Title: If I Ignore Them, They'll All Go Away
Disclaimer: Not mine. Paramount’s.
Thanx: Kari. You sent me the forward, that required a quote, that provoked this. Luv ya lots sista!
Timeframe: Oh I don't know. Pick a time.
Note: It was the working title "Blame it on the Weatherman" but the title just wasn't working.
Apologies: for the crap-out ending. I wanted it done, and sent out before I went to bed. And I was really tired at 1:34 in the morning.
Summary: KJ gets 'stranded' and seriously 'bothered' by her captors. Who ya gonna call? Cha-ko-tay!
Rating: R for character rape (that sounds really funny, doesn’t it?)

~~~~~~

Kathryn Janeway awoke in her bed, screaming, with tears streaming down her face. Her heart rate was almost off the charts. She could feel her pulse racing in her ears.
"It's okay, Kathryn. It was just a dream." But she knew that the voice in her head was wrong. It wasn't a dream. It really had happened, and the Doctor called it "memory recall." Kathryn breathed in deeply, and told herself to calm down. She would get over this, with or without depression.

~~~~~~

"Captain on the bridge."

Captain Janeway stepped on to the bridge of the USS Voyager, her normal command authoritative expression on. "Anything I should know about, Mr. Kim?"

"A few articles of space dust, spaced out over a 6 hour period. Nothing big," Kim smiled.

"Thank you, I'll be in my ready room. Chakotay, may I see you?" She walked into her ready room, the doors swishing open in front of her, Chakotay following.

"What is it, Kathryn?"

"Nothing."

"No. I know that look. Besides, you didn't call me in here for 'nothing.'"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Yes you do."

"Look. I said I don’t want to talk about it. That generally means that I don’t want to talk about it."

"Then why did you call me in here?"

Damn. He’s got me. Might as well tell him.

She motioned him over to the couch, where they could both sit down, next to each other. Kathryn took a deep breath, not really wanting to say what was on her mind, but knowing that she had to anyway. "Remember the V’Klari?" Chakotay nodded. "When they had me…captured…" Even the thought brought tears to her eyes, and Kathryn tried to hold them back, successful, with the exception of one.

Chakotay saw the pain in her face and eyes, and put a comforting hand on her hers. Kathryn smiled. She somehow knew that Chakotay would always be there for her. The touch of his hand to hers reinforced his friendship, and she certainly needed a friend right now.

"They did things, Chakotay. Horrible, vile things to me."

"If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of ‘things’? I think it would help for you to get this out."

"I already did. To the Doctor."

They both laughed. "The Doctor, hmm? I’m sure that got a lot off your chest about it."

A nervous silence appeared between them. Chakotay’s smile told Kathryn that it was okay to go on, and that no matter what, he would help her through it.

"Torture, abuse, you name it, they probably used it. They wanted information, and had the cruelest ways of trying to get it," Chakotay looked like he was about to interrupt her. She stopped him with a look that said ‘I’m not done.’ He slightly nodded for her to continue. "The guards would scream and taunt me, as they passed by. They called me horrible names, and made fun of me, for reasons I can’t explain. The torture, gods, it was almost unbearable. They had some sort of pain weapon, that shot pain into you, but didn’t knock you out. Sexual abuse. The guards would come up and just touch me, anywhere they felt like. Rape, Chakotay. Their leader, the one we trusted to beam over and trade with, he raped me. More than once,"

By now, the salty tears were freely falling down Kathryn’s face. Her body was shaking with sobs. Chakotay’s face showed total concern for his friend, and he moved over closer to her, and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, and buried her face in his shoulder, not caring that he was seeing her this out of it.

Chakotay shifted around so that both of his strong, muscular arms were around her, holding her close. He never wanted Kathryn to feel this much pain, now or ever. He loved her so much, in every way possible, and it hurt him to see her like this. Kathryn’s body-shaking sobs had shrunk to sniffling, and she looked up at him, her eyes still wet, and an occasional tear running down her cheek.

"Thank you," she whispered, hoarsely.

"Anytime," he whispered back.

Kathryn set her head back down where it was, and put her arms around Chakotay. They sat there, holding each other, until an hour after their shift ended. Kathryn looked up at Chakotay.

"Could you stay over tonight? I don’t want to be alone."

