Miracle on 3rd Deck
By Rachel
Disclaimer: Voyager & crew belong to Paramount, Miracle on 34th St. belongs to whoever, nothing belongs to me...can't you just feel the Christmas spirit?
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Seven (well, she really wasn't so little, but emotionally she was a child), and she lived in a cold cargo bay in the depths of space. Her mother figure, Captain Janeway, was a cold woman who hadn't known love for a long time and didn't believe in much of anything. Captain Janeway had a friend called Chakotay who wanted to love her and wanted her to believe in something, but she had been burned once too often and so she spurned his advances.
Things went on this way until the time came for Christmas. Shortly before Christmas (five or six years to be exact), Captain Janeway met a man named Doc Kringle. Now he said he was really EMH Claus, but Captain Janeway didn't believe in EMH Claus and she'd taught Seven not to believe in EMH Claus either. But Doc Kringle was good with patients, so she let him work on Voyager. Patients would come and sit on his knee and tell him what was wrong with them, and he would tell them how to get better.
When Chakotay found out that Captain Janeway and Seven didn't believe in EMH Claus, he was very sad. He tried to tell them that EMH Claus was real, but they didn't believe him. One day he even took Seven to see Doc Kringle, but then Captain Janeway found out and was very unhappy with Chakotay. So he didn't do that again.
Seven was very confused after meeting Doc Kringle and told Captain Janeway that she wasn't sure whether to believe in EMH Claus or not, but she said that if EMH Claus was real she was pretty sure it was Doc Kringle. Captain Janeway wasn't sure how to answer Seven, but finally she told her that if she wanted to find out if Doc Kringle was really EMH Claus she should ask him for something that she would never ever ask Captain Janeway for, and if she got it she would know that Doc Kringle was EMH Claus. But if she didn't get it, she would know that Captain Janeway had been telling her the truth all along.
One evening Captain Janeway agreed to go out to the holodeck with Chakotay, but she couldn't find a babysitter for Seven. So Chakotay convinced Doc Kringle to babysit Seven for the evening.
As Doc Kringle was putting Seven to bed in the cargo bay, she decided to do as Captain Janeway had said. She asked him if he was really EMH Claus, and he said yes. So she said, "I want a brother, and a father figure, and real quarters for Christmas. If you're really EMH Claus, you can get that for me by Christmas, but if not I'll know that Captain Janeway was right."
Doc Kringle answered Seven, "That's a very tall order, but I'll see what I can do." Seven smiled and turned to regenerate.
At the end of their date in the holodeck, Chakotay decided to do something he'd been wanting to do for a long time. He gave Captain Janeway an engagement ring. She was afraid of being hurt if she married him, though, and so she turned him down.
Chakotay was very sad. He met Doc Kringle that night as he was coming out of the cargo bay and told him what had happened. Then he said he didn't want to recycle the ring in the replicator, so he gave it to Doc Kringle, telling him to give it to some other lucky guy.
Shortly after this, and very soon before Christmas, Doc Kringle had a problem with his program when a bad hologram from another ship made him mad so he hit the other hologram. He had to go on trial for whether he would be reprogrammed, but to Captain Janeway's delight Chakotay's brilliant defense convinced lots of people that Doc Kringle just might be EMH Claus and so he didn't have to be reprogrammed.
Doc Kringle got his freedom just in time for Christmas, so he had just enough time to make Seven's wish come true. He left fake reports for both Captain Janeway and Chakotay to have them meet in the mess hall at midnight on Christmas eve, where Tuvok, to whom Doc Kringle had given the ring, also met them and married them, somewhat to both of their surprise. Once they were married, though, they decided it was probably a good thing and so agreed to stay married. When Captain Janeway got back to her quarters with Chakotay, she found another pad waiting for her. She skimmed through it, thought about it for a minute, and then decided to enjoy her wedding night.
The next day, Seven was already awake in the cargo bay when Captain Janeway came in. Seven noticed the ring on her finger immediately and was happily surprised. Seven was even more happy and surprised when she found out why Captain Janeway had come: the captain had decided that it was time for Seven to have her own quarters.
As Captain Janeway and Chakotay showed Seven to her quarters, Seven told them that she supposed she'd just have to wait for her other Christmas wish. When they asked what her other wish had been, she replied, "a baby brother," and quickly disappeared to check out her new quarters, secure in her belief in EMH Claus and leaving two stunned parent figures behind.