by Dakota

"I'm not sure it's fit to eat," Kathryn was eyeing the food from her replicator warily. "Maybe we should go to the mess hall."

"It looks fine. We'll just scrape off the burned pieces." Chakotay insisted. "You asked me to dinner and I expect you to honor the invitation."

"I don’t know."

"Come on, get the glasses and let's eat before this gets cold." Chakotay smiled as he picked up the food and headed for the table.

Twenty minutes later, he put down his fork and smiled. "See? I told you it would be ok."

"How can you say that? It was terrible. What wasn't burned was only half cooked."

Chakotay stood and picked up his dishes. "I'm telling you, Kathryn…"

Kathryn watched in horror as he doubled over and collapsed on the floor. She slapped her combadge. "Janeway to sickbay. Medical emergency. Beam Commander Chakotay directly to sickbay."

Kathryn practically ran down the corridor to the turbolift then had to cool her heels waiting for one to arrive. After it made one stop to pick up additional passengers, she resorted to glaring at anyone who wanted to use it. She made it to sickbay eventually and saw the doctor working on Chakotay in the surgical bay.

The doctor didn't look up. "If that's you, Captain, please wait in my office. I'll give you a report as soon as I'm finished."

Kathryn sat in the doctor's office for what seemed like hours as the doctor treated Chakotay. When she looked at the clock expecting to note the passage of hours, she saw instead only twenty minutes had elapsed since she had called for the beam out.

The doctor walked in. "The commander will be just fine, Captain. If I hadn't gotten that out of him, he would have died. He's restricted to liquids for the next forty-eight hours."

"When can I see him?"

"You may see him now. He's awake. If all goes well, I'll be able to release him to his quarters later tonight."

Kathryn barely heard the rest of the doctor's comments as she rushed to see Chakotay.

"You had me so worried." She leaned over and hugged him. "I was afraid I had killed you."

"I'm fine, Kathryn. It wasn't your fault." Chakotay wrapped his arms around her.

"Of course it was my fault. I fed you that food. The doctor said it could have killed you."

"My appendix burst, Kathryn. It had nothing to do with what I ate. I'll be fine in a few days."

"It wasn't my food?"

"I told you the food was fine. The worst your cooking ever does is give me a little heartburn."

"Heartburn?" She stood up and stared at him.

"I'd sacrifice a lot more than my digestive system to spend time with you."

"Well, you're not going to make any more sacrifices like that." She smiled as she leaned down to hug him again. "From now on, you'll do all the cooking."