SYMBOLS

CHAPTER 38

If she'd had a thermometer, Janeway would have taken bets on the temperature and how close it was to minus degrees celsius. She looked to the heavens and wondered if it ever snowed in the Anawin City. She'd have to ask Tayna in the morning.

"How are you holding up?" Chakotay asked, serious faced. He stared at her short sleeves and ghostly white arms huddled tight against her body. Hours before, she had parted with her woolen jacket, using it as a blanket over the sleeping child.

It had been a long time since anyone had asked her that question. Surprisingly lost for words, Janeway found her pale, quivering lips offering a quick smile to reassure him she had no intention of letting the cold night, or icy wind, take her out.

"I'd offer you my red guard jacket, but I don't know whether that would be customary behavior. You could be shot for it," Chakotay said a bit more light-hearted.

"Any excuse!" Janeway playfully chided, as they sat together on the ground, keeping watch over Paris and Tayna who were both fast asleep. Janeway was shivering uncontrollably. She blew a puff of steam from her lips, which were frighteningly bluer than her eyes. The starry night sky picked up the red highlights in her hair, as she brushed a few cinders from the lower half of her cream dress. Chakotay silently returned her smile. Then he moved in closer and lightly rubbed his hands over her pale arms.

"Kathryn, you're freezing!" Chakotay said moving his hands more vigorously.

"You're shivering too, even with your warm, red jacket on," Janeway said giving him her best impersonation of wide, imploring eyes, before a huge grin spread across her face.

"You're very pale, shivering constantly and your breathing has slowed since an hour ago. Are you feeling drowsy?" Chakotay sounded anxious, while he continued to try to defrost her skin.

"Chakotay, it's the middle of the night. I'm supposed to feel drowsy."

Janeway patted the outside of his bright red sleeves with her hands. Next she unbuttoned his red jacket, insisted he hand it over and checked the lining. Then she pulled off one of his boots.

"What are you doing?" Chakotay asked collecting up the clothes that she'd scattered around them.

"Looking for a mobile emitter. I have a nasty suspicion Voyager's EMH has taken on the appearance of my First Officer."

"Impaired judgment. Another symptom of hypothermia," Chakotay threw back at her.

"So now you're a wealth of medical knowledge. You never cease to amaze me, Chakotay. Tom will be pleased to know he's going to have company in sickbay," Janeway teased. She laughed at the idea. Chakotay would be completely outside his comfort zone if he had to muddle his way through a patient consult.

"Don't you dare!" Chakotay slung back, while Janeway gave him a mischievous look that said she was definitely considering the possibility of reassigning him for a day. She was having fun. Occasionally, being the captain was fun.

"Before I enrolled at Starfleet Academy, I went orienteering with a bunch of friends in the middle of winter. It wasn't a good choice. We learnt about hypothermia the hard way," Chakotay tried to explain. "I'm definitely not a medic, but I am worried about you." He blew a puff of steam over his hands and again placed them on her arms. "Are you okay? You're trembling," he said.

"That's because your hands feel like ice," Janeway said laughing. "You're as cold as I am. This isn't working." Chakotay released his hold on her and began to laugh too. She looked up into his dark expressive eyes.

"You're just... so... beautiful," Chakotay said with a sudden intensity that caught her off-guard.

It wasn't the first time she'd seen that look before, but it had been quite a few years.

Janeway stared back at him, subtly but purposefully she slid out of his reach. She swiped the hair away from her face as her mind reeled. Where had that come from? What had she done to illicit such a response? She played back her actions. She knew it wasn't his words. He'd complimented her many times on her appearance. It was his tone that set off warning bells. It had been a long time since they'd been on an away mission together, or on some far-away planet together. Maybe that was it.

"If the guards don't kill us, the cold night will!" Paris said waking up.

His words interrupted Janeway's thoughts.

Paris stood up and stretched from sleeping on the hard uneven ground. Careful not to wake Tayna, he joined the captain and commander in their night vigil. Eventually he sat down and filled the obvious gap between them.

"Time to start thinking warm thoughts, Tom," Janeway challenged him. She could hear his teeth chattering. Paris was miserable at finding himself awake again when it was still dark and bitterly cold.

The officers shivered in silent unison as they sat together and kept watch over the sleeping child.

"This is ridiculous," Janeway stammered. "There's no point in all of us staying awake. Commander Chakotay, why don't you go get some sleep, while Tom and I keep watch."

"I could say the same to you, Kathryn," Chakotay replied, unmoving from his spot. He was getting bolder with every passing minute.

"I could order you to..."

"You know, technically, here among the Anawins, I out-rank you," Chakotay said, crossing his arms and leaning forward to look past Paris and straight at her.

That threw her. It was so unlike him. Chakotay was never belligerent. It told her she'd overreacted, hurting him. After all, it was nothing he hadn't tried before in a variety of formats. They'd both tested the boundaries within the safe confines and structure of Voyager. But this time, Chakotay had pushed a little harder and she'd cut him off, reverting to command titles, ignoring him and trying to put some distance between them. No wonder he'd come out fighting. The man still had some pride. She felt angry at herself, but now she couldn't let him win, not like this.

Janeway shot him her infamous death glare, the one she reserved for serious misdemeanors and time-out in the brig.

"You're a brave man, Chakotay," Paris said, trying to be funny and end the tension at the same time, but his comment went unnoticed. The captain and commander had locked eyes. They were playing a fierce game of hierarchical tennis and Paris shifted uncomfortably, as if he could physically feel the electricity in the power struggle being played out to the left and right of his freezing body.

"Maybe we should make a move instead?" Paris suggested. "It might help us keep warm if we're walking around." Tom fought to cut through the heated undercurrent. Had it been him and B'Elanna staring each other down, there would have been the real possibility of it ending in bloodshed, or sex. Janeway's expression indicated she was definitely leaning toward the former. "If we start now, we should be able to walk from the west side to the east side of the city in about two hours," Paris continued. "I noticed the fountains on the east side are lit up at night. We could do a bit of sight-seeing."

When the idiocy of his statement set in, they all laughed, while Chakotay broke the tension with a subtle salute to his captain, and curled up next to Tayna on the uncomfortable ground.