For disclaimers and notes, see chapter 1.


For the next hour, Chakotay jumped at every sound he heard only to continually find himself still alone. With every light in the house turned on and feeling utterly exhausted and more than a little ridiculous, he slumped onto the couch. Leaning his head back, he allowed his eyes to close. Breathing deep, he could almost convince himself that nothing strange had happened that night. That it had all been a dream.


Almost.


If only it weren't for that lingering scent of coffee now filling the room.


He slowly opened his eyes and raised his head. "Hello, Kathryn."


Sitting on the coffee table in front of him, looking much as she had last week when he'd seen her, she smiled impishly at him over the rim of her ever-present mug of coffee. "Were you expecting me?"


"Well, so far I've seen Sveta, Seska, Sekaya, Seven–”


"That's a lot of S's," she quipped.


"And B'Elanna," he finished.


Her brow knitted together. "That still doesn't explain why you were expecting me."


"There's been a theme tonight," he explained wearily. "You had to show up eventually."


"Ah, but you do realize that if I'm here now, in this capacity..." she trailed off.


"Then you aren't the person I'm going to be seeing myself with next," he finished for her, feeling a pang of disappointment he hadn't expected.


"Something like that, yeah." Kathryn regarded him for a moment before setting the coffee cup down and standing up. "Well, we should get on with it, I suppose." He looked up at her from the couch, not moving. "You might want to stand up for this part."


"Why?" he asked, and then felt himself falling as the couch disappeared from underneath him and he hit the ground hard.


"That would be why," Kathryn replied, offering him a helping hand up.


"Thanks," he said, accepting her hand and feeling that easy sense of comfort he always felt when he was around her. Standing, he looked around at their surroundings, surprised to find that they were outside. "Uhm, where are we?"


She looked at him skeptically. "You can't tell?"


"I can tell it's a cemetery!" he replied, eying the tombstones and feeling slightly queasy. "Do I want to know why we're here?"


"I never realized you ask such obvious questions, Chakotay." She started walking away from him and towards a group of people he hadn't even noticed. "Why else do you go to a cemetery?" she called over her shoulder. "To attend a funeral, of course."


"Kathryn. Wait," he yelled in a whisper as he hurried to catch up to her. It was quite a large gathering, and she had made her way to the front of it a lot easier than she should have been able to. Unsure of how she had managed that particular feat, he worked his way around the outside edge of the crowd instead.


"He gave a nice speech," Kathryn commented, gesturing to the man that was leaving the lectern when Chakotay finally reached her side again.


"Who did?" he asked, belatedly noticing that Kathryn had perched herself on a tombstone.


She ignored his question and pointed. "Oh, look. There's Tom and B'Elanna, and look how much Miral has grown."


Chakotay looked where she indicated and saw the Paris clan seated in the front row of the mourners. B'Elanna had streaks of grey in her hair and Tom's was looking pretty thin on top, but Miral... "She must be twenty years old."


"At least." Kathryn nodded then smiled. "But, of course, the EMH hasn't aged a day."


And Chakotay saw what she meant. The hologram sat next to Miral, looking the same as he always had. Chakotay began to scan the crowd in earnest and realized he was seeing a lot of familiar faces. Faces that he would've expected to see...he swallowed tightly. "Kathryn, whose funeral are we attending?"


"Seven of Nine's," she replied simply, surprising him. "She died younger than she should have, but her implants just couldn't be maintained any longer. She lived a full life, though. She was happy, I think."


"That's good," Chakotay managed to say, feeling only slightly relieved. He scanned the crowd again. "Kathryn, how come I'm not in attendance?"


Kathryn shrugged. "I don't think you know about her death."


He turned to face her. "Why would I not know about Seven's death?"


"No one knows how to get in contact with you."


"What?"


"Well, B'Elanna thinks you're back on Dorvan, but she hasn't been able to reach you." Kathryn explained and then gestured to the rest of gathering. "And everyone else figures if she can't find you, they wouldn't stand a chance."


Chakotay turned back to look at the group. "Tom and B'Elanna don't know where I am? Ayala? Harry? None of these people know how to even contact me?"


