Disclaimer: Ack. I don't own the characters, Paramount does. I don't make the money - Paramount does. I intend no infringement - have no clue of Paramount does. And oh - the story line is mine, though. :-)

J/C
NC-17
Chapter 4 in a series called 'Love Will Find A Way'.

Summary: Voyager finds themselves in a more than a little turbulent part of space. Janeway and Chakotay is being tossed together - litterally.

Love Will Find A Way

Ó GB

Chapter 4.

The Seventh Wave

She could simply not believe what was happening.

Captain Kathryn Janeway, of the Federation Starship Voyager, a petite, auburn haired woman with a commanding presence that had seen herself and her lost ship through the most violent of quadrants in this galaxy, could only stare in disbelief.

One minute she was taking a bath, reading a good book and treating herself to some nice red wine and then all of a sudden she was tossed out of the tub while the red alert klaxons screamed bloody murder.

Inertial dampeners were off, Voyager was in a tailspin and she was being hurled naked across the floor, along a wall and ended up on the opposite wall after skidding across what usually was the ceiling.

Janeway miraculously had landed right next to her comm badge, which was still pinned to her discarded tunic and slapped it, hard.

“Janeway to bridge, report,” she barked, trying to catch her breath.

“Kim her, Captain. We are caught in a wave of some sort, it is huge and nothing we have ever come across according to sensors. It took us by surprise.”

No kidding, the captain thought, clenching her teeth as she tried to grab to for a handle and was tossed around again, this time ending up back in the tub which of course had been drained of all its water.

“I’m on my way, Harry.” As soon as I find some clothes, she thought dryly.

The ship rolled again, sending her crashing through the door into the bedroom. She landed painfully on the far wall, banging her head.

“Ouch …” she moaned. She carefully touched her temple and seeing the blood on her fingertips made her curse long and hard.

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered. “We have been under so many attacks but this roller coaster ride tops them all. What the hell is going on?”

Her doors hissed open.

“Kathryn? Are you alright?”

Oh, no. Chakotay. Of course, he had to come to her rescue when she was stark naked and bleeding like a decapitated hen. For heaven’s sake …

He rushed into the bedroom and when he was about five feet from her, Voyager decided to tango again, sending her flying right at him, while he staggered back trying to stay on his feet. Chakotay’s face turned from looking anxious to dumbfounded in a second as his captain seemed to fly towards him at warp speed, naked as the day she was born, hitting him in the chest and sending them both tumbling down on to the bed.

Janeway lost her breath again and could only cling to the burly man beneath her. He in turn automatically held her protectively against him, his arms steadily around her back.

“Kathryn, my darling,” he said, sounding exasperatingly cheerful. “If I had known how desperate you were for my … attention, I would have come right away. You know all you have to do is page me.”

She growled at him.

“Commander, this is not funny. Why are you barging in to my quarters like this? Why are you not on the bridge?”

“I was on my way there when I heard you smashing into the wall. It was no doubt it was you and not just a piece of furniture, I could hear you curse. You are wet and cold, were you … of course, stupid question. You were taking one of your marathon baths.” He grinned at her.

“Funny, very funny. I was taking a bath and suddenly the whole darn ship was upside down. The least you could expect of a ship this size is for it to not behave like a class B shuttle.”

She huffed and struggled to get up. Chakotay, lying under her dressed in his uniform, making her feel very vulnerable and very naked, teasingly held on to her but then relented and let her rise.

“You are bleeding!” he exclaimed when he saw the gush on her forehead. “I am sorry, I didn’t see that earlier. We must get you to sick bay.”

“Correction. We will go to the bridge, you can fix me up with the dermal regenerator I have in my ready room.” Janeway was dressing quickly and had already put on her booths and was now attaching her pips as she headed for the door.

“I thought the Doctor had forbidden you to keep your own dermal regenerator,” he asked seriously on their way to the turbo lift.

She shrugged.

“What the good Doctor doesn’t know …”

He sighed.

“He is bound to find out. And you could have a concussion, Kathryn.”

“I am fine!” she stated, glaring at him.

