Hold Me Through

By: Keleshnar

Disclaimer: Eh, I still don't own Enterprise.

A/N: The title of this chapter was borrowed from the Bee Gee's song of the same name (and what'd you know, I don't own that either). The song gives a good feel for the atmosphere in the climatic point in this chapter, so go listen if you want. Just a reminder – in this story S3 doesn't exist! Oh, after this chapter there will be a pause in posting until I write the last stage (this pause might actually be short compared to what you've been so patiently enduring recently. Thanks and sorry!), but once I have I'll post them all pretty rapidly so that the drama of the conclusion can take its full effect (dum dum dum…). This chapter's words are 'wish' and 'myriad', and thanks a bunch to Angie for betaing this. And sorry if some of the formatting is off; I fix it in the 'QuickEdit' feature, and then it doesn't show up groan. Oh well. So, enjoy and please review!

If you didn't read my half-chapter/side story, you can find it under my profile (link not working, argh!). It expands a section of this chapter and gets the reader into the Sithians' shoes better.

Chapter Ten: Miracles Happen

"They're still not responding to out hails, Sir," a frustrated Hoshi said. They had been trying to contact these people for nearly half an hour, and the Captain had been putting her and her skills under an uncomfortable pressure.

She looked up to see the Captain's reaction, which was stubborn determination, and bent back down over her console with her left hand pressing on her left ear to keep her ear bud firmly in place in case of any response. 'You'd think they'd respond out of pure annoyance just to try to get us to leave them alone!' she thought.

"Rephrase it again, Hoshi. More politeness and finesse – we just want to talk now," The Captain told her, standing up from his chair and walking over to her station. Hoshi almost snickered at the last part of his comment – they were getting desperate and downplayed their pleas to just talking instead of visiting the planet or trading.

While she paused in thought before sending another message down to the planet, she realized that she'd become much more stressed and easily annoyed lately. The atmosphere on the bridge was just so tense recently. One main reason was because T'Pol had been officially been taken off-duty and put on maternity leave by Dr. Phlox a few days ago. The loss of her evidently comforting presence on the bridge made the Captain more uptight and anxious. Hoshi had noticed that he glanced up at the science station, currently occupied by Ensign Carter, a few times an hour to see if T'Pol had somehow magically appeared there. It was sort of sweet, she thought, even though her mood suffered.

Another reason for the tenseness, possibly equally as large, was their mission. There had been very few leads on finding the Xindi, so when a reliable break came through and Enterprise headed towards the section of space described by the informant, everyone was nervous and anxious. Hoshi didn't know exactly where the information came from, which certainly didn't erase her fears, but she suspected the Sithians had something to do with it. She was suspicious at first why an alien race would help them so willingly, but a conversation she'd had with the Par-Grand a few days before had put it to rest.

They'd been in the mess hall, chatting over their lunches, and she was struck by his honest yearning to find out more about Humans and Human culture. There was just something in the way he tried so thoroughly to figure out exactly what she meant when she explained the reasons for certain customs and behaviors. Granted, Par-Grand Isces was more interested in becoming acquainted with Enterprise's crew than the rest of the Sithians, but many other members of the Sithian crew had put forth efforts towards friendship as well.

So she typed carefully, sent the message back down to the planet, and waited. Everyone on the bridge seemed to be waiting, hoping silently, for a reply. There was a whoosh from the turbolift doors opening, and T'Pol quietly walked over to her station. She would come up the bridge a few times a day, both to keep herself occupied and to make sure everything was still up to her high standards during her leave of absence. Hoshi saw the Captain turn his head slightly in recognition when she entered. Instantaneously his features relaxed significantly, as well as everyone else's.

Grand Hines spoke up during the silence, re-iterating what he had said before Enterprise had started hailing the planet. "Like I said, Captain. The Reckaux are a finicky race. They don't like to have any contact outside..." A beep from Hoshi's console, signifying an incoming message, interrupted him. Immediately all conversation was forgotten as the Captain nodded to Hoshi and she put the message onscreen.

A humanoid-ish face appeared there, pausing to take in the view on the other ship before beginning to speak. His skin was a medium hue of sea green, but there were what looked almost like veins snaking all across his face in patterns of a dark teal color. He had short, tawny hair covering the back top of his head, and his eyes were orange with flecks of burnt umber and red in the center surrounding an elliptical pupil. There were also gill-like structures along the lower part of his cheeks, except that they looked like they were just a trait that evolution had accidentally not bred out, like the human tailbone. His neck was longer than that of humans, and that, added to his tight posture, gave him an air of dignity, power, and annoyance.

