Disclaimer: Paramount owns all, no infringement intended.
Author’s Note: This is the long ago asked for sequel to
"Tomorrow" Yes, I actually wrote a sequel, no one die of shock now.While "Meetings" is definitely not one of my best fics, me writing it is helping my muse to remember how to write, if that makes sense at all. :) So enjoy, and as always, feedback is welcomed.
Meetings
by Holly
*A few years later*
Chakotay sat at their usual table, next to the door of the cafe. He took in the scene around him. The worn tables, little bits of dust in the corners, the dull silver ware...it was all so familiar, comforting in a way to him. Just as he took a sip of his coffee the bells on the door jingled, signaling the entrance of a person. Looking up Chakotay saw Kathryn in the process of setting down across from him.
“You’re late,” he spoke.
“Yeah, sorry,” she said, distracted. She picked up her coffee that Chakotay always had waiting for her, and took a sip.
“In all the years we’ve been coming here,” he started. “All the Thursdays, you have never once been this late.”
“Okay Mom,” she smirked.
Chakotay responded with one of Kathryn’s trademark death glares. She realized for the first time that he had almost perfected it. Obviously her was spending too much time with her, she though to her self, smiling.
“Seriously? You want to know?”
“Of course.”
“Well, a friend was trying to...” she began, looking him in the eyes. She found it hard to tell him. Maybe she shouldn’t, she thought. “Uh...never mind.”
“Come on Kath, out with it.”
“It’s nothing, really.”
“Well, since you were late, I demand an explanation,” he said mock demandingly with a smile.
“My friend was, uh, getting me a date for tonight.”
Chakotay all but spit out his coffee at this.
“A date?”
“You heard me.”
“Right...” he trailed. “Well, congratulations.”
“Thanks.”
They sat there for a few moments. Neither knew what to say.
A date?! he thought. She hadn’t been on a date since what’s his name, Stan or Sven, or the likes. Why was he jealous? he wondered. He had no reason to be, they were friends. He should be happy for her. Yet...
“Chakotay, I’m sorry.”
“Hmm?” he asked, coming out of his reverie.
“Nothing,” she mumbled. Drinking the remaining of her coffee, she realized that this might be quite awkward. “I’m going to go.”
“You were here for only five minutes.”
“Yes, well, uh, I have some things I need to do,” she lied.
“Right.”
“Right.”
“See you next week Chakotay,” she said, grabbing her purse and hurriedly leaving the shop.
Chakotay sat there, pondering what it was that he had done wrong.
***
Chakotay walked into the shop to find Kathryn sitting at their table, coffee in hand, staring off, deep in thought.
Chakotay’s cup was sitting on the table in front of his seat. Seizing up the situation, he walked around the table and sat down. It stuck him as unusual that she was there, being that he was always the first to arrive.
“Oh, hi,” Kathryn said, taking note of Chakotay as she took a sip of her coffee.
“Hi.”
Sitting there awhile, Kathryn figured she might as well say something. “So...”
“So...”
“Chakotay,” she started but was cut off.
“So how was your, uh, date last week?”
“It was nice,” she replied seriously.
“Right,” Chakotay replied, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Just don’t Chakotay.”
They sat there in silence, staring at one another. For the first time they each acknowledged what they saw. Everything they had hidden from each other for a countless number of years. Their feelings; love, sadness, fear, regret, and most of all hope.
“I can’t do this anymore Chakotay,” Kathryn said. “I’m tired of this game. When is it going to end? Is there even going to be a winner, or just two losers?” With that she stood up and once again left.
Do what? Chakotay wondered. Their coffee meetings? Their give and take relationship? Or just them period?
***
Chakotay sat in the cafe, wondering if she would show up. Just as he was wondering she walked through the door.
She sat at her seat across from him, picking up her coffee cup from the table. They sat there in silence. When Kathryn was done with her coffee she looked at him and then left.
This continued for several weeks. Chakotay as always being the first to arrive, ordering their coffee, Kathryn coming, drinking her coffee, and then her leaving.
