It had been a very close thing and Chakotay had honestly needed a lot of time to recover. The odd thing about all of this was that it had given him a reason to let go. He never would have imagined that getting a small taste of her like that would have made him more willing to give her up, but that was exactly what had happened. Knowing where she stood emotionally and professionally meant that he was more than capable of stepping back and looking at what had happened with more clarity than he would have liked to admit he could.

And, okay, part of that had come from his drunken conversation with the wolf hallucination, but it had only strengthened what he had come to realize anyway. In order for him to be the support she absolutely needed, the pillar of strength he wanted to be for her, he had to let go of the small hope he'd been clinging to that they could be anything other than what they were. Her reaction to the kiss had told him they never would be anything else.

"Sounds like a good change," he answers. "Care to have help or is this one of those projects you'd rather do on your own?"

He's smiling again, offering her an expression free of worry, of fear, of anything other than what he always gives her when they're both in good enough moods to dictate it: respect and friendship. He's her First Officer, but he also wants to be her friend. That's how they've always worked together and he doesn't want that to change.