Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Paramount invented the characters and the original storyline, I just went and played with it a bit.
Genre: Friendship/Angst
Date: 05/31/05
Ok to archive
Thank you to my beta – Peter Simon
Summary and Author's Note: This was originally supposed to be just a general friendship fluff fan fiction piece, hence the subject matter – Trip getting pregnant again, but after "Terra Prime" I thought it would be a good idea to make it into a Trip/T'Pol one. Dramatic events like losing a child can either tear a couple apart or bring them closer together. I thought it would be good to do both in this story, having them torn apart from losing Elizabeth, but also bringing them together even stronger by having T'Pol support and help Trip deal with this new pregnancy. The child represents hope for her home world and as Trip's pregnancy progresses, the idea grows on her that it could apply to a child of theirs also.
Chapter One
Six months had gone past since the death of their child; and regrettably, it seemed like Trip and T'Pol's relationship had ended the same way as well. At first, T'Pol had accepted Trip's support and help in dealing with her emotions of grief, but pretty soon she closed herself off and withdrew unto herself. Trip initially wasn't surprised by her reaction. This had always been T'Pol's way of dealing with raw emotions she couldn't handle; she locked them away and acting as if the incident had never happened in her portrayal of a typical, cold hearted, non-emotional Vulcan manner.
Seeing her like this hurt Trip. He knew from their shared bond that T'Pol was suffering just as much as he was, and he had hoped that she'd let him help her deal with her grief, but her constant brush offs, closed off aloofness, and her reluctance to even speak with him was driving him to distraction. Deciding that he wasn't going to stand for it anymore, Trip cornered T'Pol into a confrontation on where they were headed 'as a couple'. Unfortunately, the outcome wasn't to his liking: T'Pol explained that she just couldn't handle a relationship with him at this moment in time, because when she looked at him all the emotions of what they had lost just kept filtering back. She said she needed time. Trip didn't want to see her hurting and in pain like this, so he reluctantly agreed to give her the space she needed.
Six months later they had at least been able to gain back a good professional working relationship, although the distance was still very much between them. On the outside they were still good friends, but on the inside they were like two lost souls, each wanted more, but the fear being too great when they remembered what Paxton and others like him had put them through. There would always be opposition to their pairing from both Humans and Vulcan's alike. Paxton's group may have acted in the extreme, but there was still enough hatred to make a life together hard for them on either of their home planets. T'Pol wasn't sure if what they had was strong enough to withstand the opposition they would face. The bond was still there, but as the distance grew the effects began to wane.
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It was late Friday evening, and Malcolm, Hoshi, and Travis all decided that Trip needed some distraction from his troubles. All he seemed to be interested in these days was to immerse himself in work. So they invited him to Hoshi's quarters to play a couple of rounds of poker. Malcolm had brought enough beer for all of them and Trip had brought a variety of chips and pretzels that everyone was eagerly dipping into. Their conversation was lively and jocular throughout the night, especially since Trip was losing badly to Hoshi because of her amazing bluffing ability.
"God damn it!" exclaimed Trip as he lost another round to Hoshi. "Son of a bitch, ya did it again."
Hoshi just threw him an innocent look, much to the amusement of Malcolm and Travis who were rolling on the floor with laughter.
"I'm glad I'm such an object of amusement for you guys," said Trip trying to feign annoyance.
"Hey, take pity on us. It's been a while since you were pregnant," laughed Malcolm.
Trip threw him a look of disgust.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but it's so funny," laughed Travis. "You should know by now what a shark she is, but you stubbornly refuse to give up and keep plugging away, giving her more ammo to whip your butt with."
"Watch who you're calling a shark," smirked Hoshi as she gathered up another stash of chips from the centre of the table.
"Maybe you should play a game where you'll be more evenly matched?" Travis grinned at the Commander. "How about Snap?"
"Are you kidding?" Malcolm laughed. "I'm sure Hoshi will wipe the floor with him even in that game."
"Har, Har, Har." said Trip as he stood up, "on that note I'm off."
"Come on, Sir!" pleaded Travis. "Don't leave … we'll stop."
"Sorry, Travis, but if I'm gonna have any pay left this month, I have to leave now."
Just when Trip turned round towards the door, there was a sound of someone imitating a chicken squawking, but he just shook his head and smirked before walking out of the door.
