Possibilities

Captain Kathryn Janeway stood gazing out the window of her temporary quarters at Starfleet Command in San Francisco. The moonlight seemed to glint off of the hull of Voyager resting on the grounds of the Presidio. Her mind was filled with images of recent events, and she wondered if the placement of her quarters, in full view of her former ship, her former home, had been intentional.

She smiled at the memory of the final moments prior to approaching Earth. Their arrival was almost anticlimactic, and the silence of the bridge, was broken only when the small thready wail of the infant, Miral Paris announced her own arrival into the Universe. Janeway took a sip from her mug and chuckled, recalling Admiral Paris' request that they land Voyager in San Francisco rather than dock at Utopia Planitia, where she had hoped her ship would enjoy a refit. The Admiral's request jarred her out of the shock of having completed her mission; they were home. She'd asked Chakotay to take the helm while Tom Paris went off to meet his daughter.

The Captain hesitated briefly, not wanting to insult the man who had stood by her side more readily in recent months than ever before. But her indecision quickly passed when two thoughts came to mind. The first was Chakotay's disastrous record as a pilot in the Delta Quadrant. The second surprised her. Jealousy. She didn't want Chakotay to perform the complicated task of landing her starship and possibly win the admiration of the ship's Astrometrics officer. Janeway imagined Seven's small proud smile, the delicate lift of her ocular implant? she wanted that smile directed at her? She acknowledged the Admiral's request and ended the communication. As if in a dream she approached her first officer from behind, placing her hand on his shoulder, and said simply, "May I?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soft beep from her communications console brought her out of her reverie and she sat at the small desk, touching the panel to answer the call. The face of her mother, Gretchen Janeway, smiled back at her. "Hello, Mother. I see you got back home alright."

"Yes, thank you," her mother said softly, "Are they going to keep you there very long?"

Kathryn smiled brightly, drinking in the image of the familiar face. She sighed and rested her cheek on her open hand. "I don't know, really. Admiral Paris suggested that there'd be a couple of days of debriefing for me, and then a bit of time off before we begin again."

Gretchen pressed her lips together tightly for a moment, "What will you do during the break?" she asked hopefully.

"Well, if it's all right with you, I'd like to come home."

"I'd like that," her mother replied softly. "Aunt Martha is dying to see you but I think I can keep her at bay a while longer. Is that what you want?"

Janeway considered this for a moment, "Yes, I think I'd just like to spend time with you, and if Phoebe's not too busy, I'd love to see her too."

Her mother nodded and for a moment they sat silently. For four years Gretchen Janeway had no idea what had happened to her daughter. She'd used every resource she had as the widow of a Starfleet Admiral to gain information, but there was none to be had. Voyager was gone. She refused to believe that the small ship had been destroyed, she felt sure she would have known if her daughter was truly gone.

Just when her resolve was beginning to weaken, news arrived detailing Voyager's predicament. They were alive, but they were 60,000 light years from home and not likely to return in her lifetime. Then, after six years of waiting, regular communication was made possible because of the dedication of an eccentric Lieutenant named Barkley. It was then, that Gretchen Janeway realized that it was not only space and time that had created the distance between mother and daughter. It had always been there, and she regretted that. Kathryn had been her father's daughter and Gretchen accepted that. After Edward Janeway's death, Kathryn became inaccessible to her mother and Gretchen had accepted that too. But, this woman she was talking to now was practically a stranger. She liked this woman, this Kathryn, her daughter. It was as if a whole elaborate covering had been burned away, as if the woman she was seeing now had always been there. There was an ease, a resilience that she hadn't seen before. Maybe, in a way, the nightmare had in fact been a blessing.

"I'll let you know when I'm free to go," Kathryn said. "After all that time on a starship, I'm almost looking forward to a muggy Bloomington summer."

Gretchen offered her a lopsided grin reminiscent of her own and the memory of another aging face?a face so similar to her mother's, which came rushing back. Janeway ended the communication and retrieved her mug, sipping the now lukewarm beverage as she made her way to the couch along the window. It was so odd, to see so few stars in the night sky, she thought, the city lights obscuring most of the constellations.

On her first night in the Alpha Quadrant, the memory of her last night in the Delta warmed her. She'd been sitting in a similar position in her quarters, gazing out at the star field so clearly visible with the ship at Station-Keeping.

That night, the door chime had interrupted her just as her mother's call had that evening.

