Disclaimer: Paramount owns the major characters, but their children and this AU are of my creation.

The Life We Left Behind

T'Pol stood in front of the grave, looking at the name carved into the simple rock that marked the site. Sorek Tucker was written neatly in capital English letters, and underneath in, in Vulcan, it read Sorek, son of T'Pol. Malcolm and Hoshi had carved the inscription on the stone, and then Travis Mayweather conducted the short, solemn funeral. Four and a half years had passed since that day, and Charles had been right. The pain that had threatened to engulf her had subsided, but never truly left. She had not known how to deal with grief of such magnitude, and in a reversal of roles, it was Charles who was her emotional anchor. For despite the pain he was in, the pain that reflected her own, he knew grief, and knew that it would not overwhelm him.

Sorek had been a weak child, a fact that she knew as soon as she could sense his presence in her womb. She suspected that his human and Vulcan genes did not join as well as those of his siblings, and he died three days after he turned two months old. She and Charles did not visit his grave as often as they used to, but their son, as her mate had promised he would be, was always in her memory.

She brought two fingers to his, desiring to communicate through the bond she shared with Charles. It was a weak bond by her people's standards, requiring more effort than was traditionally expected to communicate, but it was a bond that she cherished. It also had to be considered that there was no matriarch to officiate their bonding and yet the bond was maintained by their deep affection. They had become, as the ancient words said, "two who, as one, are complete."

//If Sorek had lived, our home would not seem so empty.// It was an admission of emotion that she did not display publicly. They years spent on New Earth had changed her and brought more emotions to the surface, but she still preferred to avoid revealing them, except to Charles.

//Yeah. I bet he'd be adorable.// For a moment there was a mental silence, and then he added, //It does get lonely without the kids, but we've got each other.//

Jonathan had married Liz Reed five months ago, and T'Mir had married Sergei Mayweather six days ago. T'Pol had harbored misgivings about her children marrying so young, but Charles convinced her that they were old enough, and in their shoes he would do the same thing. She had reminded him that Vulcans live longer than humans, and thus marry later; as half-Vulcan she expected her children to do the same, if to a lesser extent. Of her two children, Jonathan had always been more appreciative of his Vulcan heritage, and she was quite surprised when his courtship lasted only a year. Tatiana had performed the ceremony for Jonathan and Liz, while Hoshi had for the wedding of T'Mir and Sergei. Tatiana had advocated for the marriage of T'Mir and Sergei; T'Pol was aware that Travis thought Sergei should wait until he was at least 18, and Tatiana said that she doubted one month would make much difference.

On their way back to the tree they called home, T'Pol and Trip passed what Travis called "the neighborhood of the next generation," located right across the stream from the group of trees that had originally been their shelter when they first arrived on New Earth. Maddie and Alex Mayweather had been married the longest in this group, and Maddie was six months pregnant with their first child. It was surprisingly difficult to resist the temptation to visit her children, but the sun was setting and it was not wise to walk about after sunset, not even in the camp.

 "Really, Mom, I'm not tired!" The protest of fifteen-year-old Allison Mayweather was heard well beyond her home. Allison did not like to admit that she got tired before adults, a trait that had been developing for several months but came out full-forced after both her brothers left home, leaving her the only child in the Mayweather tree.

"You and Tim spent the entire afternoon racing. I'm surprised you haven't fallen asleep already." Tatiana's reply wasn't as loud as her daughter's outburst, but T'Pol could hear it. Tim, at sixteen the youngest of the Reed children and he only one still living with Hoshi and Malcolm, was probably already asleep. He was, Hoshi said, "a morning person, just like his father."

"Morning will come faster if you go to bed now," suggested Travis. He said something after that, but after T'Pol entered her home she couldn't hear the discussion anymore, which pleased her. Trip climbed up after her.

Once they entered their own home, Trip and T'Pol were confronted with a face they had never expected to see again: Crewman Daniels. "Please excuse my trespassing. I didn't want to let myself into your home, but I don't want any of the children to see me."

"Daniels?" Trip said, sounding as though he doubted very much that the man in front of him was real. That wasn't entirely true, since he knew, in a general sort of way, that Daniels could travel in time, but Trip was shocked out of words.

