TIME AND DISTANCE

"We can't lead love
down the path of least resistance.
We've got to hold our own
against time...and distance."

= = = = = = = = = = =

I pulled off my muddy boots and left them on the front porch. I was sweaty, thirsty and exhausted, but in a good kind of way.

I crossed the smooth tile floor to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of ice cold water from the fridge. I could have just replicated it, probably quicker, but since moving into the home almost a year before, I'd gotten re-accustomed to the older style amenities.

I leaned against the counter and looked out the big bay window at the hills in the distance. With all of the strange phenomenon I had seen in my life, the sight of those hills still took my breath away.

Sevier County, Tennessee was where I called "home". At least when I wasn't on Voyager. I wasn't sure what made me settle there, but I'd done it. I had ninety-seven acres of land, horses and cattle, too. I laughed amidst my ruminations. It had all started with Circe. She'd certainly been an impulse buy. I was at an auction with my neighbor, Hank Pierson, and this big bay had nuzzled right up to me. It was like she was asking to go home with me. I named her Circe, because it certainly must have been some spell she cast to make me bid for her. Six months later I had a working ranch.

Caleb, my foreman, kept an eye on things for me when I was away, and Hank was always available if we needed him. I would have hated living cramped in some city apartment. In my off time I'd come to crave wide-open spaces.

I put my glass down and headed for the bedroom. I need to change clothes. I'd been riding down near Douglas Lake, having a picnic at one of my favorite spots. I had quickly learned to make the most of my time at home.

I stripped off my clothes, assessing my body in the mirror after each item fell to the floor. I wasn't in too bad of shape for my age. In the three years since Voyager and its crew had returned to the Alpha Quadrant, I'd certainly gained a few pounds, added a couple of wrinkles, maybe some more grey in my hair, but nothing to get upset over.

No cushy desk job or promotion for me, no sir, thank you very much anyway. I liked being a Captain, and I liked being captain of Voyager. No one knew that ship like I did. Well, with the exception of B'Elanna maybe.

Clothes off, shower time. I wished I had the luxury of taking a nice, long bubble bath, but I was expecting a call from Phoebe and wanted to get cleaned up beforehand.

I sighed as I turned the sonic shower on and stepped into the small stall. My earlier euphoria was wearing off. I had another lonely evening to look forward to. Sigh.

The comm beeped at me and, trusting soul that I've become, thought it was my sister. Take it in the shower? No problem, nothing she hasn't seen before.

The viewscreen in the shower was just about at my eye level. I hit the "accept" button. "Great timing, Pheb ..."

My voice trailed off. Instead of Phoebe's face staring back at me, it was another, but no less familiar. Suddenly self-conscious, I slumped down, making sure no part was visible to the caller except my face. "Sorry," I said, just knowing that my face was turning red, "but I thought it was my sister."

Seven raised a perfectly arched eyebrow in a gesture I remembered. "I can call back at another time, Captain."

"Please, it's Kathryn, and no, no it's okay. What's up?" Nonchalant is a talent I've acquired over the years.

"I ..." she faltered.

Seven faltering? True, I hadn't seen her since the final round of debriefings by Starfleet almost three years ago, and true, we hadn't parted on the best of terms, but she was acting different than the Seven I'd come to know. She had a softer look about her, too. Then I realized what was missing. "Seven! Your implants?"

She touched the space beside her eye. "Between Barclay and Dr. Crusher, I was able to have my cortical node removed five months ago. I admit to missing it at times." She gave a small smile. "But only sometimes."

There was a reason for the call other than small talk, and as much as I didn't want to ask the next question, it had to be said. "So, how is Chakotay?"

"I wouldn't know," she answered, taking me by surprise. "I left him over a year ago."

"Oh," was all I could think of to say.

She sighed. "It was a relationship that never should have happened, I realize that now." She toyed with a piece of her long, blonde hair. "I was searching for something and I thought I'd found it with him. I was wrong and we were miserable. The break up was mutual."

"I don't know if I should say I'm sorry or --"

"Don't, please don't." She laughed and I realized I'd never heard her do that before. My ears drank in the sound. "I guess, I just ... oh I don't know." She looked up, straight at me. "So how are things with you?"

"Same old, same old. Voyager's in dry dock undergoing a refit and I've got two weeks on my hands." Something occurred to me then. "How did you --"

"Your mother," Seven answered before I could finish my question. "She's a very nice woman."

I smiled. "Yes, she is." The sonic shower was still on, but set to low so it wasn't really drawing too much power. My leg started cramping so, taking a chance that I wouldn't be visible from the neck down (I'd never tested the theory before), I stood up.

"Captain, I mean, Kathryn, was this a bad time to call you?" Seven's face tinted a little pink. "I didn't realize before that you were in the shower."

I could feel my face turning red again.

"Just your bare shoulders ... that's as far down at the vid goes," Seven hastened to reassure me. "It was the logical conclusion."

Good, the "old" Seven wasn't gone for good. I grinned and breathed an inward sigh of relief. "So, like I said, the same old, same old here."

"Oh, well that's good. Not seeing anyone?"

"No."

