Chapter 10 : Recovery
After all the action in the previous chapter, this one's going to be very domestic. Enterprise gets a new Subcommander, who uses the emotional hoover on the Captain, Trip feeds the beast and T'Pol momentarily blinds poor Malcolm.
"So, how are they?" Hoshi asked, when she met Malcolm on their way to the airlock. "And who's that mysterious healer?"
"Well," Malcolm answered with a sigh. "They're still in the coma, but Phlox thinks that the healer will bring them back out, quickly. Who it is? Your guess is as good as mine. The Vulcans are making a complete secret of it. Heaven knows, why. Maybe it's some of their clan business again."
"Guess, we'll find out in a minute then," she replied with a smile. "I hope they're back on their feet soon. Somehow I miss those evenings together. Does that sound too selfish?"
"Not the least, dear. Can't wait for them to be up and about myself. I'd wish to get rid of the 'acting captain' bit sooner rather than later. As nice as it is to command a star ship, I'd rather do it without running the armory on top of it. I'll be just fine to wait until the Buran is finished."
"Hm, 'Captain Malcolm Reed'," Hoshi purred. "Does have a ring to it."
"It sure does, dear, just not yet," Malcolm replied with a smile of his own, just as they reached the airlock.
X X X
"Permission to come aboard?" the Vulcan droned the carefully rehearsed standard phrase.
"Uh...Permission granted, … Subcommander," Malcolm uttered, trying to get his confusion under control. Both he and Hoshi had grown accustomed to seeing a Vulcan in Starfleet blue, ever since T'Pol had abandoned the colorful cat-suits in favor of the standard Starfleet uniform, but seeing the garment with Vulcan rank insignia took them both by surprise.
"These are my mission parameters as specified by Starfleet and the Vulcan High Council," the Vulcan explained and handed over a Starfleet issue encrypted PADD.
"You'll be with us for the entire mission to New-Xindus?" Malcolm asked after studying the official orders.
"Yes. The necessary rehabilitation program will extend substantially beyond overcoming the current crisis, especially for Commander Tucker."
"I see," Malcolm answered. "The orders say that I shall integrate you into one of the ships departments, so I would need to have your qualifications, Subcommander."
"Of course," the Vulcan nodded and handed over a second PADD.
"Intelligence agent, Engineer, field medic," Malcolm listed the qualifications of their newest crew member. "I'll assign you as Assistant Medical Officer to Doctor Phlox's department, then. They're short staffed as it is."
"As you wish. If you permit, I wish to report to Doctor Phlox immediately to assess the condition of the patients."
"Of course, Lt. Sato will show you the way."
"That won't be necessary; I know the way," the Vulcan answered, nodded to both of them and walked off towards sickbay.
"Never in a month of Sundays is he going to hear the end of it," Malcolm said with a chuckle, shaking his head. "Trip's never going to let him live that down."
"What, that he's in a Starfleet uniform?" Hoshi asked.
"No, dear, that he's a Subcommander."
X X X
Phlox was alarmed. The last time he had seen any Vulcan other than T'Pol even remotely as rattled as his newest assistant medical officer, was, when Ambassador Soval had mind-melded with the comatose guard after the Embassy bombing on Vulcan.
"Are you ok?" Phlox asked.
"I am ...ok, doctor. I have to admit that I was not prepared for the force of Captain T'Pol's rage. The information she had to process was of most disturbing nature and considering that she was still in grief over the loss of her mother, it borders on a miracle, that she did not go into neurological arrest."
Now it was Phlox's turn to be rattled as he considered, what he had just heard. The thought of T'Pol just lying down to die, because of the news he had delivered in the briefing, shook him to the bone.
"What is their status," Phlox asked with a look at his monitor.
"I have stabilized them. Commander Tucker shall wake up within the day. He will require pain medication for several days as his neurological system has sustained a substantial trauma."
"And Captain T'Pol?"
"She will need approximately 30 hours to stabilize sufficiently. I have left her in a healing trance, from which she will awake as soon as her neurological pathways have recovered from the trauma. I advise to administer a muscle relaxing agent."
"You wish to paralyse her?"
"Indeed. Parts of the brain that control motor function have been traumatized and that could lead to uncontrollable spasms. Until the affected brain regions have sufficiently healed it is advisable to keep her in paralysis."
"She won't like that," Phlox mused. "Captain T'Pol is a most disagreeable patient if she is forced to accept help from others."
