Disclaimer: Paramount own all, I'm just borrowing. Sadly, I've no real claim to the characters.

Author's Note: This fic began life as an angsty type fic, but I really don't do angst well. Just a short thing I decided to write for a good friend after a late night doing a tonne of Chem. Be warned, this really isn't very good, hasn't been betaed, and is quite stupid.

Dedication: "Hey Sissa, go Sissa, flow Sissa, Soul Sissa…" For my Cyber Sissa, Liss, who's there for me through everything. Luv ya, Liss Babe!

His heart pounded. Involuntarily, his hands turned into clenched fists. The silence in the room was deafening as the information sank in.

"What?" He managed, aware of the harshness of his tone.

B'Elanna sighed. "You heard me, Chakotay." Her tone was gentle, almost as if subconsciously, her human side was trying to provide some form of comfort to him.

"What happened?" His voice asked this automatically, his mind still attempting to absorb all of the information.

B'Elanna shrugged her shoulders. "I've teams looking into it. Chakotay, we're working around the clock. There's nothing more we can do. The best thing you can do right now is get some rest."

He looked at B'Elanna, annoyance evident in his eyes. "I can't rest, B'Elanna. Not until I know exactly where she is."
B'Elanna nodded understandingly. "I doubt any of us can sleep sound at the moment. I'm now pulling a double shift -- if we don't find her soon, I'm going to end up pulling a triple shift. I mean it when I say, I won't rest until she's found."

Chakotay shook his head, in complete denial. "This can't be happening, B'Elanna." He looked wildly around the room, his eyes jumping from object to object. "How?" He finally managed to ask. "There were four security officers with her, damnit!"

B'Elanna sighed. "They didn't see a thing, Chakotay," she said, extending one hand to gently rest on his arm. The comforting gesture calmed him down slightly as he awaited his explanation. "One minute she was there, the next thing you know…" She trailed off. "Tuvok's already questioning them. We're going to get to the bottom of this, Chakotay. We will find her."

"Don't we have any leads?" Chakotay asked, his tone desperate. "Someone must have seen her, someone has to have some information."

B'Elanna shook her head. "No one's seen a thing, Chakotay."

Chakotay nodded, still in slight shock. "All right, keep on it. Let me know when we have any--"

"Chakotay to the Bridge," Harry's voice interrupted over the comn system.

B'Elanna shared a glance with Chakotay before he led them onto the bridge.

"Report," Chakotay demanded as he stepped onto the bridge, giving off an air of extreme professionalism. No matter what his personal feelings in this event, he knew that he had to remain as professional as possible, not letting his feelings surface and take control.

"We've got a lock on her," Harry's voice was triumphant. Chakotay's heart began to race. "

"Can you beam her directly to Sickbay?"

"I'm trying," Harry Kim said. He tapped at his console, then hit it furiously, pounding it with his fist. "Damn. There's some sort of interference."

B'Elanna seemed slightly shocked by Harry's sudden display of temper. It was uncharacteristic of the young Ensign to ever have an outburst of any kind. Chakotay, however, was not surprised. He felt as though he wanted to do the exact same thing. He wasn't shocked by Harry's sudden fury… He understood. After all, it wasn't every day that one lost their Captain.

"Harry," B'Elanna started towards the Ops console. "I'm guessing that she's using some kind of transport inhibitor to interfere, and block our transporters. We might be able to get around it if we-"

"Send a pulse through the decks and scan for her lifesigns," Harry finished, his eyes suddenly lighting up as he understood.

B'Elanna nodded. "Exactly!"

They began to tap furiously at the console, and then Harry suddenly grinned enthusiastically as he looked up at Chakotay. "We've got her, Commander. Transport complete."

"Good job everyone," Chakotay said, beaming around at the bridge crew as he started towards the Turbolift. B'Elanna, you have the bridge. If anyone needs me, I'll be in-"

"Doctor to Chakotay."

Chakotay froze in his tracks and tapped his comn badge. "Chakotay here, go ahead, Doctor."

"Would you care to explain why a comn badge has suddenly materialised out of nowhere onto my biobed?"

Chakotay let out a deep sigh. "We thought we had locked onto Kathryn, Doc. We'll keep trying to find her."

"Please keep me informed, Doctor out."

Chakotay sighed, and looked around at the Bridge crew. "Okay, it looks like it was just a false alarm. Keep attempting to locate her." He began to pace the Bridge nervously, deeply concerned as to Kathryn's whereabouts.

