DISCLAIMER: They're mine! All mine! Yeah right.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hehe…this story will probably deteriorate into Amber/Trip romance from here…but if you're looking for the two of them to sleep together, you've asked the wrong author. You have my permission to write one if you want, but I won't be writing one for you.

RATED: G

ARCHIVES: Ask

THE SECRET LANGUAGE

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Amber!" Trip called as the young ensign hit the floor. Every head in the mess hall turned in his direction. "Amber, Amber!" She was unconscious, and she was not breathing. Trip fumbled for his communicator with a shaking hand. "Tucker to Phlox!"

"Phlox here, Commander." Came the doctor's annoyingly cheerful voice.

"Get down to the mess hall right away, we have an emergency!" Trip said. The curious crewmembers were crowding around now, wondering what had happened. "Is that the deaf ensign?" "No way, she was talking to the commander." "I heard the doc gave her an operation and she can hear."

"Amber? Amber!" Trip called uselessly. She was beginning to turn blue.

"Move aside, Commander." Dr. Phlox said as he entered the mess hall. "Give Ensign Scott some breathing room."

"She's not breathing, Doctor!" Trip said.

"Oh dear." Phlox said. "Commander, help me carry her to Sickbay."

Trip took Amber's feet, while the doctor carried her by the shoulders. How he can be totally calm and cheerful at a time like this is absolutely beyond me. Trip thought. But then, a lot of things Phlox did were beyond him.

"Amber…"

Amber heard the voice. Was it a voice? She couldn't tell. It sounded like her name.

"I shouldn't have taken her. I should have known." That was Trip, but he wasn't talking to her.

"I will agree that it wasn't the smartest thing you've ever done, Commander." That was Dr. Phlox. "And you should have known better than to take her to a place so filled with loud noises as the mess hall, especially at seventeen hundred hours."

What are they talking about? Amber thought. She remembered falling, but that was all. Had she fallen in the mess hall? What had she been doing in the mess hall? Where was she?

"I thought it might help her to adjust." Trip said. "You know…the noises and everything."

So I was in the mess hall with Trip. Amber concluded. Were we on a date? She hoped not. What a first date that must have been!

"I appreciate your willingness, Commander." Phlox said. "But from now on, I'll be the judge of what helps Ensign Scott adjust, not you."

Amber forced her eyes open. She was in Sickbay. How had she gotten here? Why was she here? "Trip?" She rasped. Her throat was so dry that the sound was barely even audible. Swallowing, she tried again. "Trip?"

Trip turned around. "Amber! You're up!" He said.

"What happened?" Amber asked. Her throat felt like sandpaper.

"You don't remember?" Trip asked.

"I fell." Amber said. "I don't know where, and I don't know how, I just know that I fell."

"You were in the mess hall." Dr. Phlox said. "Commander Tucker and you were on a date-"

"We were not!" Trip said.

"And your brain shut down because it couldn't process all the noise." Phlox said, ignoring Trip's little interjection.

"My brain shut down?" Amber asked.

"Yes." Phlox said. "Everything. You stopped breathing, your heart stopped beating. You were blue by the time you got here."

"If my heart stopped beating and I stopped breathing…then I was…" Amber said, looking up at the doctor.

"Dead." Phlox finished for her. "We had you on a full respirator for a week."

"I've been out for a week?" Amber asked.

"Two weeks." Phlox said.

"Two weeks?" Amber exclaimed. "I was out for two weeks?"

"We had to practically bring you back from the dead, Amber." Trip said. His blue eyes were concerned. "We almost lost you."

A rattle sounded from a corner of Sickbay, and the doctor went to see what it was. This left Amber and Trip alone.

"So were we on a date?" Amber asked.

"No." Trip said.

"Did you ask me to go to the mess hall?"

"Yes." Trip said.

"Did you say when?"

"Yes…" Trip said uncomfortably.

"Then it was a date." Amber said.

"It…it wasn't a date, Amber." Trip said.

"Yes it was." Amber let out a slight laugh, called a giggle. It was a sound that young girls made when they were talking about the hot guy in school, or seeing a cute boy smile at them. It wasn't as detestable a sound as she'd imagined. In fact, she liked it.

"It wasn't a date." Trip said. His defense was failing.

"It was." Amber said, a goofy smile still on her face.

"Was not." Trip said, a smile beginning to play at the corners of his mouth.

"Was so." Amber said.

"Was not."

"Shut up." Amber hooked her arm around his neck and kissed him. It was incredible. Even better than the last time.

"Hey Amber?" Trip asked, his breath warm against her cheek. "When you're out of here, what do you say to dinner in my quarters?"

"Is this a date?" Amber asked.

"Yeah." Trip said. "This time it's a date."