SUMMARY: In answer to a challenge where Kathryn can wear a dress of any other colour except blue. Chakotay finally tells Kathryn just what he thinks she should be wearing!
RATING: as usual for one of mine, this story has a “no-smut” rating!
DISCLAIMER: Characters – not mine, nuff said. Storyline – mine!
It had finally happened. Voyager had been forced to land on an unoccupied planet, with no hope of ever launching into space again. Messages had been sent to Starfleet who had replied that maybe there could be a rescue ten years down the road. The crew had begun the transition from ship to shore living, a security perimeter had been set up over several square miles and slowly a community was being forged both physically and mentally.
Under the direction of Chakotay, the men of the crew began building wooden homes, while B’Elanna headed up a team hell-bent on creating a viable power source for the settlement. Kathryn Janeway, used to heading up her own team for so long, now found herself almost at a loose end until her former first officer began passing some of his administrative duties on to her. Now her days were spent in her ready room sorting out rooming assignments and other functionary duties.
There were other subtle transitions as well. The crew abandoned the Starfleet uniforms they had worn for the past seven years, opting to wear casual clothing more suitable for the tasks in which they were now involved. The only concession to protocol was the rank pins that each person now wore on the left shoulder of whatever they were wearing. Chakotay and several former Maquis had opted to don their old brown leathers and Kathryn found it amusing to see some of the Starfleet crew adopt a similar style of dress.
Personal relationships were also being formed. In the past couple of months Kathryn had officiated over three weddings, and received requests for two more. With protocol and crew structure less rigid now many felt that she was more amenable to such requests. And she was.
Hell, Kathryn herself was becoming more receptive to the concept of a personal relationship. And the object of her covert desires was beginning to realise it.
A trio of beeps alerted Kathryn that the workday was done. With a sigh she shut down her computer, making a note of which issues to make her top priority in the morning. One of her concessions to the change in circumstances was that she would no longer work as long hours as she had in the past, in an effort to preserve what remaining power the ship had. Therefore when it got dark outside she had thirty minutes to shutdown. She had also found out recently that if she weren’t out of Voyager within those thirty minutes that Chakotay would come looking for her.
But she had dinner with the man tonight. And that was a good reason to shut down for the evening.
Thirty minutes later she knocked softly at the door to his cabin. A call to “come in,” made her push the door gently open and she was greeted with the smell of something delicious cooking.
“Its almost ready,” he called through. “Pour yourself a glass of wine and sit down.”
“Are you sure I can’t help?”
“No way.”
Kathryn laughed, poured the wine for both of them and sat down to wait for the meal to be served up. She wasn’t disappointed with what Chakotay produced. Over the years she had grown to really appreciate his home cooking. If she ever lost him she knew she would probably starve.
It was when they were clearing the dishes away afterwards that she noticed him looking at her rather strangely. When they settled back down on the couch with the rest of the wine she finally asked him what he was looking at.
“You,” he replied, smiling. “You’re wearing a dress and you hardly ever wear a dress. Not that it’s a bad thing,” he hurried on, seeing her confused expression. “You look really good in it.”
She grinned. “Thank you. But it’s not a dress. It’s a shirt and skirt, see?” She pulled the elastic waistband of the navy skirt away from her, letting it snap back against her. “And what do you mean I hardly ever wear dresses? I do too.”
Chakotay laughed and patted her knee consolingly. “For formal functions, for Neelix’ parties. Then you do. Not other times. But I do have one question. Why blue? Why do you always wear variations of blue?”
Kathryn leaned back away from him. “I happen to like blue,” she retorted. “Since when did you become such a fashion expert, Mister Brown Maquis Leather?”
“I thought you liked this, Kathryn,” he pouted. “You certainly seemed taken with it when I first came aboard Voyager.”
Her eyes widened but she laughed as she realised he was teasing her. “Well, I always thought you rather liked the blue. Evidently you don’t.” She leaned forward again and leaned her chin upon an elbow, which was propped up on her knee. “Perhaps you could suggest another dress for me to wear.”
Chakotay was silent for a moment. Finally he looked at her and said abruptly, “A wedding dress.”
Kathryn blinked and swallowed. “A wedding dress?” she repeated astounded.
“A wedding dress,” Chakotay confirmed. He too had taken on a look of disbelief. “Did I actually say that?”
“You did, mister,” she told him firmly. “And you better have a damned good explanation for why you did. Just whose wedding is this supposed to be?”
