Alright friends, this is my first Voyager fic, so please bear with me if some of the terminology isn't quite right. I am definitely not new to Star Trek, but have recently started watching Voyager and I AM OBSESSED! Janeway and Chakotay are so great together (the way they were on the show and the way they are in MANY of the fics I have read as of late) ;-) and I wanted to pay homage to one of my new favorite ships.

Please hang with me, as I am mapping this out and it seems like it will be a long one, but I'll try to keep it going and keep it good for you. Please let me know what you think if you have a moment, or if there's anything you'd like to see added, or if I completely muck something up, please let me know so I can fix it.

This story starts off somewhere after Elogium but a tad before Resolutions. I know Resolutions fics have been done to death, but this is just my take on it. Most of it will take place on New Earth (as so many lovely fics do) This story will be rated M only for situations and some fairly graphic medical talk. Probably could get away with a T rating.

I don't own anything in the Star Trek or Voyager Universe, though I wish I did. :-) No profits, don't sue…yada yada yada.

To those of you wondering if I died since so many of my other fics have been left abandoned for years, fear not. I still have every intention of finishing them, and working on them a great deal this November during NaNoWriMo. I have no excuse for my absence, but I will try desperately to make it up to you.

And now…

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Kathryn walked towards sick bay with less than confident steps. Her stomach was in knots and even though the doctor was only a hologram, she worried what he might say or what he might think when she explained her proposition to him. She barely believed it herself, but having thought about it nearly every day for over a month, she knew her decision was the right one…she thought.

As the exited the turbo lift she thought back to her conversation with Chakotay those many weeks ago.

It had been during Kes' ordeal with the Elogium. During a shared lunch with Chakotay, he was the one that had brought up the idea of the crew needing to start procreating to create a 'replacement crew' as he had put it. Kathryn had been horrified and saddened at the idea of it…the finality of it. As if admitting that adding to the ship's population was a necessity was giving up on any hope of making it home before any population increase was actually needed. Kathryn had fought with the idea for weeks, toyed with the notion of asking the crew to consider having children. The idea seemed to always leave a bad taste in her mouth, not only because it was none of her business what her crew did in their personal lives, but also because in a way, it was EVERYONE'S business. Their survival may very well depend on it, and Voyager might not get home without a next generation. Several of the current crew members were near retirement age; this mission was supposed to be their last. Now it was an almost certainty that some of her crew would die of old age before they were anywhere near home. That thought always made her sick to her stomach.

Steeling her resolve, she rounded the corner and entered sickbay. Thankfully, Kes was either on a break or it wasn't her shift, because sickbay was blissfully empty.

"Computer, active the Emergency Medical Hologram." The words came out in a less that dignified tone, and Kathryn could feel her pulse pick up as the familiar face of the Doctor materialized before her.

"Please state the nature of – oh, good afternoon, Captain. Is everything alright?" The doctor's brow slightly furrowed. He could easily count on one hand the number of times that the Captain came to sickbay of her own volition, and alone.

"Yes, Doctor, I'm fine, though I do have something I want to talk over with you." Kathryn motioned over to his office, hoping they could sit down, and be slightly tucked away in case someone else came into sick bay. The last thing she needed was to be overheard during this particular conversation.

The Doctor nodded, motioning for her to enter ahead of him. She sat down across from his desk chair, and he sat down as well, tentatively. Kathryn folded her hands in her lap nervously, then unfolded them to smooth the non-existent creases in her uniform pants, then pressed her palms into her thighs. None of this was missed by the EMH.

"Captain, without even pulling out a tricorder I can tell that your heart rate is elevated, you seem agitated and nervous. I believe your former statement of nothing being wrong was incorrect. Can you please tell me what is bothering you?" The Doctor folded his fingers together and lay them on his desk.

Kathryn took a deep breath, reminded herself that this was still only a hypothetical scenario and steeled her resolve once again. "Yes, Doctor, I'm sorry. I am completely healthy, though a bit nervous. I have a hypothetical situation to discuss with you and would like, and actually need your input." The Doctor nodded again.

"As you very well know, Doctor, we are over 70,000 light years away from home, and without wormholes, subspace anomalies or alien technology, we may be in for a long journey home. It has been brought to my attention that the entirety of this crew may not make the roughly seventy-year journey. And those that do survive the journey will be quite old when we do get home. A crew of senior citizens will not be able to get Voyager back to Earth, and I wouldn't expect them to." She pauses, gauging the Doctor's reaction. He gave her nothing. Her heart in her throat, she continued.

"I have been toying with the idea of suggesting that the crew start thinking about starting families." The Doctor furrowed his brow, cocking his head to the side. "Having children, Doctor. We may need a replacement crew in roughly half the time it would take us to get home."

