Chapter 37

At the farm, Mary, Jon and Malcolm all jumped when they heard a shot in the distance. Less than five minutes later, Trip burst through the door, sweating, panting hard and limping from the bullet graze to his leg.

Malcolm quickly pulled out the emergency med kit from his satchel as Jon helped Trip into a chair. "What happened? What was that shot? Where's Tuckey?" Jon questioned in rapid succession.

Malcolm ripped the leg of the pants to get to the wound as Mary watched in amazement of the instrument working to instantly heal the leg. Trip sat trying to calm himself. "He-he killed him. Wade snuck up on us in the cave and the rifle went off. He's dead! Oh damn Mary! He's dead!"

Mary let out a scream as Trip muttered. "Damn Boggs." He turned his head and spat.

Sara came from her room. "Momma! What is it? What's going on?"

Mary grabbed at Sara holding her tight. "Your daddy! Your daddy is dead! Damn Boggs killed your daddy!" Mary turned her head and spat. "Damn you Wade Boggs! Damn you to hell!" She screamed out.

XXX

Trip spent the early morning hours processing the crystals in silence. He wasn't in much of a talkative mood and the rest left him alone to do his work.

The three men had changed back into their Starfleet uniforms so that Mary could wash, dry and press the pilfered clothing they had been wearing...minus one pair of pants. Jon had taken the clothes, to live up to the promise of returning them.

He walked into the bank, ignoring the looks he was getting for his garment and presented the teller with two strips of silver, remnants of the crystal refinement process he had snatched from the table when Trip wasn't looking.

The teller blinked at him a few times and Jon came up with a quick story. "On my way to a costume party."

The teller blinked again. "Oh. What are you dressed as?"

"A man from the future. A spaceman I guess you could say. How much can I get for these?"

"Quite a bit actually. You know...you're the second person to come in today trading silver for cash. Where y'all getting this silver from?"

"Second person?" Jon asked in surprise.

"Yeah...Wade Boggs' wife, Pauline, was here this morning."

"I don't know who Boggs is, or his wife. I'm from California and kind of over indulged while I was here. Damned if I didn't run out of money and need to get back home after this party."

"You came all the way from California with those in your pocket? Mister...your crazy! Lucky you didn't get mugged."

"I've been told I'm not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree."

A woman sat in her living room when she heard a noise. She went to investigate, opening the front door she saw a package sitting on the porch. She picked it up, looked around, not seeing anyone she carried it inside.

She was shocked at what she found when she opened the package. The three shirts and two pairs of pants that went missing from her clothes line a few days ago. Plus three more shirts, five extra pants for her husband. Three dresses for herself, three dresses for her daughter, and three hundred dollars cash. She clutched her hand to her chest in disbelief. "My word! Who would be so generous? Thank you whoever you are."

She picked up the handwritten note, smiling at how elegant the writing was.

Sorry we took your clothes, we didn't want to do it but it was an emergency, we hope you understand. A pair of pants got ruined. I hope this makes up for the loss of the pants and any inconvenience we might have caused you.

May your family live long and prosper.

J.A.

Jon returned to the farm, carrying in several bags of groceries and handed what was left of the cash to Mary. Trip looked at him and grinned. "You walked around town dressed like that?"

"Told people I was going to a costume party dressed as a man from the future." Jon smirked.

Mary let out a laugh. "If they only knew!" She gave Jon a hug. "I'm not too sure of this men marrying men business...but you make a fine Tucker. Welcome to the family tree."

"Thank you Mary. That means a lot coming from someone in this time period...grandma." He gave her a peck on the cheek as she giggled at being called "grandma" by a man a few years older than her.

"I know what you did...the silver." Trip cocked an eyebrow in a slight challenge.

Jon shrugged his shoulders. "It was remnants. Why let it go to waste?"

Trip looked over his shoulder and saw that Mary had shyly turned away from them, putting the groceries away. Trip wrapped his arms around Jon's waist. "Thank you." He gave Jon a peck on the lips.

XXX

They had waited until night and Sara was sleeping before opening the doors of the barn, ready to try to get back to their time. Mary gave Trip a big hug. "I hope you make it safe. If this doesn't work and you can't get back to your time, y'all come back here, you'll have a home here."

"Thank you. We will, if it doesn't work." Mary placed a key in Trip's hand. "What's this?"

"If it does work...you'll know what the key is for when the time comes. Good luck...grandson."

Mary watched as the shuttle lifted off and climbed into the night sky, silently praying that her descendant, husband, and friend would make it back to their time safe.

As they broke the atmosphere, Jon pushed the engines as hard as he could while Trip vented the coolant and plasma gas. As the speed accelerated, instruments started sparking and popping. The three quickly put their arms up, shielding their eyes from a large shower of sparks.

When Jon pulled his arm away he gasped. "Oh shit!" He jerked hard on the control stick, avoiding crashing into Enterprise that was directly in front of them.

The comm channel crackled and T'Pol's voice came through. "Enterprise to pod one. Is there a problem?"

Jon responded. "You could say that. Didn't you notice how long we were gone for?"

"Captain, the pod just left dock seconds ago. Why have you turned around?"

Jon's brows shot up. "Seconds? We got some major problems here. We're heading back in and oh boy...do we have a story for you!"