Disclaimer: Paramount, as always, own the characters and the ship. I only take responsibility for the mistake that inspired this little piece ;-)
Summary: Communication errors abound.
Miscommunication
To this day I can't say exactly how it happened.
One partially-intoxicated conversation with Tom Paris (alright, more than partially intoxicated, but that's not the issue here), and I found myself promising to tell Chakotay. Tell him everything. That I've been stupid, that I have spent the last six years in denial, tell him what I should have told him a long time ago.
In short, tell my First Officer that I love him.
So, I asked Chakotay to share lunch with me in my quarters. It seemed like a safe option. Privacy, somewhere we could be comfortable if this went well and, thanks to the time of day, the option of returning to shift without suspicion should the worst happen and I needed to work to occupy my mind.
We left the bridge together. There was no reason not to; our having lunch together was nothing unusual, and it probably would have aroused more suspicion had we left separately only to be found together five minutes later. I was more than a little preoccupied on the journey to deck three, but luckily my best friend didn't call me on it. I wanted to approach this in my own time, in my own way.
I settled down once I had the food itself to worry about. Replicated, of course. Occasionally, on restricted topics, I know my limits. Luckily for Chakotay cooking is one of those topics. As we ate I went through my options one more time, trying to decide how exactly I was expected to tell my First Officer that I couldn't live without him. Finally, as the man in question was running out of tales about his recent mission to the planet Seron II, I decided on what I thought was the right course of action.
That was when all hell broke loose.
~~~
*Red Alert! Captain to the bridge!*
Captain Janeway left her quarters at a half run, with Commander Chakotay barely three steps behind her. Red emergency lights flashed through the corridors, and the alert klaxons rang in their ears. Their lunch break, it seemed, was over.
The bridge was in chaos. As the turbolift doors retracted, Voyager's most senior officers were greeted by the sight of consoles smoking and frantic crewmen trying to repair the damage. The viewscreen displayed an image of their opponent, a bulky freighter ship with shields that glowed a bright aqua when hit by Voyager's fire power.
"Report!" Janeway snapped.
"We were hailed and questioned in a hostile manner as to our interest in the contents carried on the alien vessel. They then opened fire when we informed them we were not interested in their cargo," Tuvok explained. "On further analysis, it appears that this was not the response these - traders - wished to hear."
"All this for a miscommunication?"
"Indeed," was Tuvok's only reply.
The hits kept coming.
"Shields at fifty-three..." Harry was interrupted by another phaser blast. "Correction, forty-seven percent, Captain."
"How much longer will they last, Ensign?"
"If I re-route some power from non-essential systems I can keep the damage down for a while longer, but as you can see we do have problems."
"You don't say. Janeway to Engineering."
"Captain," B'Elanna's harried voice came over the comm. "I could do with some help down here! Systems are crashing all over the place and I have too many injured crewmen to keep up with the repairs."
"I'll be right down, and you have my authorisation to pull anyone else you want who isn't already manning an essential station on the bridge or in sickbay. Janeway out." At that moment the turbolift deposited a repair crew on the bridge, and Kathryn hurried to get to it before the doors closed. She made it just in time, turning to throw over her shoulder, "Commander, you have the bridge."
~~~
The captain arrived in Engineering and swiftly instructed B'Elanna to treat her as she would any other member of the crew, resulting in her assignment to monitor warp core containment. As she went into autopilot, the task second nature to her, Kathryn had a sudden desire to let Tom know what had happened - or rather not happened - at lunch. With her absence from the bridge she could just imagine her helmsman making some knowing comment to Chakotay, be it in the middle of a battle or not. The very last thing she wanted was for Chakotay to find out anything at a time when it could distract him and possibly compromise the ship's safety. That thought in mind, she quickly sent a text-only note to Tom's console.
Tom,
I thought you should know, I didn't get to tell him at lunch.
KJ
Having done everything she could to avoid that particular disaster, Janeway returned her attention to the warp core readouts.
Only to see a dangerous spike in the readings.
"B'Elanna!" she called out. "The warp core is becoming unstable!"
"I'm on it," the Chief Engineer replied, "could you work on the..."
