Read and Enjoy! ^-^
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Another month had gone by slowly for Trip. He found it harder and harder to get around the ship both physically and without running into people on the ship. She was about the size of a large misshapen beach-ball, and weighed about eight pounds, so he felt very lopsided. Whenever he ran into a person in the hall or mess hall they would look wearily at him and make quick, curious glances at his side. Every time this happened to him he sighed exasperatedly once they had left. Jon and Hoshi kept on bugging him to tell the rest of the crew, and to his despair he was slowly starting to agree with them that it would be less confusing and tiring. He walked slower as her started getting closer to the sickbay, he had started getting more and more anxious after the "one month to go" landmark had been passed and he had started to wish that he had never set foot on that Xyrillian ship.
"Ah, Commander Tucker, you came finally." Said the doctor cheerfully.
"Trip! I didn't' know you were coming here today, the doctor was just giving me some cold medicine, I seem to have come under the weather." Said the last voice on earth Trip wanted to here just then.
"Hey, cap." He said drearily.
Trip walked over to the examining table opposite of the doctor and the captain and started to slowly remove his shirt.
"Good. She seems to have been growing quite nicely this last month."
"Hey Trip, have you thought about my suggestion about the rest of the crew?"
"Yes I have, and I think that I'll let the rest of the crew know about her, but I won't be the one doing the telling. You have to do it, the crew would probably think that it was a practical joke or something, if I told them." Said Trip.
"Good!" said the captain cheerfully, "I'll tell them at dinner, say… Trip would you like to have dinner with me and Hoshi tonight?"
Still sad, Trip thought this might cheer him up, so he agreed to see him and Hoshi that night.
His appointment with Phlox actually went pretty fast and he left for his room once it was over. When Trip got to his room he started researching babies, which was what he had been doing for the last week – nonstop. A couple hours later he went to the mess hall to eat. He ate very light opposed to what he had been eating the last few weeks. He tried to ignore the fact that e was becoming more and more depressed as the "big day" approached. Everyone was so excited that a baby was going to be born they sort of seemed to ignore his feelings. I'm probably just imagining things though. He chided himself. He walked slowly back to his room – he felt that that was what he had been doing for the last few months. Dodging people as he made his way back to his room, always back to his room, never anywhere else. He surprised himself as he burst into tears in the middle of the hallway. He didn't want to go back there – it was too depressing. He wracked his brain of who could help him, not Jon - he was an ageing bachelor, not Hoshi – she reminded him too much of his mother. Then as if a light had gone off in his head he thought of a name he didn't think he would ever ask for help – T'Pol. She was a Vulcan; maybe she could help him calm his raging emotions.
It took him about ten minutes to find her room. When he got there he knocked tentatively on her door.
"Yes? Who's there?"
"It's…it's me, Tucker. C-can I c-come in?" He said, his voice cracking on the thickness in his throat.
"Yes." She said.
Trip tried and failed to wipe the redness of his eyes away that would betray that he had been crying.
"What do you need?" she asked as he stepped into her room.
"I-I've been feeling worse and worse the closer that it gets closer to when she's born. I just feel like nobody cares about me and then it gets worse and worse until I'm crying my eyes out." He said feeling fresh tears run down his cheeks.
She stared at him for a very long time before she took his hands with hers and kissed his palms sweetly. He stared perplexed at her, even more confused than when he had walked in. Here was a Vulcan, a woman who wasn't supposed to have an emotion in her entire body, expressing the exact amount of love and caring that he needed. At that moment he felt the most loved that he had in a long time. He stared blank-faced at her when she looked back at him. He thought he could almost hear what he thought she might be thinking that moment – I care, Trip.
They stayed like that for a while before he got up to go to dinner with the captain and Hoshi, but as he walked back to his room he didn't feel like he was walking back to his room, he felt as if he was leaving T'Pol's room. That thought brought a nice, small, secret smile to his lips.
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A/N: Wheee! This chapter was fun! They (Trip/T'Pol) seem to be advancing quite slow and nice.
Next Chapter Suggestions
BIRTH!
Godparents assigned
Trip gets used to being a Mom/Dad (I don't really know what to call a person in his position)
More Trip/T'Pol goodness!
