Chapter Text
The shriek of her obnoxious alarm clock startled her like it had every other morning for the past year. Panic shot from her heart to her toes, making her fingers go numb and her breath flutter in her chest. Sorely lacking excitement in her life, Janeway knew she should have changed the tone ages ago, but the little jolt of adrenaline kept her sharp and put a particular pep in her step that she rather enjoyed.
With an uncoordinated flop, Janeway threw her hand in the general direction of the small device and grunted when the little round bone in her wrist caught the edge of her table. Now very awake and grumbling, she tried her best to search the surface of the table without opening her eyes. Seeing the light of day was giving into the monotony of retirement while her dreams were filled with memories of her conquests and prime action years.
The noise stopped when she finally hit the correct part of the screen that silenced instead of stopping it completely. Far too many times she’d accidentally slept the morning away after hitting the wrong button and foregoing any snoozing.
“Kathryn?” Seven called from the hallway, clearly much more awake than she was. “Look what I found.”
She tried to speak once but coughed when her allergies reminded her that she’d neglected to take her antihistamine three days in a row. Briefly, she remembered the loving reminder on her refrigerator.
The pharmacy called. Your medication is ready. They close at 20:00.
She chuckled as she rose - the memo had worked, though at the wrong time.
The wind rattled against the window panes and reminded her of her younger years hiding in the very same room during storms. The farm had seen many upgrades, but the glass windows and hand painted panes would never be replaced, barring any catastrophe that was likely to happen in the midwest prairies.
Janeway grabbed for her flannel robe and slipped her cold toes into her slippers that sat conveniently under the old radiator. There were two things Kathryn Janeway loved in the morning - freshly ground espresso beans and warm slippers. Seven of Nine was a given, but she was also not a commodity.
“Kathryn!”
Oh, her excited voice was something Janeway spent years memorizing with altruistic fondness. She loathed letting others see how something so common and plain as a voice could simply wrap itself around her heart and charm every sour mood right out of her.
“It’s barely light out. What has you so excited?”
“I found something - you have to see it!”
“I’m coming,” Janeway grunted as her bones protested the stairs again. She really should add collagen to her already growing stack of vitamins.
“That’s what they all say,” Seven called back, obviously pleased with her dirty retort.
“Now I’m definitely curious what you found,” Janeway chuckled as she stopped on the landing - careful for the squeaky spot in the wood - and made it down the last few steps. As she entered the kitchen, the smell of fresh coffee and Seven’s shower gel surrounded her. The lavender and espresso scent didn’t quite mix, but that didn’t matter. Never one to overly describe things, her simplest term for the two was home.
“Look!” Seven pressed a warm lidded coffee into her hand and wrapped her arm around her waist with the other. For a moment, Janeway wondered what she was supposed to be looking at until she realized that Seven’s head was tilted towards the kitchen table.
“Is that the-”
Seven kissed her cheek and cut her off. “Yes! I haven’t seen it in nearly ten years!”
Janeway hummed in delight as she left Seven’s embrace to look at the box on the table. Inside was a can of chalkboard paint, unopened but still splattered with black dots. Next to it was a pack of brushes still sealed in their packages. It made her smile, albeit sadly, but the pain had lessened.
“Oh, I haven’t seen these in so long,” Janeway sighed. “I miss that little apartment sometimes.”
Seven chewed on her bottom lip, freshly glossed and shining in the natural light from the big windows. “I do too. Even if I hated it at the time.”
“It never suited us, never felt right,” Janeway sat at the table and pulled the pack of brushes out of the box. “I’m almost glad we didn’t waste the can painting the walls - that refunded deposit is what paid for the skycar we used to move!”
“We do have that blank wall downstairs in the family room, is it too juvenile to use this down there?” Seven joined her at the table, her own cup of coffee already placed and seemingly still hot.
“I like to write notes while standing, especially when I’ll need to make a presentation,” Janeway nodded as she thought it over. “And you like solving equations that way. Calculators are too small and my eyes aren’t what they used to be.”
“I vote cybernetic ones next,” Seven shrugged with a comedic indifference. “Mine work just fine.”
Janeway took a sip before placing a hand over Seven’s metallic fingers flat on the table. “They also see in the dark and can be switched into heat vision mode.”
“And they’re X-Ray,” she added. “I’ve seen you naked, Admiral.”
