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To: "ASCEM-S" <ASCEM-S@yahoogroups.com>
From: "Keith & Jessica Bratcher" <campbratcher@psci.net>
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Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 22:37:24 -0500
Subject: [ASCEM-S] NEW: Seven: Tom's Turn (VOY, C/P, G, AU)
Reply-To: "Keith & Jessica Bratcher" <campbratcher@psci.net>
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The CPSG is having an anniversary and this is for them. Its from the
little old man universe I wrote about an AU return, forty or more years
after being lost. 

***********************************
Seven: Tom's Turn
Arcpus
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just for fun. 
VOY, C/P, G, For the Anniversary. 
Anniversary Challenge :) This is 
from the Return Universe, where 
Voyager came back forty years after
being lost. Anniversary stories 
always seem to come from this series.
For everyone here. God bless you all!
*************************************

It was quiet when he woke up, sitting up momentarily disoriented.
Then he relaxed slightly. He wasn't alone. A soft voice spoke to
him, a voice that he could remember from once upon a time.

"You need to lay down and close your eyes. It helps with the
disorientation."

He did, relaxing his body, feeling in his bones such a tiredness
as he had never felt before. He wanted to speak but he couldn't,
his throat was terribly dry. Cool water appeared, almost as if
his mind was being read and he sipped it gratefully, the fresh
cool liquid almost painful to swallow. He sighed, feeling better
and opened his eyes. 

"Don't open them. It's better not to."

He complied and fell into a light sleep.

**********Before ...

It had been cold and lonely and by the time he was ready to go,
it was night time in the world. The stars were out and he stood
staring at them, wondering for the last time what it would mean
to fly away again. He had done it so long, floating as a speck in
the endless night time of space. Coming home at last had been
anti-climatic. He was clear on that. All the glory of living free
was up there, not down here on the ground.

He walked to the swing, hanging on the back porch and relaxed,
the aching in his shoulder subsiding a bit. No one knew he was
up, none of the worried people who had congregated around the
house, watching him with worried eyes. He remembered the last
time he had seen faces like that and sighed. It had been for him,
long ago. 

They had come back, many years in the doing and now he was going
on again, heading out into the unexplored country that all of his
companions had fled to, leaving him behind alone. There were only
seven left including him. Seven. 

A shooting star lit up the night and he glanced up, feeling the
fading of his own light even as he did. A lucky star, he
considered, closing his eyes. A lucky star for me.

**********Far away ...

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Yes," the voice said, a smile in the softness of it, a smile and
hopefulness. 

Tom did and then he smiled too, sitting up as he did, staring
with young eyes at a familiar face, a young face, a much beloved
and familiar face. Tom stared and then he reached out, touching a
familiar cheek once more. "I knew you would meet me," he
whispered, a sense of awe in his voice. "I saw the star."

Chakotay only nodded. "You did," he whispered, caressing Tom's
hand with his own. It was soft and real. Young again.

"Where are we? Are we in heaven?" Tom asked, moving to sit
closer, the light flooding in from the open window nearby
blinding in its brilliance. 

"Close enough," Chakotay whispered, his arm slipping around Tom's
shoulders once more.

"You're young," Tom marveled, turning his gaze back to his lover.
"You left me," he said, swallowing back his tears.

"Never again, Tommy," Chakotay replied, shaking his head sadly.
"Never again."

They turned and stared out the window together, rolling green
meadows sloping away from the place where they sat together,
toward blue far off mountains of some unnamed place.

**********The next day ...

He came out that morning, frantically searching and found Tom on
the swing, sitting peacefully. He held a small locket in his
hand, a gold encased jewel and his head was resting against the
back of the swing. Reaching out, Harry took the locket, opening
it to see what he knew was inside. There he was, Chakotay, young
and strong, happy and smiling. Tom had carried it from the day he
had passed away years before. 

Now Tom held it, sleeping his final peace on the porch of the
house they had lived in together for so long. Children would no
longer visit here, walking up the flower-lined path, entering the
house Tom had kept so well for Chakotay. They were both gone now
and he was bereft. He turned and sat next to Tom, taking his hand
gently. "There are only six of us left with you gone, Tom. Only
six of us left."

He sat back, staring at the blue sky, the locket in his hand.

**********The night after the funeral ...

He stood on the back porch, the house filled with people behind
him, the night sky before him like a jewel-strewn velvet blanket.
In his hand, he held the locket, one with a new picture beside
the one of Chakotay. He had kept it himself, adding Tom's picture
and he planned to wear it until the day he died. It gave him
comfort, holding this precious thing and as he stood on the
porch, he looked to the sky.

Pictures flooded his mind, pictures of older and happier times.
They were all young then, strong. They were all together and they
were making their way back home. People came to him, people he
hadn't thought of in years, Janeway, Tuvok and the others who
didn't live to see the stars of their ancestors once more.

It had taken more than forty years, the ship limping home gamely
and they were all old and tired too. Fading away, settling into
obscurity, it was favored after the hoopla that had enveloped
them upon return. They all had each other, that they knew and now
time was taking them one by one.

"Harry."

He turned, staring with gratitude at the loving eyes that met
him. She was there, his wife of half his life.

"Come in, darling," B'Elanna said, smiling slightly through the
pain of her own bereavement. She held out her hand and took his,
the pair retreating into the house and the warmth and comfort of
their friends and family.

The night was quiet but in the sky, two shooting stars passed
overhead. They blazed across the darkness, shining like diamonds
and then they were gone. And the world continued onward once
more, the immensity of the universe unchanged and unchanging.

**************Happy Seventh Anniversary, CPSG!  *********
c2004 7/7





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