The Love Seat
short, incidental piece by
vanhunks
Rating: G
Pairing: J/C
Disclaimer: Paramount owns Janeway and Chakotay.
Summary: A young man faces Admiral Janeway.
THE LOVE SEAT
"And you say your name is?"
"Andrew Baines, Admiral. I thought I - "
"No, I didn't hear your name, young man. Now, what did you say?"
The admiral leaned slightly forward and cocked her head, raising a dainty, wrinkly hand to her ear. He was certain she wasn't deaf. Katie had assured him that Admiral Janeway was the healthiest person she knew over the age of ninety. The admiral's grey hair - he thought privately it was white as snow - was in a neat bob and gave her a classy appearance. Katie had assured him… Andrew reined in his thoughts. Never mind what Katie had assured him of.
A steel cane of a deep metallic blue colour rested against the swing seat near the cranky lady's right hand.
Easy to grip and ready to strike.
He had no idea why he thought she'd strike him with the walking stick.
Andrew Baines drew in a deep breath. He shuffled nervously on the wooden floor of the porch. The Admiral picked up her cane. For a moment he thought she was going to take a swipe at him. To his great but short-lived relief she stomped it once, twice against the wood. He rocked to attention.
"Have you lost your tongue?"
"I - uh… I - I was hoping to-to speak with you - "
"Which you seem to have an unholy inability to do, er…?
"Baines. Andrew Baines."
"Andrew, yes. Come on, spit it out. What is your business here?"
The metallic blue walking stick pointed right at his heart. Katie had warned him about the stick too.
Andrew felt like he was walking to the gallows. Admiral Janeway's gaze didn't waver. It speared through his body like a laser and burned like the fires of hell. If she blasted him to kingdom come with a photon torpedo, he would have welcomed death. No, he didn't want to die. He wanted to live for Katie. Hell, he was going to die just from the admiral's penetrating look, the compressed lips, the walking stick that, like a metronome, beat the seconds to his imminent execution.
But he wanted Katie. If he didn't love her so much, he would never have gathered the courage to face this woman before him who was about to kill him with her eyes.
All for Katie he was willing to brave Kathryn Janeway. Katie was something else.
"My parents are in deep space, Andy. They will only return in five months' time. Now, please do the right thing?"
Katie's eyes, blue like the woman facing him, had gone all weepy and soft and beseeching. With a sigh he had capitulated.
The right thing meant that he had to ask her grandparents in the absence of Katie's parents. The right thing meaning he had to face The Admirals. Right now one of them was staring him down and reducing him to a shriveled potato.
The walking stick kept up its metronomic beat against the wooden floor. The lady's eyes narrowed. Andrew swallowed, decided to go for broke.
"Well, yes, Admiral. It's like this - "
"You have completed four years at the Academy?"
"Why, yes, Admiral. My parents - "
"Who are your parents, young man?"
As if she didn't know, Andrew thought, biting back a retort.
"Andrew and Lenina Baines."
"Lenina. Used to be McAllister. I remember Lenina. Very cheeky young cadet she was in her day."
Admiral Janeway leaned forward and peered at him. Her eyes speared him again. They narrowed alarmingly. His chest felt ready to implode. It was hard to imagine this woman was ninety five years old. She was a menace even without the cane.
"That was what she told me - "
"You seem to have inherited that cockiness, young…er…"
"Baines. Andrew Baines, Admiral."
"Yes, Andrew. Now, why are you here, young man?"
Katie had insisted he come all the way to Indiana to see her grandparents. Damn Katie. Damn loving, beloved Katie. But she wanted tradition.
Andrew coughed nervously. The end of the cane tapped his shoulder. He winced, but he was certain it wasn't from the pain.
"I have come to ask for Katie - "
"You want to speak with Katie?"
"No! Yes. No… Admiral, I have come to ask for Katie…"
His words trailed away into his embarrassment. Another tap against his shoulder. This time he felt the pain. From inside came music. A tenor singing. Katie warned him about that too. They listened constantly to Jussi Björling. If he was lucky, he might hear music from Carmen or The Pearl Fishers. That was what Katie said.
The cane tapped his shoulder again. Quite hard this time.
"Young man, did the cat get your tongue?"