She recognized the silhouette of her future self, Admiral Janeway, standing in the door-way. She hesitantly beckoned her in. She'd wanted to minimize their contact, but the knowledge that this woman who was herself and yet not, was going to sacrifice her life to save Voyager the next day softened her resolve.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Admiral Kathryn Janeway stood at the entrance for a moment just beyond the sensor that would close the door and allowed her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. She then entered, pausing at the coffee table to deposit the tray she was carrying. She joined her younger counterpart at the view port, and they stood for a moment, side by side before the Captain stepped away and the Admiral spoke.

"I want to tell you about something that happened to me, " Admiral Janeway began raising her hand to forestall the Captain's protest. "Given the circumstances, you're not likely to encounter this? phenomenon," she continued, keeping her back to the Captain and her gaze on the stars passing the view port.

The younger Janeway observed her companion carefully. The Admiral stood in front of her living-room window, her hands resting on her hips in Janeway's most habitual pose. The Admiral's age was evident in the slight thickening of her waist and the snowy color of her hair, but her shoulders were strong and the command presence evident. However, the disturbing similarity in their stance strengthened Captain Janeway's resolve. "I know too much about what might happen?what happened already," the Captain admitted. "We shouldn't even be having this conversation."

The older woman turned and looked intently at her counterpart remembering with trepidation what it felt like to hold the burden of command; to hold it as a solitary figure, a leader, a matriarch. She sighed and moved towards the coffee table reaching for the platter she'd brought with her. She decided to lighten the mood before the good Captain threw her out. "Eat something," she urged, offering the platter and her best command glare.

The younger Janeway, who had begun a slow pace in front of the coffee table with her arms crossed tightly over her chest, did not look up. "We should be preparing for tomorrow. I don't have time for this?"

"You're going to have to make some," the Admiral insisted. " You're too thin."

Janeway halted abruptly, turning on her heels. "Wonderful...I'm going to turn into my mother."

The Admiral offered her companion a lopsided grin. "So true," she said softly. "She's fine, you know. Phoebe too," she said, seating herself and stretching her arms out on either side, resting them on the back of the couch.

The tension in the younger Janeway's shoulders relaxed visibly at that, and she made her way over to the other woman. She sat, turning to face her companion, leaning her elbow on the back of the couch and her head in her open hand. "Thank you for that," she sighed.

Regardless of the protocols, Captain Janeway wanted to know about her mother's and sister's fate in the future, but she was afraid to ask. Janeway always assumed that they would be unaffected by the various wars and conflicts that burdened the Federation, but she worried nonetheless. Her mother would be close to 100 years old in the Admiral's time. It was comforting to know that she'd be there waiting?whenever they got back.

The Admiral took Janeway's hand and patted it lightly before sliding the tray of food over to the younger woman. "Eat. Now," she commanded quietly.

Janeway smirked at her counterpart and said, "Aye, Sir." She picked up one of the finger sandwiches and popped it into her mouth. "Happy?" she said around the delicate salmon p⴩.

"Not yet." The Admiral leaned forward and took one of the sandwiches, but made no move to eat. "It's important that I tell you what happened to me." She studied the sandwich in her hands, which looked 'old' suddenly. She wondered idly when that had happened? "I couldn't take advantage of what I learned through this? event. But you can. It changed me, and not for the better? but you still have a chance. It's not about what will, or might happen, Kathryn. It's about considering the other possibilities. "

Intrigued and suddenly famished, her hunger stimulated by the small sandwich, Janeway settled herself on the floor in front of the tray. "All right. I'm listening," she said, nodding for the older woman to continue.

The Admiral placed the sandwich she was holding back on the tray and picked up her coffee mug, bringing it to her nose, inhaling the rich aroma. But she didn't drink. She couldn't allow herself to break her self-imposed deprivation of the beloved beverage. It was a kind of punishment she inflicted on herself, and she wasn't quite prepared to indulge just yet.

"I was in my quarters one evening, " she began without looking up. "Things were quiet on the bridge, and I'd left Tuvok in command. I had planned on spending the evening in the bath with a book."

"Which one?" The Captain interrupted, polishing off her third small sandwich.

The Admiral looked surprised. "Funny you should ask that. It's quite a significant point as you'll see if you let me finish?"

Janeway smiled, rose gracefully and went over to the replicator to refresh her coffee. "Go on, please. I promise to be good," she said over her shoulder, shaking her index finger in the air for emphasis.

