her white faced, shaking husband and feared the worse. "They're dead…I…killed them…"

Chakotay took her one of her hands in his and stroked her face with the other. "No…no…they're fine, don't worry. You're in the hospital because I found you passed out on the bathroom floor…"

Seven interrupted him. "My implants destabilised?"

"Yes. How did you know?" asked the Doctor curiously.

"I felt unwell so I went to the bathroom and when I looked in the mirror I saw my implants surging, that's the last thing I remember."

The Doctor processed this information for a moment and Chakotay gently broke the news he knew would upset his almost unnaturally active wife. "My love, the Doctor said the only way to stop this happening again is bed rest…"

Seven inhaled sharply though she had been preparing herself and stared at the Doctor. "For how long?"

The Doctor sighed. "For the duration of the pregnancy."

"I'm incapable of carrying them to full term aren't I?" She finally forced herself to ask.

"Perhaps not incapable…but I'd induce you if you got as far as thirty seven weeks, that's considered full term for twins anyway. To get that far you'll need to be on the strictest bed rest, no getting up except to bathe and regenerate is that understood? If this happens again you'll need to remain in hospital, but for now you can go home tomorrow."

Seven gulped, imagining the next seventeen weeks confined within her bedroom's four walls, unable to do anything productive. "I will do whatever is necessary for my children's' health Doctor." She stated with more certainty and bravery than she felt.

The Doctor left after giving Seven her nightly dose of the anti assimilation drug she had been taking and arranging a fold out bed in the room for Chakotay next to Seven. A period of silence elapsed between them before either of them could find anything to say. "I apologise in advance for my irritability I know you will have to tolerate for the duration of my bed rest." Seven told Chakotay.

Chakotay laughed jerkily, still not over the serious fright he had received. "I'll live with it…they'll be worth all this in the end."

Seven looked over at him, he still looked terrible. "You were anxious for me…you are suffering from shock…"

Chakotay gripped her hand tightly. "I think that was the worst fright I've ever had…" he allowed everything else to go unspoken as she kissed him gently to soothe him and then sighed.

"I hope our daughter has easy pregnancies when she has children."

"And I hope our son never has to watch his wife suffer like this…hey isn't it a bit early to be thinking about grandchildren?"

"The time will come." Seven said thoughtfully, allowing Chakotay to kiss her again.

After one night in hospital Seven was confined to her room at home and just as she had anticipated she was finding it extremely difficult. Against her protestations Chakotay had hired a maid to clean the house and keep an eye on Seven, the only reason she tolerated this intrusion as she saw it was to calm Chakotay strained nerves, for she knew finding her in that state had severely traumatised him. She often felt that she was trapped in paralysis while the world moved on around her, Harry Kim got engaged half way through her twenty second week and Naomi's highly anticipated little brother christened David Wildman was born on the 30th of September, just as she was celebrating the beginning of her twenty fifth week. It wasn't that she lacked visitors, B'Elanna and Tom frequently came together and separately, Icheb came every day he could spare. Aunt Irene often "popped in" as she called it and even Admiral Janeway and Tuvok came frequently.

Waking from another unduly prolonged nap, Seven glanced at the calendar on the wall which counted down to her inducement date on the 23rd of December. 15th of October, nine weeks and six days to go. She took an unreasonable level of joy in the fact that the wait in weeks was now down to single figures. She changed her position slightly and turned her head to the door to see Naomi bounce in shortly before her mother carrying the new baby and Seven's Aunt Irene. "Hello Seven! How are you? I'm tired; Davy's been keeping me up so I moved to the downstairs bedroom."

"I am fine Naomi." Seven said with a rare smile, enjoying Naomi's exuberance.

Samantha Wildman's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me Naomi? You're tired? What about me and your father?"

Naomi looked over at her mother contritely. "Sorry Mom, I didn't mean it like that, I was just talking to Seven."

Irene walked over to Seven. "How are you feeling today Annika?"

Seven shouldn't stop from sighing slightly. "My situation remains unchanged."

Samantha looked at her sympathetically as she sat down with the baby, "I know, I thought being a week late was bad but I'm relieved I never needed bed rest with either of them."

"Erin, Annika's mother, was put on bed rest too; I thought Magnus was going to lose his mind with the waiting." Irene smiled sadly at the memory.

