Chakotay pressed his face into his shaking clammy hands, trying desperately to control the spasms of fear which continually gripped him as he sat in the stark, cold atmosphere of the hospital waiting room. Every so often he dimly registered the anxious flurries of the nurses and doctors as they moved between patients, their medical jargon going straight over his bowed head. More painfully there were the other families, full of anxious anticipation as they awaited the birth of their new family members; every time an ecstatic father appeared waving a camera Chakotay felt the knife of fear and pre-emptive grief twist within him.
Suddenly he felt a light gentle touch on his shoulder and he reluctantly lifted his heavy lidded eyes to meet the kindly ones of the nurse standing in front of him. "Mr Kotay?" she asked politely.
"Yes…how's my wife?" he asked in croaked urgency.
Her eyes clouded in sympathy. "Your wife isn't my patient sir, your children are, I came from the NICU to tell you that they're stable now and you can come and see them if you'd like."
A huge breathless sigh of relief left him along with a murmured "Thank God." He had to swallow back the emotions which overwhelmed him in order to speak. "Can I really see them?" he whispered.
She gave him a small smile, "Of course you can, come with me." She turned down the hall and he rose to follow, looking back regretfully at the door to Seven's room as he did so. The nurse led him purposely down the hall and towards a large set of doors. "Now I have to warn you that it's going to be a shock seeing them, they're hooked up to a lot of machines but they're getting the best of care…"
Chakotay nodded dumbly, not fully able to take in what she was telling him and although he tried to brace himself it was pointless. The room was white and sterile, filled with beeping machines which sounded sinister to Chakotay, white faced parents and silent babies. He felt himself start to tense up even more in this environment, part of him just wanting to get out but the nurse put a comforting hand on his arm as she called out to another nurse, "Where did they put the new set of twins Angela?"
"The boy/girl pair from two hours ago?" Chakotay flinched, not hearing the rest of the conversation as he took in this information. Had it really only been two hours? It felt like a lifetime had already passed. The next thing he was aware of was the nurse guiding him up to two incubators standing side by side with a chair beside each of them.
"Here they are." The nurse told him gently. Chakotay failed to hold back a horrified gasp, this couldn't be them, encased within incubators, tiny, covered in a myriad of wires and yet he knew that they were, overwhelming love mingled with pain entered his soul. "What are their names?" asked the nurse, well practiced in dealing with shocked parents.
"Aylen and Michael." He replied, his eyes constantly flickering between the two.
"Those are beautiful names. Right now they're both being helped to breathe and eat, that's what all the tubes are for and the incubators are keeping them nice and warm."
Chakotay slowly accepted that information and more, hearing that Michael was slightly heavier that his sister although he couldn't the difference and having every machine and every test that had done patiently explained to him but nothing relieved him until the nurse said, "You can touch them if you'd like, all babies enjoy that." Chakotay nodded eagerly and he was shown how to put his hand in and where the alarm was before being left alone with his new children.
He couldn't decide which one to go to before finally settling for Michael because he was closer. With fearful caution he put his hand in, frightened to touch him. Michael solved his father's problem by kicking out one of his thin little legs and Chakotay stroked it gently. "So you were the one doing all the kicking were you? Are you thinking what games you're going to play when you get out of there? I can already tell you're going to run circles around us, well maybe not your mother but me anyway…" He swallowed a lump that formed in his throat as he thought of Seven but pushed it to the back of his mind. "I'm going to go see your sister okay?" he murmured, leaving his son and going to his daughter. Aylen was worryingly still even when he touched her. "Come on baby…you've already given me a fright today…" he whispered, stroking her tiny cheek with his knuckle. This provoked a reaction, her eyes blinking open to look at her father, revealing them to be a miniature version of her mother's, a pale bright blue. "Oh my angel…you're like your mother already…" he whispered lovingly as he pulled back to sit between the two incubators, taking in every detail he could about both of them.
"Chakotay?"
The Doctor's voice brought Chakotay out of his reverie, "Doctor! What happened with Seven?"
The Doctor smiled at him, "Recovering now, thank goodness. I managed to stop the bleeding but she'll need a lot of supervision, she's not going to be out of here for a while…"
"Can I see her?" Chakotay interrupted.
"Yes…but I need to talk with you about the babies…"
Chakotay felt fear punch him in the gut. "About what? What's wrong with them?" he almost shouted.
The Doctor took this assault calmly, "They're doing well, for babies born this early, no brain bleeds or anything like that, just the normal signs of prematurity…but scans have shown they have…inherited Seven's nanoprobes…"
"What?" choked Chakotay fearfully.
"Try not to jump to conclusions, the drug I gave Seven seems to have worked, they're not having an adverse effect…in fact they may be strengthening the babies' immune systems…"
"Wait, are you saying the nanoprobes are helping them?" asked Chakotay incredulously.
"At the moment the evidence seems to point in that direction."
"Seven won't agree with you!"
The Doctor sighed, "I know, I'm telling you because one of you needs to know but I won't have Seven upset anymore than is made inevitable by the separation. We can tell her once she's fit enough to see for herself that they're safe okay?"
Chakotay didn't like the idea of keeping such information from Seven but he knew that the Doctor was right in saying that such knowledge would damage Seven's fragile health. "I'll go and see her."
The Doctor entered the room first, bringing Seven round as Chakotay sat down beside the bed. Seven's eyelashes fluttered open and for several moments she remained silent as confusion reigned in her brain before her eyes focused on Chakotay. "Chakotay…"
"Hi, my love…" His voice didn't sound normal, his face was pale and his eyes were red rimmed.
As her memory returned she gasped in horror and tried to sit up, every nerve in her body screaming in pain before Chakotay jumped up and held her down. "My children…they can't be dead…" she moaned weakly.
"They're not dead Seven…" said Chakotay as soothingly as he could.
"But…but you've been crying and they're not here…" she choked, on the brink of tears.
"They're not here because they need special care…I've been crying because this is the most emotional day I've ever had…"
His explanation didn't sink in, "Are you sure they're alive?"
"Of course I'm sure I've seen them. You did so well…they're perfect honey…" he told her, his voice filled with emotion.
"I didn't damage them?"
"No!"
"They don't look like me?" she whispered, her voice wavering.
"Of course they do, you're their mother." Said Chakotay earnestly.
That wasn't what Seven had wanted to hear, "No…don't say that…I don't want them to look like Borg…"
Chakotay stared at her, "What do you mean Seven? They're not Borg!"
"But…you said they looked like me…I'm sorry…"
Understanding sunk into Chakotay, "How can you say sorry? Oh Seven, you're not worried about implants are you?" The look on her face answered affirmative. "That's not what I meant! Even if they did have implants it wouldn't matter!" He moved until he could hold as much of her shaking body as he could and looked in her face. "Listen to me, they're perfect, I can't imagine better."
Seven saw love and sincerity shining through his eyes and began to cry in relief. "Of course they're perfect, they're yours."
A/n: Please review, I'm not sure how I've done with this chapter. The next one will be better I promise.
I've finished "Eternity" and "Frozen" and have also begun a new story called "Disunity", please read and review. I'll update this again tomorrow and "Lost and Found" at the weekend.