Title: Fusion
Author: Ky (venom69)
Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager
Rating:
Teens & Up
Summary: They talk via subspace three times a week.
Character/Pairing: Janeway/Chakotay
Spoilers:
None… the shows ended!
Warnings: None, really.
Prompt Number for fic101: 4 - Friend
Author’s Notes: Song belongs to Scorpians.
Disclaimer: Usual guff. Not mine,
promise to put them back where I found them.
Date: 24/12/06
***
The future's in the air
I can
feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where
the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change
***
They talk via subspace three times a week.
He
knows all about her new job as Admiral Janeway, ordering Picard and the likes of him around. He knows that she sits behind
her desk all day and he knows that she reads far too many reports to mention.
But he also knows that she hates the
hair clip that Starfleet deem 'appropriate dress'. She says it pins her hair too tightly and it looks like she chopped it
all off when she is, in fact, growing it out again. He knows that when her feet are under the desk, her shoes are
never
on and her feet are rarely on the floor anyway. He knows that there's a box of chocolates in her middle desk draw, for when
the reports get too much and they start to 'eat her brain.'
Three times a week at noon, they spend an hour talking.
She
knows that he loves working in the fields, replanting all of the fallen harvests. She knows that the afternoon is the best
part of his day because one of the bakers brings around cool lemonade and fresh bread for the workers to snack on. She knows
that he loves working with his hands, helping to build what the Cardassians destroyed.
But she also knows that sometimes
his hands get blistered from the rudimentary tools they use, so she sent him some lotion - rose scented, what a surprise!
- and he uses it every night. She knows that he loves the cool lemonade and fresh bread and he deliberately skips lunch to
savour it. She knows that sometimes, at night when he is alone, his thoughts get depressed when he looks out the window and
can see all the damage still waiting to be tended to. She knows that he hates to see the beautiful moonlight fluttering across
the barren parts of land that remain.
Three times a week at noon, they spend an hour talking and it's definitely when
he is at his happiest.
She always pulls her hair from the clip. She says it's because she gets a headache, but he suspects
that she knows how much he loves her hair.
Likewise, he never makes the effort to put a shirt on. He takes great delight
in watching her eyes wander. She’s strangely bad at hiding it, not that he minds.
After six months of solid pestering,
he convinces her to take time off and come and stay with him for a while.
“You need a holiday, Kathryn." He tells
her.
"They don't pay me to lounge around in the sun. Unlike some!" She teases in return.
"Well," he shrugs,
“if you're not interested in spending a nice few weeks with an old friend in lovely climates, that's your loss."
The
next time they sit down for their talk, she tells him that her leave is booked and he'd better be there to pick her up.
He
tells her to pack light clothes.
***
When she arrives, he hugs her briefly and picks up her bag, leading her
out of the transport station and over to his own little transport. He takes the scenic route, showing her what they have accomplished
and what is left to do. She listens intently and asks questions about the land, the people, the history. He teaches her a
few words in his language – not that very many people still speak it – and he laughs when she tries to repeat
the words and, often, ends up saying something completely different. He warns her not to try and greet anyone, because she
definitely doesn’t have a grasp on that one yet. Though he admits he’d been interested to see the face of any
recipient to her offer of greeting, which is actually an offer of self.
He takes her back to his place long enough
to show her the guest room and drop her bag. She changes out of her pants – he
did warn her about the clothes
– and they head towards a local café.
She smiles when she sees where they are. “I come to your home planet
and the first thing you show me is a coffee house?”
“I figured it would keep you interested for the historical
museum.” He shrugs and moves his hand to the small of her back to guide her inside. They find a table by the window
and he orders her a black coffee.
She pokes her tongue out at him and informs the waitress that she’d like a
teaspoon of cream.
He frowns. “What happened to you?”
“I don’t think I need a caffeine
buzz right now.”
Some of the regulars are in. He sees them every morning, before he and the other men head to
work. Everyone wants to know who she is. "This is my very good friend Kathryn," he introduces.
She smiles at them,
shakes their hands, answers their questions and he can’t help but feel that she belongs here, in his life.
***
On
the fourth day of her vacation he gets a call.
Their planting is going well, but they need to finish today in order
to keep to the schedule they’ve set. Once all of the crops have been planted, they plan to start on rebuilding more
houses and re-establishing the communities that flourished here. Some of the other men weren’t working that day –
he had already known there’d been a party planned for the night before – and they ask him to come in and help.
He
smiles apologetically at her. “I can tell them no.”
“It’s OK.”
“I don’t
want to ruin your vacation.”
She waves her hand dismissively. “It’s fine, really. What you’re
doing is important. Besides, I’m eager to try this bread and lemonade you’ve been raving about for months.”
“I don’t know if it’s worth it when you’ll be sitting in the sun for hours. Your skin will
burn.”
“I have a book. And sunscreen.” She smiles. “I’ll come and watch you do manly
things.”
He laughs. “Are you saying I didn’t do ‘manly things’ on Voyager?”
“Not
shirtless!” She turns and heads to her room to change before he can reply.
***
It’s one incredibly
short week later when she gets a call from Starfleet.
“Things are not going well,” She says as she re-packs
her bag. She’s not allowed to tell him a lot about her work – one more joy that comes from being persona non grata
with Starfleet – but the tense set of her features tells him more than her words ever could.