"That's my name, at least for this mission."

"I assume that your visit concerns the Temporal Cold War." T'Pol hadn't lost her words, although she was as surprised as Trip.

He nodded. "The specifics are classified, of course."

"I expected no less."

"Do you remember the Suliban?"

T'Pol nodded. Trip, finding words again, half-attempted a joke. "It's hard ta forget guys that ugly."

"I'm here to stop them from changing the future drastically. We caught wind of a plot- the Suliban should be showing up tomorrow morning."

"I thought ya died, though."

"I'm going to."

"What?"

"I haven't gone on board the Enterprise yet."

"Ooops. Maybe I shouldn'ta mentioned that."

"I already knew, Commander."

"Wow. It's been a long time since anyone called me that." He paused for a moment. "You're not gonna take us back? You can't! We've been here for more'n twenty years, an' it's our home."

"Don't worry, Commander. You're not going anywhere."

"I don't s'pose you could just tell Jon that we're alive though, could ya?"

Daniels couldn't tell them that Archer knew, of course. "I'm not in the courier business."

"I didn't think so. Could ya tell me why ya were a crewman, though? I mean, obviously ya know enough ta be an officer. Why not at least be an ensign?"

"It's easier to be covert as a crewman," he shrugged.

"Charles, we should allow Crewman Daniels to explain himself." Somehow it didn't seem right to call him "Crewman Daniels," but T'Pol couldn't think of anything more appropriate to say.

"It would be best if Lieutenant Reed and Ensign Sato could come. The Suliban are targeting their son."

"We can't leave the trees after dark. The bears're nocturnal, an' the last time we were down in the dark Malcolm ended up with a nasty concussion an' a bearskin blanket."

"I'll guard you." Trip was reassured by the tiny weapon that Daniels held out, and went off to get Hoshi and Malcolm.

"Maybe I won't try ta explain this. I think I'll just tell 'em to come over," muttered Trip on his way down.

Hoshi's first response to Daniels was, "If the Suliban want to kill him we certainly can't leave him alone!"

"He is not alone, Ensign. A guard transported to your tree as soon as you left. She is invisible. If Timothy wakes he will not notice her." This didn't really calm Hoshi down, but Malcolm managed to get her to sit back down, telling her that listening to Daniels was the best way to defend Tim. She listened to him because she hadn't seen Malcolm look so scared in years.

"I assume that you have a plan to keep Tim alive," said Malcolm after Daniels told them his reason for coming,

"Yes, but he must not know of our existence. None of the children can."

"What? We can't tell him that there are dangerous soldiers who want him dead? It seems to me he has a right to know!" Hoshi had been trying to keep back tears during the entire exchange, comforted by Malcolm's firm grip on her hand and comforting him in turn with hers. Now several of the tears won over her resolve and spilled onto her cheeks.

"You could tell him, but the effect would be as disastrous to the timeline as if he were killed."

Silently the entire army of tears started flowing, and then a choked sob or two escaped. Hoshi took several seconds to reestablish a semblance of control.

"You're not making any sense," scowled Malcolm, who was compelled to believe Daniels but wanted straighter answers. He had put his tough-guy mask, as Hoshi had called it forever ago, back on as though he hadn't neglected it in years,

"I can't tell…"

"Look, we're already takin' the secret about you an' this whole damn Temporal Cold War ta our graves. Everything that matters ta us is in danger, an' I'd like ta get a couple a' straight answers outta ya!" Trip had been uncharacteristically silent, but made up for it in a spectacular fashion.

Daniels sighed. "If Timothy finds out about the attempt on his life, he'll be too afraid of the Suliban to have children. That cannot be allowed to happen."

"Now we're gettin' somewhere."

"How do you know that the Suliban won't try to kill him again?" Hoshi's voice was shaky, and she leaned heavily on Malcolm, who was still scowling and afraid for his son.

"This is the only time in his life that failure to kill him would result in success of the mission, as long as the attempt was discovered. They will come back to this time, and I will come back, but for you, it will only happen once." This was somewhat comforting, but Hoshi was still desperately hoping that this would turn out to be a nightmare. Malcolm felt rather useless and wished he had a phase pistol. Somehow, he doubted that even his sharpest arrows would do much against the Suliban. Maybe he'd get one good shot before he was killed.

