Janeway seemed engrossed in a graphical display of the warp core. She acknowledged Seven's presence, but it was clear that she was not ready to immediately break off her attention to the image on her screen. She typed in a few lines of data in a padd and then, reluctantly, put down the padd and looked up at her guest.
"Seven, there was something I wanted to discuss with you."
Seven nodded. From the way she was standing there, slightly jerking her shoulders every now and then, it was clear she was feeling uncomfortable. Seven had not submitted a report recently, which had to mean that this conversation was going to be of a personal nature. The Captain was wont to throw her for a loop in such conversations. Thrilling, but frightening. Seven tried to slow her heartbeat and breathing as Janeway put her hands on the desk and pushed herself up and out of the chair. She then walked around Seven, and onto the slightly heightened area of her Ready Room.
"I was in the holodecks with the Doctor this morning. He..."
She turned around to face Seven again. One hand on her hip, the other drawing small circles in the air in front of her, as if to spur on the thoughts that were forming in her mind.
"He is still feeling so very embarrassed because of his 'deathbed confessions' of last week. He is unhappy, Seven. He is quite sure that he has lost some of his most treasured friendships. Most notably...yours." Janeway halted for a moment, expecting Seven to chime in. When she did not, Janeway continued. "He is sure you have been avoiding him. Have you?"
Knowing the theme of this personal conversation did nothing to make Seven feel more comfortable. Approximately a week earlier the Doctor had confessed his love for Seven in front of nearly the whole senior staff. At the time he thought his matrix was going to permanently destabilise. His matrix was restored however, and the doctor had been in hiding ever since. Seven swallowed and looked away from the Captain. "I am unsure how to react."
"That is understandable. It's a difficult situation. But I do think you should react in some way. Let him know where he stands." She stepped down from the higher area and sat down on the edge of the desk. Her voice suddenly sounded a lot softer. "I take it you do not share his feelings?"
"I do not. Is that incorrect?"
Janeway smiled and slightly dipped her head to try and make eye contact with Seven. "There is no correct or incorrect in a situation like this. Either you love someone or you don't. But you have to let him know."
"Can I not reprogram his matrix? Take out the romantic subroutines?"
"You are not serious are you? Seven look at me."
Slowly Seven tilted her head, and her eyes searched Janeway's. She was relieved to see no disappointment there, merely concern.
"Seven...I seem to remember a philosophical discussion at 2 am. in my quarters, during which it was established that the doctor could not be treated as a replicator. You have not changed your mind about that now, have you?"
"No Captain. It is...It is painful."
"Yes it will be painful for a little while, but I'm sure he'll get over it. It's more painful not knowing one way or the other."
"It is not just painful for him."
Janeway marvelled silently at the empathy that Seven had developed, before her concern took over again. "Ah. You don't want to hurt a friend."
Seven looked away again. She sighed softly, indicating the frustration at not being able to handle the situation appropriately.
"But Seven, letting him down gently really is the only way you can save the friendship. Otherwise you would continue to avoid him, wouldn't you? This is the best way in the long run. He'll be thankful later when he realises that he doesn't have your love, but at least he still has your friendship."
Seven looked up with a puzzled expression. "Are love and friendship mutually exclusive?"
Janeway mirrored the puzzled look. Seven had made enormous progress, but at
times like these one could see how much she still had to learn. There was a
short silence in which Janeway gathered her thoughts, attempting to make sure
she would not confuse Seven more. She then softly continued:
"No, being someone's lover and also their friend is a very powerful
combination. Look at B'Elanna and Tom. They love each other, yet they also
have a good working relationship, as well as a strong friendship."
"I see. You and Commander Chakotay are the same."
It was half a statement, half a question and it took Janeway a beat to ascertain that Seven was completely serious. "Eh... Well, we do work well together, and I think we have a strong friendship, but we are not romantically involved, are we?"
"You are not?" Genuine amazement graced Seven's features.
"No, we're not. Whatever gives you that idea?" This really was one of the more absurd things she had heard in a while.
Seven was looking away again, this time out of embarrassment. Her voice sounded clipped, irritated. "Some of the crew say that you are involved."
"Really? And how do they think we have kept that a secret on such a small ship?" Janeway was smiling a broad smile. She had to tell Chakotay about this later, he'd love this.
