Seven of Nine had been standing in Astrometrics when the photon torpedo buried itself through Voyager’s shields. She had just stepped away from her console and turned toward the doors, carrying a padd with some of the more important details of the area they were traversing in one hand and in the other carefully holding a little stuffed white bunny. Unfortunately, this also meant she couldn’t immediately grab hold of something more solid and as the ship rocked wildly, Seven was propelled headfirst into a bulkhead. Unconscious, she fell to the floor and her limp body bumped into a few more things until finally the ship gave a tiny shudder and its helm boy managed to get her controls operable again.
The bunny had ended up in a dark corner under her console, looking as though it was scared and hiding from all the violence. The padd was, incongruously, lying in the middle of Astrometrics.
An electronic chirp was heard in the quiet, followed by the captain’s voice: ‘Janeway to Seven of Nine, report to the Bridge immediately.’ The request met with silence. Another chirp, ‘Janeway to Seven of Nine, respond,’ silence, ‘Seven? Damn.’
Followed by nothing for several seconds. A soft groan. Quiet. Then red alert sounded on all decks, a hail: ‘All hands brace for impact!’ and another torpedo hit the sleek white ship, cushioned slightly by what had frantically been restored of their shields, but making Voyager and it’s crew flip-over nonetheless - hull moaning in protest. Seven, who had been regaining consciousness, was dimly aware that she was probably in mid-flight when the ceiling knocked her out yet again. As the ship stopped its uncontrolled movements, the silence was unnerving, the red alert claxon killed, lights dim aside from the red hue that pervaded Astrometrics on and off, on and off, on and off…
A little bunny lay on its side near a few stray blonde strands. An arm was splayed out next to it, partially covered by the console of her station, a padd slightly crushed underneath a high-heeled boot.
‘Lt. Tuvok, we may be dead in the water but I want firepower in 5 seconds!’
‘Captain.’ The Vulcan security officer acknowledged verbally that he heard the order but continued to let his hands work at his station.
Janeway picked herself up from where she’d landed on the deck. Smoothed her hair back as well as was possible and surveyed the damage to the Bridge. Most of her senior staff was present, more or less unharmed and at their stations. ‘Report!’ she barked at everyone present.
Chakotay, her first officer, and Ensign Kim started talking at the same time, stopped and started again. Janeway was about to snarl something cutting to both, when the ensign finally shut up while Chakotay continued on: ‘…ields down, targeting system impaired, warp core offline, emergency generators have kicked in, unclear how many wounded or dead, fractures in the hull on decks eight, nine and ten, but she’s holding. Repair crews are being sent over to start repairs on the fractu-’
‘Torres to the Bridge!’ the engineer sounded disgusted.
Janeway touched her badge. ‘Go ahead.’
‘It’s pathetic! She went offline because the clamping mechanism short-circuited –’
‘Cut to the chase Lt. how long?’
‘5 minutes at the most captain.’
‘Good,’ Janeway growled. Her adrenaline was sky-high, all her previous moodiness gone, leaving her buzzing with energy and eagerness. Now everything, everybody, was moving way to slow. She had already formulated two plans with four back-up possibilities while she was being briefed. So far, things were falling into place for plan number one. They were playing with Voyager, trying to show superiority. Well she would show them her ship was no one’s toy! Whoever ‘them’ was.
‘Have they finally come out of hiding Mr. Kim?’ she asked.
‘One in front, one behind us, they’re hailing captain,’ Kim replied succinctly.
‘Manual targeting system still functioning,’ Lt. Tuvok informed her, ‘rerouting all available power to weapons, locked onto their shields and weapons systems, loading torpedoes. Waiting for your mark, captain.’ His hands stopped moving, were clasped behind his back, but completely ready for her command if it should come.
Carefully, gently almost, she lowered herself into her command chair. Head almost resting against the back, gaze lowered but steady at the blank forward view screen, arms covering both armrests fully, legs crossed at the ankles. With her slow precision in actions catching the attention of every person on the Bridge. She counted to three, till she knew everybody was completely focused, and then she ordered Kim to put their attackers’ hail on the forward screen.