"Of course, Kathryn." They both stood up, and left her ready room, and slowly walked, silently, to Kathryn’s quarters.

~~~~~~

"There is probably something you should know, Chakotay, so I don’t scare you in the middle of the night," Kathryn was sitting in her favourite chair, her knees pulled up to her chest, her chin sitting in the curve that her knees made, and her arms wrapped around her legs. Chakotay was replicating dinner.

"Oh?"

"I’ve been having nightmares. For the past two weeks. About the V’Klari. I normally wake up screaming, convince myself that it was a dream, and go back to sleep. But lately, I haven’t been able to convince myself that it was a dream, because it really happened."

Chakotay stopped, and walked over to her. He kneeled down in front of her, and took her hands in his. "Kathryn, whatever happens, I will be there for you. Don’t worry, you will get through this, and I’m here for you. To help you, to guide you, for you to talk to, a shoulder to cry on. I’m here."

A solitary tear slid down Kathryn’s cheek. She smiled at Chakotay, and gently kissed the top of his head. Silently, she told him, ‘Thank you.’

Chakotay stood up, and went back to the kitchen, to finish dinner.

~~~~~~

Chakotay awoke to the sound of Kathryn’s screaming. He fell off of her couch, onto the floor with a thud, and slammed into her coffee table. OUCH! He raced into her bedroom.

He found her, thrashing about violently, in her bed. Her nightshirt was soaked in sweat, her face was as pale as the sheets she was sleeping in, tears were running down her face. She sat up with a start, and started sobbing. Chakotay sat down next to her, and pulled her close. This time, she didn’t wait to finish crying to tell him.

"It was him. The V’Klari commander. He was raping me again," she managed to get out between sobs. Chakotay could tell that she was going to be crying for a while, now that she had someone to listen to, and hold her.

When the sobs had subsided enough that Kathryn could get whole sentences out, she told Chakotay everything.

"K’layim, the commander, just walked into my cell, and yanked me up. He didn’t say anything, but just pulled me along. He then threw me into his room, and onto the bed. He forced his mouth on mine, and started undressing, and ripped off my clothing. I resisted, and he started hitting me, and calling me Bitch. He kneed me pretty hard in the stomach, and I got the wind knocked out of me. I had no energy, and that’s when he decided to…rape me. I didn’t want it to happen, but by the time I had enough energy left, it was too late, and I couldn’t pull him off me. He was rubbing, and pulling on my breasts, and when I tried to get him to stop, he bit me. Hard. And then it was all over. He pulled himself out of me, kissed me hard, and tugged me back to my cell, throwing my uniform in after me. I laid in a corner of my cell, covering myself with my uniform, crying for god only knows how long. That was just the first time. And then he did it again, and again, until it got to be every night, until you found a way to get through. I had stopped resisting, I knew that it wouldn’t accomplish anything. I never told him it was okay, and I think he knew that." Kathryn stopped, the light was glistening off of her cheeks, and her eyes shined with tears, that had started again, but she wasn’t sobbing.

Chakotay pulled her into a hug, which he knew she desperately needed. Kathryn leaned into him, feeling somewhat safe for the first time since she came back from the V’Klari homeworld.

~~~~~~

They fell asleep like that, Kathryn and Chakotay. Chakotay’s arms around Kathryn. Kathryn snuggled into Chakotay and holding onto his hands like she would never let go. In that moment, a bond formed between them. Not as friends, not as lovers, but as something else. They were not only best friends anymore, they were the ones that were trustworthy. They could tell each other anything, and everything. And they knew that the other would always be there for them. Chakotay spent every night in Kathryn’s quarters, until she was completely over the incident. First he stayed in her bed, holding her. Then he moved out onto the couch, and finally back in his quarters, next door.

When Kathryn was ready, the two of them started seeing each other romantically. Chakotay was the only person who Kathryn let touch her. They waited, to have their souls bond, until they were both sure that Kathryn was okay with it. When she was, Chakotay and Kathryn were bonded in every way possible. Physically, mentally, and spiritually. They were best friends, lovers, and touchstones. For life.

~~~~~~

Whadja think? Good, bad, indifferent? Sequel worthy? And get rid of the crap-out ending? Comments are sooooo appreciated!