"Thank you." the Admiral continued. "The book was Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. A gift from Tom Paris," she added in response to the younger woman's incredulous expression. "He was planning a new public holodeck program based on the setting."

"So Tom still tinkers in the holodeck even after his daughter arrives?" Janeway inquired, reseating herself on the floor. She raised an elegant hand. "Wait, don't tell me about him, tell me your story."

The Admiral rose, crossing to the replicator. She recycled her coffee mug and continued. "I was just approaching the bedroom when I felt... suddenly lightheaded. I looked down at the book in my hand and it had changed. It wasn't Gatsby any longer - I was holding Maeve Binchy's Tara Road."

"That's the one about the Irish woman who does a house swap with a woman from Connecticut?" Janeway asked leaning her elbow on the coffee table and resting her chin on thumb and forefinger.

"Yes. Neither one of their lives is turning out as they'd planned, so they end up trading lives and friends as well as houses." The older woman added, "I immediately assumed Q was making an appearance, and I was about to call security when I noticed a framed holoimage on the nightstand that hadn't been there before." She looked carefully at her companion, "It was me, and well, you really, smiling contentedly, wrapped in the arms of B'Elanna Torres."

"What?" Janeway squeaked.

The older woman smiled to herself and then took her time moving to the couch, seating herself and crossing her legs in one elegant move before going on. "There were other things that were different. For one thing, it was at least eight degrees warmer than normal in my quarters, but before I could ask the computer about it the door swooshed open and the apparent object of my, your affection waltzes in!" she said with a dramatic sweep of her arm towards the doorway.

"Hold on," the Captain interrupted, unconsciously glancing at the closed door. "We're both going to end up with a headache with all this 'you, me, us' confusion. Just tell the story from your point of view? Please."

The elder woman offered an indulgent smile "Fine," she said quietly, leaning back, kicking off her boots and then carefully tucking her legs up comfortably underneath herself. "So, B'Elanna walks right up to me, says 'Hiya, Red, you're back early!' and kisses me like I'd never been kissed before."

"Oh, my," the younger Janeway breathed, feeling her cheeks warm at the image. She picked up her mug and moved to the couch. She kicked off her boots as well and seated herself in a mirror image of her companion.

"The next thing I know, Tuvok is hailing me and B'Elanna is letting out a string of Klingon curses that would curl the toes of the boldest of warriors. It seems that he was detecting some sort of anomaly centered around my quarters."

"Of course he was?" The younger Janeway drawled.

"B'Elanna was about to tap her comm badge to contact Engineering I presume, when suddenly I found myself sitting alone in the kitchen of my house in San Francisco. I was also surprised to find that I was dressed in nothing but an old bathrobe." The Captain's eyebrows rose in question, and the Admiral explained, " I was wearing my uniform to begin with, so the parameters of the previous 'leap', as I've come to think of them, were initially unclear.

"It seemed as if I were not just 'leaping' from place to place, but from body to body? I promised myself then, that if I kept up this leaping about, I'd be sure to check a mirror first chance I got? just in case. My mind was racing, rejecting theory after theory as to what was happening to me. Was I jumping in time, or just in space, or both? Would some small difference in a new universe somehow make me a different person altogether?"

"Sounds like you'd lost your mind, if you ask me." The younger Janeway offered facetiously.

The Admiral chuckled. "Oh, no. It was very, very real." Turning slightly, she cradled her head in the palm of her hand. "When you've been kissed by B'Elanna Torres," she said wistfully, " you know - you've been kissed!"

Silenced, the younger Janeway allowed the Admiral continue.

Looking down, the Admiral toyed idly with a thread coming loose from her uniform pants. "In each 'universe' or 'dimension' I had just a bit more time to explore. So I left the kitchen to discover that the living room was filled with containers, as if someone were moving in or out. Above the mantle was a large painting done in a style that was unmistakably Phoebe's work. The painting at first glance showed Voyager streaking across the colorful backdrop of a nebula.

"I stood looking at the painting from a distance, and as my vision refocused the lines and shapes of the background, which a moment before seemed to be nothing more than a spatial anomaly, revealed themselves to be the stylistic form of two women lying sideways across the canvas." The Admiral looked up at the Captain. "In fact, it was very clearly me and Seven of Nine lying there together." The Admiral paused, reaching over to pat her companion heartily on the back while the younger woman coughed and sputtered, having aspirated her last sip of coffee. She took the mug from the younger woman's hand and set it on the coffee table before she continued. "The image was of Seven on her back, with me pressed against her side. We were kissing? passionately."