The Doctor nodded his understanding, and Kathryn was thankful that his programming kept him from having an opinion on the sociology of the situation. "That is a logical decision, Captain. I know from hearing the talk in sick bay and on the holodecks that many of the crew have formed romantic attachments with one another. It should be an easy next step to suggest procreation, barring any interspecies genetic complications."

"Doctor, it's not nearly that simple. Having a child is one of the biggest decisions in a person's life, and that's under ideal circumstances. Creating life may be easy mechanically and biologically for most of the crew, but deciding to create a life on Voyager is a very difficult and personal decision that everyone would have to make for themselves." Her voice was strained from nerves and from sincerity. The very idea of raising children on Voyager brought her equal amounts of satisfaction and sorrow.

"I can see where that would be the case. I would be happy to council the crew on any genetic or biological barriers facing them if that was your reason for seeking my input." Kathryn put up her hand to stop him. She had to finish her thought before she lost her resolve.

"I appreciate that Doctor, but I have to admit that wasn't my primary reason for coming to speak to you today." She paused, taking a deep breath, her wide blue eyes meeting the familiar brown of the EMH. Though she knew he was just a computer program, she had grown fond of their Chief Medical Officer, and the concern he wore on his face now, probably only from his adaptive programming, gave her the courage to finish.

"The reason I came here was to ask you, hypothetically, if I wanted to have a child, what would be the procedure?" If she hadn't known better, she would have thought the EMH blushed.

"Well, Captain, the biological mechanics of procreation are quite simple for human beings. I'm sorry to admit that I'm surprised you aren't aware of-" Kathryn immediately realized her misstep, her cheeks flushed instantly as she held a hand up again, desperate for the Doctor to stop talking.

"No, Doctor. I am well aware of the conventional means of human procreation, thank you. What I failed to clarify was that I was wondering about less conventional methods. I am speaking of using a, uh, donor father to fertilize my eggs for implantation...hypothetically." The rest of the air came out of her lungs in a force as her heart hammered in her chest even harder. Thankfully, the Doctor showed no sign of judgement or concern.

"Well, Captain, hypothetically, if you wanted to have a child, the first thing we would do is stop your monthly hyposprays of ovulation and menstruation suppression. Then you would be administered daily doses of a hormone that matures many of your ova at once." Kathryn listened in rapt attention, now that they were getting to the meat and potatoes of what she had been curious about, she was glad that the Doctor had taken over the conversation, and all she had to do was listen. "That can take anywhere from several weeks to a month. The majority would be hyposprays, but several needle injections of gonadotropins would be necessary. We would do twice weekly ultrasounds to be sure the ova were maturing how we want." He paused, realizing that she might need a moment to take in his words. The Doctor knew he tended to recite pages and pages of medical data, and people tended to need it broken down more simply to understand it all. Kathryn seemed to lean forward slightly, eager to hear more.

"Go on Doctor."

"After a final injection, I would give you light sedation and retrieve the viable ova using needle aspiration. We place them in stasis until insemination." Kathryn's stomach flipflopped at the word, but she did well to school her features. "Your…hypothetical sperm donor would provide his sample which I would examine to be sure of motility and health, and of course genetic compatibility.

"If everything looked good, your ova would be inseminated and incubated for roughly 16 to 18 hours. If fertilization is a success, we incubate them for five more days before injection back into your body. Then we would let nature take it's course and I could confirm successful implantation in your uterus roughly two to three weeks later."

Kathryn realized he was done speaking and didn't want to admit to him that she hadn't heard anything he said after sperm donor sample. Her stomach was doing somersaults and her heart was ready to break out of her ribs. She didn't tell the Doctor that, however, she just nodded her head, satisfying him that she understood everything he'd said, which in essence, she did.

"What are the risks?" She was glad that she had reined in her nerves enough.

"Well, the actual risks are very minimal. Needle aspiration can, in less than 3% of patients, lead to post operative infection, but that is easy cured with a dose of antibiotics. I believe what you are wondering though would be any hypothetical complications." He didn't wait for her to agree, but continued with his answer. "There are any number of parts of the process that could go wrong, so to speak. Your ova may not be viable. Female human ova degrade considerably between ages twenty five to thirty five, and you being thirty six-"

"Yes, Doctor," Kathryn snipped at him, "I know how old I am." It came out harsher than she meant it, but the Doctor didn't realize he'd accidentally offended her.

"The percentage of potentially abnormal ova is roughly 45%." Kathryn opened her mouth to retort, though she didn't even know what she would say. It was a medical statistic, and she was the age that she was…nothing could dispute either fact.

