T'Pol pressed the button for the turbo lift. She'd come up with an excuse to leave the captain's table. The entire conversation was awkward and uncomfortable, and she had wanted out of there. She could barely look at Trip. She felt guilty for concealing the knowledge about Lorian, but she hadn't realized how much the information would affect him. Besides, she had been reeling from everything that had happened. To discover that her fabled uncle and married a human and successfully produced a child was a little more than she was able to deal with at the moment.

Although it had lifted her mood considerably to learn that it was possible for humans and Vulcans to conceive.

She heard footsteps in the corridor behind her and recognized Trip's brisk, easy stride even before his all-too-familiar scent hit her nose. He walked right up to her and stood so that he brushed against her shoulder. She had always found his touch comforting, and now was no exception. She could feel the awkwardness dissolving as his hand reached up to stroke the small of her back.

When the lift arrived, they silently stepped aboard. But after the doors shut, Trip reached over and pressed the emergency stop button.

T'Pol turned to face Trip with raised eyebrows.

"We need to talk," he said, leaning back against the wall of the lift. He didn't look at her.

She felt a knot form in her stomach. He surely wanted to discuss their relationship – or lack thereof. It was a conversation she'd been hoping to avoid. The thought of talking about the fact that they couldn't be together would simply be too much for T'Pol's already shattered soul. She looked at him. "We are talking, Mister Tucker."

He gave her a half smile. "Y'know, I normally find that cute, but now's not the time."

She nodded, although her head spun from the offhand compliment. "What do you wish to talk about, Commander?"

He bit his lip and shook his head. "Why didn't you tell me your uncle's name was Lorian?"

She blinked at him, slightly surprised. She'd been expecting something else entirely. "It is complicated."

He lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "I got time. We're not goin' anywhere for a while."

She stared into his eyes. She could drown in those eyes. Emotions clouded her logic, and before she quite realized what she was doing, she had taken a step towards him and placed a hand on his chest. His pupils dilated, and had she been human, she would have smiled. "I do not wish to discuss this here. We will go to my quarters."

He gulped and stared back at her. "I don't trust myself alone with you."

The contact she made with him, though it was through clothing, short-circuited her brain. She ran her hand down his chest and stomach. "We're alone now, Trip."

He shivered. "Damn, woman. You're trying to undo me. And as much as I would love to see this through to the end…" He grabbed her wrist and removed her hand from his stomach. "…You're married. At the end of the day, we're alone in an elevator, but you're still married."

She chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked at the floor. She had wanted so badly to touch him again that she allowed herself to forget that she was married. But of course he could not forget. Nothing could ever happen while she was married to Koss; Trip had said that much after her return from Vulcan. She took a step back from him, nodding. "I apologize," she said. "It was unintentional."

He looked skeptical but thankfully said nothing about her lapse in judgment. "Why didn't you tell me about the blanket?"

She sighed. "I didn't want to believe it. Lorian was…persona non grata at my house." Trip smirked at her use of the human term; indeed, it was a phrase she had picked up from him. "We were not to speak of him. I was not even to know that he existed. But I heard my father and his brother discussing him and his communications with my mother. I eventually slipped that information into the back of my brain and nearly forgot it entirely…until we met the other Enterprise, and Lorian. Everything came back to me." She searched his face for a reaction, but he just looked back at her with rapt attention, mouth half open, so she continued. "My mother despised what he had done to our family, but I suspect she was envious that he had been brave enough to risk everything for this woman. My mother is strong, but I doubt she would ever do something like that."

"And you?" Trip asked, his voice soft. "Are you strong enough?"

Her eyes stung with tears that she was too proud – or too Vulcan – to shed. "I think we both know that I am not."

The corners of Trip's mouth tugged upwards in the trace hint of a smile. "I think you underestimate yourself, darlin'." He leaned forward, and T'Pol closed her eyes expectantly, waiting for his lips to press against hers. But when the lift began to move, she opened her eyes and saw that he had retreated to his original position against the wall.

He looked at her. "Y'know, maybe you gettin' married was for the best."

T'Pol raised an eyebrow as her heart plummeted into her stomach. "What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I've been thinkin' that Romeo and Juliet would have stood a better chance at makin' it as a couple than us." T'Pol's breath caught in her throat. Why would Trip believe that two children who had chosen to take their own lives would have had more luck than them? But Trip wasn't finished. "But then Kamea showed up, and I'm startin' to think that maybe that play could've had a happy ending after all."

A/N: Had to put the "Romeo and Juliet" comment in there. It feeds in to later chapters.