"Hoshi, how was the away mission?"

She shrugged. "Nothing special. Trip and the Head Engineer talked a lot, and engineerese is a language I've never been able to master."

Travis laughed. "How are you?"

"Doctor Phlox says our daughter is healthy. I'm doing alright, but it's still an emotional roller coaster."

Travis treasured his friendship with Hoshi, but the last four months she'd been busy. He supposed having a baby would do that to a woman. Also, the circumstances surrounding the conception of her daughter were unusual, to say the least. "I can't imagine." She resumed walking on the treadmill, while Travis moved on to the leg press.

"It's really a weird situation, but Malcolm and I are working through it. We're going to raise our daughter in as normal an environment as possible, considering that we're on a starship."

"I bet this involved talking with the Captain."

"Of course. We're taking two adjoining rooms and putting a smaller one in between, so she'll have a parent on either side. Actually, that was the easy part."

"And the hard part was?"

"Convincing Starfleet to let us stay onboard."

Thunk! The weights dropped due to Travis's surprise. "They wanted to make you leave?"

"Not leave Starfleet, but Enterprise. I don't even know how many strings the captain had to pull for us. I know it's a little different, but this is home for both of us."

"Careful, you'll start sounding like a boomer, calling a ship home."

She laughed. "Wonders never cease." Silence reigned for a moment, and then she changed the subject. "I was worried about Trip for a while. He said that this is right, but still- well, you know he wants kids, and I've realized that I should have found out who the father was sooner. We're working it out now, the three of us as friends, but I wish I hadn't been so stupid."

"Hoshi, I know none of this is easy for you. Don't beat yourself up too much."

"It wasn't fair to them. I kept them in suspense to make things easier for myself. How selfish is that?"

"You're really angry at yourself about this, huh?"

"Yes."

"Have you apologized to them?"

"Several weeks ago, but it felt like too little, too late."

"Cut yourself some slack, Hoshi."

"Aye, Captain Mayweather."

"Hmm, I like the sound of that."

Meanwhile in Archer's quarters....

"I can't believe he missed that!"

"Do shots come any clearer?" Water polo lit up the screen, and both Jon and Trip bemoaned the missed shot over a box of cookies given to the captain as a gift on the last away mission.

"Nope. Pass me another cookie, will you?"

"Chocolate chip cookies are almost universal."

"Your mom's are better."

"Of course. Still, they're good."

"That was a good pass. Too bad it was Hawaii."

"Hey, we could still win."

"Yeah, and Travis could decide he wants to live planetside. Get real, Trip." Commiserating the certain loss, both men took another cookie. Porthos stretched his front paws out, nearly knocking the box over. Trip picked it up to save the precious cargo it held.

"Kinda lame, Jon. How bout...an' you'll stop feedin' Porthos cheese."

"Riiiight, mine was lame. How about, 'and T'Pol will stop arching her eyebrow.'"

"An' Malcolm could stop stashin' phase pistols in the shuttlepods." They burst out laughing.

"Speaking of Malcolm, how are you two doing? As friends, I mean?" He knew that Trip and Hoshi had, over the course of weeks, restored their friendship. Ultimately Trip felt that things were turning out for the best. Hoshi felt guilty, but relieved that she hadn't lost Trip's friendship. Malcolm being- well, Malcolm doing his best Vulcan impression at times, things had taken longer.

"Really good. I talked to him this mornin' about how I felt we were actin' like better friends than we were anymore. He said that he just doesn't know what ta do. I never saw it that way, but he didn't want me ta think he was rubbin' it in by talkin' about Hoshi, ya know?"

"I still can't believe this is all happening."

"Me neither. Some days I wake up an' think it was a really twisted dream. Even now, I hardly remember that first day. I've had dreams that seemed more real. It's kinda like I'm tryin' to remember a whole day from a couple snapshots."

Porthos flopped his head over with a small canine sigh. Trip took another cookie. "Sure we can win. Look at that intercept! Hawaii shouldn't 'a been able to pull that off!" he muttered through a rather full mouth. "I don't know, Jon. It's weird, but we're just movin' forward. That's all we can do."