"I wish to marry Katie, Admiral, and to ask your permission for her hand in marriage."
The words rushed out like a torrent in winter, bashing unceremoniously against anything in its path. He knew he must have stuttered too. He wished the floor would open and swallow him whole. Or maybe the ocean divide and close itself about him. He would willingly drown if it weren't for Katie.
"Do you have any idea to whom that voice belongs?" Admiral Janeway asked, cocking her head again in the direction of the open window.
He had done his homework. She speared him again with her direct gaze.
"Jussi Björling - singing M'appari tutt' amo."
"And that makes you lucky?"
"No, Admiral. Indeed…not, Admiral. I am not lucky, Admiral. I am never lucky. Indeed - "
"Young man, you have a restricted vocabulary.""
His fingers beat a steady rhythm against his thigh. No, it wasn't a steady rhythm in tune with Jussi Björling, but sheer nervousness. He was about to swallow his tongue. Cat. Indeed. Kat got his tongue. Indeed. Restricted vocabulary. Hell. He had no words for this woman.
Just at that moment an old man appeared in the doorway. Also in his nineties, his hair too, had gone almost white, his skin dark with the tattoo still quite visible. The other part of the partnership. Chakotay, legendary warrior and husband of a legendary warrior. Chakotay and Kathryn of the Delta Quadrant.
Andrew shook his head dazedly as he met Chakotay's direct gaze.
"And who might you be?" Chakotay barked.
"Andrew Baines, sir."
"You want Katie."
"You know?"
"I heard your conversation with my wife," the old man muttered.
"He wants to marry our little Katie, Chakotay. He's come to ask our permission - "
"Ah. Yes. You see, young man, er…?"
"Baines. Andrew Baines, sir."
"Andrew. It's like this," Chakotay started as he sat down next to his wife on the seat and made himself comfortable.
Kathryn Janeway dropped the cane and slid her small hand instinctively into her husband's large, bony hand. What seemed to Andrew like an eternity he watched the two old people exchange glances, little smiles that hovered intimately in a moment suspended, cocooned. Andrew felt as if someone had slammed a boulder against his chest, with all the air whooshing from him. He felt the exclusion keenly.
They didn't look at him again.
"He wants to marry our Katie," said Kathryn Janeway to her husband.
"He must be in a great hurry, my love," replied Chakotay
"But didn't they meet seven years ago?"
"I'm not sure. No one can wait as long as we did, eh?"
"No, my love. But with Zannah and Charles in deep space, there's no way to ask them personally, hmmm?"
Chakotay gave a low chuckle. "Did you send them to deep space, sweet Kathryn?"
"Now, now, my love, I'm too old for this sort of thing. I'm retired, remember?"
Knowing, intimate smiles exchanged again. Then Admiral Chakotay spoke .
"They all come through us, don't they? Not that we invite them to. It's - "
"Tradition."
"Yes. Remember the day Charles stood right there where…where…" Chakotay stopped, looked at him as if he were very far away, a tiny insect somewhere on a blade of grass.
"Andrew," reminded his wife.
"Where Andrew is standing? He was just as nervous."
"And Zannah insisted he ask us formally. Poor man looked like he was about to be led to the gallows."
"Honey," said Chakotay, "it seems you have given poor - poor…"
"Andrew Baines."
"Yes, you've given poor Andrew Baines some grief. Did he get the tenor's name?"
"He was lucky."
Andrew watched them with amazement. They were talking about him as naturally as if he hadn't been standing there, waiting for their answer. Like the insect on the blade of grass he was.
"And Kolopak," continued Chakotay again. "You remember when our first born came to tell us about his Catherine?"
Kathryn Janeway gave a deep chuckle, her face lighting up at the memory.
"Kolopak always said he would never marry anyone named Kathryn or Kate. And then he fell for Catherine…"
Another chuckle. Then they remained quiet a few seconds.
"I think, Chakotay, that we were very easy on our children and grandchildren. Don't you think so too?"
"Now, now, my love," replied Admiral Chakotay to his wife, patting her hand. "We just wanted them to be happy. You gave poor Marek just as much grief when he came to ask for Elizabeth."
"You wouldn't let Marek marry her!"