When he finally spoke, his face contorted into a look of suspicion, and he asked, "Why are the Sithians docked with you?" Archer paused for a second in surprise; evidently the Sithians were more widely known mercenaries than he guessed. He now partially understood the Reckaux's initial suspicion, but still hoped that they would be more amiable soon. If Earth were a trading planet, as the Grand told him Reckatia was, he certainly wouldn't want an unknown, armed species landing without an explanation.

Grand Hines had told him before the attempted contact that the Reckaux were an extremely private species, but they were excellent traders with many rare goods. The few times he'd been allowed down on the planet, he said, they carefully monitored how much of their world foreigners saw. They also had sophisticated scanning and detection devices, according to Hines, so that threats could be determined and strategies thought out ahead of time. So Jon wasn't totally surprised when T'Pol, who had replaced Ensign Carter for the time being, said,

"Captain, they're scanning us… I don't recognize some of these scanning spectrums." Jon just looked up at the view screen, trying to judge the reaction of the Reckaux leader. There was no real change in his expression, only the dry reply,

"Yes, you'll find that we have quite superior…" but he trailed off and looked down when there was a small beep from one of his consoles, evidently signaling the completion of the scans. He suddenly looked up, directly at T'Pol, with an expression Jon couldn't decipher. Archer didn't like it and could feel the 'need to protect' rising from his stomach. Because of this feeling, he tried to initiate a business conversation, however Pollyanna, to distract the alien from T'Pol.

"So, now that you know so much about us, could we discuss a trade agreement?"

Jon was successful in more ways than he hoped, because the Reckaux focused his attention back on Jon and replied, in what sort of seemed like mock shock or hurt,

"Trade agreement? Of course, I look forward to discussing the terms down on the planet. We will meet you at your designated landing dock in two hours." Jon thought the Reckau's assumption of compliance was a little cocky, but as captain he was willing to deal with a little cockiness to get the job done. "The necessary information, including conditions, is currently being sent to you," he added, motioning to an off-screen officer. "If you will not accept our conditions of landing, then there will be no possibility of a trade agreement" he finished, promptly cutting off the transmission as he finished speaking.

Jon glanced at Grand Hines and the Hoshi, looking for an explanation of the weird behavior. He got equally perplexed expressions from both. 'That was a very rapid, odd change in demeanor!' he concentrated and sent to T'Pol. She mentally nodded in agreement.

"The coordinates and information are through, Sir," Hoshi said. As she skimmed them quickly, her brow wrinkled and she added, "You should come see this…" Jon quickly complied and walked over to her station. He read it over her shoulder as she looked up at him questioningly, and then looked up at Hines, who cam a few paces closer to the two.

"They have some interesting landing party restrictions," Jon said with slight distain. "Here: there can be no more than three Sithians, no more than ten people in total can come, and T'Pol must be one of those ten." As he finished he looked directly at T'Pol, and they shared a surprised and slightly worried glance and thought. T'Pol thought she also sensed some jealousy, which didn't make any logical sense to her at all. Then another odd point came to mind, which she vocalized.

"They mentioned me by name?" If they had, then their technology was truly quite impressive to be able to sort through their databanks so quickly.

"Well, not actually by name," Jon replied. "But they require that the pregnant alien be on the landing party." In his head he added, 'I don't like that…'

"Maybe they want to distinguish such a person. You saw how he looked at her…" Hines added, trying somewhat to defend the Reckaux's intentions. His comment wasn't exactly comforting to the Captain, though, and Jon's hard but momentary gaze told the Sithian that the 'extra attention' had definitely been noticed.

After a long sigh, Jon asked rhetorically, "How bad do we need this information?" They all knew that without outside help in the form of coordinates or information, their mission would be irreparably stuck. "How reliable are they again?" he redirected to Hines, after a moment of anxious silence on the bridge. Jon was put more and more trust into their interspecies relationship, and it was holding solidly.

"I have never heard of any unsatisfied customers of the Reckaux, no matter what the goods received were. That's why their prices are so exorbitantly high – you get what you pay for." Hines had previously warned Archer about this too. Jon just hoped that Enterprise had enough goods on her worth trading.

Jon hated to even be thinking about complying with such worrisome terms, but Earth's survival might depend on that information. He looked at T'Pol and asked, sending love and caring through their bond to make sure she didn't misinterpret his meaning, "If Phlox clears this, are you okay with it?" T'Pol thought about it quickly, weighing the possibilities and risks, and nodded, unconsciously putting a hand on her abdomen.

