copyright 2001 Cassatt
This story takes place during "Killing Game I/II". The Hirogen have captured the crew of Voyager and are putting them through various war scenarios over the course of a month or more. The Doctor and Harry Kim are the only ones left outside of the holodecks, everyone else has been fitted with a neural link that removes memories of their real identities and places them firmly into whichever holo-simulation the Hirogen wish. During these episodes, WWII is the game.
In this alternate version, Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine have had their neural links severed a day earlier than in the episodes. The Doc has been taken offline and Harry has been put in the brig. Kathryn must play the game as if she is still Katrine Langlois, until Harry gets out and they can proceed with their plan to disable the remaining neural links and retake Voyager.
Captain Charles Miller (Chakotay) and Lt. Bobby Davis (Tom) are in the American army. The night before they're due to rendezvous with Katrine and the resistance movement, they drink a bottle of wine, courtesy of the movement. Chuck and Bobby get drunk, they get personal, they get sexual in the heat of the moment. They enjoy themselves immensely, necking and giving mutual blow jobs. (R to NC17 scenes) The following morning at dawn they head to Ste. Claire to meet Katrine, not regretting in the least what they did the night before. ("He'd had experiences with men before, hell, who didn't. In the army you took your pleasures where you could.")
Kathryn is relieved to find that the American captain with the strange tattoo and his blond lieutenant are really Chakotay and Tom, as she's been worrying about them since she "came to" as Janeway. She plays resistance leader and goes over details of the town, trying to figure out the slightly strange interractions between the two men, who seem to be very tight. In addition, Miller is looking her over, making his attraction for her obvious, and she begins to respond to it. She shows them to separate rooms where they can take hot showers, wanting to give them some TLC. She and Miller are due for a reconnaissance of the town later that morning. She gives both men 'undercover' clothing.
Bobby wants to find Brigitte (B'Elanna), Kathryn, shocked, tells him she's usually in the town square market during the early morning hours. He's excited, takes his shower, and heads off to surprise her.
Chuck takes his shower and lies down to rest, feeling guilty that his men are back on the hillside getting ready for war. Still, he dozes. To be woken by an upset Bobby, who, after asking if they're off duty and getting an affirmative response, flops himself on the bed next to Chuck and covers his face with his arm. Chuck talks to him, Bobby says he's seen Brigitte. He's furious and upset, she's pregnant by a Nazi bastard and no, she wasn't raped, the man came up to them and claimed her as his. Bobby's trying not to cry. Chuck feels drawn to give him comfort, leans over and kisses him. Things get out of hand quickly, and in the midst of undressing each other and other acts of foreplay, Bobby says that Katrine has the hots for Chuck. He wants Chuck to take her to bed that day, because he thinks she needs it. He makes Chuck promise to do it, his superior officer agrees. Then Bobby asks Chuck to fuck him. He agrees. They do. With gusto and surprising emotions. (R scenes)
Meanwhile, Kathryn is thinking about Chakotay not being Chakotay, and the fact that she has no memories of her weeks in Hirogen Hell. She contemplates taking advantage of the situation, and giving into the attraction she sees coming from Captain Miller, just to find out if they really have anything between them. He won't remember anything, after all, so what harm could it do. She goes to take a walk to think about it after hearing Tom return from his visit with B'Elanna. When she returns, she decides there are a number of reasons why her actions would be justified, and heads up to Chakotay's room.
When Kathryn arrives, Chakotay's just gotten out of his second shower (that he took with Tom, who's gone by now). She's overcome by the fact that he looks quite a bit more handsome than she's ever seen him, sans shirt and shoes, relaxed, "radiating sex appeal." He goes back to the bathroom to finish getting ready for their walk through town while she enters his room proper. And realizes the bed's a mess and smells like sex, so obviously Chakotay's just gotten laid. But by whom? Just then, Tom walks in and after they both get over their surprise to see each other, Tom starts to search the floor next to the bed, eventually finding his leather billfold under it. Kathryn is stunned to see it's apparently Tom that Chakotay just had sex with. Chakotay comes out of the bathroom, greets Tom and walks him to the door. Kathryn follows to eavesdrop, so she can confirm her hypothesis of C/P. She gets confirmation, though nothing blatant. Chuck again promises Bobby he'll try and fulfill his request. Bobby's happy, Chuck's happy, Kathryn is going nuts.
Still, she relents when she sees that Miller is sending his lustful thoughts her way. They leave for their reconnaissance. In the village, Hirogen Nazi's approach, and Miller, trying to maintain a cover, acts as though he and Katrine are lovers, caressing her shoulders and neck. The Nazi's leave. He continues to do it. Kathryn gives in, and lets him kiss her. She's a goner. She takes him back to Le Coeur de Lion, to her rooms, and makes love with him. (NC17 scene) She's a total goner now, having flashes of Chakotay, letting herself feel fully, for the first time, just how much she loves him.