"No? I had thought that maybe you and Mark would have --"

"Dead end street, Seven," I answered. "He's happily married, and I ... I guess I outgrew him."

"I just thought that you'd have settled down with someone. And when your mom told me you'd purchased a house ..." She smiled wryly. "Jumping to conclusions is still a new experience for me and I think I indulge in it much too often."

I laughed. For a minute there I thought she'd been on a fishing expedition. "Nope, just me and the horses and the Smoky Mountains." I sighed. "But I won't deny that it gets lonely."

"A neighbor?"

Okay, maybe she WAS fishing. I refused to get my hopes up, though. "I'm good friends with my neighbors, that's all. For some time now, there's been only one person I've wanted an intimate relationship with."

"Then why aren't you with him?"

"Because I didn't think she'd reciprocate my feelings." There. I'd said it.

Seven hesitated. "Maybe she didn't know how."

"Maybe she wasn't ready."

"Maybe she's ready now."

There. She'd said it.

My palms were sweaty. "I'm not interested in her in just a physical way."

"I think she realizes that."

"Though that doesn't mean that I'm NOT interested her in that way."

"She'd probably be very upset if you weren't." Seven's voice was teasing and had dropped an octave.

I looked closer. There was a definite glint in her eyes. And she was squirming in her seat.

"She probably thinks that you're one of the sexiest people she's ever met."

"I've had countless dreams about what I'd do to her if we were together," I confessed.

"She's probably had those kinds of dreams, too."

I had to bite back a moan. Between Seven's innuendo and the sonic pulses still radiating from the shower, I was starting to get turned on.

"Do you know what I'm doing right now?" Seven asked in what I considered a "naughty" tone of voice.

"Do I want to know?" I asked, getting into the swing of things. It had been years since I had let myself give in to my baser impulses, since I had let someone else be in control. And if Seven was starting what I thought she was starting... I took a deep breath.

"I'm rubbing my pussy with one hand and pushing one finger in and out with the other," Seven answered, using language I'd only heard from her in my dreams. She angled the imager attached to her viewscreen so that I had a good view of below her waist. She was naked from the waist down (when the hell had that happened?!), her downy mound glistening. True to her word, one slim finger was sliding slowly in and out of that delectable area.

"I wish you were here in person, Kathy, so you could do this with me, to me." Seven moaned softly, so softly that I could barely hear her. "Play with yourself, Kathy."

I hated that nickname, but coming from her it sounded like a silken caress. "I am," I answered as my finger touched my clit, causing me to moan loudly. The sonic pulses continued to vibrate against my hot skin, adding to the wonderful sensations that were coursing through my body.

My other hand caressed my nipples, sliding from one to the other, pinching and twisting. I was more turned on than I could ever remember.

"How does it feel?" Seven asked, her voice husky with desire. It was a new experience for me -- Seven the seductress -- and I found that I liked it. A lot.

I opened my mouth to answer her, but all that came out was a lustful moan.

"Oh, Kathy, just hearing you pleasuring yourself makes me want you even more," Seven answered lustfully. "If I was there with you, I would lick your pussy from the bottom all the way to the top, then I would nibble on your clit. Would you like that?" She pushed two more fingers into her pussy, her thumb rubbing against her clit. "I can smell you, Kathy, the earthy, musky scent that is all your own. It excites me, Kathy."

I imagined her kneeling in front of me, her mouth wrapped around my tiny clit, her fingers pushing in and out of my pussy. She would be a firebrand, taking as much as she gave. All of it without any restraint. So different from the reserved Borg I had encountered all those years ago.

"That's it, Kathy," Seven growled. "Rub your pussy, make yourself come."

Suddenly, my toes curled, and my eyes rolled into the back of my head as my orgasm hit me. I was on fire; blue-hot flames licking my toes and spreading up my body. I rubbed my clitoris furiously, my body shaking in ecstasy as waves of pleasure shot through me.

As my orgasm reached its crescendo, then slowly faded, I heard Seven scream in ecstasy. Her passionate screams heightened my senses and I felt another orgasm race through my body.

My second orgasm began to subside, and once again it was her face on the viewscreen. Her face was flushed, and a fine sheen of sweat covered her lovely features. "That was intense," Seven said. "Better than I could have imagined."

I turned off the shower and slumped back against the wall, my legs weak and rubbery.

"You know, Captain, I could be on a shuttle tomorrow, and be there with you in just two days."

She'd reverted back to a measure of formality. That, coupled with the hint of nervousness in her voice, let me know that she was just as vulnerable and uncertain as I was. The moment of truth was at hand. "It's Kathy, remember, and I would like that very much."

She smiled, more confident now, more like the woman I'd just had vid-sex with. "Are you sure you can wait two days?"

I touched the screen, as if it would somehow bring me closer to her. "Seven, I've waited years for you, what's two more days?"


THE END

Author's Note: Takes place roughly three years after Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant. Please be nice since I don't usually do first person pov stories. This one just seemed to call for that, though. Also, since TPTB screwed up any hope of a J/C or even a J/7, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Written for the fourth wave of the FFF - http://www.svpress.us/femmefuhqfest/