Chapter Six: Happy Endings
AUTHOR: Mnemosyne
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: And here we end our little journey, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that you've enjoyed the ride! :-D
A WEEK LATER
"Hey there, you two. Mind if I sit?"
Hoshi looked up from her study of Malcolm's hand - which was securely clasped in hers - and smiled at the approaching engineer. "Hey, Trip," she said as he set down his lunch tray and took a seat across from her at the Mess Hall table. "How's the day going?"
"Started out shot to hell," the commander replied, around a mouthful of chicken and biscuits. "All kinds of circuits and processors were frying left, right and center. Finally had to call in T'Pol to help."
"That type of thing seems to have been happening a lot lately," Malcolm noted. "Do you think it requires some time in space dock?"
Tucker shook his head, shoveling a little more lunch into his face. "Nah. See, it's just piddly stuff; nothing connected to any of Enterprise's major systems. Since it just started last week, I think the old girl's hitting her midlife crisis and begging for some pampering is all. I hate to say it, but T'Pol seems to know better than me what's going wrong half the time and how to fix it." He shook his head, taking a huge gulp of milk. He was vacuuming his food down like a black hole. "I'm going to have to make her an honorary engineer."
Hoshi laughed softly. "And here I thought you'd bite your hand off at the wrist first," she teased, squeezing Malcolm's hand.
Trip ignored that comment and grinned at the two of them. "Enough about me. Looks like you two are having a good day." He nodded at their joined hands and waggled his eyebrows. "How's life in the land of coital bliss?"
"Commander!" Malcolm choked out, blushing bright red and looking around the Mess to make sure no one had heard.
Hoshi laughed a little and brought up her second hand to squeeze Malcolm's even tighter. "Everything's fine, Commander, thank you very much," she told the engineer in a firm, slightly teasing tone, her eyes twinkling. "Not that it's any of your business, of course."
"None of my business!" Trip seemed honestly shocked at the notion. "I nearly gave myself a hernia trying to throw you two together!"
"Thank you for the effort, Commander, but I think nature took its course without too much help from you," Malcolm said.
"I told you to wear the blue shirt," the engineer sulked, crossing his arms petulantly across his chest. But his eyes were sparkling.
Hoshi raised her eyebrows. "Then perhaps we owe you more than we know." She turned to Malcolm and murmured, "That shirt DOES make you look even more beautiful than usual."
She grinned as the armory officer blushed an even darker shade of red. "Hoshi, luv, someone might hear," he murmured, eyes darting around the room once more.
"They're all going to know what we're talking about anyway, the way you're blushing," she pointed out, running her thumb over the back of his hand.
"You're positively wicked, you know that?"
"You thought I was Snow White?"
He laughed quietly, and she felt her bones turn to butter. Things between them had been remarkably good since their passionate tryst a week earlier. Malcolm had gone through only one guilty relapse, and they'd only been caught twice in compromising positions in places other than their quarters. Not that their cabins were safe, of course; Hoshi had already had at least one note tacked to her door from an annoyed Ensign Cadrac, whose quarters bordered hers on the left. "Please keep it down," the note read, "so that those of us who aren't getting any can sleep without listening to those who are."
Malcolm had blushed scarlet when she'd shown him the note. He blushed so much, she'd nicknamed him the Pimpernel.
Doctor Phlox still had no medical explanation for what had possessed her that night, nor why it had left as quickly as it had arrived. The best he could offer was that it had been some form of infection she'd picked up on an earlier away mission, which had lain dormant in her blood until, for one reason or another, it had been sparked by an outside stressor; namely, her plans for movie night with Malcolm.
"So why did it go away so quickly, Doctor?" she'd asked.
"In the long run, an illness is just an illness, be it alien or domestic," he'd replied with his trademark grin. "I believe you just had to sweat it out of your system. You did sweat, Ensign, didn't you?"
She was STILL blushing from that when Malcolm picked her up for dinner later that night. So much so, he began to call her the She-Pimpernel.
"Are you going to movie night tonight, Commander?" Malcolm asked, obviously trying to steer the conversation towards a less embarrassing topic.
