DISCLAIMER: I do not own Star Trek: Enterprise or any of its characters. I make no money off this story, only a tremendous sense of self worth.

UPDATE: When I originally posted this chapter, I put Jo's age at 14. However, I just realized this, in rereading and I'm fixing the error. Jo is 16 at the time of E-Squared and 17 at the time of 'Babel One'. The reason I previously put her at 14 was that I was looking over my story ideas a few days ago, which included one where we see Enterprises launch in 'Broken Bow' from Lorian's crews' perspective. Lorian and his people held a massive party, watching the live Star Fleet transmission of Forest's speech in the mess hall, and Jomala, her mother, and sisters were all in attendance. THERE she was 14. She aged with the series.

AUTHORESS' NOTE: This chapter of the story takes place during the events of 'E2'. However, most of this story takes place during the forth season of Enterprise, after 'Observer Effect' but before 'Babel One'. Again, this story is branching into AU territory, but I am attempting to keep as much of canon as stable as possible. I know a lot of fans aren't too big on that, but for me, the stability of canon is a big deal. However, some mistakes are too great to ignore.

Living Beyond

Part 26

By Arianwen P.F. Everett

"Think, Lorian. According to the information Jo sent to herself in her journal, Daniels and his people temporally stabilized not only Jo, but Mara, Ami, Bala and I, because he didn't see us as a threat to his timeline. He's working to prevent the Suliban's plan to stabilize all of us because he fears the historical changes that will result from the decedents of your crew merely living their lives as they choose. If he and his people can't accommodate the ones already aboard Enterprise, he's almost certainly never factored another baby for us into his equations. Effectively we would invalidate every bit of information he's working with, possibly including that horrible scenario he showed you. A new baby redistributes Jo's place in our family, and gives her responsibilities and experiences she was never meant to have in the timeline Daniels desires. Daniel's main objective is to prevent change to Jo's future. A younger sister would be fundamental change for her," Matayara explained, hoping she was right.

She knew Daniels was determined, but from what both Enterprises had on these Temporal Accords, she also knew the Temporal Agents had rules that they had to follow. Jo was nearly hysterical with fear, so much so that she believed that Daniels and his comrades were lawless, but her mother saw things differently. Ethically there was a distinct difference between letting someone die of a natural processes in the timeline and killing them in cold blood. All Enterprises' evidence from past encounters with the man suggested that Daniels' and his colleagues wouldn't cross that line.

And while it was true Daniels might make another incursion into the past to try and iron out his mistakes, Archer's records indicated that the annoying temporal agent's window to change the past was limited, as the new, altered timeline would catch up with and replace his own, as it did when he had taken Archer into the 31st century and ended up in barren ruin that had once been Earth, an Earth that had been lost due to Archer's loss centuries before. Studying Daniels error then had taught Matayara that the ability to travel through time didn't give you unlimited opportunities to alter history. A new baby for the Tucker family, along with the devices the Suliban were constructing aboard her husband's ship to stabilize his crew, could stymie Daniels' efforts long enough for the timeline that favored their family to assert itself to the point where Daniels would just have to live with the changes, or perhaps even one where Daniels himself wouldn't exist at all.

As much as that thought would solve many of her problems, and as angry as she was with the man who had so decimated her husband and children's spirits in just a few short days, she found no joy in the idea of potentially sacrificing Daniels' life. However, the alternative was to sacrifice her husbands and his people. That alternative was unthinkable.

"Or Daniels might decide to neutralize Jo's baby sister, along with the temporally insignificant woman carrying her," Lorian postulated grimly, sitting back down on his bunk. He loved being a father, and if he truly believed Matayara's plan was airtight, he'd take her in his arms this second. She had always enthralled him, sometimes beyond reason, but today would not be one of those days. He couldn't bear loosing her, especially if she was carrying another of his children.

"And leave Jo an orphan at the age of 16? That would certainly impact Jo's future tremendously," Matayara countered.

"If we both died here and now, my parents would be badgering Captain Archer to formally transfer Jo's custody over to them before our bodies were cold. There's no evidence that your demise would have any serious impact to Daniels' desired timeline. If so, your death would be for nothing, and I won't allow you to take that risk," Lorian replied, internally conceding that his wife had a point, but unwilling to acknowledge it verbally.

