Title: Tainted Love
Author: SaRa
Rating: PG


Disclaimer: T'aint mine.
Author's note: Becca challenged us to write a drunken fic, so I took her up on that. Naturally, nothing I do can ever done the way people want or expect. Thanks go out to Becca for the title.
Warning: Touchy subject.

Oh, God, he's drunk again. It's obvious in the way he bellowed my name in that deep voice of his. His usually soft, calm voice is loud and angry. It's making me tremble in fear, and I don't know what to do.

"Kathryn!" he yells again, and it bounces off the walls of our house.

"In the kitchen," I answer, sounding braver than I feel.

He storms in, his footsteps heavy and uneven. When he sees me -- all three of me, undoubtedly -- sitting in a chair, he comes over and puts his hands on either side of me, bracing himself on the wall. "How about a kiss?" he slurs.

I'm scared. Really and truly scared. This isn't the Chakotay I love; the man I married. He's a total stranger.

When you're as small as I am, you have good reason to fear a man as big and as drunk as Chakotay is. I haven't been badly hurt since he started drinking -- a few days after we made it home -- but there's a first time for everything.

"No," I say, ducking under his arm and standing. I turn my back on him only to see his reflection in the window. I follow my human nature and flee from this danger.

He keeps calling after me, asking that same question over and over.

I hurry up the stair case and lock myself in the bathroom. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror and drop to the floor, silently sobbing, hoping he doesn't hear. I don't come out until I'm sure he has passed out.

It's the night after he came home drunk, and I'm laying in his arms, content after our love making. There's no trace of that angry stranger anywhere tonight.

As I drift off to sleep, I pray to whatever gods might be listening that tomorrow will be a good day.

home:/fic:/back:/feedback?