"It would therefore be advisable to relocate her to her quarters and monitor her vital signs remotely. This would alleviate any unnecessary distress about her helplessness."
"Agreed."
X X X
Hoshi gasped, when Trip shuffled into the mess hall.
"Bloody Nora!" Malcolm uttered as he followed Hoshi's glance. He had seen his friend in less than fresh condition a number of times, but his current appearance was capable of scaring Klingons away. Dark rings under his eyes and dishevelled hair made him look like one of the Zombies out of his favourite B-movies.
"Morning," Trip said tiredly as he plopped down on a chair.
"Morning. You look like hell," Malcolm answered. "But it's sure nice to have you back. How are you?"
"Thanks, Mal. I'm ok. Just a headache, but Phlox thinks it'll go away soon."
"And what's that?" Malcolm asked, pointing to a container that Trip had just collected from the galley.
"Lunch for T'Pol."
"She's awake, too?" Hoshi asked with a hopeful expression.
"Not yet, but Phlox and the Subcommander think she'll come to any minute," Trip said and both Hoshi and Malcolm were glad to see something akin to a smile return to his face.
"I knew you'd have fun with that," Malcolm replied with a smile of his own.
"Wouldn't you know it," Trip said, but before he could continue, a massive spike of panic rattled his mind.
"Shit, T'Pol's waking up, gotta go..."
Hoshi and Malcolm watched in puzzlement as Trip grabbed the container and ran out of the mess hall at break-neck speed.
"I thought that'd be a good thing?" Malcolm wondered.
"Let's find out in the afternoon," Hoshi offered.
X X X
"Calm down, darlin', everything's gonna be fine," Trip said, running into their quarters. T'Pol looked at him – eyes wide in terror.
"I can not move."
"I know; Phlox shot you a muscle relaxing agent."
"I do not understand."
"Your motor centre was affected. Without the agent, you'd be flopping about on the bed now, like a fish out of the water."
"How long have we been incapacitated?"
"I was out for two days, you for three. Oh, and we shipped out yesterday."
"We must return," T'Pol replied and Trip sensed the mixture of frustration, urgency and panic that she fought with. "We need help from an experienced melder."
"How do you think we came out of the coma?" Trip asked back with a mischievous grin. "We've taken a melder aboard for the entire mission; One Subcommander Soval."
"Soval retired from the Security forces almost 50 years ago," T'Pol answered and Trip could clearly sense her puzzlement.
"They've reinstated his commission for this journey," Trip answered, still grinning.
"Knowing you, you have already... teased him about his rank," T'Pol stated dead-pan.
"You know me too well dear," Trip answered in a mostly mediocre imitation of Malcolm's accent and started to open the container.
"What is in that container?"
"Your lunch, darlin' and I'll get a kick out of feeding you," Trip answered with mischief.
"No, you will not get... a kick out of it," T'Pol answered with a raised eye-brow.
"Why not?" Trip asked, still smiling.
"Because I cannot move my legs," T'Pol replied drily.
"Good to see that your sense of humour hasn't been affected," Trip shot back with a chuckle as he poured the Plomeek broth from the thermal container into a bowl.
"Soval seems to be quite a jack-of-all-trades," Trip remarked, feeding T'Pol the first spoon of soup. "Ambassador, spy, now I learn he's a field-medic, too..."
"All Vulcans are trained in more than one profession," she explained before accepting the next spoonful.
"Guess that's the luxury of living for ages...," Trip answered and continued the feeding in silence.
X X X
"You were correct," T'Pol stated, once feeding-time was over. "This form of care is strangely agreeable."
"We'll make a real romantic out of you, darlin', in no time," Trip answered smilingly, while he gently dragged her to an even more upright position and stuffed pillows behind her to stabilize her position.
Before T'Pol could answer, the door chime rang.
"Come," she replied.
The door opened and T'Pol recognized Soval, clad in a standard issue Starfleet uniform bearing Vulcan rank insignia.
"Come in Subcommander," Trip offered and from his exaggerated emphasis on his rank, T'Pol knew he was 'poking fun' at the elder, again.
"Thank you, Charles."
Rolling her eyes in exasperation, she realized that Soval did not seem to be offended at all. In fact he seemed to be mildly amused. Even more remarkable was the fact that Soval was not hiding it. She did fear, however, that the day would come that the elder would no longer show such leniency towards the constant teasing.
"Peace and long life, T'Pol-kan. It is agreeable to see you awake."
"Live long and prosper, Tela'at. It is agreeable to see you in charge of our rehabilitation."