"They say you visit each other through the Jeffrey's tube that connects your quarters."
"Oh?" Janeway started laughing. "Seven, you don't believe that do you?"
Seven was shifting uncomfortably. She had to admit to herself now, that it was a very illogical assumption, and she scolded herself for believing it. The comfortable way that the Captain and Chakotay behaved around each other had helped her believe that a romantic relationship was likely.
"Look, if I were in a relationship... with anyone... you'd know for certain. I'm very sure you'd know. But in case you hadn't noticed... I'm the captain of this ship."
Seven was getting more and more irritated. How come the captain thought she was so dense she had missed this obvious fact? "I have noticed," she stated angrily.
This only resulted in more laughter from the captain. "It's only a saying, Seven!"
"You are not, the captain?" Now the conversation was really getting out of hand, and it didn't help matters that the Captain was still laughing.
"Oh I'm not handling this well at all, am I? I'm sorry." Janeway seemed to calm down somewhat and got back to the seriousness of the conversation. "No what I mean is: I'm the captain of this ship, so I can't get romantically involved with anyone."
Seven shot another puzzled look her way, and Janeway knew she had to give a somewhat more detailed explanation. "I would favour someone over another and that's not good for command decisions, now is it?"
"I do not see why not. You already favour some over others."
"Do I?"
"Yes. It is well known that you favour Ensign Kim over most. Does that mean that you could get romantically involved with him and not upset the command structure?"
This made Janeway laugh again. Seven had overheard a number of conversations of crewmembers in which they stated that the Captain should laugh more. Seven disagreed. Smiling was nice, but this laughter sounded as if Janeway was choking on something and it apparently made her lose control of the conversation. Surely that was not a good thing.
The laughter stopped temporarily, enabling the Captain to respond in an unusually high pitched voice: "Oh Seven, goodness...Harry?!? I'd have him for breakfast!"
Seven took a small step back, her face expressing grave concern. "Do you... do you have cannibalistic tendencies?"
That was too much for Janeway, she had been trying to hold back her
laughter as much as possible for Seven's sake, but this had really gone beyond
absurdity. Laughing, she doubled over, her shoulder hitting Seven's hip. Seven
took another step backward. This was truly a very uncomfortable situation. The
Captain was laughing very loudly and it didn't seem like she was going to stop
anytime soon. Every time she calmed down somewhat with a few "Heh heh...
phew's", she doubled over again with laughter.
This lasted for several minutes, during which Seven was desperately trying to
come up with a way to politely leave, or to make the Captain stop.
Then suddenly the doors of the Ready Room hissed open. Commander Chakotay briskly stepped in, but then stopped and watched the scene before him in amazement. Janeway was seated on the edge of her desk, the tears of laughter rolling down her cheeks. She was holding out her arm to him, trying to form a coherent sentence, but the laughter took over again as she doubled over once more. To her left, Seven was standing ramrod straight with an uncomfortable and irritated look on her face.
The Commander's face wrinkled into a big smile. "What's going on here?"
And although Janeway tried with a "Hee hee!!! Ha...Harry!!! ... Harry!!! Hahahaha", he thought it best to look at Seven for a more coherent answer.
"She says she will have Harry for breakfast," Seven stated with disdain.
"Hmm hmm, really?" He looked at Janeway with a twinkle in his eyes. "Changing your eating habits, Kathryn?"
This of course resulted in even louder laughter from the Captain. Seven couldn't stand more of this. The Commander was here now, she was no longer needed. With a last foul look at the Captain, she exited the Ready Room.
Janeway continued laughing with a desperate look on her face. "Oh no! Hahaha! This really started as a serious conversation! Oh no hahahaha."
Chakotay laughed along, until Janeway finally calmed down. Then he asked: "So, having Harry for breakfast eh?"
"No, no. She thought that he would be a good candidate for a romantic relationship with me! Hee hee!"
Chakotay rolled his eyes. "Ah right. Whatever gave her that idea?"
"I honestly don't know. And guess what...? She also thought you and I were romantically involved already!" Janeway started laughing again.
"Uh... is that such a laughable idea?" Chakotay tried to look hurt, but he couldn't help but laugh along again.
"Oh and get this: the crew thinks that you sneak into my quarters through the Jeffrey's Tubes every night!!"
Together they went into another salvo of laughter.
