fic: Love

[emilie786]

For the past month or so I've been in a writing slump, but today I bring you a little chapter! My dear friend Spengie is writing a wonderful fic called It Wasn't Love which tells the story of Kathryn Janeway's relationship with her first officer from her point of view. I, being myself, mentioned to Spengie that I would love to read the story from Chakotay's point of view. Spengie, being an awesome friend, suggested I write that myself, and I think I surprised her a little bit by doing just that. Or starting to at least--she's a couple of seasons ahead of me at this point! Reading It Wasn't Love along with this story will give you both sides, and I highly recommend it for a full experience!! but isn't essential, both of our fics can stand alone. 

Title: Love

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Pairing(s)/Relationship(s): Janeway/Chakotay

Characters: Chakotay, Kathryn Janeway

Additional Tags: Star Trek: Voyager

Summary: Chakotay tells the story of his relationship with Kathryn Janeway, from his point of view. A companion piece to It Wasn't Love by Spengie.

Notes: A super big thank you to all my friends who pulled me out of my writing slump by giving feedback, betaing, and editing this little chapter: jellybeansarecool, Voyagirl47, loopdeloup, and thank you for all of the above mentioned things plus for this inspiration Spengie! Love all of you!
 

From the beginning, there was something between us. 

In those first moments on Voyager's bridge I kept my eyes off of her, focusing on the greater physical threats in the room. Her words, however, were the greatest danger to my crew, so I tried to think past her Starfleet uniform; averting my gaze from the combadge and four pips that symbolized the life I had rejected carte blanche, I listened. I couldn't let my hatred cloud my thinking in those moments, nor could I afford to feel what threatened to be an overpowering charge in the air between us. I felt the pull, the full force of fate, if you call it that. Ignoring all of it, I forced my mind to hyperfocus on one thing: who was this beautiful little captain behind the uniform?

Leave no crewmember behind. The doctrine of noninterference. Attempt diplomacy first. The needs of the many…

She put into action all the deep moral principles that had drawn me into Starfleet 30 years before.

I'd be kidding myself if I said I didn't feel the pull again that day. But I was still shocked by my acquiescence later, when she came to the tightly bunked crew quarters where I was pacing, wondering if I would be spending the next 70 years confined there. 

Her words "merge our crews" and "first officer" had barely registered in my brain before I found myself shaking her hand and following her to the quarters of her deceased first officer--right next to her own. 

My heart twisted in my chest as I watched her walk five steps to her own door and then turn back and in a professional tone, but with the full quality of the naturally low timbre of her voice, quietly say, "Goodnight."

.