Read and Enjoy!
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Trip was sitting in the captain's dining room quite content. He was back into a generally happy mood from what T'Pol had "told" him.
"So, Trip, I see you haven't stopped craving strange food yet." Said Jon, breaking Trip's concentration on the earlier events of that evening.
"Wha… oh yea – heh heh." Said Trip as he looked down at his plate of pasta with pickles.
Trip thought to the question he had thought of while he was getting ready for dinner. He wanted to ask Hoshi and Jon to be her Godparents. He had no idea how to ask someone this question, but he thought he should get it out of the way before she was born.
"Jon, Hoshi, I was wondering if I could ask you two a question?" Trip asked shakily.
"What is it Trip?" asked Hoshi.
"Would you be the Godparents of my daughter?"
They were silent for a minute, then, just as Trip had suspected, they broke into huge smiles and were saying things like "of course", and "it would be an honor".
I sure am glad I got that out of the way! Trip thought jovially.
Later that night when Hoshi had left, Jon got up and made the dreaded announcement over the com.
"Hello, this Captain Jonathan Archer speaking and I have some news about one of the crew."
Trip visibly winced at this statement.
"A couple months ago we ran into an alien ship, they needed repairs and we helped them. Our own chief engineer, Commander Charles Tucker, went over to help them."
Trip could not believe he was hearing this. The captain was making it sound as if he had died.
"While he was there one of their engineers invited him to play one of their games with them. She accidentally impregnated him."
Oh my good god, thought Trip, he actually said it. He made it sound like I was raped! Note to self: never let Jon explain anything discreet ever again!
"This is a very personal matter to Commander Tucker, so if you have any questions to ask him, don't, and as for the matter of gossip, don't. Commander Tucker's child will be born within the month so all questions should be cleared up then.
"Well, that wasn't so hard, was it now." Said the captain, as he turned to a greatly embarrassed Trip.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
A week had gone by when Trip started to hear whispers about a baby shower. He first caught Hoshi in her room wrapping two fluffy looking items after she had come back from shore leave at a human based space station. Then he had over heard Travis and Jon talking about when it would happen. Then once again he saw Malcolm in the armory working on these strange little transmitter things. He was getting more and more suspicious everyday that people were planning a surprise baby shower.
Then the truth was known one day as he walked into the mess hall for lunch.
"Surprise!" yelled everyone simultaneously (even T'Pol, he remarked to himself).
Trip was very surprised at the whole event, even though he knew it had been coming. He got a gift from everyone.
Later that night he really got to get a good look at all the presents because he didn't really get to look at all of them really closely.
The first gift was from Jon. He had given him a mobile for above the crib. It had cute little spaceships and stars all around it. Trip smiled at this gift because he really had wanted a mobile to make the crib seem less bare.
Phlox had given him clothes which he knew she needed but had yet to buy any.
Hoshi' gift had a note attached to it.
Trip –
I found this in a cute little shop at that space station a couple days ago. They were so cute I couldn't resist. I hope you like them!
- Hoshi
P.S. the guy at the store said the bunny is actually a real animal some where
She had given him a girl's gift – stuffed animals. One was a little tiger sitting; it was quite small compared to the other one. It was a slightly large black bunny and it looked normal enough except it had weird furry wings and small devilish looking horns coming out of its head. Trip laughed to think that an animal that silly looking could actually be real somewhere.
His next gift was from Travis, he had attached a note to his gift as well.
Trip –
I got this at the same shop as Hoshi – she dragged me along, I had no choice. Hoshi said it was scary but I thought it was pretty funny.
- Travis
He had given Trip a little pacifier. But on the back was a little drawn picture of a Klingon grinning. The artist of the little picture had stylized the features so much that the normally scary picture of a smiling Klingon was toned down so it actually looked funny.
Malcolm had given Trip a quite complicated, but useful, gift. He had given Trip a portable com that had been tweaked to be able to become a baby monitor as well. Trip laughed at his stupidity of overlooking the fact that he needed one of those.
He slowed at T'Pol's gift. She had also put a note on her gift.
Mr. Tucker –
I thought that your daughter would like a blanket to keep her warm. I think that you will like this gift. The words on the corner of the blanket are a Vulcan lullaby. If you wish I could give you it translated into English.
- T'Pol
Trip smiled at the nice letter as he turned to the gift itself. It was a relatively large blanket knitted, with some sort of very soft yarn, to look somewhat like swirling pink and blue nebula. The words in the corner were embroidered in silver thread and took up about an eighth of the whole blanket.
"Well, babe, what do you think of all of your gifts?" Trip said absently to his daughter, letting his hand rest on the growing bulge.
Her only response was to send a feeling of contentment and kick against her father's hand.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
A/N: This chapter was fun, but it was hard to come up with all of the gifts.
Next Chapter Suggestions
BIRTH!
T'Pol sends him the translated lullaby
Everyone visits him while he's recovering
He reveals her full name to every one.
