Together
By Coral
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine although the story is.
The 'original' version of this story has been kicking around in my English file for years (well, about 1!), ever since I wrote it as the beginning of a story where (guess what?) the crew finally got home! You wouldn't believe how many of these I've started and never finished! The original one was slightly longer, and had the crew returning to their families, until I found that I had half a crew left with nothing to do with them. I managed to fob B’Elanna off with Tom and family, but what on Earth was I going to do with Neelix (a very nice character who deserved better!) and Seven? Not to mention…
Oh, well. On with the story.
Captain Kathryn Janeway stared out of the Ready room window for the last time. The ship around her, her ship, was practically deserted for the first time since before she'd left dry-dock. The only people still onboard were her senior staff.
Senior staff, huh? In the past fifty years, they'd become more than her senior staff - they were her friends and family. Even the Doctor, a hologram with a bad attitude, had mellowed and become a part of their family on Voyager. As they'd neared Earth, he had become nervous as to what awaited a 50-year out-of-date EMH program.
Another worry had been Seven. Assimilated at a young age and raised by the Borg, she had gradually discovered her niche in Voyager's collective and the crew had largely forgotten Seven's upbringing as a Borg drone. Others might not see it that way though, especially those who had lost friends and family to the Borg.
The doorchime jerked Janeway out of her reverie. "Come," she called, and the door slid open to reveal Chakotay, her First Officer for fifty years - talk about a dead-in-the-water career - but no longer the dark-haired handsome rebel he had once been. He, like herself, had turned grey many a year ago but it suited him.
Coming up beside her and looking over her shoulder, he looked at the PADD she held in her hands. He recognised the picture. Taken about 2 years and six months into their journey, after Neelix's first Talent Night, it was the oldest crew picture in the database.
"Remember it?" she asked quietly.
"How could I forget?" Chakotay asked affectionately. The next day, Kathryn had nearly died, and given him one of the worst scares he had ever had. That brush with death had shocked him into making it clear to her how he felt, but he promised to give her time… "We were a lot younger then, weren't we?" he said laughingly.
Kathryn smiled a half-smile in response. "Let's get down to the mess hall," she suggested. Chakotay nodded his agreement and she took one last lingering look at the PADD before deactivating it.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Down in the mess hall, staring at a whole wall of holopictures taken at various times along the fifty-year voyage, Neelix was also thinking back over their journey. This crew had become his family since they'd welcomed him and Kes aboard, and Neelix loved them almost as much as he'd loved his own family, brutally slaughtered by the Metreon Cascade during a war on his homeworld. His eyes came to light on his favourite picture, taken about a year ago, after he'd rediscovered his luau program on the holodeck. They'd just managed to make contact with a Federation Starship, and a month later the first of the crewmembers had started to leave. Right next to his favourite picture was the oldest one, taken after his first Talent Night. The differences between the two were distinctive, but in both, the crew were happy and smiling. He liked happy people. Lifting the crew's spirits had been the main part of his job on Voyager, and he knew he'd performed to the best of his ability. He looked again at the pictures. The newest had an abundance of grey hair and old faces, interspersed with children and young adults who had never seen the planets of their parents' origin.
Lost in his memories, Neelix didn't notice Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay enter until Chakotay cleared his throat.
"Hello, commander," said Neelix, "Would you like some Leola Root Stew?"
Chakotay good-naturedly made a face - the bitter Leola Root had become something of a joke aboard Voyager, especially since they had been announced on one of Tom's 'Top Ten' lists as the least used replicator pattern - followed closely by Gagh. Janeway walked over to Neelix's side and placed a hand on his shoulder. She looked at the pictures, finally finding her favourite picture, the one taken at Chakotay's 60th birthday party. She'd appropriated Neelix's mess hall and, with B'Elanna's help, transformed the room into a traditional birthday party room with streamers and balloons. Despite the fact that it had depleted many an officer's replicator ration account, not least her own, it had all been worth it for the look on Chakotay's face when he'd beamed in expecting a planet's surface.
"We've had some wonderful times here. In some ways… I'm sorry they're over," she sighed. If she'd heard herself say that at the beginning of their journey, she wouldn't have believed her ears.
"We've lived on Voyager for more than half our lives. Waking up tomorrow and not being here will be - odd," Chakotay agreed as the doors hissed open and the remainder of the senior staff joined them. They came over and joined the trio, who were now deep in the realm of reminiscence.
Kathryn stared out at the blue-green globe beneath them and the starscape behind it. "I always imagined what it would be like to get back, but somehow it doesn't feel the way I expected."
"I never thought we'd get home when I was first activated," the Doctor interjected. "You couldn't work together, you argued, you rebelled against authority -"
"I think you've made your point Doctor," Janeway interrupted, not as annoyed at the statement as she could have been, for she recognised the affection in the Doctor's words, "but that was a long time ago. We've changed, grown and come together as a family. And I'm proud of you all." Suddenly, she felt inexplicably awkward in front of them, knowing what she wanted to see but finding herself unable to articulate it.
Tuvok sensed her unease. "All parts of the ship are secure, Captain."
"The transporter technician is standing by to beam us back," Chakotay added, sensing her discomfort at being speechless for once.
She gave him a grateful smile. "Understood. Well, I think we're ready when they are."
Chakotay had a momentary flash of worry as Tuvok called for transport. They had fifty years to catch up on and he wasn't sure how he, an old man now, would cope.
In the moment before the transporter beam caught them, Kathryn - his Kathryn, not the Captain - caught his hand and smiled at him. In that instant, he knew how he would cope.
They would cope together.
END