“Ah,” Janeway’s tone was jovial but even. “I see. Now you’re using nudity to make your point. I see you’ve spent too much time with a certain tiny Wildman down at the bar.”
“I have not,” Seven laughed, a deep hearty sound. “She is foul-mouthed though. Nearly puts Miral to shame. It’s strange to think that I’ve known her for nearly fifteen years. I cannot imagine saying half of what they say out loud. I blush simply thinking about those things.”
“I know, it’s how I know you’re feeling amorous.” Janeway took another well-timed sip and winked at her lover. “Hasn’t failed yet.”
Seven hid behind her cup, still a blushing maiden after all their years together. “I hate how easily you make me turn red.”
“Remember our first night here? You wanted so badly to ‘break in every surface in the house’ but fell asleep on the couch?” Janeway clipped her thermos shut before standing and draping a hand on Seven’s shoulder. “I’ll never forget the image of you in the gaudiest tawdry lingerie, splayed out on the fold out bed with a bottle of water in your hand.”
“Not my finest fashion choice,” Seven lamented with a raised eyebrow. “I moved all the furniture in lace.”
“You poor thing,” Janeway cooed into her ear, placing a kiss on the implant on her cheek. “Love you.”
Janeway felt Seven smile under her kiss. “I love you too.”
“Ready to go meet the new neighbors?”
Seven shook her head, disengaging Janeway’s lips from her cheek. “No. I’m still so nervous out here. I feel safe, but the looks I get still make me nervous.”
“I can go alone.” Janeway kissed her cheek once more before pulling back. “Will you be good to go to the store alone? The cupboards are looking a little bare.”
“I love grocery shopping.” Seven turned in her wooden kitchen chair to sit sideways in it. “It soothes me. Probably because I hadn’t done it until I was with you. My meals were replicated or unnecessary for the majority of my life.”
“That’s probably also the reason you’re obsessed with gardening,” Janeway nodded to the general direction of their vegetable patch outside. “You’re quite good at it too.”
“It’s the perfect mix of tangible work and mindfulness,” Seven explained, hands waving as she excitedly spoke about her passions. “I think of what to plant where and when. It grows. I cook it. Repeat the next season. I like my little cozy corner garden.”
“Oh, I’m not complaining in the slightest.” Janeway reached for an apple in the bowl on the counter and looked it over for a good spot to start. “You’ve got a green thumb and I have a bottomless stomach. We make a good pair.”
“You do enjoy eating whatever is put in front of you,” Seven readily agreed but flushed when Janeway raised her eyebrow this time.
“That’s what they all say.”
[*]
Later that night, Janeway sat in her recliner tucked under a blanket in the pleasant darkness of her basement office. The dryer tumbled just around the corner, giving her a white noise ambience perfect for working. She tapped the stylus against her lip, underlining and crossing out the written words on the datapad in front of her.
The title of her memoir had been the thorn in her side for the better part of a week, which was much longer than she had anticipated. The entire damned thing was already drafted, but her publisher had been adamant that she title it before submitting the draft. Something about a title setting the tone for the story, which usually led to more editing and plucking at her words, which Janeway already loved to do.
“Darling?” Seven called from the top of the stairs. “You’re still writing? It’s nearly midnight.”
“I’ll be up in a bit,” Janeway called back. “You can come and brainstorm with me if you’d like.”
Seven’s feet appeared as she carefully descended the wooden stairs with socked feet. One hasty trip down the staircase was enough to yank any bad habits out of her. That, and bruised tailbones were quite painful, even when the tailbone in question was metallic - or so Seven told her when it had happened.
“I think you need to name it ‘From Overalls to Pips: a Memoir’,” Seven offered with a sly look. “Though you loathe talking about ranks so who knows?”
“I think I’m going to send my editor a few working titles. I like “The Other Admiral Janeway’ or ‘A Voyage Through Time’.”
That one made Seven smile. “You love comparing yourself to your father. Normally I would call it unhealthy, but I believe it gives you a sense of pride, yes?”
“Phoebe is my mother’s pride and joy. They painted barefoot in the sun while drinking sweet tea while my father and I played Kapesh-Yakshi as the Federation news channel played in the background.”
Seven sat on the arm of the old recliner and grabbed the tablet, tucking it into her side. Janeway responded by grabbing her hips gently and pulling her into her lap. Seven slid into the familiar position, tucking Janeway’s head under her chin as she got comfortable on her legs.