***
“Well hello Commander,” Tom Paris greeted Chakotay’s visage on his view screen.
“Hi Tom,” Chakotay responded. “So, uh, how are you doing? B’Elanna and Miral?”
“We’re all doing fine, thanks. And yourself?”
“Fine.”
“Right. So would you care to get to the point of his conversation?” Tom asked matter-of-factly, trying to joke. He knew why Chakotay was calling him.
“And what exactly is that suppose to mean?”
“Yes, she went out with him a few times. But it was nothing seriously. They decided that it just wouldn’t work out. Supposedly it was because she had feelings for another person. I.E. you Chakotay. So, stop wasting your time talking to me and actually talk to her. Tell her how you feel and so on,” Tom finished, proud of himself.
“Uh...”
“Bye Chakotay.” With a final smirk Tom then terminated the connection.
***
Chakotay sat at their table. He couldn’t recall how many times they had sat there together. Sometimes it was the only thing he waited for during the week. And even in the times when he was the busiest, he always showed, same for Kathryn. Yet after all their meetings, their conversations, their cups of coffee, all remained the same. They were best friends who harbored feelings for one another for almost a decade, yet had done nothing about it, even when given the chance. And there had been many chances. But when one had occurred, the parameters by which they based their relationship always changed. A never-ending cycle of sorts.
Glancing up Chakotay realized that Kathryn was already sitting down.
He decided that if he didn’t break the silence than neither of them would.
“How long have you been sitting here?” he asked quietly.
“Long enough,” she answered, a little surprised Chakotay had broke their code of silence.
“Long enough for what?”
“Never mind.”
“Kathryn?”
“What?”
He didn’t answer. Should he? he wondered. After all this time, should he make the effort? He thought back over the long course of their friendship. Of their first meeting; him and his crew being beamed over to Voyager as the Liberty was destroyed. Of their growing friendship; him showing her how to contact her spirit guide. And even their stay on New Earth; of the monkey, the back rub, and his story to her. With this last thought his decision was made.
“Kathryn, where do we stand?”
“What do...” she began but was cut off.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
“Fine then.”
“Well?”
“Why are you asking me? I know just as well as you know.”
“I need to know.”
“Where do *you* think we are?
“I don’t know.”
“Either do I,” she admitted to him, running her index finger around the rim of her cup.
“Kathryn...for these past few years each of us has tried to move on, to get past our feelings...” he began.
“Yes?”
“But we failed.”
“Have we?”
“Yes. We try to hide our feelings, saying we are just great friends, which we are, but we aren’t.”
“Your point?”
“Yes, my point.” He looked her into the eyes, trying to gauge what she was feeling. “My point is that I just can’t keep going like this, keeping up this facade. I can’t simply be your friend when I know I could possibly be much more.”
“It’s worked well this far.”
“I know how broken you were with my relationship with Seven. And I was just as heartbroken when you dated that Sven guy, and then your date several weeks ago. I don’t want to keep going through this. And I don’t think you do either.”
“Then what is it that you propose?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, when you do, do tell me,” she answered. She gave him one of her crooked, knowing smiles, stood up, and then walked away.
If he had a bar of platinum for every time she had done that lately he would be rich, he thought to himself.
***
*beep*
Kathryn walked over to her computer and turned it on to see Chakotay starting at her.
“Hello.”
“Hi.”
“Go out with me tonight?” he questioned, yet more of a statement.
“Excuse me?”
“That’s the solution.”
“The solution?”
“To our problem.”
“Our problem?”
“Is there an echo somewhere?” he asked her with one of his dimpled smiles.
“Sorry.”
“Right. So I figured we could go out to dinner.”
“Chakotay...”
“Kathryn, stop it. I figure that in order for us to get past our friendship complex that we seem to have contracted, we need to broaden our relationship. To do more than drink a cup of coffee each week together.”
“What is it that you have in mind?”
“You’ll have to say yes or no.”
“Fine, yes.”
“See you at 1900 hours?”
“It’s a date.”
With a look into each other’s eyes and a shared smile, the conversation was ended.
The End