KATHRYN´S HOUSE
Chakotay was sitting in a chair in a restaurant in San Fransisco. He had just been at Starfleet Academy
where he had been offered a position as teacher there. He had said he would think about it but he knew
that he would probably take it. What else was there for him to do?.. and the thought wasn´t at all bad,
helping shape the minds of future Starfleet officer, no, not bad at all.
She saw him immediately. He was sitting in a corner with a view of the door but he was reading a padd
and didn´t see her come in. She smiled and walked towards him quickly.
Kathryn Janeway was walking down a San Fransisco street looking for a place to have some lunch. She
had just been to Starfleet Academy. She had told them that she wanted to take it easy for a while, not be
captain of a ship again, atleast not yet. So they had put together a list of jobs at Starfleet she could chose from and that when she felt ready, a ship would be there for her. She spotted a restaurant at the corner of
the road and went in
” Haven´t I seen you before?” she said with a smile and put her hand gently on his arm.
He looked up with a start.
”Kathryn!”
He looked shell shocked.
”Chakotay you look like you´ve seen a ghost” she said, still smiling, she couldn´t seem to stop doing that.
He stood up abruptly.
”I´m sorry Kathryn, it´s just..well, you´re the last person I accepted to see that´s all. Not that I´m not
pleased” he said quickly, ”please sit down”. He motioned her towards the seat on the other side of the
table and she took it.
*Gods I´ve missed her* he thought to himself while she looked over the menu the waiter and brought her.
”What are you doing these days”, she asked him when she had finished ordering.
”Well I just came back from Starfleet Academy. They´ve offered me a teaching position there.....
They talked for a long time. He explained what he had done after Voyager had returned and how he felt
about the job at the Academy. She did the same for him, telling him about how she didn´t know wether
she would ever captain a ship again and how everyone thought that so strange, including herself, since for
the longest time that was what she wanted to do. But not now.
Then they just sat silent for a moment.
”I´ve missed you” she said and put her hand on his.
He smiled at her, a warm smile and squeezed her hand with his.
”I´ve missed you too. It feels like I haven´t seen you in years”.
” I feel the same way, and yet it´s only been three weeks”.
”Listen, I feel like getting up and moving around alittle, do you want to take a walk?”
”I´d love to” she replied.
So they walked and talked. They talked about everything and nothing. About how they felt about getting
home, what the crew were up to and how they felt about getting home.
She was telling him about how she had bought a house just outside San Fransisco when she suddenly
stopped dead.
”Kathryn, what is it?”
”Look” she said and pointed in front of them.
And then he saw it, the monument that had been risen in their memory, well, in the memory of the
original crew of Voyager, before Starfleet knew what had happened to them.
They had known about the monument but neither of them had seen it. Now there it was. Chakotay looked
at Kathryn and she started walking towards it, he followed.
She sat down on a bench in front of the monument and stared up at it with tears in her eyes. Chakotay
quietly sat down next to her and pulled her to him letting her tears role down onto his shirt. She clutched
at him and cryed her eyes out over the years in the delta quadrant, over the ones who never got to see their
home again but most of all she just cried because of all the pent up emotion that she had held inside over
the last seven years.
They sat like that for a long time after Kathryn´s tears had dried but it was getting dark and they both
knew it was time to go home. So they got up and walked away from the monument, neither noticing, or
wanting to mention, that Chakotay still had his arm protectively around her shoulder.
***************************************************
They arrived at a transport station ten minutes later and Chakotay let go of her looking towards the
transport padd and then down at her. They stood there looking at eachother, standing so close they were
almost brushing against eachother.
”Well... I guess this is goodbye again” he said softly.
” I don´t want it to be.” she blurted out. ” Why don´t you come with me, I can show you my house that I
told you about”. She held her breath waiting for him to answer.
His answer was a smile and he gave her a warm hug and said
”Oh Kathryn, I would love to see your house”.
She smiled and they both walked onto the transport padd and a few seconds later they were in a building
only ten minutes walk from her home.
They walked hand in hand not saying anything. Both occupied with their own thoughts. Both wondering
were this was heading.
Finally they arrived and Chakotay smiled as he saw what she had planted in a small patch in her garden.
”Talaxian tomatoes!”
She blushed trying to say something about how Neelix had given them to her but came out short when he
walked up close to her and stroked her cheek softly.
”I´ve always had a weakness for Talaxian tomatoes” he said quietly
”Oh really” she said taking the last step that seperated them and put her arm around his waist.
”Really” he said and then bent his head until their mouths met.
It was a soft kiss, their first kiss. But it sent shivers down both their spines. Maybe because it had been a
very long time since either of them had kissed anyone or maybe, just maybe it was the person they were
kissing that mattered to both of them.
After a while, neither of them could say how long, they seperated and stood with their foreheads together.
Kathryn smiled as she got a mental picture of the two of them, standing, arms around eachother in her
garden surrounded by Talaxian tomatoes!
”Kathryn”
”Yes Chakotay”
” Do you want to go inside. I still want to see your house”.
She laughed a big laugh and hugged him quickly before taking his hand and leading him through the
doors of her house.
The End
To Janeway and Chakotay Index
To my Voyager Universe