He looked across at her and grinned. “Ours, I hope. I’m sorry, Kathryn. I was going to save this for your birthday next month but as usual…”
“Open mouth, insert foot?” she suggested dryly. “Perhaps you should start over.”
So he did.
There came an afternoon when Chakotay entered Kathryn’s cabin to find a great flurry of activity. Shrieks from the Delaney twins confirmed that he evidently arrived at an inopportune time and the sight of B’Elanna frantically running through with a piece of material only added to his thought.
But he had caught sight of the fabric in B’Elanna’s hands. He shook his head. Not blue, surely that had not been a sky blue satin he had seen? He’d specifically said that she could have any other colour wedding dress, hell she could even wear her dress uniform if she felt like it or don black, but he would not stand for a blue wedding dress. “I think I’m too old for a white wedding dress,” she had claimed and so he had suggested cream, pink, yellow. Just not that damned blue!
He grabbed hold of the next woman to run past him. “Tell Kathryn to come see me when she has a moment,” he told her, before beating a hasty retreat out of the place.
Kathryn grinned wickedly when she received the message. Just moments ago she’d been told by B’Elanna that her fiancé had looked rather alarmed after he’d caught a glimpse of the dress the younger woman had been carrying. Chakotay’s proposal had caught her off-guard but she had been more than willing to say yes and she had immediately called upon B’Elanna and a few others to help her get a suitable outfit together. No blue indeed, she snorted.
The day upon which Kathryn and Chakotay’s wedding day fell dawned bright and clear. Many of the New San Fran inhabitants were up early, preparing for the ceremony and the consequential celebrations. In Kathryn’s cabin her and B’Elanna were fussing over their dresses, while Naomi paced excitedly.
“Will you stop that, Naomi?” the engineer muttered. “I swear you’re getting on my nerves.”
“Getting on your nerves?” Kathryn echoed. “How do you think mine are doing? Who’s the one getting married here?”
“Yes, but you’re not seven months pregnant and stuffed into this thing,” B’Elanna groused about her dress as she bent down to wipe some dust off it. “I swear its been altered so many times it’s a wonder its still intact.”
“Good thing Megan Delaney proved to be such a good seamstress then,” Kathryn grinned. “But of course you’re right. I’m not seven months pregnant. I’m just two weeks.”
B’Elanna’s head bobbed back up. “You’re kidding me?” she gasped.
“You’re pregnant Aunt Kath?” Naomi asked, excited.
Kathryn took in their surprised expressions. “Found out yesterday from the doctor. I think this has to be a better gift than the not wearing a blue dress thing, don’t you?”
“Absolutely!” B’Elanna replied. “Although you never saw the look on Chakotay’s face when he saw my dress and thought it was part of your wedding dress.”
“Serves him right,” the bride retorted. “There I was all these years wearing blue because I thought he liked it and then he tells me otherwise.”
“Typical male,” B’Elanna nodded. “Get used to it.”
“Maybe I should dress our daughter in blue just to spite him,” Kathryn mused. “If it is a daughter, that is.”
Naomi giggled. “Make sure you dress your son in pink then.”
The women burst out laughing.
“You had me worried for a time,” Chakotay told his new wife later. “Did B’Elanna tell you I saw what I thought was your wedding dress the one time I stopped by?”
Kathryn nodded. “Couldn’t have worked out better than if I’d actually planned it myself.”
Her husband laughed. “You’re a wicked woman, Kathryn Janeway. Good thing I love you anyway.”
“I love you too,” she replied, with a gleam in her eyes. “But really, that’s what you get for being so obnoxious about my clothing.”
“I was not being obnoxious. I just decided that I could tell my friend, rather than my captain, just what I thought about her wardrobe choices after all these years.”
She laughed. “Then you’re the wicked one, my love. Letting me think the one thing for all these years when really you were thinking another.”
But she still had that look in her eyes and finally Chakotay felt compelled to call her on it. “Okay, come on. What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” she replied, a little too innocently perhaps.
“Oh yes there is,” he replied. “You’ve got that look in your eyes which means you know something I don’t and you’re enjoying it.”
“Well, I was just thinking,” she began. “What would you say if our daughter took a liking to wearing blue? Would you play the heavy-handed father with her and tell her she couldn’t?”
His dumbstruck look said it all. She had got him and got him good. “You’re joking,” he finally managed to stagger out. “You’re pregnant?”
In response Kathryn merely smiled and invited her husband to dance.
FINIS