The Captain sat frozen and wide-eyed as the Admiral mercilessly explained in further detail. "In the painting, my hand was intimately cupping the juncture of Seven's legs, while her hand rested on my breast? which as far as I could tell, was rendered quite accurately, both in shape and size. I honestly have no idea how Phoebe was able to be so? precise." The Admiral shuddered briefly, wondering not for the first time what or whom her sister had used as a model. "Voyager, meanwhile, streaked across my bottom, thankfully obscuring it from view."

"But you have such a lovely behind," The younger Janeway said wryly, having recovered from her initial shock. She was actually beginning to enjoy the tale, particularly since she hadn't been the one to experience it first-hand.

The Admiral resisted the urge to roll her eyes and replied simply, "Nice." She closed her eyes for a moment, gathering the memory once again. After a moment, she went on. "That 'leap' didn't last much longer, but I was there long enough for Seven... Annika, to return home and scold me for not getting ready for our dinner date with B'Elanna Torres and her partner, Ro Laren."

"Who's Ro Laren?" Kathryn blurted out before she could stop herself, mindful of the Temporal Prime Directive, but unable to resist.

"I have no idea," the older woman admimtted, quietly dismissing the question, " I had 'leapt' out of there almost immediately anyway. But not before I learned that all of us had apparently just returned from a three-year mission on my new ship, the Millennium." The Admiral continued, before her younger self could interrupt. "Next, I was suddenly 'Admiral Johnson' who shared quarters with a distinctly un-Borgified Dr. Annika Hansen."

Admiral Janeway paused and watched the myriad of emotions play across her counterpart's face. She wondered briefly if the Captain's obvious distress reflected the mention of her former fianc鮠 For the Admiral, meeting Annika Hansen - free of the physical and emotional scars inflicted by the Borg - was perhaps the most difficult moment in her adventure. The significance of Johnson's early return was not lost on her. By the end of the visit, she felt sure that Admiral Johnson had returned early because Dr. Annika Hanson was waiting for her in the Alpha Quadrant. It just took a failed marriage to Mark Johnson to figure that out? she thought, wryly.

The younger Janeway retrieved her coffee mug, confidant that she could now manage it properly. "So were most of these incarnations of? us... in relationships with Seven, uh, Annika?" she said quietly, whispering the blonde's human name.

"No? not all of them," The Admiral replied. "There was that first one with B'Elanna; she called me 'Red'. Then there was another, later on, where she called me 'Deshoy'."

Kathryn smiled, her brow knit. "Deshoy?" She thought for a moment. Little arm? Why little arm?"

"I assumed it was a play on words. Something about 'arms' or leadership. Most Klingon 'love names' are," said the Admiral.

The younger woman smiled. "A bang pong."

"Yes," the Admiral nodded. "However, then there was New Earth. Remember New Earth and the Monkey? Well, apparently, somewhere out there is a Kathryn Janeway who never made it back to Voyager."

"Oh."

"Oh, indeed." Admiral Janeway looked down at her linked hands for a moment, sorry to have disrupted her companion's giddy acceptance of her tale. She pushed the memory of a sullen Chakotay away and continued. "In fact, it was that encounter that made it clear that I was not 'leaping' in time at all, only from one alternate universe, to another."

"When?" The Captain asked quickly.

"When what?" The Admiral's eyes darkened, and she swallowed convulsively. "Oh, I see? about three years from now. Just after?" both women looked away, their eyes stinging in tandem as tears threatened. The Admiral allowed a tear to escape and casually brushed it away.

The younger Kathryn leaned forward, taking the older woman's hand in her own. "That must have been unbearable for you?seeing her again so soon after?"

"No actually, it wasn't like that at all. At least, not right away." The Admiral smiled to herself. "It was like a gift? and a curse all at once. I got to 'visit' all of these mostly wonderful possibilities and get a taste of what might have been. It was all too disjointed to really enjoy while it was happening? although the longer it went on, the longer I seemed to stick around." Her eyes were twinkling as she continued. "It seems, my dear, that out of all the universes, you and I are the only ones not 'getting any'!"

The younger Janeway winced at the crude term, but sat quietly hoping that the Admiral was about to offer more detail. She was not disappointed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh, Good Lord! Both of them?" The younger woman yelped, bringing he hand to her mouth in astonishment. "At the same time?"

"Both of them? and I got to stick around quite some time for that one."

