Title: The Fifties
Author: SaRa
Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Paramount and Voyager, Fox and M*A*S*H, yada yada and more yada.
Author's note: My first crossover story is done! Well, sort of. I had this great idea for this elaborate M*A*S*H/Voyager crossover. Actually, this is the outline of the idea I had. I was going to stretch this out, going through every part in great detail until I thought, Oh, what the hell, this is fine. Why mess with a good thing? So, I left it at this. Maybe I'll still do the longer version of it, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. After all, you're still waiting for the third chat fic! Oh, I guess you'd benefit from the knowledge that this is Chakotay's point of view.
Dedication: I have to dedicate this to myself. After all the improvements I've made since I first started writing several years ago, I think I deserve it.



When I came home that day, Kathryn was sitting on the front porch, holding an official looking letter. She was crying.

Immediately, I knew what it was: my draft notice. I was being sent to Korea. To hell. The chances that I'd make it home were slim; it was only the end of first year the States had had troops there. Being from the future, Kathryn and I knew that it would last for three years. And, being from the future, I knew I couldn't afford to go to the war -- rather, the police action -- lest I change history.

On the other hand, maybe this past is my future. Spirits, I hate temporal paradoxes as much as Kathryn does.

I didn't have much of a choice, though. Both combat and prison were miserable and could change history. So, the next day I packed my bags and prepared to ship out for a painfully small amount of basic training.

I left early one morning while Kathryn was still sleeping in our bed. I couldn't bring myself to wake her just to break her heart.

Instead, I left a letter on the pillow that was mine. It told her that I'd write as often as I could, that I'd look out for myself, and that I'd always love her and remain faithful to her. I had also included the ancient legend I had told her two years ago while we had been stranded on New Earth.

Maybe that had been a mistake, I thought during the flight to Korea. The story of the angry warrior was something I always told her. It was sacred to us. It had always come from my lips and my heart. That's what made it so incredibly special. "I love you" lost it's touch after a while, being said or written too often and not with enough feeling. The legend could never become as commonplace as that phrase.

For five months, I fought on the front lines. Each day, I watched my comrades bleed or die. At least once a week, I wrote to Kathryn, swearing that I'd stay alive and in one piece.

During the sixth month, I was wounded.

It happened so quickly, I didn't realize what was coming until I felt the pain in my chest. Until Jack Stevens dragged me back to the aid station, I was sure I'd die. Images of Kathryn flashed through my mind, followed by visions of the anomaly that had brought us here. The temporal distortion wave that had been both a blessing and a curse for us. It had brought Kathryn and me together, but it had also stranded us on 1950s Earth.

Once I'd been brought to battalion aid, they wasted no time shipping me off to a mobile army surgical hospital. A MASH unit.

At the hospital, I met a doctor named Hawkeye Pierce. He assured me that I'd be fine and that, after being shipped to an evacuation hospital, I'd be home.

One night, while I was looking at my crumpled black and white photograph of Kathryn, Hawkeye sat down next to me. "Is that your girl?" he asked.

Yes, I told him. Then I asked if he had someone waiting for him at home.

It turned out he had only his father, but was hoping to bring the unit's head nurse, Margaret Houlihan, home with him and settle down.

Before being sent to the evac, I talked to Margaret Houlihan. She reminded me so much of Kathryn, I almost cried. I hope Hawkeye got her because I know just how hard it is to find someone like that.

Seven months after leaving Kathryn and our Indiana home, I returned.

She was outside gardening when I came home. Before she was aware of my presence, I lifted her into my arms.

She was about to struggle, not yet knowing it was me. So I began to recite our legend.

When she heard my voice, she began to cry softly, letting me know how much I'd been missed.

I carried her into the house and up the stairs to the bedroom. I laid her on the bed and collapesed next to her. That night, we made love for the first time and held each other for the first time in too long.

I proposed the next day and now we're living happily ever after.

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