“Do you have any similar memories of your parents? I know you didn’t get much time with them.”
Seven’s throat vibrated against Janeway’s cheek as she spoke.“My father and I used to play this game he made for me. We would combine a list of ingredients given to us by the program and try to make as many creations as we could. It was all digital of course - no one wanted me to set my cabin on fire mixing Element Zero with anything.”
“That’s wise.”
Seven laughed quietly. “Yes. He also made a game for me when I was probably just a toddler? It showed me how to put coins in things like washers or vending machines so I could learn the different currencies of the planets we went to. It worked quite well.”
“I never even thought of that,” Janeway was impressed. “That’s a very original way to teach a child about money.”
“He was orphaned quite young, if the records were correct. I believe he made those things to educate me as soon as I was able to learn, in case something happened to him,” Seven admitted. “And while something did happen, I still remember those lessons. So, I suppose they worked.”
“I love listening to you talk about your family,” Janeway wrapped her arm around Seven’s waist and began to aimlessly toy with the string on her pajama pants. “How was the market?”
“The line was atrocious,” Seven snorted. “It’s the first nice day of spring, so everyone and their dogs were out. How were the new neighbors?”
Janeway groaned, “They’re going to be weird ones. You know that kind of neighbor. I can’t explain it. Eccentric? That seems like a kind enough word. You know the kind that collects dead animals as trophies?”
“Says the woman who insists on buying every mug with a dreadfully contrite phrase on it?” Seven laughed. “It’s cute.”
“You’re cute,” Janeway shot back, turning her head and kissing the closest bare skin to her, which happened to be Seven’s shoulder. It wasn’t passionate or even alluring, just a quick reminder that Janeway did in fact love her more than anything on Earth.
“You are also cute, even if you deny it,” Seven kissed the top of her head in rapid succession, making Janeway flush with joy.
“I just like ruffling your feathers,” Janeway said fondly. “It keeps me entertained in my old age. Something has to, being retired is boring as hell.”
“But you can write your book while you’re in pajamas? Much better than that stuffy Admiral’s uniform in an office,” Seven reminded her. “And you get to kiss me whenever you want, instead of sending those cheesy love notes on your lunch break.”
“They weren’t all cheesy,” Janeway murmured. “Some were rather…heated.”
“Oh, I remember,” Seven hummed. “I do like you working from home, but I also miss that electricity of you coming home after a long stint away.”
“Should I take a vacation?” Janeway laughed. “Reignite the passion?”
“You should go to the pharmacy,” Seven laughed. “That can be your vacation. They sent me a message and we got a postcard in the mail slot, reminding you of your allergy medication.”
“I really should do that, I love the little cafe across the street. They have the best -”
“Bearclaws,” Seven interrupted. “You buy one each time and eat it on the way home, I remember.”
“Remember our first date there?” Janeway sighed dreamily. “I was so nervous, even though we were already married by that point! I hadn’t seen you in nearly a year and I just wanted to scoop you up and kiss you but when I saw you through the cafe window I just cried instead.”
“Yes, but I cried too - don’t forget.”
“We should go back, make a thing of it. We’re always cooped up in this barn and it’s nearly spring.” Janeway yawned loudly. “We can invite Tom and B’Elanna for brunch!”
“We make these plans and always cancel,” Seven slid off of the chair and held out her hand. “I think we’re the flaky ones. Somehow we became the homebodies.”
“Well the transport hub is so far away and I hate walking more than a mile into town,” Janeway whined as Seven grabbed her arm and tugged her up off the chair. “And using the Skycar gets expensive if we’re just going into town.”
“I think you just are tired of constantly being in the public eye,” Seven gently swatted her rear as she walked up the stairs behind Janeway. “It’s okay to admit that, you’ve more than earned it.”
“Perhaps you’re right.” Janeway began to unbutton her shirt and threw it into the hamper in the corner of her room. “I’ll head to the pharmacy tomorrow while you paint that wall?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Seven walked into the bathroom and reappeared in just her underwear. “I want a nice bath with you sometime soon.”
“Your wish is my command,” Janeway laughed as she passed Seven for her turn in the bathroom. When she turned around, she saw her wife slide into her set of blankets on the bed. “I’m going to shower but you look sleepy. Night, babe.”
Seven smiled sleepily and waved her away. “Night.”