The younger Janeway eyed her companion. "You didn't? at the same time?"

"Oh yes. I did," the older woman stated, a measure of triumph lacing her tone. "Don't look at me that way," she chided, "If you recall, there is a Kathryn Janeway out there actually married to Seven of Nine, and another one married to B'Elanna Torres."

"And a third married to both of them?"

The Admiral shook her head and held up two fingers. "Actually," she continued, completely enjoying the gentle torture she was inflicting on her younger self, "I'm not sure that I didn't instigate the second occurrence."

The younger Janeway blinked, shutting her mouth abruptly when she realized it was hanging open.

"Will you stop looking at me like that? it was all very confusing. I just forgot where I was for the moment." The Admiral allowed a slow smile, and feeling mischievous, she went on. "I will tell you I'm sure that in at least one universe, I left a shocked and pleasantly surprised Kathryn Janeway in my wake that day."

Captain Janeway smiled, and then sobered up quickly. "I'm almost afraid to ask," she whispered. "Was there anyone? well, unexpected?"

Admiral Janeway smiled at the Captain's unconscious admission of her feelings, noting that apparently pairing herself with Seven and/or B'Elanna were considered 'expected'. She hesitated briefly, wondering if she should begin to edit the more tragic parts of the story. She had a reason for sharing all this and she didn't want to confuse the issue. "Yes, twice. Remember Ahni Jetal?" The younger woman nodded gravely, recalling the young Ensign whose untimely death had caused a feedback loop between the Doctor's ethical and cognitive subroutines, initially forcing the Captain to erase the hologram's memory of the incident. "Well, apparently she and I were on an extended shuttle mission," the Admiral explained keeping the extraneous details deliberately vague. "It seems we got to know each other rather? intimately? and continued our relationship once on board Voyager."

"She didn't go on the away mission with Harry and the Doctor," Captain Janeway stated flatly.

"No. I also found out that in that universe, Seven was not on board Voyager."

"Ah," the younger woman said now, pointedly staring into her empty mug. "You said twice," the Captain remarked, looking up at her counterpart. "Who else?"

"Honestly, I think I've told you enough." The Admiral suddenly felt protective of a certain beautiful and intelligent Lieutenant, who was currently serving in the Astrophysics department. That 'leap' had been particularly difficult, as it was near the end of the process and the length of her stay was significant. The fact that circumstances could have been so extraordinary as to pair her with a member of her crew whom, in her own universe, she had met only briefly still befuddled her. The Lieutenant was understandably distressed at the fact that her lover of three years seemed to barely know her. Janeway's own tacit understanding of how her counterpart could have fallen in love with the woman compounded her distress.

They had a common past, a common career track up until Janeway had turned toward Command. It was plausible, the Admiral allowed within her own thoughts, and it was nice. In fact, the Lieutenant had been instrumental in figuring out how to disburse the anomaly effectively ending the then-Captain's 'leaping'.

Admiral Janeway had no real idea what had happened to her distinctly happier counterparts, and she sorely hoped that this one particular universe's Kathryn had returned to the Lieutenant unharmed.

Captain Janeway waited patiently as her companion gazed out the view port, seemingly lost in a memory. "So," she said quietly, "you said that you had some reason for telling me all this." In truth, she had begun to understand clearly why the Admiral had shared the story, but for some reason she wanted to hear it from her own mouth, so to speak.

The Admiral looked at her younger self, blinking back the tears that threatened once again. "I never told her how I felt about her," she said, sure the Captain would know exactly whom she was speaking of. "She died? in the arms of her husband? not my arms, damn it, Chakotay's!" She brought a trembling hand to her lips, and whispered through her fingers, "I was given a glimpse of what might have been, and I couldn't do a damn thing about it!" The Admiral waited until she felt her voice would no longer betray her. "You can."

"I can't."

The Admiral cupped the Captain's face in her hands. "You can." She said, "You must. For both of us." She leaned forward, resting their foreheads delicately against each other. "For all of us," she implored.

The younger Janeway placed her hands over those of her counterpart. "But what about Chakotay?" she asked, barely able to form the words.

"It isn't going to work out," the Admiral said flatly, sitting back and dropping her hands to the Captain's shoulders. "She went on that fatal away mission because they were miserable and arguing." They both sat silently for a moment, one confronted with the memory and the other, the possibility of losing Seven completely. "She died because I wasn't brave enough to tell her that I loved? love her."

