Pathfinder

Disclaimer: No infringement intended. I was just playing with Paramount's toys. I'll put them back.

Notes: Thanks to QS for once again donning the beta hat although this story really wasn't her cuppa. This story was written on a whim after watching the movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Similarities are probably not just a coincidence.

Stranger Things by Cheshire

Chakotay sat up and scrubbed his hands over his face, running them up through his hair. He couldn't sleep. They'd been home several weeks, but he still missed the steady thrum of Voyager's engines. His current apartment was just too quiet at night. He glanced forlornly at the other side of the bed. It also didn't help that he was sleeping alone.

Seven had been there earlier, but she wasn't exactly a cuddler, and she still wasn't able to go without regenerating. So after they'd completed their nocturnal recreation - she'd left. Presently, Starfleet did not feel safe enough having a Borg alcove stationed somewhere that they couldn't monitor it; therefore, the only place she could regenerate was at headquarters where they had installed her alcove.

Giving up on getting any more sleep, Chakotay grudgingly got up. After making himself some tea, he considered calling Kathryn just to chat. If anyone was still up at this time of night it would be her, but he hated to think that he could possibly wake her if this had been one of those rare occasions when she'd actually been able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. He'd always kind of thought that her insomnia was linked directly to Voyager and the Delta Quadrant, but when he'd seen her yawn at one of the debriefings, she'd confessed that she still wasn't sleeping well, even without the stress of one hundred forty plus people counting on her.

Cradling his cup of tea, he instead sank heavily into the cushions of the couch and turned on the viewscreen. After several minutes of searching, he switched it back off and wondered idly if he had unpacked any of Tom's ancient entertainment programs yet. Even if they were outlandish, they were certainly more interesting than anything he'd just flipped through. He looked around the room and realized he wouldn't find any of the data cards tonight. He still had more than a few storage containers completely full as he hadn't even begun to work on unpacking them. One of many things Seven found him to be inefficient about.

He sighed. Being completely finished with the debriefings and having started his leave, he didn't even have the old standby of having work to complete to occupy his time. He settled further back into the cushions. Maybe he'd contact his spirit guide, not that she'd been exactly great company of late either, though – a chair scraped across the floor, and he sat bolt upright, spilling some of his tea. That noise had come from his bedroom.

Grabbing a phaser from a drawer, Chakotay moved quietly towards the room in question. The room that he knew should be empty. He really hoped it wasn't another reporter...or fan. Coming back to the Alpha Quadrant in such an explosive fashion had made them minor celebrities, a situation that sometimes had drawbacks like being followed relentlessly on occasion. Or like finding a photographer in your bathroom. Taking a breath, Chakotay spun around the corner, phaser held center on the bed, only to find no one there. He looked confusedly towards the window. He was sure he had heard something.

"Is that how you treat all the women that show up in your bedroom?"

Chakotay whirled around, his heart in his throat, to see a rather tall woman silhouetted in the light of the bathroom door. "Who are you? What are you–" he squinted, "Sveta?"

"Oh good, you do remember me." She pretended to wipe sweat from her brow. "That could've been really embarrassing."

"Wh-what are you doing here?" he spluttered. "How did you get here?"

"I didn't teach you all of my Maquis secrets," she said coyly. "As for what I'm doing here...let's just say we need to talk."

"Talk about what?" he asked, lowering the phaser. "Wait...I thought you were still being held in New Zealand."

She chuckled and walked towards him. "I am."

And then she walked through him.

Chakotay gasped and spun on his heel to see Sveta making herself comfortable on his bed. For a brief moment, the incredible and bizarre nature of the situation had his jaw dropping, and then he remembered he'd seen stranger and closed his mouth.

"That's it? That's all the reaction I get from you?" Sveta frowned at him. "You really have become jaded in your old age."

Now it was his turn to frown. He wasn't old; in fact, she was a couple of years older than him.

"Which is probably why we never slept together," she commented, "but we did come close though didn't we?" She laughed, enjoying the shocked expression on his face. "Oh that's much better, and yes, I can read your thoughts."

Chakotay had reached his limit. "All right, what the hell is going on?"

"I'm here to deliver a message. Tonight you will be visited by three women....well, four if you count me, and I suggest you pay attention to what they show you."

"What do you mean by 'visit'?" he asked incredulous. "And what exactly are they going to show me?"

"Well, they won't be ringing the chime on the front door if that's what you're asking," she replied. "And as for what they're going to show you...well, let's just say there are some things you need to see for yourself before you'll believe them."

"What kind of things?" he snapped.

"Do you always ask this many questions, Chakotay?" she commented with a hint of disgust. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"I left it in the Delta Quadrant."

"Oh, that was witty," she retorted her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I don't have all the answers you want. I'm just telling you what I was told. Somebody, somewhere, wants you to learn something and in order to learn it...the women of your life are going to show it to you."

