The lighting in Chakotay's quarters was pleasantly subdued when Captain Janeway stepped inside after being permitted entrance. "Mind some company?" she asked quietly.
Chakotay sat up on the couch and swung his legs to the floor. He gestured to the now-vacant spot beside him. "Not at all. Want anything? Coffee?"
She dropped beside him tiredly and shook her head. "No, thank you. Between adrenaline and my nerves, a cup of coffee might send me into warp."
He reached up with a hand and began to massage her neck. She groaned, her head lolling forward. "Did everything go all right?" he asked.
She glanced over at him. "So far. Seven seems to have accepted the new node, and Icheb's system is slowly adapting without it. Seven's regenerating and Icheb's sleeping right now." She reached up and rubbed her face tiredly. "We could have lost both of them. Damned stubborn pride," she muttered.
She looked up as Chakotay's hand on her back paused. He was grinning at her. "What?" she demanded.
His hand resumed the backrub. "Stubborn pride. I wonder where they learned that?" he commented mildly, ignoring the lethal glance she shot his way. "That might have been part of it. But I think it was mostly love. Seven's maternal instincts versus Icheb's fear of losing his surrogate mother. And your maternal instincts towards both of them."
He heard her sniffling. "Kathryn? Are you all right?"
She sat up straighter, and her face, when she turned to him, was streaked with tears. She brushed them away quickly. "Sorry. Snuck up on me, I guess. Delayed reaction."
He leaped up from the couch and disappeared into the next room. He returned a moment later with a tissue and a cold, wet washcloth. "Here," he offered as he sat back down. "My shoulder is here, if you're not quite done yet."
She mopped her face and chuckled. "I'm okay now. But thanks." Her voice was low and hoarse. "I knew if I stopped by here, you'd make me feel better."
Chakotay ran a hand through his already-tousled hair. "But you're crying."
She patted his hand. "I know. But I feel better now. You and the Doctor keep telling me I need to stop internalizing everything."
He tugged an earlobe in a familiar gesture that made her smile. "Since when do you listen to us?" he demanded.
She laughed. "I always listen. I just don't go along with what you say."
He groaned. "Yes, we know." He fixed her with a stare that rivaled the Death Glare. "And this propensity of yours to charge to the rescue and damn the consequences really needs to stop." He held a hand up before she could protest. "I fully agree with your decision to help Seven, no matter what. I have a problem with you once again deciding you were going to save the day all by yourself."
Her blue eyes grew decidedly more frigid. "Now that you mention it, you, Tom, and Tuvok all jumped on me rather quickly on the bridge."
Brown eyes met blue. "The members of the senior staff have spoken to me recently. About you."
Her eyes were digging him into a very deep, very early grave. "Mutiny, Commander?"
He sighed. "Damn it, Kathryn... I'm not going to fight with you. I worry about you. We all do. You're too impulsive sometimes. You go charging to the rescue without a thought as to the consequences. It makes you the best captain in Starfleet, but also the most prone to drive your crew insane. Including your battle-scarred first officer." He measured his next words carefully, decided he was damned no matter what he said, and hoped his memorial service would be nice. "The senior staff decided that after six years I'd more than earned a break, so they agreed to take turns, ah, looking out for you."
She blinked. Once. Then fixed him with a stare so cold that it made the vacuum of space feel like August in Indiana. Her voice, when it came, was dangerously quiet. "You're babysitting me. All of you."
Chakotay stifled the urge to call security. If Kathryn was going to kill him, fine. They'd need Tuvok as First Officer. If he called security, Tuvok might meet with the same grim fate as Chakotay. "I wouldn't have called it babysitting. Not exactly."
He didn't even have a chance to twitch before one small hand darted out and grabbed a handful of his shirt. "Explain to me, Commander," she hissed, "how I'm supposed to maintain even a pretense of authority with the knowledge that I'm being watched like a recalcitrant child. How you expect me to do my damn job knowing that my own senior officers don't trust me? Well?"
His hand closed over the one holding him captive. "I didn't say we don't trust you. And the understanding the senior officers now have in regards to you has gone, and will go, no further. Did we interfere with your plans to save Seven in any way, shape, or form? Absolutely not. We simply wouldn't allow you to go off by yourself, as you continuously attempt to do. Tom correctly reminded you that you'd need a good pilot in the debris field, and Tuvok was doing his job as Chief of Security by going along to protect his captain. I merely backed them up, doing my job as First Officer by protecting my captain and my crew. If you see that as 'babysitting,' so be it. Relieve me of duty. Throw your entire senior staff in the brig. Explain to the crew that you did so because we were just trying to prevent our captain from getting herself killed, even though she's been doing her damndest the last six years to thwart our efforts at keeping her in one piece."
Kathryn's eyes were fixed on their joined hands. Chakotay tilted her head up with a gentle touch. "Kathryn, every member of this crew would die to protect you and this ship. And we all know you would do the same. So please, stop trying to prove it. Stop charging to the rescue like the Lone Ranger. We're all in this together out here, Kathryn. And this crew needs its captain. They need you." He swallowed hard. "Damn it, I need you."
The anger had drained from her as suddenly as it had appeared. She'd been ready to do everything he'd dared her to: relieve him of duty and throw the lot of her traitorous officers into the brig. But Chakotay knew her too well. He knew every weak spot, every button to push. And he'd used them all.
And, as if that wasn't bad enough, he was right.
"Damn you," she choked out. "Once, just once, I want to win one of these arguments with you."
He tentatively reached over and, when he was certain she wouldn't try to bite his fingers off, brushed away the new tears trickling down her face. "Didn't anyone ever tell you the two rules that apply to every First Officer? Rule number one: The First Officer is always right. Rule number two: If the First Officer is wrong, refer to rule number one."
She shook her head. "Smartass."
He smiled, the dimples emerging. "So, am I forgiven, or do I need to sleep with a phaser under my pillow tonight?"
She regarded him solemnly. "Chakotay..." She sighed. "I still don't like being babysat. I don't like that you're all doing it, that you all agreed it needed to be done, or how it came to be. It frustrates me, and it angers me."
She squeezed his hand and stood, then motioned for him to remain where he was. "Give me some time, all right? I need to think about this, about what you said."
He nearly jumped with shock when she bent down and brushed a kiss over his cheek. "Professionally, I'm mad as hell," she said softly, meeting his surprised dark eyes. "But personally, I do appreciate, on some level, the sentiment behind your efforts. I just need to think things through. When I do, we'll work it out. Together."
He nodded. "Agreed."
She moved to leave, but stopped as the doors to his quarters opened. "And Chakotay," she said. "You do remember what the Lone Ranger's partner was called..."
With that little parting shot, she smiled and left.
Chakotay stared at the closed doors, a grin spreading across his face.
It never failed.
No matter what, Kathryn Janeway always had the last word.