The BLTS Archive-Candy Hearts
by monkee (wiecek@earthlink.net)

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Disclaimers: Paramount owns these characters, but would never in a
million years allow them to be so silly.

---

Chakotay surveyed the bridge. It was the middle of alpha shift and it
had been a very slow day. Everyone looked a little bit bored.  Paris
was fidgeting and Ensign Yorgenson had not quite managed to suppress a
few yawns. Beside him, on the other hand, Kathryn seemed rested and
cheerful. He couldn't understand it, she'd been up as late as he had.
He'd stopped by the holodeck last night to say hello, and they'd wound
up talking until 0300 hours...

The turbolift doors swished open and Neelix emerged.

"Greetings everyone!" he said, happily. "Captain, might I have a word
with you?"

"Hello, Neelix" Kathryn smiled "What's on your mind?"

"I've been researching an ancient earth holiday, Valentine's day; it
sounds like a great deal of fun!" Neelix enthused. "With your
permission, I'd like to have a party." He added  softly to the
Captain, conspiratorially, "It would be wonderful for morale..."

Kathryn glanced his way and Chakotay smiled and shrugged. She said
"That sounds lovely, Neelix."

"I knew that you would approve!" Neelix said triumphantly. "So I took
the liberty of preparing the invitations!"  He bustled about the
bridge distributing them. "I hope to see everyone there!"  he called
as he left the bridge.

Chakotay opened the envelope that Neelix had given him. In addition to
the Valentine's party invitation, it contained a half dozen small
colored hearts. He studied them.  They appeared to be edible and they
each bore a printed message. He frowned at one which was emblazoned
with the words "fax me".  He had no idea what it meant. He popped it
into his mouth and ate it. He cringed; it was disgustingly sweet. He
noticed Paris and Kathryn with similar expressions of distaste on
their faces.  He smiled. 'Well, at least this woke everyone up!' he
thought. 'Leave it to Neelix!'

As he read the remaining hearts, he got an idea.  Fatigue had
apparently emboldened him, because he couldn't believe that he was
even considering this! It was probably going to earn him one of the
Captain's good-natured "death glares", but he just couldn't resist. He
glanced surreptitiously around the bridge.  Everyone was reading their
little colored hearts, well, except for Tuvok, but he was occupied at
one of his security consoles and was partially turned away. He picked
up a purple heart which said "My Girl" and slowly reached over to
deposit it on the arm of Kathryn's chair.

Out of the corner of her eye he watched her desperate struggle to keep
a straight face. He clamped his jaw shut tight to keep himself from
laughing out loud. She couldn't even look at him. Clearly the
good-natured death glare was going to be out of the question.  'I'm
going to hear about THIS later!' he thought.  Gradually, she regained
control. He grinned at her. After doing her own casual scan of the
bridge, she smiled almost wickedly, then reached over and put one of
her hearts on the arm of his chair. It said "Hi Love".

He did smile this time. A small smile, not anything too obvious. He
could not believe this! She was flirting with him! On the bridge, no
less! Well, he probably had better not push his luck.  He tried to get
absorbed in the fuel consumption report, but his eyes kept returning
to the little hearts on his chair. 'What the hell!' he decided.  He
glanced over his shoulder at Tuvok; he knew if Tuvok caught him he'd
get "the eyebrow", but Tuvok was still occupied with more important,
professional matters. This time, he placed a yellow heart which said
"Be Mine" on a PADD and handed the PADD casually to the Captain.

She was able to muster up her glare this time, but it was tempered
with a small smile. She scanned the PADD and returned it to him. To
his surprise, it contained a different yellow heart.  This one
admonished him to "Be Good". He looked over at her, and she gave him
another scowl and half smile.

And he tried to be good, he really did, but before long he found
himself reaching over again to the arm of her chair to deposit a pink
"Hug Me" heart.  She rolled her eyes and pointedly ignored it.  He
sighed and returned to the fuel consumption report. This time he read
it through, added his comments, and initialed it with a thumbprint. He
handed it to the Captain, and she began to read it. When she returned
it to him, it contained an orange heart which commanded "Kiss Me".

He couldn't keep a look of mild shock off of his face as he looked at
her with his mouth open. She smiled broadly at him, winked, and blew
him a kiss. He nearly fell off of his chair.  "What could she possibly
be thinking?' he asked himself. She had very likely underestimated
Ensign Kim's powers of observation.  Harry had an incredible vantage
point of the bridge and Chakotay was sure that the almost blatant
exchange between the ship's C.O.s had not escaped his detection.
Harry would tell Tom at lunch, and, of course, it would be all over
the ship by dinner.

He was clearly in over his head, here, he decided.  It was a good
thing that he didn't have any candy hearts left. Kathryn was
studiously absorbed in what was on her command console. He reached for
another report. As he shifted in his seat, his saw that he'd been
mistaken, there was one more heart left, a white one. He almost
stopped breathing when he saw what it said.

These two words, he knew, were the bottom line. If he were to be
completely honest with himself, these two words were what he truly
wanted from her.  He knew the depths of his feelings for her, and was
pretty sure of the depth of her feelings for him, although she
probably hadn't admitted it to herself. He thought it over for some
time. The expression "in for a penny, in for a pound" entered his
mind. It was something she often said.  The two pink words practically
jumped right off of the white heart.   They said "Marry Me".

Without looking at her, or anyone else, he placed it gently on the arm
of her chair.

He didn't even try to busy himself with a report. He was studying her
peripherally. Her expression hadn't changed, but he could see a
stunned look in her eyes. She hadn't taken it as a joke, clearly,
which was good, because he hadn't intended it as such. But it didn't
give him much of an "out", did it. He continued watching her, subtly.
Now her expression had changed a bit, she looked upset. He cursed
himself inwardly. 'I just couldn't leave well enough, alone.' he
thought, ruefully. 'I've made her uncomfortable and unhappy and how
will we ever get past THIS?'

He was about to ask to see her in her ready room, so that he could
apologize, but the look on her face stopped him. She really looked
distressed. He actually thought that she might cry. He picked up a
PADD and pretended to look at it. He figured he'd give her time to
compose herself and get good and angry, then he'd ask to speak with
her in private and face the music.

He was so successfully pretending to be occupied that he was startled
to see her hand appear at the arm of his chair.  She gingerly placed
her last candy heart there. "Yes Dear", it replied.

He stared at her in complete disbelief. Was she serious? Her
expression was unreadable, for once. He had to know. Now.

"Really?" he said, out loud. He suddenly realized that he'd gotten out
of his chair and was standing in front of her.

He also abruptly realized that he had the undivided attention of the
entire bridge crew. Most of them were smiling and looking perplexed.
Well, not Tuvok, of course... Kathryn was looking down at her hands.
Her mouth was closed tightly, but she seemed to be smiling a little.
She was rubbing her temples. "Commander, will you join me in my ready
room." she asked, with an infuriatingly normal voice.

"Yes, Ma'am" he replied, shakily. He still couldn't read her
expression. She looked faintly amused.  But her expression had a
serious undertone to it as well. She rose smoothly and headed for the
ready room.  Before he turned to follow her, he caught a glimpse of
Tuvok and couldn't help smiling, despite the situation. He had indeed
gotten "the eyebrow".  As he entered the ready room behind Kathryn, he
heard Paris, chuckling softly at the helm.

The doors swished shut and she turned to face him.

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The End