A/n: Bajoran names are written surname first in case anyone's confused. Enjoy the chapter!
Michael tugged his mother's skirt until her gaze moved down to him. "Yes baby?" Seven asked as she shifted Max's weight from one shoulder to the other.
"Look Mama!" he exclaimed excitedly before pulling his cone shaped party cone from his head to over his nose, though it was large enough to cover his mouth and therefore muffle his voice as he made his point, "I Pinocchio!"
Aylen heard this and lifted her head from her new picture book with a slight roll of her blue eyes. "Pinocchio not real."
"Is!" Michael exclaimed hotly, stamping up to his sister with a challenging look in his eyes.
"Not, not, not!" Aylen chanted, now discarding her book for the more enjoyable activity of winding up her brother.
Michael looked about to physically retort when a quick thinking Chakotay scooped him up and tickled him. "What's made your nose grow? A lie?" he teased.
Michael frowned for a second, not wanting to admit to such an offense. "No…a hat." He flung the party hat from his face and onto the floor. "Gone now." He stated as a jealous Aylen wrapped her short arms round Chakotay's legs, almost making him fall over.
With a laugh he glanced at Seven who had been watching the whole scene in amusement. "Tell everyone not to get them chocolate next year, we know for sure now it makes them hyperactive."
"That would eliminate the challenge…" Seven began but was interrupted by the ringing phone. Smiling at Chakotay's tangled predicament she said, "I'll get it."
Going through to the other room she sat down to look at the screen, answering it while trying to stop an overexcited Max from scrambling off her lap, a soft laugh came from the caller, "Hello Seven, are you preoccupied?"
"Icheb!" she exclaimed in surprise. "I thought you were on a research mission on Bajor with no comm. links."
"It ended early, I returned to Deep Space Nine this morning. Are Aylen and Michael enjoying their birthdays?" He smiled at Max who was stubbornly reaching out at the screen. "Hi Max and how are you today?" he asked indulgently.
The baby gurgled at him cheerfully and Seven kissed him affectionately before turning round in her chair, "Aylen, Michael! Icheb wants to speak to you." The effect was immediate. Both twins came bounding in, far ahead of their bedraggled father. Aylen immediately grabbed the edge of the desk in order to pull herself in view of the phone while Michael went a step further and tried to share his mother's lap with Max, causing the baby to start crying. "Careful Michael." Seven reprimanded. "Apologise to Max please."
Michael gave his little brother a gentle pat on the head. "Sorry Max." he said quickly before turning his attention back to Icheb, waving wildly at the screen. "Hello Icheb!"
"Hello Michael, Hello Aylen. How was your second birthday?" He smiled at the toddlers, who both beamed back.
"Good!" Aylen said before running her presents off on her small fingers. "I got books…a teddy…playdoh… "
Michael interrupted. "And I got cars…and ships and…"
"Your presents from me should arrive soon…" Icheb told them, stopping their obvious competitiveness before an argument brewed.
Aylen looked at him hopefully. "You come back?"
"No Aylen…I couldn't get leave, I'm sorry but if your mother agrees I'll come back for Christmas okay?"
Aylen, hands on hips, looked to her mother. "Mama, when Christmas?" she demanded.
Chakotay knelt down before her. "Don't be thinking of Christmas right now honey. Your birthday isn't even over yet…" She looked crestfallen but all he did was take both her and Michael by the hand. "Come with me and let Mama have a talk with Icheb okay?"
Seven smiled gratefully at her husband as he led their children away and she turned back to Icheb. "Can you really come back for Christmas?"
"Yes, I managed to arrange it, if you will allow me to stay with you of course…"
"You may stay here whenever you wish." She said firmly but noticed that he looked a little awkward. "There's something else?" she probed.
"Yes…someone else to be precise." He stuttered slightly. "She's my colleague…my friend. I was wondering if she could come too. I've known her since the Academy and we've both been posted here…"
"You'd like me to meet your romantic interest?" asked Seven bluntly, though with a slight twitch of her lips as she remembered Icheb's intervention with herself and Chakotay.
He didn't deny it. "Her name is Vitarri Naira."
Seven felt her eyebrows rise as she registered her name. "Bajoran?"
"Yes, from the Dakur province. She was one of the first Starfleet recruits when Bajor joined the Federation. "I've told her about you, she really wants to meet you and other members of the Voyager crew."
"I'm afraid it may only be the seven of us for Christmas dinner. The Kims are going to Debbie's family this year, the Wildmans will still be on Ktaria and Tom and B'Elanna are having the Admiral at their house…"
Icheb interrupted her anxiously. "And how is the Admiral?"
"Coping admirably, considering. She's out of hospital now."
A dark, angered frown crossed his features and lingered even as he murmured, "That's good news."
