DISCLAIMER: You all know the drill - Paramount is God. All hail Paramount. They own everything in the Star Trek Universe - I'm just
using my overactive imagination to take their characters where they refuse to go. All in the name of fun, not profit (I wish).
RATING: PG-13 Nothing my momma couldn't read.
<< BACK TO PART XXIII: REUNIONS
Chakotay and Kathryn strolled down the streets of San Francisco, the leaves blowing past them in the autumn breeze.
"It's so nice to see the leaves turning color again," commented Kathryn, tilting her head back to watch the leaves swirling above her head.
He looked at her. "This is the third autumn we've been back, and you've never even mentioned that you like the leaves."
She smiled. "I never realize how much I miss them until autumn rolls around."
"You never cease to amaze me."
She laughed and shifted the package she was carrying to her other arm so she could reach over and take his hand.
They reached the building they were looking for, a small apartment near the waterfront. Kathryn pressed the chime, and the door opened after a few seconds. The lights were off, and Cassandra Walker and Naomi Wildman poked their heads out.
Despite the fact that Naomi's Ktarian genes had caused her to quickly outgrow her Betazoid friend, the two girls had remained close friends. It was hard to believe that Naomi was actually just over eight years old, given her appearance of seventeen.
"Come on," hissed Cassandra, pulling them inside as Naomi stuck her head out the door and checked the street in both directions. Satisfied that the coast was clear, Naomi pulled her head back inside and shut the door. She stepped behind Kathryn and Chakotay, pushing them into the next room.
"They'll be here any minute," she whispered.
The room they entered was dark, but they could hear muffled noises coming from around the room.
"It was Admiral Janeway and Chakotay," said Cassandra to the dark room.
"It's about time," said Tom from the darkness.
"Surprise!" said a childish voice.
"Shh! Miral, not yet," said a voice that sounded like B'Elanna. "Chakotay, hurry up and hide."
"They're due back any second," whispered Harry.
"Admiral, Chakotay, there's room over here," said Tom's voice over to the right.
She and Chakotay felt their way in his direction, then crouched down behind what felt like a couch.
"Good to see you," said Tom's voice from beside them.
"In a manner of speaking," muttered Chakotay. "I can't see more than ten centimeters in front of my face."
Tom snickered.
"Make room," whispered Kathryn. "I don't think I'm completely hidden."
She felt arms go around her waist, and she was pulled close to someone behind her.
"Chakotay, that had better be you."
In response, he kissed the base of her neck as she was curled next to his chest, and she laughed softly.
"Shhhh!" said a voice from across the room.
"Ow!" said Harry's voice. "Miral, that's my foot."
"Surprise!" yelled Miral in response.
"Somebody had better keep her quiet before she gives us all away," said the Doctor.
"I've got her," said B'Elanna.
"Surprise!" said Miral again, but this time the sound was muffled by B'Elanna's hand covering her mouth.
"Shhhh, honey," she admonished.
Naomi and Cassandra tore into the room. "They're coming!" squealed Cassandra. She and Naomi dove into their previous hiding spot. Unfortunately, they were unaware that it was now occupied by Kathryn and Chakotay, and the two girls bowled into the pair.
"Oof!" grunted Kathryn.
"Sorry, Admiral," said Cassandra, as she and Naomi squished behind the couch.
"Shhhh!" said Tom.
The room finally became silent, and they could hear the front doors slide open.
"Here, let me take that," they heard Mark's voice from the entrance. "So, you never answered my question. What do you think of 'Tam' for a boy?"
There was a pause before they heard Annika answer. "Tam�I'll put it on the list."
She spoke again, her voice approaching the room they were concealed in. "Why is it dark in here? Computer, lights."
As soon as the lights came on, the concealed group jumped out of their hiding spots with a collective "Surprise!"
Annika looked around with a raised eyebrow. "I hope you were not concealed for too long," she observed. "It must have been an uncomfortable wait."
The group groaned collectively. "You're supposed to be surprised, Annika," said B'Elanna.
Miral jumped up on the chair she, B'Elanna, and Harry had been concealed behind. "Surprise!" she shouted, throwing her arms up in the air. "Baby shower!"
Annika raised an eyebrow. "Thank you, Miral."
The young girl jumped up and down on the chair. "Time to open the presents!"
Tom moved over and scooped up his daughter, holding her upside down as she squealed in delight. "They're not for you, honey, remember?"
