Disclaimer: Lots of angst etc. in this part: you have all been warned!
The title and parts of poem in this story are taken from Mlaa's "The Call Of Steel." Big, huge, mucho thanks to my beta, "HopefulNebula" as always, and to "Mlaa" for being kind enough to let me borrow her poem. Thanks also to "Silvia", I had only posted the sixth part up for a few minutes and I got a really lovely e-mail from her about it! :)
So... you all think Trip killed his dad? Did he or didn't he? Only I know! *laughs so hard, she falls off her chair* Evil gloating over now, please read then review!
The Call Of Steel.
Part 7:- Verity Revealed.
~ want to break the whole bottle....
set it all free
"The Call of Steel" by Mlaa ~
"Did you ever know that you're my hero?
And everything I'd like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
'Cause you are the wind beneath my wings!"
Trip sang, a big cold smile on his face. He waltzed around his quarters, holding a glass of red wine. He stopped and raised the glass to an imaginary person.
"Here's to you... 'Dad'." he said, before giggling. He took a large sip of the wine, the cold smile still on his face.
~@~
The funeral was going to be held on Earth. Archer knew that was what Charles Sr. had wanted. It was what he had put down in his will, if he was to die in space then he wanted to be returned to the one place he had know as home- Earth.
"Why are we running around doing what he wanted?" Archer asked Prothos. His beagle looked up at him, his chocolate brown eyes staring at the cheese in Archer's left hand.
"Woof!" He barked helpfully. Archer sighed and threw the bit of cheese towards Porthos' open mouth.
"The Vulcan's are taking him back to Earth. I wonder if Trip is going too? Oh, Porthos, I don't know what to do." He reached down and stroked the soft fur of his dog. A few feet away on top of his desk lay a request from Starfleet that Archer contact Charles Tucker's widow. She had already been informed of his death but Starfleet had thought it best if Archer talked to her. And then there was Trip. The word 'Murder' still lingered in Archer's head as he waited for Dr. Phlox to tell him more. He sighed and look at the small pad on his desk. He couldn't put it off any longer. He stood up and walked out of his ready room. There was only a skeleton crew on the bridge and Archer suddenly realised how late it was.
//Where has the day gone?\\ he asked himself. He glanced over to Hoshi's station and saw her there, her dark head bent over something. Archer smiled in spite of himself. It was at times like this, that Archer was reminded of how alike Trip and Hoshi really were. But thinking of Trip meant he thought of his dad and the whole trouble surrounding it. The smile slowly faded as he walked over to Hoshi. He suddenly looked old and wizened, aged long before his time.
"Captain." Hoshi said, her face slightly flushed with excitement as she held a pad in her hands. "Is anything the matter?" Inwardly, Hoshi cringed as she heard the words coming out of her mouth.
//'Is anything the matter?' Come off it Hoshi, the Captain just found a dead body a few hours ago, how do you think he's going to be feeling?\\
"What are you working on?" Archer asked, answering her question with one of his own. Hoshi looked back at the pad she had been working on.
"Oh, this. It's a recording of the message those aliens sent to use just before they went to warp." Hoshi said. Archer looked at her, his mind completely blank.
"Aliens? What aliens?" he asked. Hoshi looked at him, her right eyebrow raised, a trait she had picked up from T'Pol.
"You know, the alines that shot at us twice? We hit them, they sent us a garbled message then they went to warp? Remember?"
"Oh yes, those aliens, what about them?" Archer asked. Hoshi sighed.
"I've been translating the message they sent us, I'm having problems locking on to the main pattern, it just doesn't seem to fit with anything I know."
"Hoshi... could you do me a favor?" Archer said. Hoshi looked at him, her eyes questioning.
~@~
Trip walked to his mirror, humming 'Wind beneath my wings' under his breath.
He gazed at himself in the mirror, his eyes, normally warm and full of life were now icy cold. He lifted his shirt and stared at all the scars, crossing all over him.
"Disgusting." he murmured. With a groan he pulled out some clean white bandages and began to wrap them around his wounds, hissing as the bandages touched tender areas. When he had wrapped most of the cuts, he pulled his shirt back down and stared at his hand in wonder. It was just a clean, normal male hand, yet to Trip it seemed something more. His eyes slowly trekked up to the mirror. He lent in closer, his eyes taking in every detail of his face.