Lids squeezed slightly tighter before opening slowly to reveal dazed light blue eyes. She realized she was lying on her stomach. Feeling as though she was not functioning optimally, she mentally took stock off her body’s condition. It was not bad. A couple of contusions, a sprained wrist and a light concussion. Lying there, it eventually became clear to her that the light was a red alert and the injuries had been caused by firing at their vessel. She stood up gingerly, testing her limbs. Satisfied that she was functioning within acceptable parameters, she accessed the Bridge reports from her console.
The captain appeared to be still in charge. She recognized the telemetry-results on the enemy. She had just downloaded data on them into a padd to take to Captain Janeway. A little too late for prevention, Seven reflected, but perhaps not too late for escalation.
Leaving the squashed padd for what it was, no one was going to read it in a crises, she did go down on hands and knees to look for the stuffed rabbit. She picked it up and made her way to the Bridge. Turbolifts were out of order. Of course.
‘You may outgun us but-‘
‘Indeed,’ Janeway drawled determined to get a word in. Their attackers hadn’t given her the chance to even finish a sentence.
‘But!’ the alien insisted, ‘as you noticed: we are smarter! We can beat you! There are two of us also.’
While the tiny, Pixie-like alien was talking, Chakotay had unobtrusively turned his viewer around to his captain in the chair next to him. Janeway glanced at it from the corner of her eyes, Bridge reports had been accessed from Astrometrics over a minute ago. Good. She’d sit this out until her ex-Borg officer had joined them. Hoping that Seven wasn’t too badly injured to stop by the Bridge before going to Sickbay. Maybe she had some information on this species.
Aside from the cloaking device they possessed, Voyager was technologically far more superior up to the point that it would actually be immoral and heartless to shoot at their weapons and shields. They were likely to destroy more than half of the alien ships and crew, causing a death toll that so far was unwarranted by the circumstances. Which was unfortunate, by now she was irritated and high enough to want to shoot at anything moving within half a mile of them. She wouldn’t, the idea of their crew was plenty to keep her from acting rashly.
Slowly she stood. Her height had never been considered imposing before, although her command aura usually made up for that, but compared to the aliens she was strikingly tall. Seven unfortunately ruined the moment by dropping out of a Jeffries tube hatch and stepping up next to the captain.
‘Captain?’ Seven said.
Janeway looked up at the woman towering over her. ‘Glad you could make it,’ she said without a hint of sarcasm or malice. Then her eyes fell on the small stuffed bunny the Astrometrics officer held tightly under her arm.
‘Seven?’ the amazement was evident in her voice and the entire Bridge crew turned to take a good look at Seven. First they just noticed the wispy strands of hair, the coloring bump on her forehead and the way even her tight biosuit managed to look a little crumpled. Eventually all eyes came to a full stop at her little rabbit. She looked as though she’d been asleep in a Jeffries tube.
‘Well, have you ever,’ Lt. Paris snorted.
Seven ignored it all. ‘Captain? I believe I have valuable information for you.’
Janeway waved her hand distractedly at Ensign Kim to cut the channel with the aliens. Harry came to his senses fast enough to catch the gesture. He touched his console and nodded at the captain who was still looking at him over her shoulder. ‘Yes?’ she invited Seven to elaborate on her remark.
Seven struggled to stand perfectly at attention as always, back straight, one arm behind her trying to make the other do the same. But the bunny made it impossible and she settled on keeping just her right arm behind her back, the mesh encased left hand curling around the soft toy. ‘Species 3597,’ Seven began.
Janeway’s brow crinkled at the incongruous sight in front of her, but kept quiet.
‘They have not been assimilated because of their size and fragility. They would not survive assimilation. However, the Borg were impressed by their cunning, fearlessness and the amount of energy they can spend without requiring rest.’
Janeway nodded, pondering the information, ‘alright.’
‘Their strength is also their weakness,’ Seven continued, ‘they attempt to conceal their fragility by striking first, fast and with unnecessary risks. They make empty threats and are easily goaded by disparaging remarks or soothed by flattering ones.’
‘And what does the, the rabbit have to do with it?’ Janeway questioned hoping for a logical explanation for this unprofessional behavior.
‘Nothing captain,’ the ex-Borg said with raised eyebrows, ‘my bunny appeases me.’
