Work Text:
Keeper
by nancy
Kathryn ran down the corridor full out, dodging crew members who jumped out of her way as soon as they saw her. Her heart thudded painfully in her chest in response to her distress as opposed to the scant physical exertion. By the time she got to astrometrics, the Doctor was working on Seven and Tom knelt next to him, calmly handing him whatever the Doctor asked for.
She stopped short next to the cluster and wanted to throw up at the sight of Seven unconscious on the floor, burns all over her face and throat. A puddle of blood had spread out from the other woman's chest where a metal bar still protruded. It looked very close to Seven's heart; frighteningly close. Kathryn had to take a breath before demanding hoarsely, "What happened?"
"An overload at her workstation," B'Elanna reported tersely. "I haven't traced it back yet, but it was sabotage."
Shocked, Kathryn repeated dumbly, "Sabotage? On my ship?"
B'Elanna looked at her and said firmly, "Sabotage. I'll find out who did it, Captain, I swear."
"Was it specific to Seven or would anyone have been hurt?" Kathryn questioned.
B'Elanna looked uncomfortable and evaded, "Something I'll have to confirm."
Kathryn shot her a hard look and ordered sharply, "Do not handle me, B'Elanna. Was it aimed at Seven?"
"Kathryn."
The whisper instantly caught her attention and she crouched next to Seven, whose eyes were open, if unfocused. She took the uninjured hand and laced their fingers together, "Annika, love, don't move. You're badly hurt."
"She's ready for transport, Captain," the Doctor announced. "I have to get her to sickbay."
Kathryn kissed the back of Seven's hand and commanded, "Save her."
"Don't leave me," Seven whispered.
The Doctor pressed a hypospray to her throat, though, and she was unconscious again before Kathryn could even form a response to the pained plea. She swallowed against a tight throat and released Seven's hand, standing back and watching as the Doctor touched his comm. and said, "Three to sickbay, Lt. Kim."
They vanished in the familiar glow of the transporter and Kathryn was left staring at the bloodstained floor. Her lover's blood. They'd only been together for a month and now this. A familiar fury rumbled in her gut as she gazed on Seven's blood for several seconds longer. She hadn't made it to Captain because of her live and let live nature.
Looking at B'Elanna, Kathryn snarled, "Find who did this and bring them to me."
B'Elanna nodded and walked over to the shattered console, her posture stiff and her features etched with her own anger. She and Seven had become very close friends over the last year or so and Kathryn didn't have to worry about B'Elanna not doing everything in her power to find the saboteur.
Leaving the engineer to her task, Kathryn ran through Voyager to sickbay. Chakotay had the bridge until further notice. He'd mutely taken over as soon as Tom had reported in with Seven's injured status, allowing Kathryn to go to her lover.
Too late, her mind shouted, too late to save her.
Kathryn put on a burst of speed and entered sickbay in time to hear a monitor flat-lined. She staggered to a stop just outside the surgical bay, only staying upright by sheer force of will. Tom and the Doctor were covered in blood and the bar that had been inside Seven lay discarded on the floor outside the force field.
"Epinephrine."
Tom silently pressed another hypospray to Seven's throat as the Doctor moved the laser scalpel with sure movements over Seven's chest. Kathryn stood helpless as they fought to bring Seven back from death. It felt like an eternity before the monitor beeped irregularly and then assumed a more regular beat. Kathryn sagged in relief, holding onto the nearest exam bed for support. Her entire body was wracked with the shakes, but she forced herself to stand as still as possible, watching the two men save her lover's life.
Finally, the Doctor said, "Clean her up, Mr. Paris, we're done here."
Tom nodded grimly and began doing just that, running a handheld sonic medical cleanser over Seven's body.
Kathryn walked closer, locking her knees in order to get there. Her gait was jerky, but firm as a result, and she met the Doctor halfway. "Tell me."
"Her heart was badly damaged by the puncture, Captain. If not for the nanites, she would be dead," he said bluntly. "We repaired most of the damage to her heart, but she'll need a lot of time to recover. The burns were far from superficial, but skin is easier to regenerate than heart tissue. As well, she suffered a severe blow to the head from her impact to the wall, but we stopped the swelling."
The list of injuries almost made Kathryn's knees buckle, but she held on and demanded shortly, "She'll recover?"
The Doctor sighed and looked something like relieved as he nodded. "She will. As I said, it will take a long time even with assistance from her Borg implants and the nanites, but she'll be fine in a month or so."
Kathryn stared at Seven, watching as Tom gently cleaned the blood from her flesh. A month to recover. The alternative was unthinkable, of course, but Kathryn knew the enforced inactivity would drive the younger woman crazy as soon as she could sit upright.
"Captain..."
Forcing her attention to the hologram, Kathryn replied, "Yes, Doctor."
He looked distinctly uncomfortable as he said, "I know this was a near-miss, Captain, but I trust you won't...go overboard when you find the culprit."
Kathryn gave him a hard look which seemed to make him nervous despite his incorporeal form. "I will mete out justice, Doctor."
"As long as it's not the sort that leaves anyone blinded," he murmured.
An eye for an eye sounded damn good to Kathryn, but she only said, "Thank you, Doctor, for saving her."
