Fade to Black by Anne Rose

It had been a long day. Actually, it was day 4 of a long week. Tuvok had decreed that it would be logical to run a series of battle simulations. Kathryn had agreed. It would have been illogical not to. They were traversing an unpopulated sector, and wasting it on trivialities like shore leave would be... "Illogical," she said out loud.

"Now you're starting to talk like him," Chakotay replied.

"I can't believe I agreed to a week of battle drills," she sighed.

Chakotay rolled his eyes. "I believe your exact words, when I advised against it, were, 'We're in this empty sector for at least 3 weeks. It won't hurt to spend one of them improving our combat skills,'" he said with a smirk.

Kathryn groaned. "Well I was wrong. Does that make you happy?" She scowled at him slightly, and then groaned again and rubbed her aching neck. "It hurts quite a lot actually."

"Here, let me get that," he said, moving in behind her and starting to rub her neck.

"Mmmm, that's much better," she moaned, rolling her head forward. "I was doing fine right up until the surprise drill at 3am this morning. I think I wrenched something getting out of bed."

She felt his chest rumble as he laughed silently. "If you weren't fixing my neck, I'd take offense at you laughing at me."

"I had nothing to do with your injury getting out of bed. But if these mysterious getting up in the morning injuries continue, the first officer may have to recommend a series of calisthenics."

"Don't you dare. If you do, I won't be the only one on an exercise program," she retorted.

"Lean forward a bit," he said, starting to work on the rest of her back. "I'm sure we could come up with some sort of co-ed exercise program. Might be a good idea if I was there to supervise your workouts since you seem to be accident-prone lately."

Kathryn laughed, "You'd better be careful, mister. I could get the wrong idea and think you were propositioning me."

Chakotay stopped working on her back and moved around in front of her. Looking at her intently, he asked, "Would that be such a terrible thing, Kathryn?"

She smiled and reached out to touch his face softly. "So far so good." Then she looked away, suddenly acting very interested in something else. "What is this exactly? It smells wonderful."

He let it go for the moment. Their relationship was still new and fragile, and he was afraid of spooking her back into her old ways. "It's an old family recipe. I got it from my grandmother actually."

"And the roses," Kathryn asked, holding up a rose petal.

"There are still some growing in the airponics bay. These were Kes' favorite. I don't think anyone had the heart to remove them."

"I'm sure she would approve of you using them for this. She always was one of your biggest advocates." Kathryn looked wistful for a moment, but then she moved her head and winced again. "I know it's 'illogical' to blame Tuvok for this, but I think the pain is making me irrational," she chuckled.

He nodded. Moving back behind her, he began firmly massaging her sore muscles. "Is that any better?"

"Mmmhmm," she murmured.

He slowly worked his way down her back and then up again. She leaned back into his chest and her head lolled back against his neck as he massaged down her arms ending with her fingers. "This is heaven, Chakotay. Why didn't you ever do this before?"

"As I recall, I offered a few times, but you weren't very... receptive."

Kathryn sighed, "I was an idiot. Can you ever forgive me?"

"Hmmm," Chakotay thought for a moment. "I don't know. You did give me a pretty rough time of it."

Kathryn leaned back further, turning her head slightly and rising up to kiss his cheek. She pulled back slightly and looked at him. "Now do you forgive me?"

Chakotay nodded, and then reached up, took her face in his hands, and kissed her.

Kathryn sighed again as he turned her to face him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "This is nice," she signed, "but the water's getting cold."

"Sounds like a command decision. We could warm it up again, or we could get out of the tub."

"All hands, abandon the tub," she said, in her best command voice, and then blushed when he grinned expectantly. "I just don't want to get pruny," she sputtered.

"No, we wouldn't want that," Chakotay said, rising out of the tub and grabbing a towel. He held it out to her as she got out of the tub.

"Thanks, but I need to shower off. I've got rose petals everywhere," she said, starting to walk past him.

He turned catching her in the towel and scooping her up into his arms. "No, no showering off," he said carrying her into the bedroom.

Kathryn raised an eyebrow as he laid her on the bed. "We're still covered in rose petals," she said, brushing one off his shoulder.

"Uh, uh, uh, Kathryn, that's not the right way to do that," he leaned down and suckled gently on her shoulder, carefully removing one of the petals from her skin. "You see, the rose petals are half the fun of grandma's recipe."

"Your grandmother must have been an interesting woman."

"My grandfather thought so."

He opened the towel that had been wrapped around her, and began searching for the rest of the petals.
 

Fade to black...
 

THE END

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