"Then what do you suggest?" Matayara asked in exasperation. While it was true he definitely had a say in whether or not they conceived again, she also knew that not doing so played right into the hands of the man who wanted to harm her family.

"Doing whatever it takes to survive long enough to see 2285. As much as I hate the idea, teaming up with the Suliban Cabal was the right move. They have far more experience fighting this temporal cold war than we do, even more than Captain Archer does," Lorian replied, sitting back down on his bunk.

"They're also untrustworthy. We have no idea what their puppeteer wants from us, what timeline he's trying to promote. Jo is as vital to him as she is to Daniels, but who's to say your erasure and that of your crew doesn't also suit his ends? Our baby would throw his timeline into chaos as surely as she would Daniels'. We would be writing our family's history ourselves, not leaving it in the hands of persons with far more advanced technology and their own agendas," Matayara stated, placing her cool fingers on either side of her husband's head and gently massaging the neural nodes that would prevent him from getting the headache she could see threatening on the horizon, by the stiffness in Lorian's shoulders and lower neck.

"If you don't stop that, I'll pass out from exhaustion here and now, and that would completely derail all of our plans," Lorian commented, the simple posture Matayara's fingers were working, making him drowsy. Usually he was grateful when his wife helped him with his insomnia, but with everything coming down the pike, he needed to remain awake and alert for at least the next 24 hours. He was already fighting his weary muscles and battered spirit to remain awake. He didn't need to fight his endocrine system too. Tomorrow he'd have the rest of his life to sleep. Today he had to help save the galaxy, and keep his family and crew alive and temporally cohesive.

"After 83 years of marriage, I can tell when you're getting a headache," Matayara replied, wrapping her arms around Lorian's neck and pulling his back against her body. As base as it might be, she hoped instilling physical comfort, then desire, in her husband might help sway him to her point of view. However, Lorian was too disciplined and clever to respond to a blatant seduction. Just sitting snugly like this, her arms around his midsection, her cheek pressed against his upper back was as far as she dared to go without setting off alarms in him.

"I'm really glad you're here, Mata," Lorian sighed, absently patting the hand that lay flat against the upper part of his stomach.

"I'll always be there when you need me. You know that," Matayara replied, threading her fingers with Lorian's, and nuzzling his shoulder with her forehead.

The two remained silent several more minutes before Lorian spoke again. "Part of my resistance to your… proposal, it's... Well, you of all people know how intelligent Jo is. Hell, with Daniels current involvement, half the Expanse seems to know, but despite her abilities, she's still so… young, so undisciplined. My father told me over dinner break that Jo was calling herself a 'temporal anarchist' now. She still needs us, Mata. You know how much work a new baby takes. We couldn't provide the same level of attention for Jo as we do now, and it's already hard enough keeping up with her as is."

"I hate to say this, considering we once swore we'd separate the births of our children so that none of them would ever wind up saddled with inappropriate care giving responsibilities, but in this case maybe those responsibilities are just what Jo needs. I'm not suggesting we dump her and the baby on Kotook and run off together, but warming bottles and giving baths would slow down her mad technological rush, give her time to add some wisdom to her intellect," Matayara argued, having thought of this earlier this afternoon.

"Changing diapers, day in and day out, does have a way of maturing a person, that's true," Lorian quipped, earning a smile from his wife.

"Worked for us," Matayara replied, smiling at the memory of an infant Maranda, splayed out on the changing table, the most hideous stench Matayara and her husband had ever encountered in both their lives drifting upwards, as they both suddenly realized in horror that old Phlox had left sickbay and was nowhere in sight to assist them. They'd both grown up more in that moment than in the 10 months previous.

"Remember that baby sweater the Drenadian ambassador gave us," Lorian reminisced, amusement filling him.

"And Ami removed it while alone in her crib, consumed the fibers, and had purple goo coming out of her for the next three weeks!" Mata peeled with laughter remembering the shock on her husband's face when he'd first seen the contents of that diaper upon returning to Kotook from one of his missions.

"Phlox took one look at the diaper, shook his head, and said…"

"Well, she's a Tucker!" Matayara howled, unable to remain upright, and fighting for control of her bladder.