Janeway had taken her pacing to her Ready room. She was getting weary of the uncalled for attacking in this quadrant. Of the continuous mothering the crew apparently needed. Of the lack of assistance and days off. Of the fact that there was no one with whom she could indulge in some unabashed whining about the situation. Of the lack of a warm body to hold her, a shoulder to rest her head on. Of the continuous repairs the ship needed and the continuous shortage of supplies. Of the fact that, unless she abandoned them, this would all keep on until they’d reach the Alpha quadrant.
Home, home, home, home, an insisting mantra singing in her head, in her heart.
The conflict with the Keltress had been easily solved once they knew a little more about the aliens and the two ships were now escorting them to prevent other Keltress’ vessels from attacking. Hailing the furious little captain again, she’d plied him with diplomatic accolade and laced it all with some nice adjectives. They just wanted everyone in this part of space to know who was top dog. The Keltress’ torpedoes were inferior to their own and had been aimed at Voyager’s shields and targeting system. Not intending to kill, just to disable so they’d have the upper hand, not even intending to take the warp core offline, which had been a complete fluke. But the drained captain hated the damage done to her ship, the way it disheartened her crew, that she was helpless to do anything to stop it from all happening again and again for the entire journey back.
The chime to her Ready room sounded. Probably Seven, she thought. She’d asked her to report to her after she’d seen the doctor. ‘Unnecessary,’ Seven had insisted, the nanoprobes in her blood that still sustained the remaining Borg-implants on her body would heal her light injuries, making it a waste of time to go to Sickbay. It irritated Janeway that she’d had to make it an order, especially after the woman’s act with the rabbit. She’d called it her ‘bunny’, which was unusual. Seven would have been more likely to call it by its Latin name ‘Oryctolagus cuniculus’. She could just imagine Seven’s monotone voice saying it. But she hadn’t.
With a feeling of trepidation, Janeway called out to her visitor to enter.
And yes, it was Seven, bunny and all.
Standing still in front of her, Janeway took a deep breath and pointed at the cuddly animal. ‘Care to explain?’ It sounded a little harsh even to her own ears, but she wasn’t in any mood to deal with this patiently.
‘This is a soft toy in the form of a terran Oryctolagus cuniculus also referred to as a rabbit or bunny, and commonly used to hold tight when one is feeling scared, lonely or uncomfortable. They are portended to have great soothing powers and are most often though not solely used by children.’ Seven explained calmly, though slightly surprised. ‘Were you not aware of this captain?’
‘Yes Seven I’m aware of WHAT it is,’ Janeway said with obviously suffering patience, ‘I am curious-
‘Her name is Kathryn,’ Seven interrupted with a bright look in her blue eyes.
Stymied Janeway’s mouth opened, but she was at a loss for words and all she managed to utter was an exasperated ‘Seven!’
This was not the reaction she had expected. She had carefully chosen the name the evening before with Naomi Wildman. The six-year-old child had presented her with the rabbit as a birthday present of sorts. ‘I don’t know when your birthday is, but I think it’s about time you have one,’ her young friend had said, ‘they’re fun.’ Feeling insecure about how to proceed she had thought to thank the girl for her present and opened it.
She had asked nearly the same question the captain just had. ‘Explain.’
And Naomi had, over milk and cookies. Well maybe she was not scared very often but loneliness and being uncomfortably were familiar to her, very much even. Although she did not understand how an inanimate object in the form of an Oryctolagus cuniculus could help with that, she was willing to give it a try. Naomi had ‘sworn’ that it helped her. She had also insisted that Seven call it a bunny and that they pick a name for it. It was to be something beautiful, easily pronounced and it should make her feel good.
So Seven had picked Kathryn, the name of the woman who had severed her from the Borg. The person who had caused all insecurity in Seven’s life with that single act, but also the one who always tried to help her, who would not abandon her. It was the most beautiful name she knew, it rolled of the tongue like water bubbling in a small brook and thinking of the captain always made her feel a lot better. It could even make her smile when there was no reason to smile. A thing completely incongruous and irrelevant but present nonetheless and Seven was thankful for it.
Naomi had predicted that the captain would be very honored by her choice, but she did not appear to be. She seemed annoyed.