"Presents?" said Annika as she moved into the crowded room, waddling slightly due to her bulging stomach.
"It's tradition, Seven," said Kathryn. "We've done it for every member of this crew, and you're no exception."
She smiled as she lowered herself slowly onto the couch. "Proceed," she said. Although it had been one of her favorite words in the past, she said it now with more emotion, and a more obvious human inflection.
After the presents had been opened, Neelix's pistachio cake with parra cr�me sauce was served. Chakotay grabbed a piece for himself and one for Kathryn, and moved over to join her on the couch. She took the plate from him absentmindedly, watching Annika across the room with a smile. She was leaning back on the couch, her hand resting lightly on her belly with her fingers splayed. Megan Kim and B'Elanna were on either side of her, probably giving her some much-needed advice. Megan and B'Elanna were both talking animatedly, while Annika sat quietly, absorbing it all. Megan was balancing her nine-month old son Travis on her knee. B'Elanna had Miral on her lap, but the feisty toddler was in no mood to sit still when there was dessert to be had. She squirmed out of her mother's arms and ran over to join Kathryn and Chakotay. She climbed up between them.
"Hi," she said as she settled between them.
"Have you had any cake, Miral?" asked Chakotay, noticing her eagerly eyeing the plate in his hands.
She shook her head, her dark hair bouncing on her shoulders.
He smiled. "I'll go get you some."
"Are you having fun, Miral?" asked Kathryn as she tried a piece of cake.
Miral nodded enthusiastically. "I like parties."
"It will be your birthday pretty soon, won't it?"
Miral held up three fingers. "Three years old," she said proudly. "In two months and eleven days! Daddy helped me count." A thought occurred to her. "Will you come to my party?"
"I wouldn't miss it," Kathryn assured her.
Chakotay returned with a Miral-sized piece of cake, which the young girl took eagerly. "Thank you," she said politely before digging into the cake.
Kathryn returned her attention to Annika across the room, and the corners of a mouth turned up in a smile. Mark had taken B'Elanna's place on the couch as Tom claimed his wife and pulled her away from the small group on the couch. Mark reached over and brushed a blond strand of hair from his wife's face before kissing her on the cheek. She reached over and took his hand, resting their clasped hands on her belly.
"She looks happy, doesn't she?" observed Chakotay.
Kathryn's smile widened. "She's positively glowing," she agreed.
Miral looked up from her cake and clapped her hands together. "Seven glows," she said proudly. 'Seven' was easier for her to pronounce than 'Annika', which usually came out as 'nicker', so she had taken to calling her by her nickname, as Kathryn still did.
Chakotay and Kathryn chuckled. "She's getting to be quite the little talker," observed Kathryn.
"She's even more talkative than the last time we saw her," agreed Chakotay.
Miral, engrossed in her own train of thought, continued talking. "Mommy glows," she said eagerly with a smile.
Kathryn laughed. "No, sweetheart, we were talking about Seven."
"Mommy glows," insisted the toddler.
Chakotay indulged her. "Where did you hear that?"
She beamed. "Daddy!"
Chakotay and Kathryn frowned, then looked up at each other. At the same time, their expressions of puzzlement were replaced with astonishment as their eyes widened. They both glanced across the room where Tom and B'Elanna were standing together in a corner apart from the others, talking intimately.
"Do you think�" began Kathryn, not taking her eyes off B'Elanna.
"I would have thought she'd tell us, but it's possible."
B'Elanna glanced away from her husband and looked around the room, happening to meet their eyes as they examined her. She seemed confused for a moment, wondering why they were staring at her, but then her lips parted suddenly as she noticed Miral sitting between them. She rolled her eyes and sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat. She turned back to her husband, and although they couldn't hear what she said, Kathryn thought she could make out the words "inherited your big mouth" on B'Elanna's lips. Tom looked over at them in surprise, then sighed and shook his head with a chuckle.
Kathryn raised her eyebrow in question and glanced over at Chakotay before looking back at Tom and B'Elanna. B'Elanna grabbed her husband by the hand and led him over to where Kathryn, Chakotay and Miral were seated.
"Honey," said B'Elanna as they approached. "I thought Daddy and I had a talk with you about keeping secrets."
Miral turned to Kathryn. "It's a secret," she said gravely.
"She didn't tell us, B'Elanna," said Kathryn quickly.
