New Resolutions

Disclaimer: Paramount owns the right to all of this, although I think they should take some pointers

This story has been entered in the J/C fan fiction contest.

“Well, this is certainly an interesting way to wake up”.
Kathryn Janeway said as she stared right down into the face of her commander, who was, from what she could tell fast asleep.
“Chakotay!” she said in a loud voice hoping he would wake up.
He didn’t.
“Chakotay!!” she said even louder, this time he mumbled something about not wanting to get up and tried to turn around. When he was unable to he opened his eyes and the look on his face almost made Kathryn laugh.
It was a look of shock, worry, incredulity, horror and she could practically hear his mind working trying to remember how they had gotten into this particular situation.
“Don’t worry I don’t remember anything either” she chuckled although she silently thought to herself that that may not be a good thing.
“Where are we?” he said turning his head to have a look around.
“Your guess is as good as mine, the last thing I remember was going to sleep in my quarters on Voyager. You?”
“Same here… I wonder how long we’ve been here, where ever here is”
“I don’t know that either, I just woke up a few minutes ago but by the sounds your stomach is making it’s been a while” she said with a faint smile on her lips.
“Uh Kathryn”
“Yeah”
“Comfortable?”
“What…oh sorry” she said blushing slightly as she rolled off of Chakotay
Kathryn stood up and started pacing the room, which wasn’t that big.
Chakotay sat up and looked at her. She was wearing a pink nightgown which didn’t conceal much.
She stopped pacing and looked at him, noticing the direction his eyes went she gave him a cold stare
“I can’t believe you!” she said exasperated
“What”
“We’re trapped in a room with no way to contact Voyager and you’re sitting there ogling your captain”.
“I wasn’t ogling” he said meekly, besides, he thought, I quite like the view.
“Well then close your eyes”, she said smartly. “Besides she added, you’ve seen me in my nightgown before”.
“That was very different”, he said
“Why?”
“Because that nightgown covered you from head to toe, the only part of you I could see was your face and hands. This on the other hand doesn’t conceal much” he said smiling
She felt herself blush under his gaze and once again wished she could get out of the restraints. “Well I’m sorry if I disappointed you with my choice of evening wear on New Earth” she said “but as I recall you got your fare share of ogling there too.”
“When!?”
“Oh please, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about the bathtub incident”
“The bathtub incident,” Chakotay laughed “Kathryn I remember seeing you when you’d just gotten out of the bathtub, that I made you by the way, but there was no incident, you were too busy playing with that damm monkey”.
“I was not playing with it and you know it”.
“My mistake then”
They were both quiet.
“I hope the crew is alright” Kathryn said resting her forehead on the glass board.
“I know” Chakotay said. I’m sure they are, there is nothing to suggest that they’ve been captured too. They’re probably working on a way to free us.”
“I hope you’re right.”

***************************************************

“Chakotay…”
“yes Kathryn”
“Don’t you find it strange that we’ve never talked about it until now”
“Talked about what?”
“Our time on New Earth, I mean, we were there for a long time, and over the course of the years and all the talks we’ve had we’ve never talked about it, not even mentioned it casually”.
“Well” he said carefully, I didn’t mention it because I thought it would make you uncomfortable”.
“Why did you think that?”
“Well, certain things…came up when we were there, and I didn’t think you wanted to talk about them.”
“You mean you thought I didn’t want to hear more tales about the angry warrior?” she said smiling.
“Something like that” he said and smiled too.


***************************************************

“I never thanked you”
“For what?”
Kathryn was sitting leaning against the wall. She sighed.
“For making it bearable on New Earth. I know I didn’t exactly act like I wanted to be there…always working on finding a cure…but I really do value our time there.”
Chakotay left his standing position on the other side of the room and sat down next to her.
“I’m glad to hear that Kathryn, I know it was hard for you, and maybe I gave up a little too easily I don’t know. But I too cherish our time there, it gave us a chance to get to know each other without the command structure hanging over our heads.”
“I never told you this but I felt a little sad when Tuvok contacted us.”
“You did?!”
“Well..yeah. I had just accepted that we were stuck there and I was coming to terms with spending the rest of my life with you. After your little angry warrior story I thought about a lot actually.”
He was looking at her intently and asked softly “And what did you feel about that prospect?”
She smiled
“I probably shouldn’t be telling you this but if we hadn’t been rescued we would have gotten much closer, at least that would have been what I would have wanted.” She said looking down at her hands.
“I wanted that then, but I knew you didn’t.” He said
“I was unsure what I wanted, a part of me had those feelings, another part was still stuck in the mind of the part of me that was captain. A part of me that couldn’t think of you like that because you were my first officer.”
“And now that I am your first officer you can’t think of me like that” Chakotay said with a sigh.
Kathryn didn’t say anything instead she moved her hand so that it rested on his. He took and they sat there for a long time holding each others hands both thinking of the past, the future, who they had been and who they were.

They were still holding hands when they heard commotion on the other side of the wall. And stood up just in time to see a rescue team blast through the wall and beam them up to Voyager.

***************************************************

“How about dinner tonight”. She said as they were leaving sickbay.
“Sure, he said, any special occasion?”
“Not really, while we were trapped down on the planet I thought of what I see when I look at you and I realised that I can look at you and see both Chakotay and the first officer.”
“And that means…” he said unsure over where she was headed.
“I´ll tell you this evening” she said smiling “oh and don’t wear your uniform. I’ve made a few new resolutions that I think you’ll like” She said walking leaving him in the corridor looking surprised and hopeful. :happy:

THE END

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