Daniels passed out a tiny weapon to each of them. "They're configured to blast through Suliban body armor." So much for the arrows being effective, Malcolm thought, but that didn't disappoint him much because this weapon was obviously superior. "I will need you to come with me while I explain my presence to Ensigns Silina and Mayweather, Sub-Commander."

"Their daughter is in there."

"Allison Mayweather sleeps like a log. We won't disturb her."

"Can I please hear your plan to protect my son before you leave?" Feeling slightly better now that he had a weapon, Malcolm hefted it in his hands. "This doesn't have a stun setting," he added.

"No, it doesn't. A stun setting would only knock a Suliban out for about five minutes. This only has vaporize, so aim carefully." Hoshi shuddered and gave her weapon to Malcolm.

"Tim will join the Mayweathers for breakfast. Commander, you're going to make sure that the six oldest children don't see anything. I don't care how you do it, but don't tell them! Lieutenant, Ensign, you'll be in your tree with Sal. Sub-Commander, you're here with me. When the Suliban turn up in camp, sometime shortly after breakfast I suspect, we'll shoot them."

"That's it?"

"Simple but effective, Lieutenant."

"Do you have a backup plan?"

"Why do you think we're splitting into two teams? Now let me give the three of you a short-acting sedative so you're well-rested tomorrow, and then you two go back to your own tree." Hoshi accepted gratefully, but Malcolm held up his hand to block the small hypospray. "I assure you, I know what I'm doing, Lieutenant."

"You'd better, Daniels. I'm trusting you with my son's life."

Following T'Pol down the tree, he added to Malcolm, who was leading Hoshi back to their tree, "I will need the weapons back after."

Disappointed but not surprised, Malcolm replied, "I figured you'd say that."

Hoshi was inside the house, and T'Pol had already gone in to Travis and Tatiana's tree, when Malcolm heard a roar. He turned around in time to see Daniels shoot at a bear. For an instant the white beam shot silently at the animal, and then the bear disappeared.

"I would've smoked him, you know."

"And how would you have explained moving enough in the middle of the night to get the attention of a bear to your children?"

Malcolm looked down and shrugged, "We try not to waste."

"Now you won't have to waste your breath lying." He muttered to himself that Daniels hadn't been this impudent on Enterprise. At least he didn't think so.

"I really think I heard a bear," came Liz's voice. Daniels ducked behind a bush, and Malcolm scurried up to the top of his tree.

"The bears have no cause to be near camp. Everyone is asleep. As you should be."

"But then I heard a voice, too."

"T'hy'la, you were most likely dreaming." Despite this, Jonathan looked out the door. "I do not see a bear, or anyone who might have supplied this voice you talk of."

"Alright, you win."

After several minutes, Daniels climbed up the way T'Pol had gone, and Malcolm went to bed. "That sedative better wear off by morning," he groused, but Hoshi was already asleep. He had to roll her over to put the weapons away where Tim wouldn't find them.

"It will, Lieutenant."

He looked up where the voice was. "I have relocated to the top of your tree, but I am still invisible to you."

"You must be Sal."

"Yes. Get some rest, Lieutenant."

Despite his fear, Malcolm fell asleep as soon as he pulled the blanket over himself and Hoshi.

                                   *****************

When Malcolm woke up, Tim was still asleep, but Hoshi, who usually slept far later than either of them, was wide awake. "Malcolm, I'm scared."

"I know, love. I haven't been this scared in a long time."

"Since we thought that Maddie was never going to regain consciousness?" The memory of that, several years ago though it was, still made Hoshi shudder. Maddie had been hit on the head with a rock that Tim was trying to throw as far as he could, and she'd been unconscious for three and a half days. It had been horrible, and that same fear threatened to take over again.

He nodded. Before he met Hoshi, he would have seen admitting his fear as a weakness. She'd taught him that there were many situations where it was fine to feel weak. This was one of those times. "We'll get through this, Hosh. All of us."

"Daniels seems very confident." He ran his fingers through her hair, now streaked with silver but as smooth and enchanting as ever.

"He's waking up."

