Alpha - Chapter 7

Feeling refreshed from their month of holidaying, seeing friends, family, and spending the last few days in France, Seven and Janeway made their way back home to San Francisco. They were due to report for duty in two days. On their second last night before starting work, Phoebe, her boyfriend Grant, and Gretchen came over for dinner.

Kathryn was particularly keen to meet Grant and possibly get her sister back for all the grief she had been getting over Seven. She was determined to find some teasing value this evening. Grant and Phoebe had been seeing each other for five years, which was a record for her sister. Kathryn wondered why they hadn't become too serious yet. She knew Grant's work as an art dealer took him away frequently, but she was surprised that they had not started living together.

Grant was transporting from New York, Phoebe and Gretchen from Indiana. Kathryn was surprised when Grant appeared at the door first, as her mother was habitually early. He was a tall man, about Kathryn's age, slightly greying hair, and blue eyes - the words ruggedly handsome sprang to Kathryn's mind.

He arrived with a bottle of fine Terellian wine in hand. "Kathryn, you look so much like your mother. You could be sisters." spoke Grant

"Yes, well you might want to tell her that, the compliment might be better suited to her." Kathryn smirked, she stood aside to let him inside the house

Seven was just coming out of the bedroom, dressed in a dark pants suit.

"Grant, this is my partner, Seven."

Seven extended her hand to the man. "It's nice to meet you. Kathryn said she is very interested to meet that man that could stand being with Phoebe for five years."

"Really?" Said Grant as Kathryn sucked in a breath and threw a glance at Seven, who looked innocently bewildered.

"Seven, I don't think I put it quite that way..."

"Yes Kathryn, those were your exact words. Are you forgetting I have a 99.3% accuracy on memory recall?"

"No, I just don't want Grant to think I'm an absolute bitch."

"Oh, sorry then." Seven turned to grab some glasses from the kitchen. Kathryn wasn't able to see the grin that appeared on her face as she left the room.

Grant laughed, "Don't worry Kathryn, Phoebe has told me all about you. I wouldn't have expected anything less."

Kathryn and Grant launched into a discussion on his profession, and how he and Phoebe came to cross paths. A little while later Gretchen and Phoebe appeared, and Seven emerged from the kitchen to greet them.

Phoebe threw her arms around Seven, who hid her surprise very well. "Grant, isn't Seven fabulous." she turned to Seven, "I was telling Grant that Kathryn must have some how cosmically known I had met the perfect man, so the only way to outdo me was to bring home the perfect woman!"

Seven took the compliment in her stride. "I learned from the Borg that the lure of perfection is powerful," she stated.

Kathryn rolled her eyes.

Gretchen smiled. "Seven, did you enjoy meeting your family?"

"Gretchen, you must meet all of my grandparents. With one exception they all appeared to be thrilled about seeing me."

Gretchen thought it best not to pry about the 'one exception' in front of the others, so she followed Seven into the kitchen and helped her finish preparing the dinner. Seven did not cook very often. Although she had attempted some lessons on Voyager with Neelix, and had assimilated much knowledge on it, she found cooking most inefficient when one could simply program a replicator. Knowing that Gretchen cooked everything from scratch, Seven felt inspired to have a go at it. She approached cooking like a scientific experiment, and was extremely precise about everything. Gretchen was a bit overawed at the order... the scene bore no similarities to her own kitchen whatsoever. She happily helped Seven out. When they emerged from the kitchen a little later with food in hand, Gretchen announced that she had learnt some cooking tips from Seven. Both Kathryn and Phoebe were a little shocked by this news.

"Did you two have a nice trip? Get plenty of rest, a little?exercise?" Phoebe asked after they had sat down to dinner.

Janeway shook her head as she took her seat. Phoebe loved trying to embarrass Kathryn in front of their mother, although this escaped Gretchen, as she really didn't care what Kathryn did on holiday. Good on her if she did spent the entire time in bed! Gretchen had never seen her daughter in this state, blissfully happy. While Kathryn's disappearance without a trace had caused Gretchen nothing but pain and anguish, she now considered that she would go through it all again just to see her this deliriously happy in love upon returning.

"We got plenty of both Phoebe, thank you." said Kathryn pointedly.

"Did you get to see the sights or were you busy doing other things?" Phoebe continued mischeviously.

Seven was tiring of Phoebe's line of questioning and decided it was time to put her back in her box. "Actually Phoebe, we did not spend the 'entire time' making love, it comprised approximately 53.2% of our waking holiday time. The remainder of the time was spent eating, and sightseeing."

