As time passed Sam found it was becoming easier to play the part of captain, of course a lot of reading of Archers personal logs had helped him get a handle on how the man thought, and occasionally there were brief times he was able to talk to Archer himself and get advice on how to do things. Al had informed Sam one day that Ziggy had been able to narrow down the reasons why Sam was on the starship, with much help from both Sam and Archer.

Sam had been sitting in Archers cabin reading when Al had popped in.

Al: "Hey kid, whatcha doin'"

Sam: "Al, it's been days where have you been?"

Al: "Yeah sorry about that Sam, but the last time we tried the three way linkup with you, me an Archer, it really did a number on Ziggy's power reserves and we lost one of the generators. It took us until yesterday to get it back up and the techs spent most of today making sure it would stay running."

Sam: "I see, any news for me? Like how about when I'll get out of here?"

Al: "Well with what you've been able to tell us and what we've got from Archer, Ziggy thinks she's narrowed down the reason why you're here."

Sam: "You said reason, not reasons. Does Ziggy now think I'm here for one purpose instead of three?"

Al: "Yeah, and she's got it pegged at a 79 probability."

Sam: "Well what is it?"

Al: "You're here to get Captain Archer and T'Pol together."

Sam sighed: "Al, I'm not sure about that, I've been trying this last week to meet her on common ground. She's unlike any woman I've ever met, she's so different I barely know where to start. And I really don't think she likes me."

Al: "You gotta try Sam or we'll never get you outta here."

Sam: "Alright Al, maybe I'll see if I've still got part of your neurons from when we simo-leaped a while back."

Al: "Hey, you remembered that?"

Sam: "Yeah, just before I said it."

Al smiled and took a puff of his ciger. The handlink gave an annoying squeal and Al looked down at it.

Al: "Oh uh Ziggy says that I gotta get pack…pack?" Al smacks the hand link "Oh back, I guess the power is still kinda fluctuating. Hopefully I'll be back soon buddy."

Sam nods and watches Al depart. He then stands up and begins to pace in his small cabin. Porthos watches the strange man who looks like his master but smells..blue, very carefully.

After a few moments Sam stops his pacing and heads for the door. He figured that if he was ever gonna get Archer and T'pol together he was going to have to start small, like maybe asking her to tomorrows movie. Sam heads down the corridor towards T'Pol's cabin. He is feeling almost giddy, and quite nervous, almost as much as when Lisa Parson asked him to the dance after the big game when he was 16. Sam stopped in the middle of the corridor. He remembered that! He also remembered when he leaped into himself to change the outcome of that game. Sam closed his eyes and fought back a sudden wave of emotion. It had felt so good seeing his family again, especially his father.

Sam waited for a few moments, once he figured he was back under control he once again headed for T'Pol's cabin. Arriving there he had to stop himself from doing a little primping. He reached ot and rang the door buzzer, after a few moments the door opened to reveal T'pol in her night clothes. A set of what looked to be blue silk or satin pj's

Sam: "Oh boy."

T'Pol: "Captain?"

Sam: "Huh?"

T'Pol: "Was there something you required of me Captain?"

Sam: "Uh yeah…oh I mean yes T'Pol, I was wondering what you were doing tomorrow night?"

T'pol: "I have currently nothing planned after my duty shift ends.

Sam: "I see, well I was wondering if you would like to come to the movie with me tomorrow night.?"

T'Pol: "I had no inclination of attending it Captain."

Sam's heart fell."

T'Pol: "However. Since I have already mentioned that I have nothing else planned for tomorrow I shall accompany you."

Sam: "That's great. I'll pick you up before it starts."

T'Pol: "That would be adequate."

Sam: "Well, goodnight then."

T'Pol nods her head and watches as her Captain leaves, presumably back to his own cabin. As the door closed she turned and sat at her meditation candle once again. The Captains behavior and attitude towards her this past week had become somewhat, strange. It was almost as if he were attempting, in a rather clumsy way, of trying to be more friendly and attentive to her. As she gazed into the light shed by her candle she tried once again to settle her thoughts. She had almost found her center when a stray thought flittered through her sub-conscious mind. It was from two days earlier when she had been running in the gym, Captain Archer and Commander Tucker had come in and were playing an Earth game called 'basketball'.

