Time Stands Still

By Clara

Summary: 20 years on…

Disclaimer: They’re not mine

Rating: G

Category: Future, Romance

Archive: Anywhere, just let me know.

Author’s notes: *watches those who know her collapse* yes, after nearly a year I’ve managed to finish a ‘normal’ non Chak death fic… shocking.

Dedication: Thanks to Naaz and Jadie for listening to me on MSN while I wrote this and also thanks to Jadie for beta-ing and the title.

*** 

Kathryn Janeway grinned as she lowered herself into the Captains Chair of the Starship Voyager. It had been 20 years since she and her crew had arrived back in the Alpha Quadrant and almost as long since she had sat in this chair. 

Still grinning, she closed her eyes and let the memories wash over her, there were so many from those seven years she would treasure, Naomi Wildman’s birth, Tom and B’Elanna’s marriage and the subsequent birth of Miral… and of course, the day Chakotay had set them down in San Francisco.

 Opening her eyes, Kathryn looked down and ran her hands along the armrests, there was no doubt about it, she missed Voyager. It wasn’t that her life since as an Admiral wasn’t enjoyable.

 But sometimes she missed waking up and knowing that she was going to spend the day with the people who had become like her family.

 Standing, she circled the bridge, running her hands along the Ops consol, smiling as images of an eager young ensign surfaced. Kathryn knew he should have received a promotion long before they reached earth, but it had always been one of those things she put off. An acceptance that Harry was no longer the young excitable ensign from the day they were first thrown into the Delta Quadrant would have affirmed that they had been lost for longer than she liked to think about.

 Turning, she walked over to the conn station and lowered herself into what was once Tom Paris’ seat. Grinning again to herself, she looked up into the view screen which still dominated the wall ahead of her, giving a wonderful view of the Park in San Francisco where it now served as a museum, something which Kathryn was undeniably grateful for; she didn’t think she could stand the idea of Voyager being destroyed.  

The sound of the tubo life doors opening and quite footsteps on the carpet bought her out of her reverie. She smiled again as his hands came to rest on her shoulders.

 “How does it feel to be back?”

 She looked up at him and smiled slightly before allowing Chakotay to pull her up. “Like coming home again.”