By:AW

Published in Unicorn Press. Editor: Nancy Border & Pat
Hayden.

You can buy it from Unicorn Press @
http://members.aol.com/UnicrnPrs/press.htm

Disclaimer: You know it, I know it, I don’t own idea
of Star Trek: Voyager. I just own the story.

Date With Destiny I

13. A Journey Fulfilled

Tom and B’Elanna looked at their daughter. Harry had never been so much trouble. They had spent more time worrying about Kathryn in her brief existence than they had, and still did worry about Harry. For some reason, Kathryn appeared so fragile. At first, they had thought that it was just her personality, her nature. She was now eight months old, but she still did not crawl and she refused to make the baby sounds that children at that age made. Kathryn Paris was an enigma, a mystery to all.

“I don’t know Tom. She seems to know things. She seems intelligent…but for some reason…I don’t know. I’ve never known…but we didn’t have trouble like this with Harry.” B’Elanna was getting hysterical. The thought of losing a child, doing wrong by her daughter, was haunting her every waking moment.

Tom took B’Elanna into his arms. “I don’t know B’Elanna, but everything happens for a reason, and we have to believe that whatever is happening to Kathryn is happening for a reason too.” He pulled his wife away from him for a moment. “We’ll take her back to the doctor tomorrow.”

B’Elanna looked up tears in her eyes. “I hope everything is Tom. We’ve lost too many people, and if we lost Kathryn…” The tears started anew.

“I know B’Elanna. I know.” Tom wiped the tears from his wife’s eyes and prayed everything would be okay. For he was not sure B’Elanna could deal with the loss of her baby girl…her Kathryn.

/\/\

Kathryn searched and searched. Somewhere along the way she had gained a new purpose and a new sense of strength. The war was now over, and she knew where he was. All she had to do now was get to him. So she traveled, so she went on, someday…

/\/\

Six weeks later, Tom and B’Elanna had still seen no change in Kathryn. They were sitting by the fireplace. Tom was lost in thought while B’Elanna wept silent tears. This was becoming a ritual. Every time B’Elanna looked at Kathryn, she sensed intelligence, but she sensed something more too, there was something they were missing, something important.

Tom was growing cold and distant, but inside he suffered. He had always dreamed of having a daughter. Since he had met and eventually married B’Elanna he had dreamt of a precious little girl with his wife’s stunning looks and faint, but distinctive and endearing forehead ridges. He had been hiding it. Hiding his worry and concern for his wife and daughter.

His daughter: barely ten months old, and his wife, seemingly grieving for his daughter, suffering for the loss of a child still living is his world. He had always felt a woman had an intuition when it came to her children and he feared, B’Elanna’s fears for little Kathryn, their blond savior would come true.

Tom looked to his wife, he was angry, he was upset…he needed to get out for a while. “B’Elanna, I’m going for a walk will you be okay for a bit by yourself?”

She stared at him, fear in her eyes. “Yeah Tom, hurry back soon.” She looked to him. “I love you.” Tom nodded and kissed his wife’s forehead and left before she could see the tears welling up in his eyes. He quickly escaped their house and ran all the way to Starfleet headquarters. He spent the next two hours beating a punching bag. Taking his frustrations out, beating until his hands bled and he had no one left to punish and nothing left to think. Until he had nothing but thoughts of sleep and of his daughter Kathryn Paris.

He leaned against the wall, his head falling in his hands, flesh shredded to a pulp. Kathryn…I’m sorry. Tom felt hopeless. This was something he could neither control nor fix. It just was.

He finally succumbed to the exhaustion and proceeded home. He walked into his house, the lights off and the sounds of the day quieted. He walked through his living room and then his eye caught a silhouette in the shadows. “B’Elanna?”

She shifted. He walked up to her and touched her shoulder. She started and looked directly at him. “Tom?” She jumped up and wrapped him in her arms. She felt something warm on his back. She pulled away from him for a moment and stared at his hands. “Tom, what did you do to yourself? To your hands?” she saw the tears welling in his eyes. “Tom…we need to talk about this.”

He breathed in, taking in her scent, absorbing her strength. “I can’t lose her B’Elanna.”

She pulled him to her again. “I know Tom, we can’t and we won’t.” She pulled out the dermal regenerator. “Let’s fix you up and our life will be just fine. It has to be. For you, for me and for little Kathryn.”

B’Elanna fixed Tom up and led him to bed. They made love that night for the first time in a very long time. Since the troubles with their ten month old daughter had begun. The hope that the end of the journey would not be for a long time to come.

Not two weeks after that dreadful and self-destructive night, Tom’s fears were unresolved but for the moment put at bay. It was late evening and
B’Elanna was feeding the kids. They heard a knock at the door. Tom got up to answer the summons. When the door opened, they saw someone they had never expected to see again. It was like an omen coming in from the night. Kathryn Janeway stood in the doorway, a grin on her face. “Tom, B’Elanna…it’s been a long time.”

Tom stared at her a stunned look on his face. “Kathryn.” He was at a loss for words, and he was shocked to say the least. “Where have you been? Did you find him? Where is he?”

Kathryn cut him off. “I found out where he was. I went to the outpost where he had been stationed.” All of a sudden her face hardened. She looked into his baby blue eyes and innocent features. “Did you hear about Harry?” At his questioning look her face softened and showed a glimpse of the woman they rarely saw. “He died about a year ago.”

Tom felt tears sting his eyes. He needed to know. “How?” Tom looked in his former Captain’s eyes and saw the answers. He didn’t need for her to say it…he thought he didn’t anyway, but he couldn’t live with the knowledge unless he was sure. “He killed himself.” More a statement than a question.

