Chapter 2

The next morning Sulu dropped Demora off at the school room and said goodbye to her, he hovered in the doorway briefly as she sat at a table and chatted with another little girl who looked around the same age. He smiled to himself as he headed to the bridge, his worries about her being OK melting away. They had tried contacting Ben before breakfast but he didn't answer, so they sent a picture of Demora in her new uniform and went on their way. Demora hadn't seemed too interested in calling him but Sulu didn't think much of it.

He relieved the pilot and said good morning to his friends, checking through the coordinates Chekov had sent through to him. Kirk joined them on the bridge shortly after Sulu arrived and reviewed the course that had been plotted to their next destination.

Sulu neared the end of his shift when he got a message from Ben his PADD. 'Sorry I missed you earlier, overslept. B- x.' He left it until after his shift, though something didn't add up. Ben never overslept, even if he did it wouldn't be until 2 in the afternoon, which it would have been in Yorktown.

Demora hugged him when he picked her up from class and they went to the Long-Distance communicators to call Ben. Demora stayed very quiet during their call and barely spoke to her dad. Sulu didn't know what to make of it, but he chose not to comment.

From that day, Sulu began to notice more things. 1. Ben became increasingly difficult to get a hold of and when they did he seemed distracted. 2. Demora spoke very little or not at all while talking to Ben. And 3. Demora was hiding something from him.

A few weeks previous, Ben and Sulu's first talk after Demora was found:

Demora sat in the waiting area of the Long-Distance communicators. She was in trouble she knew that much. Her dads were talking and she could hear them. She was angry at her dad, Ben. She knew things he wasn't telling her other daddy but she didn't want to upset him. She knew her dad was doing bad things because when her daddy came on leave from Starfleet the visits stopped.

While her daddy was in space, her dad had visitors, and some of them stayed overnight. He thought she didn't know, but she could hear, her hearing was really good. One of her dad's visitors had spoken to her once. Told her not to tell her daddy, or he would be very upset. She was 4 at the time and didn't want her daddy to be upset. So she didn't tell. But she wished she had.

One day Sulu had had enough. He couldn't understand why Demora was being so distant from Ben or why Ben was so hard to get a hold of. He sat her down at the table in their quarters. "Sweetie I need you to tell me something," Demora looked worried, he was nervous, he had no idea what the answer to his question could be. "Why won't you speak to your dad?"

"'M not s'pposed to tell you." She said quietly, his anxiety rose.

"What aren't you supposed to tell me? Demora you aren't in trouble I'm just worried about you, you're very quiet."

"But he'll be mad at me."

"Who will?"

"Dad, and dad's friend. His friend told me not to tell you because you'd be upset."

"Why would I be upset?" He asked.

"Because dad has sleepovers." Sulu paused, wondering what she could mean by that.

"Sleepovers with who?" He asked cautiously.

"A man. I think his name is Mike, he only comes over when I'm s'pposed to be asleep. But he has loud feet. He wakes me up." Sulu didn't want to go on; he was starting to realise what she was saying.

"Are you sure?" Demora nodded. "Wait here a minute?" She nodded again while he typed at his PADD, he was silent until someone knocked on the door. Uhura was there.

"Everything OK?" She asked.

"Could you watch Demora for a little bit? I need to go to Long-Distance, and I think it's best she isn't there." Uhura nodded, "thank you."

When he arrived at Long-Distance he took a seat in one of the private booths and dialled Ben. No answer. He could feel dread in the pit of his stomach. He dialled again. Call ignored. He dialled again. After a while Ben answered, he had no shirt and his hair was dishevelled. "Hikaru, is everything OK?"

"Who's Mike." He signed.

"Hikaru-"

"Who is Mike and why is Demora telling me that he told her I couldn't know about him because it would make me sad?" He heard another voice, muted and out of view. 'Is he there with you?' He typed, too angry to focus his hands on signing.

"Hikaru it isn't-"

"It's true, isn't it?" Ben fell silent. He'd been caught. He sighed.

"I-"

"Just don't," he signed, trying desperately to hold himself together. "Ben I- I need to go."

"Hika-" he was cut off by the call being ended. Hikaru sat there for a minute, composing himself. He ran his hands over his face, feeling something cool drag over his cheek. He looked at his hand, his wedding ring glared back at him. He took it off and held it between his fingers. Anger bubbled beneath the surface but he had to hold it together, he could talk to Ben once he was calm and had processed everything. Ben. The thought made him even angrier. Knowing he couldn't let Demora see him like this, he forced the ring into his pocket and went to the gym, asking a crew member who worked in Long-Distance to let Uhura know.

In the gym he found a pair of gloves and tried taking his frustrations out on one of the punch bags. It rattled heavily on its chains as he delivered blow after blow to it. Now he understood. He was sure this was behind Demora stowing away on the ship, she had known. He wondered how long she had been forced to keep this a secret. He got angrier and punched harder. It did nothing. Discarding the gloves, he went to the track and started running. And running. And running. He ran until his legs gave almost gave out beneath him and he felt himself being picked up and carried to the side and sat his back against a wall. He looked up to see the Captain. He offered Sulu a bottle of water, he took it and drank. His throat was dry.

"Everything alright Lieutenant?" Sulu shot him a look. "Anything I can help with?" Sulu shook his head. "Anything you wanna talk about?" Sulu sighed.