"Mommy glows," said Miral fondly.
Tom chuckled and reached down to pick up his daughter. "If you weren't such a little parrot�"
"So?" said Chakotay, looking at them.
B'Elanna smiled self consciously and looked at Tom before she met their gaze again. "We were going to wait a few weeks before telling anybody� "
In Tom's arms, Miral clapped her hands together. "I'm getting a baby sister!" she said happily.
"Not so loud, sweetheart," admonished B'Elanna.
"Is it a girl?" asked Kathryn as she and Chakotay moved closer to each other to make room for Tom and B'Elanna.
"We want to be surprised this time," said Tom as they sat down.
"Baby sister!" insisted Miral.
"Miral seems to have her own preference, though," said B'Elanna.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and find out," said Tom with a grin.
* * *
Chakotay groaned and cracked his eyes open reluctantly. Their bedroom was still dark, so he knew it was early. Looking down at his chest, he could see that Kathryn was still sound asleep, breathing softly as she was draped over him, her head nestled next to his shoulder.
It took a few seconds for him to hear the noise that had obviously woken him up.
Incoming transmission, said the familiar tone of the computer.
He frowned � who would be calling them this early? He lifted Kathryn off him, setting her down gently on the bed. She mumbled and inhaled deeply before opening her eyes as he rose from their bed. Laying on her stomach, she propped herself up on her elbows and looked at the chronometer as Chakotay sat on the edge of the bed putting a pair of pants on.
"0247?" she muttered incredulously. "What could somebody want at this hour?"
Chakotay walked over to the comm station at the desk and sat down. When he activated the screen, he saw Commander Walker on the other end and frowned. "Mark?"
When Kathryn heard him, she bolted upright in bed and reached for a shirt sitting on the floor, pulling it over her head in one swift motion before jumping out of bed and moving over to the desk.
"Sorry to bother you so late," said Mark. "Is Kathryn there?"
"Right here, Mark," she said as she stepped around the desk and sat on Chakotay's lap in the chair. "Is there something wrong?"
"Annika went into labor about an hour ago."
Kathryn quickly did the math in her head. Seven had been eight months pregnant when they had thrown the baby shower, but that had only been�three weeks ago. "It's early," she said. "The doctors estimated nine and a half months, didn't they?"
"Yes, but they don't think there will be any problems." He paused. "I know it's late, but I think she'd appreciate your presence, Kathryn. They've given her some analgesics, but the nanoprobes in her system are just assimilating it and very little is actually having an effect."
"Are you at Starfleet Medical?"
"Yes."
"We'll be there as soon as we can," Kathryn assured him.
"Thank you."
* * *
Annika let out a cry as another contraction seized her and she gripped Kathryn's hand.
"You're doing great, Annika," Mark assured her. "Almost there."
She responded with another yell. When she was able to catch her breath, she muttered. "I see why the Borg chose assimilation. This is an inefficient means of procreation."
Kathryn laughed, knowing that Annika was not serious in her use of the Borg phrase. In fact, she looked incredibly human right now, her face glowing with perspiration and tendrils of blond hair clinging to her forehead.
"You're doing well, Seven," said Doctor Talera. "Just a few more minutes."
"That's easy for you to say," she growled. "I would like to see you try this. Without analgesics."
He was obviously ashamed. "Well, if you ever have other children, I'm sure I can �"
"I am never doing this agaiAAAAAAAA!" said Annika as another contraction began.
Kathryn looked up at Mark. "Is she serious?" she whispered.
He shook his head with a smile. "I doubt it."
The Doctor turned to one of his assistants. "Bring me the incubator."
"Yes, Doctor."
He turned back to Annika. "Seven�" When he saw that her eyes were squeezed shut and the force with which she was squeezing Kathryn's hand, he turned instead to Mark. "When the next contraction begins, she needs to push."
Mark nodded in understanding.
Annika relaxed her grip on Kathryn's hand as the contraction passed. "You're doing great, Annika," she assured her, reaching over to wipe the perspiration off her forehead.
She looked at her curiously. "That is the first time you have called me Annika," she observed.
Kathryn smiled. "So it is."
She smiled back, but gripped her hand again as another contraction began.
"Push, Annika," said Mark. "You have to push."
She yelled as she did so.
"Just a little more, Seven," said the Doctor.
Annika screamed again, but this time her voice was joined by the crying of an infant.