"All of us, Hoshi." Then he turned to look at his son. "Good morning."

"Mom? You're up before I am! Did I oversleep?"

"No, silly. I just had a lot on my mind." That was an understatement.

"What's going on?"

"Oh, I was just thinking how wonderful my life is." And that I'll do anything to keep it that way, even use those vaporizing weapons.

"We do have it good, don't we?" He looked around the tree. "Especially since there's a lot more room in here now."

"Oh, Tim," Malcolm was trying to sound cavalier, and Hoshi didn't shoot him any glares so he must've been doing alright, "Travis asked me to invite you over to breakfast with them. Tatiana was making pancakes."

"You two aren't coming to breakfast?"

"Not right now. Go ahead, don't wait for your old parents," teased Hoshi. "It could take us hours."

"Hey, I'm not that old!" Malcolm protested; although he was certainly past his prime he had aged well.

"Don't forget we're going hunting today, Dad."

"I haven't. Although it's tempting to stop telling you all my secrets before you're better than I am." The elusive spotted fox was Malcolm's specialty. Nobody else was able to find them, except for Tim after a year of expeditions. Tim wanted very much to hone his hunting skills, which was probably influenced by the fact that Liz was a master fisherwoman and Maddie had a knack for gardening and nursing, but the hunting championship among his siblings was still his for the taking.

"See you later."

"Have fun!" Hoshi called out lightheartedly.

"Suliban hunting and fox hunting, all in one day," he whispered once Tim had left.

"Good morning, Lieutenant, Ensign." Hoshi looked up and around before Sal shimmered into view. "I'm Sal, here to help save your son."

"Thank you."

"No thanks are needed, but you're welcome." Sal appeared to be a member of a race they'd never seen before. Hoshi thought to herself that it had been a very long time since she'd seen a new species. When Daniels mentioned Sal, she assumed it was short for Sally. She'd forgotten that you never assume when it comes to new people. Sal was only a centimeter taller than Hoshi, with light skin, green eyes, and dark hair. She looked human except for the multi-toned brown spotted pattern that cascaded down her face from her forehead and disappeared under her black uniform. Hoshi would've loved to have learned her language.

Malcolm retrieved the weapons Daniels had given them last night from the compartment under the pile of blankets he and Hoshi slept on. He studied the weapon for a moment before taking up position in the doorway and turning it on. It was a sleek, efficient-looking design. His bow and arrows, never mind the slingshot and spear, seemed rather pathetic next to it.

"That wouldn't do us much good even if you could keep it. You can't eat the meat or use the fur if you vaporize predators." Hoshi was probably trying to cheer him up, knowing him so well that she could practically read his thoughts.

"Alright, it's just about showtime. Places, everyone." Sal stood in the middle, with Hoshi on one side and Malcolm on the other.

Hoshi had grown accustomed to the need to kill animals, and it didn't bother her anymore to watch as Malcolm killed a fish she caught; sometimes she even had to kill them, and she wasn't plagued by nightmares. Killing sentient beings was a harder task, because they probably had families and friends, were probably following orders, had the potential in them to be good- but these sentient beings wanted to kill her son, and that brought both her maternal instincts and rage to the surface. Malcolm, too, had always preferred the stun setting on the old phase pistols, but when it came to protecting his family all bets were off. Sal stood calmly, looking as confident as Daniels had. Daniels and T'Pol were in position, although the others could not see them.

Hoshi found her thoughts wandering to Tim, knowing full well the consequences of failure. She wouldn't let them kill him, or make him afraid. The night he was born was an exhausting ordeal, because her labor was long. Lizzie was with Travis and Tatiana, and Maddie was staying with Trip. T'Pol and Malcolm were both with her, T'Pol to assist with delivery. Malcolm was a good sport about how hard she squeezed his hand, which was especially meaningful because he wasn't a night person. T'Pol bathed their new son while Malcolm looked after Hoshi, and then handed him over.

"His lungs appear to have an exceptional capacity," she remarked. It was true; of all their children Tim cried the loudest. "Congratulations Hoshi, Malcolm. If there is nothing else you require, I will retire now."

"Thank you," said Malcolm distractedly, without ever taking his eyes off his new son.

"We're all set, T'Pol. Thanks for all your help."