“You always are, aren’t you?” he snapped.

Taken aback a little at his tone of voice, she halted and turned to look at him while they waited for the lift.

“I am sorry, Chakotay,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to sound like that. If you help me with this, I promise I will see the Doctor later and confess. I'll even return the dermal regenerator. I promise.”

Now it was his turn to look surprised. She rarely gave an inch.

“Deal.”

On the bridge, Harry got up from the command chair and took his post at ops when they entered.

Chakotay fetched the medical instrument and healed the captain’s bleeding temple. She smiled at him, more tenderly than she realised, causing several crew members to exchanged meaningful looks across the bridge.

Chakotay couldn’t help but smile back. She looked so utterly innocent and mischievous at the same time and she was absolutely oblivious about it.

“Mr Kim, report,” she said, her command voice and mask back in place.

“The first wave hit us and that was big, the second was half its strength, but lasted longer. Now that external sensors know what to scan for, Seven predicts that we will be hit four more times and right now there is no way we can escape it. We are pretty much dead in the water, Captain, warp engines are off line and that goes for the impulse drive too. We do have thrusters. B’Elanna is working on it, but if we don’t have the warp drive back online in time, we are not going to be able to avoid the waves. Thrusters won’t take us out of reach.”

Janeway sighed.

“Damage?”

Chakotay checked his console.

“Minor casualties, one broken arm, several concussions and sprained appendages. Transporters are down, internal sensors are down and there is a water leakage on deck three and ten. Other than that, we seem to have come out okay.”

“Send repair teams. Bridge to sick bay, report.” Janeway tried to not look at her first officer who smirked at her when reporting the water leak on deck three. That would be hers.

“Doctor here. Minor injuries, everybody will be able to return to duty immediately, except Ensign Wildman, she has a complex fracture which I am setting now.”

“Will she be alright?”

“Yes, Captain. She will need to keep it in a sling for a day or two, but she should be back to normal then.”

“Good. Janeway out.”

Janeway rose and walked over to Harry.

“How long do we have until the next set of waves hit?”

He consulted his calculations.

“A little more than four hours, Captain.”

The captain glanced over at Chakotay.

“I’ll take a trip down to sick bay and check on Samantha and then I’ll be in engineering.”

“Aye, captain. Don’t forget this,” he added politely and handed her the dermal regenerator.

She was in Jeffrey’s tube eleven and had been on her hands and knees in there for a long time.

Janeway rubbed her cheek, unknowingly adding to the grime already sitting there. She had been changing blown conduits and her body was aching from the strain the uncomfortable way of working. Lying on her back she grabbed the toolbox searching for a tricorder.

“Looking for this?”

Janeway jolted and almost hit her head when a soft voice spoke close to her ear.

“Chakotay! Now you're doing it again,” she accused. “Do you have your heart set on being tossed out an airlock, Commander?”

“Only if you jump out too.” He grinned at her and handed her the tricorder.

She scanned the area above her.

“Why are you here? I would think there were enough tasks to be performed here too keep you busy enough.”

“There are, but there are also only ten minutes until the next wave and being trapped in here when it hit is not a good thing.”

She glared at him.

“It can’t possibly be time already?”

He nodded. “Yes. Fix that quickly, we’re getting out of here.”

Janeway rolled her eyes and went to work. Attaching the new conduit she rolled over on all four, starting to crawl to the exit. Chakotay was right behind her.

“Nice view,” he said.

“What?”

“I said, nice view, Kathryn,” he repeated calmly.

“That is out of line, Commander. We are on duty as you might recall,” she huffed.

“I know we are on duty, but I am not blind.”

She smirked. He was such a tease and she was not going to go along with it. “Does ‘conduct unbecoming an officer’ ring a bell?”

“No. I always conduct myself beyond reproach,” he laughed. “Come on, darling. It is just the two of us here.”

Janeway stopped so suddenly; he couldn’t avoid ramming her bottom.

“You can’t call me darling, not even in here. What if …”

“ … someone heard me. Yes, that would be a disaster, wouldn’t it? Some unknown crewmember crawling around in a Jeffrey’s tube on his spare time and overhearing an heated conversation where the first officer calls his captain ‘darling’. We’d have to kill him and hide the body or go into the escape pods for the shame involved.”