Less than two hours later, T'Pol had been okayed for the journey, a team had been assembled, and they were on their way down to the planet in shuttlepods one and two. Jon and T'Pol, who had only been told by Phlox to not push herself too hard and to sit a bit, were obviously in the group, as well as three Sithians, Commander Tucker, Ensign Sato, an armory officer and two navigation officers. Par-Grand Isces along with two of their top soldiers were the Sithians that had come; evidently in Sithian culture the second-in-command went on the missions while the leader 'held down the fort,' as it were, and ran things from there. Jon thought it was an interesting concept, one that would undoubtedly keep the leader from harm but would take most of the fun out of the job.

As the two pods entered the ionosphere, everyone looked around curiously to see what the planet would look like. It was hard to see anything until they got past the mesosphere into the stratosphere, because of the many layers of very high-up cloud type coverings, which T'Pol found quite interesting and was able to get a few readings on. Once those layers had been passed, however, the vibrant planet of Reckatia came into view. There were three continents visible at that moment, and one large island off the coast of the biggest continent. Most of the land they could see was a dark teal color, presumably from the vegetation, and the oceans were a deep midnight blue. Once the pods got closer to their landing site on the large island, they could distinguish more varied colors – the teal trees were mixed in with a few lighter, more limey-colored ones, and there were many places where the teal stopped and gray and red structures, presumably buildings and civilization, appeared. The most southern continent was still visible as they descended, and it was more of a tan color than the others, appearing to be made up of more desert and savanna type climates. There were still splotches of comparatively rich colored cities, but fewer than where the shuttlepods were landing. As the landing sequences culminated and the pods touched down lightly with a swirl or two of dust, T'Pol noticed that the local ground was a light brown color, probably composed of a sand like material with some decomposed organic elements in it.

Jon opened the door to his shuttlepod and looked around, squinting slightly from the light. He could definitely see how the Reckaux got used to privacy – those abundant thin layers of clouds and the small dust ring around the entire planet prevented views of the planet from space, but the surface was still very bright and protected. Looking toward the other pod, Jon saw Trip getting out and stretching his legs a little before walking over to where Jon was now standing, followed by Hoshi and the Par-Grand. Soon the whole part was out in the sunlight and eagerly looking at their surroundings.

A Reckaux was walking toward them from the center doors of a group of reddish-brown buildings about 100 meters away. Trip squinted to try to seem him clearer, and commented to T'Pol, who was standing near him,

"With that skin color, do you think they're plants?" He was partly joking, referring to the similarity of color between the vegetation and the native's skin. T'Pol's dry stare accompanied with a slight eyebrow raise gave him her unamused opinion. 'Fine, you're the science officer…' he thought to himself with a half smile.

When the Reckau was about 25 m away, close enough so that most of the details of his person could be made out, Hoshi noted with interest his garb. He seemed to be a little shorter than the average human, and his tawny hair looked much lighter in the direct sunlight. His robe was sort of like T'Pol's current one, with a dark fabric with a sheen to it used as most of the material for the robe except for stripes of taupe down the inside of the arms and plaited down the outer corner of each leg.

As the Reckau stopped a meter in front of the group, he said, "I'm glad you were agreeable to our terms." His countenance seemed reserved until he spotted T'Pol, holding onto Jon for support while standing. Then his face changed to a more relaxed, contented expression, save when he glanced briefly at the Sithians holding their weapons. "I'm Prime Minister Durse," he turned briefly to T'Pol. "I am very glad you could join us while you're experiencing one of the most wonderful terms of life. Perhaps you would be willing to share you experiences with some of our women? It truly is not an opportunity to miss. Anyhow," he continued, when T'Pol made an uncommitted nod of her head. "Please follow me." And with that he turned around and headed toward the cluster of buildings, motioning briefly with his hand.

Isces turned to Hoshi and commented, "I had not heard of their apparent celebration of pregnancy. Interesting, no?" Hoshi agreed, nodding, and they walked toward the doors.

When the group was at the thick brick-colored double doors leading into the building, two guards came forward from the sides and firmly stated, "No weapons inside the compound," and held out their hands to receive the various weaponry. The Sithians shared glances of distrust; it was their job to protect. When no one else eagerly gave up their weapons either, Prime Minister Durse made a noise of slight impatience and turned to face the aliens.

"Here," he said, motioning to the Sithians. "You may keep you weapons, just give us the ammunition." Evidently this was a safe community if people could see a gun and not even think twice, knowing that it would be unloaded. The Sithians begrudgingly complied, knowing that they had no other choice. Then, Durse turned to the Humans and added, "I'll need your phasers, too. Our city is a very safe place, so weapons won't be needed, and you shan't be harmed. Especially with such a special member in your group." He nodded toward T'Pol as indication of the last part of his comment, soliciting a few still confused glances and an uncomfortable feeling radiating from T'Pol. Durse did not notice these, however, because he had turned and walked through the now open doors. Jon just wished this usual custom of theirs would be fully explained. He planned to ask about it as soon as the opportunity arose, because he could sense T'Pol's disconcertion from all of the attention. She mentally thanked him for this, and he smiled as the group made their way into the open courtyard inside the building.