"I'm free..." He mummerd, a grin growing on his face. "I'm free... I'm free at last!" He gave his face a last look over and turned away from the mirror. His eyes fell on his computer and his grin grew even larger.
"In fact... I think it's time to have some fun." he said thoughtfully.
~@~
Archer paced up and down in his ready room, every few seconds he would stare at the clock on his desk as if willing it too go faster, so he could get this next conversation over with. Hoshi had managed to get a transmission with 'Tori' Tucker, Trip's mum, however the person who had answered had informed her the new widow would not be avaible for a hour. So Archer had to wait, while the clock hands inched there way past the numbers, heading for a whole cycle. After what seemed like an age, the minute hand tick-tocked its way past the 12 and a hour had gone. Now that he was faced with it, all his courage dried away. He didn't know how to confront a grieving woman, not to mention somehow asking about the dreaded M word.
"How am I going to do that?" Archer asked himself a trace of bitterness in his voice. He put on a squeaky voice as he imagined the scene.
"Oh hi, Mrs. Tucker, sorry about your husband dying on my ship. Oh yeah you know your only son? The one who is my best friend? Well we think he killed his dad, what do you think?" He gave a snort and smacked his head with the palm of his hand.
"Real smart." He said, the sarcasm dripping off his words. With a final sigh he reached over and turned on his computer. He wasn't looking forward to the next few minutes at all.
~@~
Trip's fingers danced over his keyboard, the movement seemed almost hypnotic. Every few seconds the fingers would freeze as he read what ever was on the screen, then the fingers would start re-start their dance as he didn't find what he was looking for. After about five minutes of this pattern they suddenly stopped. The fingers rested on the keyboard for longer than their normal five second rest. They lay there, as if the music they had been dancing to had stopped and it strings had been cut.
"Backup, Backup, I need a backup..." Trip muttered, eyes fixed on his computer screen. A smile appeared on his face as he found the personal file he was looking for. He read and re-read the file, nodding to himself every now and then.
"Perfect." He hissed, as his fingers began their dance again, only going backwards this time, deleting his trail of virtual footprints.
~@~
"Hello Mrs. Tucker... My name is Jonathan Archer, I'm the captain of the starship 'Enterprise' -" he got no further as the widow, dressed in traditional mourning colors broke in.
"Jonathan? As in Jon, Charlie's- I mean Trip's friend?" She asked, her right forefinger and thumb twisting a lock of her hair, which was once ebony black, now streaked with a shining gray.
"Yes that's right, has Trip talked about me?" he asked with a faint smile, glad to be talking about more morndane facts rather than jumping in at the deep end.
"He would talk about you all the time." Tori smiled, a faint and all most missed smile but a smile all the same. "Cha- Trip really looks up to you, I want to thank you for being such a good friend."
"Oh, it's no trouble, Trip's a good friend to me too." Archer replied, the answer somewhat forced.
//Oh great, just what I need, now it's going to be even harder to say what I have to say.\\
"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Tori asked. Archer glanced at her in surprise.
"Actually... I thought you would want to talk to me."
"Why?" she asked, seemingly genuinely bewildered at the question. Archer stared askew at her.
"Well your husband of over 35 years died on my ship today. I thought you would want to... talk about it." He said, a cold fear assaulting him. There was something about this that he didn't like, something that made him wonder if there was something else going on here, something un-seen, behind the scenes. Tori flashed him a set of bright white teeth. She seemed amused by something, a joke known only to herself.
"What do you want me to say?" She asked, mocking him. "That I miss my husband and that I loved him so much?"
"Well, something along those lines..." Tori glared at Archer, fury written all too clearly in her eyes.
"I hated my husband. He was a monster, and... and, he hurt my boy." she added. Archer gave her a look.
"What do you mean he was a monster?" He asked carefully. "How did he hurt Trip?" Tori looked away.
"Nothing." she said, as her eyes half closed. Archer was reminded of a empty house with the blinds pulled down on all the windors. There was something here... something that was wrong with Trip. Archer was tired of tiptoeing around the subject; he needed to know the truth. He stared at Tori and a small frown grew in the center of his forehead as something she had said struck him as... odd.
