TITLE: The Train
AUTHOR: Matteabrit, July 2002 (though why I’m admitting to this, I’m not sure!)
SUMMARY: Just a little problem on Chakotay’s home planet, caused by Kathryn
RATING: PG (for language – nowt else)
DISCLAIMER: I am not going through this again!
NOTE: thanks to JoJo for the incredibly quick read… I love ya, girlfriend… really, I do.

“Kathryn,” Chakotay began warily as he stared at the floor. “You came to bed after me last night, didn’t you?”

His companion looked up briefly from her computer where she was checking the morning’s incoming transmissions. “Yes. Why?” Her head turned back to the console in front of her.

He sighed. “Because we have a train going across the floor.”

“A train of what, dear?” She pushed her feet further over the rear bar of the desk; rarely did she keep both feet on the floor these days, a nasty habit she’d developed as Chakotay called it.

“Of ants,” he replied calmly, his gaze still fixed on the ground.

“What?” Her head jerked up and she stared at her husband’s worried expression.

“Here.” He pointed to the ground. “We have a perfect train of ants going across the floor. They are coming in here,” he indicated the window. “Moving to your pile of padds there and then returning to the window.”

Kathryn was perplexed. “What’s so fascinating about my padds?”

Chakotay sighed again. “Last night you didn’t move the empty plates on the floor, did you.” There was no need for her to answer. “I moved them this morning when I got up.”

She smiled shyly at him. “Well, there were more important things for me to focus on.”

Chakotay threw back the memories of the night before. “Kathryn,” he groaned. “They are going right to where the food was.”

“Oh, come on,” she laughed, peering down at the trail from the safety of her perch. “They don’t go for food.”

“Remember last summer?” he chastised her. “I thought you’d learned then.”

“But food?”

“Yes. You’re the scientist. Work it out for yourself.”

“I’m not a nature scientist,” she snapped back. “My speciality was the stars, planets. Things above us, not beneath us.”

Chakotay groaned again. His head rose up as he heard the far off siren begin over, knowing he wouldn’t be able to respond this time. “Hear that?” he asked, knowing damn well that she could. “That is what has kept me busy all week, assisting with the forest fires on the south side. You were supposed to fix the window frame.”

“Was I?”

He closed his eyes and wished he could start over. For someone so intelligent, his loving wife could be so incredibly self-absorbed at times. “Yes,” he ground out slowly. “Replace the rotting wooden window frame with the new materials. But you didn’t and you didn’t remove the plates either and so now we have a lovely little parade taking place on our living room floor.” He hoped his mother wasn’t watching over this scenario. She’d be horrified at what the “white woman” had done to her home. “What have you been doing this week?” He already knew the answer. “Going through Starfleet reports, weren’t you. You’re either reading them or writing them,” he spat out in frustration. Even as he spoke he was beginning to solve the problem, applying the humane substance that would lead the ants away from his home.

“Well…” she began.

“Nevermind,” he sighed. While, she continued to sit at her desk, feet on the bars, he continued in his task. Just another sign that he and Kathryn were two very different people. She’d agreed to come with him to his home planet but he couldn’t help but wonder if she’d be more suited to life back on Earth. Thinking of Earth, he thought of another question.

“Did you never have ants in Indiana?”

FINIS

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