T'pol had tried to keep her focus but had found it increasingly difficult to do so when the two men had been joined by Ensign Mayweather and Lt. Reed. The ensign and the Captain had 'paired' off as had Lt Reed and Cdr Tucker. T'pol began to watch them as the Captain and Mr Tucker had begun to have some type of argument, she had been about to intervene to see if there was a problem when it had apparently been settled. To T'Pol's surprise, both the Captain and Mr Mayweather began to disrobe. To her relief the two men had only removed their shirts. She had later found out that this was a variation of the game known as 'shirts n skins'.

T'Pol had turned her attention back to her running, and soon found her concentration lagging. Again she tried to focus on her exercise and was shortly hampered by a distraction. Turning she caught sight of her 'distraction', Captain Archer. Or rather a shirtless sweaty Captain Archer. T'Pol found herself watching him as he moved, as the muscles under his skin moved. She found it rather strange that humans were so…hairy. Vulcan males had little to no body hair. After that, T'Pol had found she no longer had the will to exercise while the Captain was playing his game half naked. She immediately left the gym, after watching the Captain for another 10 minutes.

T'Pol sighed and realized that she would be unable to continue her meditation tonight with so many errant thoughts roaming her head. Having the Captain stop by in the middle of it had been no help to her control whatso ever. So had had to fight the impulse to ask him inside and remove his shirt to seewhat the hair on his chest felt like under her fingers. T'pol shook her head and admonished herself for thinking such things about her superior officer.

T'Pol leaned down and blew out the candle and as the flam went out, she finallt forced such lecherous thoughts about Jonathan Archer deep into the back of her mind.

Sam walked down the corridor back towards his cabin, he had a smile on his face and was humming to himself. He felt good in a way. He had started on what he hoped wouldn't be too long of a road to getting these two people together. As he neared his door he noticed Trip coming the other way. In his brief time here, Sam had found it refreshingly easy to fall into the habit of calling Charles Tucker III by his nickname.

Sam: "Hey Trip what are you doing up and around? Don't you have and engineering staff meeting at 9 am?"

Trip: "Yeah, but I was feelin' kinda restless and so I thought I'd head on down an grab some warm milk to help me sleep."

Sam: "Warm milk? Why didn't you just go get something from Phlox?"

Trip: "Ah shucks Jon, ya know I hate goin' to see him. An besides, we both know that if I went to him it'd be all over the ship in less than a day that I was havin' troubles sleepin'."

Sam smiled. "I wouldn't worry too much about what people think of you Trip."

Trip laughed: "Yeah that's true. Hey, never mind me, what're you doin' up?"

Sam looked at the deck: "I was just taking a walk, and thought I'd make a gesture."

Trip: "A gesture? What kinda gesture?"

Sam: "Uh well, I was, um, I kinda asked someone to the movie tomorrow night."

Trip: "Oh ho!! Is that why you all so happy an such. Who was it?"

Sam: "Trip I don't know if I should tell you, you're almost as big a blab as Phlox."

Trip: "Hey, I'm just trying to make sure no bad rumours gets started. Let me guess, um hmm, let's see you're coming from down the deck, you've got a smile on, you're kinda blushing. And there's a strange kinda smell around you, almost like it was sumthin' burnin'. Oh my god1 you asked T'Pol!"

Sam: "Trip…"

Trip starts laughing. "Naw I shoulda seen it sooner, the way you're always trying to get on her good side, how you've been paying so much attention to her at breakfast the past week. Hah, good for you Jon."

Sam was surprised. "You mean you're happy?"

Trip: "Well yeah sorta. I figure it's about time the two of you came outta your shells. Maybe you can teach her to open up more an quit bein' such an ice queen."

Sam: "Well I don't want to hear anything about this from the crew by lunch time tomorrow, you hear me? And besides, it's only a movie."

Trip: "lound n clear Cap'n. Not a peep from me. And everythings gotta start somewhere, have a good night Jon."

The two men went their separate ways. Unfortunatley none of the three of them would be able to find out how the movie date would have gone, as 6 hours later, Enterprise was intercepted by three Klingon D5 cruisers. Sam was taken away by them, arrested for crimes against the Kligon Empire. Sam figured this had something to do with Enterprise helping a goup of refugees trying to escape from the Klingons. While Sam awaited his 'trial' in his cell, he hoped that Al would be there soon with advice on what the hell he was supposed to do to get out of this one.

Sam was pacing back and forth in his cell when he Saw Al step out of the wall in front of him. Sam let out an audible sigh of relief.

