Disclaimer: Voyager belongs to Paramount, but at least some of this story is the product of my own twisted imagination.
Summary: How does the crew react to Janeway's confession? After several requests for a sequel to 'Torrent of Emotion', I just couldn't resist writing this little piece. Knowledge of the first story is necessary to your understanding of the second. I hope it lives up to expectations. As before, this may contain slight spoilers for 'The Disease'.
Name in [brackets] indicates POV change. Starts from Tom's POV. I couldn't agree on my tenses so Tom's and B'Elanna's thoughts are written past tense and Chakotay's in the present. That's just how it came out.
Action and Reaction
What is it with Harry and falling in love out here, why does he always have to do it the difficult way? First that character on the holodeck, who as it turned out was no holodeck character at all and had more of a thing for Vulcans, and then Tal. Tal, who he developed some kind of 'connection' with, don't ask me what it was I don't know the details, and who ended up getting good old, reliable Harry Kim in trouble with the Captain. Who'd have thought it, eh? Certainly not me.
I'll never forget that day, the day Harry Kim argued with the Captain on the bridge. That wasn't the most memorable moment of the shift, but I'll get to that part shortly. Janeway stormed onto the bridge and my first thought was 'please don't let me do anything stupid this afternoon'. Harry followed, and my second thought was a short addition to the first - 'or Harry'.
"Captain!" he shouted, and there was no danger of anyone on the bridge not hearing the tone on his voice. He was out for blood, the Captain's blood, *not* a good idea.
"I told you to report for treatment!" The no-nonsense command tone was in full evidence in the Captain's reply, possibly as strong as I'd ever heard it.
"I don't want treatment!" Oh dear God Harry, please don't argue. You're already an Ensign, 'Crewman' is not a pretty possibility.
"In my ready room," Janeway whispered, with an accompanying glare that could have reduced even the most seasoned of Starfleet officers to a quivering wreck on the floor. Her precious Harry Kim had slipped up, and boy didn't we all know it.
Then they disappeared into the confines of the Captain's ready room. Sometimes I wish these bulkheads weren't so well soundproofed, I would have *loved* to have been a fly on the wall during that conversation. Although my belief at the time was that Harry was getting his ass whipped, big time, the knowledge that I have gained since then just made me wish that I'd been there all the more. That must have been some experience...
The mood on the bridge once they had stormed through was somewhat subdued. Chakotay never said a word, and I got the feeling that he'd told the Captain what he thought of it all earlier on and had since decided to just stay well out of it. Tuvok, as usual, got on with his job as though nothing unusual was going on at all. The stand-in at ops was a little awed I think by the whole thing, and as for me... Well, I was messaging B'Elanna about how glad she should be that she hadn't decided to stick out the rest of the shift on the bridge. In retrospect, I should have been telling her to get up there quick-smart, but then hindsight is always 20/20.
There were actually several others on the bridge that afternoon, each of whom witnessed the path of two of their senior officers across the bridge, and each of whom diligently carried on with their work regardless.
Carried on, that is, until the comm line opened and we all witnessed perhaps the strangest confession of love I've ever heard.
*Janeway to Chakotay, I'm sorry I never told you this, I mean I've only had the last five years to do it, but I love you!*
=/\=
Of course, everyone heard it. It went so silent it felt like you could hear time itself ticking away, as everyone tried not to look around at Chakotay too quickly. I opened a one-way communications channel to Engineering as quickly as I could, it was the best way I could think of to make sure that B'Elanna didn't miss out on the action. Sparing a glance in Tuvok's direction I noticed that even he was openly staring at his First Officer. You have to hand it to Kathryn Janeway, not many people can shock a Vulcan who's known them for well over a decade. Finally turning my gaze a little further I caught my first glimpse of Chakotay's expression, and for the first time in my life wished I had taken more notice of the compulsory literary appreciation classes I had taken in school. Never in a million years would I find the vocabulary, the poetic phrases that I'd need to describe this picture to B'Elanna. Such a waste, such a goddamned waste.
The atmosphere was broken by the sound of doors swooshing open admitting someone entrance to the main bridge. Chakotay's head swung around in the direction of the ready room, the sound having lifted him out of his stupor and swiftly deposited him into a state that I'm not sure was much better - he looked as I'd imagined a lamb would going to the slaughter. But his gaze had shifted in the wrong direction, as it wasn't his love but rather mine that had made the grand entrance. It seemed that B'Elanna had noticed the comm channel I had opened but due to the silence that still remained she had decided the only way to find out precisely what was going on was to come up and see for herself. So now she was standing frozen just in front of the turbolift doors, her eyes meeting mine in confusion. That was the moment at which I realised that I should have messaged her about the Captain's hail, which by now I had gathered was definitely not deliberate, and then opened the comm channel so she could hear the aftermath. Yes, hindsight *was* 20/20, but it was too late to worry about that now.
