Chapter 6-
"Our doctor is examining Commander Tucker as we speak." T'Pol was addressing the alien father on the view screen.
"My daughter is anxious to return home." The weary father explained. "But she needs to know he is well. We will await your communique."
"You will be contacted as soon as the captain has returned to the bridge." T'Pol said.
There was a short span of silence as Reed cleared his throat to get the sub-commander's attention. When T'Pol looked over at the lieutenant, he motioned to her for permission to speak. She was clearly uncertain as to why he wanted to speak, but she nodded approval.
"Sir," Reed spoke to the alien. "Please tell your daughter that we all wish her well."
There was a small smile from the father. "Thank you."
When the alien disappeared from the screen, T'Pol turned to Reed. "I thank you, as well, Lieutenant."
----------
Phlox rose from the bed carefully, so as not to jostle the sleeping Tucker. Archer stood nearby, folding Trip's uniform and placing it on a shelf.
"The remainder of the sedative will give him a few more hours of much needed sleep." Phlox closed his bag, as he moved next to the captain.
"But he is fine?" Archer asked, unsure. "They didn't hurt him anymore?"
"No, not physically." Phlox told him. "But he was traumatized again by their contact, no doubt. Time will tell what setback it causes, if any."
The captain bent down to pick up Porthos, holding the dog close against his chest. Whether it was more for his own comfort or the pooches had room for debate. He buried his nose in his furry friend's head and kissed it. The dog whimpered and licked his master's face.
"I was hoping Trip would come to see that unborn child as the meaning to all of this." Archer looked at the doctor with saddened eyes. "Now that meaning is gone."
Phlox sighed, wrinkling nose in thought.
"Perhaps his first contact with this species, and their impression of humans because of him, could be meaning enough."
"Thanks, Doc." Archer put Porthos down and moved to the door. "I'll go contact the father of the girl and then I'll be right back."
"I'll be here." Phlox assured the captain.
----------
"The researchers only wanted to know why we returned." Archer was explaining to the senior bridge crew in the situation room.
"Contact initiated by another would be unknown to them." T'Pol reinforced.
"Well, if that was also tantamount, we blew it." The captain said, moving off toward his command chair as the others followed. "Since they felt humans are hazardous, they destroyed the samples they took from Trip."
"And the child as well." Malcolm added as he returned to his station along with the others.
"But he is okay, sir?" Travis asked.
"Yes, Travis." Archer smiled at the ensign. "He wasn't hurt physically. Well, Hoshi, hail them."
There was a thoughtful moment for all while Hoshi waited for the response. Archer wondered how he was going to tell Trip of the baby and how his friend would take it. There wasn't much he didn't know about Charles Tucker III, but he had never known Trip in this much pain. People change forever from things like this. He couldn't let that happen to Trip. He wouldn't.
"I have them, sir." Hoshi broke the captain's thoughts.
The tired alien father appeared on the screen. He nodded to the captain.
"Mr. Tucker is unharmed." The captain began, "I wish that were the case with your daughter."
"She is strong and she will mend with the support of our people." The father said. "I believe, in time, your man will also, given your affections. Your people told me that the child was destroyed because the researchers felt your species perilous."
"Yes." Archer shifted uncomfortably in his command chair. "I don't know what else to say, except I am very sorry."
"For the loss of my grandson only?" The alien asked.
"I don't understand." Archer stated, confusion on his brow.
"Do not apologize for what others' opinions of your people are, Captain." The father said. "Do you believe your people are precarious?"
"No." The captain quickly replied.
"Then condolences for the loss of my grandson are excepted. Apologies are not."
A smile came across the captain's face as he realized the alien was releasing them of any fault.
"Understood." Archer nodded. "Will you be going home now?"
"Yes. My daughter is not capable of bidding your man farewell. She asked me to give him a message from her."
"He's not capable either right now."
"Then I will entrust you with the words to convey for her, Captain."
"If you'll give me a moment to reach privacy?" Archer asked. The alien nodded and the captain turned to Hoshi. "My ready room."
----------
His eyes fluttered open for a brief second and then closed again. He turned over on his side and took a deep breath. Jon hoped Trip had slept well last night even though he, himself, had not. He had tossed and turned all night. It was not that the cot was that uncomfortable, but he was playing these next moments over and over in his head. He knew there was no way to predict what was going to happen, or even what words were really going to be said.