"They're finally going to show the Abbott and Costello film," Hoshi chimed in. "It's a riot"
"Sorry, folks, but I've got an appointment tonight," Trip told them, finishing up the last of his gravy with a swipe of biscuit across the plate. "We're gonna have to postpone the threesome for now."
Malcolm nearly choked on his water as Hoshi died laughing. Trip was beaming like a randy sailor on the other side of the table. For a southern gentleman, he sure knew how to push buttons.
"And what appointment is that?" Hoshi finally asked, after she'd recovered herself a bit. One of her hands rubbed Malcolm's back as the tactical officer tried to hold down a coughing fit. He was sputtering like a dying carburetor at the moment.
"T'Pol's got a theory on what's causing all these technical difficulties in Engineering," Trip replied. "I'm gonna meet up with her in her quarters tonight to go over some schematics." He stood up, readying to leave.
Hoshi raised her eyebrows. "Oh really?" she mused suggestively.
"It's not like that, Hoshi," the commander protested, blushing a little. //Reap what you sow, Trip,// Hoshi thought, grinning. Malcolm was right - she WAS a wicked woman. "It's strictly professional."
"Uh-huh."
"It is!"
"Sure, Trip. You just keep telling yourself that."
"Don't make me order you to be quiet, Ensign."
"Why ever would you want to do that, sir?" she asked, batting her lashes innocently.
"What happened to all work and no play makes Malcolm a sulky bastard?" Malcolm asked. He'd finally recovered from his coughing fit. "Does it not apply to Chief Engineers for some reason?"
"Course not," Tucker replied.
"And why not?"
"Well my name's not Malcolm for one."
"Ha. Ha."
"Look, you two," Trip said. "T'Pol and I are strictly professional around each other. True, she's a good looking woman, but… Well… Look, nothing's going on, all-right?"
"Good looking woman, huh?" Hoshi commented. "Bet she's fun to be with, isn't she."
"Hoshi, she's a VULCAN."
"So? Vulcan's can't be fun now?"
"Cut it out!"
Hoshi laughed. "Okay, Trip," she relented. "There's nothing going on between you and the sub-commander."
"Thank you," Trip acknowledged with a nod, straightening the front of his uniform for no apparent reason.
"Certainly nothing that would have you wolfing down your food like a madman so you can get back to your shift, finish up anything that needs finishing, then go back to your quarters to pretty yourself up for her tonight."
Trip glared at her. "You're a-"
"Wicked woman, I know." She waved a dismissive hand. "So I've been told."
"I'm getting out of her before I have to suffer anymore of this abuse," Trip complained, obviously trying to look suitably wounded. The blush that colored his cheeks, however, belied his play at innocence. "Good luck, Malcolm. You're gonna need it."
They watched him go, then Malcolm leaned towards her. "Even if he didn't see her in that light before, luv," he murmured near her ear, "you realize he IS going to see her that way NOW, right?"
"Of course."
"So why do it?"
She turned to him and nuzzled his nose. "Because he's our friend and he wanted us to be happy so badly." She smiled, lacing their fingers together. "I guess I want to return the favor."
Malcolm smiled, eliciting a jolt in Hoshi's limbic system. "You're a romantic, luv," he said, kneading her hand gently.
Hoshi smiled. "It's fun to play Cupid."
"There's an idea."
"Hmm?"
"We're not due back to the bridge for forty-five minutes." He grinned at her and lowered his voice to a whisper. "If I play Cupid, will you be my Psyche?"
Another jolt. Her eyes felt heavy as she murmured, "Only if you promise to wear a toga."
"Only if you promise to take it off me."
"Deal."
The day dawned bright and sunny on the holy mountain of Olympus, but then, it never dawned as anything else. Fauns frolicked, Naiads bathed, and Satyrs spied on the Naiads. Someone played a heartbreakingly beautiful tune on an ancient tortoise shell lyre, while above, Helios drove his chariot through the sky on its regular diurnal course.
Cupid was stretched out on his favorite deck chair beside his mother's pool, lounging to beat the band. His foray into the world of mortals now over, he had a lot of missed tanning time to make up for. True, he didn't need to tan, but it was the PROCESS of tanning he enjoyed rather than the effect. There was something intensely soothing about lying in the warm sun, piña colada at hand, listening to the birds twitter endlessly about inane, beautiful things. Oh yes; this was bliss.
