Firstly, thank you for the lovely reviews, I really appreciate them! Sorry for the wait for a new chapter, I'm a student and I've been rather busy. Here it is, hope it doesn't disappoint you! Sorry if it seems a little tame, I am building up to some action soon I promise. Lulu xxx
The week passed quickly, rather too quickly for Archer's liking and as the day to meet his children arrived he began to seriously doubt he had made the right decision, what did he know about children? How could he raise children aboard a star ship? There were unknown dangers everywhere, was he being fair to drag them into his world? And of course his crew had taken his decision less than well. T'pol's sarcastic remarks remained with him, 'perhaps we could all double up as babysitters during a red alert?'. Still it was too late to change his mind; they were on a shuttle on their way up to him even as he thought. Their quarters were all set up, a small room each, right next door to his own quarters. The quarters for Jessica were decked out with a teenage girl in mind, Hoshi had helped him, mirrors hung off the wall, a dressing table in the corner, cushions covered the pink bed spread and a cuddly toy sat lonesome in the centre of the bed. Steven's quarters were decorated with scientific posters, models of star ships adorned every surface and a shelf full of books stood by the bed.
Archer had received communication an hour earlier that the shuttle would be arriving later than planned; Catherine had been vague with the details, but from what Archer could gather, Jessica had disappeared the day before they were due to leave; it had taken them all night to find her. Archer sighed. She sounded like a handful. But then, surely he could handle her, he was after all the Captain of a ship, used to dealing with tough situations and alien races, a young girl shouldn't be too much of a problem! It was then he received the communication that the shuttle was docking, finding himself surprisingly nervous, Archer made his way, accompanied by Reed and T'pol, to the docking bay, to meet, for the first time, his children.
Aboard the shuttle, accompanied by the a woman from social services, the children sat, Steven fidgeted excitedly, a Warp-Drive textbook on his knee, but his excitement was too much to allow him to concentrate on it for long. Jessica kept her head immersed in a paper bag; she had never travelled through space before and the experience was wholly unpleasant for her as she discovered that she was very prone to space-sickness.
"Jessica, you need to eat when we get aboard the Enterprise." Steven stated. Jessica glared at her brother and said
"Don't you dare even breathe a word, Steven, not one word. You know what I mean." a wave of nausea passed over her again and she returned her face to the bag. Steven gave her a frown of concern before returning to his over-excitable state. The docking process was a bumpy one and both Jessica and Steven were relieved when the shuttle finally came to a halt.
"This is it!" Murmured Steven; excitedly.
The doors to the shuttle opened, Archer held his breath anxiously; this was it! The social worker was the first to emerge from the shuttle, behind her Archer could see a young boy, slightly tall for his age and very skinny with the same medium brown hair as his own, only curlier, like Caroline's had been. Behind the boy a young girl stood, a good six inches shorter than her brother and perhaps slightly chubby, she had long blonde hair (although that was clearly not her natural colour) she clutched a sick-bag to herself with one hand and with the other, a cuddly bear. Steven took his first step onto Enterprise and was met with an extended hand from Archer, the woman from Social Services spoke,
"Captain Archer, meet your son, Steven."
Archer was rendered speechless, the boy looked like a younger version of himself and he was lost in the moment. Steven shook his hand eagerly,
"I can't believe you're my dad, this is amazing!" The boy exclaimed, and Archer melted at the child's naive ecstasy. Steven continued, "I am so pleased to finally meet you, can I please have a tour of the ship? She's a beauty! I've been reading all about her and warp technology; it's fascinating! Who could believe that my father is the captain of a star ship?!"
Archer laughed, his son was rather geeky, but in honesty he reminded him of his younger self, over enthusiastic about space travel, keen to learn and to impress adults. "There will be plenty of time for a tour later." Steven nodded enthusiastically.
The woman spoke again,
"And this is your daughter, Jessica. Jessica has been quite motion sick on the journey."
Jessica stood quietly behind her brother, her heart-shaped face pale from the space sickness, Archer was once again rendered speechless; she looked like Caroline, they shared the same enormous green eyes and high cheek bones, closer up the child was slightly pudgy, but it made her look older than 14, she was certainly a little more developed than the average 14 year old girl. He noticed a slight bruise on her right cheek but decided to speak nothing of it for fear of alienating an already difficult child. Archer extended her a hand but his gesture was openly refused, the girl glared at him right in the eyes but did not offer her own hand. Steven nudged his sister, "Jessica!" he whispered through clenched teeth.