The Doctor sighed and said, "We all care for her, Captain."
Someone didn't and Kathryn had every intention of hunting that person down just as soon as B'Elanna found out who it was.
* * * *
Seven could not move. That fact didn't disturb her so much as the lack of self-awareness. She ached all over even without moving and that nagged at her, as if she were forgetting something important.
"Seven? I know you can hear me. Squeeze my hand if you understand."
It was the Doctor's voice and his instructions that brought her attention to his hand in hers and she did as ordered, squeezing.
"Good! That's excellent. One moment and then you can open your eyes."
She felt something damp against her eyes and then she could open her eyes. It was not a surprise to find herself in sickbay, given that he was attending her. Tom stood next to the Doctor, a broad smile on his face, though he looked very tired with dark bags under his eyes. "Doctor. Lt. Paris. What transpired?"
"Someone sabotaged your station in astrometrics," Tom informed her.
The news made her frown. While she might have anticipated such actions during the first several months, perhaps even the first year, she had served on Voyager for three years now and knew all the crew. She would not have suspected any of them as being capable of perpetrating such duplicity in pretending to be friends and then plotting her demise.
The Doctor said, "But you aren't to worry about that right now. We need you to focus on something else entirely."
Seven's eyebrows rose. "From the infirmary bed?"
Tom winced, but said, "Well, the Captain's kinda gone off the rails. Not that most of the crew would notice, but we have. She doesn't sleep or eat and keeps hounding B'Elanna to find your attacker. I'm a little scared about what'll happen when she does find the culprit. I've never seen her this way."
"How long have I been unconscious?" Seven questioned.
The Doctor answered, "Three days."
It was no wonder, then, that she felt so weak. Physical limitations did not preclude doing her duty. "Call the Captain to me and then leave her to me."
Blatant relief flashed over Tom's face, but she didn't hold it against him. Being B'Elanna's mate meant that his priority was ensuring the engineer's well-being first and foremost, the same way that Seven did the same for Kathryn.
"Captain, Seven's awake and asking for you," Tom said over the comm.
"On my way."
Tom and the Doctor were both discreetly absent by the time the doors admitted Kathryn to sickbay. Seven remained prone, her injuries not yet allowing her into a sitting position. She glanced over when the doors hissed open, though, and saw what Tom had seen; Kathryn looked...brittle, as if a wrong word would shatter her. She stood stiffly at attention just inside the room, staring at Seven as if unable to ascertain what next she should do.
Seven held out a hand and said softly, "Kathryn."
Kathryn strode to her, catching her hand just as her strength to uphold it failed. "Annika. Oh, my love. I thought I'd lost you."
Seven smiled faintly and said, "I am difficult to kill, Kathryn, especially now that I have you to look after."
Unexpectedly, Kathryn clutched Seven's hand to her chest and whispered, "Don't, please. Don't make light of this."
Seven gazed up at her for a long moment and knew the pain in those normally clear eyes. She'd seen it in her own eyes on more than one occasion when Kathryn had been badly hurt or taken from her by force. They lived dangerous lives that could end at any moment, a fact that wouldn't be changed by their new, romantic entanglement.
She said, "The Doctor and Lt. Paris have vacated the premises for the remainder of the shift. It has come to my attention that you have not taken adequate rest since the incident. You will do so now."
Kathryn blinked at her and then barked out a sharp laugh, the sound fading into a more natural one the longer it went. She leaned down and kissed Seven gently on the mouth and then said, "That sounds perfect, but I don't want to hurt you."
Seven gave her a disdainful look and said, "As if you could. Join me."
It was both command and request, but Kathryn treated it as gospel and pulled up the blanket to sit beside her. She took off her footwear and then stretched out beside Seven. On her side, Kathryn curled up against her right side and put an arm around her waist. Her face rested on Seven's shoulder and Seven used her good hand to comb fingers through her mate's hair in a gesture she knew Kathryn found soothing.
"When B'Elanna finds the saboteur, you will use appropriate measures," Seven stated flatly. "You will not take vengeance on my behalf."
Kathryn huffed and said in a darkly amused tone, "I used to have the illusion that this was my ship."
Seven shrugged and then bit back a hiss of pain. She relegated that action to being unusable until she was healed and said simply, "It is your ship. You, however, are mine. To kill this person would damage you, which I will not allow."
"Well I'm glad we cleared that up."
Kathryn sounded sleepy, though, not angry or even annoyed. Seven continued to soothe her, finding the action strangely soothing to herself as well. As if comforting Kathryn, comforted her own state of being. It was a conundrum that she would have to experiment with later. Seven kissed the top of Kathryn's hair and felt the other woman slowly grow heavy with sleep against her.
It didn't really matter that someone had tried to kill her. B'Elanna would find the perpetrator and Chakotay would handle the matter. What mattered was that she'd protected Kathryn from her all-too-human impulse towards revenge. If she'd done something irrevocable, like execution, Kathryn would never have forgiven herself once she'd regained her right mind.
Seven half-smiled at the thought that Kathryn hadn't protested belonging to her. She'd needed a keeper for a long while, considering all the records that Seven had read. It was a good thing that she was up to the daunting task.
end