Trip opened his eyes and looked around the room, his eyes resting on Jon sitting in a chair watching him.
"Morning." Jon greeted him.
Trip turned over on his back, looking over at the ceiling where the light had shone through.
"Did I dream it?" Trip asked, even though he was sure he had not.
"No."
"I thought I was back there when the light came." Trip sighed, turning back on his side. "I couldn't move."
"Trip, they paralyzed you last night." Jon explained to him. "Just like they did before, when you thought you froze from fear."
Trip regarded his friend, his captain and wondered if the man wasn't just trying to give him a snow job.
"You sure?" Trip asked.
"Yes. But even if you had froze, you were up against superior intelligence and power. It would've been no testimony of your character if you had. What happened was done to you and not because of you."
"Except the girl." Trip gathered the blankets up close to his chin. "I did that."
"Because they were using her to get you to cooperate."
"You really believe that?"
"Yes, I do. And so should you."
"Part of me does, I think." Trip relented.
Jon let Trip think about this for a moment. Only a moment, though, because he knew what he had to do and he needed to do it now.
"They destroyed the samples they took from you." Jon finally told his friend. "They felt humans were too risky to interbreed."
"So?" Trip sarcastically shrugged off. "Is that suppose to make me feel better, or somethin'?"
Jon just stared at him, saying nothing. Trip didn't like the look on Jon's face, it was the 'I've-got-some-bad-news' face.
"What else?" Trip pressed Jon.
"Before, while you were sleeping..." Jon leaned forward, resting his forearms on his legs and clasping his hands together. "Trip, they took the girl again. She's back with her father now and she's not hurt. But, the researchers..." He was struggling.
"Jonny?" Trip's voice cracked.
"They terminated the pregnancy." There, Jon thought, it's done. He had just hurt the man that he would give his life to save.
Trip bit his lower lip and threw the covers off. He got up and retrieved his uniform, starting to dress.
"So, I was right." Trip said. "It was all meaningless."
"Trip, you made an impression on a pretty stuck up race even by the Vulcans' standards." Jon told him. "They were willing to raise your son as some kind of messiah. Is that meaningless?"
"How the hell should I know?!" Trip hollered. "Am I suppose to feel good about some part of this whole painful experience? Physically and emotionally I was raped by alien perverts and then I turned around and did the same to that girl."
"No you didn't!" Jon angrily shot back. "Don't talk like that."
"Didn't I?!" Trip stopped trying to dress and just sat back down on the bed. "Physically, to stop them from hurting her...us, maybe. Then emotionally, by giving her hope in the form of a child and having it taken away because of me! Who I am, what I am."
"It's not like that." Jon corrected the younger man. "Trip, her father said she wanted you to know that even with the pain, she would've gone through it all over again for the time she spent with you."
Trip shook his head and started to laugh; a wicked laugh. "Well, at least it's nice to know I'm good for somethin', isn't it?"
"Knock it off." Jon was not about to let Trip fall deeper down into the hole he was digging for himself. "On the bridge you said I should allow you the courtesy of being... 'pissed off', I think is how you put it. Fine, I have. But why the hell can't you allow yourself the decency to be pained by any of this?"
Trip stared down at the floor, his forehead pressed against the palms of his hands. He cleared his throat.
"Because, it hurts too damn much," was the strangled response.
"I know." Jon said, gently, as he moved to sit on the bed beside Trip.
Jon now produced a padd and tapped Trip's arm with it. The younger man moved his hands and slowly lifted his head enough to see the padd. He took it, looking at it with some confusion.
"She also wanted you to have this." Jon explained. "Their gestation period is only 3 months. This was the scan from the medical examination done aboard her ship when she was returned the first time."
Trip's face softened as he realized what he was looking at. There was a three dimensional form lying curled up in a sea of waves and ripples. There he was, a whole being with tiny little fingers and toes. The overwhelming sight was too much to take and Trip fell back on the bed, covering his eyes with his arms. He cried like he had never cried before, with sobs that jerked his body. Charles Tucker the fourth was never going to be flesh and blood. Even if he were to have a son in the future, he would always think of this one as 'the fourth'.
As Trip let go of the pent up emotions, Jon stared at the far wall. Porthos jumped into Jon's lap and cowered. He held onto the dog with one hand and with the other gently rested it on Trip's knee.
