A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys, they are really appreciated. Well… on with the fun…
T'Pol casually walked into sickbay followed by Travis and a member of security. In their hands they carried trays filled with food for the youngsters and Phlox. All three nearly got knocked over by Trip and Malcolm running around sickbay. The eight year old engineer was chasing the Armoury officer, and both were shouting their heads off.
"Give it back, right this minute, Malcolm!" Trip shouted, pouncing for his 'friend' but missed and landed heavily on the floor close to T'Pol's feet. His eyes looked at Malcolm and he glared at him.
"Why?" Malcolm called over and giggled at the fact that Trip couldn't catch him, no matter how hard the boy tried.
"Because it's mine! John gave it to me, not you!" He got back to his feet and the chase started again.
The three visitors put the trays down before anything was spilt and the Vulcan moved to Phlox. "I see no point in asking how things are going here."
"T'Pol, I'm glad you're here." He sighed, his eyes watching the boys. "I'm not fit enough to go around chasing them." It was obvious by his breathing that he had tried to, but had given up.
"Allow me then, Doctor." The security guy, Ensign Peter Watson, said and as Malcolm came running passed him he reached out and grabbed him, holding him back.
"Let go of me!" Malcolm shouted and wriggled. "Get your hands off me!" He began to kick and scream in an attempt to break free, but Peter was too strong, and the grip remained. Peter did his best to not laugh… if they ever managed to return the four of them back to normal and Malcolm had any recollection of this... Well… Peter may find he had good leverage for blackmail.
Trip stopped running and came over to them. "Please give me toy back." He asked nicely. He' asked nicely the first time, but that was before there were other adults around, and this time Malcolm had no other choice.
Seeing that the security officer would not be letting go of him until the toy was returned, he passed the ship and controls back to Trip. It was certainly obvious that in his youth Malcolm was quite the rebel; first sneaking off with Hoshi under orders of remaining in sickbay, and now taking toys.
"Thank you, Malcolm." He put the vessel on the floor and activated the controls, making it fly up into the air and hover around.
Phlox looked and Peter and nodded slightly with a smile. "Thank you Ensign."
"Not a problem, Doctor." The dark haired man replied, letting go of Malcolm, who just remained close to him, watching Trip playing with the ship.
"Where are Hoshi and John?" Travis queried, surprised he hadn't seen them.
"Doing the sensible thing, staying away from the chase. It's all right now! You can come out!" Phlox called. The thunder of feet alerted them that Hoshi and John were moving.
"Travis!" Hoshi, now looking around six years old, smiled and ran to hug him.
The helmsman smiled and hugged her back. "Hi Hoshi. How are you?"
"I'm ok… but I wish someone would shoot him." She pointed at Malcolm. "He gets on my bloody nerves!"
"Language, Hoshi!" John gasped, putting his hands on his hips.
"I hear him saying it a lot!" She now pointed at Trip and he looked at her, loosing his concentration on the controls. The ship fell to the ground and a piece broke off.
He stared at his precious toy. "My Ship!" He gasped. "Now look what you made me do!"
"It can be mended, comma…" Peter began to speak "Trip." He corrected himself quickly, hoping he little boy hadn't heard his mistake.
"Ya broke it, Hoshi!" Trip was close to tears.
Peter moved forward and bent down to him. "Listen to me…It can be fixed… I'll take it to Lieutenant Hess and bring it right back, good as new." Trip looked at him and passed the broken toy to him. "It's a promise, Trip." He stood up and left, running out to Engineering.
"Perhaps some food will cheer you up." T'Pol said, picking up a plate and holding it out for him. They boy just shook his head and went into a corner. He just wanted his toy. T'Pol put the plate down and returned to standing next to Phlox. "Still no luck in ascertaining what the problem is?"
"None at all." He shook his head.
"Could it have been something they ate back on Aurel? They were down there for a couple of days." Travis asked as Hoshi moved off to play with John.
"But the inhabitants are unaffected." T'Pol looked at him.
"They may just have an immunity to it. It would certainly explain why I've found no trace of anything… by the time they got back to the ship it would have gone from their systems." Phlox looked at them.
T'Pol turned to face Travis but he was already heading for the door. "Change course! Got it!" He called back and left.
"Let's hope we're not too late." T'Pol said
"I'll do my best to keep them awake for as long as possible, but they are young children, they'll need sleep."
T'Pol began to head for the door. "Do whatever you can. When Ensign Watson returns, request him to remain with you… No doubt you will be requiring his help."
"I don't doubt it, Sub-Commander. Especially if they regress further… even to the point of being babies… I can't look after four on my own!" He called. He was fearing that... they were enough trouble as they were at this age. He turned and looked at them. Malcolm had moved over to Trip and was apologising, whilst Hoshi and John were just sitting together talking, playing 'rock, paper, scissors'.
With a sigh he began to hand the food out to them. Trip just put his plate on the ground next to him and as soon as Peter returned ten minutes later with the ship repaired he began to eat happily with Malcolm.