A/n: Some of my regular readers may notice that I've re-edited my songfics, "Shared Storms", "Evolution", "The River of Time" and "A Different Path". Nothing essential has changed, I've only taken out the song lyrics. Please review this chapter to cheer me up a bit; I'm sorry I haven't updated this in so long.
Chakotay stirred into wakefulness as he felt Seven's side of their bed sink slightly as she coaxed her heavy limbs back under the warm covers while occasionally mumbling soothing words to baby Taya. Slowly he turned over and rubbed small, tension relieving circles into her back as he whispered, "Aren't you going to try to regenerate again honey?"
"Not now." Seven replied sleepily as she relaxed into the caressing touch of his hand with a sigh, "The cycle has been interrupted so often the unit needs to be recalibrated…" She was interrupted by the patter of two sets of familiar three year old feet as they trod the well worn path from bedroom to bedroom.
"Here comes the stampede." Chakotay joked in a low voice as he reluctantly pushed his share of the duvet aside and swung his legs out of bed to the summoning call of childish fists on the door panel. "Sometimes I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to lock them in their bedroom at night." He chuckled wryly as he headed for the door.
Seven, who had also begun to rise but with the slowness of someone still shaking off the after affects of pregnancy, responded in the same tone, "Our children? They'd find a way around it."
Chakotay smiled at her fondly as he detected a hint of pride in their brood in her voice. "You stay in bed another half an hour or so and I'll attend to them." He suggested firmly, returning to her bedside to give her a peck on the cheek. When he saw that she was about to open her mouth to refuse, he added warmly, "I owe you on today of all days, right?"
Seven smiled at him gratefully and sank back against the pillows without further complaint, her eyes unconsciously shining with love as she whispered, "Happy Anniversary to you too."
Chakotay gave her hand one last affectionate squeeze before slipping unobtrusively into the hall, just managing to click the door shut before Michael collided with his legs. "Wakey, wakey Papa!" he announced gleefully before shooting him a pleading look, "I want my ships, can you get them?"
"And my ponies?" Aylen added hopefully with a tug at her father's sleeve.
Chakotay chuckled; they wanted him more to get boxes of toys from shelves than for his own sake! "Later…" He started to put them off but was distracted by the familiar thump of Max succeeding in his escape from his cot. Quickly, with practise honed reflexes, Chakotay snatched the little boy up just as the small little figure sped through the doorway. "No toys until you've eaten your breakfast, you know the rules." He addressed the three siblings firmly.
"But Papa…" They all piped up in a unified whine.
"No buts." He repeated, unmoved by their grimacing faces. "Especially since today is special…"
Those words, said in his most mysterious, beguiling tone, caught their interest as much as he'd known they would. "Today is special?" Aylen echoed excitedly before her gaze became suspicious, "Why Papa?"
"Kistmas again?" Max suggested, now bouncing with anticipation in Chakotay's arms.
"No, no, it's not Christmas again son." Chakotay said hurriedly, starting to wonder if he'd opened a can of worms here. "The three of you are going to help me make breakfast for Mama today." He finally told them as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"But…But…" Michael's brows furrowed incredulously, "Mama always makes breakfast, or the…" He paused, stumbling over the word, "…repcator make it." He stated unequivocally, obviously disturbed by this change to the natural order of things.
"Well today we're going to make it." Chakotay explained, not sure whether to laugh or feel exasperated as the three small faces continued to look seriously doubtful.
"But why?" Aylen pressed determinedly.
"Because it'll be fun." Chakotay answered lamely before bending down to their level. "You know how I'm going back to work tomorrow, right?" The children all nodded in reply. "That means you're all going to have to help Mama while I'm away, that starts today by doing this for her."
"I already brush Taya's hair." Aylen pointed out, proud of the task her mother had given her, despite the fact that Taya didn't exactly have the thick head of hair she did.
"And I play with her." Michael added in support before indicating Max, "Even Max hugs her."
"I know all that, and it's all good work." Chakotay assured them solemnly, trying his best not to smile. "But Mama is going to need all of you to be extra helpful for a while, okay?"
To his surprise, considering the level of explanation they'd needed so far, they all nodded in acquiescence, murmuring "okay" with differing degrees of cheerfulness as they trooped into the kitchen. As he was preparing utensils, Aylen surprised him again by asking out of the blue, "What else makes today special Papa?"
"Oh…I forgot about that for a minute honey." He laughed as he affectionately stroked her hair, "Today is special because your Mama and I got married four years ago today."
