"Hold the lift!"
Captain Janeway's voice cut through Chakotay's thoughts, and he stuck his arm through the doors of the turbolift to prevent them from closing.
The captain breathlessly burst inside and smiled up at him. "Thanks. I forgot that I needed to tell B'Elanna something about the magnetic constrictors."
The turbolift hummed quietly as they descended through the ship. "You couldn't have just called her over the comm?" he asked.
Janeway shook her head. "No. There are a couple of design schematics she needs to see, and it's easier if I'm there when she looks at them, in case a problem pops up."
The lift came to a stop, and the commanding officers absently exited before realizing they were on the wrong deck. "That's odd. When I got on the lift this morning, our deck looked suspiciously like this one," Chakotay commented wryly.
Janeway quirked an eyebrow up at him. "Either that, or engineering now looks like our deck. Let's try this again." She pressed the lift panel, but the turbolift didn't come. "Computer, status of turbolift system?"
"Turbolifts are offline. There is a malfunction in computer processor beta-47, core junction 76-theta-2."
Chakotay tugged an earlobe. "Great. I wasn't planning on hiking through the jeffries tubes today."
The captain shook her head. "It wasn't at the top of my to-do list, either. Janeway to engineering."
Silence met her hail. "Janeway to Torres. Lieutenant, please respond."
Concerned blue eyes met brown. "Chakotay to engineering. Chakotay to bridge." He shook his head. "Computer, status of comm system?"
"The communications system is offline."
Just then, the lights went out.
Total, unpenetrable darkness engulfed them. Not even emergency lighting came on. Chakotay jerked back, startled, as a hand grabbed his arm. "Sorry," Janeway offered. "I don't think we need to lose each other." Her hand slid down his arm until her fingers twined warmly in his.
"Good idea," he said quietly. "So, Captain, what's the plan?" He was desperately trying to ignore the increased pounding of his heart at the feel of the captain's small, warm hand within his own.
"Let's see... This is the forward turbolift. My quarters are closer. We can get some flashlights and try to get down to engineering."
He chuckled. "I suppose it would be too far to make it to my quarters, then. That extra couple meters would take an eternity."
She laughed and squeezed his hand. "I was trying to be efficient, Commander."
Without further comment, they slowly felt their way down the corridor, both silently counting doorways and turnoffs. Finally, the captain was certain they had found her door. She fumbled around until she found the door panel, imputing her code by feel and memory.
A harsh buzz greeted her efforts. She cursed under her breath and tried again, receiving the same response.
Chakotay brushed against the captain, nudging her aside, feeling for the panel with his free hand. "Here, let me try."
"You don't know my door code," she informed him primly.
He laughed. "No, but I know mine. I think we went too far." He tapped in his code on the panel, and the doors slid open. "Open sesame," he teased.
He tugged her inside. Faint starlight from the viewport didn't offer much in the way of illumination, but it was better than nothing. "You'd better stay put, Captain. I know my way around in here. You don't. I've got a couple of flashlights in my bedroom."
She mumbled something that sounded vaguely Klingon, and he doubted it was very polite. He grinned and walked into the other room. He was fumbling around in his closet in search of the flashlights he remembered storing when a muffled thud and a loud curse startled him. He spun away from the open closet doors. "Kathryn?" he called out, not even aware he had used the captain's first name.
There was a pause. "Yes?" she replied, her voice tinged with embarrassment.
He made his way back into the living room, then lost his balance as he tripped on something. He landed on something warm and soft. The subtle scents of perfume and shampoo greeted him. "Really, Commander, a simple 'are you all right' would have sufficed," came a breathless, wry voice.
The lightning bolt he expected to smite him where he sprawled failed to materialize. He was eternally grateful for the dark, as it hid his hot blush. "Sorry, Captain. But I heard a crash."
His body was pleasantly hard and heavy above her, and, oddly enough, she found she didn't mind. "I was going to sit down. But your table got in the way. Sorry," she offered sheepishly.
He shifted slightly. He could feel warm air brushing over him, and he realized that the captain's face was directly beneath his. His pounding heart was traitorously surging blood to areas he'd prefer it didn't go. But still he didn't move.
Their breathing was the only sound in the room. Janeway could feel his reaction to her nearness, and it sparked a reaction of her own. "Chakotay," she murmured, merely wanting to feel his name on her lips.
"Kathryn," he answered back.
Their lips met unerringly in the darkness. Feelings he couldn't act on, feelings she had only recently become aware of, all took precedent over Voyager's current dilemma.
Their fit was perfect; the heat was incredible. It generated a light all its own. They touched, tasted, explored. They lost themselves in the darkness and each other.
=/\=
Captain Janeway strode quickly towards the turbolift, feeling desperately alone. Tom was now lost to her, as well, embroiled in a battle with the father he could never please.
The doors to the lift opened, and she stepped inside. She froze as Chakotay's blankly-staring form loomed before her, and her heart sank. He hadn't made it to engineering. She had no idea if anyone was even conscious in engineering.
And then Mark's voice intruded, and everything else faded away.
=/\=
A prickle of awareness made the captain glance up. Chakotay had just entered the mess hall. Desperate for the company of someone solid and real, and eager for a distraction from the thoughts she'd been buried in since B'Elanna had left, she waved to him, gesturing that he should join her.
She noted that he glanced away from her, appearing almost embarrassed. Then he looked back at her and nodded, stopping to get a mug of tea from the replicator before joining her. "Captain," he offered by way of greeting.
She smiled. "Commander. You can't sleep, either?" she asked, remembering the late hour.
He ruefully shook his head. "No. I tried. But every time I began to doze off, I woke myself up. I was afraid of waking up and not knowing what was real or not." That, and the mental image of Kathryn Janeway's hot, responsive body sprawled beneath him in the near-darkness tormented his thoughts and eventually sent him fleeing into the bathroom for a cold shower. He still had goosebumps.
She nodded understandingly. "I spoke with B'Elanna a little while ago. I think we're all going to have a hard time forgetting our encounter with the Bothans."
"I don't think I can forget," he muttered.
But she heard him. "Neither can I," she answered gently.
Their eyes met then, and locked. He wouldn't tell her about his hallucination, and she wouldn't ask. Nor would she tell him about hers. Like B'Elanna, he was dealing with feelings and desires he wasn't quite ready to contemplate. And she was filled with a bittersweet sadness, feeling as though she had said goodbye to Mark, leaving the baggage of her past behind. She wasn't sure what the future entailed, but the warmth of her budding friendship with her first officer filled a part of her she hadn't even known was empty.
Mark's phantom words echoed in her mind. "Someone else is in your thoughts..."
She'd thought he meant Lord Burleigh from her holonovel, but now the realization hit her like a fist to the gut.
Chakotay.
She pushed the notion to a faraway corner of her mind. He was her first officer on a journey that could last 70 years. Whatever else he was to her, he was her friend. Anything else could come later.
Perhaps, someday...