It appeared that the doors they had just come through were the main entrance to a walled city, not a large building. There were many buildings interconnected along the edges of said wall, with an open courtyard in the middle. About three hundred meters away and a little to the right were some free standing merchant stands in front of smaller buildings. All of the buildings had either reddish planking or a gray stone used as their building material. The doors to all of the near entrances had gray columns supporting a small cover over the door. On top of that bit of roof was a dull bronze plaque with curvy designs across them, presumably the name of the building in the native language. It was a very picturesque scene. The courtyard's ground was of the natural sand-soil, with benches and trimmed teal shrubberies and trees landscaped simply in clumps. There were many Reckaux in the area; buying goods from the stands, entering and exiting the buildings, strolling through the courtyard, chatting. In one section of the area there were about 10 children running, playing and laughing while their parents watched them and talked.

'The Prime Minister was right,' Jon thought to himself. 'It is very peaceful.'

'You are right' T'Pol picked up on his thought and replied, startling Jon. He could feel her mentally laughing at him, gently amused. The whole setting was starting to affect Jon, and he relaxed.

Durse gave them a sort of tour of the vicinity, being extremely gracious to the visitors. Isces kept on commenting about this to Hoshi – it was extraordinarily rare for aliens to see a Reckaux city, much less get a tour of it from the Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs, which turned out to be Durse's full title. As they later learned, it was all because of T'Pol.

Jon asked about their culture's custom of honoring pregnant women, and the Prime Minister eagerly tried to help the visitors understand one of the core customs of their society. He explained how pregnancy, the process of physically giving life to another being, is thought of as the highest stage of life possible. When a Reckau becomes pregnant, she immediately becomes part of 'higher class,' sort of, and is treated as if she's above the other people. He had a little trouble explaining this part, and he could see from their faces that they immediately thought of some of the ways this freely given power might be abused. At one point a pregnant Reckaux woman, later introduced as Taelnia, came up to the group because she had heard their conversation, and she tried to help explain. Her actual explanation wasn't much clearer than his had been, but the way Durse acted once she was there helped show them what he meant.

As soon as she had walked up, he had become much less vocal and let her do most of the explaining, as well as hold the attention of the group, as if he and his opinion had suddenly become of little importance. He obviously respected and looked up to everything that she did. To see a Prime Minister suddenly and naturally act that way around a person showed Archer and his group how deeply this unusual though courteous custom was ingrained in their society.

With this cultural different explained as best as possible, Durse started to lead the group around the area a little more. Jon now understood Durse's original behavior toward T'Pol. He still felt slightly guilty, though, at using her and their child to gain a trade agreement. In response, T'Pol mentally reassured him and told him that the Reckaux did not see it that way at all and were just happy to be able to share part of another's 'time of joy,' as she put it.

While the rest of the group walked around a little more, T'Pol sat down on a bench with Taelnia to talk a little longer. T'Pol was feeling a little tired from all of the walking, so it felt good to just sit and chat for a little while. She found it very interesting that even though Reckaux women were almost worshiped during pregnancy, there was no culturally favored gender. Also, most families did not have over three children, another thing T'Pol would not have expected from a culture like this. The Reckaux clearly knew that too much of a good thing isn't good at all.

Taelnia became very excited when she learned that this was T'Pol's first child, grinning with happiness for the other woman; Taelnia was pregnant with her second child. She talked about her first child, a girl named Kira, and pointed her out from the other playing children. Afterwards, T'Pol felt very happy and excited. She was now very much looking forward to being a mother and seeing T'Kez.

T'Pol had noticed some interesting physical changes between Taelnia and the other women nearby, presumably because of her pregnancy. Besides bulging in the normal humanoid places, Taelnia's skin had taken on a maroon color, especially in the veins on her head, and her hair was quite a bit darker than other Reckaux's. She looked very beautiful, and extremely joyful.

After a few more minutes of touring, the group, now including T'Pol, went into one of the conference and meeting buildings. Durse led them through a hallway into a medium sized room, with many gray, cushy, and low-set armchairs around the edges. Two taller chairs were facing each other in the middle of the room with a small table in between them, obviously there for the bargaining leaders. Captain Archer and Prime Minister Durse sat in those chairs, and the others sat down too, waiting for the haggling to begin. T'Pol, however had a little trouble sitting down in the chairs because of her bulk. Trip, who had already sat down next to her, stood up to help her, but she just waved him off, annoyed at her inability and not willing to receive help. Two other Reckaux had seen her and come to help her as well, but they didn't fare any better. After another failed attempt to sit down gracefully by herself, she separated herself slightly from all of the attention, and said to the patiently waiting group,

"If you don't mind, I think I will go take a short walk in the corridor." She was slightly disoriented by the general, large interest in her welfare, and was also too stubborn to accept help for such a simple thing as sitting down.