Janeway pinched the bridge of her nose, she would prefer to rake her hand through her hair but her short bob was too easily tousled. Aside from everything else, the strong beautiful woman in front of her was in fact telling her that she was scared, lonely and uncomfortable. Janeway felt sheer emptiness overtake her. She couldn’t, she just couldn’t, there was nothing left to give. She heaved a deep sigh. She would just solve the practical problem and send her on to Chakotay or Neelix or, Hell, even B’Elanna. Somebody else should carry the burden of helping Seven for once. Gathering her thoughts, she looked up.
‘Seven,’ Janeway began, her voice steeled to its best command tones, ‘it is unacceptable to have your… bunny… with you while on duty. It interferes with your work.’ She took another deep breath and gentled her voice a bit, ‘although it’s flattering that you gave it my name, I want you to pick another one. If word gets round,’ she hesitated, ‘the crew would make fun of you.’ Then deciding to be honest, she added, ‘and of me too, it’s asking for insubordination and I can’t have that. If you have questions about being scared or lonely, maybe the commander or Mr. Neelix can find a better way for you to deal with that. Dismissed!’ With that, the captain turned around, made her way to the upper level of her Ready room, and sat down on the couch in front of the viewport. The doors swished shut, Seven had walked out.
Her eyes filled with tears and Kathryn Janeway closed them tightly. Now she did rake a hand through her hair, two even, and again. Somehow shoving the woman off on her first officer hadn’t helped with the feeling of emptiness. It had made it worse. The hurt in the blue eyes had hurt her too. She did care for Seven; she just didn’t know how to help her when she was feeling so helpless herself.
Confused and upset Seven of Nine stood a few seconds outside the Ready room door weighing her options. The captain had never been so dismissive of her feelings or of her foray into dealing with them. So far she had encouraged it, apparently that had come to an abrupt end. She clutched her Kathryn tighter, a new name… Seven wondered. Noticing that she was reluctant to do so for reasons she had yet to define, she decided it would have to wait. The bunny did feel nice right now.
The commander looked up at her, wondering why she was lingering. No, Seven decided, she did not want to talk to him.
On her way to Cargo bay two to drop off her Kathryn, Seven suddenly and uncharacteristically made a detour to the Mess hall. It was well before dinner and still quiet, Neelix alone in his kitchen preparing food.
He turned around when she cleared her throat. ‘Seven of Nine!’ the smiling Talaxian cook annex moral officer exclaimed obviously surprised, ‘how nice to see you here. How can I be of assistance? A midday snack perhaps.’
‘I require…’ she considered the right word, ‘advice.’
‘Of course, of course, let’s sit down,’ Neelix said waving her over to a table. ‘I’m glad you thought of me, always happy to help.’
‘The captain suggested it,’ Seven explained.
‘Oh, okay, well. What seems to be the problem?’ Neelix sat down and Seven followed suit. She did not understand human’s preference to sit, but it appeared to make them more at ease if she did the same so she indulged them.
Looking at the cook’s eager face, she was temporarily uncertain where to begin or what to ask. Deciding to begin with what bothered her most, she said ‘The captain does not want me to carry my bunny around while on duty and she wants me to change its name.’
Neelix looked at the bunny for the first time. Seven had sat it on the table directly in front of her. ‘Uh, yes. I can understand why she wouldn’t want you to keep it around while working-’
‘She said it interferes with my work,’ Seven interrupted.
‘Exactly,’ Neelix agreed, relieved that he did not have to find the words to explain that. ‘But the name, what have you called it?’
‘Kathryn,’ Seven replied.
‘Aaah,’ Neelix replied thoughtfully. This was more than he had bargained on. Apparently Seven was projecting motherly feelings on the captain. Not surprising under the circumstances, the older woman had been Seven’s guide and mentor since she’d been severed from the Borg. Cute actually, but he could see why the captain wasn’t overly pleased. But how to make that clear to the ex-Borg? He decided to tackle it from another angle.
‘So what do you want advice on? A new name?’
‘I…’ she didn’t know, ‘I do not know,’ she admitted confusedly.
They were silent for several seconds.
‘I,’ Seven began then was quiet, ‘I believe I have disappointed the captain. I do not understand,’ she finished helplessly.