"Oh." Phoebe's mouth clicked shut.

Gretchen was laughing... "You tell her Seven! It's none of her business how the two of you spent the time." She looked over at Grant, "Grant, how many times have I warned you what you were getting into."

"I wouldn't have her any other way Gretchen."

They continued laughing and trying to get a rise out of each other. Kathryn got up to clear the table, and Phoebe and Grant helped her. Seven and Gretchen wandered outside to look at the garden, which was to be Seven's next project around the house.

As they were looking at the near dead roses, Seven felt a fluttering in her stomach and she took a deep breath, trying to find the courage to ask Gretchen a question. "Gretchen, I have something very important to ask you."

Gretchen was clipping some dead stems of the rose bushes, "Well, ask away Seven."

"I would like to ask Kathryn to marry me, and I believe I have to ask for your permission?"

She stopped her clipping as she shook with laughter. "Seven, what on earth made you think you had to ask me?"

"I believed it was customary... I asked the Doctor about this several months ago, and he informed me it was customary to seek permission from your loved one's parents. Was this information incorrect?"

"Well it might have been true about five hundred years ago," offered Gretchen, as she stood and brushed off her pants.

"Indeed." Seven continued, "I should have known better after the dating incident than to trust the Doctor for this kind of information."

"The dating incident?"

"A long story. Perhaps another time."

"I'll hold you to that."

"Although the Doctor did offer another piece of advice. He suggested that Kathryn would like her family with her on such an occasion. Which is why I decided to wait until we got home."

"I'm glad you did Seven. I wouldn't have wanted to miss it." Gretchen smiled, and put her arm around Seven as they walked back towards the house. "When are you going to ask her?"

"Soon."

"Well I won't breathe word, I promise."

The following day Seven was acting quite suspiciously, the couple had no immediate plans for the day, yet Seven suddenly announced at midday that they had to be somewhere important, and wouldn't let on where.

"Well what should I wear Seven? Can you give me a hint?" asked Kathryn.

"Whatever you want. Your attire is quite irrelevant."

"Mmm. Perhaps I'll wear nothing then."

"If you wish."

Kathryn rolled here eyes, threw on a very simple pair of pants and a shirt. When she arrived downstairs Seven tapped her comm badge, and the pair was instantly transported.

Feeling a bit disoriented at first, it didn't take Kathryn long to realise she was on Voyager. Seven took her hand as they stepped of the transporter.

"Why..." Kathryn didn't really know what to say.

"I wanted to come home again." said Seven, turning to face Kathryn.

"Home?"

"Yes, this is the first home I ever knew." Seven explained, "I love where we live now, but this place will always be special to me. I wanted to take you on tour of it."

"That's very kind of you Seven, but I do know every inch of this ship."

"I know that, but you haven't seen it through my eyes before."

They started walking down the corridor arm in arm. It felt good to be back.

"First stop, the Brig." announced Seven.

They walked inside and Seven went over to the cell where she had stood on her first encounter with Captain Janeway.

"This is where I pleaded with you to let me go back to the Collective."

"Yes I remember."

"You promised me that being an individual would be better. I did not believe you then."

"No, you said that you would betray me. When the Borg queen took you away, Chakotay reminded me of that. But I knew it wasn't true." Kathryn said with conviction.

"I must have appeared a monster to you..."

"No, to me you were a frightened child..."

They set off down the corridor to sickbay.

"It is very strange without the Doctor here... empty." said Kathryn

"I will find him one day. I owe him that much. It was he who gave my body its humanity... my soul took a bit longer."

Seven walked over to the biobed where she had laid many times. Kathryn followed her, and placed her arms around Seven from behind.

"You were so beautiful, the transformation was amazing." She continues, "I think we all found it very strange looking at you. Your body was so human, yet your manner so Borg."

Seven turned around to face Kathryn in the embrace. "Believe me it was stranger to be inside the body than to look at it. My skin felt so soft, I felt weak at first..."

Kathryn took her hand and touched Seven's face. Tears started to well up in Seven's eyes, but they did not fall.

"Time for the next stop." She took Kathryn hand and led her out of the sickbay.

They took the turbolift to Cargo Bay 2. They headed straight to the alcoves side by side.

Seven sat down on the raised alcove and looked up. "I could feel your presence here while I was regenerating. You came to see me often."

"I did." Kathryn cheeks coloured at the thought of being found out.