"I'll go with 'ya," Trip added, standing up. He figured that he wouldn't be needed in the trade discussions, and a walk with T'Pol could be interesting. He also wasn't feeling too social right now, and wanted to get away from the group of people. He felt slightly proud of himself, keeping himself together so well for so long on this trip. It was still hard being sociable because of the grief. T'Pol nodded in acceptance of his coming, smoother out her robe slightly, and headed for the door with Trip close behind in case she needed support.

T'Pol had been having some pain in her back since the previous night, so she had been feeling slightly uncomfortable. It had mostly gone away when she was walking on the tour, so she thought that another small walk might help also. So she and Trip went out the door of the room, turned right and started down the corridor. She thought it was an appealingly designed building – there was a basically circular corridor that began and ended at the front door, and all of the rooms came off of said corridor. The building was made of a soft gray colored material, and that along with the fact that the innermost wall of the corridor was glass, looking into a small, private and open-topped courtyard, made the lighting natural yet bright.

When the Doctor had cleared her for the trip to the planet, T'Pol had to admit she was slightly surprised. After all, she was a little over seven months pregnant, and between a half a month and a month from being full term. She was glad she'd come, however, because the relations between the two species had grown quite a bit from this excursion, and the trade agreement looked like it might be promising.

At her 'checkup' she had almost asked the Doctor for some pain medication for her back, but she felt, illogically, that if she admitted to having pain the Doctor would not let her come on this important trip. She sort of regretted that decision now, because walking wasn't helping very much anymore. The pain had moved lower, too, almost like cramps… As soon as she thought that, something clicked, and what she realized scared her. She was going into labor. Early. On an alien planet, with Phlox not around. She hoped to Surak that T'Kez was all right, and that the early labor was actually not early at all, just an inaccurate guess from Phlox. That was probably what it was, she reasoned. It made perfect sense that way, because there was no true was to know how long a Human-Vulcan pregnancy would be, and Phlox probably also added a little time onto that because first children are usually late. It could even be false labor.

Now that the initial shock had worn off, she wasn't quite as panicked. She figured that she still had some time until her water broke and she went into full labor. Boy, was she ever wrong.

As they continued walking, Trip noticed that her pace slowed a bit. Thinking she was getting tired, he motioned to a bench a little ways ahead, and asked, "Do you want to sit down for a minute?" But she shook her head and answered,

"No, I can keep walking." It was helping the pain a little more now, and she didn't want to turn back yet. Somewhere in her subconscious she knew she was acting stubbornly, but for some reason she suddenly felt as if she couldn't show any weakness in front of the Commander.

She took two more steps, and the pain increased exponentially. It was so sudden she faltered obviously in her walking, and quickly headed for the bench, mumbling, "I want to sit down now."

"Are you okay?" Trip asked her, a look of worry on his face as he sat down beside her. He was ignoring what she'd mumbled, and she was glad for it. T'Pol concentrated on breathing deeply for a moment, then replied,

"Thank you, Commander."

"No problem," he responded, smiling a little and shaking his head. The pair just continued to sit there, T'Pol quietly concentrating on her breathing and Trip wondering to himself what happened. Then, seven minutes after the first one, a second contraction came. T'Pol inhaled suddenly and closed her eyes, trying to control the pain. That got Trip's attention, and he quickly asked again, "T'Pol, are you sure you're okay?"

A few seconds later she was able to reply, slightly raspy, "Yes."

By the third contraction, T'Pol was using some of her meditation techniques to take away the pain. She knew that she needed to get to a doctor to make sure everything was alright, but at that moment she wasn't able to think about how. Then her water broke.

With water running down the side of her leg, she said to Trip in a no-nonsense, short voice, "Trip, go get a doctor." Her use of his first name got his attention, but he still looked at her quizzically until she continued. "I'm in labor."

If she had been anyone else, in any other situation, she would have died laughing from Trip's expression. Once he'd processed what she'd said, his eyes widened until she thought they'd fall out of their sockets, except for the fact that she knew it was scientifically impossible. Also, his jaw had gone slack, so he looked really long-faced, and his mouth popped open a little bit as if to stutter incomprehensibly "Uhhh…" One would almost think that Trip was the father-to-be, not the father's best friend who had just fallen into a very unexpected situation. He did, however, regain his senses after a moment of shock and quickly said, "Stay right there" as he stood up and darted off to find help. As he quickly retraced their steps, he gained a new admiration for the Sub-Commander: 'Those were contractions?! Whoah, talk about pain tolerance and control!'

