As the doctor approached Kathryn's biobed he hesitated, "Sir, brain stimulation therapy does not always have the effects desired. We don't know what her condition will be…" Captain Chakotay glanced over at Condor. "I just don't want any of you to get your hopes up too high."

"Understood." Responded Condor. "Justin will want to be here as well." Condor paged Justin and once he arrived the doctor proceeded to wake Kathryn.

Kathryn groggily opened her eyes to find herself surrounded by four men she loved dearly. She knew she loved them but she was struggling to place them. She felt that somehow it was wrong for them to coexist. She was confused. "Daddy? Lieutenant Tigue? It was awful, Daddy… Admiral Paris… the screaming… the darkness…" she croaked as she shut her eyes and slept again. The men stayed at her side throughout the night. Some hours later she stirred again.

"Chakotay!"

"I'm here Kathryn."

"The antidote, it failed hasn't it? You're ok? Am I…?" She asked with confusion and fear in her eyes, and something additional he couldn't quite place.

"You're going to be fine Kathryn. What antidote?" Chakotay queried.

"The one so we could leave New Earth. I shouldn't hurt this much from a simple cure for a virus. I must have had an adverse reaction… Oh God!" Her hand went to her abdomen and her eyelids began to sink. "I think I might be… I might have been… I've lost it haven't I…" She was unconscious before she could finish.

The men stood stunned. Chakotay reeled at the implications. She believed they had just been rescued from New Earth. Her memories were scattered and confused. She didn't remember his stupidity with Seven. Could he use this opportunity to regain her affection? No, he couldn't manipulate her, but he could be there for her and help her through her recovery. He was still confused about her last statement however and he turned the possibilities over in his mind. It almost sounded like she thought she might be pregnant. Of course she could just be very confused. He would keep his suspicions to himself for now and ask her at some point in the future when she would be lucid and clear on what exactly she was saying.

The doctor must have read something in the men's expressions, or maybe just Chakotay's because he chimed in at that moment. "Don't put too much meaning into what she says. She is obviously still very confused and even if the brain stimulation therapy worked she will continue to be confused for a time. It'll take a while to sort through her thoughts and memories and organize them." Dr. Gornowski had already explained this but he suspected a reminder would be appropriate at this time.

Ayala, however, felt like an unwelcome intruder amongst the others. He was neither related by blood nor was he a man she had been in love with. He wanted with all his heart to heal and protect his former Captain who was now all the family he could count on other than Mirna, his wife. But Kathryn had not even acknowledged his presence in her short lived moments of lucidity. He understood, he really did, so he tucked his sadness away and addressed the professional first. "Condor, I'd like to return to the surface to help reunite the recovered children with relatives, or provide security at the strike sites, Sir."

Edward Janeway recognized his request for what it was, a need to feel useful in the face of the consequences of his failure. Guilt was a truly powerful thing.

"Why don't you take Amelia down to visit that nice old woman who helped her and Chakotay; once Amelia wakes of course. Keep her safe and keep her mind off of her mother; the last thing we need if for her to be here and have Kathryn fail to recognize her. That child has been through enough." For once Chakotay agreed with him when it came to Amelia. Ayala nodded and started to turn away when Condor spoke again. "Michael…" he never called him Michael. Ayala turned back a little surprised. "When I say safe, I mean completely unharmed, not even a scratch or a splinter on that child! Understood?" Oh, he understood alright. I was clear he no longer had Condor's trust and Michael didn't blame the man.

"Understood, Sir!"

Over the next couple of days Kathryn woke calling out for Mark once, her mother and father several times, and even accused Justin of being an alien entity trying to use her dead fiancé to lure her into his trap. She sometimes believed herself held captive by the Cardassians and once thought herself on the brink of destroying voyager in order to reset the timeline. She thanked Chakotay for a watch, one he'd never found the courage to give her in real life, and she apologized for having rejected the gift as well as the love it represented. Chakotay wept, not quite understanding what moment she referred to, but completely understanding the sentiment. Chakotay never left her side, Justin and Condor left frequently to attend to ships business but always returned. The men each suppressed the jealousy they felt toward each other whenever she called out for one and failed to recognize another, or believed one an evil manifestation of a malevolent being. She ping ponged through her memories back and forth throughout her life. Frustration and desperation were about to overwhelm Chakotay when she called out for Mike Ayala.

"Mike, help me… something is wrong. My babies…" She wept quietly, only half conscious as she called for Mike Ayala to help her before she cried out a bitter, heartbroken whail, "No, no, she's gone… my baby…" Chakotay held her hand and wept with her. This was Amelia's twin she grieved for, he knew, and having grown to love Amelia as he did, he grieved as well, for the baby lost, and for Kathryn's pain as well. When he dared look up Justin looked a little stunned and uncomfortable, he had known a young determined Kathryn who lived through the atrocities of a Cardassian prison camp, but he had never known a grief stricken broken Kathryn whose personality had been changed by such a loss. Edward on the other hand was holding back tears. Condor felt his daughter's pain, he knew about the incident, he had been on the Knox at the time, but he hadn't understood the extent of her pain until he saw how bitterly she wept.