The Doctor stood up with the wailing child in his arms, cleaning it off with a blanket.
He turned to the proud parents. "It's a girl."
Annika smiled and slumped back on the bed with a smile on her face. "A girl," she repeated happily.
The Doctor checked the new baby out thoroughly before wrapping her up and bringing her over to gently place her in her mother's arms. "Congratulations, Seven."
Annika took the bundle gratefully as her husband hung over her shoulder, beaming. "Hello there," he said, reaching over run a finger along her cheek.
"She's so small," said Annika in awe, picking up one of her daughter's tiny hands in hers.
Kathryn leaned over, running her finger along the infant's cheek. "Have you decided on a name?"
Annika looked up at her, a tear running down her cheek. "Erin," she said softly. "After my mother."
"Hello, Erin," said Kathryn quietly. She observed the baby for a few more minutes before she stood up. "I'll go tell the others and send in Cassie."
Annika looked up again momentarily. "Thank you, Admiral."
She smiled. "Annika, I think it's about time you started calling me Kathryn."
"Kathryn�" She looked at Mark, who nodded with a smile. "We would be honored if you would consider becoming Erin's godmother."
Kathryn's smile widened. "I would be delighted."
Annika nodded, pleased, then returned her attention to her child.
Kathryn smiled back at the happy family, then left the delivery room and made her way to the small room where many of Voyager's former crew were waiting.
Chakotay, Harry, and Megan were sitting at a small table entertaining Miral, and Neelix was sitting in a chair with Cassandra Walker. Tom was sitting on a couch, and B'Elanna was stretched out along its length, her head resting in his lap. When Tom saw her enter the room, he woke his wife and caught the attention of the group at the table.
When they were all looking at her, she smiled.
"It's a girl."
* * *
A half-hour later, Kathryn stood at the window in front of the delivery room, watching Annika and Mark with their new infant daughter.
She didn't hear Chakotay come up behind her, so she was surprised when she felt his arms go around her waist and he rested his chin on her shoulder.
"You should probably get some rest," he observed.
"What time is it?" she asked without taking her eyes off the peaceful scene in the room before her.
"Almost 0900."
She snorted. "Time for my morning coffee, you mean. You don't seriously expect me to go back to bed this early, do you?"
"You were in there for almost six hours, Kathryn."
She turned to look at him, amused. "I wasn't the one in labor."
"She's going to be getting plenty of rest. You, on the other hand�"
She turned her gaze back to the room with no more comment that a "Hm."
After a few minutes, she said quietly, "They look so happy."
There was something in her voice that struck him � it sounded almost like sadness or regret.
He turned his head to get a better look at her, and he frowned in surprise as he saw her watching them. There was something he in her expression that he had never observed before � longing. She looked almost envious of the scene before her, and he could see a sad smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
His frown deepened as he thought. He had never tried to push Kathryn into any kind of commitment, knowing that she was wary of that sort of thing. He had just accepted that there were some parts of her that would always remain off-limits, just like when they were on Voyager.
But they weren't on Voyager anymore.
He followed her gaze into the room. Annika was sitting propped up on the bed with her husband beside her, and they were both admiring the baby in her arms. Annika turned towards him, and they kissed tenderly before returning their attention to the baby.
He looked back at the woman standing in his arms.
"Kathryn?"
She looked over her shoulder at him. "Hm?"
"Is that what you want?"
It took her a moment to figure out what he was referring to, and she looked back at the scene in the room before them.
"A�a family, you mean?" She thought for a moment. "I'm happy, Chakotay."
He reached up and took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him.
"That's not what I asked." He regarded her with an affectionate smile. "I've never pushed you, and maybe I was wrong to hold back for so long." He moved one of his fingers slowly back and forth on her cheek. "Is that what you want?"
Her lips parted slightly as she looked into his eyes. Slowly, she smiled, tears forming in her eyes.
"That's a funny way to propose," she whispered.
He was rendered speechless, so she leaned forward and kissed him.
When they finally broke apart, he looked at her with a foolish grin on his face and reached up to wipe away a tear that rolled freely down her cheek.
"Is that a yes?"
She laughed through the tears in her eyes. "Yes," she finally sputtered.
This time, it was him who initiated the kiss, oblivious to the stares of the strangers in the hallway as he spun her around in his arms.
<< BACK TO PART XVIII: REUNIONS
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