"Mrs. Tucker... what do you call your son?" he asked slowly. For some reason the question seem to fluster her.
"I call him Trip of course." she said. Archer shook his head.
"No, you called him Charlie or started to, then for some reason you changed to Trip. Why?"
"He wants to be called Trip, I just keep forgetting that." She mutted. Archer leaned forward, as if by moving closer to the screen he could somehow get closer to her.
"Mrs. Tucker... Tori... please tell me. I want to help. I can't help if you don't let me... you have to trust me." Tori stared at him, with wide trouched eyes, then slowly looked away.
"I... I-I can't." She said, but she seemed less than certain.
"Please." Archer begged. "Let me help you."
"I love Trip." She bust out. For a split second there was no noise then she hurried on, sounding slightly ferverish.
"When he was a boy His dad would call him Charles or Boy. Charlie became the name I would call him, it was like a safety blanket for him, something his father hadn't ruined, hadn't dirtied. Charles was a cruel man. I didn't see it until it was too late, until we were married. I suppose I still could have left him... but then..."
"Trip?" Archer guessed. Tori nodded.
"A-And that monster would threaten to hurt him, threaten to hurt my beautiful baby if I tried to leave him." She rolled back her long left sleeve and showed Archer a long ragged scar than ran down her arm.
"He got mad one day, when Trip was about three... I can't remember over what. He... He dragged me to the toilet. Trip was screaming, I was screaming but he just picked up a razor blade and slashed it down across my skin. I don't know what happened next... all I know is I woke up a few days later at a care home... My loving husband had had me committed. He told the staff I was delusional, paranoid and had tried to kill myself." She rubbed at the scar, her eyes cloudy.
"They believed him."
"They didn't ask you at all?" Archer asked in disbelief. Tori shook her head.
"Where do you come from Mr. Archer?" she asked. Archer opened his mouth to say that where he came from had nothing to do with what they were talking about, but something about the way she had asked the question and the way she was now looking at him that made him think there was something important about the answer.
"San Francisco. I come from San Francisco."
"You see?" Tori said. "You come from a large city, you have no idea what it's like to live in a small town. My husband was a very important man there. Oh, I have no doubt that in a big city they would have at least heard my side of the story but where we lived, Tuckers had lived there for generations. In Panama City, Florida, you could be a Tucker and do anything. They couldn't believe that Charles would say anything if it wasn't the truth. As for me... my family had lived there for about ten years." She stood up and paced back and forth, still rubbing at her arm.
"I was in that place for just over six months. All that time they left my boy with that monster and they wouldn't let me see him. When I came back I was too late. The boy I had left was gone. Charles had tried to destroy the loving sprit with beatings..." Archer sat spellbound and, he listened to Trip's early childhood, he felt physically sick.
"Slowly I began to bring my boy back to the living. He was always Charlie to me. Until one day, just before he left for Starfleet. That was the worst day of my life."
"What happened?" Archer asked, un-sure that he really wanted to know.
"It was raining." Tori said with a slightly twisted smile as if the very memory of what she was going to say pained her.
"It was night and it was raining. Trip was packing for Starfleet. We were so happy... he was happy because he loved what he was going to be doing. I was happy because he was escaping. His dad had gone out hours before. He came back very late and very drunk..." she shivered.
"He was yelling and screaming, saying no boy of his will go into space.
He began to hit me, calling me a bitch, saying this was all my fault. He grabbed something heavy and threw it at my head... I thought I was going to die.
Then Trip showed up. He managed to grab the thing flying through the air before it hit me. His dad told him not to get involved otherwise he would get punished. Trip didn't care anymore. I do n't know why but he just stopped caring and attacked him." She sighed.
"But my husband was stronger. He... He was yelling, telling Trip that he had gone to far, that his punishment was something new... He raped my son." Tori began to cry.
"H-He raped him and I couldn't stop him. I-I wasn't strong enough... I c-couldn't stop him." she sobbed.