"I did not mind. I found it comforting. I watched you too, when we travelled through the Mutara Nebula, while you were in stasis...""Ah, so that is why my dreams were filled with images of you."

"Perhaps."

Seven stood up and looked at the alcove. Kathryn took her hand. "I will never miss this place, I don't think I could get used to your body not being with me at night."

"I hope we never have to."

Seven touched the control panel on the entrance to Holodeck 2. The doors opened and an empty Velocity court presented itself.

"You should have told me, I would have bought me gear." Joked Kathryn.

"Now this is an important place. This court holds many memories for me. The first time I beat you at Velocity, the first time I fantasised about kissing you, the first time I... never mind."

"Ah, so that is why I always won, you didn't have your mind on the job."

"Anywhere but." Seven smiled. They walked to the centre of the court and sat down on the floor. Seven stretched her legs out, and places her arms behind her. "We had many fun times here."

"Yes, and I finally found a worthy match among the crew... in many ways I guess."

"I once overheard two ensigns discussing our matches while fixing a plasma conduit near engineering. They were under the impression that very little playing of the game actually took place."

"Really?"

"Yes, apparently we were the source of many rumours a long time before we got together."

Kathryn seemed a bit shocked at this news. "Well I guess no one was going to let me in on it."

"If it were not for my exceptional hearing, I would not have known either."

"But you never told me?"

"It seemed unnecessary. I knew you did not like appearing unprofessional to the crew."

Kathryn let out a small laugh, "So we were the hot gossip on Voyager. I wonder if Paris ran a book on it."

Seven raised her eyebrow.

"Oh, he didn't did he?" asked Kathryn.

"I believe Tuvok won."

"Tuvok?!" Kathryn broke into fits of laughter. "How could I have been so blind?"

"What took us so long is irrelevant. The main thing is we came to our senses when we were ready."

Next they made their way to the mess hall. Without saying a word Seven went to the piano and played the piece of music that been playing the night she and Kathryn first kissed. Kathryn sat down next to her on the piano bench. Her hands were so graceful as they moved over the keys. The music was haunting, the way it touched Kathryn's very core was amazing. When she finished Seven took Kathryn's hand and led her out of the room. No words needed to be spoken.

They made their way down the corridor to Astrometrics.

"Let me have a guess. This is where you spent your time working?" Suggested Kathryn.

"No, this is where I filled in my time in between seeing you." Seven smiled. "It is also where I down loaded the first letters from home. I was very tempted to read the letters from Mark and your mother. I felt quite guilty when I discovered he had moved on. Silently I had been praying for it. I though it had happened because I had wished so hard for it."

"Don't worry, part of me had been wishing for it too." Kathryn walked to the window and looked down at Earth. "It wasn't meant to be. My fate was already decided."

"So it appears."

The captain's quarters was the next port of call.

"Seven, it looks so empty..." Janeway was shocked to see her sanctuary of eight years devoid of all her personal belongings.

"Indeed, have you forgotten that we packed up?"

"No, it just looks so different. Like I was never here."

"To me, you will always be here Kathryn. I can see you reading in you favourite chair. Sitting on the couch looked at the stars. Lying in your bed, waiting for me."

Seven took her hand and led Kathryn to the bedroom.

"This is where we first made love." Seven leaned in towards Kathryn as she spoke in a low tone, full of passion. "I did not know it could be like that. You woke my soul the first night you made love to me. Falling in love with you was like a sweet dream, but that night was... indescribable."

Seven's eyes dropped to Kathryn's mouth. The air vibrated between them as their eyes locked. Kathryn was breathing so hard, it was like she had been running. Seven's mouth was as deliciously responsive as it had been that night, her arms were strong around Kathryn. Seven began to drown in Kathryn's presence, the warmth of her skin and the rhythm of her heartbeat. She remembered feeling like this the first time, yet not so afraid. The first time Seven was petrified, she knew instinctively what to do, but she was unaccustomed to the sensations her body was feeling. Sure, in the lead up to their first night together they had come close, but when Kathryn led her into the bedroom, and undressed before her Seven was sure she had never seen a more perfect sight. Omega had nothing on Kathryn. She instinctively traced her hands over Kathryn's body, the sensation amazing. Her senses a raging fire.