Kathryn shook her head. "Nope."


"But what about you? Surely, you–" he scanned the crowd again. "Wait...where are you, Kathryn?" he turned back to look at her. "Why aren't you here?"


She gave him a sad smile and moved her legs to one side so he could see the name on the tombstone she was sitting on. Chakotay's knees gave out and he slumped to the ground as he read her name. "You're...dead?"


She nodded.


"But...how?"


Kathryn got to her feet and circled behind him. "I took a posting on a new experimental science ship, the USS Marley. You should've seen her, Chakotay. She was a sleek ship." She smiled at the thought but it faded quickly. "But there was a cascade failure in engineering. I managed to get the crew evacuated before..."


Chakotay's mouth went completely dry at her explanation. He reached a hand out to the marble, his fingers tracing over the engraved lettering. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the coffee cup she'd been drinking out of earlier sitting at the base of the tombstone, and he trembled when he reached the date of her death. "Kathryn...Kathryn this date...is next year."


He looked over his shoulder to see her reaction, but she was gone. Frantically, he looked back at his hand only to find himself kneeling in front of his living room's fireplace.

 


Kathryn sat straight up from a dead sleep, knocking the PADD that had lain on her stomach to the floor. She'd fallen asleep on the couch again, and her neck and back were quickly reminding her why she had made a promise to herself the last time it had happened to never let it happen again. Groaning slightly, she reaffirmed her oath as she looked around her living room, wondering what had woken her. She certainly didn't hear anything or see anything out of place. The message light was flashing on her comm console, but it had been doing that since she’d gotten home earlier that evening. She glanced at the ornate clock hanging on the wall. Five thirty in the morning. She groaned again and swung her legs off the couch. No wonder she was sore, she'd slept most of the night away on the couch.


Bending over slowly, she picked up the still active data PADD she'd been perusing last night and threw it on the low coffee table. She stared forlornly at the three other PADDs already there. There were a few debriefing reports left that she could work on. Her gaze traveled to the more than half-empty bottle of wine also sitting on the coffee table. The bottle she had just opened last night. She pursed her lips and made her decision.


Scooping up the wine glass and bottle of wine, she headed for the kitchen to deposit them on her way to her bedroom. If Starfleet was going to force her to take leave before they'd let her go out again, she might as well make the best of it. And at this moment, that meant replicating an analgesic and going back to bed.


Kathryn crawled into her bed and settled down in between the sheets, a ghost of a smile playing across her lips at the thought of sleeping until noon. She closed her eyes, feeling her head sink further into the pillow.


The chime for her front door sounded, and her eyes snapped open. "You've got to be kidding me."


Reluctantly and hoping the sound had simply been her imagination, she pushed herself up onto her elbows. The chime sounded again, and now knowing the sound was real, Kathryn swore as she threw the covers off and swung her legs out of bed. Before she could make it out of the bedroom, the chime sounded again. "I'm coming...I'm coming."


Scrubbing her hand over her face, Kathryn had almost made it to the door when the person on the other side started pounding. She stopped and stared at the door, now feeling something a little more than irritation.


"Kathryn! Kathryn! Open the door! It's me. Chakotay!"


She blinked at the sudden yelling coming from the other side of the door, and her hand automatically went to her disheveled hair. What the hell was he doing here? Shaking off her surprise, she quickly keyed in the code to unlock and open the door. Chakotay barreled inside, immediately wrapping her in a suffocating bear hug. Feeling very confused and concerned, Kathryn patted his back awkwardly with one hand as he mumbled unintelligibly into her hair.


After several minutes, she tried getting his attention. "Chakotay...it's getting hard to breathe." He pushed back from her but kept his hands on her face, staring longingly at her, and she could see now the tear streaks down his face. "Chakotay, what's the matter? What's wrong?"


He just smiled and ran his thumbs over her cheeks, shaking his head.


"Chakotay," she said, laying her hands over his, "you're scaring me."


"Believe me," Chakotay laughed and took her hands in his, kissing them, "it's nothing to how I was feeling earlier."