"The really should get out more!" Chakotay stated with a grin.
"Hee hee! They should! Oh speaking of which...," Janeway got up and motioned to Chakotay to follow her. Before the doors opened she quickly dried her eyes, and straightened her uniform out. They walked over to the command chairs.
"Look, we detected an M-class planet at a distance of 3 days. It was 3 days, right Tuvok?"
"That is correct Captain." The Vulcan had been the one to alert her to the M-class planet earlier this shift. Janeway continued, while she was showing Chakotay the data gathered during the shift. "So we've altered course. It would be a good idea to start sorting out the roster. Maybe have a meeting with the Doctor to co-ordinate things. Well... what else?" Janeway scrolled through the data on the small viewscreen between command chairs. "Oh yes, there was a problem with shift rotations on deck 13. I've given them a temporary solution, but I think it would be wise if you had another word with them. I guess that's all."
"Good." Chakotay patted the armrest of his chair. "Let the show commence. Have a good night, Kathryn."
"Thank you Commander." Janeway stood up, then seductively put her hands to her hips and turned around to face him. She purred: "I guess I'll see you later. Don't get stuck in the Jeffrey's Tube again, now will you?"
A deep belly laugh erupted from Chakotay. Tom turned around in his chair at the helm with a "Is this something I should know about?" look and Tuvok's eye brows shot up.
"Goodnight, people!"
The doors of the turbolift opened and just as she wanted to step in, Ensign Kim walked out of it. His hair was still damp from the hydro-shower. He nodded to Janeway. "Ma'am."
"Harry!" With a cheeky grin Janeway added: "Have you been eating well lately?"
"Uh... yes ma'am!"
"Good." She patted him on the cheek. "Good." Turning around to see if her victim had been sufficiently amused, she smugly ascertained herself of the fact that the tears of laughter were rolling down Chakotay's cheeks while he was holding on to the armrests of his chair for dear life and he was hiccuping of laughter. With a wide, over-the-top arm gesture, and a last look at her confused and disarranged bridge crew, she stepped into the waiting Turbo Lift. "Well Commander, you have the bridge!"
--------------------------
The doors to Astrometrics opened with a hiss. Janeway knew that Seven was aware that it was her, because she did not turn around to acknowledge the visitor. Janeway slowly walked up to the console, looking at the screens around her to see what Seven was doing. Seven's fingers were steadily inputting data on the warp core it seemed, and everything about her indicated that she was deliberately ignoring the Captain's presence.
Janeway walked around the console so she was opposite of Seven. She then leaned forward and placed her arms on the console's interface, knowing she was now 'accidentally' inputting a whole lot of incorrect data. She slowly lifted her head, looking up into Seven's eyes through her lashes.
Seven admirably managed another 3 seconds of ignoring the Captain, until she finally sighed and looked at her.
With a voice that could have turned honeybees into life long fans, Janeway asked: "Are you still angry with me?"
Seven's jaw twitched.
"I didn't laugh at you, you know," the Captain continued. "I just... You can be so adorable when you get confused."
Seven swallowed audibly. Her eyes, still having a hint of anger in them, didn't leave Janeway's.
"No, seriously. I didn't mean to be so insensitive about this situation with the doctor. I'm sorry.... Am I forgiven?" She accompanied this by a the tilting of her head and the slight parting of her lips. She was certainly not playing fair.
But Seven really did not want to give in so quickly. So instead she stated what had been on her mind ever since the earlier conversation. "You favour me over others as well."
"Do I?"
A slow smile indicated that the Captain knew full well that she did, but Seven decided to humour her. "Yes. Will you have me for breakfast too?"
"Would I survive?"
Seven sighed again, and broke eye contact to stare over the Captain's head at a screen displaying a supernova. She wanted to continue looking angry, elongating this sweet torture the Captain was putting her through. But she knew it was futile. A smile lit up her features.
Janeway straightened herself, making sure she was fully in Seven's view again, and then returned the smile.
"Have that talk with the doctor, eh? He'll be thankful for it later." She patted Seven's arm and walked back towards the Astrometrics doors.
"Yes Captain," was the reply. "Goodnight."
Janeway turned around. Both to acknowledge the sentiment, and to engrave this picture in her mind; Seven smiling at her in the light of the Astrometrics screens. "Goodnight Seven."