Seven was disturbed by the expression on his normally calm, gentle face. She had worried for a while that he wasn't dealing with the Admiral's illness as well as she'd hoped but then he knew as much of the Notsinians and their dangers as much as she…Hopefully meeting the Admiral, he hadn't been able to return since her diagnosis, would settle the inner turmoil she sensed. "It is." She said quietly. "I'm looking forward to meeting Miss Vitarri Icheb; she is welcome to come with you."
His face brightened considerably. "I'll contact you again soon."
"I look forward to it." She replied before the phone clicked off and she lay back in the chair with a sigh, pulling Max closer as she heard Chakotay walk in.
"That's the twins down for their nap." He read her strained expression and touched her shoulder. "Hey, what's up? Icheb not able to come after all?"
"Oh he's coming, his girlfriend too."
"Girlfriend?" Chakotay smiled. "Well I suppose he's almost twenty one now. Don't let that bother you, Icheb has good taste, I'm sure…"
"You misunderstand. It is perfectly reasonable for him to have a girlfriend. The problem is he's unsettled by something and hiding it…"
"Well, he's entitled to be anxious. You have been too and don't deny it. This whole thing with the Admiral has upset us all. Listen I'm sure that if he wants to say something he'll tell you when he comes, until then try not to fret over it okay sweetheart?"
"I will make an attempt." She conceded before standing up and kissing him. "For now I have to try and find a recipe for hasperat."
Christmas Eve dawned clear and bright but by the evening Seven was struggling to maintain any brightness in her demeanour. The twins were overexcited and Max was clingy and tired, in hindsight it hadn't been a good idea to begin to wean him in December, the process had been prolonged and exhausting, Seven was almost as irritated as the baby as she assessed the decorations for the eighth time. Maybe everything was a little over exuberant, it wasn't as if the Bajoran had any idea about Christmas, perhaps it would prove overwhelming… Just then she heard the doorbell and Chakotay's greeting as he answered. Turning on her heel she went with slow apprehension to the door seeing Icheb and a petite young Bajoran woman with shoulder length chestnut hair and large green eyes who smiled at her nervously. "I'm glad to see you Icheb. Welcome Ensign Vittari."
"Thank you ma'am. Call me Naira please."
Seven nodded. "I'm Seven of Nine, you may call me Seven. Come, I've made hasperat for you." Chakotay shot her a reassuring smile as Seven headed for the living room. Icheb made to follow her but she stopped him. "You're both staying in the guest room, perhaps you could take the cases up?"
"Of course." He replied, gathering up the two cases and heading upstairs, dodging the twins the whole way.
Soon they were all settled in the living room, Naira with Aylen in her lap and Icheb with Michael. Aylen was fascinated by Naira's elaborate earring and made a grab for it exclaiming, "Pretty!"
"Aylen!" Chakotay said in warning but Naira just laughed.
"Don't worry about it; I've got four little brothers and sisters." Seven just then came in with the hasperat and Naira immediately took a piece. "Oh my!" she exclaimed. "This is homemade, thank you! I know it takes hours, even on Bajor replicated is prevalent now."
"I enjoy cooking." Seven replied as she sat down beside Chakotay who started conversation again.
"So, you're both studying the wormhole at the moment?" he asked as he sipped some wine.
"The Celestial Temple? Yes, until next year." Naira replied.
"Any plans after that?"
"Well, we both managed to get a place on Admiral Grant's Gamma Quadrant taskforce, it leaves next June but I'm sure Icheb's told you both all about that…" Naira trailed off as she read her hosts' shocked expressions and Icheb's shamed face. She turned to him angrily, "For the love of the Prophets Icheb! You told me you'd tell them before we came…"
Seven rose abruptly, her face stony. "Come with me Icheb." She ordered icily. He followed her wordlessly into the kitchen where she went to the sink, keeping her face away from him. "Admiral Grant's taskforce?" she asked in a frighteningly steady tone.
"Yes, to find the Notsinians." He confirmed in the same tone.
"You know as well as I do how likely that is to prove futile!" She whirled round to face him. "Why are you even considering going?"
"They are a threat to the Federation, as a Starfleet officer it is my duty to help protect it. My Borg knowledge can predict…"
"There are constant threats to the Federation. That doesn't mean you should go attacking blindly!"
"After what they did to the Admiral it's more dangerous to leave things as they are…"
Seven's voice cracked. "Do you want to end up like her? You know what happened when the Collective underestimated Species 8472…"
"It won't be like that. Only we have any idea, that's why I have to go! I understand why you and most of the Voyager crew cannot go, you all have young families. I am unburdened in that respect…"
"You have family here!" she retorted, feeling tears form at the edges of her eyes.
Icheb's face softened for a moment. "I know that Seven. That's what I'm protecting. Please understand that I am going.
Seven let her head drop as he turned from her, fighting back tears and anxious nausea. As he reached the door she managed to look him in the face as she croaked out, "Make your survival your first priority."
His lips twisted sadly. "Understood." He murmured as he left the room.
A/n: Please review!