A/N: See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer.

Chapter 3: Once in a Lifetime

In order to give Kathryn the space she needed to figure things out, she and Luke agreed that he and their children would continue to sleep in their quarters as they always did while Kathryn ran the Glass Castle program in the Holodeck at night and slept in the master bedroom of the mansion. But after her conversation with Chakotay in the Mess Hall earlier that evening, and after spending the next couple of hours watching Voyager's video files of his classes with all the children aboard Voyager, she knew she had to find her husband and have a long talk with him. So at about a quarter till eight that evening, Kathryn left Holodeck Two and went to their quarters.

And when she arrived and came into their living room, Luke was already getting the children ready for bed. The twins had already had their baths and brushed their teeth and said their prayers for the night, and when Kathryn came home, he'd already gotten Peter into bed, and he was now in the process of tucking Priscilla into bed. Meanwhile, Lewis was taking a sonic shower in their master bathroom, and Spock was taking a sonic shower in their smaller bathroom. Kathryn could easily recall the days when there had only been one bedroom and one bathroom in her quarters, which was all that had been needed at the time, of course. Since then, three additional bedrooms had been added along with an additional closet and an additional bathroom. The once perfectly neat and orderly and spacious captain's quarters was still organized, but not nearly as much so as before. Although most of the children's toys had been put up for the night, Priscilla's pink teddy bear that had a purple bow on the top of its head was still on the couch, and some of the children's toy building blocks were still out on the floor, and the board game they'd been playing was still out on the coffee table. Even though twenty-fourth century life had done away with the need for refrigerators, several of the kids' drawings had been put on the wall above the replicator. Several family pictures of Kathryn and Luke with their children were now on various walls of their quarters, along with pictures of Kathryn and Luke together on their wedding day. It wasn't the perfectly neat and spacious living space Kathryn remembered, but that didn't bother Kathryn in the least, because even with her thirteen-year memory gap, she knew it through and through that this was home now. She knew it that she and her husband and children belonged here.

A small bedroom had been built with a little walkway between it and the master bedroom that connected the two bedrooms to each other. That was that bedroom that would be their baby girl's nursery. And the other two bedrooms a little further down the hallway were side by side, and one of them was slightly bigger. The bigger bedroom belonged to the boys, and the smaller bedroom belonged to Priscilla. The boys' bedroom had bunk beds, and Spock had the bottom bunk while Peter had the top bunk, and Lewis had his own bed across from his brothers' bunk beds as he was the oldest. And as Kathryn came down the hallway that evening, she saw that Priscilla's bedroom door was open a crack, and she couldn't resist the urge to watch her husband and daughter together.

After the adorable five-year-old girl, with long, raven black hair, ivory skin, and the most beautiful pair of green eyes, now in her light pink pajamas, crawled underneath the darker pink bedspread, she looked up at her father and asked, "Daddy, how much longer will it be till Mommy comes back? She's been away forever!"

"I know, darling," Luke said patiently as he sat down on the side of his daughter's bed. "And I know how much you and your brothers have missed her all these months that she's been away. I've missed her too. I know it hasn't been the same around here without her. I know you're a very little girl, sweetheart, and I know this is a very big lesson for someone as little as you. I know that it's not easy, but I need you to try to be patient now."

"What's patient?"

"Being patient means waiting for someone, even if it's for a really long time, without getting angry about having to wait so long. I know how much you kids miss your mother. I miss her too. But Mommy isn't staying away because she doesn't love you guys."

"But you told us that Mommy forgot us. So how can she love us if she doesn't remember us anymore?"

"Because she's a mother. Mommies and daddies always love their children no matter what."

"Even when a brain virus makes them forget about their kids?"

"Even then. The love a parent naturally has for a child comes from God, Himself, and it's greater than anything else you can imagine."