"Sooo, with the niceties out of the way...," Trip butted in and T'Pol had to suppress a pang of annoyance about Trip's behaviour. "What's in that box."
"It is a mobile monitoring equipment. It would be illogical to move T'Pol to sickbay for a medical check. Would you mind disrobing T'Pol's upper body, Charles?"
If it wasn't entirely inappropriate, T'Pol would have allowed herself to laugh out loud about Trips stunned face expression. He knew that she only wore the two-piece grey stretch underwear, so Soval had asked him to bare her upper half completely. Obviously he wasn't aware that such thing as prudish shame did not exist among clansmen even more so if it was required for medical reasons.
When his eyes became even wider, she realized that although she had not laughed out loud, she had done so within the safe haven of her mind and her weakened shielding had obviously allowed it to spill over into Trips mind, who rubbed his temples in stunned silence.
"Charles?" Soval asked as Trip was still standing frozen.
"She... she laughed... I can't believe she laughed at me."
"Most likely a result of her weakened condition," Soval explained dead-pan. "Would you now, please..."
"Uh, yeah, of course," Trip muttered and awkwardly fumbled with her top to get it over her head, which was not an easy task with her being unable to raise her arms. Sensing his frustration, T'Pol knew that it probably wasn't a very dignified moment for him to manhandle his mate's extremities in an attempt to disrobe her.
"Ok, Soval," he muttered, when he finally succeeded in exposing her.
T'Pol wondered why Trip was feeling so awkward about it. Normally he wouldn't forego any opportunity to admire this particular vista.
X X X
Trip watched on as Soval pinned several sensors to T'Pol's upper body and her temples and tuned the mobile device to the correct frequencies. He still could hardly wrap his head around the fact that the man, who had been Vulcans ambassador to Earth for half a century until a few days ago, was now performing a medical procedure as if he'd done nothing else all his life.
"Very good," he heard Soval mutter, giving him hope that T'Pol's condition would improve soon.
"So what's the verdict, Soval?"
"Recovery exceeds expected parameters," Soval reported. "The muscle relaxation agent shall wear off in approximately 24 hours and does not need to be refreshed. It is however required for T'Pol to rest sufficiently. I charge you, Charles, to see to that."
"As you wish, Tela'at," Trip answered theatrically and had to stop a laugh at T'Pol's scandalized face expression.
"Your accent is improving," Soval answered with an elevated eyebrow and weren't it for the scandal of doing so, Trip was convinced, Soval would have allowed himself a chuckle or two. The clan chief seemed to have even more of Vulcans equivalent of fun at trading barbs with a human. Now if someone had told him that 4 years ago...
"We shall repeat the check in the evening and in the morning," Soval continued. "Will you need assistance with meditation?"
"I shall try to instruct Trip to help me. If that is not successful in a reasonable amount of time, I shall have you informed."
"Very well," Soval answered and stowed the medical equipment below the bed to spare himself the hassle of carrying it back and forth for each check-up. "I shall leave."
"Thanks, Soval," Trip answered and watched the elder leave.
X X X
"What are you doing?" T'Pol asked, when Trip picked up the top of her underwear.
"What does it look like, darlin' ?"
"You heard what Soval said. He will have to repeat the procedure at least twice and it is not logical to go through the undignified procedure of removing the clothing over my immobilized extremities, when we can just leave it removed."
"Undignified? Well how dignified is it, if someone walks in here with you letting 'em hang out? Not that I would mind it, but I'm pretty sure that Malcolm or Hoshi will drop by. They'll worry since I made quite the dramatic exit from the mess hall."
T'Pol raised an eyebrow in confusion. "In my current condition, regardless of the state of clothing, I would not wish to be seen by anyone, but Phlox, Soval, Hoshi or Malcolm."
"My point, T'Pol. Hoshi will get an inferiority complex and Mal will simply faint with you giving him an eyeful."
T'Pol's exasperation grew. "I think you are exaggerating. I am sure Malcolm has seen a female body before and I do know that Hoshi is quite content with her appearance. If you are so uncomfortable with it, all you need to do is pull up the blanket before they come in."
T'Pol felt the urge to express her amusement again about Trip's disbelieving look. "Did you not plan to invite Malcolm and Hoshi to your home... to the beach at some time?" she asked with a hint of teasing.
"Well, yes...," Trip stuttered. "But that's what swimsuits are for. I can't believe it. You were concerned about my folks, but you would have no problem with going skinny-dipping with Mal and Hoshi?"