"It's ok." Archer stated, "It's going to be tough for all of us to adapt to." He turned to his daughter, "Come on, I'll show you guys to your quarters."
Archer and Reed led the children along the corridors as T'pol saw the woman from social services back into the shuttle.
"Your belongings should get here in the next few days, some have already arrived, I think your clothes have, well, there are cases in your quarters. Once you've got settled I would like you both to have a medical with our ship doctor, Doctor Flox, just to make sure everything's ok, long term space travel can be quite a strain on the body."
"No." Jessica finally spoke.
"I'm sorry?"
"No. I'm not seeing no doctor." Jessica stated simply.
"Jess......." Steven began, but Jessica cut him off.
"No. I don't like doctors and I'm not seeing one!"
"He's the Captain; you have to do as he says!"
"It's ok Steven," Archer cut in, "Jessica, you can have a medical another time, when you're feeling more up to it, but you know he could give you something to ease your motion sickness."
Jessica said nothing but looked away. Archer sighed; things with his daughter were so far not going well. He turned to Steven, "After you've seen Doctor Flox I can give you a full tour before dinner if you feel like it?"
Steven glanced anxiously at his sister, "I'd love that, but would you mind if we ate first, I'm starving and Jess here hasn't eaten since being on the shuttle."
Jess kicked her brother's ankle and shot him an evil glare.
"Sure, is there anything you kids like to eat? I can have our cook rustle up pretty much anything you want."
"Oooooh pizza would be great!" Steven exclaimed.
"Great. My favourite too! Right here are your quarters. My quarters are just next door, Jessica yours are the ones nearest to mine, Steven yours are a little beyond that."
Steven nodded; Jessica simply stared blankly at her father before entering her room.
"I'm so sorry about her; she can be a bit difficult." Steven said in response to the door sliding after Jessica.
Archer nodded, "It's ok, things are going to be hard to begin with but I'm sure she'll get used to things. I have to ask though, Steven," Archer continued as they both entered Steven's quarters, "How did Jessica get that bruise on her cheek?"
"She covered it up with make-up; it was worse than that."
"What happened?"
"Oh don't worry, we're not abused or anything. It's not excusable really. The day before the yesterday, Jessica disappeared; she really didn't want to come into space. It took us ages to find her and when we did, Aunt Catherine just lost her temper and slapped Jess across the face. She shouldn't have done it and it's no excuse, but Jess can be difficult sometimes I guess. She doesn't do herself any favours."
Archer nodded, he felt slightly angry that someone had dared to lay a finger on his child; however he could also understand the stress of losing a child and worrying, although he doubted worry was the motivation behind Catherine's aggression. Jessica did seem to be extremely hard work; he was concerned about how he was going to cope with her.
"This room is great!" Steven cried, fingering the books on his shelves, "Thank you so much! Are these books mine?"
"Of course they are!"
"Wow, there's some really great stuff here! Science text books, mechanics, engineering, a guide to designing ships! How did you know? How did you know I want to design ships when I grow up?"
Archer laughed, glancing around at the model space craft's that hung from the ceiling, the room reminded him very much of his own room when he was a boy. "Well your aunt told me a lot of things about you; I wanted to get this place just right."
Steven sat down next to his father, "it must be so weird for you huh? I mean it's not too bad for us, we knew we had a father somewhere, we just didn't know where, but you didn't even know we existed."
Archer nodded, the boy's insight impressed him, "Yeah it's pretty weird, but I couldn't very well leave you two once I knew you existed! I'm sure we'll all adapt though, even Jessica."
Steven raised an eyebrow and laughed, "We'll just keep working on her! You know she's a great girl really, you just have to see past all the bad bits."
"Well, listen, do you want to head down to the infirmary with me now, get your medical over with, then, we can take a tour of the ship?"
"Sure thing."
"I really should try and get Jessica looked over by Flox too. Think you could help me encourage her?"
"Captain...."
"Call me Jon."
"Jon, I really don't think she's up for anything right now."
Archer nodded, hoping that at some point his daughter was going to toe-the-line and do as he said; he feared not.
