Warning: Sap alert
Disclaimer: Paramount owns the rights to Star Trek: Voyager. The estates of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II probably own the rights to the show and song.
There was another challenge to write a J/C story based on a sappy contemporary song. I've never done this...and since I'm not into contemporary music, I had to find something I knew. Several songs came to mind--but this song was the only one that had a story accompany it.
"You are kidding?" The tall stately woman asked her partner as the curtain fell. All around them, the humans were standing, applauding and shouting bravo.
"My dear," the gentleman said. "You wanted to learn why I find humans so fascinating. Well...I find their need for emotions interesting."
"I find it sickening. All that wallowing...And the music, it was worse than that Klingon opera I attended with..." She smiled at the memory.
He waved his hand to cut her off. "Klingons see everything so dramatically..."
"It wasn't even real. They were just pretending to wallow in emotion." She snorted slightly as she wrapped her shawl around herself. Her husband took her arm and escorted her out of the theater by snapping his fingers.
They reappeared a few hundred years later on an asteroid far from that busy theater.
"Well?" He asked. "You've had several centuries to think about it. Have you changed your mind?"
"You are impossible. I don't understand why you find humans so fascinating."
"They are so inferior--with a superiority complex you wouldn't believe."
"I will admit they are a curious group. I have noticed among the intellectually inferior species a need for fiction. I have yet to decipher this need for untruths...And love...An emotion that is meaningless and unnecessary."
He shrugged. "An emotion that is found in some form or another in many species."
"You are a sentimental fool. That is why you like humans. And now, you feel the need to go out and help some undeserving couple...Don't bother denying it--I can read you like the proverbial crystal ball." She crossed her arms.
"Dear?" He looked at his feet and smiled. That was exactly what he was planning. He snapped his fingers.
***
Only make believe I love you,
Only make believe that you love me.
Others find peace of mind in pretending--
Couldn't you?
Couldn't I?
Couldn't we?
Make believe our lips are blending
In a phantom kiss, or two or three.
Might as well make believe I love you,
For to tell the truth I do --
***
Chakotay was humming, she realized after several seconds of puzzling over the strange sound. She thought she recognized the tune from last night. Jenny Delaney and Joe Carey had sung it at the talent show. She found herself trying to remember the words and then humming the tune to help her remember. She stopped suddenly--realizing she was humming along with him--and because she remembered the words. She glanced at her console and pretended to be reading it diligently--though she had no idea what it was about; instead her mind was thinking about his mouth, his hands...
"Captain, are you all right?"
She closed her eyes and nodded quickly. She could feel the heat in her cheeks begin. "Fine..."
"You looked a little distracted."
She almost laughed. A little distracted was an understatement. "I was...reading this report." She didn't dare look up at him.
Suddenly his hand covered her console. "What was the report about?" His voice was low, and very close to her ear.
"Ummm...Fuel consumption reports?"
He chuckled as he removed his hand and bent over to see. "Close, but not close enough. It was about the quality of dilithium we mined on Wosh Prime. So, you planning on sharing what you were thinking about?"
She wondered what he would say if she actually told him. "No, commander. My thoughts are my own." She pushed herself out of her chair. "You have the bridge. I'll be in engineering." Distance would be good right about now.
***
We only pretend,
You do not offend
In playing a lover's part.
The game of supposing
Is the sweetest game I know.
Our dreams are more romantic
Than the world we see--
And if the things we dream about
Don't happen to be so,
That's just an unimportant technicality.
***
Her trip to engineering had been quick. Everything was running smoothly. Seven and B'Elanna were working on the Dilithium purification. Even that had been going smoothly: the two women were not about to murder each other. There had been nothing in engineering to distract her from the tune she was again humming. She decided something to eat might solve the problem. Low blood sugar or some other nutritional deficiency was probably the cause.
"Captain, I have some left over..." Neelix started to say as she entered his kitchen.
"I'd like to look through the fridge. I'm not sure exactly what I want."
"Certainly, Captain. I have leftovers from the buffet last night. I even have a few of those fruit tarts you were so fond of." He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "I saved three just for you."