----------
Since it had been three days since the last contact with the aliens and researchers, Doctor Phlox believed Commander Tucker was ready for duty on limited hours. Captain Archer's report to Admiral Forrest had been thorough and the admiral had agreed that the commander was tough and committed. Starfleet would allow Tucker to remain on board Enterprise and continue his recovery.
Trip dried himself off having just stepped out of the shower. The chime from his door sounded and he wrapped the towel around his waist.
"Come in." Trip called out from the bathroom doorway.
The door slid open and T'Pol entered. Trip came out of the bathroom and stopped short at the sight of the sub-commander.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Trip apologized, embarrassed. "I thought you were the cap'n."
Seemingly unaffected, T'Pol held out a padd to the commander.
"I brought you the latest engineering check list." T'Pol offered.
Trip moved and took the padd, glancing at it. He looked up and saw T'Pol eyeing the fading burn marks on his upper body.
"Those weren't so bad." Trip told her. "I mean, it hurt like hell, but I could've kept resisting. It wasn't until they started zappin' the girl that I got messed up."
"You prevented her from being hurt further." T'Pol said. "How did that 'mess you up'?"
"I started thinkin' that I was no better than they were." Trip explained. "What they did to me was humiliatin'. I was some kind of stud to them. But her..."
"You have doubts about your motives for mating?" T'Pol asked bluntly.
"Don't you?" Trip accusingly asked back.
"No." T'Pol answered. "You have many faults, but superficial is not one of them."
"Thanks." Trip frowned at her. "I think."
"In your anger, at dinner the other evening, you attempted to acquaint your own doubts about yourself as that of my own."
"Yeah," Trip nervously scratched his head. "That was uncalled for and I apologize. I was angry at myself for what I did. Still am."
"It was not uncalled for." T'Pol assured the commander. "I have, on several occasions, insinuated that I find your personal character questionable. I believe, at times, you are carefree and reckless. But never deceitful or cruel. You made a choice to act as you did when in captivity. You had no thoughts for future consequences. That was an act of desperation, not self-preservation."
Trip moved off to his bed and sat down. T'Pol never ceased to amaze him. Just when he thought he had her all figured out, she goes and says something like this.
"I think when I gave in, with her, I needed to feel I was in control." Trip confessed. "But she was so small and helpless."
"You were violated." T'Pol reminded him. "Your doubts are understandable."
"They took some samples from me." Trip tried to shrug off. "That's all. And, yeah, it made me feel..."
"Small and helpless." T'Pol waited for a response. When one was not forthcoming she proceeded.
"She has fond memories of you, Commander."
"Yeah. And she lost a child."
"Your angst is not as a result of what was done to you." T'Pol finally began to understand. "But rather what you feel you did to another."
Trip looked up at her now, with a sheepish look.
"Pretty stupid, huh?"
"Human." T'Pol countered. "The similarities, at times, are quite uncanny."
Trip had to laugh now. It was a big one, short, but hardy.
"For once," Trip smiled at her. "I agree with you."
"Is it possible that your doubts are the result of feelings of inadequacy, because you were traumatized by this incident?" T'Pol questioned, out of pure interest.
"Kinda knocked the wind out of my sails about this glorious adventure of exploration." Trip admitted.
T'Pol turned to leave, but stopped as she saw the padd with the image of the embryo. She picked up the padd and turned to the commander.
"You will not be returning to limited duty for two more days." T'Pol said. "When I am off of my shift today, we could take this scan to sickbay and have the data analyzed to project various images at certain stages of development."
Trip was stunned by her offer, but unsure how he felt about it.
"That'd be kinda morbid, wouldn't it?" He asked her.
"It was callous of me." T'Pol retracted. "No disrespect was intended."
"No, no." Trip rose and moved to her. "I didn't mean it like that. Thanks for the thought. But I think I'll just keep this."
T'Pol handed the padd to Tucker. "As you wish. I will see you for breakfast with the captain?"
"Yeah."
T'Pol turned and reached the door.
"T'Pol," Trip stopped her. "Thanks for bringin' the check list. And for the chat." He looked down at the padd and then back up at T'Pol. "Right now, I'm just not sure where I'm goin'."
T'Pol regarded the man she had come to know to be 'sure of himself', as the humans put it. But since he was human, self doubt was always a possibility. She just never thought this one was vulnerable in that way.
"As Captain Archer says," T'Pol quoted, "Just make it straight and steady."
THE END
----------
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you for all the reviews. This story is kind of special to me and I was hesitant in posting it. I am pleased that it found life here with all of you.
