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He goes to her that very same night.
He needs to find her, to talk to her, after everything that they’ve gone through. Even though he knows she’s angry with him, he goes to her. Yes, she’s angry: angry that he didn’t allow her to self-sacrifice, that she wasn’t granted the respite of death. That she has to fight to live another day.
Despite it all, she welcomes him wordlessly.
Turns around to see the space outside. Full of stars, again.
He hesitates by her door. Should he apologize? He’s not sure. He’s definitely not sorry for saving her from her suicidal tendencies.
But perhaps he’s sorry that he’s been trying to push her to talk to him ever since she locked herself in her quarters all those months ago. Maybe he could’ve had more tact about the whole situation. Maybe all he did with his pushing was make her drift away from him, further and further away…
“I’m sorry”, she suddenly says, surprising him.
It’s the last thing he expects her to say.
“There’s nothing to be sorry for”.
“There’s a lot to be sorry for. Starting with how I treated you. I truly want to apologize for that, Chakotay. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that”.
She hasn’t turned around, but he can hear her voice tremble with emotion.
“I’ve been a very bad captain to you. A very bad friend”, she moves to see him as she pronounces that word, and he knows, oh he knows what she means by that.
“Kathryn…”
“No: let me finish. I… I lost myself in that void. I… The guilt and… It was just… I couldn’t deal with it. And for me, the natural solution was to… finish with the problem, I guess. And the problem was me”.
“You weren’t the problem, Kathryn”.
“I was, in my mind. It was clear to me that I was the one who had stranded us here, in the Delta Quadrant, and in that damned void as well. If I could help you get out of at least one of them, that would’ve been enough”.
He wants to protest and tell her that she never needs to prove herself that way, but he doesn’t. He knows it’s a lost argument.
“You did help us get out of the void”, he settles for another truth, instead.
“Hmph”, she replies, unconvinced.
“You will get us out of the Delta Quadrant”.
“That’s a war for which I feel deeply unprepared”.
“But we take it one battle at the time”.
An echo of a smile appears on her face.
“I hope to fight them with you alongside”.
“Always”.
She nods.
There’s nothing else to say.
He dares come close to her now. He hugs her from behind, as if it were the most natural thing to do. She leans her head on his chest, because it is the most natural thing to do. And together, they see the stars outside.