Tickle 3

When T'Pol was coming down to sickbay after a shift on the bridge (Malcolm had been most relieved to get a break) she could hear shrieking. On getting closer, it was Trip shrieking. T'Pol broke into a run. She burst into sickbay… to find Hoshi tickling a giggling and squirming and shrieking Trip.

"Stop it!" He was yelling. Hoshi just continued her assault on his belly.

"'Polly help!"

T'Pol wasn't sure if she wanted to help. It was very amusing to watch the, now clothed, commander squiggling in the ensign's grip, but another part of her was very jealous watching this. "That will be all ensign" T'Pol told her sternly.

Hoshi hadn't realized that T'Pol had entered and her face turned red as she quickly pulled her arms away from the commander and walked out of sickbay hunched over "yes ma'am"

"Polly! My HERO!" Trip cheered as he came running up to T'Pol and pulled her into a giant bear hug.

T'Pol almost smiled, she had never been called a nickname before, nor had she been someone's hero before, she liked the feeling. She returned the Commander's hug and told him "thank you."

She began to stroke his hair. This time though, he wasn't having it. He pulled away. "I wanna play a game!!!!" He said. T'Pol had to fight an urge to call Hoshi back.

"What would you like to play?" T'Pol asked in as caring a voice as possible.

"Hm.... I want to play... checkers! I like checkers!"

"I don't know how to play checkers," T'Pol admitted.

"Ok. Then we can play.... horsey!"

"I am unfamiliar with that game as well"

"Hm.. I know! We can play 'duck, duck, goose.' we need more people though... never mind.... Uh...hide and seek!"

"Very well. I will count; you will hide. But only in the confines of sick bay."

Trip nodded. "Close your eyes and count to twenty!" He giggled.

T'Pol did as she was told, but not after locking all the sickbay doors just to make certain.

"One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Four."

"Five."

"Six."

"Seven.'

"Eight."

"Nine."

"Ten."

"Eleventwelvethirteenforteenfifteensixteenseveteeneighteennineteentwenty!"

T'Pol was unsure of what had made her cheat, but all she knew was that it was making Trip giggle, therefore giving away his hiding place. Remembering watching Archer play with the little alien children who had been on board, T'Pol walked ever so slowly around sickbay.

"Where oh where could Trip be?" She said.

"Where oh where could he be?" she sang.

She continued to walk around sickbay, she knew precisely where he was hiding, so she went to the opposite side of sickbay to "look" for him.

She looked in cupboards, in closets, under biobeds, and finally she came to where he was.

"Could he be in here?" She wondered out loud. She moved to open the door and Trip jumped out. "Boo!" He yelled. T'Pol raised an eyebrow and then she twigged. She threw her hands up. "Ahhh" she mock screamed. Then she did scream as Trip's fingers pounced on her sides.

T'Pol was laughing and laughing and laughing. This sensation was too much for her, she began to get weak, and as the younger Trip tickled her like crazy she collapsed to the floor with him tickling her all the more. She wiggled on the floor laughing hysterically, she hoped desperately that no crewman chose that time to walk by or get injured and have to come to sickbay. Trip was giggling himself. He'd never seen 'Polly' laugh or smile...or anything for that matter. Distracted, he wasn't watching what he was doing and T'Pol got a hand onto his belly. Trip started laughing himself. They were engaged in a full-fledged tickle fight. "St AH AH AH p"

"ON HE HEE HEELY IF aH AH AH YOU AHAahahHA DO FIR AHA AH AH AH AH ST"

T'Pol stopped her attack on his sensitive stomach and he stopped tickling her, and rolled to the side giggling. Then Trip heard the door to sick bay swish open and he leapt to his feet. "Johnny!" He yelled joyfully. T'Pol had enough time to regain her composure and by the time the surprised captain turned to her all traces of her smile were gone and she was calm once more.

"Captain, while you have been gone some *interesting* developments have arisen."

"What type of-" his question was cut off by Trip giving him a huge hug around the neck…

T'Pol rose an eyebrow with amusement at the captains response to Trip's hug. "He has been acting this way since late yesterday. He seems to think he is a child..."

"Ah'm six and a half. That's not a child."

"Of course not" the captain said.

The captain decided to regard the engineer the way he would a child of 6 and a half and asked him "So, Trip, what did you learn while I was gone?"

"Well... Hoshi sings funny, Apple juice is fun to squirt, and Polly and I are gonna get married!"

