We study our story arcs-
Inherently good,
Or were we broken right from the start?
Our hesitant fingerprints
Trace every mountain,
Lace every valley
Until we're convinced...
"Bad Blood" By Sleeping At Last
T'Pol sits heavily on the edge of the bed, Trip had stormed out after an argument, saying something about sleeping in his old quarters. It's the third time this week and something tells T'Pol he won't be coming back this time.
How did they get this way? They'd always quarrelled but rarely did it turn into full on fights, but in the last few months things had started to come to a boil. They fought over everything, their daughter, their jobs, and their relationship, nothing seemed off limits anymore.
T'Pol's mind turns back to something Hoshi had said to her earlier in the day 'i don't know how you two have held it together this long'. T'Pol had almost been bursting to tell her that they haven't, they'd been doing it for Elizabeth but as she got older it only seemed to get harder, they were tired and sick of each other, and T'Pol was starting to wonder if it was time to face facts. Facts that told her she and Trip weren't right for one another anymore.
"Momma?" Elizabeth's small voice pulls her out of her thoughts, she looks over to where her four year old daughter stands in the doorway of her bedroom.
"Yes Elizabeth?" T'Pol says, taking a deep breath to pull herself together. She holds out her arms for her daughter and the little girl trots across the room to sit in her lap.
"Did you and daddy fight again?" She asks, putting an arm around T'Pol and leaning against her.
"Yes," T'Pol admits, stroking Elizabeth's hair gently "We did. I'm sorry if we woke you."
"Where's daddy?" the little girl turns her big blue eyes up to T'Pol.
"He went… for a walk." T'Pol says slowly, she doesn't like lying to Elizabeth but she isn't going to tell a four year old that it's very likely she just overheard her parent's relationship coming to a close.
"When will he be back?" Elizabeth whispers, rubbing T'Pol's arm for comfort as she speaks.
"I'm not sure, but you need to go to bed." T'Pol says, looking down at her daughter.
"He's not coming back." Elizabeth says, it's not fearful, it's not a question. It's matter-of-fact, and it's probably true, at least to some degree. Trip will certainly come back for Elizabeth, but T'Pol sincerely doubts the two of them will be sharing this bed again.
"He'll be back." T'Pol mutters absently. "Do you wish to sleep with me?"
"Yes." Elizabeth mutters.
"Very well, you get in bed, I need to change." She says, pressing a kiss to the top of Elizabeth's head before Elizabeth climbs into the bed and T'Pol gets up to change.
As soon as she's laid down in bed and turned off the light, Elizabeth fixes her tiny body to her, wrapping an arm and a leg around T'Pol's torso. It's not the most comfortable position but right now T'Pol needs her daughter close.
As Elizabeth's breathing gets deep and even, T'Pol lets out a breath of her own, it's shuddering and slow and emotional. She knows she shouldn't be feeling like this so close to Elizabeth so she does her best to block her daughter from the emotions that begin to fill her in the dark. She manages to keep silent as she begins to weep and reach out through the bond for Trip, but he isn't there. That's why it hurts so much, because when he slammed the proverbial door he cut off their bond. She could go through Elizabeth to reconnect with him but she won't expose her daughter to the flood of emotion racing through her.
The flood of emotion that can only be described as heartbreak.
In his quarters Trip is sitting on the edge of the bed, sobbing. He can't keep doing this, he can't keep coming home to T'Pol only to fight with her and scare Elizabeth. If he's honest with himself he's known for months that he and T'Pol were falling apart, ever since he mentioned to Jon he felt almost trapped every time he came home to T'Pol. Sure he loved her, she was the mother of his child, his most precious thing in the universe, but he was having to come to terms with the fact that he no longer loved her as a bond mate, and she no longer seemed to love him.
She'd always been outwardly cold and distant, but he'd always been able to tell she loved him, for underneath the hardened Vulcan exterior she was warm and loving. She'd snuggled up to him in bed with Elizabeth, and their bond had been strong and warm. It was like that for the first three years but Trip knew it wasn't like that anymore, and he knew the exact moment it began to change.
They'd argued over the baby thing, he'd been wanting to have another baby and T'Pol hadn't. He'd brought it up again, they'd fought, he'd been harsh, she'd been cold. Ever since then they'd seemed to be growing farther and farther apart. They'd fought more and more and tonight everything had all come to a head.
He lays back on the bed and lets out another sob, for once trying to consciously access the bond they'd once held, only to meet nothing but cold blackness. He'd never been very good at using it, at least not like T'Pol but he could usually find it, but something changed when he walked out of that room, the bond had broken, and his heart had shattered.
