I'm sorry for the delay. Things have been so hectic! The only reason I found time to write again this soon is because one of my kids is sick and asleep. I'm writing in between bouts of cleaning up vomit. :(
That being said, I really appreciate the interest, the follows and the reviews. Nothing motivates you to write more than an audience wanting to take the journey to the end of the story with you!
So please enjoy, and review.
"Wow," said B'lanna, putting her hand over Kathryn's to keep her from changing the holo-image before she was ready. "That looks so romantic!"
Kathryn chuckled nervously.
"Well I don't know about romantic B'lanna," she lied easily. "It's certainly glamorous though. Now that I'm an adult I know better, but when Phoebe and I were children we used to watch the lights from the outside and dream about the fantastic parties and costumes people who stayed there must wear."
"So where are you and Chakotay staying at?" B'lanna asked, thumbing through the gallery again. Kathryn had been eager to get excited about the trip with someone, and she'd been babysitting Miral so frequently that B'lanna seemed like the obvious choice.
"Well," Kathryn looked like a kitten with cream all of a sudden. "Being something of a celebrity seems to have some perks after all, because I managed to get the castle."
"The castle," B'lanna deadpanned. "The summer home modeled to look like a castle. The one filled with hard wood floors and antiques, with five fireplaces and a lakeside entrance."
Kathryn nodded.
"Oh no," said B'lanna. "That doesn't sound romantic at all."
"It'll be more nostalgic for me than anything," said Kathryn. "And there are six bedrooms, so tell your smirk to put Chakotay and I in separate ones where they belong."
"You know," B'lanna said, "at one time, before we really knew each other I wouldn't have pegged Chakotay as the kind of man who would have been at all interested in romance. I mean, when we were still Maquis, and he was with Seska…"
Kathryn winced at the name. B'lanna didn't seem to notice.
"He just," she went on, "they seemed like they were having fun, or at least she did. The whole thing, looking back, seems pretty superficial now. It wasn't healthy at all, not that I had much to compare it to at the time. Sometimes when she wasn't around and we were off-world he'd take up with a random woman he barely knew just to convince us, and maybe himself, that he didn't want anything more than casual intimacy."
Kathryn was uncomfortable with this glimpse she was getting of Chakotay's past. She thought she knew a lot about his whole life after seven years of getting to know him.
Oh come on, how much detail did you go into when the subject of Mark came up? Or anyone else you were ever intimate with.
"He was different after…." B'lanna swallowed. "after being on Voyager, and after being around you."
"Well we were bound to rub off on one another after seven years," said Kathryn. "I still keep the medicine bundle he made me to talk to my spirit guide, though I'm still having trouble making the time to use it the way he does."
B'lanna smiled, and bit her lip thoughtfully. Kathryn could dance around really talking about her feelings and her relationship with Chakotay as much as she wanted. But here she was, planning a ridiculously romantic Christmas Eve getaway with him, and judging by some of her evasive responses she didn't seem to be aware of Chakotay and Seven's split yet.
The whole thing was… interesting, and a little uncharacteristic for a real stickler for protocol like Janeway.
Kathryn almost seemed to be aware of B'lanna's train of thought. She had a slightly pained look on her face and was wringing her hands a little.
"So show me photos of the resort at night," said B'lanna.
Kathryn brightened, and started swiping through the holo-imager again.
"So Christmas eve?" Tom said, chopping carrots for the dinner salad.
"She said the best way to avoid bugs was to go ahead and plan a trip in the dead of winter instead of waiting for spring." Chakotay paused for a moment, worrying a spinach leaf raw between his fingers.
Chakotay was highly conflicted about the upcoming trip to Lake George. When he agreed, all he could think about was being back in that moment on the holodeck.
But Seven wasn't the elephant in the room back then.
He wanted so much to tell Kathryn that he and Seven weren't together anymore; that he didn't even know where Seven was because she hadn't talked to him at all since their bizarre confrontation in his office.
Every time he tried, he couldn't. He'd find himself full of irrational fears. She'd get angry at him for not telling her sooner. She'd get angry at him for hurting Seven. She'd want to go comfort Seven and he'd go another series of months without hearing from her at all.
She was so excited about this trip. She came to his office for coffee after booking it, her whole body sparkling and animated. She gushed about the accommodations and how the lights were especially spectacular during the holiday season.
He wanted to be excited with her. He wanted to go drown himself in romance with her, and to not feel awkward about wanting to hold her hand and wrap his arms around her and curl up with her in front of one of those fireplaces.
He didn't know if he could do this with her and keep up the pretense of a mere close friendship. This wasn't like anything they'd done on the ship, where they could go stare at the moonlight together and then end the program and go separate ways. This was not a trip that fell into their normal parameters.
An observation that had him speculating about what she was thinking, too. He wanted very much to ask why she thought this was such a good idea, and why she wanted to take him. Why hadn't she asked about Seven? Why had she picked the castle? Why in the age of transporter technology was she so adamant and excited about an overnight trip?
"So an overnight trip?" Tom smiled shamelessly. "You told her about you and Seven then?"
"No, Tom, I haven't." Chakotay swallowed.
Tom looked up sharply, and Chakotay thought about snatching his knife away before he cut himself.
"You haven't told her?"
"No," Chakotay said again, looking down at the counter.
"And this whole trip was her idea?"
"Yes." Chakotay gripped the table, wishing his thoughts would stay in his head instead of coming out of Tom's mouth.
Tom whistled.
"Well," he starting cutting again. "That's pretty interesting. I never took the Captain for the clandestine type."
"If that's what she wanted," said Chakotay defensively, "she had seven years of opportunity."
"True," said Tom. His brows furrowed in puzzlement. "What could be going through her head?"
Chakotay glared at him. He couldn't help it. Tom's perpetual cheer was further souring his mood.
"What's going through your head?" Tom smiled as Chakotay's glare deepened. "Are you afraid that all the holo-novel style romance will be too much for you; that you won't be able to keep your hands off the good captain after a few hours in front of a real fireplace?"
Chakotay unclenched his hands from the counter and started ripping lettuce leaves again.
"Don't be ridiculous Tom," Chakotay smiled with feigned relaxation. "I'm not a teenager."
"Uh huh…" Tom smiled wider. Chakotay frowned.
Dinner was a somewhat awkward affair for Chakotay and B'lanna. Kathryn and Tom were gushing about Lake George, seemingly oblivious to their quieter counterparts.
Chakotay kept staring at his food, trying not to think about the trip at all, and B'lanna kept shaking her head at him and the Captain. Every so often Tom would throw in some off-hand comment about romance and she bit her lip to keep from saying something so many times she was afraid she might chew through her face.
They'd put on their coats and were about to leave when Tom started to laugh.
"Well would you look at that?" he said, gesturing to the door frame, where he'd hung a sprig of mistletoe. "I wonder how that got there."
"I don't," said B'lanna, looking surly.
Kathryn looked up at the mistletoe and smiled at Chakotay. He stepped out to the porch to wait for her, and Kathryn looked back at Tom, smirking. Tom's face fell.
"Nice try Tom," she said, and closed the door behind her.