Impulsive
By Mary Wiecek
Summary: Has Chakotay blown it big time?
Disclaimers: Paramount owns Star Trek Voyager and all of it's characters.
Author's Notes: This is a response to a 1001 Nights Challenge – have Chakotay or Janeway say 'I love you' on the bridge.
~*~
"Janeway to Chakotay."
"Chakotay here."
"What's our ETA at Deep Space Nine, Commander?"
Chakotay consulted the console at Harry's station, where he was helping to download five and a half years worth of star charts. "One hour and…thirty two minutes," he replied.
"Oh God, is that all?" she asked, a tinge of desperation in her voice. She was in her ready room, frantically trying to get five and a half years worth of logs in some semblance of order, in addition to addressing all of the other last minute issues. They'd emerged from a wormhole less than an hour ago, and found themselves almost TOO close to the nearest starbase. There was an awful lot to do.
"I'm afraid so," he replied.
He could hear her sigh right over the commlink. "How are we doing?" she asked. "What's our status?"
"All department heads are compiling the information that starfleet requested to see immediately," he reported, not bothering to mention the sheer chaos surrounding that simple sentence. She knew. "B'Elanna reports that Engineering will be ready to power down the warp core as soon as we're at impulse, in preparation for docking."
"Excellent," Janeway said, distractedly. "Anything else?"
"Well, Naomi has barricaded herself in Astrometrics and set up a level three forcefield. Ensign Wildman says that she is feeling…nervous about meeting her father."
"Can't we disable the forcefield?"
"Seven is attempting to do that right now, from the bridge, but Naomi keeps over-riding her commands somehow," he said.
"Clever," Janeway commented, with begrudging respect. "Well, this sounds like a job for Neelix."
"That's what I figured," he replied. "He's on his way down there now."
"Thank you, Chakotay," she said. "Is there anything else?"
His mind raced. He thought he'd touched on the most critical things, at least for the ship and crew. But he hated the idea of breaking even the comm connection with her. It was going to be sheer bedlam when they docked, and he could well imagine that it would be weeks, at least, before the two of them could sit down and talk. He missed her already. She asked if there was something else. Of course there was. "Yes," he replied, without thinking.
"What is it?"
He shook himself out of his reverie.
"What is what?"
She paused, perplexed, then said, slowly, "I said, 'Is there anything else?' and you said 'Yes.' What is it?"
"Oh. Right," he said. He could still get out of this. All he had to do was make something up. Or say 'never mind.' But, what the hell. "There is something else," he said.
"What…is…it?" she asked, with exaggerated patience.
"I…Will you marry me?"
Oh God. He'd actually said it. The bridge, aside from a few muffled gasps, fell silent instantly. Paris turned around, his mouth wide open, completely stunned. Tuvok raised his eyebrow. Slowly, people began to murmur…
'Did you hear that?'
'I can't BELIEVE it!'
'He asked her to marry him!'
'Shhh…Quiet!'
The silence from the ready room was deafening.
He was fully expecting her to call him in there to discuss his precipitous proposal in person – that is, when she recovered from the shock. But when she finally spoke, surprisingly, she addressed Tuvok.
"Tuvok?" she asked, her voice even.
"Yes, Captain," Tuvok replied.
"Would you please shoot Commander Chakotay?"
"Of course, Captain," Tuvok replied smoothly, although he did not remove his phaser from its holster. "On which setting?"
"Did he or did he not just propose to me in front of the entire bridge crew?" she asked.
"He did," Tuvok said.
"Then 'kill', I think, would be the appropriate setting," she said, wryly. People began to chuckle at their stations. Chakotay smiled, despite himself.
"As your chief of security," Tuvok said, "I must advise against that. Although Commander Chakotay IS one of the Maquis, I am certain that Starfleet would frown upon it if you were to order me to kill him."
The ready room door swished open and she strode onto the bridge. She stopped next to Tuvok's station, hands on her hips, glowering at her first officer. Chakotay decided that there was definitely a gleam in her eyes, but he had no idea what would happen next. The suspense was killing him, but he didn't let on. He moved out from behind Harry's station and folded his arms across his chest, regarding her steadily.
