THE FIGHT -- Episode Addition

by Boz

Disclaimers - Paramount owns these characters and the episode - I just wish they’d show us what happens next.........especially when they gave us a couple of tiny teasers in this episode.....tiny.......

Rating: PG

~*~

Thud!........thwack!.........the sound of leather hitting his flesh spun through him but to his dismay he realised that he felt nothing. Suddenly his head began to hammer and he found himself off balance.

Noooo - it couldn't be happening again.......the voices, they were still there; faint but still clamouring, deep down in that part of his mind that he never wanted to have to visit again. For once, the fighting wasn’t helping. He wasn’t unwinding, instead the tension was winding him tighter and tighter....

"Computer, freeze programme..."

He threw himself across the corner ropes, head on his arms, sweat pouring down his face as the cacophony threatened to spill over and take hold of his mind again. He forced himself to breathe deeply, to try to think back over the confusion of the last few days. There were snatches of lucidity in his memories.....he remembered Kathryn when he was in the sickbay fighting his demons. He had felt her run her fingers across his foot; they had clutched hands as she passed some of her strength to him making it easier to agree to continue to try to contact the aliens. He could still feel her fingers softly stroking the side of his face and could see the look of worry in her eyes. On the bridge, too, she had shown her trust in him when doubt assailed the rest of the senior staff. She had caught him when he had almost fallen and had quickly turned the bridge over to Tuvok and accompanied him to the sickbay, grasping his hands and freezing the EMH with a glare when he dared to suggest that she stand aside to let him work on his patient.

He wondered if she realised how much it had cost him to be buoyant when she accompanied him to the holodeck and said she’d see him on duty tomorrow. It was all a sham, he realised it now just as he realised that prevailing over his demons wasn’t going to happen on the holodeck.

He quickly stripped off his gloves and threw them on the floor, canceling the programme and leaving without even taking the time to wipe the sweat from his body. Fortunately the corridors were empty. His head was pounding as he struggled to keep the voices at bay. He needed Kathryn and he needed her now.

She answered the chime quickly and showed no surprise at his appearance. Without speaking, she took him by the hand and led him to the couch, then sat down beside him, and gripped both his hands.

"Chakotay, what is it?"

He leaned into her, put his head down on her shoulder and slowly fell apart. She held him as the tears fell and silent sobs wracked him. She rubbed his back and soothed him. She was sea of conflicting emotions. Part of her wanted to take his pain away, and part of her realised the immense respect that he was paying her. For a strong man to strip his soul bare in front of her was an honour that wrenched at her soul, Suddenly she knew with a flash that this man that she cradled in her arms was the man she was going to have beside her for the rest of her days. They had the capacity to heal each other when their spirits were broken. She felt the love she had for him surface out of the locked box she had kept it in and tried to ignore. She couldn’t deny it anymore and the truth of it struck through her like a ray of the newly risen sun.

Slowly his shaking ceased and he was still. She eased him away from her so he was leaning against the sofa and whispered "Wait there."

She was back in a few minutes to find him still sitting where she had left him and starting to look embarrassed. Before he could speak, she took him by the hand and led him to her bathroom. The huge tub was steaming with aromatic, soothing herbs, the last of the supply that Kes had left for her. He stood, obediently, like a small child, as she slowly peeled the sweaty clothes from his body, leaving him standing in his cotton boxers. He grinned slightly as she pointedly turned her back and let him strip off the last layer and immerse himself in the healing, fragrant waters. With a sigh, he leaned his head back against the end as she kneeled beside the tub and filled her hands with shampoo and began to massage it into his scalp. Her thumbpads pushed into his scalp, circling round and round, mesmerising in their slowness. As she stroked her fingers up towards the top of his scalp it was as though the pain and the fear and the voices were being dragged out of his mind, leaving him soothed and healed . She carefully rinsed out the last of the shampoo, handed him a couple of towels and left him to dry off.

He came out with a towel wrapped around his waist and a look of utter exhaustion on his face. She carefully led him to her bed.

"You’re staying here where I can keep an eye on you."

The small grin on his face was one of the most encouraging signs she had ever seen. He was starting to come back to her.

"Don’t worry, I won’t take advantage of your poor wasted body whilst it’s in my bed."

The look on his face told her that he appreciated her feeble attempt at a joke and he lay down without demurring and let her tuck him in.

"Now", she whispered, holding his hand between both of hers, "you are going to lie there and have a totally dreamless and refreshing sleep, then tomorrow you’re going to take a real day off, and I will, too. I know a good holographic programme that has nothing to do with boxing or aliens that you and I are going to enjoy together. Meantime, I’m going back to the bridge to check on repairs and change the rosters for tomorrow."

"Yes, ma’am," he managed with a self deprecatory grin, as he snuggled down under the blankets. She kept hold of his hand for the few minutes it took him to fall asleep, then took a quick shower. On the way out, she pulled the blankets up over him and dropped a swift kiss on his lips.

"Sleep tight and heal that spirit, my love," and she left before she saw the faint shadow of a smile across his lips.

The bridge was chaos as reports came in from all over the ship of residual damage caused by their excursion into chaotic space, but eventually order was restored and the captain was able to relax a little as she waited for the final repair reports to come in. No one noticed the distraction, but her mind was focused on the man lying naked in her quarters and the revelation which was so new and yet so old in her mind.

As B’Elanna arrived carrying yet another PADD, Kathryn forced her mind back to the business in hand. the rest would have to wait....for now.

~~~~~~~~~~~finis~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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