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Ten minutes later Trip walked onto the bridge towards the Engineering console.
"I thought you were off-duty?" Archer asked him.
"I was," Trip replied, "but since Hoshi decided to wipe the floor with my ass and take three quarters of my pay in a poker game, I thought I would put in some extra hours to make up for it."
"I thought you knew better than to challenge Hoshi in a poker game," laughed Archer as he walked towards him, leaning on the railing.
"Didn't ya know I'm a sucker for punishment?" Trip replied with a grin. "I thought she was having me on when she said she was thrown out of the Academy for running card games."
"That wasn't even the half of it." Archer replied. "I had a hell of a time convincing brass into reinstating her for this mission."
"What do ya mean, that wasn't the half of it?"
"Why don't you leave that and join me in my ready room?" said Archer, steering him towards the door. "You're not going to believe half of the stuff our little linguist got up to….."
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Trip shook his head and laughed at what he had just heard.
"It's always the quiet ones, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Archer confirmed with a smile, "compared to the image she portrays, she sure was a wild one. Although having said that, you'll never find a more loyal and truer friend."
"What am I? Chopped liver?" replied Trip, pretending to be put out.
"Beside you," laughed Archer, throwing him a 'pain in the ass' look as he went to get two more bottles from the fridge. "Do you want to watch the new game I got sent through last week?"
"Sure, who's playing?"
"Texas verses Miami." Archer chuckled as he walked over to his desk to pick up the memory chip with the recording. "From what I've heard, it sounds right up your alley – a tight match with plenty of questionable calls that you can yell at."
"Bring it on!" Trip said with enthusiasm, and settled himself down into a comfortable position on the coach.
Just then, the comm.. buzzed.
"Archer?"
"Sorry to disturb you, Sir, but we've picked up a distress call three light years away from our current position."
"Change course to rendezvous and call up the senior staff," the captain replied, "we'll be there in five minutes."
"Sorry Trip, looks like we'll have to postpone this for another time."
"No rest for the wicked," said Trip, chuckling. "Come on, let's see who needs our help this time."
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Chapter Two
The distress call turned out to be from a small, slick vessel carrying two male occupants. It didn't look that out of the ordinary at first; but as they drew closer, Trip ran several scans to get some idea of the problem they were facing. By now, he was almost salivating at the thought of getting on board of this ship: she was capable of Warp 7.5.
"How much longer, Ensign?" asked Trip, as he pacing up and down behind the Captain's chair in anticipation.
Before she could reply, "Trip, will you sit down before you wear a hole in the deck plating?" Archer chided his Chief Engineer with feigned annoyance. "Hoshi will put them through as soon as we're within hailing distance."
"That ship is capable of Warp 7.5," Trip said in an eager fashion. "Have ya any idea how long I waited to get a look at engines capable of going that speed?"
"Well, it's not going anywhere fast," smiled Archer, "so will you please sit down? Or do I have to kick you off the Bridge, back to your Engine Room?"
With a pout, Trip sat down near the Engineering station, but his constant fidgeting soon had the bridge crew shaking their heads with a smile – he was like a kid waiting to tour a chocolate factory where he had been promised to get as many free samples as he liked.
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"Thank you for answering our distress call," said Trevella over the view screen. "We were concerned about being stranded here for a while; not many ships traverse this space."
"We are explorers from Earth," smiled Archer, "and we're en-route for a nebular cluster bordering this system when we detected your signal. How can we assist you?"
Allion, the other occupant of the ship answered his question. "We are merchant runners from Daled V, and we are a very tight schedule, so there is always too little time for ship's maintenance. This neglect has finally caught up with us and burned us, I'm afraid. The engine damage is beyond my repair due to a shortage of the necessary parts. Anything you could spare, we would be eternally grateful. It is very important for us to get back on schedule and to make our delivery on time."
"I'll send my Chief Engineer over to look it." Archer offered and grinned when he saw Trip's eager face. Trip would probably reach Warp 7.5 too on his way over there.
"We're eternally grateful," replied Trevella, "Shall we dock with you then?"
Archer nodded, and indicated to Trip to begin making the necessary preparations. As he had predicted, Trip almost jumped to his feet and headed for the Shuttle Bay. He watched his friend leave, and after a moment's thought Archer turned back to the view screen. "Would you like to come over for a tour of our ship and a meal?" he offered the aliens. "My Chief Engineer could assess the damage in the meanwhile."
