PART 44:

Captain Jonathan Archer made his way down the corridor to Commander Tuckers quarters.

After Liana's burial, the Captain had spent a few days with Ezral. He was in consent contact with the ship and it was reported to him that Trip had thrown himself into his work upon his return. Now that Archer had returned to the Enterprise, the report on Trip had changed. Reed informed him that Commander Tucker had started drinking, and that he wasn't letting anyone into his quarters.

Archer knew Trip was devastated because of Liana's death. He knew it was going to take time for his friend to heal and he was ready to allow Trip that time, but drinking his sorrows away was not an option and Archer wouldn't have any of it.

He reached the door to Trip's quarters and hit the chime button. Receiving no answer, he hit the button again, nothing. He punched in the security code that would bypass the lock on the door, and he sighed when that didn't work. He should have known Trip would have done something to sabotage the door so the security code wouldn't work.

"Trip!" Archer yelled in frustration. "Open this door now, that's an order." He frowned. "Come on, Trip," Archer was still yelling. "I'm not going to stand here all day, and yell at you through this door, open up."

The door remained closed.

Archer sighed. "That's it," he continued his yelling. "If you don't open this door, I'm going to have Malcolm cut it off."

This time the door slid open and Archer stepped inside.

The room was dimly lit and Archer could barely make out Trip, who was sitting in a corner. Archer looked around, the room was a mess. Stepping closer to Trip's desk he saw a picture of him and Liana.

"Took that on the day I took her on her first picnic."

Archer picked up the picture.

"She was beautiful, wasn't she," Trip said.

"She sure was."

Archer looked around the room again. "Are you alright?"

Trip didn't answer.

Archer sighed. "Trip, you have to stop this."

"Stop what?" came his slurred answer.

"You know what I'm talking about," Archer said sitting down in Trip's chair. "Drinking won't make the problem go away."

"No it won't, but it sure helps dull the feelings."

"How long do you think that will last, Trip?"

"Didn't ya get the memo I sent ya?" he asked.

"No."

"Well I asked ya for a leave of absence."

Archer frowned. "For how long?"

Trip didn't answer.

"For how long, Trip?" Archer repeated.

"I asked Hoshi to contact Starfleet," Trip answered. "And have them send out a Vulcan ship to take me back to Earth."

"Trip," Archer said, he was surprised. "Enterprise is your life."

"Not anymore," Trip replied quietly.

"What would Liana say if she could see you now?"

Trip came out of his dark refuge to face Archer.

Archer stood. He noted the three day beard growth and the dark circles under the engineers eyes. He also noticed how pale and thin looking his friend had gotten.

"Don't you dare bring her into this," Trip said angrily.

"Why shouldn't I," Archer countered. "This is all about Liana. The reason your destroying yourself is because you lost her."

Archer never saw it coming, but the force of the punch threw him into Trips desk before landing on the floor.

He looked up at Trip in surprise as he wiped the blood away from his mouth. "You feel better," Archer said standing up. "You want to hit me again."

Trip just stood there watching his Captain.

"Come on Trip," he yelled. "Hit me." He moved closer to him. "What's the matter? You think I'm going to throw you in the brig for hitting your Captain. Well it's not going to happen. And as for your request for a leave of absence Commander, it's been denied."

Trip glared at his friend.

"You know what Liana would think about this," Archer said.

"Shut up," Trip growled.

"She'd think, how disappointed she'd be in you," Archer continued.

"I said shut up," Trip repeated.

"She'd wonder how could the man I loved let my death destroy him."

"You son of a bitch!" Trip yelled as he grabbed Archer by the uniform and rammed him up against the wall. "I told ya to leave her out of this."

"And I told you I can't," Archer replied. "I can't leave her out of this when it's all about her. Think about it Trip. If it was you who had died, would you want Liana to destroy herself?"

Trip lessened his grip and the older man pressed his advantage.

"Wouldn't you want her to live her life and love again."

Trip completely let go of Archer. He remembered what Liana had said to him before she died.

Remember when I'm gone to love again, for me, her voiced echoed in his head.

Archer saw the tears in Trip's eyes. He watched as the younger man stumbled over to his bed and sat down.

"I'm sorry," Trip whispered and buried his face in his hands. "I'm so sorry."

Archer moved over and sat down next to him. "Trip."

The engineer looked up at him with tears running down his face.

"No one said this was going to be easy."

"No one said it was going to be this hard either."

Jonathan sighed. "I know what this is like Trip."

"Do you?" the engineer asked. "Do you really?"

Captain Archer stood up and slowly paced the room. "A long time before I met you, there was a woman. She was...incredible. I had never felt for anyone the way I felt for her. I adored her. We were about to be married, when her brother asked if she would go with him to deliver supplies to Jupiter Station. I wanted us to be married before she went, but she said she wanted to wait until we could do it right. After all she said all our family and friends were looking forward to it and it was only going to be a matter of a couple of weeks." He paused, trying to control his voice that was threatening to break. "She had only been gone three days when we got word that her brother's ship had exploded. The engine blew." He turned and looked his friend in the eye. "There were no survivors."

Charles Tucker the Third stared at his Commanding Officer, horror plastered on his handsome face.

"Captain..."

Jonathan held up his hand to stop whatever Trip planed on saying. "After she died, it took everything I had to just get out of bed in the morning, until one morning I began asking why should I even do that? I even seriously considered dropping out of every Starfleet program that I was involved in."

"What stopped you?"

"Her father came to see me, after he heard what a mess I was making of my life."

Trip raised his eyebrows.

"He didn't pull any punches. He told me that if I was the man that Laura thought I was I would do something to honor her and her memory. If I wasn't he was sorry that his daughter loved such a self absorbed man."

"Whoa."

Archer nodded slightly. "Yeah, that's what I thought. And he was right, I did want to honor her. By becoming Starfleet's first Starship Captain." And for the first time since Liana's death, Archer saw a genuine smile on his friends face.

"Get some sleep Commander," Archer ordered. "We'll talk some more in the morning."

"Aye Captain," Trip replied.

Archer pressed the button that opened the door.

"Captain," Trip said.

He looked at Trip.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome," Archer said and walked out the now opened door.

Once the door closed Captain Archer paused and smiled. He knew his friend still had a lot of healing to do. But he knew what had just taken place was a start.

End of Part 44

THE END