Kathryn studied his face and tried to use her calmest voice. "Chakotay...what's going on?"


"There's no one else here...is there?" he asked, finally releasing her and stalking into the living room.


"No...it's not even six in the morn–" she paused, watching him curiously as he searched the entire living room before heading for the bedroom. "Chakotay!"


He stopped and looked at her. "What?"


"What are you doing here?"


"Oh. Right." He ran his hand through his hair and glanced nervously at her. She raised an eyebrow. He cleared his throat and pointed at the kitchen. "Coffee. This uh...this is going to call for coffee."

 


"Let me see if I have this straight." Kathryn put the coffee mug down on the table and stood. "You couldn't sleep," she pointed at him as she clarified the situation, "and then Sveta showed up in your living room."


He nodded. In the past hour, he'd told her all about Sveta's visit as well as the subsequent visits of Sekaya and B'Elanna. He'd even told her how he'd seen himself with Seska and Seven. That last bit having made them both feel uncomfortable.


"And what makes you think this all wasn't some sort of dream?"


He frowned at her. "I wasn't dreaming."


Kathryn braced her hands on the back of the couch. "How do you know?"


"I just know," he growled. "Why can't you accept this, Kathryn? We've seen stranger things than this."


"Granted," she agreed dryly. She straightened and glanced out the window, taking notice of the bright rays of sunshine now filtering inside. "All right, let's say for the sake of argument, that all of this happened." She held up a hand to keep Chakotay from arguing further. "The question I want the answer to now is – why?"


He didn't answer. He hadn't told her everything he'd seen. He hadn't told her about his vision of the future or about Sveta reappearing while he'd still crouched in front of the fireplace.


"I tried to warn you that it was going to be a long night."


Chakotay spun around to find Sveta perched on the arm of the couch. "Why?"


She gave him a long solid look. "Because we care about you, and because you have ridiculously poor judgment when it comes to relationships."


He stared at her in disbelief. "Who are you??"


Sveta rolled her eyes. "That's really not important, what is important is this: what you saw tonight was real. It has come to pass, and it will come to pass unless you do something about it."


"Okay. All right." He struggled to get past all the obvious questions and doubts about tonight. "Okay, so, I need to see Kathryn." Sveta smiled and nodded, so he continued, "and I need to make sure she doesn't get on that ship. That way I can save her life." He looked up, feeling optimistic only to find Sveta glaring at him. "What?"


She blew air out between her lips and stood up. "Don't get me wrong, I like Kathryn and all that," she explained, "but it's not her life I'm here to try and save."


"Then what..." He gave up. "I don't understand."


"Maybe we should've just stuck with a more direct approach," she said more to herself than him. "Okay, Chakotay, despite your previous and current relationships, you've never been happy, and you never will be. The only time you have ever been truly happy and at peace in your life is when you were with Kathryn."


"Kathryn and I were never together."


Sveta held up a hand. "Yes. You were. It was a more intimate relationship than any other relationship you've had in your life. Including those two you witnessed tonight." Her voice had turned hard. "And eight months from now, when you receive word that Kathryn has died–"


"Eight months?" he whispered, taking a seat.


"Only then will you realize, you've lost the single most important person in your life, but you'll be too late to do anything about it," she continued mercilessly. "You'll retreat into a life of isolation, cutting yourself off from friends and family, constantly walking in the spirit world hoping to reconnect with her." He looked up at her. "But you won't."


Chakotay swallowed thickly. "Why not?"


"Because she got over you."


"Over me?"


Sveta nodded. "It takes her a few months, but she does. Eventually the mission she agreed to undertake just so she could get away from seeing you with someone else becomes more than just an escape. It becomes something she truly believes in, and she dies with her boots on."


Chakotay was having a hard time breathing, but he managed to nod at the conclusion of Sveta's story.


"But Chakotay," Sveta kneeled in front of him so he was looking at her, "Kathryn dies alone. And so will you unless you do something about it now."


Those words had been the last Sveta had said before disappearing, but they had been more than enough to have Chakotay running out the door, knowing he absolutely had to see Kathryn. He hadn't even known what he was going to say to her, or what he was going to do when he saw her, but he'd had to see her, and now she was still talking as she paced behind the couch.