"Daddy?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Selik told Lewis that Mommy might want a divorce because she can't remember you. And you already told me what divorce means. It's when people who are married, like you and Mommy, break up and stop being a couple. Is Selik right, Daddy? Does Mommy want a divorce now?"

"Mommy and I haven't really talked about it yet, sweetheart."

"So she might?"

"Yes," Luke told his daughter in an emotional whisper. "She might."

"Are you going to stop her if she does? Are you going to make her stay?"

"If that does happen, I will certainly try my very best to talk her out of it, but if I can't talk her out of it, then no, Priscilla. I won't try to do anything to force your mother into staying married to me if she doesn't want to be in this marriage anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because one person trying to force his or her will on another person is one of the most hateful, mean, unloving things one person can do to another. I love your mother, Priscilla. I love her just as much as I love you and your brothers and your baby sister on the way. And I want her to stay married to me. I want that more than anything. But I would never try to force her to stay married to me if she didn't want to be married to me any longer. I love her far too much to do that to her. I would never want to try to make her stay with me if she couldn't be happy with me anymore. I would never want her to stay if she didn't want to stay. That's what it means to truly love another person, Priscilla. It means putting the person you love ahead of yourself. It means putting their needs and their wishes above your own. Do you understand?"

"I think so. Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"If you and Mommy get a divorce, what will happen to our family?"

"It's really way too soon to be worrying about that, Priscilla. But I can tell you one thing for certain."

"What?"

"Even if the worst does happen, even if things don't work out between your mommy and me, she and I will always love you and your brothers and your baby sister more than life itself. And even if we aren't able to stay married, even if we do end up divorced, that will never, ever stop all of us from being a family, and it will never, ever stop your mommy and me from loving you guys. Regardless of what happens with Mommy and me, we will always love you kids and we will always look out for you and take care of you and be there for you. That will never, ever change. Do you understand me?" Luke asked softly, and Priscilla responded with a nod.

In that moment, Kathryn wiped away the rivers of tears that had been flowing from her eyes, and she pulled herself together and walked into her daughter's room wearing a big, confident smile.

"Well, I'll have you know right here and now, young lady, that the only divorces that are going to be happening in this family are all the little hairs on your father's head divorcing themselves from his scalp and making him more and more bald by the second!"

"Mommy!" the child squealed with delight, and then Kathryn bent over and gave Priscilla a very big hug and kiss.

"Thanks, Katie! Thanks a lot!" Luke teased, and all three of them laughed, and Kathryn kissed the top of her husband's bald head.

"Mommy, are you back to stay?"

"I'm back to stay, sweetheart," Kathryn assured her. "Anyway, I think it's a little bit past your bedtime. I think it's time to go to sleep now."

"But you just came back! I haven't seen you in forever!" the child protested.

"Don't worry. I'll be right here in our quarters when you and your brothers wake up tomorrow morning. We'll have plenty of time to spend together then."

"Mommy's right, Priscilla. It's time for lights out now," Luke agreed.

"Wait! Where's Bonnie?"

"Who's Bonnie?" asked Kathryn.

"Her favorite pink teddy bear. I gave Bonnie to Priscilla a couple of days after I had to put you in your coma. She and Peter were really missing you, and Bonnie's been a big help to Priscilla these past few months," Luke explained.

"Oh, I see," said Kathryn.

"I gave Peter a blue teddy bear then as well. It's named Clyde," Luke added.

"Bonnie and Clyde," Kathyn said with a chuckle. "Anyway, I think I saw Bonnie sitting out on the living room couch. I'll go get her."

"Oh, no," said Luke as he stood up. "You just have a seat and relax. I'll go get Bonnie. I'll be right back, Priscilla," he told his daughter on his way out the bedroom door.

A couple of minutes later, Luke returned with Bonnie, and Kathryn placed the teddy bear in her little girl's arms and kissed her goodnight.

"I love you, darling. Sweet dreams," Kathryn whispered, and then she turned off her daughter's lamp, and she and Luke walked out of their daughter's bedroom together holding hands.