Condor decided right there and then that if Chakotay was the children's father he would see to it that he paid dearly for Kathyn's pain.

VVVVVVV

Ayala took Amelia down to the planet to visit Reyana. There had been so many displaced children that Reyana had been asked repeatedly to "take just one more". She couldn't say no and as a result had children bunking three to a room. It was awful that the children had been so abused, but they were all used to pulling their own weight and therefore the older ones cared for the younger ones, the able ones set about fixing things, and she had help in the kitchen as well.

Not to say that the situation was easy, fights broke out, tempers flared, and some of the children would just cry or scream randomly. Ayala tried to explain post-traumatic stress to Reyana but she shushed him and said "They need love and stability as well as patience, I know. I also know that they are, for the most part, grateful and loving, just a little… lost at the moment." Ayala smiled at her and nodded and Amelia set out to make new friends. They stayed all day enjoying the company until, as the sky grew dark, Amelia cried out for Chakotay and Kathryn again.

Upon returning to the ship Ayala inquired about Chakotay and Kathryn and found that they were still in sick bay. He gave Amelia the choice between staying with him or the Paris'. He was a little surprised when, after a few tears for her parents, she picked him. He shouldn't have been surprised after all she'd known, loved, and trusted him all her life, but the problem wasn't Amelia's trust in him, it was his own.

Amelia became his charge until he was otherwise informed. He figured he'd know when Kathryn was recovered because she would come get Amelia at that time.

The next day there was talk of sending Geronimo and the Delta Flyer back. The illegal operation had been shut down, the children rescued and placed in safe homes, all that was left was ensuring that local authorities were once again in control, intelligence gathering, and returning as many children as possible to the families they belonged to. The "Voyagers" made it clear, however, that they would not leave without their former Captain. If Admiral Kathryn Janeway stayed, they would as well.

On the third day the Geronimo and the Delta Flyer prepared for departure. Orders transferring Kathryn to Geronimo's sickbay would soon be issued. In the Knox's briefing room Justin argued with Condor. "You know we won't get to see them again; Kathryn and your granddaughter. I was looking forward to making amends with her; fixing things."

"Justin... son, it would never work. She isn't going to have a part time love affair with a man who is legally dead. Even if you could sneak her on board on a regular basis, in regular intervals, she isn't the kind who would just disappear on her family, her children, for a romantic rendezvous, or a secret affair."

"I understand that, sir, but I would at least like her forgiveness." Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Edwards senior staff, as well as that of the Geronimo and B'Elanna trailed by Tom. Proper business got underway immediately. When final wrap up procedures and departure instructions were issued Edward turned to the Paris'.

"So I hear you've been working with the drone to…"

"Seven, or Annika if you prefer, she allows people to call her that now." B'Elanna's protectiveness toward Voyager's crew was no secret, besides only she and her fellow Voyager's could call each other names. Even if B'Elanna still thought Seven an ungrateful, man stealing, bag of circuitry, she was still one of them, and Seven still helped them in times of need and crisis.

"Okay, I hear you've been working with Seven?, to find the source of information coming into this operation."

"Yes, I have. In their system they had federation patrol schedules, ship launch location, dates and times, investigation and operation names and plans, as well as cover names of operatives, although the operation names and operative cover names seem random, they wasn't any reason to believe the operations and operatives were linked to each other. There was nothing specific enough to bring order to the information. The patrol schedules, however, have definitely help them avoid authorities and detection." Explained B'Elanna.

"So the person passing on the information may have been close enough and high clearance enough to have access to the schedules but only pick up bits and pieces to classified operations somehow, but not privy to the entire plan; maybe an assistant or office aide." Condor then thoughtfully added, "Someone who has lauch schedules, and patrol schedules and can steal classified information in bits and pieces… could be any Admiral, even those not in covert ops." B'Elanna and Tom stole a worried glance at each other.

"Could you determine who's code was used to access the patrol schedules, those are privy to most Admirals and in very rare cases a Captain or two."

Silence stretched a moment before B'Elanna spoke up. "Admiral… Condor, could we speak alone for a moment?"

Condor looked at her a little curiously before empting the room of all other crewmembers save himself and the two Paris'.

"Go on Commanders Paris, what have you found?"

"Well sir, we think there must be some mistake, the information all seems to have been accessed by the command codes of a single Admiral based at Starfleet headquarters. We don't believe it but we have no other explanation for it." B'Elanna shifted uncomfortably.

"So who is it? Who's the traitor?" Edward insisted.

"The command codes used to access the information that was found in the slave traders computers belonged to Admiral Owen Paris."