Janeway groaned and began crawling again. Reaching the hatch she opened it and just as she did, the wave hit and it hit hard. Both of them were tossed out of the tube like cannon balls, flew several metres and ended up in a heap in the middle of engineering.

The rest of the crew present were bracing themselves for all they were worth and could only stare at the command team as they were hurled along the floor again. This time Chakotay had a firm grip around the captain and they rolled several turns until a slender arm reached out and grabbed a railing, stopping them only a couple of inches from B’Elanna Torres’ left boot.

Voyager rolled and stomped, the red alert klaxon’s screamed and the hull itself seemed to whine in agony. The wave lasted for three long minutes and when it mellowed down, there was an eerie silence that not even the klaxons could shatter.

Janeway found herself clinging to Chakotay in a way that was certainly not very captain like. Her arms were around his neck and her face was buried against his neck.

“You two look cosy,” B’Elanna Torres said dryly as she collapsed on the floor next to them. “One would think that there were something more to the rumours than just … rumours.”

Janeway carefully released the chuckling man she was pinning to the floor.

“Well, I had to rescue him, hadn’t I?” she drawled. “He just wouldn’t sit still.”

B’Elanna laughed. “Alright, Captain, I get it. No nosy comments. Well, don’t worry, your secret is safe with the entire engineering crew.”

The captain blinked and took a look around. The crew was getting back on their feet, brushing themselves off and trying really hard to hide their smirks. This was probably the same as making a ship wide announcement, she thought and closed her eyes briefly.

“Janeway to the bridge. Report,” she barked after slapping her comm badge.

“No casualties, micro hull fractures on deck eleven and twelve. Neelix reports there will be no dinner served in the mess hall. Fortunately we still have replicators.”

“Thank you, Harry. Janeway out.”

This was going to be a long day.

The bridge was almost empty.

Tom Paris was at the helm and an ensign from the gamma shift was at ops. Chakotay had the conn and Janeway was in her ready room, reading repair reports.

“Kim to bridge. We should have the enhanced shields online as well as impulse.”

“Acknowledged. Good job, Harry.”

“I am just the handyman here, Commander. B’Elanna is the miracle worker.”

Chakotay smiled. “I see. How are the inertial dampeners coming along?”

“Still working on them.”

“Keep it up, Harry. Chakotay out.”

He leaned back and rubbed his tired eyes. He had not slept for over eighteen hours. They had been hit by two more waves since he and Kathryn had gone back from engineering and he was worried about her. She had not sustained a concussion, the Doctor had reassured them, but she had been pale when he had replicated them both some dinner. She had not had much of an appetite, she only lit up when he brought her a much longed for mug of coffee.

“Commander Chakotay, report to the ready room.”

That throaty, beloved voice, now sounding absolutely fatigued to the bone. He got up immediately and crossed the bridge in long strides.

“You have the bridge, Tom.”

“Aye, sir.”

The door opened for him and he entered, expecting her to sit at her desk. Instead she was slumped back on the couch, her eyes closed and a slightly trembling hand placed on her forehead.

He climbed the stairs quickly, worried to see her give in to any form of physical weakness like this.

“Kathryn? Do you have a headache? Shall I alert sick bay?”

She smiled weakly. “Stand down the red alert, Commander. I'm fine, just very tired and I do have a little headache, but nothing I can’t handle. I just needed to see you. There is nothing going on at the bridge, is there?”

He smiled, relieved, and sat down next to her on the couch. He eased her over and then pulled her into his arms, half resting against his chest, her head on his shoulder.

“For being in such a turbulent part of space, it is really calm between the waves,” he said dryly. “We have two hours before the last wave, as far as Harry and Seven can pinpoint it.”

“Two hours, that’s a relief. I think I’ll take a nap, darling. Will you sit here until I fall asleep?”

Her question took him by surprise. He knew she needed him more than she would ever let on and this open admission was something completely new. She must be worse off than she admitted.