"Afterwards, I got my son out of the house and sent him to Starfleet... but I had to get to know my boy all over again. When his father attacked him he called him Charlie... so Trip and I killed Charlie and he became Trip." Shelooked at Archer, her eyes red and puffy.
"Help Trip." She pleaded. "Help my boy..." she looked away, tears still running down her face.
"I have to go now. I-I need to lie down. Send Trip my love. Tell him to be strong..." she gave a weak smile. "Tell him God is crying for him." With that the screen went black. For a long time after Archer simply sat there, tears in his own eyes.
"Trip... I'm so sorry, I didn't see." He stood up and walked out of his ready room. He still didn't have an answer to the death of Trip's dad. He still needed one.
"I'll go and see if Dr. Phlox knows yet." Archer deiced and stepped into the turbolift.
~@~
Trip walked along a corridor, face red and blotchy. He looked terrible, with wide eyes, big puffy bags and an unsteady walk. Inside however he was humming to himself. He turned a corridor and walked over to a door. He pressed the buzzer and, after a short pause the door opened. Trip opened his mouth and made his voice sound scared and confused.
"Hi... I hope y-you don't mind me coming to see you... I just wanted to talk to someone... Can I come in?... Thanks." He stepped inside and the shining door skimmed closed.
TBC...
There you have it, please review and tell me what you think.
The chapter title is 'Verity revealed'. Verity is old English for 'Truth'.
Please leave a review thanks!
Here's a little snippet of part 8. Enjoy!
'Hoshi's eyes widened as she translated the message There among the lines was one word that jumped out at her.
"Tucker? Oh, no." She whispered.'
'Archer stepped into Trip's bathroom and stopped, holding his hand up to his mouth in an effort to stop sick raising to throat. There was blood everywhere. A quick inspection revealed a razor blade.
"Trip, oh Trip, no... please say this isn't what it looks like." He asked the empty room.'
'Trip's wild eyes looked into Archer's.
"I can't do this." He sobbed. With a gasp he took a step nearer to his death.
"Trip!" Archer screamed, trying to stop his friend. "Trip! God is crying!" '
If you want to know what's going on, you'll just have to wait for part 8!
Coming Soon... Part 8: Smash.
Sethoz-Chan
The title and parts of poem in this story are taken from Mlaa's "The Call Of Steel." Big, huge, mucho thanks to my beta, "HopefulNebula" as always, and to "Mlaa" for being kind enough to let me borrow her poem. Thanks also to "Silvia", I had only posted the sixth part up for a few minutes and I got a really lovely e-mail from her about it! :)
So... you all think Trip killed his dad? Did he or didn't he? Only I know! *laughs so hard, she falls off her chair* Evil gloating over now, please read then review!
The Call Of Steel.
Part 7:- Verity Revealed.
~ want to break the whole bottle....
set it all free
"The Call of Steel" by Mlaa ~
"Did you ever know that you're my hero?
And everything I'd like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
'Cause you are the wind beneath my wings!"
Trip sang, a big cold smile on his face. He waltzed around his quarters, holding a glass of red wine. He stopped and raised the glass to an imaginary person.
"Here's to you... 'Dad'." he said, before giggling. He took a large sip of the wine, the cold smile still on his face.
~@~
The funeral was going to be held on Earth. Archer knew that was what Charles Sr. had wanted. It was what he had put down in his will, if he was to die in space then he wanted to be returned to the one place he had know as home- Earth.
"Why are we running around doing what he wanted?" Archer asked Prothos. His beagle looked up at him, his chocolate brown eyes staring at the cheese in Archer's left hand.
"Woof!" He barked helpfully. Archer sighed and threw the bit of cheese towards Porthos' open mouth.
"The Vulcan's are taking him back to Earth. I wonder if Trip is going too? Oh, Porthos, I don't know what to do." He reached down and stroked the soft fur of his dog. A few feet away on top of his desk lay a request from Starfleet that Archer contact Charles Tucker's widow. She had already been informed of his death but Starfleet had thought it best if Archer talked to her. And then there was Trip. The word 'Murder' still lingered in Archer's head as he waited for Dr. Phlox to tell him more. He sighed and look at the small pad on his desk. He couldn't put it off any longer. He stood up and walked out of his ready room. There was only a skeleton crew on the bridge and Archer suddenly realised how late it was.