Hoshi then set about feeding her son. She and Malcolm had decided to call the baby Hiroki if it was a boy, but for some reason she didn't think he looked like a Hiroki. Malcolm asked what she thought he looked like.

"Timothy," she decided after a moment's thought. "He looks like a Timothy."

"I thought you wanted a Japanese name."

"I did, but he looks like a Timothy."

"Well, Timothy it is then."

Timothy apparently had a stomach capacity to match his lung capacity, but eventually he finished feeding and, after being coaxed to spit up, settled happily into his blanket and promptly fell asleep.

"You have a perfectly healthy son, Malcolm. Why do you look so worried? Haven't we already established that you're a wonderful parent, that you're nothing like your father?"

"He expected more of me because I was his only son. Maddie never had half the problems I did with him."

Hoshi held out Timothy, and Malcolm took him expertly and cradled him. "Malcolm, you're a loving, caring, sensitive father to the girls. I know that you'll be the same wonderful dad for Timothy."

He smiled. "I never used to think that those words would be used to describe me." Looking down at his tiny son, sleeping with a hint of a smile playing at his lips, and knowing his two daughters were asleep in the trees mere meters away, seeing Hoshi and knowing how much she loved him, Malcolm thought that his life was just perfect.

"Let's put him to bed." He passed Timothy back to Hoshi, because the cradle was nearer to her. She held him for a moment, reluctant to give him up to the cradle. When she looked up, she saw a wide smile.

"What?"

"I was just thinking how beautiful you look right now."

"I'm a mess! My hair is plastered on my face, I've got…" he silenced her with a kiss.

"You're gorgeous, love."

Hoshi then remembered the day Tim learned to walk. It was a cloudy day in the middle of the afternoon. Malcolm and Trip had gone off hunting. Travis and Tatiana had gone to gather some berries, so she and T'Pol were watching all eight kids. T'Pol was instructing Maddie, Jonathan, and T'Mir in the basics of weaving. Allison was asleep in her cradle, which Alexander felt compelled to sit next to even though Hoshi and T'Pol were right there. He was trying to sew a pouch out of squirrel hide for Tatiana's upcoming birthday (though birthdays were necessarily approximated because they guessed at the calendar), and though it wasn't the neat oval he'd envisioned, it was coming along nicely. Sergei was diligently working on his own gift, a necklace made out of many knots. Lizzie peppered her with questions about food and cooking, and Timmy was crawling around in circles. He stood up occasionally, balancing against the trunk of Trip and T'Pol's tree. Suddenly he took a few steps before falling down and crying out. Lizzie, who took her big sister responsibilities seriously, recounted the event at dinner twice.

Next Hoshi thought of the day he'd decided that Timmy was for little boys, and, at seven years old, he was a big boy and should be called Tim. Malcolm, who had finally come up with a device to shave daily, much to his delight and pride, had taken Timmy out fishing and brought back Tim. Liz had progressed through that transition two years earlier, but Maddie never did.

She thought of his rapt attention as she and Malcolm told them of adventures on Enterprise, how Allison always beat him in their sprinting races but he won all the distance races, the delight he expressed when told that he would be an uncle in several months, the way he practically idolized Malcolm.

When the Suliban transported in, they never had a chance. They faced towards the stream, so Malcolm and Sal each vaporized one before they had any idea that they were facing resistance. Hoshi's beam found a target mid-turn. Someone in the other tree, probably Daniels, was struggling to get a shot at the leader, while T'Pol had hit one Suliban in the ankles, where he certainly didn't expect to be shot. He ended up just as vaporized as the others, though. Malcolm hit another one. Sal muttered something in a language Hoshi had never heard, aimed, and the shortest of the warriors disappeared.

By the time the Suliban turned around, there were only two left. Daniels had taken out one of the rank-and-file Suliban and was back to targeting the wily commander. Hoshi saw the other one target T'Pol, and just in time she shot him. Sal and Daniels managed to hit the commander at the same time from opposite sides, and it was over.

"Mission accomplished," declared Sal. "Now's the time for our exit."

"Thank you," chorused Malcolm and Hoshi, handing over their weapons.

