Katrine opened her eyes in the halflight of early morning. She could feel the shape of Captain Miller beside her, breathing gently. He was still asleep. That was good. She needed to collect her thoughts.
She had only met him three weeks ago, but already it felt like she had known him for years. He had rescued her from Nazi soldiers who wanted information about the resistance. And as soon as she saw him, she knew. She had always told herself that she was too busy for love, that she would have time after the war for that sort of thing. But he was different, somehow. He was safe.
As she turned to look at him, there was a sharp pain in her head.
Kathryn Janeway looked around, disorientated. Where was she? And........she was lying next to Chakotay! How the hell had that happened? And if it had, she was pretty sure she would've remembered it!
'Doctor to the Captain.'
'Doctor!'
'Captain, I'm so glad it's you! When the Hirogen took over the ship, they put the entire crew into simulations on the holodecks. You were all fitted with neural interfaces so that you would believe you really were the characters in the scenarios. I've disabled the interfaces now. Do you remember anything?'
'Only the Hirogen attack. Where are they now?'
She got up and started to dress, hurriedly. Chakotay need never know.
'Mr. Kim and I have them confined in the Brig.'
'Well done, Doctor. Meet me there.'
She pulled on the boots that she supposed must be hers. She opened the door and was just leaving when........
'Kathryn?'
Damn.
'Yes?'
'What's going on? Where are we?'
'The holodeck. Long story. The Doc's got it under control now.'
She closed the door behind her.
'Thank goodness that's over.' Kathryn said, sitting on a biobed as the Doctor checked her for side effects from the neural implant. 'I don't think we'll be getting any more trouble from the Hirogen.'
The Doctor frowned.
'Unfortunately, Captain, you have a slightly bigger problem than hostile takeover by the Hirogen.'
'What do you mean?' There was a note of alarm in her voice.
'How can I say this.........you're pregnant.'
'What?!'
'The child was concived during the simulation, when you believed yourself to be Katrine. How do you wish to proceed?'
'I.......I don't know.'
And Chakotay must be the father. How stupid of her to think that she could get away with it that easily, that no-one would find out.
'Damn the Hirogen!'
'Pardon, Captain?'
'Nothing, nothing.'
'Hmm. I don't know quite how to put this........do you know......'
'Who the father is. I, I think it's Chakotay.'
'Well, I can perform a scan to be sure, if you'd like?'
She nodded.
'If you wanted to terminate it now I wouldn't hold it against you, Captain. This is a frightening thing to happen to anybody, and.......'
'No.'
He relaxed slightly and began the scan.
'This is going to be awkward.' she sighed, winding a lock of hair around her finger. 'For me, for the crew. And how do I tell Chakotay? Hi, how are you, by the way, you accidentally impregnated me.'
'I'm sure everything will turn out fine.'
The scanner beeped.
'The scan is complete. You were correct, Chakotay is the father. Would you like me to send for him?'
'I guess so.'
'Doctor to Commander Chakotay, please report to Sickbay.'
'On my way.'
'What is it?' Chakotay asked as he entered Sickbay. 'Kathryn, are you ok? What's the matter?'
'Well.......during the Hirogen takeover of the ship, when we believed ourselves to be the characters in the World War 2 program, we.....we......I'm pregnant.'
'And.................I'm the father?'
She nodded, close to tears.
'What are we going to do?' he asked.
He said 'we'. He was going to help her, she wouldn't have to cope on her own.
'I don't know.' she whispered.
Chakotay sat down on the biobed, beside her. The Doctor took the hint and went into his office.
'Do you want to keep it?' Chakotay asked, gently.'
'Yes.'
'Me too. What will we tell the crew?'
'The truth, I suppose. It wasn't us in that holodeck, Chakotay, it was someone else. We just got caught in the crossfire.'
'I guess so.'
'What shall we do?' she asked.
'I don't know. But, let's not tell the crew straight away.'
'No, you're right. Anything could happen now, anything at all.'
'Yes.' he said. 'Now that we've sorted that out, how do you feel about this?'
'I don't know.......everything's happening so fast! Happy, I guess, but, confused......and I'm scared.....' she blinked back tears.
'I know. But it's ok. We're going to do this, and we're going to do it together, every step of the way. Don't worry.'
He put his arms around her and hugged her tight, she hugged him back. He was right, of course.
Everything would be ok if he was there to help her.
THE END
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