‘Of course you haven’t, Seven,’ Neelix tried to assure her, ‘you just-‘
‘Yes!’ the normally stoic ex-Borg stated forcefully. ‘I am positive! She told me if I was scared or lonely I should talk to the commander or you. She has never done that before. She does not want to help me anymore. I have disappointed her.’
The small Talaxian let that statement sink in. Had the aloof, arrogant, 6 feet tall, Borg-empowered woman in front of him just told him she was scared and lonely? The lonely he could understand, she had very few friends, but scared? Maybe of being lonely… That would certainly explain why she seemed so upset. The captain was probably very important in Seven’s meager social life. If she fell away there’d hardly be anything left of it. He’d try to calm her down before going on to the scared and lonely part. Maybe he could be her friend. He sighed inwardly, it wouldn’t be easy with this strong-willed, self-sufficient woman but a moral officer had to do what a moral officer had to do, he reflected silently.
‘Seven there could be a whole number of reasons why she didn’t help you today,’ Neelix began.
‘Clarify.’
‘What with the attack and all, taking care of repairs, keeping our attackers happy aside from all the usual stuff on her plate. It was probably just bad timing,’ he continued.
Seven raised her chin a bit. ‘Voyager has been in worse situations and she has always found time for me or told me to come back at a later time,’ she stated imperiously.
‘Well, she is a mere human Seven,’ the cook stressed emphatically, ‘she probably just has a bad day. Happens to the best of us, even Captain Janeway. Sometimes it all catches up to you, it feels like nothing is going to be right again and everybody else’s problems are too much to deal with.’
Seven looked at him, quietly considering his words. The captain had looked upset and out of sorts.
‘So don’t give up hope yet,’ Neelix said softly, ‘it will all turn out for the best, you’ll see.’ He reached out and gently squeezed her hand.
It was sitting in front of the door to her quarters looking very suspicious. Janeway was tired; the day’s events had deteriorated further after Seven had left her alone. Captain G’laeget turned out to need his ego stroked on a regular basis. He had hailed them three more times, each time starting with threats and claims of their superiority. Each time she had clenched her jaw tightly, smiled sweetly and smoothed his always-ruffled feathers. She was seriously considering other options and had ordered her senior staff to come up with a few plans for tomorrow morning’s briefing.
Feeling aggravated, she wasn’t as sharp as normal but more importantly NOT in the mood for any riddles. Tiredly she reached for her combadge and requested Lt. Tuvok to meet her in front of her quarters with a tricorder immediately. ‘On my way captain, Tuvok out.’
Janeway walked around the object, waiting for her security officer to arrive. Maybe she was being overly cautious, she thought. It looked like a rather big gift in dark blue wrapping paper with light blue swirling highlights. A white note stuck out from beneath some folds, it said ‘ Captain’ in bold writing. Well one could never be too careful. Besides, shields still weren’t fully functional, who knew if the Keltress had thought to leave her a little ominous package just to keep Voyager subdued and under their control. There hadn’t been any reports of unauthorized transports but it could have slipped by a distracted ensign unnoticed. If that turned out to be the case, she’d have his hide. She grinded her teeth in annoyance, if only this day would finish!
‘Captain,’ Lt. Tuvok said to announce his arrival.
‘Yes, I want to know if this package is dangerous in anyway.’
If the situation surprised Tuvok, he didn’t show it. Snapping open his tricorder he scanned the parcel. ‘No signs of explosives or toxins captain, but I could have it more extensively examined-‘
‘No,’ Janeway waved his offer away, which would mean even more time before she was safely ensconced in her quarters. ‘Let’s just open it carefully.’
Gently she pulled out the note and turned it over. Nothing, just the written ‘ Captain. She gave it to Tuvok, ‘have it checked for fingerprints.’ Sitting on one knee she cautiously slid two fingers beneath the paper and began to tear it open slowly. Something soft and red appeared and a sense of dread far stronger than when she’d thought it to be dangerous gripped her heart. She had a feeling she knew what it was and who had placed it here. Tearing the rest of the paper off with care, just to be on the safe side, her last suspicion was validated.
A rather large fiery red cuddly dragon was gazing at the door to her quarters with a happy smile on its face. Hiding her face behind her hands, the captain groaned.
