Chapter 2

The door to the captain's mess slid open with a swoosh sound and Trip stepped in. The doors closed behind him, as he took his seat across from the Captain. He noticed that Archer looked particularly cheerful this morning. It wasn't his usual optimistic appearance, but seemingly more.

"Good Morning, Trip." The Captain stated after a Trip had sat down.

"If you say so, Cap'n." Trip replied in a near mumble. He wasn't usually this short with Archer, but he was already having a particularly bad day. He was sulking. It was a practice he usually reserved for tragic events, and even then, he hesitated to show it, but today was different.

"What's on your mind," Archer said in a less chipper tone, as to say instead I am listening, what's wrong? He waited for the response, which he knew would be less than accurate. It seemed to him like one of the days where he would have to do a bit of digging before reaching what was really bugging his best friend. Trip was just like that. He felt bad if he thought his bad mood was making others feel bad as well. Of course, this was a rare occurrence, seeing as he usually had the can-do attitude, but it was known to happen.

"Nothin', just not feelin' well." Trip stated after a great pause, not entirely certain how to say it without coming across as complaining.

"What kind of not feeling well?" Archer asked, "Do you need to see Dr. Phlox?" He knew full well that it wasn't the case, but he knew he had to say certain things to get down to the bottom of whatever was bothering Trip.

"Nah, it's not that kinda not feelin' well." Trip replied. "It was just a bad dream."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"What was it about?"

"Can we just drop it?"

"If my chief engineer is not in the right mindset to be on duty, I want to know about it." Captain Archer knew by the expression on his best friend's face that those weren't exactly the best words to have used.

"I'll be fine. It was just a dream." Trip sighed, practically attacking his scrambled eggs. Archer stared, knowing that it was something more.

"Tell me," Archer pressed. "Please." Trip looked down and set down his fork.

"Okay" Trip resigned.