Disclaimer: All
things Star Trek belong to Paramount. As far as I know, I am not making any
money from my creative endeavors with their characters.
The continuation of
“Truth,”
which picks up where that story left off, with quite a bit of gratuitous
cuddling.
I
appreciate all comments and criticism. Drop me a line at [email protected] and tell me
what you think. My humble thanks to all who asked for more…I hope this lives up
to expectations!
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She was lost in his arms. She had no idea how much time was passing. The only thing she could focus on was the connection between her lips and his. She shifted her weight on the sofa to gently push him backward, never breaking contact. As she lay her weight on his chest and he pulled his arms protectively around her, the thought crossed her mind that she had told herself a long time ago that she would never be this bold with Chakotay, that she could never allow this sort of thing to happen at all.
But another thought superseded the first; she had wanted for this to happen for a long time. She could no longer tell if the alien serum was making her dizzy, or if it was the man kissing her that made the room spin and the world fade away.
Finally Chakotay, against his own will, began to gently lessen the intensity of the kiss. His heart was beating wildly, and he was barely in control, but he knew he had to stop this while he could.
“For the moment. To be continued very soon. This will not be the last time I kiss her like this…I hope.” Chakotay’s pep talk for himself was working, at least enough so that he could separate his lips from Kathryn’s, ever so slightly, and open his eyes to look up into hers. She opened her eyes just after he did, and they locked together, slight smiles crossing both their lips.
“Kathryn…you’re amazing.”
“Thank you.”
“You do know that, don’t you?” He turned his body slightly, so that she slid down next to him. He was still cradling her in his arms, sandwiched between her and the pillows of the sofa.
“It doesn’t hurt to hear it every once in a while…” she quirked her smile into that trademark, lopsided grin that never ceased to make him want to kiss her. Despite his earlier pep talk, he couldn’t let the opportunity pass without indulging his fantasy.
He leaned his face toward her and pressed his lips to hers quickly, passionately, and she responded. He regained his self-control, and gently pulled away. This time she had a broad grin on her face, and her eyes were sparkling, mischievously.
“What are you smiling at?”
“Nothing…what made you kiss me just now?”
“Every time. I’ve wanted to do that every time I’ve ever seen you smile that little lopsided smile.”
“That’s what I thought…and that’s what I’m grinning about. I was always aiming that at you.”
“Oh, you are incorrigible.” Now he was smiling too, and shaking his head at her as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. At some point during the last few minutes, his hand had drifted under her sweater, and he now unconsciously stroked the smooth skin of the small of her back.
“Kathryn…” He asked softly, trying not to display emotion in his tone.
“Hmmm?” She almost purred, raising her eyes to meet his again and laying her head against his shoulder.
“I want to finish what we’ve started. But I think we need to wait a while.”
Her eyebrow raised slightly at his last remark, and she replied:
“All right… and why do you think we should wait?”
“As much as I want to make love to you, I know you still aren’t quite feeling like yourself. I guess I’m being selfish, because I want you to make love to me with a clear mind and no chance that you’ll decide tomorrow that you were wrong. Seven years is a long time, and a few days aren’t going to make that big of a difference in the long run.”
“Chakotay, I feel like I could fly right now. And I think that’s a product of finally being here with you. But I agree that some of that feeling could be artificial, and going any farther right now wouldn’t be fair to either of us.” As she spoke, she didn’t attempt to disengage herself from his embrace, and she didn’t pull away. She simply looked him straight in the eyes and kept a small smile on her lips.
“But I don’t think I will regret anything that’s happened so far.” This she said with more conviction, and she leaned in to give him a light kiss.
“Neither will I.”
“Will you stay with me?”
“You even have to ask?”
“Thank you. For being here. For not taking advantage of the situation. For keeping me safe.”
“It’s all I want to do, for as long as you’ll let me.” He scooped her up and pulled her to sit up with him. “OK, you need to get some sleep. And speaking of which, you need to contact the Doctor, or he’s going to hold me personally responsible for your disobeying orders.”
“He’ll believe I was sleeping. At least he hasn’t come by for any surprise check-ups.”
“I think I’d get thrown out of an airlock…”
She rose off the couch, a bit unsteadily, and padded toward her bedroom. “Do you want to go next door and get something to sleep in?”
“Can I trust you not to get into any trouble while I’m gone?” he asked with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.
“Janeway to the Doctor,” she said as she tapped her comm badge. She turned and mouthed to Chakotay: “Who--ME?”