T'Pol grew silent. She was unsure, how to explain, without offending him. "Trip, I do not wish to offend you, but..."
"But what?"
"I believe, I feel significantly closer to Malcolm and Hoshi than to your parents."
"Well, that's not surprising," he pondered and T'Pol almost sighed in relief that he had not taken offence. "You've met my folks once, while you've been around Mal and Hoshi for years. That's just the way you Vulcans foster relationships, I guess. Should have known though. You talk with Hoshi and Mal about private things as if you're discussing the weather, while you had to meditate for two days after you told my 'rents a few intimate details."
"I am gratified that you understand."
"Well," Trip said, threw the piece of clothing over his shoulder and shrugged with a lopsided grin. "If you decide to give Malcolm a sore eye, who am I to stop you."
He started walking through the cabin, randomly opening and closing closets and got down on the floor, looking under the table and the bed.
"What are you doing?" T'Pol asked.
"Looking where they hid T'Pol's corpse, before she was replaced by her liberal twin."
A raised eyebrow was all the answer he was about to get.
X X X
"Will you assist me with meditation?" T'Pol asked, once Trip had grinningly ended his theatrical performance.
"Of course, what shall I do?"
"First, I need a flame."
"Well, I don't think having a candle on the bed is such a brilliant idea..."
"Of course not. If you open my closet, you'll find a casing in which a candle can be safely enclosed."
"Hm, looks like one of those night-watchman lamps they use in those fairy-tail movies for kids," Trip explained, while he took one of her candles, put it in and lighted it, before shutting the small door of the casing."
"Now sit behind me and hold me upright," she explained, when she saw Trip looking at her expectantly.
"This is gonna be awkward," Trip muttered, while he removed the pillows to make space for himself.
"Why?" T'Pol asked while Trip gingerly wrapped his legs around her, stabilizing her upper body by slinging his arms around her waist from behind.
"Well, human males are not really designed to stay very focused with a half-naked female in their arms, especially one that's hotter than a plasma fire."
"You cannot blame yourself for a natural reaction, however you need to learn to concentrate despite the distraction. Our recovery will require the application of advanced neuropressure techniques and none of them will be practical if performed with clothes."
"Tell that to my hormones, darlin'. Ok, I'll try. So what should I do? Stare into the flame?"
"You don't … stare," T'Pol admonished softly. "Concentrate on the steady flicker of the flame and let it calm your mind. Try to reach a state of tranquillity."
"Ok, how do I know that I got it right?"
"Did you not say that Soval taught you meditation techniques, when you visited him in the embassy?"
"He did, but that were mostly breathing techniques and nothing that would have me zone out. So how do I know that I'm doing it right?"
"You will find yourself in the white area that you found yourself drawn into during your time on Columbia."
"Ah, ok, got it."
X X X
After a surprisingly short time, Trip found himself within the white nothingness of T'Pol's mind.
The first few minutes were spent in awkward silence, before Trip spoke gently: "Um,... darlin?"
"Yes."
"What're we supposed to do in here? Just sitting?"
"No, we can engage in conversation, remain idle or engage in any desired activity unless I have to deal with unprocessed emotions."
"Unprocessed? So it's a bit of an industrial process? You suppress and queue up all all emotions you run into and when you meditate you sort of deal with them one-by-one?"
"A simplified but surprisingly accurate description."
"So, sticking to engineering terms, which makes it easier to grasp for me, queues usually have the problem of having a limited capacity?"
"Indeed. The amount of emotional responses that one can suppress for later processing is different for any individual. For instance, Soval can suppress a much larger emotional impact than I do."
"And if it becomes too much, it spills over?"
"Correct. First it is limited to spontaneous expression within our minds, like the laughter you experienced earlier today..."
"The most angelic sound I've ever heard... or thought, I might add," Trip interrupted with a grin, but no more answer than a nod was forthcoming.
"If the amount of emotions becomes too much to bear it might lead to outward expressions and ultimately to a breakdown."
"I see," Trip pondered. "So where do I come into this?"
"If we meditate together, your mental presence will lend reassurance and will help to calm my mind. If necessary, the bond with allow you to help me processing my emotions."
"How's that supposed to work?"
"For most emotions that I experience, you won't see any outward response, even within the confines of my mind. But if emotions are strong or particularly chaotic, they will be expressed, much like humans and other species do openly. I cry, laugh, scream or shout."
