Give Me One More Chance

CHAPTER 1 Nice Of You To Join US

T'Pol continued looking into her meditation candle, as she had been for the last hour. She was still unable to center herself enough to work through the day's odd events. As she thought over the last 24 hours, the last few days if she was honest, she knew she first had to except that things around her had not been normal for a while. Not since she had conducted her unofficial science experiment with a very willing Commander Tucker, during their last neuro-pressure session. Something was wrong with her, she was having emotions…and they were becoming harder to suppress. She was acting needy… having to fight loneliness…but worst of all… today she just may have lost Commander Tucker.

It all started first thing in the morning. She had again, startled herself awake by moaning because of a very unvulcan like dream. She couldn't remember ever finding her ears as fascinating as she did in her dreams lately. She knew that dreams could be aside effect of intimacies with alien species because a temporary bond was sometimes formed. She just had never heard one lasting so long. When she had to fight to suppress the very unvulcan like grin the dream had caused she knew, she was going to have to start meditating more if she was going to suppress her longing for a certain chief engineer. As she slowly rolled out of bed, she told herself that if she wanted inner calm today she'd have to start her meditation immediately. Then not 15 minutes into her meditation, to use one of Commander Tucker's saying, 'The **** hit the fan'

Captain Archer voice had come loud and clear over the intercom, telling all of the senior staff to meet him in his ready room in no more then 10 minutes. She felt the need to groan as she started getting up and was barely able to stifle it. She did not like how she was handling the situation with Commander Tucker at all. She was losing control of herself in even small ways now. When had she become so preoccupied with things going on around her that she started groaning over having to go to work? Groaning, how…how… human. She was still contemplating the illogical effects being "friendly" with Commander Tucker when she walked into the captain's ready room 17 minutes later.

She looked up when she heard the door shut behind her, to find Captain Archer staring at her. He was frowning while shaking his head back and forth, he was speaking too, but she was having trouble understanding him though his sarcasm… "Why thank you for showing up Sub-Commander, I hope my news wasn't interrupting something more important".

At first all she could do was lift an eyebrow in confusion but finally managed to add a "Sir" to her inquiry.

He was upset as he said" Your late Sub-Commander, nearly eight minutes", but seemed to soften as he added, "Are you feeling alright your looking a little pink"?

She was shocked; she was late. She was never late. She started feeling …yes that was the right word…feeling like laughing. So she did the only thing she could…the unthinkable. She lied "No captain I'm not feeling well"… which was the truth technically…"I have a…a headache and had to find something to get rid of it"…the lie…"I'm sorry I kept you waiting".

Captain Archer smiled then and said "It's alright, it must have been one hell of a headache to make you late. I was just telling everyone that Hoshi thinks we may have found the Xindi weapon on long-range sensors".

She stopped her meditation and had to force herself to quit thinking about the mission today. She knew she tended to lose herself in work on those rare occasions when she had a personal problem to fix and meditation wasn't helping. She made herself concentrate on her emotions…yes that was the word…her emotions, so she could purge them. But more importantly so she could find a way to fix her broken friendship with Commander Tucker.

She started with the first feeling she had after the captain's announcement about the Xindi. It wasn't relief or hope like she new everyone one else in the room was feeling. It wasn't even embarrassment over her tardiness. It was what she believed a human would refer to as "puppy love". Hoshi had explained the meaning of the saying to her after she had heard in a practically bad movie. It seemed to fit. Even thou she was listening to everything going on around her, in the back of her mind she was waiting for Commander Tucker to pay her what she thought was some much-needed attention. She had barely been able to see him at work, and they had to miss their last two sessions. She wanted a quick glance, a smile, or best of all, a totally unprofessional… I know what you look like naked wink with a Trip Tucker grin, so she could pretend to be affronted and make him blush. But he was too absorbed in what was being said to even look at her and even though she tried not to be, she was disappointed.

However Trip Tucker wasn't as absorbed in the briefing as she believed. He had done a lot of thinking lately and decided he wasn't going to follow the resident Vulcan around like some lovesick fool any longer. He was barely fighting the urge to smile at her and was starting to remind himself of a puppy following his master around so he could get a little attention. He had to stop this before he made a jack *ss out of himself. So he decided it was best to not even look at her and tried to listen. After all his whole life and that of everyone around them was about to change.


If she had known that, the last two hours of meditation would have been a little easier and she wouldn't have felt so confused. All she knew was that feelings made no since and feelings like these were ridiculous. Unfortunately knowing that changed nothing. She knew she wasn't acting like a proper Vulcan and had to get control. All her problems would be over if she could have controlled her emotions throughout the day. It would have changed everything. Especially the feeling she had felt next. GRIEF!