=/\=

It had been two weeks since the USS Voyager had returned to Earth. The publicity and public events had toned down a bit since their arrival, but the invitations to events and social gatherings continued to pour in. Kathryn Janeway was overwhelmed by her calendar, as she had about a millions places to go and people to see a day. The other crewmembers were equally busy, and the visits home were either short-lived or full of interruptions.

The social gatherings were pleasant, but after about twenty of them in a week, Natalie was getting a little tired of the whole thing. Natalie felt completely exposed and violated by the constant questionings. So she decided to stop going.

=/\=

"Natalie! We're going to be late!" Chakotay shouted up the stairs. Natalie sat staring at the reflection of herself in the mirror. Her face was made up with sparkles and purple eye shadow. Her black satin dress lay softly against her slim body and her hair was pinned to the top of her head with decorative ribbons and bobby pins. Underneath all that glitter and shimmer was an exhausted sixteen-year-old girl who wanted nothing more than to climb into bed and sleep until Christmas. Natalie blinked.

She stood up and staggered to the top of the staircase. Natalie still wasn't used to wearing the heels her mother had replicated for her.

"You look beautiful," Chakotay said sincerely. Natalie forced a smile, but her face was hurting from all the picture taking they had been doing. Natalie wasn't sure she could smile anymore.

"I don't want to go," Natalie stated plainly. Chakotay didn't say anything. Natalie repeated herself. "I said I don't want to go."

"Why?" Chakotay replied, although he already knew the answer.

"I'm tired," Natalie answered. She blinked and yawned. Natalie could hear her mother's footsteps come down the hall.

"What's the matter?" Kathryn asked, looking up at Natalie and then back down to Chakotay.

"Natalie doesn't want to go," Chakotay explained.

Kathryn raised her eyebrows. "Oh really? And why is that?".

"Apparently, she's tired," Chakotay continued.

"Oh I see," Kathryn says. "So, Natalie wants to stay home and watch image-vids while her two poor, old parents have to go to another party and talk about the same old missions and adventures and not get a bite to eat because as soon as one person stops talking another person starts and they come home at one in the morning starving and tired, but they only get a few hours of sleep before they have to fly to San Francisco to give a lecture on the same events they talked about the night before. Is that what Natalie wants to do?"

Natalie was stoic looking. She didn't move an inch, not even to breathe. It was a technique her mother had taught her whenever Natalie needed to play dead in order to escape from thieves or kidnappers.

"You're not going to bait me by using your Janeway guilt trips," Natalie replied, an edge in her voice. Kathryn crossed her arms. Natalie was treading on thin ice.

"You are coming to this party," Kathryn ordered.

"No, I'm not," replied Natalie, icily.

"Don't make me order you," Kathryn restated.

"I believe you already did," Natalie retorted. She crossed her arms and waited for her mother's next move.

"Are you looking for trouble, young lady?" Kathryn asked. "Because believe me, I can give it to you." Kathryn gave Natalie her icy Janeway stare that had frozen many enemies in their paths. Natalie wasn't falling for it.

"I don't want to go and there is nothing you can do to make me go," Natalie repeated.

Chakotay stepped in. He held up his hand to silence them both. "Alright, fine. Natalie, you don't have to go. All we wanted was you to be present at a few social events. To celebrate our homecoming. We've finally come home, Natalie, aren't you happy?"

"No!" Natalie shouted. Chakotay and Kathryn were taken aback.

"What?" Kathryn asked, barely audible.

Natalie rolled her eyes, and blinked several times to keep her eyes from tearing up. "No, of course I'm not happy." Her voice wavered. "Why in the universe would I be happy?" Kathryn and Chakotay were puzzled. Their daughter had seemed happy the last few weeks, hadn't she? Kathryn did grant the fact that Natalie had been a bit uncomfortable at a few occasions but she assumed it was just because Natalie didn't know any of the people there. Kathryn had no idea her daughter had been so miserable.

"But we're home," Kathryn protested.

"No! You're home!" Natalie shouted again. "My home is on Voyager and I'm never going back, am I?" Natalie glared at her mother knowingly.

"Natalie…" Kathryn stammered.

"I heard you talking to Admiral Paris!" Natalie yelled at the top of her lungs. "They're turning Voyager into a museum! A museum! Can you believe that?" Natalie was laughing but her eyes were filling with tears. She quickly brushed the tears from her face and walked slowly to her room and firmly shut the door. She collapsed on her bed and cried herself to sleep.

=/\=

When Natalie woke up the next morning she could feel the Indiana sun on her face. Natalie's eyes fluttered open and she covered her eyes with her hand, squinting against the sun that was peering through the opened window. Natalie now dreaded leaving the window open the night before. She was still wearing her dress from the night before and her eye make-up was now smudged onto the pillowcase. Natalie lifted her head and felt her neck crack from the horrible sleeping position she had been on. She rolled over onto her back and stretched.

She got out of bed and stripped out of her black dress then stumbled over to the closet. She pulled out black slacks and a black and white stripped shirt and dressed. Slipping on black sandals, Natalie combed through her hair with her fingers.

Natalie stopped at the top of the stairwell. She could hear her parents talking. She didn't have her chronometer on and she wondered what time it was. Hesitating for only a moment, Natalie walked down stairs. The living room where her parents were talking was to the left of the bottom of the stairwell, and Natalie went to the right without stopping or looking at her parents.

Walking to straight into the kitchen, she asked the replicator for coffee, black, just like her mother.

"Natalie?" her mother's voice called. Natalie picked up a blueberry muffin from the breadbasket. She sat down at the kitchen table and began eating.

"Natalie?" Her mother slowly entered the kitchen. She stood at the head of the table for a moment before sitting down in the chair across from Natalie. Natalie picked off all the blueberries and placed them in a line on her plate. She was allergic to blueberries. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way." Natalie's eyes began brimming with tears.

"It's not fair," her voice cracked.

"You knew we were coming home," Kathryn replied.

"Not that," Natalie stated. She sniffled. "It's not fair that they have to put our lives on display like we're dolls." Kathryn placed her hand on Natalie's.

"Sometimes things don't work out the way we think," Kathryn replied. "But it will be for the best, you'll see."

"How do you know that everything will work out?" Natalie asked. Kathryn was quiet for a moment.

"If I didn't believe that everything would work out in the end, I would have gone insane years ago," she replied. "Everything will work out in the end. It always does."

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