She shook her head in disbelief, then, again, addressed Tuvok. "What do you think, Tuvok?" she asked, turning towards her old friend. "Should I marry him?"
"It would seem the logical thing to do," he stated. The corners of Janeway's mouth quirked up into a small smile and Tuvok continued. "A new beginning seems an appropriate end to our journey."
"Humph," she grunted, then turned to Paris. "What do YOU think, Mr. Paris?"
"Personally," Paris drawled, good naturedly, "I would never marry anyone who proposed to me over a commlink."
She considered this, nodded sagely, and scanned the room until she located B'Elanna.
"Lieutenant?" she asked.
Smiling, B'Elanna replied. "I think that you should put the poor man out of his misery and marry him, Captain."
Slowly, she began to walk forward, still glancing around the room. Her attention was drawn by Seven's raised eyebrow.
"What do you think about this, Seven?" she asked.
"I fail to see the benefit of monogamous relationships," Seven stated, unequivocally. "I think that you should keep yourself open to…social situations…with a wide variety of individuals."
Janeway rubbed her chin and nodded her head. "Now, there's a good point," she said, thoughtfully.
Finally, she had crossed the room and was standing before him. "Well," she said, dubiously, "that's two for and two against. I just don't know…" Clearly, she was enjoying this, and he did deserve it, so he waited patiently. She looked over his shoulder at Harry Kim.
"Harry!" she said, happily. "You get the deciding vote. Should I marry him or not?"
Chakotay glanced behind him to see Harry grinning. "Aw, come on, Captain," he said, "I mean, LOOK at him!"
He looked again at his Captain, just in time to see her lose control and smile broadly. Looking back on it, he would always believe that the dimples in his answering smile were the 'deciding vote'.
"Kathryn," he told her, "if you don't kiss me in the next ten seconds, I'm going to…"
But she did, so no one would even know what he would have done. She stepped forward in one smooth motion, stood on her toes and pulled his head down to meet hers. And they kissed for the first time, in front of God and the entire bridge crew. It was a tender, LINGERING kiss and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer and tangling his fingers in her hair. He couldn't have pulled away from her, even if he'd wanted to, because she had his head trapped in the crook of her arm, her other hand caressing his face and neck. Harry Kim squirmed, Tuvok cleared his throat and even Tom Paris was starting to feel a little uncomfortable, but they finally pulled apart. Both of them had tears in their eyes.
"I love you, Chakotay," she said. "I can FINALLY tell you!" The bridge crew smiled. It was no surprise, of course, but everyone there was happy that they were seeing this happen.
"And…" he prompted.
"And?"
"I asked you to marry me, Kathryn," he reminded her.
"Ah yes…so you did," she stroked his cheek, and said, "Of COURSE I'll marry you, Chakotay!"
The bridge exploded in cheers and shouted congratulations, and he bent down to kiss her again, gently.
"I love you, Kathryn Janeway," he told her quietly.
At this point, she looked around, as if noticing the entire bridge crew staring at them for the first time. She scowled.
"Don't you people have anything to DO?" she asked, pointedly. Smiling, everyone returned to his or her duties.
Janeway extended her hand, and Chakotay took it.
"Tuvok," she said, "You have the bridge. Chakotay and I will be in the ready room. I need to have a little talk with him about his recent tendency towards impulsive and poorly thought-out behavior."
"Yes, Captain," Tuvok responded. After checking his console, he added, "We are being hailed by Starfleet Command – they wish to speak to you."
"Tell them that I'm busy and will get back to them soon." She looked over at Chakotay when he dropped his jaw in mock shock, then said, defensively, "Well, I don't know what we're rushing around like maniacs for anyway. We've been gone for five and a half years, I think they can wait another ten minutes…"
Seven chimed in at this point. "Neelix reports that Naomi has lowered the forcefield in astrometrics and seems to be feeling…'all better' now."
Janeway smiled, and as she and Chakotay entered the ready room, she said, "Naomi's out, Starfleet Command is already making unreasonable demands, and I'm going to marry my First Officer. I'd say that all is right with the world!"
The End. So there.