Sam: "Al! It's about time you showed up, what the heck am I supposed to do about this?"

Al: "Now take it easy Sam, I was up on that fancy ship of yours and you got nothing to worry about, they're doing all they can to help you out. How are you doing?"

Sam: "Not too bad, Doctor phlox was here yesterday and gave me a quick check up, the food here isn't all that great. I'm holding my own. I just wish they'd let me tell my side of what happened, everything that Duras fella said was a bunch of lies."

Al: "Look Sam I can't stay, Ziggy's been having fits since she found out that Archer knew nothing about her or the project. Her ego won't let her believe she may not exist in the future. You'll get outta here buddy. Don't worry."

Sam sighed and sat down on the hard bench as Al disappeared. He decided to get some sleep and prayed tomorrow would be better.

Sam stood in the docket and stared at the Judge. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. Even after telling the true events of what happened. They'd still sentenced him to life on a penal colony. And not just him but Kolos as well. Sam had nothing left to say as they were led away by the guards.

On Enterprise. T'Pol and the rest of the bridge crew sat in silence after Hoshi relayed the message to them from the Klingons. Their captain was being sent to a frozen world to spend what ever remained of his life. And T'pol knew that once you've been sent to Rura Penthe, your life was not expected to last long. She had to do something. Despite the captains orders about leaving. T'pol knew she had to get him back. Unfortunately they had been ordered out of Klingon space. She knew they had to act quickly in order to be able to do anything. However, as she explained to Commander Tucker, she had an idea.

Sam lay shivering on his bunk during the sleep period, he hurt in more areas than he thought he had. His beating by the guards for trying to protect kolos sure didn't help his situation much, and having no Al around to talk to wasn't making it any easier on him. Sam lay there wondering where Al was until finally sleep and the dreams claimed him.

Al: "I know it hurts Sam, but you did the right thing."

Sam: "I always do….I always do the right thing. And what does it get me? Why can I save strangers and not the people I love."

Al: "I don't know."……

Sam: "Gimme one day."

Tom: "What day?

Sam: "The 8th of April."

Al: "The day Tom is killed."

Tom: "How'm I supposed to give you a day?"

Sam: "By doin what I ask?"

Tom: "Which is?"

Sam: "Find the deepest hole you can and crawl into it for 24 hours."

Tom: "Oh Sam." ………

Al: "You did it Sam, you changed history, everything is working out just as Ziggy predicted."

Sam: "What bout Tom, What about my brother?"

Al looks down at the hand link and his face drops. "I'm sorry Sam, he's still killed in Vietnam."

Sam feels his heart catch in his throat, as looks up towards the stands to see his Brother as he yells his name.

Tom: "Sam! Hoo Yaa! Alright little brother!"

Sam reaches his arm out towards Tom as he feels himself being pulled away by the start of the leap.

Sam: "TOM!!!!!

Sam awoke with a start, every night it was a different dream, they al related to his previous leaps. Tonight was when he had been leaped into himself when he was 14.

Sam: "I don't know how much longer I can take this.

The next shift brought some good news for Sam it took the form of Lt Reed who with the help of T'Pol and her contacts she had formed, had been able to sneak Reed into the mines and then take both Sam and Malcolm back out and return them to Enterprise. Sam's only sad feeling was having to leave Kolos behind. He knew the old Klingon wouldn't survive his sentence.

Sam's next surprise was once he had been back onboard the ship he had been greeted warmly by the senoir crew. All but T'Pol. She had merely stopped by sickbay for an update on his progress from Phlox, and that was it. Sam felt dejected. He had thought he had been finally able to win her over a bit. But maybe he was wrong. Al finally turned up again explaining that Ziggy was still in a snit and they were no closer to figuring out how to get Sam to leap. They wren't exactly capable of doong him much good while he was in the future. There were no records they could access or anything. And while Jonathan Archer did all he could. It wasn't enough. Al had no idea how long Sam would be here.

Later that night while Sam dozed in sickbay, Phlox had kept him there for a few days to make sure he was ok, Sam received a visitor. T'Pol stood quietly att he foot of the bed and watched the man she though of as her Captain. But lately she had begun to think of him in another way. He was her friend, that she would readily admit to. However, she now also saw him as maybe something more, and it confused her. Thoughts of him permeated her waking hours, and even invaded her meditation.

She gazed down on his sleeping form and came to a decision. Tomorrow she would need to have a serious talk with him. And for good or bad. Things between them would change.