Disclaimer: Just borrowing a swing on Paramount's playground.

AN: I just thought I would tag this on, because it was cute and it brings everything full circle. I hope you have enjoyed reading my story as much as I have enjoyed creating it!

Epilogue

The young woman lay on the biobed in sickbay, her dark hair streaming off of the edges. Her face was damp with sweat, and contorted with effort. She was breathing heavily. The EMH was monitoring her, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"You're fully dilated. Are you ready to push?" he asked her. She panted something incomprehensible in an alien language.

"Yes, you can," her companion said gently, holding her hand. "Just a little longer." Her eyes slid closed, and she appeared to muster up courage from somewhere within herself.

"Okay, let's go," she rasped. The man standing beside her brushed back damp hair from her brow. The doctor dismantled the end of the biobed, unfolding stirrups, and gently placing her feet in them.

"Try to push through a count of ten," he instructed. She nodded, her eyes fixed on her companion.

"Come on, honey," he murmured encouragingly. "I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered back. Her smile was tired. The doctor told her to push, and began to count. Her jaw clenched, and veins stood out in her slender neck.

"Nine…ten," the doctor said. She flopped back onto the biobed, her eyes closed, her body limp. "Let's do another one." She pulled herself up, swearing at him. The EMH appeared unfazed by the remark.

"Kathryn!" said a shocked voice in the doctor's office.

"I didn't teach her to talk like that!" Captain Kathryn Janeway said, looking defensively at her husband, who had lobbed the accusation. Harry Kim brushed silvering hair back from his forehead, and looked skeptical.

"Where else would she learn how to swear in Gentarran?" He asked her with eyebrows raised.

Kathryn said nothing, knowing she could only further incriminate herself.

"It shouldn't be much longer," said Tom, poking his head around the corner, sometime later. "She's doing fine." He disappeared as quickly as he had come, hurrying back to assist the EMH.

"I wish we could go in there," came a wistful voice from a chair in the corner.

"All of us?" Chakotay snorted, in response to his wife's comment. "The doctor would rather have his emitter shot out of a torpedo tube."

"How do you think Darren is holding up?" Kathryn asked Chakotay.

"I talked to him last night. He was really nervous, but determined to be strong for Alli."

"Just like his father, huh?" Kathryn asked, her eyes misting a little.

"Stay with me, Crewman," they heard the doctor's strident tone, and all froze. "One more good push, and this will all be over." The officers in the doctor's office edged cautiously toward the doorway.

"Come on, Alli. Sit up. Just one more… one more, and we'll see our son," Chakotay and Elizabeth exchanged glances at the soothing voice of their son. Alli said something that was unintelligible. They heard the doctor began to count again. Kathryn reached out, and threaded her fingers tightly with Harry's.

Alli gave a kind of hoarse gasp, and there was a moment of complete silence, save the whir of the medical tricorder. Then they heard the shrill coughing wail of a very new infant resound through sickbay.

It took everything Kathryn had not to barrel through the doorway, but they all waited until the doctor had finished his examination and instructed them to come in.

Darren McKay was standing in the middle of sickbay, swathed in scrubs, holding a tiny bundle against his chest. Tears shone in his green eyes.

"Dad," he said in a choked voice, looking down at the baby. "Oh my God, I can't believe he's real." Chakotay smiled at his tall dark-haired son.

"I felt the same way when you were born," he murmured, leaning in with Elizabeth to gaze at the face of their grandson. Kathryn and Harry moved to Alli's bedside.

"How ya doing?" Kathryn asked her daughter, tenderly, smoothing her hair with one hand.

"I've been better," Alli murmured, her voice barely audible, but she smiled. "Isn't he beautiful?"

"Are you surprised?" Harry asked, kissing her on the forehead.

"Daddy..." Alli smiled, brushing off his compliment.

Then Darren was beside them, handing them the baby. "Here, Captain," he said earnestly.

"Thank you, Crewman," Janeway said, with a touch of irony in her voice, as her son-in-law handed her her grandson, and still called her by her title.

"Did Alli tell you his name yet?" Darren asked.

"No," Alli shook her head. "I wanted to tell everybody together." The young couple had kept the child's name a tightly guarded secret, despite repeated efforts at cajoling it out of them. "His name is Edward Kolopak McKay."

Kathryn felt tears involuntarily fill her eyes, and Harry's hand squeezed hers tightly.

"What? Nothing for me?" Harry teased.

"Well, you still have Aaron to continue the Kim name…" Alli defended, citing her younger brother, as Harry waved one hand and assured her that he was kidding.

Kathryn looked up at Chakotay, who was smiling at nothing, and nudged him gently in the side.

"What do you think?" she asked in a low voice, as the others continued to clamor over Alli and Edward.

"It's a touching tribute," Chakotay said sincerely. "My father would be proud."

"Yeah," she said, reminiscently, "mine too."

There was a moment of comfortable silence between them, then. Kathryn thought briefly of the tension and awkwardness that had existed between them for quite some time after their return. And it wasn't just between Kathryn and Chakotay, but between Elizabeth and Kathryn and between Harry and Chakotay… although Harry's talk with Chakotay that long ago night seemed to prevent the worst kind of confrontation from happening in that regard. Things seemed to smooth out after Darren's birth, when Alli was nearly three. Aaron had followed less than two years later. Chakotay and Kathryn had been able to resume their friendship, but it had returned hardened and strong, having been refinedthrough fire.

There had been multiple children born on Voyager, including Miral Paris and her sisters, so it had been an interesting surprise, when Alli and Darren first began evidencing interest in each other. He had been nineteen, and she nearly twenty-two. They had married three years later, and had just celebrated their second anniversary.

Now, Kathryn felt an amazing sense of completion, of rightness, like something sweet that had passed them by had somehow been recompensed, albeit in an unexpected way.

"I must confess, Kathryn," Chakotay said, in a low aside, "when we were stranded on New Earth, this is not how I imagined having grandchildren with you!"

Laughter rippled from Kathryn's lips, suddenly and involuntarily, and she covered her mouth with one hand. He did understand.

She tucked her hand into the crook of Harry's arm, and interrupted his conversation with Darren.

"Somebody needs to know that he's an uncle," Kathryn murmured in his ear, her eyes shining with joy, "Why don't you comm our son?"

FIN

Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I really appreciated it. I look forward to posting more stories here. Hope you enjoyed!