They all fell quiet for a moment before Samantha spoke again, "I heard the Doctor was going to induce you Seven, have you got a date yet?"

"Yes, the 23rd of December."

Naomi's eyes lit up. "Ohh, that's only two days before Christmas! You could give them Christmassy names!"

"Naomi, don't be so nosy!" her mother reprimanded.

"I will take your idea into consideration Naomi; we have yet to select names."

"It's a nightmare, David was nameless for two whole days while we bickered over it!" laughed Samantha.

"Annika's name was a very contentious subject at the time. I think they finally decided to name her Annika after my mother if she was a girl and Erin's father's name if it was a boy."

"What would Seven have been called if she'd have been a boy?" asked Naomi in curiosity.

"Michael." Replied Irene, before noticing that Seven looked upset. "Are you tired, dear?"

Seven nodded mutely and Samantha ushered Naomi out after she had given Seven a hug. Irene hung back and took Seven's hand. "I'm sorry if I upset you talking about your parents like that dear."

Seven swallowed hard, "No…no, it doesn't Aunt Irene. I should hear these things."

"Okay." Irene remained unconvinced but let it go. "I'll come back in a couple of days."

"Please do." Seven replied softly.

Chakotay returned late that night and immediately went to see Seven, slightly disturbed to see her staring blankly at the wall. As had become his habit he lay down facing her and stroked her face affectionately. "How are you?"

"Fine." She responded in a non committal listless tone. "How was work?"

"Busy. Anyone come to see you today?"

"Samantha, Naomi and David Wildman and Aunt Irene."

"All at the same time?" She nodded. "They have any name suggestions for us?"

"Naomi thinks we should have a Christmas theme."

"She's about the tenth person to suggest that…any others?"

Seven bit her lip, "It's sentimental…"

"Seven, if we're allowed to be sentimental about anything it's our children's names. What is it?"

"Michael."

Chakotay smiled for it was the first time Seven had suggested something and he liked the name. "Michael, I like that. Why is it sentimental?"

"My Aunt Irene told me it was my maternal grandfather's name."

"That's great!" he paused when he saw tears slide down Seven's face. "Hey…what's wrong?"

Seven looked at him for a moment, seeking comfort. "I was thinking how wrong it was not to forgive them…"

"Forgive who?"

"My…parents. If our children had been born on Voyager they would have been in danger of death or assimilation just as I was on the Raven…it wasn't their fault, not really. I know that they loved me just as much as we love the twins…"

Chakotay hugged her close. "You're right about that they did love you…your anger was understandable…but if our children can help you let go of that and grieve for them properly then that can only be a good thing…"

"I don't want to declare them dead…" she mumbled tearfully into his shirt.

"Oh sweetheart, you don't have to. Don't worry."

After holding her until her sobs quietened Chakotay made a hesitant suggestion. "You know what; I think it would be nice for the babies to have your parents' names as middle names."

Seven looked into his face and saw nothing but sincerity and love there. "I'd like that…but it's not very fair, what about your family?"

"Well they'll have my father's surname and he never liked his given name much anyway…"

"What about your mother's name?"

"Aylen?" asked Chakotay in surprise.

"Yes. What does it mean?"

"It means both "clear" and "happiness" in my language."

Seven smiled in satisfaction. "Perfect."

He kissed her lovingly and leaned over to talk to her stomach. "So, Michael Magnus and Aylen Erin, you stop making life difficult for your mother and I'll give you a toy when you come out of there, okay?"

Seven giggled and pushed him away, "I highly doubt that will work!"

"It's worth a shot!" He retorted laughingly.

A/n: I hope you don't hate the names; Aylen is a real Native American name according to the site I used. Thanks to SweetDeath04 and EMcKinney for the supportive reviews, MidnightVampireCharlotte for suggesting the name Michael (hope you're pleased I used it!) and DestinChild for approving of the name Aylen and for suggesting incorporating Seven's parents names. Rono777, thanks for the laugh but I won't be using the names 8 of 9 and 9 of 9 unless I write a parody!

My loyal reviewer DestinChild has published a new story called Endgame Rewrite, I really like it because it's pro C/7, I hope she doesn't mind me plugging it but I feel it's my duty to support other pro C/7 writers.