Author Notes: * mean thoughts. { mean when a person is talking on a communicator. This story doesn't follow the series to its entirety. This is the forth chapter of my Hoshi/Reed epic. As always I love feedback. Please tell me what you think of my stories, give me suggestions, let me know if I made a mistake, tell me anything you want be it positive or negative. (tora_ziyal13@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: Enterprise and all the related characters belong to Paramount. This fan fiction piece belongs to me. So if you want to archive it please ask. Just to let you all know I'm not making any profit off this story ~Ziyal~
Rating: PG-13
The Red Planet X
'Broken Ankle, Mended Heart'
By Tora Ziyal
The minutes dragged on like hours as Reed and Hoshi sat and waited for any kind of sign of anything that could be helpful to them. There was nothing. Hoshi stood up from the ground and paced back and forth a few times. "This is awful. The Enterprise should be looking for us; I sent that signal out before we lost all our command functions!"
Malcolm nodded. "I'm sure that they received it Hoshi. I bet they're just trying to figure out what would be the safest way to get us out of here." He said as he stuck his fingers in the bright red sand and drew circles in it, almost nervously.
"And what about those humans and...That alien. We haven't seen them or heard them. When do you suppose they'll make their appearance?" Hoshi said pacing back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth.
Malcolm's eyes followed her as she paced. He gritted his teeth. "Hoshi! Please stop doing that." He said firmly.
"Doing what?" She asked still pacing.
"Pacing."
"I'm pacing?" She looked down at her feet and noticed indeed that she was pacing. "Oh, I didn't even know. I guess I do that when I'm really nervous. You should have seen me minutes before I had to do some anti-gravity training back in Starfleet.... I about wore a hole in the linoleum flooring." She laughed.
Malcolm laughed. "I would have loved to see that. I hated that part of the training also." A sharp pain shoot up through his ankle and he sucked air through his teeth instead of howling out in pain.
Hoshi spun around and faced him. "Malcolm! What's the matter?" She said crouching down next to him.
He clutched his foot and shook his head. "N-Nothing. I'll be fine." He assured her.
Hoshi moved his hand away from his foot and lifted it up slightly. "No, Malcolm you're not all right. I'm no doctor but I think you broke it." She began to remove his boot.
"Hoshi, please. I'll be okay." He tried to smile.
"I just want to look at it." She said looking up at his face. "I got to clean that wound on your face too."
Malcolm reached up and felt the slash on the left side of his cheek. It had stopped bleeding but the wound was still very open and raw. "Does it look really bad?" He asked her.
Hoshi successfully removed his boot and then looked up at his face again. "Not as bad as before. It stopped bleeding at least." She pulled his sock off carefully and looked at his black and blue, swollen ankle. "Yeah, I'd say it's broke."
"Damn, looks like I'm not going to do any exploring anytime soon." He said looking at his foot and then back at Hoshi's pretty face, he smiled at her.
"What?" She asked as she began to put his sock back on.
"Thank you for taking care of me." He replied, still smiling at her.
She smiled back. "You're welcome. I'd do it for anybody."
Malcolm felt like he was on fire. *Settle down Malcolm....The girl takes your sock off and you flip for her, that's a little odd.* He thought to himself as he studied the way she moved about. It was more than just taking off his sock though. He was definitely attracted to Hoshi and each minute he spent with her he was even becoming more so. Ever since they started out on this mission she had shown bravery, loyalty, and compassion. That was something Malcolm admired very much in women. Hoshi was also smart, pretty, and funny but those were all 'second qualities' to him.
"I should go see if I can find water or....something." She said as she began to get up.
Malcolm grabbed her hand gently and pulled her closer to him. He leaned forward half way and Hoshi met him the other half. Their lips touched and they kissed for a few seconds. Both of them burned with desire as their lips danced. Hoshi pulled away slightly and looked into his eyes. Her face was flushed and she almost had no idea what happened. "What was that for?" She asked.
Malcolm couldn't even believe he did that. He had no other explanation to give her except that he wanted to. "It just felt right." He said smiling.
Hoshi blushed again. "It did." She agreed. "I liked it." She said as she leaned forward and kissed him on his forehead.
It was Malcolm's turn to get red in the face. "I like you a lot Hoshi." He confessed to her. "It's just that I was always a bit shy around women, well I still am."
"It's okay, I'm like that around guys sometimes." She smiled as he put his hand on top of hers. "And I like you also, Malcolm." Hoshi felt like she was on top of the world. She secretly hoped that Lieutenant Reed liked her but she didn't think he really had any interest in her considering that she was a few years younger and she was only an ensign. She began to get up again. "I really should try and look around this place."
Malcolm nodded. "Be careful." He reached at his side and took out his phase pistol. "Take this."
Hoshi reluctantly took the pistol. "Thanks. I just hope I won't have to use this."
Malcolm nodded. "Me too. Don't go very far and don't do anything that looks at all dangerous." He said with concern.
A cold chill when down Hoshi's back as she peered into the dark tunnel ahead of her. She pulled out her small emergency flashlight and shone into the darkness. She looked back at Malcolm who watched with faith in her. She gave him one final smile and then disappeared into the dark unknown.
To Be Continued.......