//Where has the day gone?\\ he asked himself. He glanced over to Hoshi's station and saw her there, her dark head bent over something. Archer smiled in spite of himself. It was at times like this, that Archer was reminded of how alike Trip and Hoshi really were. But thinking of Trip meant he thought of his dad and the whole trouble surrounding it. The smile slowly faded as he walked over to Hoshi. He suddenly looked old and wizened, aged long before his time.
"Captain." Hoshi said, her face slightly flushed with excitement as she held a pad in her hands. "Is anything the matter?" Inwardly, Hoshi cringed as she heard the words coming out of her mouth.
//'Is anything the matter?' Come off it Hoshi, the Captain just found a dead body a few hours ago, how do you think he's going to be feeling?\\
"What are you working on?" Archer asked, answering her question with one of his own. Hoshi looked back at the pad she had been working on.
"Oh, this. It's a recording of the message those aliens sent to use just before they went to warp." Hoshi said. Archer looked at her, his mind completely blank.
"Aliens? What aliens?" he asked. Hoshi looked at him, her right eyebrow raised, a trait she had picked up from T'Pol.
"You know, the alines that shot at us twice? We hit them, they sent us a garbled message then they went to warp? Remember?"
"Oh yes, those aliens, what about them?" Archer asked. Hoshi sighed.
"I've been translating the message they sent us, I'm having problems locking on to the main pattern, it just doesn't seem to fit with anything I know."
"Hoshi... could you do me a favor?" Archer said. Hoshi looked at him, her eyes questioning.
~@~
Trip walked to his mirror, humming 'Wind beneath my wings' under his breath.
He gazed at himself in the mirror, his eyes, normally warm and full of life were now icy cold. He lifted his shirt and stared at all the scars, crossing all over him.
"Disgusting." he murmured. With a groan he pulled out some clean white bandages and began to wrap them around his wounds, hissing as the bandages touched tender areas. When he had wrapped most of the cuts, he pulled his shirt back down and stared at his hand in wonder. It was just a clean, normal male hand, yet to Trip it seemed something more. His eyes slowly trekked up to the mirror. He lent in closer, his eyes taking in every detail of his face.
"I'm free..." He mummerd, a grin growing on his face. "I'm free... I'm free at last!" He gave his face a last look over and turned away from the mirror. His eyes fell on his computer and his grin grew even larger.
"In fact... I think it's time to have some fun." he said thoughtfully.
~@~
Archer paced up and down in his ready room, every few seconds he would stare at the clock on his desk as if willing it too go faster, so he could get this next conversation over with. Hoshi had managed to get a transmission with 'Tori' Tucker, Trip's mum, however the person who had answered had informed her the new widow would not be avaible for a hour. So Archer had to wait, while the clock hands inched there way past the numbers, heading for a whole cycle. After what seemed like an age, the minute hand tick-tocked its way past the 12 and a hour had gone. Now that he was faced with it, all his courage dried away. He didn't know how to confront a grieving woman, not to mention somehow asking about the dreaded M word.
"How am I going to do that?" Archer asked himself a trace of bitterness in his voice. He put on a squeaky voice as he imagined the scene.
"Oh hi, Mrs. Tucker, sorry about your husband dying on my ship. Oh yeah you know your only son? The one who is my best friend? Well we think he killed his dad, what do you think?" He gave a snort and smacked his head with the palm of his hand.
"Real smart." He said, the sarcasm dripping off his words. With a final sigh he reached over and turned on his computer. He wasn't looking forward to the next few minutes at all.
~@~
Trip's fingers danced over his keyboard, the movement seemed almost hypnotic. Every few seconds the fingers would freeze as he read what ever was on the screen, then the fingers would start re-start their dance as he didn't find what he was looking for. After about five minutes of this pattern they suddenly stopped. The fingers rested on the keyboard for longer than their normal five second rest. They lay there, as if the music they had been dancing to had stopped and it strings had been cut.
"Backup, Backup, I need a backup..." Trip muttered, eyes fixed on his computer screen. A smile appeared on his face as he found the personal file he was looking for. He read and re-read the file, nodding to himself every now and then.
