E-mail: |
D.A. Kent |
Date: |
July 2004 |
Code: |
J/C |
Rated: |
PG-13 |
Disclaimer: |
Paramount/Viacom owns Voyager and all the characters therein. I'd buy them I could afford to, but since I can't, I just borrow them once in a while. |
The door chime sounded to her Ready Room. Kathryn Janeway jumped at
the sound and glanced up from her computer. "Come," she said, wondering
why she couldn't see clearly.
Chakotay, her intensely good-looking first officer, entered. She smiled.
"What happened to your 17:00 break, Captain? You promised you would eat
a good meal this evening."
She blinked. "I did. I mean, I will. I did promise, and I will eat it."
She sighed. "You know what I mean."
He frowned. "How many fingers am I holding in front of me?"
"Really, Chakotay, I'm fine."
"You've been staring at the computer all day again."
"Chakotay..."
"Is everything blurry?" He held up his two fingers and waved them around.
She smiled. "Chakotay, it was. It's better now." She stood. "All right.
I'm off to the mess." She moved toward the door.
"Good. I'll join you just to make sure you don't break your promise."
She smiled at a passing crewmember in the corridor. "Fine with me."
"I hear Neelix has come up with a great new way to prepare Leola Root.
He says we'll all love it."
"Um hum?"
"Perhaps the captain could try it first?."
"Someday, perhaps, but not today, Chakotay."
"All right." He could tell she was preoccupied, and he knew her well
enough to know she was thinking about that new altered course they'd plotted
out in the Briefing Room early this morning - the one she hadn't stopped
looking at on her computer terminal all day. "Then how about a round of
hoverball after dinner? I have the holodeck reserved from 20:00 hours until..."
"Sounds wonderful," she said, nodding to an exhausted ensign about to
enter her quarters after a full shift. "But not today."
"Then how about..." he started to say.
"Absolutely. But not today." She smiled at Neelix as they entered the
mess hall and walked directly to the waiting coffeepot.
Chakotay sighed. "Then how about marrying me?"
"High time," she said absently. "But not today."
"I'll hold you to that, Kathryn," he said.
"Fine." Captain Janeway took a sip of her coffee. "Ummm, delightful.
And to think seven years ago I would have said you were crazy if you'd
told me I'd say that about Neelix's coffee." She put the cup on a tray.
"I'd love a cup of vegetable bullion," she whispered to Neelix, who immediately
ran
off to make it up nice and fresh for his captain.
"Well, I just remembered something I need to take care of, Captain," said Chakotay, trying not to smile too hard. "If you don't mind I'll take a rain check on dinner, after all."
"Of course, Chakotay," she said. "I'll see you in the morning."
Chakotay nodded and started off, wondering when she would realize what
he'd said to her, and what she'd just promised. He couldn't wait to see
her try to get out of this one in the morning.
And Kathryn Janeway gathered up her bullion and her cup of coffee, sat
at a small table for one by the viewport and wondered just how long it
would take Chakotay to realize that she knew every single thing that had
been said this evening.
And she'd meant every word of it.
But not today.