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“Hey, get back here!” Kathryn shouted.
She saw a glimpse of the dark brown hair as the troublesome girl flew past her, black marker in hand.
“Elizabeth Janeway, if you do not hand me that marker right now there will be no dessert for a week!”
“No! My marker!” the child yelled on her way up the stairs.
Kathryn huffed in frustration, getting up from the couch to chase her daughter up the steps. B’Elanna hadn’t been kidding about the troublesome two’s but that stage had seemed to last a bit longer than with Miral. Elizabeth was nearly four and still enjoyed torturing her parents almost as much as playing with her dolls.
Kathryn reached the top of the stairs and before she could even catch her breath, she heard a door slam and lock.
“Oh no..no she did not,” she muttered.
She walked over to the door and knocked.
“Elizabeth Sekaya Janeway if you do not open this door right this instant I swear to you there will be severe consequences,”
After a few seconds of silence, the door opened just a crack and the young girl stuck her hand out to give her mother the marker.
“Come out here young lady, we need to have a discussion,” Kathryn said, placing her hands on her hips.
Slowly the door opened all the way and Kathryn had to stifle her laughter at the girl's appearance.
“What did you do to your face?” she asked.
Suddenly the girl's expression faded from content to saddened and a few tears managed to escape.
“Oh, honey come here,”
She kneeled and opened her arms wide to embrace her daughter.
Once she calmed down, Kathryn tried to ask her again. She pulled back to examine her daughter's handiwork. Thick black lines covered the left portion of her face and traced down slightly past her temple. They were scribbled and smudged, each line crisscrossing another.
“Would you like to tell me why you drew all over your head?”
“I...I wanted a tattoo...like daddy’s, but I messed up and now I look ugly,” she cried.
“Oh, my darling girl you could never look ugly. Why don’t we go try to wash this off,”
She nodded and wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands.
Kathryn led her to the bathroom where she grabbed a dampened washcloth and some soap and began to remove the ink.
“You miss him don’t you,” she stated.
Elizabeth silently nodded her head.
“I miss him too,” she said with a sigh.
There were a few moments of silence as the girl shed more tears, causing her mothers heart to clench.
“There we are, all clean,” she said, directing her to face the mirror.
“See? Still beautiful,”
“When will daddy be back?”
“I don’t know sweetheart. He’s on a long and important mission, but he made a promise that he would be back as soon as he possibly could, and you know how daddy treats his promises,”
“He never breaks them, because his promises are from his heart to ours,”
“That’s right! He loves you so much. I know these past two months have been difficult, but he’ll be back before you know it,” She said the words to reassure her daughter but truthfully, he was supposed to have commed two days ago and still hadn’t. She was getting worried, but couldn’t let her daughter know that.
“And then we can be a family again?” the girl asked.
“Oh honey we will always be a family, whether one of us or all of us are separated, our love keeps us bonded.”
Kathryn thought for a moment of a way to make her daughter feel better, to maybe distract her from her sadness if only for a short while.
“I know, why don’t you and I go make a batch of brownies and then while they’re cooking you can go play with Molly outside.”
Within a single moment the girls face lit up and a soft smile appeared, her singular dimple on full display.
“Can I lick the spoon?”
Kathryn laughed. “Yes my dear you can lick the spoon, but only if you help mix!” before she even finished speaking her energetic child was already rushing past her to get down the stairs.
She shook her head and followed after her. The two of them made a complete mess of the kitchen by the time they had finished, and while the brownies were in the oven Kathryn began to clean up while occasionally glancing out the window to watch her daughter play with their puppy.
Just as she got the brownies out of the oven and set them on top of the stove she heard a shriek. Her head popped up and looked out the window but didn’t see Elizabeth or Molly anywhere. She quickly ran out the back door and looked around frantically.
“Elizabeth? Elizabeth where are you?” she shouted.
Suddenly she heard another shriek from the front yard. She walked over and opened the gate, rushing to the source of the noise but immediately stopped in her tracks and put her hand over her mouth. She felt the tears sting in her eyes as she broke into a sprint.
“Chakotay!” she cried.
He shifted his daughter to his right hip to make room for his wife as he brought her into a deep embrace.
She lifted her head and leaned in for a passionate kiss which caused their daughter to giggle and then yell “Icky!”, to which they both laughed.
“You’re back how are you--” she started.
“We finished the mission early. I was going to tell you but I thought I’d surprise you instead.”
She swatted him on the chest.
“I’ve been worried sick for two whole days! When I didn’t get the call I assumed the worst and my mind was racing and---”
He cut her off with a soft kiss.
“Well, I’m here now and as you can see I’m still in one piece,
“Maybe, but not for long,” she joked.
He chuckled and put Elizabeth down as they started to walk inside.
“What did I miss? Was our little angel well behaved?”
Kathryn scoffed as they watched the subject of their conversation run alongside the dog into the living room.
“When is she ever? I got quite the workout trying to keep up with her all day every day, and she enjoyed spying on my business calls, occasionally making an appearance in front of the other admirals and commanding that they give her daddy back please and thank you!”
“Just like her mother, nothing but trouble,” he said.
“Oh really, as I recall you happen to be the trouble maker around here,”
“Maybe, but I think you enjoy my type of trouble,”
“Perhaps I require a demonstration. I haven’t seen you in so long that I’ve seemed to forget the type of trouble you’re referring to,”
“I think a demonstration can be arranged,” he said suggestively, approaching her and placing his hands around her hips to bring her closer.
“I missed you,” she whispered.
“I missed you too,”
They were about to lean in for another kiss when Elizabeth shouted “Mom! Molly peed on the carpet again,”
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m so glad you’re home. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep up with her and the puppy. God only knows what this household will be like when the baby comes,”
She spoke quickly and walked over to clean up after Molly, a smirk on her face as she waited for the realization of what she just said to sink in. She managed to clean up the entire mess before he even said anything, but finally, he spoke.
“Kathryn?” Chakotay asked shocked.
She turned around with a smile.
“A..a baby? We’re having another baby?” he asked.
“I found out a few days before you left, but I didn’t want to guilt you into giving up the mission. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but I--”
With tears in his eyes, he marched quickly across the room and pulled her into a giant bear hug.
“I love you so much,” he cried.
“I love you too,” she replied.
He pulled away and leaned his forehead against hers. They stood like that for whole minutes until he asked: “Do you know what the sex is?”
“A boy,” she said with a laugh.
“A boy,” he repeated.
“Elizabeth’s not gonna like that,” he said.
“Well it’s a good thing that you get to be the one to tell her,” she said.
“What? Why do I have to tell her?”
She didn’t reply, instead, she called out “Elizabeth! Brownies are ready! And your father has something very important to tell you!”
“It’s good to be home,” he said to himself.