"That must be quite a chaos, if you have a bad day," Trip wondered.
"Yes. It might look disturbing to you, because I will fall from one expression to a completely different in rapid succession. It might appear as if I have gone insane."
"And so do I, if I'm 'helping' you?"
"Indeed. You will acutely feel the emotion that has to be dealt with and you may either shrug it off with a minimal response, like a frown or a smile or you might be driven to express them more vividly. Since Vulcan emotions are stronger than human ones, Soval will teach you shielding techniques to enable you to suppress further emotions spilling over to your mind."
"Sort of like a valve? So if our bond is a pipe, I can regulate the flow?"
"More like a filter. You can prevent certain emotions from reaching you, with enough training you can shut out any transmission except for my mental presence in your mind."
"Why would I want to shut you out?" he asked in surprise. This didn't sound like a decent idea to him.
"To prevent a breakdown like the one three days ago. It was I, who was nearly overwhelmed and you were subsequently incapacitated as you would never be able to process or even endure raw emotions, like the primal rage I experienced. With proper shielding practice, you would have been able to protect yourself."
"But had I not taken some of it, even if it knocked me out, wouldn't you have broken down even worse?"
"Unlikely. I might have had problems to hide an outward response, but the pain that I felt from your suddenly vanishing mental presence after your incapacitation was, what finally overwhelmed me."
"So in engineering terms, a feedback loop?" Trip asked.
"Correct."
"Ok, so with everything translated into a nice little engineering manual, I think I even understand it, but that does lead to the big question. Why?"
"Why, what?"
"Darlin', we both broke down three days ago, because you fried my brain with an emotional molotov cocktail and I fried you back with a feedback loop, so how come you haven't got any emotions to process. In fact you're positively giddy today and I don't feel like moping around either. Is that some sort of denial reaction? In fact, it sort of scares me."
"There is nothing to fear. It is evident that Soval did not only stabilize us. He did also process the emotions for me."
"He sort of pumped them out of your mind and put them through the recycler for you?" Trip asked in surprise.
"A crude description, but a fitting one."
"Is he supposed to do that?"
"Since mind-melds have been freed from stigma, it has become common practice again that clan elders do help struggling family members in such fashion. However it is rare that one goes to the length of processing all the emotions unless an individual is suffering from the late stages of Bendii Syndrome. Usually the mind-meld is terminated, once the elder is convinced that his charge can deal with the remaining emotions on his own."
"So why this complete clean-up? You don't have this Bendii thing, do you?"
"You will need to ask Soval about his motives, but I suspect that he wanted to speed up my recovery as well as improving the conditions under which you start your training."
"Makes, sense, sort of a clean sheet," Trip nodded, but suddenly T'Pol was gone and he was left alone in the white vastness.
"Err, darlin' ?"
X X X
The door chime roused T'Pol out of her meditation. The acute sensation of confusion in her mind could only mean that Trip was still in meditation and 'trapped' in her mind. Obviously basic training of initiating and terminating meditation was to be made one of the first steps on the training agenda.
"Who is it?" she asked.
With her body still paralysed and no time to re-initiate meditation, T'Pol quickly considered her options to rouse Trip out of her mind. In absence of any other measures, she gently knocked her head on his, but he did not react.
"It's us, Malcolm and Hoshi," resounded the familiar British accented reply.
T'Pol allowed herself a last effort to knock Trip out of her mind, but it came to nothing. With herself immobile there was no way to pull up the blanket, so Trip had to cope with his uneasiness about her being exposed to their friends.
"Come."
"Hi there, we thought...," Hoshi chirped, before stopping dead in her tracks.
T'Pol raised an amused eyebrow as Malcolm stopped abruptly and then backed out of the room with a hastily uttered "Bloody Hell!"
She saw that Hoshi looked at the place where Malcolm should have been, before the young Lieutenant erupted in a fit of laughter. "Where are you going, Mal?"
"Looking for my nerve," came the reply from outside, before the door closed.
X X X
Trip jumped when a roar of the same silvery laughter that he had experienced for the first time in the morning, resounded in T'Pol's mind. He felt how the vast white surroundings faded and he was drawn back to reality.
After a second of regaining orientation he spotted Hoshi leaning on the wall in hysterical giggles and the suspicious absence of Malcolm could only mean that T'Pol had really shocked the daylights out of him.
"Are we, erm, interrupting something?" Hoshi asked between giggles.
"If you must know," Trip answered with a grin, "You did. We were meditating, but that's ok."