Suddenly her husband sobered, and she could virtually feel the sudden sadness in him. "He died less than a year later. Save mother, he was the last of Archer's crew. Mother took it especially hard."

"So did you," Matayara reminded her husband, knowing that given half the chance he'd foist the loss onto his mother or his crewmates, denying his own pain. To most familiar with both species of her husband's origin, one would assume it was a Vulcan tactic, to distance himself from his emotions, but Matayara knew exactly where it had came from, the very human Jonathan Archer. He'd taught Lorian well to take up his mantle as captain, too well in some ways.

"Yeah, well, he'd had a long life, if not an easy one," Lorian commented, allowing his emotional suppression techniques to assert themselves. Unlike his mother, he only needed to use them sporadically, when he sensed he was about to become overwhelmed. They'd failed him earlier in 2285, but the shock there had been sudden and, for the most part, unexpected. Phlox's loss had fermented in him for decades, and was relatively simple to bypass after all these years.

"He was a good man… is a good man. This language situation is turning out to be quite challenging," Matayara commented.

"Tell me about it. I think Jo's about to blow an injector, but then again, she's taken it upon herself to keep an eye on the Suliban and their work, so she has to deal with it a lot more. She says they're keeping up their end of the bargain," Lorian informed his wife.

"It's in their benefactor's best interests to do so, for the time being. However, I don't like depending on their 'charity'. They're too unpredictable. And I especially don't like my child around them so much of the time," Matayara reiterated her concerns. She knew their mutual nostalgia only pressed her point of having another child. Lorian loved babies. It was well known he spent some of his downtime in Enterprises' nursery, rocking infants whose parents were on duty. However the turn towards Phlox had brought her husband back to a defensive position, one where a child merely meant another front to guard in their part of the temporal cold war. Phlox and Archer's crew had passed away, most of old age, forgotten by time. Now, all that remained of them was in jeopardy of being erased permanently by Daniels. Her own children were viewed as a necessary evil, due to what her youngest could provide history. So long as Lorian was on the defensive and unwilling to attack Daniels timeline with another baby, their family would continue to loose ground.

"I don't either, but Jo is best suited to monitor them. Both who she is now and who she is a year from now, have been hard at work reverse engineering some of the Spherebuilders' technology. She at least understands what the Suliban device is going to do, and how it should be constructed. None of my people, nor my fathers, are as knowledgeable in this area. And both my mothers are preoccupied with the refit at the moment. The meeting with Degra has to take precedence over our current situation," Lorian explained, again feeling a slight sting of disappointment at having been rebuffed by both T'Pols when he'd asked each to keep an eye on the Suliban device. Even with both crews working on the refit and repair of Archer's Enterprise, both T'Pols had every last minute scheduled till they were under way to meet Degra. Neither of his mothers would alter their plans when Jomala was fully capable of doing the job. He understood their logic, but his human half and the father in him resented it.

"Then we should let them deal with the rendezvous with Degra and make our own future here," Matayara stated firmly, wrapping her arms around Lorian's neck and pressing herself against him.

Carefully she watched her mate's face. Most saw only the Vulcan mask, but she knew every nuance, every tiny muscle movement around his eyes or at his brow gave her information about what was going on in his mind. He saw her logic, but a part of him couldn't believe the simplicity of the solution. To them it would merely be a matter of conception. The timeline would do the rest for them in the near term, and they'd raised 4 daughters before this one, so it wasn't like this plan would take them to uncharted territory. Yet she also saw his hesitancy at the idea of bringing a child into the universe as it was, the Xindi conflict, the danger to Earth, merely symptomatic of greater problems, problems Daniels' Federation promised to fix in unifying many of the combatant races in common cause, and giving refuge and identity to those like her children and her husbands' hybrid crew. All the data needed to arrange itself and Matayara was patient while it did so.

Finally, she saw decision in her husband's eyes, and he relaxed against her, pressing his forehead to his own, and a gentle kiss to her lips. "Are you sure, Mata?"

"Yes," was all Matayara could say before her husband covered her mouth again, this time more insistant, and she allowed herself to loose herself in physical sensation.