"Our doctor is examining Commander Tucker as we speak." T'Pol was addressing the alien father on the view screen.
"My daughter is anxious to return home." The weary father explained. "But she needs to know he is well. We will await your communique."
"You will be contacted as soon as the captain has returned to the bridge." T'Pol said.
There was a short span of silence as Reed cleared his throat to get the sub-commander's attention. When T'Pol looked over at the lieutenant, he motioned to her for permission to speak. She was clearly uncertain as to why he wanted to speak, but she nodded approval.
"Sir," Reed spoke to the alien. "Please tell your daughter that we all wish her well."
There was a small smile from the father. "Thank you."
When the alien disappeared from the screen, T'Pol turned to Reed. "I thank you, as well, Lieutenant."
----------
Phlox rose from the bed carefully, so as not to jostle the sleeping Tucker. Archer stood nearby, folding Trip's uniform and placing it on a shelf.
"The remainder of the sedative will give him a few more hours of much needed sleep." Phlox closed his bag, as he moved next to the captain.
"But he is fine?" Archer asked, unsure. "They didn't hurt him anymore?"
"No, not physically." Phlox told him. "But he was traumatized again by their contact, no doubt. Time will tell what setback it causes, if any."
The captain bent down to pick up Porthos, holding the dog close against his chest. Whether it was more for his own comfort or the pooches had room for debate. He buried his nose in his furry friend's head and kissed it. The dog whimpered and licked his master's face.
"I was hoping Trip would come to see that unborn child as the meaning to all of this." Archer looked at the doctor with saddened eyes. "Now that meaning is gone."
Phlox sighed, wrinkling nose in thought.
"Perhaps his first contact with this species, and their impression of humans because of him, could be meaning enough."
"Thanks, Doc." Archer put Porthos down and moved to the door. "I'll go contact the father of the girl and then I'll be right back."
"I'll be here." Phlox assured the captain.
----------
"The researchers only wanted to know why we returned." Archer was explaining to the senior bridge crew in the situation room.
"Contact initiated by another would be unknown to them." T'Pol reinforced.
"Well, if that was also tantamount, we blew it." The captain said, moving off toward his command chair as the others followed. "Since they felt humans are hazardous, they destroyed the samples they took from Trip."
"And the child as well." Malcolm added as he returned to his station along with the others.
"But he is okay, sir?" Travis asked.
"Yes, Travis." Archer smiled at the ensign. "He wasn't hurt physically. Well, Hoshi, hail them."
There was a thoughtful moment for all while Hoshi waited for the response. Archer wondered how he was going to tell Trip of the baby and how his friend would take it. There wasn't much he didn't know about Charles Tucker III, but he had never known Trip in this much pain. People change forever from things like this. He couldn't let that happen to Trip. He wouldn't.
"I have them, sir." Hoshi broke the captain's thoughts.
The tired alien father appeared on the screen. He nodded to the captain.
"Mr. Tucker is unharmed." The captain began, "I wish that were the case with your daughter."
"She is strong and she will mend with the support of our people." The father said. "I believe, in time, your man will also, given your affections. Your people told me that the child was destroyed because the researchers felt your species perilous."
"Yes." Archer shifted uncomfortably in his command chair. "I don't know what else to say, except I am very sorry."
"For the loss of my grandson only?" The alien asked.
"I don't understand." Archer stated, confusion on his brow.
"Do not apologize for what others' opinions of your people are, Captain." The father said. "Do you believe your people are precarious?"
"No." The captain quickly replied.
"Then condolences for the loss of my grandson are excepted. Apologies are not."
A smile came across the captain's face as he realized the alien was releasing them of any fault.
"Understood." Archer nodded. "Will you be going home now?"
"Yes. My daughter is not capable of bidding your man farewell. She asked me to give him a message from her."
"He's not capable either right now."
"Then I will entrust you with the words to convey for her, Captain."
"If you'll give me a moment to reach privacy?" Archer asked. The alien nodded and the captain turned to Hoshi. "My ready room."
----------
His eyes fluttered open for a brief second and then closed again. He turned over on his side and took a deep breath. Jon hoped Trip had slept well last night even though he, himself, had not. He had tossed and turned all night. It was not that the cot was that uncomfortable, but he was playing these next moments over and over in his head. He knew there was no way to predict what was going to happen, or even what words were really going to be said.
Trip opened his eyes and looked around the room, his eyes resting on Jon sitting in a chair watching him.