"Perfect." He hissed, as his fingers began their dance again, only going backwards this time, deleting his trail of virtual footprints.
~@~
"Hello Mrs. Tucker... My name is Jonathan Archer, I'm the captain of the starship 'Enterprise' -" he got no further as the widow, dressed in traditional mourning colors broke in.
"Jonathan? As in Jon, Charlie's- I mean Trip's friend?" She asked, her right forefinger and thumb twisting a lock of her hair, which was once ebony black, now streaked with a shining gray.
"Yes that's right, has Trip talked about me?" he asked with a faint smile, glad to be talking about more morndane facts rather than jumping in at the deep end.
"He would talk about you all the time." Tori smiled, a faint and all most missed smile but a smile all the same. "Cha- Trip really looks up to you, I want to thank you for being such a good friend."
"Oh, it's no trouble, Trip's a good friend to me too." Archer replied, the answer somewhat forced.
//Oh great, just what I need, now it's going to be even harder to say what I have to say.\\
"You wanted to talk to me about something?" Tori asked. Archer glanced at her in surprise.
"Actually... I thought you would want to talk to me."
"Why?" she asked, seemingly genuinely bewildered at the question. Archer stared askew at her.
"Well your husband of over 35 years died on my ship today. I thought you would want to... talk about it." He said, a cold fear assaulting him. There was something about this that he didn't like, something that made him wonder if there was something else going on here, something un-seen, behind the scenes. Tori flashed him a set of bright white teeth. She seemed amused by something, a joke known only to herself.
"What do you want me to say?" She asked, mocking him. "That I miss my husband and that I loved him so much?"
"Well, something along those lines..." Tori glared at Archer, fury written all too clearly in her eyes.
"I hated my husband. He was a monster, and... and, he hurt my boy." she added. Archer gave her a look.
"What do you mean he was a monster?" He asked carefully. "How did he hurt Trip?" Tori looked away.
"Nothing." she said, as her eyes half closed. Archer was reminded of a empty house with the blinds pulled down on all the windors. There was something here... something that was wrong with Trip. Archer was tired of tiptoeing around the subject; he needed to know the truth. He stared at Tori and a small frown grew in the center of his forehead as something she had said struck him as... odd.
"Mrs. Tucker... what do you call your son?" he asked slowly. For some reason the question seem to fluster her.
"I call him Trip of course." she said. Archer shook his head.
"No, you called him Charlie or started to, then for some reason you changed to Trip. Why?"
"He wants to be called Trip, I just keep forgetting that." She mutted. Archer leaned forward, as if by moving closer to the screen he could somehow get closer to her.
"Mrs. Tucker... Tori... please tell me. I want to help. I can't help if you don't let me... you have to trust me." Tori stared at him, with wide trouched eyes, then slowly looked away.
"I... I-I can't." She said, but she seemed less than certain.
"Please." Archer begged. "Let me help you."
"I love Trip." She bust out. For a split second there was no noise then she hurried on, sounding slightly ferverish.
"When he was a boy His dad would call him Charles or Boy. Charlie became the name I would call him, it was like a safety blanket for him, something his father hadn't ruined, hadn't dirtied. Charles was a cruel man. I didn't see it until it was too late, until we were married. I suppose I still could have left him... but then..."
"Trip?" Archer guessed. Tori nodded.
"A-And that monster would threaten to hurt him, threaten to hurt my beautiful baby if I tried to leave him." She rolled back her long left sleeve and showed Archer a long ragged scar than ran down her arm.
"He got mad one day, when Trip was about three... I can't remember over what. He... He dragged me to the toilet. Trip was screaming, I was screaming but he just picked up a razor blade and slashed it down across my skin. I don't know what happened next... all I know is I woke up a few days later at a care home... My loving husband had had me committed. He told the staff I was delusional, paranoid and had tried to kill myself." She rubbed at the scar, her eyes cloudy.
"They believed him."
"They didn't ask you at all?" Archer asked in disbelief. Tori shook her head.
"Where do you come from Mr. Archer?" she asked. Archer opened his mouth to say that where he came from had nothing to do with what they were talking about, but something about the way she had asked the question and the way she was now looking at him that made him think there was something important about the answer.
