Epilogue
Death.
As many times as Hoshi had imagined dying, and in the early months on board Enterprise she had imagined it a lot, dying in the decontamination chamber was, actually, one of them.
Picking up some alien disease, quarantined in the small blue room, dying either a fast or slow death, painful or not. Usually slow and painful.
Just like now.
At least Trip was with her.
Well, not exactly. If she had to die with anyone, she was glad it was Trip, but on the other hand she didn't want him to die at all.
Hoshi glanced over at Trip as he sat by her, eyes closed, breathing fast and shallow. Her thoughts went, as they usually did when she looked at him in an unguarded moment, to the evening she had spent with him as an Orion slave girl. Happy thoughts. Maybe that would help with the pain.
Death.
Confessions.
Wasn't one supposed to make a clean breast of things as one lay dying? Hoshi wondered what Trip would think if she told him she was the one who had been the Orion slave girl. Would he believe her? She had seen his face as she had stepped on top of the crate, he had never looked at her anyway remotely like that before or since.
Suddenly it was important to Hoshi that he know it was her.
"Trip?" Her voice was no higher than a whisper, raspy and dry, but he heard her.
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember the Orion slave girl you won at the Halloween auction?"
Trip chuckled, a weak sound that was quickly cut off. "Don't think I'll ever forget her."
"There's something I want to tell you about her." Closing her eyes, Hoshi turned away. Not seeing him would make it easier.
"I know it was you, Hosh." His tone, which could have been amused or mocking, was neither.
"Oh." He knew. Well at least she didn't have to actually come out and say it.
Wait. Trip knew? And he hadn't said anything? That night, which had been so wondrous to her, now was as tawdry and meaningless as it seemed to have been for him.
Mortified, Hoshi didn't know weather to rage or weep at him when he started talking again.
"It took me a while, but I kept coming back to you. Once I was sure, I was amazed I didn't see it before."
Hoshi felt a strong, hot hand cover her own. That his fever was getting worse registered in a small part of her mind as the rest of her enjoyed the comfort his touch brought.
"I hadn't said anything before, 'cause, well, I had made a fool of myself over T'Pol, and I wanted to prove I wasn't just jumping from girl to girl."
Forcing her eyes open, she looked back over at Trip to find those blue eyes looking back, and a sweet smile on his face. He let go of her hand to lift his arm over her head, and she took the invitation, sliding over to nestle against him as his arm came down around her shoulders.
"When we get out of here," he said, special emphasis on the 'when', "we'll do that night over again, but this time you don't have to leave. And it'll be my turn to eat some of that seaweed stuff."
Hoshi laughed and gave him a weak hug. "Dolichos concentrate tastes awful. I like you just the way you are. But you can wear the outfit," she added slyly.