Title: Goldfish
Author: SaRa
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Are we satisfied now?
Author's note: Wow, I'm on a roll! This is my third fanfic in as many days. At any rate, you should know that no goldfish (or Goldfish) were harmed in the making of this story. Heck, they've got nothing to do with it!



"Commander Chakotay, my ready room -- *yesterday!*"

Kathryn Janeway wasn't in a good mood. To be honest, she was downright pissed. No one on Alpha shift, which was just ending, knew why. Each was simply happy with the knowledge he hadn't been called into the ready room of doom to be interrogated, demoted, tortured, and/or wiped out of existence.

Everyone, that is, except Chakotay. He followed her through the door like a prisoner being led to his execution. Perhaps if he obeyed quickly and without question, it would be a humane execution. That thought was annihilated when he noticed the look on Janeway's face.

"Learned anything?" she demanded, walking around to the other side of the desk so she would be unable to reach him, wrap her hands around his neck, and squeeze until he turned purple. Or better, rip his heart out and show it to him.

"Um," he stammered, "calling the captain Katie when the entire bridge crew can hear you is not good for your health?"

Through clenched teeth she said, "Try again."

It hit him what he'd said last night while talking to Tuvok over a comm link to the bridge. He'd been slightly intoxicated at the time -- and that was before Neelix' party. "Saying to the security chief, who happens to be on the bridge, 'I have to go now. Katie wants a fast one before the party,' is horrible behavior for the ship's first officer."

"Bull's-eye. Now, is there any reason whatsoever that I should restrain myself from kicking your sorry ass right out the nearest airlock?" That was no joke. At that moment, Kathryn was unable to see a reason to spare her lover's worthless life.

Quickly he thought up a reason that would allow him to win the disagreement for the time being. "Because I can love you better than anyone else on this ship, holographic or otherwise."

"Is that not what got you into trouble to begin with?"

Chakotay was smart enough to keep his mouth firmly shut so as not to dig a hole for himself.

Circling around to the other side of the desk, Kathryn said, "Get out before I get Tuvok in here and have him phaser you into oblivion. I will do it, so don't push me."

"Yes, ma'am!" Chakotay was out the door in a split second, wearing the dopiest grin Tom Paris, who had just come on duty with Beta shift, had ever seen. It would take nothing short of someone literally biting his head off, Tom decided, to prevent Chakotay from smiling after leaving the ready room. He knew that at the very least they were making out in there, though he had no proof as of yet.

Turning back to his station, he composed a message to B'Elanna.

To: B'Elanna Torres
From: Tom Paris
Subject: It seems romance isn't forbidden in the ready room...

B'Ela-
After their most recent encounter in the ready room, the snack that smiles back until KJ bites his head off has finally reappeared. I bet they were in there all through Alpha shift doing more than just reports. Think you could help me get the truth out of them?
-Tom

Additional author's note: If I'm asked often enough and nice enough, I might write a sequel. Emphasis on "might."
**This is my response to the JetCjr10 Song Title Challenge and a challenge I gave myself: use part of the Goldfish jingle in a fanfic; hence, the title.**

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