The sound of doors opening was heard again, and this time it did originate from the ready room. Harry stepped out, face as white as a sheet, and made his way to his position at ops to relieve his stand-in. Rather than leaving the bridge the stand-in just stood slightly to one side, his previous action an automatic reaction to Harry's presence, and continued to gape in the direction Harry had come from.
And the doors started to close, with no sign of the Captain. Chakotay was out of his seat faster than I've ever seen him move in my life, somehow managing to get to and then through the doors before they had completely come together. Then they closed behind him, sealing him from view.
=/\=
[Chakotay]
*Janeway to Chakotay, I'm sorry I never told you this, I mean I've only had the last five years to do it, but I love you!*
=/\=
Chakotay, wake yourself up, you're dreaming on the bridge again. And you must have spoken out loud, because everyone is turning to look at you. But hang on, my mouth is closed, it's been closed for a while now, so that wasn't me. I didn't say a word, thank the spirits. But they're still looking at me, they definitely heard something, they heard it. But I didn't speak, so how could they have...
Oh the spirits preserve me, I think I'm going to die. I didn't say it, *she* did! I can't believe it, I just can't believe it, what the *hell* is happening, it's not happening, someone's just entered the bridge, she's on the bridge...
She's not on the bridge. The ready room doors are still closed. Someone must have just come up on the turbolift. B'Elanna, it has to be, Tom would have called her up here. Oh god, this is going to be all over the ship by the end of the day, it's probably all over the ship already, Kathryn is going to...
What is Kathryn going to do? She obviously didn't mean to do that, so what was she doing before this happened? Oh right, that was it, she was 'talking' with Harry. Poor Harry. Poor Kathryn. Poor me.
Doors are opening again, and this time it is the ready room. She's coming out this time, what am I going to say? Why am I still staring in this direction? Why can't I move?
It's Harry, he's coming out first. No, not first, he's the only one coming out. The doors are closing. The doors are closing! I have to get in there before they shut, because she's sure as hell not coming out.
She's not coming out, and now I'm in. Somehow I made it across the bridge, although I don't remember moving, I only remember thinking about it. Now the doors have closed behind me, and I'm in. I'm standing in front of Kathryn, staring at her, and she's staring right back at me.
Spirits, give me strength.
=/\=
[Tom]
As soon as the doors closed behind Chakotay, B'Elanna was racing towards me demanding to know just what had happened and I, along with everyone else excepting Tuvok, was doing the same but aimed in Harry's direction. The poor kid was still shell-shocked, and I don't blame him. That must have been some interview with the boss-lady, then he comes out of the lion's den and the bridge atmosphere changes from stunned silence to chaotic din in front of his very eyes. Hell, I'd be at a loss for words in that situation.
Of course, Tuvok felt it was his place to put us all back in our places. In his very Vulcan way he suggested that we leave our interest in the preceding events outside of the bridge. From that point onwards the shift seemed to drag on forever. B'Elanna stayed on the bridge on the off-chance that the Captain and Chakotay would emerge from the ready room before shift change, but we were all disappointed on that score. They beamed themselves out of there after about an hour, as I found out when the alarm I had programmed to alert me to such a move went off on my console. So much for that. I spent the rest of the shift once again exchanging messages with B'Elanna and taking bets from all over the ship on the outcome of what had to be the slip of the decade, my thoughts only that this could make me a very wealthy man.
=/\=
[B'Elanna]
After Tom and Harry filled me in on what had happened that day on the bridge I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Trust Kathryn Janeway to tell him in a way neither of them were expecting, and who'd have thought that Harry would be the one to coax it out of her, and without even trying! My first instinct was to run to Chakotay and ask him what had happened after the ready room doors had closed behind him, but a quick question to the computer ended that thought. He was still with her, in her quarters by then. I decided that was a good sign and left them to it.
Actually, I ended up talking to Kathryn about it before Chakotay. Yes, it's 'Kathryn' now. She could hardly have her bridesmaid calling her 'Captain', could she! Anyway, I had to take a report to her the next morning and Chakotay wasn't on the bridge, so I just went straight up and rang the chime on the ready room door.
She called me in without hesitation, and I was greeted with a smile that I had never seen on her before. There was none of the embarrassment I had half expected to see, just this huge goofy grin! Someone had gotten some last night, that much was obvious.
She was just as cheerful as she spoke to me, accepting the report with her usual grace, and then from somewhere I found the courage to bring up the subject I was most interested in myself. A simple sentence or two as I left the room, that's all. That's all it took.
"Captain, I just wanted to say, we're all happy for you. I hope you'll be very happy together."
"Thank you, B'Elanna," she replied, "so do I."
That was it. That was my confirmation of what had happened the day before, and I went away with a renewed spring in my step, winking at Tom as I crossed the bridge. Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that life can be wonderful.
THE END
So that's it for this story! I didn't want to write out 'the talk', because the way I see it you don't really need me to tell you how it goes. ;-)
| To receive notification when I post a new story, enter your email address below, then click the 'Join' button: |
