It was practically a day later when things were finally starting to smooth out and regular routines were once again in full swing. Kathryn had just finished the Alpha shift when she had decided to take a hot bath in her quarters. Lighting some of her replicated candles and placing them around the tubs infrastructure she submerged her tired body into the warm hands of the soft water and blew some of the bubbles from off of its surface. She splashed some of it up onto her neck and placed a soaked washcloth over her eyes. Nothing like a space anomaly to remind a Captain how to relax. Just then a computerized chime indicated that the monitor in her bathroom had come to life, complete with the EMH in full view.
"Excuse me, Captain, for interrupting your bed, bath and beyond moment," he said while Janeway quickly added more bubbles to the rushing water in an attempt to keep at least few secrets that she didn't want to reveal to anyone, not even the doctor, hidden.
He noted her course of action and said, "As I once told Ms. Torres, 'I'm a doctor . . not a peeping Tom.' Nothing I haven't seen before mind-you."
"Doctor," Janeway gritted her teeth, "just what exactly is so important that you use your Medical Override code to access this monitor?"
"Oh!" He remarked, as if he had already forgotten, "yes well, I have an interesting . . . case . . . in sickbay and I'm not sure how to deal with it."
That got the Captain's attention. The EMH was programmed with more knowledge than anyone could account for and yet he had hit a brick wall on something? "I'll be right there," she stated and was about to get out when she noticed the EMH was still there smiling. "Do you mind?" She asked.
"Oh, so sorry," he stated and was about to end transmission when the Captain called out to him.
"Oh, and doctor?" She stated sweetly.
"Yes?" He turned with an expectant grin and was greeted with a soapy, wet washcloth as it hit the viewscreen before blinking out of existence.
"Always the EMH . . ." she muttered as she grabbed her towel, " . . . . never the Commander."
Entering Sickbay she was surprised to see Ensign McHale restrained to the sickbay biobed. The Ensign seemed to be fighting the restraints quite passionately.
"Doctor?" Janeway walked forward, her eyes questioningly.
"I'm fine, I tell you!" Ensign McHale stated passionately. "Please . . .Captain, tell him to release me. This is embarrassing!"
Kathryn was about to say something, her mouth opened slightly before what the Doctor said to Ensign McHale silenced her. "Embarrassing, Ms. McHale is when you chased Ensign Kim through Jeffries tube nine . . . pinching his glutamus maximus." He cleared his throat and turned back to Janeway. "I should let you know, Captain, that Mr. Kim was anything but a willing participant." He used his finger to motion for her to follow him over to the restrained Ensign McHale. Taking out a medical tricorder, he seemed in awe, "Her estrogen levels have escalated unbelievably . . . I'd say that if Mr. Kim hadn't called for Tuvok . . well there would've been another, shall we say, 'big bang,' introduced to Voyager since that Anomaly."
Janeway closed her eyes slightly, for a moment, trying not to let the Doctor's vivid picture sink in before responding, "Any idea why this is?"
"None . . . as far as I know, she shouldn't undergo this sort of . . .sexual . . . frenzy" he stated.
Janeway raised her eyebrow and the doctor held up his hand, "at least not to the degree that Mr. Kim was subjected to. Besides that," he pulled the Captain over to the side, away from McHales' whining, "Harry says it's totally out of character for Ensign McHale. That and she is . . er . . was involved with Ensign Darson."
"What would you recommend, Doctor? Obviously something strange is happening here," Kathryn rubbed her eyes slightly. She was tired and wanted a cup of coffee, a hot bath . . a Commander. 'A Commander?!' She felt her back constrict with that thought . . where the hell had that come from? But the doctor's words interrupted her inquiry.
"Well, I'd like to keep her in sickbay. Unless of course you'd like to release her to the Holodeck to pursue a Holographic Mr. Kim?"
Janeway closed her eyes, sighing and shaking her head as Ensign McHale picked up on that last statement in agreement, "OH yes! Please! I must see Harry! Please, Captain?. I won't pinch, honest."
She glared at the Doctor, "Keep her here. That's an order." I need my Ensign's glutamus maximus in one piece for the bridge's operation console."
Walking out of sickbay she wondered what Ensign McHale saw in Harry's butt . . . in her mind . . .Chakotay's was much . .. much . . . better. She groaned out loud, frustrated that her mind was sinking so low and only regained her composure when an Ensign stared. Speaking of which, she could see Chakotay rounding a corner walking towards her, PADD in hand. She watched as his thigh muscles rippled and strained against those damn Starfleet issued slacks . . . his mouth turned to a smile and all of a sudden she wanted to experience more than just a smile from those lips of his. "Hot damn, Kathryn," she muttered, and shook her head at her own thoughts. She hadn't felt that affected since the academy . . . even Mark inspired, well, a little more reserve than she had when she thought of Chakotay. "Oh . . . My . . . Gawd," Kathryn took a deep, cooling breath, as she kept walking. "I make Ensign McHale look like a flirtatious school girl." With each step towards the Commander, she felt her body temperature rise another degree . . . or two . . . or ten.
CONTINUED IN PART 5!
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