Eternal life. Was. GOOD.
He had just begun to doze off when a high pitched bell jarred him from his dreamy state. It took him a moment to realize it was his mother.
"Cuuuuuuuuupiiiiiid! CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!"
"Nooooooooo," he groaned, closing his eyes and feeling his happy inner bubble pop with a loud BANG! "Go away!"
"Cupid! Is that how you talk to your mother now?"
He sighed and opened one eye. Aphrodite was silhouetted against the golden orb of the sun, and it flared and shimmered through her glorious hair. She had her supple arms crossed over her stomach, and was tapping a delicate foot in annoyance as she stared down at him.
"Déjà vu," Cupid said.
"What are you doing?" the goddess asked, arching a sleek eyebrow.
"Resting, mommy. I've had a very rough week."
"Rough? ROUGH? You put ONE couple together. ONE. I do more than that in an HOUR!"
"Two couples!" Cupid protested, sitting up a little. "What about Trip and T'Pol?"
"What about them?"
"Well, you saw what T'Pol wanted." He let all emotion drain from his face as he mimicked T'Pol in a deadpan monotone. "As repayment, I would appreciate time with Commander Tucker when he is not being…irritating." His normal facial expressions returned as he pouted up at his mother. "So I fixed it so the ship would keep breaking for a while and they could spend some quality time together. Yeah, I didn't use the Phaser of Love on either of them, but I decided you were right - humans don't need to be hit over the head with love. They just need the chance to find it for themselves. Since T'Pol was the one who asked for it, I didn't think she needed an arrow, either. AND I remembered your warning about shooting Vulcans with love juice. BIG no-no." He shrugged. "I've been checking in on the little pointy eared vixen and her Southern beau, too, and they seem to be making strides in the right direction. They're even going to be ALONE in HER QUARTERS tonight, for some SHOP TALK." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at his mother.
Venus rolled her eyes and sighed. "All right, I'll give it to you," she relented. "TWO couples. But that doesn't mean you can just stop! You're a god - a love god! Didn't I tell you I wanted you to start working full time again? You missed a lot of couples over the centuries, and darn it, we're going to fix that."
Cupid groaned. "You mean we have to TIME TRAVEL?"
"Yes."
"Mommy, I HATE time traveling!"
"Well you should have thought of that millenia ago. Up, up!"
Unwillingly, Cupid let himself be dragged to his feet by his petite mother. "Mommy, this is stupid," he told her. "They obviously all got together in the end, or else the future would be completely screwed up."
"They got together in the end because it was preordained that you would go back in time and hook them up."
"Mommy, I HATE paradoxes!"
"Well you should have thought-"
"Thought of that millenia ago, yeah, I get it, mommy." He sighed heavily, casting regretful eyes back on his deck chair. "I miss it already."
"There, there, pookie," Aphrodite said soothingly, leading him to the pool and rubbing his back. "Just think - once your done, you can time travel back to this very moment and lounge around a bit, as if nothing had ever happened."
Cupid brightened. "Hey, you're right!"
She smiled at him. "I know I am, dear. Now kneel."
They knelt together beside the pool, and Aphrodite reached out to touch the water with a petal soft fingertip. As usual, the water swirled and reformed into a window onto the mortal world. "This first one is very important, pookie, because the fate of a galaxy rides on what happens to this batch of mortals."
"Um… Mommy? Are you sure you want to be putting the fate of a whole galaxy in my hands?"
"Relax, sweetie. Like you said - it obviously works out in the end, since we're not all puffs of ozone, right?"
"Divine ozone, you mean."
"Yes, well, apples to apples, oranges to oranges. Anyway, pay attention. See, it all began a long time ago. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…"
THE END
A/N: That's the end, everyone! I hope you enjoyed! Just to clear up a little confusion - a lot of people have asked if my Cupid and Aphrodite are based on the Xena/Hercules television versions. I can honestly say that no, they aren't; the only "Xena's" I ever watched were the Joxer episodes, so I had a little exposure to Aphrodite. But I only ever got fragments of Cupid, so I have no idea what his personality was like. :-D Of couse, if you've been envisioning the television versions this whole time, that's fine! I don't think it affects the story too much one way or another. As long as you liked it, that's all that matters! :-D