‘Okay Tuvok, thank you that will be all.’ She raised herself from the deck picking up the toy and the paper.
‘Captain,’ the security officer began.
Janeway glared at him, trying to warn him from making any remark about the gift.
‘Do you still want me to check the note for prints captain?’ Tuvok asked.
She considered it. ‘I’ll let you know tomorrow.’ First, she wanted to check with Seven herself. Turning to enter her quarters at last, she had a thought, ‘And Lt.?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’d like to keep this between you and me for now.’
‘Yes captain.’
And with that, she was finally through the doors.
Lights tempered, the scent of wildflowers hung in the air. Water sloshed softly as a fine boned hand lifted to the rim of the bathtub picked up a glass of wine to take a sip put it back and submerged itself under water again. A sigh left dark red lips, blissful quietude pervaded the room.
A tiny giggle bubbled up and died down. Then a new one started, louder this time and it grew into full laughter. With her head leaning against a rolled up towel, peels of laughter left Kathryn’s throat. It lasted minutes before it eventually slowed and ended in a couple of merry giggles mixed with desperate gasps for breath. This had to be the silliest day onboard Voyager in a very long time. Battling an ugly, Pixie-like alien with an inferiority complex with compliments, having her stoic Seven of Nine walking around with a stuffed bunny called Kathryn under her arm and finding a silly looking cuddly dragon waiting for her in front of her quarters. Oh boy, how was she going to get this back to any semblance of normality.
She sighed again, still smiling. She’d better have a good talk with Seven.
They were sitting in the captain’s Ready room on the couch on the upper level. Seven on one side primly upright, knees together hands resting on top of them. Janeway was leaning back on the other side turned a little toward the other woman. After the bath and a good night of sleep, her mood had lifted a bit. She had to admit that the gift had helped with that. She’d given it a temporary place on the coffee table and it sat there looking very big, very red, smiling silly and looking completely out of place in her soberly decorated living area. Every time she’d passed it, she’d had a mirroring silly smile on her face. And slowly the annoyance she’d first felt at seeing the dragon was replaced with a good feeling. Someone had given her a gift, spent replicator rations on her, for no other reason than that she had been curt. And knowing Seven, if it had indeed been her, she hadn't done it to ply her.
‘I found something in front of my door yesterday,’ Janeway said.
Seven didn’t understand the captain’s need to approach this obliquely it would raise the chance of a misunderstanding. So she tried to think of something to say that was as straightforward as possible while still a reaction to Janeway’s statement.
‘Was it a crimson wyvern?’ Seven asked.
‘Yes Seven it was a red dragon. Now, I wonder what it was doing there.’ Janeway almost smiled this was just all too silly, but she managed to suppress it. She wasn’t sure she wanted Seven to know how much it had pleased her. The woman got through her defenses far too easily.
‘It was not ‘doing’ anything captain,’ Seven said with one eyebrow raised, ‘it is an inanimate object, it is incapable of ‘doing’.
‘I know, I was just-’
‘You were personifying the wyvern, I comprehend that. I do not understand why one would want to personify anything, but if you insist… The wyvern was waiting for you to pick it up and hug it, captain.’
Now Janeway did smile. That one was really her own fault, she mused. Seven took everything literally and an indirect approach usually didn’t help either.
Deciding to change tack immediately, Janeway asked ‘Did you put the dragon in front of my door?’
‘Yes captain.’ Seven was a little distracted by that smile. It still lingered near the corners of that beautiful mouth. Over time, she had begun to appreciate that her captain wasn’t merely an intelligent, strong and compassionate leader but was also a very attractive woman. However much the Borg in her insisted that beauty and attraction were irrelevant, her heart, in fact all that was human in her responded to that attraction.
‘As a gift?’ Janeway asked.
‘Yes captain,’ Seven answered forcing her thoughts back to the issue at hand, ‘why would I have put it there otherwise?’
Janeway ignored the question. ‘Why did you give it and why didn’t you at least put your name on it, so I knew who it was from?’
‘You were having a ‘bad day’ as Neelix put it,’ Seven said.
She had talked it over with Neelix?! Talked about what exactly? Janeway’s thoughts raced through her mind.