The Captain was humored and looked at T'Pol "Polly?"

T'Pol only blinked as a response and regarded Trip "I told you that would not be prudent"

"Yeah I know" he told T'Pol then whispered to the captain "I think she likes me, she tickled me. An' she let me tickle her. She's gotta like me." Trip grimaced. "She keeps making me drink though, I don't like that."

Archer was desperately trying not to laugh. Trip spotted this. "Don't laugh. It's not funny." Archer bit his lip. Trip pounced on him. "Wrestle!" He yelled.

Trip tackled Archer to the ground, who wrestled with him for several seconds before faking defeat, and let Trip stand one foot on Archers chest triumphantly "AH HA HA HA I won!"

T'Pol pulled Trip off Archer and pulled Archer to his feet.

T'Pol regarded Trip in a mothering tone and told him "that's enough you two, the captain needs to get back to work "then turning to the captain finished "may I speak with you in private sir?''

Archer nodded. He moved to go with her but Trip threw his arms around him. He looked up with his round blue eyes (by now he knew their effect) "I don't want Johnny to go, I want him to stay and play!"

Jonathan Archer, unlike T'Pol had dealt with his share of kids and the big blue eyes had no effect "Trip, T-Polly and I are going to go have a little talk, than I will come out here and play with you for a little bit, Okay?"

Trip pouted, but accepted he'd lost. He let Archer go. Archer and T'Pol went into Phlox's office. "Ten minutes!" he called. He heard Archer laugh. "I'm timing!"

"So what is wrong with him exactly?" The captain asked.

"It is hard to say, I believe he is ageing at an exponential rate, at first he was acting like he was around 3 human years old, than he began acting more and more mature... I believe he said he was 5 1/2 earlier and now he claims to be 6 1/2, so that is the basis of my hypothesis"

"So he grew down and now he's growing up?" Archer asked in confusion.

"Timing still!" Trip called

The Captain laughed slightly at this and T'Pol answered "that is a reasonable description"

"So... what do you propose we do?" the captain asked, "Just wait till he grows up all the way?"

"That would be acceptable"

"How long do you believe that would take?"

"By my estimation it will take between 9 and 11 days"

The captain just put his hand on his head like it hurt, "so we have to baby-sit Trip for the next 10 days or so?"

"The last few days he should be ok by himself, he will be going through his adult years at those times"

The captain merely sighed "ok, well I'll be out playing with Trip, I suppose I'll bring him to his quarters...." he trailed off.

"We should assign a schedule for whom watches him, I believe we should minimize the number of officers who see him like this, I have already had ensign Sato watch him once, the three of us can take shift, and perhaps the doctor as well." T'Pol pointed out.

"Ok you assign our schedule, however you want" the captain said as he left the small room and headed back to Trip who was looking very frustrated by the "grown ups" talk.

"You were eleven minutes." Trip said pouting. Archer resisted the urge to groan and merely smiled.

"Well, what do you want to play then Trip?"

"Hide and Seek!" Trip yelled. Archer got a sinking feeling.

"Are you sure? We could play checkers?"

"No."

"Duck duck goose?"

"Not enough people."

"Horsey?"

"Hide and seek!"

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather see the bridge? Or engineering?"

Trip thought for a second and Archer thought he'd succeeded. "Nope, Hoshi said she'd take me later. Hide and seek!"

Archer sighed "alright, lets go to you quart- room, and play there, it's much more fun in your room, there is more things to hide behind, and less animals"

"Alright!" Trip agreed enthusiastically and bounced off to the door and waited for Archer to catch up. "We can wrestle on the bed in my room!" Trip said as he left hand in hand with Archer.

For a moment T'Pol felt a glimmer of sympathy for the captain. Then relief washed over her.

"Where could Trip be?" Archer wondered. Trip was giggling like there was no tomorrow. This was the ninth time they'd played, and Trip still hid in the same place.

Archer knew it was because Trip could jump out on him and they could wrestle. So far he'd avoided that, but he had a feeling this time he wouldn't be able to.

Sure enough as he approached the hiding place Trip jumped out. "Boo!"

"AAHHH!!!" the captain mock screamed and let Trip pounce him, but Trip was much stronger than he so even though he THOUGHT he was only a few years old he still had the build of a 34-year-old man...

The captain was crushed under Trip and 'oofed' as he hit the floor, fortunately for the captain at that moment T'Pol opened the door "It is my shift captain, I will take over"

Trip got up and said bye-bye to his friend before sitting down in his chair. "You going to play a game with me?" Trip asked T'Pol sweetly.