While Trip was racing to get help, one thought went through T'Pol's mind: 'Jonathan!'

While all this had been happening, important negotiations were taking place. "Here is out list of items we have to trade," said Jon as he handed Durse a PADD. Jon watched the Reckau look through his potential choices, anxiously waiting to see whether they would be sufficient.

"I am very interested in your deuterium supply and certainly would not mind having some of your kilex. I'm afraid, however, that will only go so far." Evidently T'Pol's influence was only so great. Jon was just glad that they had plenty of the hydrogen isotope and the local money. "What species were you curious about again?"

He hesitated for a moment, deciding how much to reveal, then concluded that he need to use all of his cards if he were to win this round, or at least tie the dealer. "The Xindi," he said.

"Oh, yes, the Xindi. They are very appreciative of fine trading, especially in the navigational and power reserve fields."

"How might we be able to afford this information? We need data on their tactical systems, and coordinates of their planet." Jon queried, urged on by the Prime Ministers data tease. He felt something from T'Pol, which made him pause momentarily, but he couldn't place it, so he assumed it wasn't that important and refocused his attention on the trading deal.

The Par-Grand could feel things starting to tense into a deadlock, so he interrupted with a carefully worded statement to dissuade that from happening. "Prime Minister, it seems unusual to me that such a profitable trading species like yours has customs that honor the non-material, like for the expecting mother. I would think that most species in your business would be less civilized in their customs and only be concerned with money and profit… I underestimated you."

The sudden input from the Sithian worked better than expected – both Durse and Jon looked at him, completely forgetting their debate. There were quite a few moments of silence as Durse pieced through Isces's statement and his intonations to determine whether it was a compliment or not. Before he could decide, however, Jon suddenly jumped up from his seat in alarm.

'T'Pol!' his mind screamed in response to her desperate thought. Right before anyone could ask him what happened, Trip rushed through the door and half-panted,

"T'Pol's in labor!"

Everyone in the room stood up and rushed out the door to go help her. Durse went into another room to contact a doctor, and then continued on to the bench where T'Pol was sitting. Jon had come up beside her and was holding her hand reassuringly and talking to her. Durse walked up, through the semicircle that had formed a few feet away from the bench. He looked toward the entrance of the building, as if he were waiting for something, and said, "Medical assistance is on its way."

Jon realized what he was saying and looked up at Durse, then back at T'Pol quickly. "No…" he started. "We need to get back to Enterprise. Our doctor will know what to do." Jon could tell that Durse wasn't particularly pleased with his guest's comment, but Jon didn't really care about that at this particular moment. His duty as a father came before his duty as a diplomat.

T'Pol shook her head, surprising both of the men, and said, "No, Jonathan. I want my child to have a home world. He shouldn't be born in space – we're staying here." T'Pol could see Durse's newly smiling face and knew she'd made the right decision for the reason she mentioned as well as for the trade agreement.

"Okay," Jon replied slowly. "But I'm going to call Phlox and get him down here." A few seconds later two Reckaux with the equivalent of a wheelchair came through the door, and as soon as T'Pol was seated comfortably, she was moved outside and into another building. Once they got there, T'Pol, Jon, and Durse went into the birthing room that was being prepped. The rest of the group was told to sit in a waiting room a few meters away. After he helped to get T'Pol settled and held her hand through another contraction, Jon stepped outside the room to comm. Phlox. He moved over to a more private corner and contacted Enterprise.

"Archer to Phlox."

"Yes, Captain?" the Doctor replied, surprised to hear from him.

"You need to get down here, and quickly," Jon said, with an apparent urgency in his voice.

"What? Captain, slow down and start from the beginning. Why am I needed on the planet?" Phlox asked. He was confused, but becoming anxious about what had the Captain so worried.

Taking a deep breath, Jon replied, "T'Pol's in labor."

"This soon? Is everything alright?"

"That's what you're coming down here to determine. She seems fine, but I don't want to have her go through this without your expertise to help guide the other doctors. They've never even seen a Vulcan before!" Okay, so he didn't really know if that were true. He needed to get the Doc down here, though, and if it took a little exaggeration…

The Doctor, however, was calm enough to not take this information at face value and instead focused on other things. "How will I get there?" he asked. "You took both shuttlepods." With a sinking feeling, Jon realized it was true. "I'm sure they have exceptional doctors on the planet, Captain. You'll be fine."