"Morning." Jon greeted him.
Trip turned over on his back, looking over at the ceiling where the light had shone through.
"Did I dream it?" Trip asked, even though he was sure he had not.
"No."
"I thought I was back there when the light came." Trip sighed, turning back on his side. "I couldn't move."
"Trip, they paralyzed you last night." Jon explained to him. "Just like they did before, when you thought you froze from fear."
Trip regarded his friend, his captain and wondered if the man wasn't just trying to give him a snow job.
"You sure?" Trip asked.
"Yes. But even if you had froze, you were up against superior intelligence and power. It would've been no testimony of your character if you had. What happened was done to you and not because of you."
"Except the girl." Trip gathered the blankets up close to his chin. "I did that."
"Because they were using her to get you to cooperate."
"You really believe that?"
"Yes, I do. And so should you."
"Part of me does, I think." Trip relented.
Jon let Trip think about this for a moment. Only a moment, though, because he knew what he had to do and he needed to do it now.
"They destroyed the samples they took from you." Jon finally told his friend. "They felt humans were too risky to interbreed."
"So?" Trip sarcastically shrugged off. "Is that suppose to make me feel better, or somethin'?"
Jon just stared at him, saying nothing. Trip didn't like the look on Jon's face, it was the 'I've-got-some-bad-news' face.
"What else?" Trip pressed Jon.
"Before, while you were sleeping..." Jon leaned forward, resting his forearms on his legs and clasping his hands together. "Trip, they took the girl again. She's back with her father now and she's not hurt. But, the researchers..." He was struggling.
"Jonny?" Trip's voice cracked.
"They terminated the pregnancy." There, Jon thought, it's done. He had just hurt the man that he would give his life to save.
Trip bit his lower lip and threw the covers off. He got up and retrieved his uniform, starting to dress.
"So, I was right." Trip said. "It was all meaningless."
"Trip, you made an impression on a pretty stuck up race even by the Vulcans' standards." Jon told him. "They were willing to raise your son as some kind of messiah. Is that meaningless?"
"How the hell should I know?!" Trip hollered. "Am I suppose to feel good about some part of this whole painful experience? Physically and emotionally I was raped by alien perverts and then I turned around and did the same to that girl."
"No you didn't!" Jon angrily shot back. "Don't talk like that."
"Didn't I?!" Trip stopped trying to dress and just sat back down on the bed. "Physically, to stop them from hurting her...us, maybe. Then emotionally, by giving her hope in the form of a child and having it taken away because of me! Who I am, what I am."
"It's not like that." Jon corrected the younger man. "Trip, her father said she wanted you to know that even with the pain, she would've gone through it all over again for the time she spent with you."
Trip shook his head and started to laugh; a wicked laugh. "Well, at least it's nice to know I'm good for somethin', isn't it?"
"Knock it off." Jon was not about to let Trip fall deeper down into the hole he was digging for himself. "On the bridge you said I should allow you the courtesy of being... 'pissed off', I think is how you put it. Fine, I have. But why the hell can't you allow yourself the decency to be pained by any of this?"
Trip stared down at the floor, his forehead pressed against the palms of his hands. He cleared his throat.
"Because, it hurts too damn much," was the strangled response.
"I know." Jon said, gently, as he moved to sit on the bed beside Trip.
Jon now produced a padd and tapped Trip's arm with it. The younger man moved his hands and slowly lifted his head enough to see the padd. He took it, looking at it with some confusion.
"She also wanted you to have this." Jon explained. "Their gestation period is only 3 months. This was the scan from the medical examination done aboard her ship when she was returned the first time."
Trip's face softened as he realized what he was looking at. There was a three dimensional form lying curled up in a sea of waves and ripples. There he was, a whole being with tiny little fingers and toes. The overwhelming sight was too much to take and Trip fell back on the bed, covering his eyes with his arms. He cried like he had never cried before, with sobs that jerked his body. Charles Tucker the fourth was never going to be flesh and blood. Even if he were to have a son in the future, he would always think of this one as 'the fourth'.
As Trip let go of the pent up emotions, Jon stared at the far wall. Porthos jumped into Jon's lap and cowered. He held onto the dog with one hand and with the other gently rested it on Trip's knee.