"San Francisco. I come from San Francisco."
"You see?" Tori said. "You come from a large city, you have no idea what it's like to live in a small town. My husband was a very important man there. Oh, I have no doubt that in a big city they would have at least heard my side of the story but where we lived, Tuckers had lived there for generations. In Panama City, Florida, you could be a Tucker and do anything. They couldn't believe that Charles would say anything if it wasn't the truth. As for me... my family had lived there for about ten years." She stood up and paced back and forth, still rubbing at her arm.
"I was in that place for just over six months. All that time they left my boy with that monster and they wouldn't let me see him. When I came back I was too late. The boy I had left was gone. Charles had tried to destroy the loving sprit with beatings..." Archer sat spellbound and, he listened to Trip's early childhood, he felt physically sick.
"Slowly I began to bring my boy back to the living. He was always Charlie to me. Until one day, just before he left for Starfleet. That was the worst day of my life."
"What happened?" Archer asked, un-sure that he really wanted to know.
"It was raining." Tori said with a slightly twisted smile as if the very memory of what she was going to say pained her.
"It was night and it was raining. Trip was packing for Starfleet. We were so happy... he was happy because he loved what he was going to be doing. I was happy because he was escaping. His dad had gone out hours before. He came back very late and very drunk..." she shivered.
"He was yelling and screaming, saying no boy of his will go into space.
He began to hit me, calling me a bitch, saying this was all my fault. He grabbed something heavy and threw it at my head... I thought I was going to die.
Then Trip showed up. He managed to grab the thing flying through the air before it hit me. His dad told him not to get involved otherwise he would get punished. Trip didn't care anymore. I do n't know why but he just stopped caring and attacked him." She sighed.
"But my husband was stronger. He... He was yelling, telling Trip that he had gone to far, that his punishment was something new... He raped my son." Tori began to cry.
"H-He raped him and I couldn't stop him. I-I wasn't strong enough... I c-couldn't stop him." she sobbed.
"Afterwards, I got my son out of the house and sent him to Starfleet... but I had to get to know my boy all over again. When his father attacked him he called him Charlie... so Trip and I killed Charlie and he became Trip." Shelooked at Archer, her eyes red and puffy.
"Help Trip." She pleaded. "Help my boy..." she looked away, tears still running down her face.
"I have to go now. I-I need to lie down. Send Trip my love. Tell him to be strong..." she gave a weak smile. "Tell him God is crying for him." With that the screen went black. For a long time after Archer simply sat there, tears in his own eyes.
"Trip... I'm so sorry, I didn't see." He stood up and walked out of his ready room. He still didn't have an answer to the death of Trip's dad. He still needed one.
"I'll go and see if Dr. Phlox knows yet." Archer deiced and stepped into the turbolift.
~@~
Trip walked along a corridor, face red and blotchy. He looked terrible, with wide eyes, big puffy bags and an unsteady walk. Inside however he was humming to himself. He turned a corridor and walked over to a door. He pressed the buzzer and, after a short pause the door opened. Trip opened his mouth and made his voice sound scared and confused.
"Hi... I hope y-you don't mind me coming to see you... I just wanted to talk to someone... Can I come in?... Thanks." He stepped inside and the shining door skimmed closed.
TBC...
There you have it, please review and tell me what you think.
The chapter title is 'Verity revealed'. Verity is old English for 'Truth'.
Please leave a review thanks!
Here's a little snippet of part 8. Enjoy!
'Hoshi's eyes widened as she translated the message There among the lines was one word that jumped out at her.
"Tucker? Oh, no." She whispered.'
'Archer stepped into Trip's bathroom and stopped, holding his hand up to his mouth in an effort to stop sick raising to throat. There was blood everywhere. A quick inspection revealed a razor blade.
"Trip, oh Trip, no... please say this isn't what it looks like." He asked the empty room.'
'Trip's wild eyes looked into Archer's.
"I can't do this." He sobbed. With a gasp he took a step nearer to his death.
"Trip!" Archer screamed, trying to stop his friend. "Trip! God is crying!" '
If you want to know what's going on, you'll just have to wait for part 8!
Coming Soon... Part 8: Smash.
Sethoz-Chan