DISCLAIMER: Paramount, or whoever it is now, owns Star Trek: Voyager, all her denizens, and all the nifty little gadgets. I'm just playing in their sand box for a little while.

NOTE: In my happy little universe, there are no Borg aboard Voyager. And don't ask me how they got home.

MY THANKS: to Lorelei for helping me polish the story.

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She stood on the bridge. Leaning over the railing behind the Captain's chair. Staring out the view port.

It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to dim lighting. He had searched Star Fleet HQ for her, then realized where she was.

"Don't do it, Kathryn. Not on our account. Seven years, time served at hard labor, is better ..."

"Not good enough, Chakotay. When I first took you into my crew, I didn't know quite what I would do when this time came, but I will not distance myself from the Maquis crew now." She spoke without looking around.

"Kathryn, if Admiral Seitz hadn't taken the pips off my collar, I would have laid them down on the nearest desk the moment I walked through the doors of the Admiralty. So the effect is the same." He stepped closer, rubbing her back with his right hand. Throughout the months of interminable hearings, whenever they were in the same room, their eyes locked on one another's when they could do so unobserved. Perhaps now the unspoken promise would be fulfilled.

"I think you are forgetting that we actually committed the actions we were accused of, and those actions were, in fact, crimes against Federation law. I'm a free man, and that is more than I could have expected eight years ago, if you had captured me."

"I made a promise, Chakotay."

"You don't usually make promises you have no way to keep."

"I made it to myself - that I wouldn't let them railroad you. And then here they are welcoming me as a hero, but convicting as felons some of the most valuable members of my crew. We would not have made it home without you. I will not turn my back on you and forget this, Chakotay."

Made bold by his newfound freedom and her need, he put his hands on the railing on either side of her, and spoke into her ear, "Kathryn, there is nothing more you can do. Leaving Star Fleet won't change anything. There isn't one of the Maquis crew who would want that. I happen to know that for two months you haven't had more than four hours of sleep a night, and most nights less than that. We all know how hard you have been fighting for us."

"I can't stay with Star Fleet, not like this."

"Does the Eagle know when to sleep, Kathryn? Take the extended leave of absence, get away, and then make your decision. Don't make it in anger and do something you will regret."

"I can't just let it go."

"You don't know how to let go, do you? You have been on an internal red-alert since the Caretaker's displacement wave took Voyager eight years ago. But whether you storm out of Star Fleet or not, you won't know what to do with yourself. Instead of finding more ways to fight the galaxy, you need to find a way to a state of peace."

She was silent for minutes, knowing he was right, and resisting the urge to argue anyway. When finally she spoke, her shoulders and neck relaxed into a slump. "Good point."

She soaked in his warmth at her back, waiting a few more moments before speaking again. "You told me once how you found peace. Did it hold? I know I wasn't much help."

"You were yourself, Kathryn. But it held long enough for me to learn how to create it for myself. Even if we had met in different circumstances, I would still have needed to do that. Now seems to be the time for you to make your peace. "

"You may be right. Any suggestions?"

"I can't make peace for you. In fact I may make it harder for you to make it for yourself. But I would be honored if you let me be near while you search. Your spirit guide might be useful, and I could help there."

She placed her left hand over his where it rested on the railing. "I would like that, Chakotay. I have learned more from you the last few years than I want to admit. That's one of the reasons I'm not sure I can stay in Star Fleet without you as part of my command team. Too many times I would have lost my balance without you behind me."

"Have you thought about where you would like to spend your leave?"

"Indiana. I want to go home. What about you? Have you made any plans?"

"Nothing definite. I had thought maybe to spend some time with my cousin and her family in Ohio. Beyond that, I'm open for suggestions."

"Close enough we can have dinner together as often as we have been."

"I'd like that, Kathryn. It will be good spending time with you without your comm badge turning you into The Captain every ten minutes."

Suddenly one of the consoles beeped, loudly and insistently. Startled, Chakotay stepped back to allow Kathryn the room to respond to the noise. The familiar voice of Admiral Paris filled the bridge, "Captain Janeway, I thought I would find you there. Have you given any thought to that leave we talked about?"

She kept the comm link audio only, and responded, "Yes, Admiral. I want to take at least six months. Then I will inform Star Fleet of my decision."

"Six months is a long time, Captain. But you have earned it. Keep in touch." Communications ended, channel closed.

"Thank you for not letting the admiral know I'm here," he said. The he smiled that charming smile of his. "It was a masterpiece of Maquis ingenuity and deception that got me here from a public transporter station."

Taking in his statement and his grin, she responded, "I didn't think you were authorized to be here. In fact I'm probably not supposed to be here either. They are going to de-commission her, you know. Months of studying the modifications we made, Borg bits, Delta Quadrant pieces - and they have decided Voyager is no longer space-worthy. I feel as though I failed her, too."

"Kathryn, you didn't fail. We made it home, in far better shape than any of us had any right to expect. Mission accomplished. Don't brood over unexpected results. Or if you insist on brooding, let's get out of here where you can do it over a cup of coffee, brewed instead of replicated."

Groaning, she replied, "If I had known you were going to make awful puns about coffee, I would not have allowed you on my ship in the first place, Chakotay."

"Star Fleet Officers' Protocol, section 47, paragraph 3: Never joke about a superior officer's coffee."

"We had better get out of here before it gets worse." With that, she walked to ops and transported them planet-side.