Once Kathryn and Luke sat down together on their living room couch a few moments later, Luke looked into his wife's eyes and asked her, "Did you really mean what you said?"

"Of course I did," Kathryn whispered as she took her husband's hands into her own. "As you know, I've been in the Holodeck a whole lot here lately, watching the computer's recordings of our time together. I've been watching you learn and grow. I've watched myself learn and grow. You really have become the most loving, thoughtful, endearing man…I've ever known. And I know I've become a better person because of you. I don't remember you becoming a man, a human being divinely created by God in His image. I don't remember you and I becoming closer. I don't remember our friendship turning into love. I don't remember falling in love with you. I don't remember marrying you and building a family with you. But after watching everything I've seen of you over the past thirteen years, seeing the wonderful, beautiful man you've become, I've realized that I don't need to remember. Just watching our past play out before our eyes, just watching how you've treated our children and me all these years…it just made me fall in love with you all over again."

"Oh, Katie," he gasped as a tear escaped from his eye, and then he wrapped his arms around Kathryn and gave her a long, passionate kiss.

"Wow," said Kathryn when the kiss ended. "I had no idea you were such a great kisser!"

"I do try to please," he said with a smug grin.

"Looks like Selik was wrong when he said you guys might get a divorce," said their son Lewis, who was now a beautiful eight-year-old boy with a darker complexion, curly brown hair, and brown eyes. He was wearing dark blue pajamas with white and yellow stars on them.

"Yes, I am proud and happy to announce that when young Selik said we might get a divorce, he was wrong," said Luke with a mile-wide grin as Spock came into the living room then as well. Spock, who was now seven, had his parents' lighter complexion and his mother's ginger hair and his father's brown eyes, and he, too, was a beautiful child. He was now wearing red pajamas that went quite well with his ginger hair.

"I told you he was wrong, Lewis," said Spock. "Mom and Dad are the last couple in the galaxy who would ever get a divorce!"

"So did your memories come back yet, Mom?" asked Lewis.

"No, not yet. But that's okay. I don't need my memories to love your father, and I don't need my memories to love you guys and your sister that's already here and your sister that's on the way," Kathryn assured him, and then she placed her hand on her growing abdomen.

"Are you staying at home tonight or are you going back to the Holodeck?" Spock inquired.

"Like we were telling your sister, I'm back to stay," Kathryn replied.

"Yes!" said Spock.

"Cool," said Lewis.

Luke then told Lewis and Spock that it was time for bed, and he and Kathryn went into their bedroom with them and said their bedtime prayers together with them and with Peter, who had woken up again when he heard their mother's voice. And then they kissed them goodnight.

After leaving their sons' bedroom and coming back out into their living room, Luke said to his wife, "I can't tell you how grateful to God I am, how happy and relieved I am, that you changed your mind. I know that when I first brought you out of your coma and explained the situation to you, you had your reservations about our marriage."

"I did at first. I always liked you and cared for you as a friend in our first seven years aboard Voyager, but I honestly never imagined that you and I would ever get married."

"No woman in her right mind would ever imagine getting married to such an egotistical hologram like I used to be."

"But after watching you and me together, and our children, my original reservations faded away completely and got replaced with new ones."

"Uh oh. What new reservations did they get replaced with?"

After a pause, Kathryn told her husband, "I love you for giving up your medical career to stay at home with our children and be a schoolteacher. As exceptional of a doctor and a surgeon and an artist and a musician as you are, I know that you're an even more exceptional father and teacher, and I'm glad you and I have gotten the chance to discover that about you. I'm glad you've had the opportunity to explore this facet of yourself. But I can't help but feel that by allowing you to do this, I'm holding you back. You have one of the very greatest medical minds ever to exist in all of human history, literally, and I cannot help but feel that it's a crime against all the people who can benefit from your care, and a crime against you, to allow this to go on. Furthermore, I think that I as a captain have allowed myself to become complacent over the years."