Now he was even more skeptical. "This is Q's doing, isn't it?"

Sveta stared at him blankly. "I have no idea what that question means. Look," she stood up. "I've got to get back. I just came by to give you a heads up." She stepped past him, headed for the living room. "You might want to drink some coffee or something because...you've got a long night ahead of you."

Chakotay spun to follow her and demand a better explanation, but the living room was empty.

Chakotay searched the entire house from top to bottom, looking to find Sveta or at least the way she managed to get inside, but all he ended up with was himself staring into the mirror over the bathroom sink. He scrutinized his reflection, looking for some cause or sign of insanity, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Cupping his hands and letting them fill with water, he shook his head. "It's not like the Doctor sleeps," he muttered to himself. "I could call him."

Just as he splashed the cool water over his face, a low growl sounded from somewhere behind him and Chakotay froze, feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. This night was just getting better and better. With his face still dripping water, Chakotay slowly and smoothly stood up, turning towards the door so that he was looking into his bedroom. In the furthest corner of the room, tucked into the shadows, he could just make out a crouching figure that looked humanoid. Cautiously, he took a tentative step into the room.

"Where the hell am I?" the figure bellowed from the corner.

Chakotay froze and then frowned. He recognized that voice. "B'Elanna?"

Even in the shadows, he could sense her surprise as she straightened out of her crouch and stepped further into the room herself. "Chakotay?"

If Chakotay thought he'd been surprised before...he'd thought wrong. It was in fact B'Elanna that stepped out from the corner of his room, but it was not the B'Elanna he currently knew. This B'Elanna appeared to be about ten years younger with hard lean features, wiry muscles, and wearing Maquis leathers.

She stared at him as well and then snorted, "You've really let yourself go, Old Man." And then seeming to completely accept the situation, B'Elanna walked further into the room, eying everything. She gestured back towards the corner where she'd appeared, "Sorry about that. You took me a little by surprise. Is this your place? It's nice. Not quite what I'm used to seeing...but nice."

"Thanks," he replied automatically before he caught himself. "Wait. What's going on?"

The young half-Klingon looked at him and winked. And just like that, his living room was gone, replaced by metallic bulkheads and a low ceiling. Chakotay actually stumbled backwards a step at the sudden change.

"Now this is more like it!" B'Elanna whooped happily.

Chakotay watched, dumbfounded as B'Elanna took a seat on a metal chair and propped her feet on top of a small table jutting out from the wall. No, not a wall...a bulkhead. The rumble beneath his feet, the stars streaking by, and that ever-present scent of burned circuitry brought the memories rushing back. If appearances weren't deceiving, they were on the Val Jean. In his old quarters. "B'Elanna...are we–"

A crash sounded, and he and B'Elanna both looked towards a cloth covered doorway separating the cabin. As captain, Chakotay had held the largest quarters on the ship. Not that the quarters had been all that large, after all the entirety of his cabin could have easily fit inside Kathryn's living room, but still, he'd been the only person to enjoy having a private bedroom on the ship. A small bedroom that he knew lay just beyond the hanging cloth.

Another thump sounded, and B'Elanna pursed her lips, "Do you want to look or shall I?"

Chakotay swallowed thickly as they could easily hear the muffled grunts of two people emanating from behind the cloth. He shook his head. There'd only been one person he'd had sex with in that room, and he had no desire to see himself with her. A growl followed by another thump sounded, and this time it seemed to be perilously close to the cloth hanging across the hatch. B'Elanna reached out a hand to pull the cloth back.

"B'E...don't!" he whispered at her, receiving a frown in response.

"Oh relax, they can't see us," she grumbled, peering into the room. Her eyebrows shot up on her ridged forehead, and she turned her head sideways. "Wow, I bet you couldn't get into that position now."

A woman's whimpers were easily discernible now, and Chakotay's gut clenched at the voice he thought he'd never have to hear again. Seska. The one woman he'd gotten seriously involved with during his time with the Maquis. The Cardassian spy that had used the oldest trick in the book to her advantage. Seduction. Flattery. And sex. And he'd never even suspected.

His self loathing at the memory of her was only intensified as Seska's cry of passion sounded through the small cabin. B'Elanna whistled, and Chakotay dared to open his eyes only to find her actually standing in the doorway now holding the cloth out of her way. She looked back at him with a smile. "You had stamina, old man. You're still going at it. I'm impressed."

Chakotay took the single step needed to cover the distance between them and yanked B'Elanna away from the doorway. "What the hell are we doing here?" he hissed.

"Don't you know?" she asked. "I'm here to show you one of your past relationships. Maybe help you learn something from it."

The sound of two people having sex only a few feet away was very distracting, but Chakotay tried to concentrate on what B'Elanna had just said. "I'm supposed to learn something? From this? How is this even possible?"