"Ah that's what it is called these days," Malcolm said sarcastically, coming back in, obviously having regained his gumption to face his half-naked Captain.
"Well, Malcolm, ever tried to get the top off a paralysed woman and more importantly back on?" Trip asked while pulling up the blanket to restore modesty and he noticed that Hoshi's giggling about Malcolm's indignation stopped almost instantly.
"Pa... paralysed?" she asked in shock and Trip feared that she might burst into tears, so he quickly added to his information.
"Temporarily, Hoshi," Trip added quickly. "Phlox had to give her a relaxation agent, but it'll wear off until tomorrow."
"But why the streaking then?" Malcom asked and Trip had to chuckle.
"Well, Soval has to hook her up to all sorts of sensors for his check ups and as I said, trying to get this thing on and off is like trying to get wet leather leggings off an eskimo woman, so we just left it off. Well, T'Pol insisted that we do..."
"Do you speak from experience?" T'Pol asked dead-pan about his eskimo metaphore.
"No, darlin´ it's just a figure of speech," he replied in mock exasperation, knowing she had done it on purpose.
"So, how are you, then?" Hoshi asked.
"We are both recovering well," T'Pol explained. "We are gratified that you visited."
"Well after Trip's exit from lunch, we were it bit worried. He left quite a contrail, when he sensed that you woke up," Malcom replied with puzzlement.
"Most likely he was exposed to the momentary panic that I experienced, when I could not move. My shielding is still weakened."
"Yeah, nice excuse for laughing first at me and then at Malcolm," Trip added with mock-indignation."
"Maybe, I shouldn't have backed out," Malcolm quipped. "Guess I missed the first giggling Vulcan in history."
"I didn't notice anything?" Hoshi asked, slightly confused.
"All happens up here," Trip mentioned and pointed at his temple.
"Nice thing, such a bond," Malcolm replied in admiration.
"Can you give me a short status report, Malcolm," T'Pol asked.
Trip smiled to himself as he could clearly see that Malcolm was somewhat glad to return to ship business after the unexpected visual treat, which still made him visibly embarrassed.
"Trip will be glad to hear that Anna Hess has completed the engine trial runs and we're currently sailing a smooth 5.6, but the best we've done during the trial run was 5.77, so there's still room for you to get your record back."
"I'll be damned," Trip grinned, proud of his second in command.
"With the higher cruise speed and the time we'll win by this, I would suggest that we try to intercept the Illyrians and give them one of our spare warp coils. Even if it's been a year already, we could still cut their return journey short by at least two years. But I first wanted to hear your opinion on that."
"Agreed."
Malcolm walked over to the com.
"Reed to bridge."
"Bridge, Lt. Rao,"
"Lieutenant. Calculate an interception point for the Illyrian vessel, based on their latest known position and alter course. Warp 5.7"
"Aye, Sir."
"Anything else, Malcolm?" T'Pol asked.
"No, routine ship's business so far. Except that the hydroponics lab reports that they can barely keep up with the demand for flowers and Phlox is busy to replenish his stock of birth control pills."
"Looks like your new standing orders have really turned us into the Love Boat," Trip quipped. "Hope it doesn't backfire."
"So far not," Malcolm explained. "It's only been a few days, but I've noticed a distinct improvement in crew morale."
"Does the crew make use of the Captains mess?" T'Pol asked.
"They do. Hoshi keeps track of reservations and so far it has been used at least twice each day. Problem will be that Chef might mutiny, he can barely keep up to make all those extra meals."
"We shall address this problem, when we return to duty," T'Pol promised.
"Any idea when that will be?" Malcolm asked her.
"Doctor Phlox believes that we will be able to return in two days."
"That's good. Guess we better get back to the bridge then and leave you to your... ahem... meditation."
"Do you need anything else?" Hoshi asked.
"No thank you," T'Pol answered.
"Ok, see you tomorrow then," she answered with a smile and followed Malcolm out.
X X X
"Sorry 'bout the blanket," Trip muttered, once the door had closed. "I sort of got trapped in your head."
"There is no need for an apology. It was you, who was uncomfortable with the thought of Malcolm seeing me."
Trip narrowed his eyes, before it hit him like a ton of bricks. "You enjoyed to see Malcolm so flustered, didn't you?"
"Since you did the same with me, when I came to your cabin after the Orion incident, I am sure you know about the agreeable aspects of such course of action."
Trip laughed out loud. "You are evil, darlin'."