She smiled. The tarts were good--just not what she wanted...She took a sharp breath as she realized what she wanted...or rather whom. "Thank-you, I'll take them to my quarters."
Neelix trotted off to get a container and the tarts: appearing a minute later, his face beaming. "I noticed Commander Chakotay also liked them. Perhaps you can share one with him?"
She was barely able to nod, not sure if she would...would share with him, she added for herself. Her thoughts were definitely traveling to places she didn't want them to go.
***
Though the cold and brutal fact is
You and I have never met.
We need not mind convention's P's and Q's.
If we put our thoughts in practice
We can banish all regret
Imagining most anything we choose.
***
She'd been staring at the three tarts for an hour daydreaming. She would reach for one and stop. It would be so easy to eat them...It would also be so easy to contact him.
Instead her mind wandered back to that instant over four years ago when she'd first seen him...and...
And fallen in love. Up until that day, she'd never believed in love at first sight...Now...
Recently they had started to drift apart. She knew he had seen other women a few times. (Though never anyone from the crew.) She'd hated it--but had maintained her blank facade. But a large part of her hated that he was trying to move on...Didn't want him to.
Her dreams moved to what she wanted him to do--with her. Take her in his arms and pull her close to him--close enough to hear his heart race with the realization she'd finally admitted to him, to her, to the world that she loved him.
***
We could make believe I love you,
We could make believe you love me.
Others find peace of mind in pretending
Couldn't you?
Couldn't I?
Couldn't we?
Make believe our lips our blending
In a phantom kiss -- or -- two -- or three.
Might as well make believe I love you,
For to tell the truth, I do...
***
She woke with a start--and with a creak in her neck from falling asleep at her table. She glanced at the three uneaten tarts, but any thoughts were driven away by the sound that had woken her.
The doorchimes. "Come in," she said as she stood and straightened her uniform.
"Captain," Chakotay said as he entered. "Are you all right?"
"Fine...Just fine." It was very disconcerting to see him so soon after dreaming of him like that. She could feel his eyes on her--like they so often were when they were alone. Then she felt them move away and she let herself look at him. He was smiling and looking at the table.
"Good," he said. "You didn't eat them all."
"What?" She asked with a squeak.
"The tarts. Neelix said you had the last ones...I thought I would liberate them." He lunged toward the table--but she was faster and grabbed his hand before he could capture one.
"Mine..." She exclaimed--not at all sure she was referring to the tarts.
He pouted. "You aren't going to share?" He brought his other hand up to hold her free hand.
"Captain's privilege?" She closed her eyes and fought to maintain a regular breathing pattern.
"That seems unfair." He was whispering now and pulling her closer. "Perhaps I can have something else in exchange for not eating your tarts?"
"What?" She whispered, surprised at how breathless she'd become.
She felt a hand slide up her arm, along her shoulder, her neck to her chin and lift it gently. "Open your eyes Kathryn." His voice was so close. So close she could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek. She opened her eyes slowly and found herself staring into his. There was an imperceptible pause, then he kissed her.
She suspected he had only planned on a quick kiss--but it wasn't. Time slowed as his lips worked their magic; as her arms wrapped around him, pulling him tighter to her.
She pulled back to breathe and to tell him...
"I love you, Chakotay...I have for..." Her words were cut off by his gasp of delight and another kiss. Then he whispered the words she wanted to hear.
"I love you, Kathryn."
#
#
Q found himself back on the asteroid; his wife was still standing there with her arms crossed. "You did it?" She asked.
He nodded, a delighted grin on his face. "Yep, it was easy. The two fools just needed a push to get them together." He held out his hand, which she took. "We should check on our son..."
"He's fine. He had a little difficulty with relativity--but I helped him straighten that out."
"Good, good. How would you like to accompany me to an extravaganza called a rock concert?"
She looked at him strangely. "Is this another human thing? I'd like to pass--maybe we can go another time?"
"Certainly my dear. A movie then?"
She shook her head. "I was thinking of something a little less emotional. Maybe an evening of Vulcan poetry. I was thinking of T'vril's sonnets on logic and reason."
He sighed but agreed. It would be a long four or five hours...
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