SUMMARY: A sad but sweet tale of the end of Janeway and Chakotay's relationship.

CODES: VOY, J/C

RATING: PG

DISCLAIMER: Paramount owns the characters, but since it'll be fifty years or so before they let them have some fun, I'm stepping in for a while. The song at the end is "Beloved Wife" by Natalie Merchant.

NOTES: This is yet another story-inspired-by-a-song. Why can't I just listen to music without stories popping into my head?

"Beloved Wife"
by Liz VanZandt

I came home to the most heartwrenching scene the other morning. We'd all known for some time that Mom was dying. When the doctors first discovered the cancer we were in shock; I couldn't even remember the last time she'd been sick. But, as the doctor explained to us, even in the twenty-fifth century some things still baffle doctors. Mom took it all in stride at first. I brought the kids by to see her more and more often as the weeks progressed, knowing that each time might be the last. Mom loved to see the kids, and I think that up until the last week she was almost in denial of her condition.

Of all of us, Dad took it the hardest. She was his world and he never denied it. We all knew that he would gladly give his life to keep her healthy. Even in their nineties, the passion and love between them was greater than in any couple I have ever known. Even knowing this, it still broke my heart when I walked into their room to find them on the bed together. Dad was slumped over Mom's prone body, clutching her to his chest, tears streaming down his face. I didn't need to ask to know Mom had died overnight. The pain clearly evident on his face was enough to make anyone burst into tears on the spot. It took three people and a sedative before he would finally release her body.

Always the good Starfleet officer, Mom had planned ahead and began arranging for her funeral when the doctors first diagnosed her cancer, so there was little for me to do on that front. Messages from old friends and colleagues came pouring in after the official announcement was made that afternoon, but I was too busy comforting Dad to read any of them yet. He looked so much like a little lost boy that it nearly broke my heart as well. I barely got him to stop crying, but he instead retreated into denial, claiming Mom had only gone into headquarters for the day. I didn't try to correct him, hoping to keep his pain at bay for just a little longer.

I woke the next morning to a quiet house. Looking into my parents' room I found Dad still laying on the bed, just as I'd left him the previous night. I don't know how, but I knew that he wasn't just sleeping. The doctors determined that his heart had stopped, but they couldn't determine why. But I knew. I knew. After fifty years together, Dad just couldn't face the prospect of living without her. She was his heart and soul, just as he was hers. Without one, the other was incomplete.

People will tell their tale for years to come, and mourn the loss of such a love. The lone Starfleet captain and her first officer, the rebel she was sent to capture ... stranded seventy thousand light years from everything familiar ... struggling to combine their crews in an effort to survive ... forming a family aboard the ship as well as together ... a legacy that would stretch beyond both their deaths. I don't mind in the least. It's what they would have wanted. Their love had inspired me many times over, and it only seems right that they should inspire others as well.

I buried my parents together. Not only were they buried the same day right next to each other, but in the same coffin, Dad's arms around Mom, just as they had been for fifty years. It may seem a bit strange or morbid to people who never met my parents, but for those who had the pleasure, it was the perfect end to their life and their love. In my mind, their bodies belonged together in death, because I know that wherever they are now, their souls are together for the rest of eternity, just as they were in life.

The End

* * *

You were the love
for certain of my life
you were simply my beloved wife
I don't know for certain
how I'll live my life
now alone without my beloved wife
my beloved wife

I can't believe
I've lost the very best of me

you were the love
for certain of my life
you were simply my beloved wife
I don't know for certain
how I'll live my life
now alone without my beloved wife
my beloved wife

I can't believe
I've lost the very best of me

you were the love
for certain of my life
for 50 years simply my beloved wife
with another love I'll never lye again
it's you I can't deny
it's you I can't defy
a depth so deep
into my grief
without my beloved soul
I renounce my life
as my right
now alone without my beloved wife
my beloved wife

my beloved wife
my love is gone she suffered long
in hours of pain
my love is gone
now my suffering begins
my love is gone
would it be wrong if I should
surrender all the joy in my life
go with her tonight?

my love is gone she suffered long
in hours of pain
my love is gone
would it be wrong if I should
just turn my face away from the light
go with her tonight?

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