fic: Love, Chapter 2

[emilie786]

The second chapter of Love, my companion piece to It Wasn't Love by Spengie.

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: Thank you to my friends who gave encouragement, opinions and beta work on this chapter! jellybeansarecool, Spengie, Voyagirl47 and Loopdeloup. Love you all!

Within a few days I realized that life aboard Voyager felt more peaceful than any other part of my former life. 

The schedule of duty shift, personal time, and sleep, repeated endlessly in space's endless night, was something I fell into with surprising ease. The desperate fury that had driven me as a Maquis was not obliterated instantly; at first I admit my wrath turned toward the captain who had captured me, for despite the position she gave me, I could not see that she meant what she had said about uniting our crews. She seemed to think my band of rebels were nearly useless aboard her shiny new Starfleet ship, but I had to temper my outrage into something more diplomatic and less violent in order to advocate for my people. 

In so doing I began to see the way she was true to her word, the way she wore the mantle of her still-new captaincy, and the way she carried the burden of Voyager's situation. 

I began to see her.

I began to feel the way we could, and should, work together. It was intense, powerful, and unexpected. The feeling was strangely exciting and I looked forward to bridge duty without really understanding why. 

I had always respected Starfleet's command structure in theory, but in practice the captains I served with often had a streak of tyrannical dictatorship that came out when things got rough. The Maquis were different, crews followed their captain out of loyalty, trust, and common belief in our cause. Slowly I began to see those traits in Kathryn Janeway's style of leadership. I worked to help my crew feel those things about their new captain and Voyager's mission to get back to Earth, I fought for their abilities to be utilized, and then I looked around and realized maybe I should work to help her crew in the same way. 

The first time I heard her say "our crew" I felt her vision settle somewhere deep inside me and it resonated with my own hopes for our future, creating faint overtones I was only beginning to understand.

Comments

[jellybeansarecool]

I love the insights into what Chakotay may be feeling this early on. I think that in this chapter, my favourite line was: "I began to see her." The build-up to it was perfect. It made me pause and take the time to reflect on what that means for him, for her, for the both of them. Wonderful, just wonderful :)