"No, I took the liberty of bringing you some food," T'Pol motioned to her hand holding a plate," I was unsure what you liked so I brought you-"

T'Pol was cut off by an excited Trip taking the plate "Pan Fried catfish, and Pecan Pie!! My favorite" Trip cheered and gave T'Pol a big 7 year old kiss on the cheek "Your the best Polly!"

T'Pol jerked her hand up to the place on the cheek he had kissed her, it was moist (not slobbery wet) and it felt.... right. She could not explain it but she felt like she must feel that sensation again, she had to!

Trip had lost interest already and said a quick prayer before wolfing his food down. He made a huge mess and after he had finished T'Pol set about cleaning up. She picked up a cloth and went to wipe Trip's face. He stayed still like he was supposed to. And then the door chime went, and he leapt across the room. T'Pol grabbed him and tried to clean the worst of the muck off his face before letting him open the door. She didn't need to see who it was. Trip's face lit up with joy on seeing her. "Hoshi!" He yelled.

"Uh… sub-commander, I was coming to deliver you this, it's the monthly duty report, sorry to disturb you." Hoshi handed the PADD to T'Pol and walked out saying "Bye Trip, see you tomorrow!"

Trip looked at T'Pol and asked in his most honest voice, "Are you going to leave when I go to bed again?" this prospect seemed to sadden him.

"No I will be remaining until 0900 tomorrow morning, Then Hoshi will be taking over"

Trip smiled looking relieved. "You're stayin' all night?"

"All night"

"Cool!" Trip's whole face lit up, and T'Pol had to smother a grin. He was so sweet and innocent. And then a look of mischief crossed his features. All illusion of innocence disappeared. T'Pol took a step back. Trip took a step forward.

T'Pol looked frightened at Trip, who appeared to be about 7 years old. She wondered what he could be planning; she hoped he didn't still want to wrestle, for she would undoubtedly injure him in such a game. "Hey Polly, come here" Trip said tauntingly.

"I do not wish to..." T'Pol said, having an inkling of an idea about what was about to happen. Trip edged closer. T'Pol found herself up against a wall. Then she decided. She would strike first.

T'Pol dove for Trip, who not expecting that, jumped back. T'Pol grabbed for him, but he leapt out the way and onto the bed. T'Pol pinned him.

Trip tried to squirm but was unsuccessful. He assessed that 'Polly' was much stronger than she looked. All he could do was watch as her hand snaked up toward his side.

Trip squealed as she tickled him. Again. She had to like him. She tickled him loads! Trip squirmed really hard and got one arm free. T'Pol jumped off him, watching his hands with fear. Trip grinned. Playtime.

"Trip," T'Pol said with all the authority she could muster, "It is time for bed."

"NO!" Trip said stubbornly but playfully at the same time. "I wanna play first" at this he lunged toward her and started tickling her. She tickled him back, they both laughed uncontrollably. 'She's GOTTA like me' thought Trip as he laughed and tickled.

"Go to bed."

Trip shook his head. "No."

T'Pol tickled his sides mercilessly. "You will go to bed."

"No." Trip squirmed and laughed as she began to tickle his belly. "Ok! Ok! I'll go to bed!!!" he yelled. T'Pol released him and he stood up.

Trip walked with his head hung to his bed and lay down. "Can you lay down with me?" he asked innocently "It's scary in here, I don't like it. Please?"

T'Pol couldn't refuse those eye's, she relented "yes" but then she realized it was only a one-person bed, if he was a child it would have been acceptable, but not a full-grown man.

"I am unsure if I would fit in your bed." T'Pol said carefully. "I will sleep in a chair next to your bed."

Trip pouted a bit at this comment. He tried the big blue eyes routine again. But nothing would get her to sleep with him-whether he was acting 7 or 70. When he realized that his eyes would not do the trick this time, he finally gave up. "Fine," he pouted. "But make sure you're right next to the bed."

"Very well," she told him. He cheerfully hopped into bed as she agreed and crawled under the covers.

"Can I have a kiss goodnight?" Trip asked. T'Pol gave him a kiss on the cheek and settled into her chair. Trip grinned to himself and closed his eyes. He was going to pretend he was asleep then go find Jon when T'Pol was asleep. Unfortunately, he was tired. And T'Pol wasn't shutting her eyes. Trip drifted off to sleep.