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Jonathan's lips were firmer than Charles's had been, T'Pol observed immediately, and he held a kiss longer too. She didn't have much time for the study because Jonathan, as if thinking his attentions might be unwelcome, suddenly pulled away. "I'm sorry, T'Pol. I don't know what got into me."
"I do," she told him. "Lie down." Jonathan obediently stretched out on his back on the floor. It pleased T'Pol to be able to order her captain about. "Are you off duty?" she continued.
"No, no. I came straight from the bridge."
T'Pol went to the communications console. Archer curled on his side and one elbow to watch her move. Hoshi's voice answered T'Pol's beep. "Bridge."
"Ensign Hoshi, the captain and I are working in my cabin. We do not wish to be interrupted."
"Certainly, sir." Hoshi managed to sound happy without putting any inflection whatsoever in her response.
T'Pol returned to Archer and knelt by his side. "Please lie back down, Jonathan." He did.
"Look, T'Pol," Jonathan began, "About Inez Hotaka …"
Jonathan was going to apologize and T'Pol didn't care to observe that peculiar human custom just now. It would spoil the mood. She put a hand on Jonathan's mouth and he stopped speaking.
Unexpectedly T'Pol smiled. Smiling, even laughing, is permitted in Vulcan sexual foreplay and amusement was in her voice when she said, "You are very obedient." She chuckled at a sudden thought, something she'd often heard the captain tell his pet animal. "You're a good boy."
T'Pol had never opened up her emotions this far with Charles. But she hadn't been in love with him. Charles had been an experiment, nothing more, and a botched one at that.
Jonathan sat back up and he looked at T'Pol with wonder. His fingertip caressed her smiling lips then he pulled her head to his and his own lips once more took command of the situation.
He pulled her down and to lie beside him on the meditation mat. One of his hands pulled her body close to his. She let him do that. He pushed against her, she pushed back. They were so close she could hear his single human heart thundering in his chest. It sounded almost like a prey animal, and that invoked something ancient and feral in T'Pol's psyche.
She was enjoying this.
T'Pol's right hand pulled open the long zipper of Jonathan's regulation Star Fleet coverall and explored inside, slipping under the soft dark undershirt to feel his chest muscles and his silky fine body hair. Only humans had that much body hair. Vulcan men were almost invariably smooth. Jonathan's skin was hot, even to T'Pol's Vulcan touch.
T'Pol made another comparative observation. Jonathan's body was much longer than Charles's had been. T'Pol had to tip back her head to both kiss his mouth and caress him at the same time.
Both of Jonathan's hands were inside T'Pol loose pajama top. She wasn't quite sure when that had happened, but it felt good. Wonderful. She considered removing the garment to give Jonathan easier access.
T'Pol's desk communicator beeped. "Captain? T'Pol?" Hoshi's voice asked. "I think you're really going to want to see this, sir." She sounded excited.
Archer groaned at the interruption and looked at T'Pol like he wanted to eat her. Kissing her deeply, he squeezed her close, but the habit of command was strong. He arose and went to the communicator, zipping and straightening his coverall as he did so.
"What is it, Hosh?" he growled.
"Just turn on your vid. display screen, sir. I'm broadcasting it for the whole ship!" Hoshi was definitely excited. She sounded like a young girl. "It just came in from Star Fleet. They wanted us to see it." She added as an after thought, "Bridge out."
T'Pol had arisen and gone to sit on the bed. Archer sighed, flipped on the vid and went to sit beside her. He was nibbling at her neck as the vid came on. "… and the phenomenal success of this music video has not hurt Star Fleet either. After a year-long slump in the popularity polls, Star Fleet Command is back on top! And here he is once again, ladies and gentlemen, Captain Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise singing Bridge Over Troubled Water!"
The vid screen filled with a spotlighted shot of the captain singing his lonely ballad at the talent night show.
Jonathan started to laugh. He kept laughing as T'Pol questioned him with her eyebrows. He flopped back on the bed and giggled and laughed until he was weak.
"You must explain this to me, Captain Archer," T'Pol told him. "I do not understand."
Jonathan sat up and sobered almost immediately. "No, please, T'Pol. Never stop calling me Jonathan. Please." He pulled her close and gently kissed her lips.
"I won't," T'Pol promised.
Nodding towards himself singing on the vid screen, Jonathan explained his hilarity. "Once again Enterprise has saved Star Fleet and humanity. And this time we did it all for a song."
T'Pol wrinkled her brow. She didn't understand.
Jonathan smiled tenderly. "It's a joke, sweetheart, a joke. Come here and I'll explain it to you." And pushing T'Pol back to lie on the bed, Jonathan lay down next to her and began to explain it all very thoroughly.
Finis