"I mean, why show you all this? Why show you things that have already happened? You can't change the past." She chuckled dryly. "Well, at least not without committing some serious infractions against the temporal prime directive." She paused at the look on his face. "Chakotay? What is it?"


"You're right, I can't change the past," he repeated, looking up at her, "but I can change the future."


She looked at him skeptically. "The future?"


He nodded enthusiastically.


"Well, of course you can. The future hasn't been written...wait," she held up a hand to him, "are you saying these ghosts of yours also showed you the future?"


"I saw a future," he admitted, feeling a chill at her use of the word ghosts.


Kathryn threw her hands up at his admission and turned away from him, but he only laughed. He knew now what he needed to do. "Kathryn, listen to me, okay. I'm not crazy, and I don't care if you believe me or not." She turned to glare at him but he couldn't stop smiling. "I tell you what. Why don't you," he took her hand and steered her towards her bedroom, "go back to bed." Kathryn protested, but he put his finger over her mouth. "There's something I need to do, but I'll be back. I promise." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead in a way that was significantly less than platonic. "And when I come back, you and I have some serious talking to do."


Kathryn was completely bewildered. "Chakotay...what–"


"Give me one hour, and I'll be back. I'll explain everything." He laughed again at the complete look of confusion on her face and kissed her hands. "One hour." He stepped away from her, moving towards the front door still laughing. "Just don't accept any missions while I'm gone, okay."


"Mission? But how did you–"


Chakotay froze at her words, his hand still hovering over the door release. He turned back to her. "Kathryn?"


Her eyes fell on the PADDs scattered on the coffee table and her shoulders relaxed. "Oh, you saw–"


"I didn't read any of your reports, Kathryn." He moved back towards her. "Were you really going to accept another mission?"


She shrugged. "Well...yes. I didn't want to stick around here and have to see..." Her voice trailed off, and she turned away from him.


Chakotay put his hands on her shoulders. "See what, Kathryn?"


"Nothing." She turned back to face him and tried to smile. "It's nothing, really. You should go. I'm sure Seven is waiting for you."


"I didn't say I was going to see Seven."


"Weren't you?"


He could easily see the pain in her eyes at the question and it killed him that he had to answer her truthfully. He nodded. "Yes, I was." She tried to turn away from him but he held her still. "But not for the reason you're thinking. I was leaving so I could go break up with her."


Kathryn was shaking her head. "But why? You love her...don't you?"


"No," he stated simply. "I'm not even happy being with her," he chuckled sadly, "and she isn't happy being with me, but it took what happened tonight for me to realize that."


"Chakotay," Kathryn whispered, "what did happen tonight?"


"I don't know," he pushed her hair back away from her face, "but I do know that I want you to stay away from the Marley."


Kathryn paled. "Chakotay, how do you...no one knows about that ship."


He grinned. "I could try and explain, but I don't think you'd believe me."


She let out a shaky breath. "I might."


"Well, believe this," he said, "I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."


"Okay."


He blinked. "Okay, what?"


Kathryn let out a watery laugh that warmed his heart. "Okay, I'll believe you."


Chakotay beamed, grabbing her around the waist and spinning her around in a circle. When he stopped they were both laughing. He sobered quickly though, staring into her face, enjoying the peaceful look he could see in her eyes for possibly the first time since he'd known her. He couldn't believe he'd almost missed it.


Kathryn's smile faded slowly as her eyes locked with his. She gently disentangled herself from his hands. "I'm going to go take a shower." She laughed when he groaned. "And you should go talk to Seven."


He nodded reluctantly and let her step away from him, watching as she made her way towards her bedroom. "Kathryn?" She turned back to face him, and he swallowed tightly. "Are we really doing this?"


One corner of her mouth curved upwards and she gave him a single shoulder shrug before she turned back towards her bedroom. "Stranger things have happened."


"Yes, they most certainly have," Chakotay laughed and headed out the door.

 

 

And as always, thank you Sue for giving my words a home! 

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