That night Kathryn had unhooked Seven biometric suit, and undid the zip down her back, the suit peeled off efficiently, she expected no less. Today she simply slipped off Seven's shirt and removed her pants. The sight of Seven's magnificent breasts was almost too much to bear. She instantly took one in her mouth, causing Seven's whimpers to become loud moans. Kathryn pressed her body against Seven, it was too much. Seven pulled Kathryn to the bed. Once there Kathryn strategically placed her knee between Seven's thighs causing her to almost loose complete control.

Lost between the memories of their first time, and the current heat in the room, Seven could not wait any longer.

"Kathryn, I'm aching... I need you to touch me."

Slowly Kathryn made her way down Seven's body, pausing again at her breasts to continue tormenting Seven as she gently licked each nipple. Her hand moved lower, and teased Seven's inner things. Again there were the moans. "I can't wait Kathryn!"

"Yes, you can Seven." Commanded Kathryn.

Kathryn slid her fingers into the wetness and Seven closed around them tighter and tighter. Kathryn moved down Seven's body as she continued the rhythm with her fingers. With her tongue she found the sweet centre of her lover's fire. She began to melt Seven with the insistent pressure of her tongue, and the controlled rhythm of her fingers. Seven screamed as her orgasm began. Kathryn raised her head to see the convulsions ripple through Seven's body and then calmness descend. Kathryn knew on the first night that she was closer to love than ever imaginable. Today, she knew her sole purpose in life was to love this woman. They were meant to be together forever.

Seven entered the bridge unaccompanied. She had left Kathryn alone in the Captain's Quarters, telling her to take a few quiet moments, as she would be requesting her presence at the next stop on the tour in a few minutes.

For a moment the spinning blue globe on the viewscreen got her attention and she stopped her preparations momentarily to watch it. She remembered telling Naomi that it was unremarkable, and yes, there were other planets that were more dazzling to look at, but this was where she lived now and there was some significance to that. She even took a moment to pick out places she had been before she returned to the task at hand.

The lights on the bridge of Voyager were at their lowest setting, reminding her of times when the ship had been at red alert. Now the bridge sat empty aside from herself.

In the area in front of the captain's chair she laid out a light blue blanket, smoothed the wrinkles and set about placing some candles down. A while later the smell of wax filled her senses and she inhaled deeply. She sat down on the blanket and leaned back, appraising her work. The doors sounded and she threw a look back at the turbolift.

"Captain on the bridge, as ordered." A silky voice said. "But this isn't exactly how I remember leaving it."

Seven stood and sauntered over to Kathryn Janeway, who looked rather awed.

"You did all this?"

"It is hardly that exceptional." She took Janeway by the hand and led her over to the blanket, placing a feather light kiss on her lips.

"I thought you might appreciate it. Sit down."

Janeway sat down so quickly it almost appeared as if her legs had given out. Seven handed her a wine glass, the contents of which sparkled in the candlelight. Kathryn sat back and let her gaze linger over the other woman. Her hair was loose, almost a little dishevelled, as if she had taken it out of its customary twist and just shook it about little, with a sexy toss of her head. She was wearing a loose white shirt that was opened tantalisingly low. She was sitting cross-legged, holding a wine glass.

"A toast?" Seven suggested.

"Alright."

"To unremarkable views," she said gesturing over to the viewscreen.

Janeway smiled at the reference. "To unremarkable views." Their glasses clinked together. She watched Seven take a tentative sip, then set the glass aside.

"Right over there was where you ordered my link to the collective severed."

Janeway nodded, wondering where this was going.

"I thought this would be the appropriate place to ask you to join my collective."

"S-Seven?"

She felt the wine glass being removed from her grasp, replaced by the warm hands of her lover, who held her hands tightly, looking into her eyes with an impossibly smoky gaze. She could've sworn she saw the candles reflected as pinpoints of lights in her eyes.

"Will you marry me, Kathryn?"

Was this really happening? Did Seven just ask her to marry her on the candle lit bridge of Voyager?

It felt as if her heart had stopped in her chest and all she could see were the blue eyes she was losing herself in.

"Yes," Janeway said with a wry smile, "I have a feeling resistance would be futile."

"Indeed."

They sealed the deal with a kiss. Moments later, Seven gently pulled away and reached into her pocket. In her hand was a small box, she presented it to Kathryn. Inside was a ring. A clear blue opal with a diamond on each side. The blue was almost a perfect match for Seven's eyes.

"It was my great-grandmother's, Ingrid was going to give it to my mother one day..."

"Seven. It's beautiful." And somewhat magically the ring was a perfect fit for Kathryn's finger.