"That's a long time." Michael said with perfect seriousness as he clumsily arranged the spoons on the table for his and his siblings' cereal, just as his father had asked him to.
"I suppose it is." Chakotay agreed good-humouredly, four years was longer than the boy had been alive after all, even if it seemed to him to have passed in the blink of an eye. "What do you all think Mama would like us to make for her special breakfast then?" he asked.
"Pancakes!" Max offered with an eager clap of his hands, a suggestion that was immediately taken up by his brother and sister.
"Yeah, like Auntie Rini makes them!" Michael exclaimed in delight, he loved it whenever his great-aunt came to stay.
Ever her mother's daughter, Aylen added with a lick of her lips, "They need strawberries in them!"
Chakotay raised a hand to put a stop to their proclamations. "Okay, we'll give it a try, but I'm not guaranteeing they'll be anything like your Aunt Irene's!"
They weren't, no matter how hard the three little children and their fully grown father tried. Chakotay had, rather naively, assumed that even with his children's well-intentioned attempts to "help" with the cooking, that he'd be able to do the recipe justice. After all, he'd grown up on a planet where replicators were forbidden, and he'd lived as a self-sufficient bachelor for long enough to be quite certain in his culinary abilities, but as he looked down at the whitish, strawberry speckled gloop that sloshed around in the pan without taking on a recognisably pancake shape, all of that certainty drained out of him. The final nail in the coffin of their attempts was when Michael climbed up on a chair to survey the situation and bluntly pronounced, "We need the repcator."
"I think you're on to something there." Chakotay replied as he resignedly emptied the mixture into the waste bin.
When Chakotay finally trod his way quietly back up to the master bedroom, carrying a tray stacked with steaming, and fully replicated, strawberry pancakes, Seven was sound asleep, curled under the duvet like a cat, with one hand resting protectively on Taya's bassinet. Slowly he sat down on the edge of the bed, placing the tray beside him while he waited for her to stir. His eyes lingered on their eight week old baby, also contentedly sleeping, the few fluffy strands of blonde hair her sister was so proud of brushing blowing ever so slightly in response to her sleeping sighs. Seven maintained that it was unlikely their youngest daughter would remain golden haired, given her father's Native American heritage it would probably darken, but privately Chakotay hoped she would keep that resemblance to her mother as much as her dark eyes reminded him of his own mother. It would be hard on Seven when he went back to work, he knew that, however much she denied it and reminded him it was only part time. If truth be told he hadn't really wanted to go back quite yet, but after taking the leave of absence needed to take his Starfleet post during the war and then paternity leave after that, they were entitled to want him back, especially since it was final exam season for his Anthropology students.
Seven shifted into wakefulness, pushing his thoughts aside as she sat up stiffly, "Chakotay? What are you doing?"
He quickly lowered the tray into her lap before she could protest. "Bringing you breakfast in bed as an anniversary present." He answered warmly, "The kids insisted on pancakes, but the homemade version didn't work out too well, so we had to settle on replicated."
Seven's gaze moved from the tray up to his familiar face then back again. "I…" She started, and then stopped. It had been a long time since she'd been struck speechless by his spontaneous gestures of affection. At one point, early in their relationship, they'd even made her anxious. She'd no idea how to respond in a way adequate to her feelings and had feared he'd be hurt by her awkwardness. Thankfully, he'd always seemed to understand that she hadn't had much opportunity to respond to affection in her previous life. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she thought of all the chaos he must've had to tolerate with three children in the kitchen and smiled, "I believe the human saying goes that "it is the thought that counts"." She assured him softly as she kissed him.
"That's right." He agreed warmly.
"I'll just need to teach them how to make them for you next year." She added as she took her first bite. "You always attend to me on our anniversary, it's yours too…" She trailed off as he met her eye. They both knew the reason why he fussed over her on this day every year, mostly because her birthday was avoided. It wasn't, Seven flattered herself, because she was peculiarly vain about her age, but because of her first birthday on Earth. On that day Chakotay had tried to make her feel special but she'd just felt worse. Finally she'd admitted to him that because her birthday invoked memories of her assimilation, celebrating it unsettled her. Since then, Chakotay had singled out their anniversary as a more appropriate day, and as always she was glad of his understanding.
"I know." He answered simply, "It's our day." Seven responded to that by forgetting her breakfast in order to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him until they were both breathless.
A/n: I don't think there's anything like fluff to remove writers' block, I hope you liked it too, PLEASE REVIEW! :D Hopefully I won't be disrupted again by power cuts, as I was yesterday, and I'll be able finish "Fragments" tomorrow.