B'Elanna held up a hand. "Wait for it. Wait–"

A sound that was utterly primal and completely male echoed through the cabin, followed by almost complete silence. B'Elanna giggled, and Chakotay felt heat creep into his face. He didn't need her commentary to tell him what had just happened in the small bedroom.

"Here we go," B'Elanna breathed quietly, standing right next to him. He hadn't even seen her move, but before he could ask her anything, the cloth hanging over the door was pushed aside once again. Seska appeared, wearing a long white shirt that Chakotay recognized as once belonging to him, and slipped into the small room where he and B'Elanna stood.

Without a single glance back into the bedroom, Seska sat down at the small table that had been so recently occupied by B'Elanna and activated the desktop computer. Immediately, she began working on the console and Chakotay, feeling the old fury rise in him, could only imagine what she was doing. Contacting the Cardassians. Feeding them information about the Maquis. Even though he hadn't even seen a glimpse of himself in the other room, Chakotay felt like yelling at the top of his lungs so the other man would wake up and catch the spy in his midst.

But he knew that wasn't going to happen. Just like Seska knew. She wasn't even hurried in her movements, completely confident of her security. Chakotay was seething and wondering why he was being forced to watch this. He turned angrily to ask B'Elanna exactly that only to find her staring curiously at him.

"What?" he snapped.

She gestured towards Seska. "You really had no idea?"

"What? No! Of course not," he said feeling more than a little exasperated. "Why would you say that?"

B'Elanna continued to stare at him for a minute. Then she looked at Seska, obviously still contemplating a thought. "Let's take this back a bit."

With a flick of her hand, Chakotay saw Seska move backwards away from the table and back into the bedroom, and then things were moving too fast for him to see anything until he and B'Elanna were standing in the bedroom...alone. He felt a distinct sensation of nausea and wondered what the hell had just happened. "B'Elanna–" he started.

And then the cloth hanging over the door moved and Chakotay watched, dumbfounded as his younger self entered the room. It was surreal watching himself move about the tiny room. A knock sounded on the outside hatch, and his younger self froze, his hand already resting on the butt of the phaser tucked in his belt.

"Who is it?" he growled.

"Like you don't know," Seska's voice answered. "Are you going to let me in?"

Chakotay watched as a quick grin crossed the face of his younger self. He felt sick as the younger man put the phaser down and stepped towards the door. But then the younger man paused and Chakotay straightened, watching intently now. The Maquis captain glanced once more towards the door and then took the phaser and hid it under the mattress, handle out so that it could be grabbed quickly, before hurrying to answer the door.

"So what was that?" B'Elanna asked.

"I don't know," Chakotay answered honestly. "I don't remember doing that."

"Well, you must have," B'Elanna argued. "I'm not just making this stuff up." He frowned at her but she continued, "Looks to me like maybe you didn't trust her so completely after all."

"No." He shook his head. "I wouldn't have slept with her if I hadn't trusted–"

His argument was cut off by two bodies, meshed up against each other, tumbling into the room and falling onto the bed. Chakotay turned away, not wanting to see his younger self going at it...

...and he found himself back in his own home. Alone.

"B'Elanna?" Chakotay whipped his head around searching his living room. The room was completely quiet and still looking exactly as it had when he'd left what felt like hours earlier. His gaze landed on the comm unit, and he crossed to it, punching in the code to put a call through to the Paris household. He drummed his fingers impatiently on the console as it beeped several times signaling his call.

Finally, the screen activated to reveal a very tousled looking Tom Paris. He rubbed his hand across his chin and squinted at the screen. "Chakotay? What're –"

"Is B'Elanna there?" Chakotay asked, cutting off Tom's puzzled question.

"Well...yeah," Tom answered automatically looking back over his shoulder into the bedroom behind him. "But she's sleeping, man."

"She was sleeping!" the mound of covers on the bed growled at the viewscreen. "Does he have any idea what time it is?"

Tom turned back to the screen, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Is everything okay? Something wrong?"

"What? Oh...no," Chakotay stumbled over his words. He couldn't decide if he was relieved to see an obviously sleeping B'Elanna or not. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize what time it was. You should go back to sleep, Tom. Really, everything is fine."

"Okay," Tom agreed easily and shut off the view screen without asking another question.

Chakotay's shoulders slumped. Tom may have let him off the hook easily, but he knew B'Elanna would be calling him later in the morning demanding an explanation, and he had no idea what he would tell her. That he'd seen a hallucination of her. That it had seemed real enough he felt the need to call her in the middle of the night. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I'll tell you right now...you better not call my place at two in the morning," a female voice spoke behind him, "because unless you're gushing blood or dying, whatever you've got to tell me can wait until morning."