‘And I wanted to help you. When I looked through the database on the subject to find an appropriate course of action it suggested three possibilities. You had already indicated you did not want to talk to me, I did not want to do nothing and wait until ‘the mood had passed’ since you have helped me many times and I wanted to reciprocate,’ Seven explained. ‘So I was left with only one option.’
‘Oh,’ the captain managed weakly, conflicting feelings warring in her heart. On the one hand, she was the captain. She did not need her crew taking care of her and if they felt the need to do so she was seriously lacking in her responsibilities and starting to fail in her ability to perform her duty. She could not be seen as weak; she would lose the crew’s respect and eventually their faith in her decisions in a stressful situation if they thought she couldn’t cope.
On the other hand… when was the last time someone had taken the time to do something so sweet and personal? Sure, Chakotay had offered his friendship and he was a good friend too, but she made certain the invisible barrier between them stayed up at all times. He would never presume to leave her a personal gift like that, also because they both knew she couldn’t reciprocate. The captain and her first officer could hardly be seen exchanging gifts with each other, it would leave them open to questions on professional behavior.
Seven wasn’t aware of all the nuances of appropriate interaction between crew and captain, and in her innocence had offered her something sincere and touching. It did feel so very good to know someone looked closer and cared, even when she cut herself off, who looked beyond it and saw the woman. It warmed her heart in places that had grown colder and colder over the years in the Delta quadrant.
‘The option I chose is called ‘a silent show of support’,’ Seven continued with her explanation, ‘hugging, doing something ‘nice’ like preparing dinner or giving a massage, or a gift were listed as examples. Since you did not want to talk to me yesterday, I did not think you would want a hug, a massage or have dinner with me. Therefore, I chose a gift. The wyvern seemed… fitting.’
You’re wrong Seven, Kathryn reflected, I would have loved a hug from you yesterday, but you’re right that I wouldn’t have let you. I couldn’t. The idea of hugging Seven planting itself in her head, her body yearning so strongly for those two strong arms, that soft bosom pressed against her, that she had to physically restrain herself from moving closer to the other woman. A slow blush crept up Janeway’s face in embarrassment at her reaction. She flushed an even brighter red when she realized she had let her eyes wander over Seven’s body and had been caught by her. Now who’s behaving unprofessionally, she scolded herself.
‘Captain, are you alright? You seem bothered.’ Seven asked with honest concern in her voice.
Standing abruptly Janeway walked to the railing overlooking her desk. ‘I’m fine.’ She took a second to compose herself, trying to focus on what they had been talking about and how to address it properly. She turned around to face Seven but lost her train of thought again as she caught Seven unhurriedly trailing her eyes over her captain’s body. What! Kathryn’s inner voice yelled in alarm. Did she just… was that… and that look in her eyes! It has to be. She just checked me out and she liked! It’s been awhile but I can tell. Oh my. She liked.
And amidst all her confusion, she caught Seven’s statement too late to react adequately.
‘You do wish to be hugged by me,’ Seven said standing up and walking slowly closer.
‘Ah uhm I eh I,’ Kathryn stuttered and then Seven was there and pulled the petite captain firmly against her. It felt so good to Kathryn, so soft and warm. So secure. She just gave in, let her arms go around the small waist and held the strong body close; let her head rest against the shoulder.
Seven for her part was completely overwhelmed by the sensations of the warm, fragile body against hers, the weight of the head on her shoulder, the strands of hair tickling against her throat. She wanted to pull her even closer but was afraid to hurt the captain. Bending her head down to press her cheek to the porcelain skin of Janeway’s cheek, at the last moment she turned her lips to the beckoning skin on impulse, because it all seemed to feel so right. She placed a soft short careful kiss and lifted her head a little to look at the beautiful woman in her arms.
Surprised Kathryn looked up, her eyes the clear blue of a midsummer day’s sky, her lips slightly parted. The beginnings of desire stirring within her as she looked up at the light blue eyes fully meeting hers. Involuntarily her tongue slipped out to wet her lips. Still looking into each other’s eyes intently they started to move closer, both knowing exactly what was about to happen. Their lips reaching for each other, closing in until there was only a hair width between them. Taking a breath Seven nerved herself to close the final millimeter.
‘Chakotay to Captain Janeway.’
For a second they both held utterly still then moved away.
END OF PART I