"But, Captain," he continued before she could speak, "You are active and healthy, so there's no reason think…hypothetically…that you wouldn't have plenty of viable, healthy ova for fertilization.

"And as long as the donor you choose has healthy sperm, the chance of fertilization is relatively high. Once implantation occurs and impregnation is successful, I would monitor your progress weekly until the fetus or fetuses come to term.

"I would warn though, that in cases of invitro fertilization multiple embryos often implant. You could become pregnant with two or even three embryos, and unfortunately your body is smaller than average, and that might make it harder for you to carry the babies to term. The viability of one or more could be compromised."

Kathryn nodded, not realizing that before. That would be something to think about. She had a million thoughts racing through her head, but unfortunately the Doctor wasn't the one who could help with most of them now.

"When could we, hypothetically, begin this process?"

"Well, if memory serves, which it of course does," the Doctor tried out his humor, "you are due for your next anti ovulation hypospray in three days. Hypothetically, we could start tomorrow. It would take me several hours to synthesize the gonadotropin injections otherwise we could start immediately. May I ask, do you have a donor in mind? Hypothetically, of course."

Kathryn felt her throat tighten at the question but nodded. "Yes, I do. I haven't approached him yet, but he is also human, so compatibility shouldn't be an issue."

The Doctor gave a curt nod of approval, swiveling in his chair to pull up a data file on his computer, pressing several buttons to download the information he was searching onto a PADD. Once complete he turned back to Kathryn and handed it to her. "This is a detailed explanation of the gonadotropin injections and the process of ovum maturation. I suggest we get started with the process before you approach your potential donor. That way if there aren't enough viable eggs for fertilization there will be less disappointment."

"I have to give him some warning, Doctor. I mean hypothetically I can't ask this of him and expect an answer the day we are ready for his sample." She felt her face burn again at the thought.

"Captain, can I suggest that we eliminate the hypothetical talk…hypothetically? You are seriously considering this, yes?" Kathryn gave a nervous chuckle at the Doctor's words.

"Yes, Doctor, I'm sorry for the vagueness of this conversation. I suppose I was nervous to face it as a reality until I had more of the facts." She pressed her palm into her forehead, feeling a headache start to develop there.

"I understand the sensation of trepidation you feel, though I cannot relate exactly. Why don't you think on it for the remainder of the day. I will begin preparing the serum, and if you decide against it, or to postpone I can always put it in stasis. If you are going to suggest to the crew eventually that procreation for the sake of the ship might be a necessity, I will no doubt have use for it if other females want to go that route."

Just then the doors to sickbay opened with a hiss and Kathryn flinched in her seat. She quickly flipped the PADD over on the desk, spinning around to see who had come in. Her stomach rolled when those too familiar brown eyes glanced around and landed on her and the Doctor.

"Captain, I'm sorry. I hope I'm not interrupting." His soft voice smoothed over her too sensitive nerves like a balm, but there was an edge to it that made her start. Finally looking away from his eyes she realized that he was cradling his right arm in his left and had an angry red welt rising up on his jaw.

"Ch-Commander," she almost slipped, "What in the world happened to you?" She moved to gently touch his chin to turn his face, allowing her better access to see his jaw. The welt was red and angry and laced with purple edges. Without the Doctor's intervention it would form a nasty bruise on the side of his face. The Doctor was already retrieving a hypospray and what looked like some sort of topical ointment.

"Boxing program on the holodeck. I tried it set to a harder level than normal." He grinned sheepishly, allowing his dimples to just start to form on his face. Kathryn felt her finally calmed down heartbeat pick up a notch. "Apparently I wasn't prepared for it. My opponent landed a solid hit to my jaw and knocked me out of the ring. I landed wrong on my wrist. I think it's sprained." Kathryn's brow furrowed in concern and she was about to speak when the Doctor moved in front of her to lead Chakotay to a biobed. She realized then that Chakotay was wearing only a t-shirt and some type of athletic shorts. She took a moment to appreciate the way his calf muscles moved under the tanned skin of his legs as he walked away for her. She followed quietly making sure everything was alright with Chakotay before taking her leave of sickbay.

The Doctor confirmed that yes, his wrist was sprained, but it would be easy enough to set, and with some ultrasound treatment and subdermal regeneration he would be 'fit as a fiddle' in several hours. Kathryn nodded and bid them both goodbye.

She knew that the Doctor would keep their conversation to himself and as she left, she nearly forgot to grab the PADD off his desk. As she sidestepped into his office to retrieve it, she had no way of knowing that Chakotay was watching her every move. He saw her pick up the PADD and press it firmly to her chest to keep its contents secret as she quickly made her way out the door. His own brow furrowed in concern and though he could do nothing about it now, his first stop after sick bay would be to her quarters to make sure everything was alright.