"I'd prefer to stay aboard and help out, if you don't mind; but hopefully we'll get a chance to meet properly before the repairs are finished. Thank you again, Captain."
Without another word, the alien cut off the transmission.
"That wasn't nice……" Hoshi thought out load and looked at the Captain. "I wonder why they didn't want to come over?"
"Maybe they are not comfortable around species they are unfamiliar with," T'Pol suggested.
"If that were the case, they would hardly have asked us for help," Hoshi countered in a slight sarcastic tone.
"Maybe there not used to small talk?" Malcolm offered.
"Whatever the reason is," said Archer, settling down into his chair again, "I'm sure Trip will give us a long report on his return."
"Are you kidding?" Malcolm chuckled to almost everyone's amusement. "After having seen those engines, we'll be unable to shut him up for weeks."
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"All is not lost," said Trevella. "We may be able to turn this to our advantage: we can use the Earthlings to detour our cargo and to throw off our enemies."
"How do we know if they are even physically capable of carrying her?" asked Allion. "We can't take any risks! Her survival is our last hope."
"Don't worry, the Gods are with us. I ran some bio scans while I was talking to their captain, and the results were quite interesting. Apparently both of their genders are capable of carrying."
"Both genders? That is unusual," Allion confirmed
"Quite unusual. The scans showed that the blond Engineer has previously carried a child. So the only thing that stands against us now is time -- time to complete the transfer and our repairs before they close in and find us."
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"How's it going, Trip?" Captain Archer asked when walking into Engineering. Trip apparently was still packing tools and equipment.
"Just finished packing up -- I'll need 5 more minutes. Have they docked yet?"
"They're docking right now. Malcolm's at the hatch doing some last minute checks."
Once Trip was finished, the two men walked towards the docking hatch together. "I half expected T'Pol asking to supervise me, considering how their technology is more advanced than ours and all that….." Trip joked, but when he saw the Captain coyly look away and cover his face with his hands as if trying to hide a smirk, an idea came to him. "She did?" he burst out.
"She mentioned something along those lines."
"Ya said no, didn't ya?" asked Trip, a little annoyed.
"She'll be able to give you a hand." replied Archer, a little cagily.
"Hell no!" Trip stood in the corridor and with his hands on his hips. "She'll bug the hell outta me and drive me nuts within the day, treating me like a god-damn kid who's trying to steal candy."
"I think your exaggerating, Trip."
"No I'm not. There is no way I'll be able to get anything fixed, because she'll refuse to tell me anything, saying it's too damn classified for me to know."
"Trip, I think you're going a bit overboard here….."
"Remember how she wouldn't let me near the Science Station's sensors after she had re-calibrated to Vulcan specs six months ago? And only then would she let me near them after the Vulcans had upgraded theirs to a higher standard."
Captain Archer pretended to ignore this. He had heard about the incident after Trip had threatening to boot T'Pol out of the airlock. "She's got a lot of experience, Trip, and I think you'll find that useful. I thought you and T'Pol had managed to get past your differences?"
"We have, Cap'n. This is nothing against T'Pol. I still care for her -- even if her feelings aren't mutual --, and I respect her as my senior officer."
"I know you do, Trip. I'm sorry it didn't work out between you. I admire how you both managed to set aside your personal differences during work."
"Thanks. It's not been easy, but I learned the hard way that running away doesn't solve anything. Trip appeared to be in deep thought for a moment before he went on. "Anyway I'm still holding out that she'll come round to my boyish charm and devilish good looks again," he smirked, much to Archer's amusement. "What I meant to say is that Trevella and Allion will be there as well -- it's their ship, so I think they'll be able to provide whatever help I'll need. Besides, it's only a small ship with limited space, and it'll be too cramped with T'Pol over there. We'll just end up getting under each other's feet."
Captain Archer looked a bit thoughtful but unconvinced.
"I promise," Trip urged, "if I need her help, I'll comm her straight away. I'm pleading for my sanity here, Captain."
"All right. I'll pass on the bad news, but if it looks like it's taking you too long, she's coming over there, and I don't care whether she gets under your feet or not."
"Thanks, Cap'n. I owe ya one."
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