When She Kissed Him He Knew
When she kissed him knew. When T'Pol kissed him on the cheek, that was the point at which Trip's heart silently began to bleed. She loved him. He loved her. And it didn't make a damn bit of difference.
Trip closed his eyes, the words ringing in his ears. "This is the Vulcan heart. This is the Vulcan soul. This is our way."
He slowly opened his eyes. No, this wasn't a bad dream from which he would wake up from. T'Pol was, right before his eyes, getting married to a man she barely knew and didn't love. There he stood silently respecting, although never agreeing, with her decision.
Should he have told her he loved her? Would this question haunt him for the rest of his life? He would do anything for her and that's just what he was doing right now-supporting her in the insupportable.
Would this man, could this Koss, ever love T'Pol the way that he did? He knew absolutely nothing about her, that Trip knew. He had never spent time with her as Trip had. He had never shared the same experiences with her that Trip had.
She looked so beautiful. She was so beautiful. What they shared was beautiful and it was all being taken away with these words and promises exchanged. The truth that caused Trip's heart to bleed is that he had lost her. Sure, they would still be friends, but how was one to go back to being friends after feeling so much for so long? T'Pol had made her choice and it wasn't him. It didn't matter that she loved Trip, she had made her choice and now they could never be as close again. She was, or would be soon, another's man's wife. That union was to be respected. It was the way of the world, it was the honorable thing to do, andKoss would always be there now, between them, always.
So he stood there, watching the woman he loved more deeply than he had loved anyone before, being taken from him before his eyes. He stood there, as cold and still as a statue, for part of him had indeed become like a statue. It was easier to feel nothing. To be like a Vulcan. But that wasn't being a Vulcan and he knew it. He knew T'Pol. This was the Vulcan heart, this was the Vulcan soul that bleed inside of him, that perhaps bleed inside of her. For he had given his heart, his soul to a Vulcan, and he didn't know if the loss of blood would be so profuse he might never recover.