“No, Chakotay. I really just have this little headache.", she read his mind, smiling faintly. " I just need you to hold me for a couple of minutes until it goes away. I promise,”

“Just sleep, Kathryn,” Chakotay said huskily. “I will sit here.”

“Thanks.”

She dosed off right away. Her face softened and she sunk deeper into his chest, inhaling his scent in her sleep.

Chakotay managed to get his hand beneath her relaxes body and tap his comm badge.

“Chakotay to Tom.”

“Tom here, go ahead.”

“Everything alright out there?”

“Yes, we are moving slowly at a quarter impulse, if it were any calmer I’d be bored to tears.”

Chakotay grinned.

“I’ll be in here for a while, can you mind the store. Just hail me if you need help.”

There was a moment’s silence. “Acknowledged.”

The dark man looked down on the small woman in his arms. She looked so frail, so delicate in her sleep. Her formidable aura was what made her seem invincible and indestructible when she captained this vessel. Only when her guard was down and she was unconscious or asleep, did she come across as the fragile woman she was. She was a complex person, she drove him crazy sometimes, but he also knew that after meeting her, holding her, there could never be anyone else.

She shifted a little and he took advantage of her restless movements and slid down next to her and pulled her close. He was tired too and resting like this next to her was pure heaven.

It only took him about two minutes to fall asleep.

“Paris to Commander Chakotay.”

“Mm? Go ahead.”

“We expect the next wave to hit in ten minutes, please report to the bridge.”

Chakotay got up on his elbow and looked down on a yawning Kathryn Janeway stretching and trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.

“Goodness, how long have I … or should I say; we, slept?”

“Nearly two hours. We needed it. The last wave is coming and we will need all our strength to get through the repairs that no doubt will be next on the agenda.”

She stood up and straightened her wrinkled uniform. “I guess there is no point in recycling this and trying to look according to protocol. We will have to go crawling in Jeffrey’s tubes soon enough.”

They stepped on to the bridge and sat down in the command chairs, bracing themselves for the next wave.

“Here it comes,” Tom warned and grabbed the helm with both hands.

“All hands, brace for impact,” Janeway issued the warning over the comm system and then the wave hit.

She felt herself being tossed around like a snowflake in a storm. Relentless, the largest wave so far had Voyager in its grip, shaking it, making it roll and go into tailspin after tailspin. The klaxon’s screamed and then suddenly it all stopped.

Chakotay looked up from the floor. He had been thrown out of his chair during the last roll and now he gazed up trying to locate Kathryn.

She wasn’t in her chair. He quickly stood up, helping Tom Paris to get on his feet, noticing a small cut on the younger mans lower lip.”

“Kathryn!” he called. “Kathryn!”

No answer and he couldn’t see her anywhere. A console exploded in a burst of sparks.

“Damn it, Kathryn, answer me!”

He raced up the stairs to tactical, to see if she had been hurled all the way over there.

“Kathryn!”

“For heaven’s sake, don’t scream. I’m here,” Janeway said and pulled herself up behind the ops station at the same time helping the young ensign who looked thoroughly dazed. “I tried to answer you the first time, but you just kept shouting,” she muttered.

Chakotay smiled. If she was able to sound so annoyed she was probably not injured. But he couldn’t for his life figure out how she could have been tossed all the way over there, practically over his head.

“Are you alright?” he asked and couldn’t keep smiling.

“Yes. Wipe that grin off your face and give me a damage report. Tom, are we clear of this roller coaster area now?”

“Yes, we made it. That was the last of them.”

“Hull breach on deck eleven and twelve. Two minor casualties and several blown conduits all over the ship. More micro fractures around the shuttle bay launch area. Impulse engines are off line but we have thrusters,” Chakotay reported.

Janeway sighed. “Well, let’s go to work. Tom you have the bridge.” She tapped her comm badge. “Beta shift to the bridge immediately.”

She glanced at Chakotay.

“Our Jeffrey’s tubes are awaiting us. Shall we?”

He winked at her, nodding eagerly. Rolling her eyes she walked ahead of him to the elevator.