Miller is confused by this stranger's reaction to him, but decides that if the war ever ends, he'll return to Ste. Claire and see if he can live there permanently.
*****
Back on Voyager, Kathryn and
Chakotay disagree about giving the holodeck technology to the Hirogen.
But, as per usual, he merely lets her know he thinks it's wrong, she proceeds
to do the trade.
The command relationship is strained. But Chakotay and Tom, after being told by Harry they spent a vast amount of time working closely together, start to spend off duty hours in each other's company, playing pool, hoverball, walking on the holodeck. Chakotay's surprised to find he's enjoying their developing friendship.
Kathryn is going nuts again, memories of Chakotay interfering with her daily life. She 'follows' him via the computer during off hours, and gets upset when she learns that he's spending time in Tom's quarters.
A month later, Chakotay is having difficulties with the number of crew members who are beginning to show signs of post traumatic stress syndrome from Hirogen Hell. Though the Doc assures him it's impossible, since no one retained any memories, Chak isn't buying it. His counseling sessions with the crew are getting too vivid. Then he starts to have strange flashbacks, sexual flashbacks, brief, of things he doesn't understand. Freckled skin. Running his hands through blond chest hair. Someone sucking him off under the stars. As the day progresses, the flashbacks get more distinctive, enough so that he begins to suspect that perhaps Kathryn and he, and probably he and Tom as well, had some sexual experiences on the holodeck.
He does some investigating, and learns that, regardless of what she's told him - that he arrived in Ste. Claire just a couple of hours before everyone's neural interfaces were disabled - he and Tom actually arrived at 0500 that morning. Giving him more than enough time, an entire day, to have been with Kathryn privately. He decides to put off dealing with his memories of Tom for now, and will confront Kathryn.
In the meantime, Tom is having some sexual dreams. He has enough to realize that perhaps he and Chakotay had sex together during Hirogen Hell. He doesn't know what to feel about that.
Kathryn decides to stop treating Chak as though he had the plague, and apologize to him.
Chakotay and Kathryn have dinner together, both with their own agendas. Chakotay confronts her, she freaks out, never imagining that he (or anyone else for that matter) would begin to have resurfacing memories. She tries to back out of the discussion, but relents when she sees the upset he feels that he's trying to hide. They talk. She confesses. He presses her to tell him why she did it, knowing it will be, likely, the only time he'll ever hear her say it - she tells him because she loves him. It's all terribly angsty and sad. She reiterates they cannot have a relationship. He tells her he's going to talk to the Doc about a treatment for people to be able to get their memories erased permanently, but assures her that he's not decided that for himself. "Erasing memories of the two of us is not something I'd do lightly." He needs to leave, to think, and deal - so he does.
Rather than go to his cabin, he heads to the holodeck to run Sandrine's. He drinks and thinks. About the fact that the only time he'll probably ever make love with Kathryn he can barely remember it, that the murky feelings are "removed" from his own feelings because it wasn't exactly him in bed with her. Eventually, he tries to think about it positively - at least she admitted she loved him and they'd actually consummated the relationship, it's just that he can't really remember it. He starts to laugh at the absurdity of his logic when Tom interrupts him.
Tom's had more dreams and has come looking to talk to Chakotay. First, though, he wants to know what he was laughing about. Chak says he can't talk about it right then, so asks Tom what he wants to talk about, surmising that it's about dreams and memories of the two of them.
A little embarrassed, they talk, Chak confirms what Tom has been thinking. They both confess that they know each of them has had prior experiences with men, Tom learned it about Chak during his Maquis days, Chak's heard the same things about Tom. They also confess that, apparently, they consider the sex they had during Hirogen Hell, what they can remember of it, very hot. Tom asks Chakotay, "What now?" Chakotay says that a game of pool is as far as he can deal at that moment. It's clear to both that they are each thinking other possibilities in their relationship are not out of the question. They go off to play pool, Tom offering himself as a friend in case Chak ever needs an ear to talk about the captain. Chak is very touched and assures Tom he would trust him enough to talk about it if needed. Tom is thrilled by this. Chak feels warm and fuzzy to see Tom's reaction.
The story ends with the two
of them bantering and teasing, and Chak beginning to tell Tom about a man,
Javonne, he knew back on Trebus.
To "It's All In How You Play The Game" J/C, C/P
To the sequel, "The Rules of the Game" (three chapters) C/P, J/C (implied only)