"She was our first granddaughter, Kathryn, and too much like her grandmother. Kolopak and Catherine insisted Marek ask us, the grandparents, just because he had to ask us too for Catherine's hand in marriage. It wasn't necessary, but he felt he had to ask. Damn nice of Kolopak."
"Do we have any more grandchildren, my love?"
"Annika, and she is only fifteen. I plan to be alive when she marries one day."
"So do I," Kathryn Janeway said firmly.
Andrew coughed to get their attention. With reluctance they looked at him.
"You wish to marry Katie," they said.
"Yes, please, Admirals."
"You will love her forever?"
"Yes, Admirals. Indeed."
The old man rose to his feet a little unsteadily, closing the space between them. Andrew had read about Voyager's exploits in the Delta Quadrant. He had read about the moment Chakotay and B'Elanna Torres stood before Kathryn Janeway and how Torres had challenged Captain Janeway. He had read about how Chakotay had been ready to cut B'Elanna Torres into pieces with just a look to defend the woman he loved. .
That look was in Chakotay's eyes now.
"If you break Katie's heart," Chakotay hissed, "I will come and break you in many pieces, you hear that? In many pieces," he reiterated, punctuating his words by poking Andrew in the chest.
Andrew was dead certain Chakotay would really kill him if he didn't comply. If they said no to him, how was he ever going to get Katie?
"Answer him, young man."
"Aye, Admiral. I promise never to break Katie's heart. I - I love her too much…"
"Good. Now, where did young Katie go, Kathryn?" Chakotay asked.
Katie was here?
Andrew's mind was reeling. He had just been grilled to within an inch of his life by the legends of Starfleet and all the time Katie was here, within reach, but nowhere to support him. "Remember, you're on your own when you face them…" were her words and he had sensed the subtle yet dangerous tone to them. His heart began to thud wildly, painfully recording his life pulse. In a daze he saw Chakotay move to pull his wife up from the swing seat. Nessun Dorma drifted through the open window and filled the air around him.
The two admirals turned to him. Kathryn Janeway, small, her arm linked through her husband's and Chakotay, his hand covering his wife's hand.
He felt smaller than he had ever felt in his life, touched by the magnificence of the two in front of him. A lifetime of love and loving which would go with them to their graves and beyond. It was in every movement they made, every word they spoke, every look they shared.
Of that Andrew became painfully, humbly, wondrously aware.
"Now, young Andrew Baines, you have our permission to marry our second youngest granddaughter. We have a tradition here too. Katie will tell you. You must have tea with us later."
The grand old lady looked up at her husband. "No, coffee, my love."
"Now, now, Kathryn, you should listen to your doctor. Catherine has warned you to stay away from coffee." Chakotay turned only once to look at Andrew. "Tea it is, young man. And remember my promise…"
Before he had time to thank them, they moved slowly towards the front door. Just then Katie appeared.
"Grandma! Grampy!"
Katie's smile encompassed the world. She was the image of Chakotay, with her grandmother's eyes and like Chakotay, Katie bore the tattoo of the Rubber Tree People, same as the tattoo her mother wore and her uncle Kolopak Edward Janeway and her cousins Elizabeth and Christophe.
"Hush, young Katie," he heard her grandmother say. "No need to fly at us. There, your young man awaits…"
And with that Admirals Janeway and Chakotay vanished into their home.
Andrew shook his head as he opened his arms for Katie. He held her like he would never let her go, feverish in his relief.
"Did they give you a hard time, honey?" she asked in a breathless tone.
"No."
"Liar."
She pulled him to the seat her grandparents had just vacated. He gazed deeply into her eyes.
"Now," she said.
"Now, what?" he asked stupidly.
"Now you ask me."
"Here?"
"Right here. It's where my grandfather proposed to my grandmother. Every Janeway was proposed to right here, on this love seat. Are you going to disappoint me, Andrew?"
"You sound like your grandmother."
"Are you?"
"Never!"
So Andrew Ellismere Baines went down on his knees before Katie Janeway to propose to her. For a moment he saw the two admirals again, their eyes loving upon one another. In that moment that he asked Katie to marry him, he prayed fervently for the privilege of just such a deep and lasting and forever love such as he saw in her grandparents.
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end