“I understand.”
“I’m
sorry,” She says, folding her blue dress. “I really hoped I’d be able to stay longer.”
“Me
too.” He admits, holding her bag open for her.
He takes her back to the transport station, reassuring her all
the way that he really does understand. He may not be in service to any organizations anymore, but he does remember the pitfalls
that come with the paycheque.
Starfleet had told her that they’d sent one of their Ships already in the neighbourhood
to pick her up and it’s there when they arrive. “You’ll call me when you get back to Earth?”
“I
will. I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
“Can’t help it.”
“Thank you for
having me.”
“It was most certainly my pleasure.”
She bites her lip. “We’ll do
this again, right?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be bugging you to come back during our next call.”
She
kisses him before she leaves.
***
They talk via subspace four times a week.
He keeps her updated on
the continued efforts of everyone that lives here now. More and more people join them every day. More and more people that
disagree with Starfleet’s treaty with Cardassia. More and more people who sit with them at night and speak of the loved
ones that they lost to a race of murderers and the peace that being here brings them. More and more people who want to live
a fusion of the world of modern comforts and the old ways. They want the replicators and climate controlled rooms, but they
also want the man-made houses and the lush green gardens.
He sends her holoimages of the crops as they grow and she
sends him holoimages of Miral.
Four times a week at noon, they spend an hour and a half talking.
She tells him
about the continued supply of caramel brownies that her mother sends to her office. She says the lack of exercise will make
her fat and he laughs, telling her that it wouldn’t matter. She tells him that she still sees a lot of their old crew
and she keeps him up to date on what they’re doing, despite the fact the he receives letters from most of them. She
tells him that she got a dog, one of Molly’s pups. Mark set it up and surprised her with the bitch when she last had
dinner with him and his wife. She consults Chakotay on a name for her and they argue about it for almost an hour before finally
settling on ‘Jessie.’
Four times a week at noon, they spend an hour and a half talking and it just makes
him miss her more.
It takes him six weeks of being without her before he admits, to her, that he misses her. He worries
about saying it, worries that it will be too much for her and she will pull back from him.
But she surprises him.
She reaches a hand out, strokes his face on the screen and says, “I miss you too.”
***
They
talk via subspace five times a week.
He tells her about the sudden flourish of people that have moved here. Before,
they were getting just those with a personal interest in the history and the destruction of the planet. But now that the rebuilding
is moving along at lightning speeds, people are beginning to see the beauty once more. It’s become a real family place,
he tells her, with children running through the streets. The parents don’t worry because they’re safe. Everyone
knows everyone else and if you forget what it is you’re supposed to be doing, there’s always someone around that
could tell you. She tells him that it sounds like a small town and it sounds perfect for him.
Five times a week at
noon, they spend two hours talking.
She tells him about the trials and tribulations that have come with teaching Jessie
the rules of the house, but the pup is so cute it’s all worth it. She tells him that she’s lessening her workload
at Starfleet, cutting back the days and the hours. She tells him that she wants a life and she waited a long time to get it.
He says he’s proud of her. She says that she’s taken up tennis again. It’s friendly competition, mostly,
she says, but there’s a tennis club not far from the house that she’s living in and, since the club has a sauna/spa
combo, she’s taking full advantage of it. He spends the rest of the day with the image of her surrounded by bubbling
water in his mind.
Five times a week at noon, they spend two hours talking and it just makes him regret his decision
to let her got more.
He tells her and she admits that, part of her had hoped he’d try to convince her to stay.
She tells him that she’s going on a diplomatic mission out his way and asks if he wants to meet her for a cup of coffee
– no cream – on a nearby planet.
He agrees, of course, he would be a fool not too. He’s nervous.
The locals that met her tease him about it when he tells them where he’s going. They say that his ‘very good friend
Kathryn’ must be something special to get him this worked up.
He agrees that she is.
***
When
he walks into the coffee shop, she smiles at him and he’s lost.
They spend three days there together. She has
to meet with the local officials to complete her mission, but aside from those three hours, they divide their time between
sigh-seeing and sleeping.
He holds her hand in public, sits with his arm around her when they watch the sunset and
enjoys the chance to be with this woman as nothing more than a man who is interested. She’s been his friend for eight
years and now he wants to try something more with her, so he let’s her know.
On the last day, she asks him to
come back to Earth with her.
He goes with her, stopping by his home long enough to pick up some clothes and let the
others know that he’ll be gone for a while.
The trip back to Earth is uneventful and they enjoy the ride as
passengers.
No one stops him at the Transport Station on Earth, so he assumes that Starfleet isn’t holding that
big a grudge against the Maquis, despite their dismissal over twelve months ago.
Kathryn asks him what he’d
like to do first.
He smiles and says that he’s been led to believe that she’s in possession of a large
supply of the Alpha Quadrant’s best caramel brownies and he thinks he should be able to taste them and see if they meet
the requirements of that distinction himself. She smiles and says that, to do that, they need to be freshly baked.
She
calls her mother and says she’s bringing someone home for brownies.
When they arrive, her mother asks who he
is.
Kathryn smiles. "Mom, this is my husband, Chakotay."
***
End