----------
Since it had been three days since the last contact with the aliens and researchers, Doctor Phlox believed Commander Tucker was ready for duty on limited hours. Captain Archer's report to Admiral Forrest had been thorough and the admiral had agreed that the commander was tough and committed. Starfleet would allow Tucker to remain on board Enterprise and continue his recovery.
Trip dried himself off having just stepped out of the shower. The chime from his door sounded and he wrapped the towel around his waist.
"Come in." Trip called out from the bathroom doorway.
The door slid open and T'Pol entered. Trip came out of the bathroom and stopped short at the sight of the sub-commander.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Trip apologized, embarrassed. "I thought you were the cap'n."
Seemingly unaffected, T'Pol held out a padd to the commander.
"I brought you the latest engineering check list." T'Pol offered.
Trip moved and took the padd, glancing at it. He looked up and saw T'Pol eyeing the fading burn marks on his upper body.
"Those weren't so bad." Trip told her. "I mean, it hurt like hell, but I could've kept resisting. It wasn't until they started zappin' the girl that I got messed up."
"You prevented her from being hurt further." T'Pol said. "How did that 'mess you up'?"
"I started thinkin' that I was no better than they were." Trip explained. "What they did to me was humiliatin'. I was some kind of stud to them. But her..."
"You have doubts about your motives for mating?" T'Pol asked bluntly.
"Don't you?" Trip accusingly asked back.
"No." T'Pol answered. "You have many faults, but superficial is not one of them."
"Thanks." Trip frowned at her. "I think."
"In your anger, at dinner the other evening, you attempted to acquaint your own doubts about yourself as that of my own."
"Yeah," Trip nervously scratched his head. "That was uncalled for and I apologize. I was angry at myself for what I did. Still am."
"It was not uncalled for." T'Pol assured the commander. "I have, on several occasions, insinuated that I find your personal character questionable. I believe, at times, you are carefree and reckless. But never deceitful or cruel. You made a choice to act as you did when in captivity. You had no thoughts for future consequences. That was an act of desperation, not self-preservation."
Trip moved off to his bed and sat down. T'Pol never ceased to amaze him. Just when he thought he had her all figured out, she goes and says something like this.
"I think when I gave in, with her, I needed to feel I was in control." Trip confessed. "But she was so small and helpless."
"You were violated." T'Pol reminded him. "Your doubts are understandable."
"They took some samples from me." Trip tried to shrug off. "That's all. And, yeah, it made me feel..."
"Small and helpless." T'Pol waited for a response. When one was not forthcoming she proceeded.
"She has fond memories of you, Commander."
"Yeah. And she lost a child."
"Your angst is not as a result of what was done to you." T'Pol finally began to understand. "But rather what you feel you did to another."
Trip looked up at her now, with a sheepish look.
"Pretty stupid, huh?"
"Human." T'Pol countered. "The similarities, at times, are quite uncanny."
Trip had to laugh now. It was a big one, short, but hardy.
"For once," Trip smiled at her. "I agree with you."
"Is it possible that your doubts are the result of feelings of inadequacy, because you were traumatized by this incident?" T'Pol questioned, out of pure interest.
"Kinda knocked the wind out of my sails about this glorious adventure of exploration." Trip admitted.
T'Pol turned to leave, but stopped as she saw the padd with the image of the embryo. She picked up the padd and turned to the commander.
"You will not be returning to limited duty for two more days." T'Pol said. "When I am off of my shift today, we could take this scan to sickbay and have the data analyzed to project various images at certain stages of development."
Trip was stunned by her offer, but unsure how he felt about it.
"That'd be kinda morbid, wouldn't it?" He asked her.
"It was callous of me." T'Pol retracted. "No disrespect was intended."
"No, no." Trip rose and moved to her. "I didn't mean it like that. Thanks for the thought. But I think I'll just keep this."
T'Pol handed the padd to Tucker. "As you wish. I will see you for breakfast with the captain?"
"Yeah."
T'Pol turned and reached the door.
"T'Pol," Trip stopped her. "Thanks for bringin' the check list. And for the chat." He looked down at the padd and then back up at T'Pol. "Right now, I'm just not sure where I'm goin'."
T'Pol regarded the man she had come to know to be 'sure of himself', as the humans put it. But since he was human, self doubt was always a possibility. She just never thought this one was vulnerable in that way.
"As Captain Archer says," T'Pol quoted, "Just make it straight and steady."
THE END
----------
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you for all the reviews. This story is kind of special to me and I was hesitant in posting it. I am pleased that it found life here with all of you.