'Wait, the transporter!' Archer thought. When he suggested it to Phlox, though, the Doctor was skeptical.

"Won't the clouds interfere with the transmission?" Phlox asked. When he heard Jon's big, slightly defeated sigh, he knew he had to do something. "How far apart are her contractions? And how many centimeters if she dilated? Then I can tell how long we have."

"What if something's wrong, though? We won't be able to help…" Phlox felt that Jon was panicking himself, so he gave Archer an educated guess as to why the birth came earlier than expected. Hopefully it wouldn't turn out to be incorrect.

"I believe that the early labor is nothing to worry about, Captain. T'Pol's body is probably just pressuring her to give birth at a more Vulcan time than a human one. By Vulcan standards, the child is already a week or two late. So as long as their heartbeats are normal, and there's no sign of trauma or extreme prematurity, they both should be fine. It would help if you got me those readings, though."

More reassured, Jon closed the comm. connection for a minute while he told T'Pol what Phlox had said and got the information. It took a little longer than expected because there was a slight problem with converting to or measuring in centimeters, but the Reckaux doctors figured it out.

"Doc," he said when he recontacted Phlox. "She's six and a half centimeters dilated, and the contractions are six minutes apart."

"Okay, she should have some time until she feels the need to push." Jon heard some clinking a rustling from the other side of the comm., and then Phlox continued speaking, sounding slightly reluctant. "I am gathering some equipment and am going to go to the transporter."

"We need you down here, Doctor. Both of us, especially T'Pol, would be much more reassured if you were leading the birthing."

"I guess it's good to have job security," Phlox commented. There was about a twenty second pause as Jon heard the Doctor walk to the transporter, which luckily was on the same deck as sickbay, and heard him converse with the officer there. "Crewman Teage says to send the coordinates of right outside the building. Evidently the dust clouds in the atmosphere shift frequently enough that finding a clear spot shouldn't take too long. I'll be planet side soon."

"Breathe, T'Pol, breathe," Phlox urged from the bottom of the birthing bed. He had a mask and a medical gown on, as did everyone else in the room. Trip, Hoshi, and the other crewmen had visited T'Pol and Jon briefly during the first of the three hours since Phlox had been down on the planet, but they were later all shooed out into the waiting room until the baby was born. Every once in a while Jon could see them pacing through the thin strip of window in the door. Right now, though, T'Pol was having another contraction – they were now less than two minutes apart, and getting closer every time. "You're fully dilated," he told her. "Anytime you want to push now is fine."

T'Pol just took a few deeps breaths, not able to respond. All she had been able to send to Jonathan for a while was, 'It hurts!' He was sitting in a chair by her side, helping her deal with the pain and trying to share some of it.

"Almost there T'Pol. Just a few more," Jon said comfortingly. She just looked at him, and he could see the exhaustion in her eyes as well as feel it through their bond. 'You can do it. Just a few more.' He reiterated in thought. One of the Reckau doctors in the room finished prepping the standing medical bassinet and rolled it to the right of the bed.

When, thirty seconds later, another contraction came, Phlox said, "Push now, T'Pol!" She gave a long grunt as she pushed as hard as she could for ten seconds, and then rested slightly as the contraction subsided. "That was good," Phlox added. "Next time, even more! He's moving through the birth canal nicely."

'I can't,' she sent to Jonathan. He smiled a little, wiped the sweat from her brow and pointed to the bassinet.

'See that?' he sent her, concentrating hard. 'That is why you can push. To see our child. You can do it – we're both counting on you.' He could feel through their link that another contraction was coming on, so he kissed her check lightly and squeezed her left hand in reassurance. T'Pol, though, stared straight at that bassinet to her right. As the pain gripped her and she closed her eyes in pain, Jonathan could feel the determination and stubbornness building up in her. Looking at the bassinet once more, she pushed with all her might.

Through the bright light she felt in her eyes from the pain, she heard the Doctor say excitedly, "One more and he's out! He's almost crowned. One more hard push."

They didn't have to wait long. T'Pol stared at the bassinet as if it were her mortal enemy she had to defeat, then looked up at the ceiling. She squeezed Jonathan's hand, hard, and as she pushed harder and harder, willing it to be over, a blindingly bright white light came over her eyes and she couldn't see anything anymore, she just pushed. Jonathan could feel the light too, and their minds seemed as one when the blinding light build up even more, flashed, and whitened everything in their view for a second. As both of their sights returned to normal, they heard a short, repetitive wail. It got increasingly louder, and they realized it was their son taking his first breaths. T'Pol had no doubt that it was all worth it as she heard her sons first screams. 'The first of many' she thought, smiling and swelling with pride. Jon stood up and numbly walked over to where Phlox was holding their son, awestruck by how beautiful such a small thing could be. He was having a hard time smiling because his mouth was contorting from the excess of love he was feeling. Tears of joy were also starting to run from his eyes, but as Phlox handed him the scissors to cut the umbilical cord, his smile became the brightest it had ever been in his life.