"Damn," the Captain said, shaking her head. "We're breaking every regulation there is, having this conversation. It isn't fair to Seven. I shouldn't know about these things."

"To hell with regulations, Captain!" The Admiral spat the title as if it were a curse. She stood suddenly, breaking the contact and looking down at her younger self. "This is you we're talking about, your life, not your career! We're talking about Kathryn Janeway, alone and miserable for the rest of her life because under all that Starfleet training, under all that hard-earned stoical, martyr-like, rock-solid persona, you're afraid of getting your heart broken!"

The older Janeway was trembling now caught half-way between her rage and her despair. "Let me be perfectly clear," she said, steadying her voice. "I died that day. I stood there, next to that bio bed, while he held her in his arms - and all of the life went out of me. I became a shell, a shadow of my former self, and when the opportunity presented itself I came back here, not to save her, but to save you." The Admiral's voice had not elevated above a whisper, but her intent was clear. "I will not allow you to mess that up the way you've messed up everything else about your personal life!" She had raised her voice this time unintentionally. Admiral Janeway sat down abruptly and covered her face with her hands. But she was beyond tears.

Captain Kathryn Janeway opened her mouth as if to speak, and then closed it again looking down at her feet. "Is that the way you see me?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. "I'm a fool?"

"No," The older Janeway replied, pressing the balls of her now clenched hands into her forehead. "I'm the fool. And I need you to fix it for me." She turned to her companion now, her chin trembling almost imperceptibly. "I don't want you to become me. I don't want you looking back 30 years from now with some new twist to this tragedy and thinking 'if only'. I don't want you going mad with guilt and loneliness. I don't want you suddenly finding yourself willing to sacrifice the lives of billions of people by running back to fix what went wrong. I want you to live the way you truly want. To have whom you truly need? who truly needs you." Again, the women were silent. The Admiral sighed as the Captain brushed an errant snow-white tress from her face. She took the Captain's hand in hers and asked, "So, what will you do now?"

Captain Janeway brushed her knuckles along the face that was so much like her mother's, so much like her own, but somehow very different, now marked by years of pain and longing. "Now, just so I'm sure I have this straight, " she said, her eyes twinkling, "Are we talking about Seven or B'Elanna?"

The Admiral batted the younger woman's hand away. "You know," she said, "I don't ever remember having such a twisted sense of humor."

"Oh of course you do, " the younger Janeway replied smiling. "After all, you're me."

The Admiral's eyes darkened to a smoky gray. "No, I'm not," she said. "Not anymore. But you can change all that."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her coffee was cold, and Kathryn Janeway set the mug aside and walked to the large window of her darkened temporary quarters at Starfleet Command. She stood for a moment at the window and thought of Chakotay. He had been her friend and confidante for seven years. She knew that for a time, he had wanted more. In the beginning she had used Mark and her command as an excuse to keep him at arm's length. On New Earth, she had known that neither of those things was the reason she could not give him more. You knew even then, that he was not the one? she thought. And a year later he would betray you.

But it was that very act of betrayal that brought Seven into her life. "And changed me forever," she murmured.

Suddenly, the Admiral's words echoed to her through time 'She goes on that fatal away mission because they were miserable?' and now you're the one who's miserable, her own mind answered. She stared at her reflection in the window. "She loves Chakotay now," she said aloud. No, not love.

On the eve of her release from the circumstances that dictated she that remain apart, selfless, and alone, the Admiral had given her the answer: 'I want you to live the way you truly want. To have whom you truly need? who truly needs you.' Kathryn nodded to herself as if in affirmation, and moved to the small desk that held a communications console. She keyed in the proper commands and was greeted by a familiar face.

"Captain," Seven greeted simply.

Janeway gazed intently at the pair of ice-blue eyes gazing back. "If you're not too busy, would you mind stopping by?"

"The hour is late. You should rest before the debriefings continue," Seven replied evenly.

Kathryn pursed her lips at the reprimand, "I know, Seven, but? I'd like to spend some time with you. Would you rather I come to you?" she asked.

"No, Captain, I would be happy to visit you, " the former Borg hesitated for a moment. "I would like to spend time with you as well."

Janeway rested her cheek in her open hand. "It's settled then, and please, we're not on Voyager anymore. Call me Kathryn."

"Yes Kathryn, " Seven said softly as an almost imperceptible smile graced her full lips. "I will be there shortly."

Janeway nodded and terminated the communication, beginning another one almost immediately. "Mother? Would it be all right if I brought someone with me on my visit?"