"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Malcolm whispered, sounding a little apprehensive.
"Malcolm, you don't have to whisper. We're not going to get caught and even if we do, it's not a problem," Trip replied.
"It's still wrong though isn't it?"
Trip paused in his tinkering to glare at Malcolm, "I don't recall twisting your arm. Now either hand me that spanner or scram," he ordered, turning back his work.
Malcolm wordlessly handed him the spanner.
A few minutes later Hoshi found them sitting on deck chairs in front of one of the larger of Enterprise's windows, eating popcorn.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Revenge, darlin', sweet revenge," Trip answered, eyes still glued to the window.
Hoshi gave them both an odd look before glancing out the window, "Isn't that Shuttlepod-"
She started as the shuttle suddenly exploded, causing both men to cheer. "-One?" she finished lamely, staring at where the shuttle had been. She looked back at Malcolm and Trip.
"Popcorn?" Trip offered.
The next few loops were spent in a similar fashion of acting out with no consequences: they used the transporter to steal everyone's left shoe; modified the rifles to hold a water fight and generally caused havoc wherever they went.
It was whilst they were in the middle of an epic food fight they had started in the Mess Hall that Malcolm suggested they go back to trying to figure out what had gotten them into this mess in the first place.
"Sure," Trip agreed, "but there's one more thing I want to do first."
"What's that?"
"You'll see," was Trip's cryptic response.
In the last few minutes of the next loop Trip made his way up to the Bridge and handed Archer a PADD.
"What's this?" Archer asked, activating it to read the contents.
"My resignation," Trip answered smoothly, checking the time.
Archer looked up in surprise, "You're resigning? Why?"
Trip gave him an easy smile, "So I can do this."
Stepping over to Hoshi's station he pulled her to her feet by the hand and kissed her senseless.
She froze for an instant until she hesitantly put her arms around his neck, returning the kiss.
"…so I think we should watch The Mummy next movie night," Travis said.
Trip smiled a little dreamily at Hoshi.
"What?" she asked.
"Nothing, darlin', nothing at all," he replied, still smiling. He turned to Travis, "The Mummy sounds great, but we've got bigger problems than movie night."
"The Commander and I are stuck in a time loop," Malcolm explained.
...
A/N: I couldn't help it - the idea of them blowing up Shuttlepod One just made me laugh, hope it gave you a giggle too :)