"Kathryn please, whatever is troubling you…I want to know." Seven said in a soft voice rich in velvet sincerity.

The woman looked down at her naked form. She felt vulnerable and completely exposed. But Seven didn't seem to mind their joint nakedness. In fact, Kathryn was certain that she had never seen the drone so terribly confident. And it was a circumstance that she found strangely disconcerting.

"I don't know how to…" Kathryn tried to explain but only ended up biting off her words. She didn't know how to clarify her feelings to the drone. She didn't even know if Seven could understand.

"Am I an experiment?" Kathryn asked finding her question wholly insufficient to the wide berth of emotion she was actually experiencing.

"What?" Seven asked in a low hushed voice. She realized that the woman was struggling with something. She didn't want to push the former captain. She knew all too well that when it came to emotions Kathryn Janeway would much rather run.

"The way you were touching me…it…it was perfect." Kathryn mumbled absolutely convinced that she was indeed making no sense.

"If that is the case then I fail to see the cause of your distress." Seven answered with a sharpness to her words that hadn't been there before.

"I don't know why you…" The woman began but quickly and resolutely closed her mouth.

The drone was annoyed with her. But more then that, she could tell that Seven was silently mocking her. Here she was, Seven's former mentor on humanity, completely at a loss for words during the most important turning point of their relationship.

She should be calm, rational, and in control. She should be the one explaining away the nuances of emotions that often accompanied sexual experience. Instead, she couldn't even seem to explain her own feelings.

"Just never mind." Kathryn snapped turning to anger in the wake of her confusion.

Quickly, she tried once again to garner the weight of her own body from the strength of Seven's arms. But again, her struggle was useless. She wouldn't be leaving the bed without Seven's consent. And at the moment, it would seem that Seven was all too entertained by her futile resistance.

"Seven, let go!" Kathryn slurred, finding a bitterness that made her seem young and almost childish.

But when the drone heard the innocence in the woman's voice she immediately hid her spreading smile. And yet she couldn't seem to control her mirth. Kathryn Janeway was so tender and alive when she truly gave into her feelings. Seven was beginning to think that she never before seen the woman so in tune with herself.

Yet, she knew that the game had to stop. Kathryn was growing frustrated and Seven knew all too well what would happen if the stubborn woman decided to become angry with her. It was time to end the woman's confusion. And even if Kathryn didn't understand the feelings of her own heart, Seven did. After all, the drone had fallen in love with the brazen woman a long time ago.

"Kathryn, stop…" Seven gently chided taking the woman's clenched fists in the flush of her palm and implant. The woman looked down at the stranger picture her hands made in the bounds of Seven's steel. She knew better then to keep struggling.

"If you need to hear me tell you how I feel about you, I will. I would have volunteered the sentiment earlier but I know how reticent you can become when confronted by certain emotions. I didn't want to frighten you or burden with too much too soon. But if you want to know, I will tell you. All you have to do is ask." Seven said calmly explaining away the situation to her lover.

Kathryn looked up surprised to find that Seven had in fact understood her plight so well. And the drone was offering up the one piece of information that she needed. But now that Seven had reached out the woman didn't know what to do.

She was terribly frightened. But she was more frightened by her own heart then she was by all the technology found in the hive. She loved Seven. Somewhere between the anger and the fear she had managed to fall in love with tall beautiful drone.

And there was always the possibility that Seven couldn't or wouldn't return her feelings. But when she stared into Seven's soft blue eye, Kathryn knew that wouldn't be the case. Seven most assuredly did care for her. She even realized that the drone might actually love her. And that perhaps was what frightened her most of all.

If Seven loved her then Kathryn knew all was certainly lost. She could so easily give everything up to the drone. She could surrender her body, her heart, and even her humanity. She would do it all, if only Seven could love her with half the wild abandon capable of her beating human need.

And that was a thought that terrified the soft tender woman. Her humanity would vanish if she were to take up with the drone. She would surely give herself over to this life, to this technology, to these strange ideals if only Seven would agree to be hers. And Kathryn didn't know if she couldn't handle losing everything she had been… simply because her heart decided to fall in love.

"We do not have to discuss this if you do not wish." Seven whispered gently cupping the face of her human lover.

She could see the confusion washing across Kathryn's features. The woman needed to hear this. The woman needed to know. But Seven wouldn't push her.

"Seven…please…" Kathryn mumbled finally allowing the quiet part of her soul to take the decision from her hands. No matter what answer Seven gave her; the woman knew it would have long standing consequences.

Gently, Seven pushed the woman off her body. Kathryn was confused at first until she felt the soft gentle swell of the mattress against her back. Seven really didn't know why she had indulged the sudden compunction to move Kathryn beneath her body.

But she supposed that it had something to do with intimacy. She wanted to look the woman in the eyes. She wanted to watch her words as Kathryn absorbed them. And yet more then that, she wanted the woman to feel safe and protected.

Her body was larger then the woman's and it settled gently around Kathryn's smaller limbs. She wanted the human to know that she was sheltered from everything that had come before. She wanted Kathryn to know that now, they had each other and nothing could ever come between them. Voyager was long gone as were their respective responsibilities. She needed Kathryn to know that the woman no longer shouldered the burden of command. Here in the hive, she was simply Kathryn Janeway, the woman who had stolen Seven's heart.

"Kathryn…" She murmured gently stroking the woman's face with the flushed heat of her warm human palm.

Kathryn seemed to eye her in something akin to eager anticipation. And the drone wanted the wait to end. They had come much too far to let things like mere words separate them from one another.

"I love you. But you already knew that. In way, I think that I've always loved you." Seven said with a soft voice filled with honesty.

And it truly came as no surprise to her when the woman beneath her gently shed the tears that filled her eyes. To her, Kathryn seemed relieved and a bit surprised. Her breath seemed to catch in her throat and for a split second Seven wondered if she might have some sort of medical emergency on her hands. But instead, there were only the soft whispered words that Seven had been waiting so desperately long to hear.

"I love you too." Kathryn answered knowing that without question, her fate had certainly been sealed.

There was no turning back now. Deep inside her being, Seven now owned a piece of her soul. And though taken in love and tenderness, Kathryn knew that from now till eternity she would forever be connected to Seven. Because surely without the drone by her side, she would never again be whole…