"All in a day's work. But you're welcome." Then she disappeared, without any of the sparkling fanfare that were, in their own time, associated with transporting.

Malcolm hugged Hoshi tightly. "It's over, Hosh. We won." She couldn't speak, just buried herself in his strong shoulder.

T'Pol, in accordance with the agreed-upon signal, called out "Charles, I require your assistance."

Later Jonathan and Liz stopped by to invite Hoshi, Malcolm, and Tim on a grain gathering expedition. Tim and Malcolm had just returned from their fox hunt without any foxes, but with three squirrels and a rabbit between them. Malcolm and Hoshi declined, but Tim went along. This left his parents a few hours of time alone.

"Tatiana wanted to take a more active role in this morning," Hoshi reported. "She said it was her duty, but that Daniels and T'Pol insisted that would be too suspicious."

"She and Travis kept Tim, Allison, Sergei, and T'Mir from noticing the Suliban. Trip kept Jonathan, Liz, Maddie, and Alex from discovering them. We all did what had to be done."

"I thought it would be hard, Malcolm." He noticed the concern in her voice, and took her hand. "I thought that killing a sentient being would be hard, but it wasn't. They wanted to kill Tim, and that made me so angry that it wasn't hard to kill them at all. That scared me."

"I know that feeling, love. It was your friendship that first made me realize it didn't make me less than human. It was my job, and I was protecting my friends."

"You felt this way?"

"More times than I can count, before we came here."

"How did you deal with it, knowing that there was something inside of you that could be so brutal?"

He pulled Hoshi onto his lap and started tracing random patterns on her back. "Until I met you, I didn't. I thought that it was part of the job, but that I was a lesser man because of it. Then you came along, and you didn't care.

"I think we all have that something inside of us, Hosh. If there's enough at stake, it'll come out."

"We did what we had to do." Repeating his earlier words, she found that they sounded more reassuring now. She looked into his eyes and saw so much more in them than words could ever say.

"I love you, Malcolm."

"Forever, Hoshi."

                              ******************

Trip, who was attempting to finish building the system by which new logs could be added to the kiln, looked over with satisfaction to see T'Pol making another jug to add to the first she'd crafted. When the pair was dry they planned to test the kiln. It was small because that was the only way he could figure out to heat the pottery inside to high enough temperatures. Actually, it was all theoretical anyway, because there was a large chance that it could all crumble. Travis in particular was highly skeptical, but had hauled clay anyway.

A small blob of clay flew up to her chin, and T'Pol's attempt to get rid of it only smudged it. She went back to work for a moment before raising her eyes to meet his.

"What is the matter, Charles?"

"I was just thinkin.'"

"An affliction you are prone to."

He smiled for a moment before a frown creased his face. "T'Pol, I meant what I said when Daniels came. I don't want ta go back now; but I was a Starfleet officer. Should I have asked ta go back out of duty? Shouldn't I have at least wanted ta go back?"

She paused to give his questions thought. "The fact that Daniels and Sal came to New Earth indicates that, in the future, our descendants will be of importance to the interplanetary community. Therefore they could not return us to Enterprise, so it would have been useless to ask." Of course she knew that the latter question was more important, so she stood up and relocated herself next to where Charles was sitting. "We have, as you pointed out, been here for nearly two and a half decades. I do not believe that anyone would expect us to desire a reversal of the accident after this length of time. Our lives are here now, Charles, and nobody on Enterprise would expect less. Nobody would begrudge us the happiness we have found here, especially Captain Archer."

"Ya really think so?"

"I would not have told you so if I believed otherwise."

Despite the mud that covered her hands, he took them in his own and brushed her mind. //You're an amazin' woman, T'Pol. I'm not sure I tell ya that enough.//

//I have never found cause to doubt your proclamations. You are also extraordinary.//

//I've been thinkin' about Enterprise a lot lately, and you're in most of the memories.//

//As you are in mine.//

"Trip? T'Pol? Are you hungry?" Allison's voice broke into their mental reverie.

"Comin.'" He gallantly took her hand to help her up. She did not require his assistance but found this chivalry touching. She looked at their hands, covered in mud. //Perhaps we should wash our hands before eating.//

//Yeah, probly. Let's go. Our life here's waitin' for us.//