Part 2

"So I heard you and Malcolm ran into some excitement last night."

Hoshi looked up from her padd to see Trip standing next to her. She smiled as she set the padd down on the bench next to her. "If you could call disturbing somebody's nap exciting," she answered.

He smiled and sat down on the bench next to her and looked around. "I wouldn't have thought to look for you here," he said as he looked around the hydroponics lab. "I had to nose around a bit before I found you."

"True, it may not exactly be a park-like setting, but I like to come down here every once and a while to just read and relax. It's comforting to be around growing things sometimes, you know?" She smiled again as he casually put an arm around her shoulders. She paused before oh-so-nonchalantly adding: "You were looking for me?"

He turned his face towards her, the twinkle in his eyes causing her to involuntarily hold her breath, but before he could make a response, they were interrupted by the captain entering the room. She was surprised to see an abnormally harried look on his face and his sandy hair tousled in every direction. "Flowers! Where are the flowers?" he asked in a harsh yet distracted voice, and Hoshi decided that it definitely fit the mad-scientist persona he was evidently trying to cultivate.

Trip quickly stood up and went to Jon, a slightly concerned look on his face. "What's up, Captain?" he asked, in a calm but not overly reassuring voice.

Jon ignored him as he scanned the different areas of the room. "I need to get her flowers," he continued in that same weirdly distracted voice. "Women always like flowers when they're sick."

At that point, Hoshi began to get a little nervous, and approached him. "Who do you want the flowers for, sir? Maybe I can help you."

At her voice, his eyes suddenly seemed to focus and he looked startled to find himself with the two of them standing amidst the planters. "What?… That is, thank you both… for your help," his words tumbled awkwardly out of his mouth. He seemed to finally realize where he was as he automatically smoothed his hair and uniform. "If you two will excuse me," he finished in a much more normal voice and made his way out of the lab.

Trip and Hoshi exchanged a quick, understanding look between them, and Trip hurried after Jon. "Wait up, Captain, I'll walk a bit with you."

Hoshi watched their backs as they left the lab. Things were definitely getting curious.

Hoshi was sitting in the mess hall, talking with Malcolm over the Captain's strange behavior earlier that day. Malcolm was frowning as he listened to her, his concern obvious to her. She hoped she was doing the right thing by telling him. She didn't want to overreact, but she couldn't pretend that she wasn't the slightest bit worried. Malcolm just let out a sigh as he leaned back in his chair.

Her mouth quirked up at one end. "Tell me about it," she halfheartedly joked, just before Trip entered the mess hall, grabbed a cup of coffee and approached their table.

"Commander," Malcolm acknowledged, quickly sitting up straight, the slightest of flushes creeping up on his cheeks. Hoshi knew he was uncomfortable to have been interrupted during such an awkward topic.

"Relax, Malcolm," Trip replied as he sat down to join them, quickly taking in from their expressions what they must have been talking about. "I just stopped by sick bay to check in on T'Pol. Phlox still doesn't know what's causing her to be so knocked out. Apparently Vulcans normally don't need as much sleep as we do, but all T'Pol seems able to do is sleep." He smiled reassuringly at Hoshi's concerned expression. "The doc doesn't reckon that it's that serious – just some kind of reaction to either the allergen on that planet or maybe the vaccination itself – but he's still trying to work out some way to get her back on her feet."

He took a sip of his coffee before speaking again. In an almost off-hand manner, he added, "I ran into the Captain while I was in sick bay. He was just asking the doc about something to clear his head a little – I guess that vaccination left people a little groggier than we thought. It doesn't seem very serious yet, but I suppose we should all be cautious. We'll just have to see how it goes."

Malcolm just nodded his head, but Hoshi threw one of her most brilliant smiles at him. Sometimes he wore that earnest, unsophisticated persona that he had cultivated so convincingly, that it was easy to forget that he actually missed very little around him. He knew that she and Malcolm were worried, but that they wouldn't be able to really voice their concerns. And he had just as easily solved the problem as best he could.

He returned her smile with one of his own, causing his eyes to sparkle in a way that raised her pulse a bit before she remembered who he was and where she was. Neither of them noticed the way one of Malcolm's brows rose by the tiniest of increments as he watched them.

As the mood around their table relaxed noticeably, Travis came to join them with a tray quite literally heaped with food. Hoshi and Malcolm just stared at the plates piled with at least three servings of macaroni and cheese, two slices of pie, a mountain of mashed potatoes, half a dozen rolls as well as what looked to be an entire meatloaf. "Sweet Lord almighty, Travis!" Trip exclaimed between bursts of laughter. "You planning on smuggling that out of here?"

Travis looked at them with an earnestly puzzled expression. "What are you talking about?"

At that, Trip stopped laughing, and all three of them immediately sobered. After a short silence, Malcolm calmly spoke to the young ensign. "Do you not think that you've selected a rather inordinate amount of food for one meal?"

Travis just shrugged before picking up his fork and digging in. "I was hungry," he casually replied as he began stuffing his face with mashed potato. Hoshi watched with a strange awe as he shoved an entire roll into his mouth. At the rate he was going, she suspected that he would finish off the entire tray before Trip finished his coffee. "Besides," another roll, "winter's coming." Huge forkfuls of macaroni. Winter? "You guys know that." God, how could that much meatloaf fit in there? "We've got to get ready for it." Forkfuls of pie. Cherry.

"Get ready for it?" Hoshi incredulously asked at the same time that Trip – his eyes bugging – practically yelled, "What the hell are you talking about?" Only Malcolm appeared under control, though his back seemed to grow stiffer, and his face more considering with each insane bite.

Hoshi thought she heard Travis mumble something like "hyper nation," but it was impossible to be sure, what with his mouth packed with mashed potato.

She had no time to question him further, for their attention was suddenly captured by an outburst at the other end of the mess hall. A young man whom Hoshi supervised in communications suddenly pushed chairs out of his way as he made his way to the center of the mess hall. Malcolm was instantly on his feet as the crewman shouted out, "And this next number is for all of you who have big dreams!" Then to Hoshi's amazement, he burst into a rather horrifyingly off-key rendition of "New York, New York," complete with a jerking set of tics and spasms that took her a moment to realize were meant to be a dance routine.

"Crewman Davis!" she shouted out to the one-man-show, trying to get his attention, just as Malcolm and Trip got to his side and tried to control him. After she alerted security and Phlox, she went to try to help subdue the crewman – she definitely didn't want to see a member of her small department hurt. But she couldn't help but notice that Travis had never moved from the table, and that his tray was almost cleaned of the mountain of food.