*****
By the time he returned in his nightclothes, careful to avoid meeting any of the crew in the hallway who might be wandering around at 0300 hours, Kathryn was sliding into bed.
“Should I stretch out in here?” Chakotay asked, indicating her sitting room.
“I was hoping you might want to try out the mattress in here. It’s the best one on the ship, they say.” She had fully regained her sense of humor, it seemed, since she had been with him.
“I was hoping you might suggest just that.” Chakotay knew that anything he could do to make her feel like the real Kathryn Janeway again was what he wanted to do. He only hoped that in the morning she wouldn’t decide that it was some other Kathryn who had admitted so much, asked him to stay, told him that he made her feel safe.
She pulled down the covers for him, and he climbed in the other side of the bed. Chakotay seemed to hesitate, unsure of exactly what she wanted him to do. She slid over to him and pulled him lower under the covers, resting her head on his chest.
“Computer, lights out,” she called.
She let out a deep breath that she didn’t know she had been holding, and she self-consciously thought it sounded like a sigh. He wrapped his arms around her, and she felt him lean down to kiss the top of her head.
“Everything’s going to be fine.” He said it reassuringly, calmly, as if he knew exactly what he was talking about. All of a sudden, she felt a tingle go down her spine, and for some reason, she was barely able to suppress a sob.
“What makes you say that?” She asked quietly.
“I just thought you might need to hear that come from someone’s lips besides your own.” He was idly stroking her back.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she snuggled her body more tightly to his.
“Sleep well, Kathryn.”
“Sweet dreams.”
“I can’t imagine dreaming anything sweeter than this.”
She tilted her head
up, and through the starlight, she looked into Chakotay’s eyes. She pushed
herself up, kissed him sweetly, then settled back against his chest and fell
into a peaceful sleep.
*****
When he awoke the
next morning, she was still sleeping. Sometime in the night, she had curled
onto her side, and he had followed, spooning against her. Now he could feel the
rise and fall of her chest. He looked at the chronometer on her night table and
saw that he would have to leave soon to be on the bridge in time for alpha
shift. He thought of leaving without waking her, but then he realized that
might surprise her more than waking her to say goodbye.
“Kathryn…” He said
her name almost in a whisper, and he stroked her arm gently.
“Kathryn? Wake up.”
This time he spoke a bit louder.
“Hmmm.” She turned
onto her back sleepily and looked up into his eyes. “Good morning.” Her lips curled
into a smile.
“Good morning
gorgeous. Sleep OK?” He propped his head on his elbow.
“Better than I have
in years. Thanks to you. The Doctor should prescribe you as a sleep aid.”
Chakotay wouldn’t
let himself believe it yet, but she seemed to be accepting their situation
without shock or regret. She was even joking with him as he lay in her bed, his
arm still draped over her waist.
“But you’ve got to
head out soon… Bridge duty calls. I suppose I couldn’t authorize your
conspicuous absence for the morning…”
“There might be a
few questions… Tom would have a field day with both of us missing.”
“How much longer is
the Doctor forcing me to stay off duty? A week? I hope he realizes that’s a
valiant but futile gesture…”
“I’m sure he knows
by now that he has no hope of keeping you away if you feel up to it. But I
think even I would say to stay away for a couple of days. And we’ll find
someone to stay with you, so you don’t get too bored.”
“Ha. Let’s just have
the whole bridge crew join me in my quarters, and we’ll run things from here.
That would satisfy the Doctor’s instructions, wouldn’t it?”
“Kathryn, are you OK
with what’s happened between us?” Chakotay’s words seemed to come out of
nowhere, but Kathryn had been expecting them. She hadn’t really thought of how
she might answer, until she spoke.
“Chakotay, what’s
happened between us has happened. Though I took a long time in deciding to act
on my wishes, I’ve wanted this…” she reached down and took his hand in hers
“…for a long time. Even if I wasn’t quite in my right mind last night, my heart
obviously took over. I think it did a much better job with that situation than
my head would have done.”
She could see his
eyes turn from their clouded worry into sparkling relief. He smiled and squeezed
her hand, lifted it to his lips, and kissed it softly.
“Oh come here.” She
wrapped her other hand around his neck and pulled him down to her. This time
when she kissed him, she knew what was making her head spin.
________________________________________
Continued
in “Closure”
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me a line at k_christie@hotmail.com anytime.