Part Two

"We talked to him about it before the rehearsal this afternoon," Tom began. "He was really clear that he didn't want anything … special."

"That's right," Harry added. "He just wanted to spend the evening with friends having a few beers, maybe playing a little pool. Nothing too over the top."

B"Elanna, hovering near the pool table where her oldest friend lay in his supernatural stupor, snorted. I bet that's right. He doesn't want anything to screw up tomorrow. But now this. She wiped the drool from his cheek with the cuff of her flannel pajama sleeve. Poor guy.

"And that's what we were doing," Tom continued. "We all got here by about 2100 hours and we were just playing pool and having a few drinks. It was all perfectly innocent."

Janeway rolled her eyes at him. "Go on."

Harry glanced at Tom, and then around the room. "We were swapping stories about Voyager." He scanned the men's faces for support. "You know, like we always do when we get together."

Tom nodded. "Just old friends trading memories."

"Reliving the good days," Chapman chimed in.

"Talking about old times," Ayala said.

"And making new connections," Vorik said, "between past incidents and the present situation." Everyone in the room turned to stare at the young engineer. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Perfectly innocent."

Janeway closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "Tuvok?"

The Vulcan paused. "Given the circumstances, a certain amount of curiosity is understandable, Admiral. We did serve together for seven years with no indication that either you or the Captain —"

"TUVOK!"

Tuvok emitted the tiniest of sighs. It sounded to B'Elanna like a reluctant surrender. "They asked Chakotay about New Earth," he said.

B'Elanna shot her husband a horrified look. Wide-eyed, he shook his head at her. "Wasn't me," he said wordlessly.

The Admiral turned her back on the men and crossed to the table where her fiancé lay unconscious. B'Elanna took in Janeway's carefully shuttered expression. She glared at all the men in the room, furious on the Admiral's behalf. Behind her, she could feel the weight of the women's equal fury. Chagrined, the men looked away. Billy Chapman made a retching sound.

Janeway picked up one of Chakotay's limp hands and pressed it between her own. "New Earth is private," she murmured.

Tom darted forward to stand beside her. "We know. He said the same thing. He didn't answer, and we didn't press."

Harry took up a position on her other side. "He said he respects you too much and loves you too much to break that confidence. So whatever happened there —" Janeway glared up at him "— or didn't happen, is still between the two of you. Always. "

As one, the men nodded. As one, the women sighed.

Silently, Janeway brushed her fingertips across Chakotay's tattoo. Her eyes were very bright and full. The room held its breath. B"Elanna vowed to find out which idiotic petaQ had asked Chakotay to break that particular confidence.

Janeway finally turned to face the men again. "I appreciate that," she said.

Tom motioned for someone to bring the Admiral a chair, and Mike Ayala obliged. Janeway sat down beside the pool table, Chakotay's hand still gripped in her own. "Then what happened?"

Tom sat down across from her. "Well, then we just … talked for a while. We drank and talked."

Janeway glanced from Tom to Harry to Tuvok and back again. "And what part of this talking summoned our immortal menace?"

Pale and shaking, Billy Chapman rose and crossed to face her. "It was me," he said softly. "I think it's my fault."

The men started to protest, but Janeway held up her hand for silence. "Go ahead, Billy. It's all right."

"Well, I was kind of … curious," Billy said. "And I asked the Captain … I told him he didn't have to tell me if he didn't want to, of course, but I wanted to know … I've never … I mean, it's just … " Billy sighed heavily. "I asked him when he first knew he loved you."

Janeway gave the terrified man a kind smile. "And what did he say?"

To B'Elanna's shock, Billy grinned back at the Admiral. "He said right away. The first week. The first day."

One of the women behind B'Elanna sniffled.

"Accurate," Janeway said. "And surprisingly mutual, given that I was engaged to someone else at the time. Continue."

"Right. Okay." Relieved, Billy warmed to his topic. "So then he said he knew right away, but didn't know how bad he had it until much later. After New Earth."

Janeway cocked her head to one side. "Really?"

BIlly nodded. "Really. He said it hit him hard after you got back and after we took the ship back from the Kazon at Hanon IV."

"'We'?" Tom snapped, but everyone ignored him.

"It was a few months after that," Billy continued. "When our, uh, friend with the one-letter name first appeared on Voyager."

"When he wanted to mate with me," Janeway growled.

Everyone in the room growled in response.

"Right," Billy said. "And Chakotay said when he found that out, he was crazy jealous, and angry, and that right then and there, he almost told you he loved you."

"Oh!" Janeway gasped. "But I stopped him."

"That's right. You stopped him. He said he can't imagine how different things would have been if you hadn't. Better or worse, he couldn't imagine it either way. And then he said … he said …" Billy faltered and looked to Tom and Harry for help.

Harry spoke up first. "He said he's never really gotten over what happened."

Tom nodded. "He said he knows you love him and he's not worried, but the only man he's really afraid of losing you to is Q."

There was a flash of blinding white light.

=/\=

A flash of blinding white light, and he slams back into consciousness. His senses are immediately assaulted with thumping music and colored strobe lights and the press of a hundred writhing bodies.

What the hell?

He tries to exit the dance floor but someone keeps blocking his path. A humanoid with red hair and wide blue eyes. Fit, young, pale, scantily clad, and completely androgynous. Alien? Android? He's not sure. He tries to pass by again but … (He? She? They? They.) … they press their body lithe young body against him, chest to thigh. "Dance with me!" they shout above the ear-splitting beat.

"I'm really not much of a dancer," he says, and tries to sidestep the being.

"Come on," they say. "You've been checking me out all night."

"I have?"

They nod and give him a knowing grin. "All night. All week! Ever since this conference started. We haven't been able to keep our eyes off each other, and you know it."

He has no memory of any conference. "Please, I —"

"What's the harm? It's just a dance." They thrust their hips into his. He gasps.

"I think —"

"That's your problem, Chakotay. You think too much!"

He tries to remove them from his path. The shoulders under his hands are firm and strong, the skin soft and supple. The being wriggles against him and he gasps.

"Dance with me," they croon, their lips close to his earlobe. "Feel the music. You know you want to …"

A flash of light catches the edge of the ring on his finger.

Black and silver. Titanium and carbon fiber. A tiny infinity symbol etched inside. He can't see it, but he knows it's there.

Chakotay puts them away from his body and finally steps off the floor.

"Come on, Chakotay!" they call behind him as he stalks awa. "What does that woman have that I don't have?"

You really don't want me to answer that, he thinks. "Dignity," he says. "Dignity."

A booming voice drowns out the dance music. "I really thought that one might work," the voice says. "How disappointing."

"Go to helll, Q!"

"Oh, stow it, Chuckles."

There's loud pop and a flash of white light, and the nightclub disappears.

End of Part Two