Chakotay grinned as she sat down. For three days she had taken almost every opportunity to ask him about what had happened. He knew another question was coming as she leaned back.

"Before you ask, remember the temporal prime directive."

"So you keep reminding me. But can you answer me this--was it the future or the past?"

He thought for several seconds, then shook his head. He knew he could tell her, since almost all their encounters had been in the past--and the one future was now, a future that was not to be. But he did enjoy tormenting her. And for some reason, he knew she was enjoying the hunt for answers.

"If it was the past--that's over and done with."

"Okay, let's see. Chaotica was almost ecstatic."

"Chaotica? Paris's holoprogram? What does he have to do with this?"

Chakotay chuckled. "Can't tell you. And there is no point wheedling."

Her eyes narrowed. "I do not wheedle. Perhaps I need to use stronger methods?"

"And what would Starfleet say? Captain tortures her First Officer?"

"I'll probably be given an award." She smiled. "I've gone over the analysis. There was some sort of chronoton-serum in the gel packs. I would deduce that the bolt of lighting from that nebula induced some sort of temporal anomaly. God, I hate those things."

"Yes, I know. They give you a headache."

"With your name written all over it." He decided to sit down--just to annoy her further.

"Let's just say it was interesting." He grinned and was pleased with the results. She stood quickly and started to pace.

"There are bits and pieces of a dream I keep having. I used to think it was a result of that weird temporal event we encountered three years ago."

Chakotay nodded. The problem with temporal anomalies was so often the only memories were dreamlike. He remembered a dream about a badly damaged Voyager crashing into a ship...He stared at Kathryn as she continued to speak.

"I dream Seven of Nine rescued me from Seska." She shook her head. "Seska was dead well before we met Seven...It's like..." She crossed her arms. "It happened in this screwed up timeline?"

"I can't say." She did know pieces--he wondered what else she remembered. His strongest memory was that moment in engineering just before...

"Commander?"

"Kathryn?" He looked up at her.

"Did you try to fix things?"

"Fix what?"

"I know myself. If I helped you--and I bet I did--I would want to restore things before the Caretaker. Perhaps we could avoid being stuck out here."

"It may not have been an option."

"But it was, wasn't it? Why didn't you?"

He took a deep breath. "Because we've done a lot of good here. Because too many things have happened that we shouldn't try to change. Because too many things still are to happen and should happen. Kathryn, if we weren't here, we wouldn't have rescued Seven, Icheb, Mezoti, the others. The five survivors of the Equinox crew would most likely be dead--and perhaps most importantly, Starfleet would never have had the opportunity or the knowledge to attack the Borg like we just did."

"You're correct," she whispered as she turned to look out the window.

"Kathryn, if you really want to know. I did seek your help, and like you did that first year, you welded together a team to help solve the problem. Borg, Starfleet, Maquis, the future..."

"So, you did get a glimpse of the future."

"It's now a future that won't be," he replied. They were still alive, the anomaly had not shattered the ship. They still had a future. They still had a chance.

"Oh. So you don't know if we got back to the Alpha-Quadrant?"

He shook his head. "The future I saw was created by the temporal anomaly."

"We were dead?"

"Kathryn, don't..."

"That's all right. I'd figured you'd learned that--or something else. I wonder if we died together."

"I don't know--I didn't think to ask." She laughed as she turned to face him. He thought of another question. "What something else?"

"Nothing." She turned away quickly. He smiled at her discomfort as he realized just what she had been thinking.

"Ah, nothing. Hmm. Some nothing. Would it be so bad?"

"No...I mean, what are you talking about?" He stood before she'd finished.

"You asked me just how close we had become."

"I did? What did you reply?"

"I told the truth, but I was considering throwing every damn piece of protocol and temporal directive out the window."

"You were?" She didn't move as he stood beside her.

"I held on to my hope for us. Sometimes it was a struggle--other times, like now, it was easy. Too easy to remember how much..." She turned and placed her hand over his mouth.

"Chakotay, I..." She pulled her hand away. "Why didn't you?"

He stared at her for several seconds in stunned silence, before he moved to wrap his arms around her. "Because, I knew you would not remember, and I want you to remember."

She stepped back with a shy smile. "Chakotay...I..."

He held out his hand, and smiled when she placed hers on his. "We still have time."

"Thank you." She stared at their clasped hands. "I know I haven't made this easy. Things keep happening that make me change my mind--and I really want us to work out."

"I understand. Dinner tonight?"

"Deal, I need to test my replicator."

"You really should have B'Elanna look at it."

She pulled her hand out his, and placed her hands on her hips. "And have *strangers* tinker with my replicator?"

"It beats burning the roast."

"I only did that once." She grinned at him. "I was thinking of something a little less daring. Macaroni and cheese?"

"Definitely less daring."

"My mother's recipe. She makes it from scratch."

"Add her brownies for dessert and you have a date."

#

Chakotay reached out to ring the doorchime and was pleasantly surprised when the door opened. He stopped. The room was dark. "Kathryn?"

"Here," he heard her say. He started to order the lights, but she stopped him. She was sitting on the floor, in front of the pieces to the replicator. She shook her head and laughed as she handed him a bowl. He stared at the slimy mess.

"What is it?"

"Pasta."

He braved sticking his middle finger into the water. There wasn't anything solid. "Really." He placed the bowl on the counter. "Tinkering again?"

"It wasn't hot enough." He reached out and offered her his hand. With a quick pull he had her on her feet, and his arm wrapped round her waist. His free hand clasped over her mouth as he managed to open communications.

"Chakotay to engineering." Kathryn snarled (or giggled) he wasn't sure.

"Torres here. What's up Chakotay?"

"I need you to send someone to the captain's quarters to repair her replicator."

"I..." There was a long pause, before B'Elanna continued. "The captain's replicator?"

"That's correct."

"The one she has tinkered and toyed with for the past seven years?"

"Yes." Kathryn was definitely laughing.

"The one NO ONE is allowed to touch because it is so over modified to be illegal?"

"Kathryn, really?" He didn't dare remove his hand until after he'd finished talking with B'Elanna. "That's correct Lieutenant. It needs to be returned to original specs."

"How did you convince the captain...Never mind, I don't want to know. I'll be there in five minutes."

"Great." He closed the connection then slowly removed his hand from her mouth. "You are going to allow B'Elanna to fix that *grandiose toaster* of yours."

"I don't need her to fix it. I'm perfectly capable."

"Uhuh. Thus the pieces all over the floor--and the slimy bowl of whatever. And a burnt roast, two raw pies, six..."

"All right. I don't need you to recite the list. I'll help..."

"No, you'll do no such thing. We're having dinner in my quarters. I'll use my *regulation* replicator."

"Commander." He pulled her closer as she tried to loosen his arm. "This could be considered mutiny."

"Aye Captain. But I seem to remember something about a replicator that's not regulation." She drooped slightly. He released her. "Dinner?"

She glanced at the parts lying on the floor, then back up at Chakotay. "Very well. Lieutenant Torres will do an adequate job repairing it." She smiled, and Chakotay realized that as soon as B'Elanna finished, Kathryn would *repair* the repairs. "Your replicator won't be able to reproduce the brownies unless I make a few modifications."

"We can have coffee ice cream instead," he said quickly.

"Chicken."

"I can make some other suggestions..." He took her offered hand. Life in the Delta Quadrant definitely had its moments.