The sound of splashing of water was the heard in the dimly lit bathroom.

A soft, foamy cloth was dragged along aching muscles and eliciting a groan of approval from the beneficiary of such tender ministrations.

“Oh, that's heavenly, Commander …”

The cloth slowly moved along her arms, around her neck and then down her chest. Her nipples stiffened at the loving touch and a husky laughter emerged from the captain.

“Oh, you devil. You know I am too tired to do anything about such feelings.”

“Mm? What feelings are those, Kathryn?”

The cloth was pushed even further down, making circles on her stomach, occasionally dipping down and just briefly touching even more sensitive areas.

“Oh, those kinds if feelings,” she moaned. “You just don’t ask for permission, do you?”

He laughed and let go of the cloth. His warm, gentle hands reached between her thighs, pulling them apart.

Feeling very vulnerable and not knowing where to hide her face to keep him from watching her blush, she could only drag down his mouth to meet hers.

His lips parted her trembling ones and his tender tongue caressed hers, making her squirm. She wanted nothing else but to taste him, to have him hold her in her bathtub. She had suggested he would join her in her quarters and after their replicated dinner they had ended up in the tub, trying to soothe both their aching muscles. He was sitting behind her and she felt infinitely safe.

His fingers were getting very close to driving her out of her mind, caressing her inner thighs, her stomach but not really touching her where she ached to be touched. She was trembling in his arms by now.

He let go of her mouth and pushed her sideways, to be able to see her.

“You are beautiful,” he stated. “You are soft, alluring and I haven't been able to think about anything but your naked body since you landed on me yesterday. I want to make love to you. Will you allow me?”

Janeway nodded. She was ready; surely he must feel that?

“Here?” she asked in a low, sultry voice.

“Why not?” he agreed.

He lifted her up and repositioned them. Now facing him, she straddled his thighs, crossing her feet behind him. She could feel his arousal against her and nervously she cleared her throat.

“I … well, you know, I haven’t … not actually … it's been a while ...” Her voice betrayed her and she exasperatedly closed her eyes.

“Kathryn? I know.” A strong arm raised her a little and then his fingers carefully examined her slick folds, felt the copious amounts of moisture there, easily distinguishable from the water. He rubbed her in slow, maddening movements, spreading the hot moisture all over her. When he reached the hard little ridge and gently rolled it between his fingers, she cried out, shuddering. “I think you're ready, darling,” he said in a choked, strained voice. "You are ready for me. Come on, let me help you, let me ... " He was the one trembling now.

She nodded and closing her eyes to savour the moment she adjusted his erection and slowly let her body surround him, burying him inside her. He was large, but she found she could accommodate him.

“Oh, Kathryn, for God’s sake, don’t move …” he breathed, hugging her feverishly. “I … this is too good, too wonderful …” He was almost incoherent and she relented, sat still and watched him with half lidded eyes.

He slowly started to move, lifting her a little and then pinning her down again. She trembled and the feeling of being filled by him, his smooth skin under her fingers, her breasts filling his hands as they moved to the small but full mounds of flesh, teasing the nipples, pinching them.

Her rhythm increased and she started gasping for air when the urge unexpectedly took her on a flight she had not taken in a long time.

When a new wave hit her, she knew that this wave would not harm her; it would only give her pleasure. It rolled over her, over and over and the sight of a completely uninhibited Kathryn Janeway coming with abandon in his arms, filled by his body and crying his name was more than the first officer could bear. He clenched his teeth, breathed her name and then it was his turn to take off, to surf that wave as he was scattered in millions of little glittering pieces.

The inertial dampeners must be off line again, Kathryn Janeway thought dreamily, trying to wake up. Opening her eyes she realised that her first officer carrying her across the bedroom and gently lowering her down on the bed was causing the rocking motion.

He got in next to her and pulled the covers up, tucking her in, her head on his shoulder.

“Is everything alright?” she asked and yawned.

“Everything is just fine,” he answered and pulled her close.

“And Voyager?”

“Voyager is on a course for the Alpha quadrant.”

She smiled, kissed him on the shoulder and went back to sleep.