Kathryn felt the pent up emotions of the last three years surfacing; anger, sorrow, happiness…all at once. She made a barely perceptible nod of her head. “Yes.”

Tom didn’t need to now anymore, but Kathryn needed to say it. She needed to tell someone all that she had found. “They said the strain was just too much for him Tom. You know…Harry lived the pain of ten lifetimes in the years he was on this earth. Maybe he finally found peace; we have to believe he did.” She enveloped Tom in a hug and comforted him like a child who was lost in the world. She let him cry until she was sure he had no tears left to shed, then she took a step back. “You have to tell B’Elanna, I wouldn’t feel right doing it.”

He thought about it. “I have to watch the children, Kathryn. We can’t leave then alone.”

She smiled a genuine smile. Tom hadn’t seen in far too long. “I’ll watch them for you, but first I have to know. Have you seen or heard from Chakotay? I was told he was heading for Earth.”

“No, I haven’t, but I’m willing to bet that if he had headed for Earth, he was coming for you.”

She nodded, she had known all along, but had needed someone else to confirm that they had seen the love the two of them shared. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment. I have to contact my mother. Just in case. You go tell B’Elanna. You two need to talk while I made the call, then I’ll take over with the children for a couple of hours. Okay?”

Tom just nodded and somewhat numbly walked away.

Kathryn went into the next room and used the Paris’ console to contact her mother. Her mother answered looking a little worse for wear, and Kathryn realized she hadn’t told her mother anything, and she was probably worried sick about Kathryn.

“Kathryn? Is it really you?”

Kathryn saw the tears streaming down her mother’s face. “Yes, mom, it’s me. I’ll be home soon, but I need you to do something for me?”

Gretchen looked wearily at Kathryn. “What?”

Kathryn drew up all her strength and courage. “If a man comes by the house…Chakotay, my former first officer. I need you to let him in and, I need you to tell him I’m here.” Kathryn transmitted the coordinates of Tom and B’Elanna’s house.

Gretchen looked up at Kathryn. “I don’t know what he looks like? Why can’t you just come home?”

“Mom, I need to do this. If you want to see what he looks like, there’s a picture of us, on the inside cover of my journal…the one I keep under my pillow. It’s always been there.” She looked up at her mother, a pleading look in her eyes. “Please mom. I really need to do this.”

Gretchen would never really deny her daughter anything. “Alright my little goldenbird, but be careful, and come home soon.”

“If everything works out, I’ll be home before you know it.”

She shut down the monitor and walked out into the living area. B’Elanna approached with her namesake and passed Kathryn to her.

“Here, Kathryn. Tom said it should take too long.”

“It’s alright B’Elanna, I enjoy children. I guess it was just never in the cards for me.”

B’Elanna gave her a sad smile and left the room.

/\/\

Gretchen Janeway went into her daughter’s room and looked for her journal. She found it right where Kathryn had said it would be. It shouldn’t really have
surprised her. Kathryn was a complete control and neat freak. She pulled the picture out, and stared at her daughter and this man…and all of a sudden everything made sense.

The picture was of Kathryn and Chakotay sitting on the grass. It was sunny and Kathryn was wearing an emerald green dress. Gretchen noticed Kathryn wasn’t wearing any shoes, and the look on Kathryn’s face spoke volumes. All of sudden everything made sense because Kathryn was in love…and love has no boundaries.

/\/\

Kathryn held the little girl in her hands. She was so quiet. She never remembered Phoebe being this passive, and from her parents’ description, she hadn’t been like this either. She looked into the blue depths and noticed something funny. Kathryn brought her hand up in from of the child’s face. She waved her hands back and forth; her eyes did not follow. She knew the
reason for the child’s problem. Kathryn wasn’t slow, or sick…little Kathryn Paris was blind to the world.

/\/\

Chakotay had been to Dorvan V; he had had to visit home before he went in search of Kathryn. He had been informed that his mother had passed on. She had not died a bloody death, as had many in the war; she had died peacefully of natural causes at the age of 76. It was not old for this day and age, but she had died peacefully and that was a god sent.

He had reacquainted himself with his family, and then had gone in search of his life force, his livelihood…his Kathryn.

So he departed to fulfill his destiny.

/\/\

Gretchen let out a little prayer that someone was watching out for her daughter’s happiness…after all the years of pain and sorrow…she deserved it.

/\/\

Kathryn waited for Tom and B’Elanna to return. This was probably one of the hardest thing either one of them had ever had to deal with. She remembered her initial reaction to Harry’s death, and the way he had died. She remembered the life she had lived, and the deaths she had suffered through. She remembered her reactions, she remembered her pain, she remembered…

Tom finally finished his discussion with B’Elanna. She had taken it hard. She had cried for what felt like hours, in had only been about 35 minutes. They
had sat for hours, just sitting and thinking. Absorbing everything. Then finally, when they felt like their defenses had been rebuilt enough, they went to check on Kathryn, and how she was doing with the baby.

They walked out to their living room and saw Kathryn holding the child as if she were her own. There was something wrong though, she was subdued…something just wasn’t right.

Kathryn raised her blue eyes up to look at Tom and B’Elanna. She knew they saw sorrow in her eyes.

“Tom, B’Elanna…I need to speak to you both.”

They approached, Tom watched as Kathryn waved a hand above the baby’s eyes. Kathryn watched horrified as the child’s eyes stayed motionless refusing to follow the movement of her hand.

“My god, B’Elanna…she’s blind.”

TBC in Chapter 14. The Beginning of the End

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