The atmosphere on the bridge was tense. Chakotay, normally so easy going and peaceful, was pacing the bridge furiously, his fists still clenched, and his jaw set. There was no hint of a smile on his normally cheerful face, which, in addition to his pacing and jaw, was making the entire bridge crew remarkably nervous.

"I'm detecting weapons fire," Harry suddenly yelled. Chakotay spun around furiously, his eyes focusing intently on the Ensign, silently willing him to deliver good news. "But the locator is scrambled…" He began to tap furiously at his work station, immensely frustrated.

Chakotay waited for Harry to continue, a look of dread in his eyes.

"She's on deck five," Harry yelled suddenly.

Chakotay reacted quickly, tapping his comn badge. "Chakotay to all security details. The Captain is on Deck Five. Do your best to retrieve her… use force if you have to. Chakotay out." He tapped his comn badge once again, then looked over at Harry. "Beam me within about 10 metres of her location," he instructed.

"Yes sir," Harry said, pressing the appropriate buttons. Chakotay felt himself dematerialising, gently being swept away in the transporter beam.

* * * * *

He materialised in the middle of deck five, section eight. Immediately, his Starfleet training took over, and he automatically pressed his back against the wall, listening out for sounds. As Harry had stated, there was clearly weapons fire.

Cautiously, he rounded a corner, approaching Kathryn's location as one would the location of a dangerous animal. He knew that doing this was possibly the most dangerous thing he'd done in a while, since Kathryn had revoked his privilege to fly shuttles. He took a deep breath as he turned the corner to find Kathryn…

..And found himself at the other end of a phaser rifle.

He looked down at the woman holding the weapon, her jaw dangerously set.

"Kathr-" He was cut off as he was suddenly propelled backwards, hitting the bulkhead with a bang, and sliding down to the ground with a loud thud. There was a brief moment of silence.

"Ow," he managed weakly. A horrified Kathryn looked shocked, and dropped the phaser rifle. She was at his side in an instant.

"I'm sorry," she apologised. "I didn't see it was you.. I thought it was another security officer."

"Is that meant to make it better?" Chakotay asked weakly, wincing as he began to sit up. Kathryn supported his back with one arm, his arm with another, as she helped him sit up. He shook his head. "Kathryn, you have got to stop doing this."

"What?" Her face looked suddenly concerned. "Am I hurting you?"

"I'm talking about this," he said, looking around, and then back at Kathryn. "Honestly, Kathryn, why *do* you hate Doctor's physicals so damn much?"

Kathryn shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't feel the need to waste my time in Sickbay just so he can tell me the same thing: Too much caffeine, too little sleep, and too much work."

"And this is a far more effective use of your time?" Chakotay asked wryly. Kathryn shrugged again.

"It was a slow day, I was bored, I didn't have a burning desire to go down to Sickbay to be poked and prodded by a hologram with a lousy bedside manner."

"So you grabbed your phaser compression rifle and decided to hide out on the lower decks?"

"I prefer to think of it as temporary retreat,'" Kathryn told him with a grin. "As for the phaser compression rifle… well, that was purely for self defence."

Chakotay raised an eyebrow. "Self defence?"

Kathryn nodded, attempting to contain her laughter. "Yes."

Chakotay shook his head. "You went round seeing how many Ensigns you could intimidate again, didn't you?"

"I prefer to think of it as… testing their ability when faced with a hostile intruder."

Chakotay sighed. "I don't think you'd consider escorting me to Sickbay, would you?" He asked.

Kathryn sighed, then offered him her hand to help him up. "I get you in there, and then I run," she informed him. "I'm not staying for there for the Physical."

"As long as there's pain medication in it somewhere for me, that works," Chakotay decided.

"It's a deal."

Gently, he leant on her for support as they began to walk towards Sickbay at a very slow page

"I think it was lucky you avoided Sickbay this morning anyway," Chakotay told her, hobbling along carefully. "From what I've heard, it was pretty nasty in there earlier?"

"What happened?" Kathryn asked, sudden concern for her crew in her eyes.

"B'Elanna and Crewman Harris had a slight… misunderstanding," Chakotay said, wincing at the memory.

Kathryn looked nervous. "How bad was he?"

"Let's just say it took an hour for the Doctor to remove the data PADD…"