"Complacent? How do you think you've become complacent?"

"I've become complacent about getting us home. We came over thirty thousand light years in the first seven years of our journey, Luke. But then, we stopped making big strides in our journey home. We're still over fifteen thousand light years away from Earth. We still have a fifteen-year journey ahead of us at least. And I can't help but wonder, I can't help but ask myself, 'Why did our progress suddenly slow down so much? Why did we suddenly stop finding ways to shave years off our journey?' Was it because I stopped searching for ways to get home because I got so happy with my life, with my happy marriage and my happy family here on Voyager, that it made me less concerned with getting us back to Earth?"

"Of course not. Nobody has been more passionate about getting us back to Earth than you have."

"I'm not so sure of that. But it doesn't matter now. When you first woke me up out of that coma, I was deeply disturbed at having lost thirteen years of memories. But now, I'm grateful that it happened, Luke. I think this is the Almighty giving me just the kick in the rear I need to start getting serious again about getting us back home. And I'm going to do it, Luke. I am going to get you, our children, and all our crew, our family, here on Voyager, back to Earth where we belong, and I am going to do it soon. I am not going to be complacent about finding a quicker way back home anymore. I am getting us home just as quickly as I can, and when I do, I am going to retire from Starfleet and stay at home with our children, and you are going to go back to practicing medicine. Back to doing what you were meant to do."

"Katie, I–" he began to protest.

"I see it that the love you and I have is the kind of love that only happens once in a lifetime, Luke. Our love can conquer anything, no matter how many years of memories I've lost. I've realized in all of this that our love is timeless. Nothing can touch it. Nothing can change it. Nothing can make it die. But your medical career isn't something that can be completely unaffected by time. Now that you're human, you can and will grow old. You won't be strong enough and sharp enough to be the incredible doctor that you are forever. That's one of the reasons why I want to get us back to Earth as soon as I can."

"Well first of all, as the man who has loved you and lived with you for over a decade, I can assure you that becoming a wife and mother, having a family of your own, has made you more passionate about getting us home as soon as possible, not less. As a mother, no one has been more concerned about getting all of Voyager's children out of the Borg's backyard than you have. You have been anything but complacent. You and the crew have searched endlessly every single day to try to find a shortcut back to Earth, but there just simply hasn't been one. God is not giving you a kick in the rear, Katie. You are. And for no reason. You've done nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing. As usual, you're being far too harsh on yourself, and I do wish you would stop being so unkind to yourself. It hurts my heart to see you doing that, Kate. It really does.

"And as far as my medical career goes, I appreciate all your concern, but I assure you, you're worrying over nothing. I've never felt happier and more fulfilled in all my life than I do right now. What I do every day, it certainly isn't easy, but it's always more than worth it. And if Dr. Dexa and Tom and Kes ever encounter a situation that's too big for them to handle in Sick Bay, I'm always here and I'm always ready to step in and give them the backup they need, so my medical talents aren't being wasted. I take the required refresher courses from Starfleet several times a year, so I'm always up to date on the latest advances in medicine.

"Anyway, at the end of the day, I know that if it's the good Lord's will for you to find a way to get us back to Earth soon, then it will happen. And if it's not His will, then it won't. Jesus knows better than we do. You know that."

Kathyn nodded and said, "Yes, I do know that."

"And speaking not as your husband, but as your doctor, here's something else I know."

"What's that?"

Luke put his hands on Kathryn's very round belly in that moment and told her, "I know that our youngest crew-member needs to get some sleep. And so does her mother. We just put the children to bed. Now, it's the baby's bedtime. And ours."

Kathryn put her hands on top of his then and said, "You're right. I just want to lie down with my husband, close my eyes, and forget my worries for at least the next eight hours."

"Then that's just what we'll do," said Luke. And then he gave Kathryn a tender kiss, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and walked with her to their bedroom so they could get a good night's sleep