I was no longer willing to keep my love a secret - I didn't care who knew it! I began a parade of tokens of my affection for you, filling your ready room to the brim with all the clichés of romantic love. You vociferously expressed displeasure, but your eyes told me that you relished each and every gift.

We fell back into our old habits, but now with a fevered intensity, knowing how suddenly life could disappear. Stolen moments in our ready rooms...

Our lives took on an urgency that we knew would be difficult to quell, even with the best of intentions.

We were in cargo bay two, inventorying Neelix's latest supply acquisitions when I knew something had to be done soon - that we could not keep our love a secret anymore. My mind raced as I tried to make plans... how to get you to understand the necessity for my proposal.

It was almost as if you knew what was on my mind. You invited yourself to my quarters, bringing dinner with you - mushroom soup which you had had Neelix prepare following my favorite recipe. You barely ate any of the dish yourself; your unspoken anticipation brought me as much delight as the delectable dish itself.

Preliminaries out of the way, dishes cleared, it was time for us to discuss our destinies. You shivered with my touch, yet your face - your beautiful face - burned my hand with its fevered fervor. Your eyes pierced my gaze, reading my innermost secrets and desires.

You never hesitated as I took you into my arms, pulling you into my life. I breathed the words as much as said them, hoping that with that action alone you would realize that we were one already: our hearts, our lives, our love - one and the same. We knew it; our crew knew it; now it was time to make it official:

"Kathryn, will you marry me?" I whispered with more confidence than I knew was in me.

"What took you so long to ask?" you smiled back, devouring my lips with yours.

Neither of us remembered how we got there, but we weren't in the living area any more - we had migrated on suddenly sprouted wings and flown into my sleeping area.

You laughed mischievously at my astonishment at seeing a small bag on my bed - unknown to me, you had transported an overnight case into the area earlier!

"I thought all of this was going to be a surprise," I smiled at you.

"A good captain is always prepared," you twinkled back.

You continued to surprise me as you proceeded to undress in front of me - slowly, unembarrassed... as if we did this all the time. I sighed along with the silk of your nightgown as it slid down the smoothness of your body.

As quickly as you had been so certain, you sank into the plushness of the bed with hesitation overtaking your face.

"I don't want you to have any regrets about this," I said, all the while hoping that you wouldn't change your mind.

"Oh, there are no regrets regarding the future, my wonderful Chakotay; I'm sorry that we have let so much time pass us by," you sighed.

We sat in silence for several minutes until you covered my hand with yours, a silent nod and your touch assuring me that there would be no turning back.

"Give me a couple of minutes," I whispered, not wanting to leave you but needing to retrieve something.

When I returned, you were no longer in the bedroom but had slipped out into the living area. I watched in silence as you gazed out into the vastness of star-lit space outside, wondering which was more beautiful: you, standing there... or the rest of the universe.

I walked up to you and took your hand. Neither of us spoke as I placed the ring I had made onto your finger. Three stones sparkled into the night, souvenir gems from around the river on New Earth.

We spent the rest of the night consummating our pact to one another with love and laughter and passion. Intermittent sleep only whetted our appetites for more of each other.

Morning brought the first day of our new lives. Although I was due on duty before you were, I promised to wait for you... so that we might announce our betrothal together.

As the senior staff filed into your ready room for our morning staff meeting, their grins became as big as our own. Our faces must have given everything away without a word being spoken. B'Elanna was the one who couldn't wait.

"Well?" she asked pointedly. "What is it? Something is definitely up with you two!"

We looked at each other and I pulled you close as you said, "Do you think the crew is ready for a husband and wife command team?"

"I would think that the crew expects as much already," Tuvok stated with his typical understatement. "When do you wish me to marry you?"

"Before the next disaster, Commander," I smiled at him.

"Guess we'd better make that today then," grinned Harry.

Next came our general announcement to the rest of the crew, who took the news as casually as an announcement that Tom had a new betting pool running. (Hmm; I wonder who won that particular one...)

Our fellow Voyagers did allow us a brief engagement period - long enough so that they could plan a joyous wedding celebration... and we could locate an M-class planet for a few days honeymoon!

Your hands were cold and they shook as you took my arm; but your face radiated a happiness that I had never seen in you before as we appeared in the decorated mess hall for the ceremony.

It seemed like an old fashioned shivoree as most of the crew turned out at the shuttle bay to see us off to the surface of Nimbra Prime, a beautiful planet that promised us four days to begin our married life together. All kinds of well wishes rang around us as we climbed into the Sacajawea.

"Don't crash the shuttle this time, Commander!"

"Her controls might be a bit harder to handle than the shuttle."

"Hope we don't have to come rescue you!"

The planet was almost as much a paradise as New Earth. We quickly relaxed and rejoiced in our new-found togetherness.

For every tear shed on Voyager, for every hostile word hurled towards one another in the past, smiles and touches healed the breaches and laid a foundation of mutual love for the difficult times we were certain to face in the years ahead. But now was the time to imagine and plan and dream, with no bounds, no rules.

Sun and sand, moonlight and oceans; long walks without concerns of overspending holodeck time or responding to klaxton calls - only ourselves and our private world existed for us. Daytime bathed us in the warmth that only real sunlight can give, and we reveled in its radiant glow.

Nighttime brought its own pleasures, coaxing us into playing lovers' games, leading us in the paths of passion that are as ancient as the stars themselves... letting us learn leisurely the secrets hidden for so long... letting us love each other totally and completely.

Your smooth ivory melded with my tempered bronze, as our bodies became one, creating a new and gleaming entity of spirit and soul. Neither of us believed that such ecstasy could come from simply loving one another, sharing and baring our wants and dreams, letting the universe stand still around us for a brief moment in time.

Our time on Nimbra Prime was over all too quickly, yet we had spent an eternity there - four days and four nights of divine bliss, taking us away from any quadrant in the galaxy, allowing us to be in our own dimension beyond anything humanly known. But duty called and we had to return to the community and small 'world' that had brought us together: Voyager, our family... our home.

And now we are 'home' again, guiding Voyager and her crew as we face the unknowns. But we are so much richer now, knowing that with each other, we can weather whatever comes our way, for you are here, the love of my life - and you will remain beside me in my heart.