Part of my "The Dirt In Which Our Roots May Grow" Series, these stories aren't in any particular order and the collection will be updated and added too as I write them.
The water in the tub has gone cool, not surprising after an hour in the bath and four games of 'the sehlat saves the ship' with Elizabeth. T'Pol has come to enjoy these quiet evenings on maternity leave, she takes a bath with Elizabeth, tucks her into bed, sits up with Trip a while and then gets into bed with Elizabeth. Tonight however is slightly different, they've bathed but now Elizabeth will be going into her own bed in her own room, a first for the almost four-year-old.
T'Pol gets out of the bathtub, dries and dresses herself and then lifts Elizabeth out of the bath. "Are you ready to sleep in your own bed?" She asks as she towel dries Elizabeth.
"Maybe… but I'd rather sleep with you and Daddy like every night." Elizabeth pouts, T'Pol pulls the night gown over her head and pulls her arms through the sleeves before speaking.
"Well now that you're going to have a baby sister she'll need to sleep with your father and I," T'Pol explains as she towel dries Elizabeth's hair. "And since you're the oldest you need to sleep on your own."
"Can you read me two stories then?" Elizabeth asks, now allowing T'Pol to pull a comb through her hair.
"Very well, we can read two stories." T'Pol puts the comb down and usher's Elizabeth into her bedroom. Elizabeth grabs two books from her bookshelf and crawls into bed, T'Pol takes the books from her and starts to read. "Ych'a slams the door behind her…"
Two stories later T'Pol kisses Elizabeth's hair and leaves the room. She pauses a moment a few feet from the door, expecting to hear Elizabeth call her name or run out of the room for her, when she doesn't hear anything she walks the rest of the way into the living room. She pauses again waiting to see if she'll hear anything before she gets to the couch, she doesn't.
Trip is sitting on the couch with the name book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. T'Pol picks up the cup of tea from the coffee table and curls up next to him.
"She went down fine, now we'll just see if she stays there." It was only their first night of trying to get Elizabeth to sleep on her own, every time they'd tried when she was younger she'd screamed all night and they'd decided it wasn't worth it. The movement inside of her is a clear reminder that this time they must stick to their word and make her sleep on her own, they can't have two children in their bed.
"She'll be fine, she's almost 4 it's time she was on her own anyway." Trip assures her, rubbing her leg and picking up the book of names from the side table.
"What if she needs us?" T'Pol says, rubbing her round stomach nervously and looking over at Trip, he was far too comfortable with the idea of their child on her own all night. "She's only three and a half, her birthdays not for another 4 months."
"T'Pol," Trip says, setting the book down and looking over at her. "If she needs us, she'll come and get us. Besides what could she need us for?"
"She could have a nightmare, wet the bed, or just need her mother." T'Pol says, really she can think of a whole list of reasons, kidnapping, home invasion, she could be eaten by the wild sehlat that they'd heard on the prowl last night.
"She's never had nightmares, she's never been a bet wetter and that sehlat is outside the wall it can't get in the house. Besides we called the authorities about having it relocated this afternoon." Trip chuckles, sometimes she hates that he can tell what she's worried about. The pregnancy has made her more prone to worry and more emotional then she'd care for, but it had been a difficult pregnancy.
She'd spent a total of eleven days in the hospital, three days for an early labor scare, four days for a kidney infection, two days because they'd been concerned about the heart rate of the baby and two days because she'd had an amniocentesis to rule out genetic anomalies. Following the early labor scare last week they'd told her she was going to have to deliver early at the hospital, the baby was closer to human size then Vulcan and if it got much larger her heart would be crushed and she could die. T'Pol knows that all of these factors meant it was even more important for Elizabeth to sleep on her own as Jonathan Archer would be coming to stay with her while T'Pol was in the hospital.
"I know, but what if we're not doing the right thing, and what if she's traumatized by this?" T'Pol asks, leaning against Trip. Trip puts the book of names down and puts an arm around her.
"T'Pol, I love you but that is the single dumbest thing you've ever said to me." He chuckles. "No child has ever been traumatized by sleeping in their own bed. She'll be fine, we just have to stick to it this time and she'll get over it in a few days. Besides like it or not you're not just having a baby in a week, you're also having major abdominal surgery, and Lizzie is gonna have to be fine on her own with Captain Archer for a few days. And she will be fine, and I know that because she's our daughter."
T'Pol had almost managed to put the major surgery part out of her mind. She hated how this was the least natural way to have a child, she'd been planning to give birth in the garden, assisted by a midwife the same as her mother had. That had all been tossed aside when the baby surpassed the normal Vulcan size and continued growing, now she couldn't even be induced and deliver naturally. Trip was right, that was a major surgery she'd need time to recover from and she couldn't be worrying about Elizabeth while she was – though she'd worry anyway she did have to minimize those concerns.
"You're probably right," Before she can say more a small figure jumps over the back of the couch and curls up next to her.
"Momma, I don't want to sleep in my own bed." Elizabeth whines, pushing her dark hair out of her eyes and blinking her blue eyes up at her mother. T'Pol glances at Trip, she was soft for their daughter's eyes, he stands up and picks up Elizabeth.
"Sorry Princess you have to, come on, Daddy'll tuck you back in." He says kissing her cheek and walking back to the bedroom.
T'Pol reaches over and picks up the baby name book, setting it on her stomach and opening to the page they'd marked. They were still stuck on a middle name, they'd agreed on a first name, Elaine, after Trip's mother, but they still couldn't settle on a middle name.
T'Ryaa, T'Saaf, T'Saan, T'Sai, T'Sala, T'Sey, T'Shael, T'Shanik. The list goes on and she skims it before flipping the page
"Hang on." Trip says, she jumps, she hadn't even heard him return. He flips the page back and points to the name he's seen. "I like that one."
"T'Shanik?" T'Pol asks.
"Yeah."
"It means 'lady loved at first sight'" T'Pol says. "It fits."
"Fits? But do you like it?" She can feel Trip grinning down at her.
"Elaine T'Shanik Tucker, an appropriate name for a longed for child." T'Pol says. "I like it."