Despite jumping at hearing the first word, Chakotay resolutely refused to acknowledge this hallucination. He shook his head and kept his eyes closed tight. "No. This is not happening."

"Wanna bet?" A chuckle from the living room. "And if you think you can ignore me and I'll just go away, you're even more deluded than you think you are."

Chakotay dropped his hands to his sides and sighed. He knew she wouldn't go away. Not because he believed this whole impossible situation was actually happening, but because once again he recognized the voice. And he knew his little sister. Sekaya's stubborn streak was only matched in longevity by Kathryn Janeway's, which made him pause and wonder how he had gotten saddled with two such women in his lifetime.

"You're just lucky, I guess," she commented playfully, demonstrating once again that his thoughts were apparently up for grabs for whoever wanted to listen in.

Resigning himself, he faced her. "What are you doing here?"

"You're so rude, Brother. Can't you even say hello?" she scolded from her seat on the couch. "I mean, I'm happy to see you. Aren't you the least bit happy to see me?"

Chakotay shook his head.

Sekaya's eyes narrowed. "Oh just for that, Brother, the gloves are off." She strode over to him and grabbed him by the wrist, surprising him as she pulled him behind her towards the bedroom all the while still talking. "I was going to be nice and just use the viewscreen, but if you want to act like this-here you go!"

She waved her arm in a wide gesture, and then Chakotay could see his bed again. He was in it. And he wasn't alone. Seven sat astride him as he lay on his back, his hips thrusting upwards. Chakotay gaped, he couldn't help it. This had been merely hours before...

Standing next to him, Sekaya made a gagging noise. He turned to look at her and saw her lip was curled up in disgust as she watched the scene in front of them.

"You were the one that brought us in here!" he yelled at her in frustration, instinctively putting a hand up in front of her face to block her view. "If you didn't want to see this–"

"I don't want to see this!" she argued back making another face as grunts began to sound from the bed. "Oh, come on." She shuddered. "If you remember, I wanted to watch a video, but you had to go and be a grump about the whole thing."

"I cannot believe I'm having an argument with you about this," he gestured wildly towards the bed behind him. The laborious grunting really was hard to ignore, especially since he knew it was just himself making the noise. Seven rarely uttered a single sound when they had sex.

"Will you just finish it up already?" Sekaya complained, taking a seat by the dresser and keeping her eyes averted. "It's not like she's enjoying it anyway."

Chakotay froze, forgetting momentarily about the couple behind him. "What did you just say?"

"What?" Sekaya repeated innocently, then shrugged, and gestured at the couple on the bed. "Well, she isn't. Look at her."

Automatically, Chakotay glanced over his shoulder before realizing what he was doing. He shook his head and moved closer to his sister. "I do look at her. Every time and believe me, she's enjoying it."

Sekaya looked past him just as the Chakotay on the bed groaned louder. She grimaced and shook her head. "I don't think so, Brother." She pointed. "I mean, that was the big finish, and her expression hasn't changed. She looks bored."

"Will you stop watching?" he hissed at her.

"Believe me, I'd love to," she held a hand up to block her view as she looked up at him, "but unfortunately, I have to make sure you learn something from all this."

He was about to argue when he realized what she had said. "What?"

Sekaya held up her hand for him to wait.

"I must regenerate now," Seven stated.

"See, this is what I'm talking about," Sekaya said, pushing past him even as Seven stood from the bed. "You two finish having sex, and before she's even gotten off you properly, she's talking about having to go regenerate. Whatever the hell that means."

"She's a former Borg, she has to go to an alcove–" Chakotay started to explain.

Sekaya hit him in the chest. "I wasn't asking for an explanation! Look at yourself!" She spun him around so that he was facing the bed. "You aren't even trying to convince her to stay. You aren't even trying to convince her to get back in the bed."

And she was right. He'd lain back on the bed and covered himself with the sheet while Seven had retreated to the bathroom. Standing on the other side of the room, Chakotay sighed, "Look Sekaya, you don't know what you're talking about. You don't know Seven or anything about our relationship."

"It doesn't look like there's a hell of a lot to know!" she complained, watching as Seven emerged from the bathroom fully clothed.

"Good night, Chakotay. I will see you in the morning."

All three of the people in the room watched the former Borg's departure. Sekaya made a tsking noise. "She's certainly efficient. No good night kiss. Nothing. Just wham bam thank you, ma'am. Goodnight."

Chakotay glared at his sister.

"Although in your case it was more like wham bam and you're done," she laughed, quickly muffling it at his expression. "Oh come on, look at yourself." She gestured again to the bed where the other Chakotay was turning on his side and punching his pillow. "Can you honestly tell me that you're happy with this relationship?"

He turned to answer her, to defend his current relationship, but Sekaya was gone, and he was staring at an empty bedroom.