"It's a boy!" Phlox said rhetorically. He carefully handed the crying, newly born babe to the Reckaux doctors who were waiting, and they cleaned him up and wrapped him in a towel as Phlox delivered the afterbirth. Jon watchfully hovered right behind them, unable to stop himself. When they finally handed Jon his son, time seemed to stop. Holding his son in his arms, Jon felt a sudden whomp from the shock leaving him and a myriad of emotions taking over. There were too many feelings to think about or name. All Jon knew was that he was the happiest he'd ever been in his life, especially when he brought his son over to T'Pol who reached out for him and started tearing up herself. As soon as his mother touched him, their son stopped crying. Phlox saw that they needed moment alone and motioned for the other doctors to go out. He was following them out when Jon called out and said,

"Thanks Doc." Phlox turned around and smiled. What he saw was the perfect picture of a family, with T'Pol holding their son close and Jon leaning down to get closer to them both. As he was shutting the door, he heard,

"Tell the others his name is T'Kez Henry Archer."

Once the door was completely shut and they were alone, Jon bent down a little lower and kissed T'Pol lovingly on the lips. As a cheer resounded from the waiting room outsite, they just stared into each other's eyes, unbelievably happy. Jon looked down at T'Kez and wrinkled his brow a little while smiling, noticing something he hadn't before. Curious, T'Pol looked too, and when their eyes met a second later, they were both half-grinning.

T'Kez had pointed ears.

An hour and a half later, the whole family was exhausted. They'd had so many guests – many of them Reckaux. Hoshi had just been able to get in to see them ten minutes earlier, and as she left Trip poked his head through the door, smiling a little.

"Got enough energy left for one more visitor?" He said.

"For you Trip, sure," Jon replied. Trip made a note to himself not to stay too long, though. Jon, and T'Pol especially, did look tired.

"How big is he?" Trip asked as he slipped into the room and closed the door. He stayed back from the bed where the three of them were, feeling like a 'fourth wheel' and not wanting to intrude.

"Seven pounds, eight ounces," T'Pol responded, looking up at him from T'Kez. Trip had never seen her look so happy. He thought it was appropriate that T'Pol's child was an even seven and a half pounds.

Jon motioned his best friend over, asking, "Don't you want to see him?" So Trip went over to the bed and peered into the bassinet, where T'Kez was now sleeping peacefully after his first meal twenty minutes ago. Trip cautiously reached a hand out and stroked T'Kez's cheek a little.

"He's beautiful," Trip remarked. Then he looked closer at him and turned back to the proud parents. They both guessed what he was going to comment about – the ears – but Trip surprised them. "He's got a head full of black fuzz for hair, you know that?" Then, half-chuckling, he commented to himself again, "Fuzz…"

"Trip…" Jon started, then got a partially indignant look from T'Pol as she learned through their bond what he was thinking about saying. Jonathan just looked back at her and thought back seriously, 'It'll be good for him. And I wouldn't have it be any other person.'

"Yeah?" Trip replied, slightly lost in the verbal silence.

"Would you be T'Kez's godfather?" Trip stood there in stunned silence for moment, and then replied,

"I'd love to, Jon. Actually, I'd be honored to." His mouth curved into a real smile now; he had a new person to dote on and love. T'Kez wouldn't be able to fill Elizabeth's hole, but he could certainly patch up the loneliness and loss of need he'd been feeling. As Trip, newly anointed godfather of the first ever Human and Vulcan child, exited the room, he turned around and said, "Oh, by the way, Durse has a tape of the birth he wants to give you, and he also said that our deuterium supply would be plenty for the coordinates and information. I'll finalize the details, okay?" Jon nodded, thanking Trip through his eyes. The other man caught the Captain's gaze, and smiled. "'Bye T'Pol, Jon… Fuzz."

T'Pol mentally groaned, and Jon just chuckled. They both knew their son had just received his first nickname. Jon sat down on the edge of T'Pol's bed and pulled the rolling bassinet closer while putting an arm around T'Pol. As the two new parents followed their son's lead and drifted asleep after an exciting and exhausting day, they knew they had just taken the first step into their new life. Though there would certainly be many challenges, some of them painful, they both knew that their loving family, along with supportive friends and crewmen, could tackle those challenges.

End (of stage two)

Cont…