"Ben has been cheating on me." He said, "that's why Demora stowed away. Or at least one of the reasons. I called to check, caught him in the act." He took the bottle and sprayed it on his face and hair. Kirk sat beside him. "It all makes so much sense." He said sadly.

"I'm sorry Hikaru," he said softly. "I'm gonna have to sign you off for a few days or have Bones do it. You need time to process this." He told him and Hikaru didn't argue.

"I don't know if I can face her Jim." He said referring to his daughter who was back in his quarters. "I don't think I can do this."

"Demora loves you, loves you enough that she stowed away on the Enterprise just to spend more time with you. She'll love you no matter what happens between you and Ben." He nodded. "Hit the showers Lieutenant, then get some rest, that's an order." Kirk pushed himself up to stand and offered Sulu his arm to pull him up. Sulu was unsteady on his feet for a moment but managed to get cleaned up and back into his clothes relatively unharmed.

When he arrived back at his quarters Demora was dressed and ready for bed. He dropped to his knees and opened his arms, she ran into them wrapping her arms around his neck, tears running over her cheeks onto his shirt. He held her tightly and stroked her hair, Uhura left them, placing a hand on Sulu's shoulder as she left. Once the door closed tears escaped his eyes also. "I'm sorry daddy," Demora sobbed in his arms.

"You don't have to be sorry baby," he assured her, "you never have to be sorry for this. This has nothing to do with you, understand?" He pulled her back and wiped her tears away with his thumbs. She nodded and he pulled her back to him and let her cry until she couldn't anymore. Demora fell asleep in his arms so he tucked her in to bed, pressing a kiss to her temple and pausing in the doorway for a moment to watch her sleep. Fresh tears spilled over his cheeks.

He sent a quick message to her teacher on his PADD explaining she might or might not be in class tomorrow. He wasn't going to force her to go if she didn't want to but he would prefer she went if only to keep routine.

In the end, she insisted on going to class the next morning. Apparently, they were going to be taking a tour of the Warp Core with Scotty and she had been looking forward to it. He told her teacher something was happening and if she felt Demora shouldn't be there to message him and he would come get her. But he never got a message, he was relieved. Instead he got asked if Demora could go with a friend after school. He agreed that she could. The child in question was another girl about the same age, he thought maybe a little older and he knew her parents from Alpha Shift. She was half-Orion with red hair, in tight curls, like her mother though her father was human. He knew her mother from the Botany Lab. "Daddy please can I go with Marta?" Sulu nodded.

"Of course you can, have fun OK?" He turned to Marta's mother, "let me know when she want's picking up."

"Will do," the woman said and held a hand to both children heading off to the Botany Labs. Sulu smiled, Demora was doing a lot better than he could have hoped. In his room he checked his PADD. There were messaged from Long-Distance saying Ben had tried contacting him. He ignored them. He knew he couldn't forever but he knew he had to calm down first. As entitled as he was to do so there was no point in going into this angry.

Uhura checked up on him around an hour after the end of her shift. "How're things?"

"They're as good as they can be. Demora is doing well which I think is what is keeping me from imploding right now."

"Hikaru you're allowed to be upset over this."

"I know, but, I can't bring myself to be. I can only feel anger. Maybe somehow I knew something was wrong I just couldn't figure out what," he said shaking his head. "I'm fine, I promise." After she left him he headed to communications. He asked for one of the Kid-friendly PADDs. Demora could now have her own, he decided, she'd been grounded for almost three weeks now and now he understood better, it didn't seem entirely fair. He adjusted the parental controls a little, allowing communication between her and other children in her class as well as archived age appropriate TV shows and movies for her to watch. He left it on her pillow, a surprise for when she got back.

Finding himself at a loose end Hikaru downloaded a book onto his own PADD to read, he was a few chapters in when he got a message from Chekov.

'Everything OK my friend? You were not on the Bridge today,' Hikaru smiled at his friend's concern for him and typed back.

'It's complicated.'

'Complicated? Would you like some company maybe?'

'That would be nice thank you.'

Chekov arrived at his quarters soon after and Sulu left a bookmark on his PADD. "Is everything OK? The Keptin said you were on leave."

"Like I said, complicated." He sighed, "In short, Ben has been unfaithful, that's why Demora hid on the ship, she told me last night. I knew something was wrong but I never imagined this."

"That is terrible. Hikaru, I am sorry."

"Don't be. I noticed things were different while we were on leave. But again, I never suspected. It'll be fine," he assured his friend, "I'm just going to focus on Demora."

"That is a good idea, speaking of, where is she? Didn't her school finish hours ago?"

"She's over at a friend's an Orion girl called Marta, her mother works in the Botany Lab. She's nice."

"She is taking it well then?"

"A little too well. I don't suspect it will really sink in until we get back to Yorktown." Hikaru noted sadly.

"What are you going to do?" Pavel asked.

"Well I guess we'll divorce, I'm happy to split custody, if he still wants to, but I have a feeling she's mad at him, every time we've had scheduled time in Long-Distance she's refused to speak or sign to him."

"At least now you know why." Pavel offered.

"True. I'm hungry? Have you been to Mess yet?"

"Not yet."

"Come on, let's go."