Kathryn heard no more, as the console in front of her exploded and the blast threw her to the floor unconscious.
~~~
Three hours later, Captain Janeway awoke in sickbay to find her First Officer and the doctor standing over her. The rest of sickbay was deserted, with all other injured crewmen already having been released to their quarters.
"Commander, report," she ordered, her voice catching on the words as she struggled to fully regain consciousness.
"After disabling the other vessel's targeting scanners we managed to convince them of our misunderstanding, and they agreed to let us continue on our way on the provision we purchased some of their cargo. I authorised the trade of some of our own food stockpile for some interesting items they carried, and we left them behind over two hours ago. Since then repairs have been underway, and B'Elanna informs me we'll have warp capability restored by 1800 hours."
"Good. Doctor, how bad's the damage?" She sat up slowly to hear his report of her condition, moving slowly as though she was testing for aches and pains.
"You were lucky, only minor injuries. I kept you sedated until now to ensure you didn't discharge yourself too early. Once the battle was over there was no need to get you back to the bridge with any expediency, so it seemed, to quote Mr Tuvok, logical to keep you here."
Janeway's wrath was obvious. "Doctor," she started, but Chakotay didn't let her get any further.
"Captain, if you're going to blame anyone for this, blame me. I ordered him to do it."
Kathryn returned her attention to the doctor long enough to grind out, "Doctor, you're dismissed." Then Chakotay felt the full weight of her glare.
"Well?"
"I'm not apologising, Kathryn, this way you healed properly and won't be feeling the aftermath of these 'minor injuries' for the next week." He didn't let her say anything before continuing, "I have a question for you, though. How did you manage to find time to send personal notes during the battle?"
"Notes?" Kathryn replied, her voice full of confusion. She couldn't remember sending Chakotay any...
Oh. No.
She didn't. Please say she didn't.
"So what didn't you get to tell me, Kathryn?"
Oh. She did.
Her next reaction surprised even Kathryn herself. She started to laugh. A gentle laugh at first, but soon tears were streaming from her eyes as she laughed freely at how stupid she had been. In the midst of the chaos, she must have sent her note to the person it was about, rather than the intended recipient. Well, it was one way to tell him. In the midst of her laughter, she placed one hand on his chest and blurted it straight out.
"I love you, Chakotay."
She continued to giggle, but Chakotay just stood stock still, stunned into silence. He thought he'd heard her say she loved him, but then, she was still laughing. It wasn't entirely the most appropriate thing to laugh at. Then again, when he thought more about it, maybe it was funny. Of all the ways he'd imagined this happening, this had never crossed his mind - a note that had been intended for Tom Paris. Tom Paris, of all people! Before he knew what had come over him, a grin lit up his features.
"Kathryn, did you..." A small burst of laughter bubbled to the surface at just that moment, and he was unable to continue his question. She knew what he'd tried to ask though.
"Yes," she managed to get out, "I did." Looking at the feelings displayed so clearly in Chakotay's eyes, Kathryn managed to regain some calm. "I just told you I loved you."
Her calm brought Chakotay to his senses. "I love you too, Kathryn."
Then she was kissing him, still perched on the edge of the biobed as he stood in front of her. Laughter turned into joy, and as their kiss broke off and Chakotay wrapped his captain in his arms, a stray thought popped into her head:
Tom was going to love hearing about this.
~~~
I believe I said "in my own time, in my own way." It seems no one was listening.
Tom did enjoy hearing what happened when I told him. It might have had something to do with his betting pool. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the catalyst to my relationship with Chakotay would be a note I sent to Tom Paris. Word is he's pretty well off right now, so I know where to go when I run out of rations for coffee.
Chakotay and I are happier than I ever thought possible. The rest of the crew found out about us pretty quickly, thanks to our first kiss being witnessed by one of the biggest gossips on the ship. And here I'd thought doctors were supposed to be experts in confidentiality. It has its advantages though, I don't think I could have hidden this for very long, though I doubtless would have tried. The doctor spared me the trouble.
So there you have it, that's how it went. That's how the captain and First Officer of a ship called Voyager became a team in life as well as in work. Not exactly as planned, but then...
It wouldn't be Voyager otherwise, would it?
THE END
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