A/N Thank you so much for all the reviews and I'm so sorry it's taken this long to get the next chapter out. Please don't hate me, but it's still not finished, deep apologies for that, but it just stopped…I think the next chapter will be the last one, but don't trust me on that. Thanks again, enjoy!

Disclaimer: No infringement intended, characters not owned by me

"Captain, would it be possible to see you in your ready room? There has been a communiqué from Admiral Forrest and the Vulcan High Command."

"I'm on my way now Subcommander, Archer out"

Archer continued his way to the bridge, deep in thought, wondering what the latest news from the Admiral brought for the crew of the Enterprise. He sighed to himself…that talk with T'Pol would just have to wait.

He strode on to the bridge and glanced at the viewscreen, observing his crew at their work as he took in the whole bridge. He walked past T'Pol's station, aware of her presence but choosing not to start their discussion in front of the entire senior staff. He moved across behind the captain's chair and entered his ready room. The door had barely cycled closed when the chime sounded, the Captain barked a terse 'come in' and turned around from his place by the window to greet T'Pol.

Archer tried to force the residual awkwardness away, to act as if nothing had changed, but it was difficult to pretend that nothing had changed when he could feel T'Pol's mind plucking at the edge of his own consciousness. He took a deep breath

"You can patch Admiral Forrest's message through now."

"I regret that some small subterfuge was necessary to ensure your presence on the bridge."

Archer was slow to grasp quite what T'Pol was saying

"What?"

"There is no communiqué…I…apologise for deceiving you, Captain, but I did not think you would be willing to meet with me. It has become necessary to speak to you regarding our situation."

Archer suddenly felt trapped, and unaccountably belligerent towards his executive officer, assuming a confrontational stance and fully prepared to argue with her. He raised his head to begin the seemingly inevitable fight, but before he could open his mouth T'Pol stepped closer to him, placing her right hand on his face and using her left to restrain the Captain. He distantly noted that she was more than a match for him physically, then focussed on what she was doing.

T'Pol had her eyes closed, her breathing deep and regular, movements Archer recognised from their meditations. He was just about to say something, protest, anything, but at that moment she pulled away and stepped back, putting a little distance between them. Archer was too shocked to speak, he had been expecting an order from Starfleet, and his brain was having trouble adjusting to the present situation. T'Pol pushed at him gently and he sat heavily on a corner of his desk, still rather shocked, looking up at his first officer and mutely demanding an answer.

"Captain, I apologise again. This will take some considerable explanation and I would ask you not to ask questions at this time." The Subcommander took moment to compose her thoughts then launched in to her prepared speech

"I informed you that Vulcans bond mentally, and I led you to believe that these bonds were commonplace in my culture. Voluntary bonds, such as that of marriage and betrothal, are numerous on Vulcan, indeed almost every child is bonded at age five. These connections must be nurtured with time and thus grow stronger for both parties. The participants must desire a stronger bond in order for this to continue, it is these partnerships which make the strongest marriages…if one partner is discontented with the bond it will not progress. There is, however, a second type of bond which we are aware of, known as Katra t'hy'la. This connection is involuntary, and cannot be dissolved." At this T'Pol looked in to the Captain's eyes for the first time in her speech and saw that her guarded explanation was only confusing him further.

"On Earth, you have a children's toy called a jigsaw puzzle, is this correct?' Archer nodded, 'the pieces fit together perfectly to form a picture from chaos. The Katra t'hy'la is similar; two pieces of a puzzle are joined together, sometimes without the active participation of those involved. I believe humans have a similar concept, of soulmates. For humans it is a fantasy, but for Vulcans it is a reality…this is the bond that we now share, our minds have found their mate and we cannot break it."

Archer, having listened to the explanation, given in T'Pol's customary calm, almost monotone voice, motioned for her to sit and began to organise the million questions he wanted to ask.

"So you're saying that our minds are linked, that the link will continue to grow and that there is nothing we can do about it?"

T'Pol gave one curt nod

"And how will this affect us? Will it change the way we work? What?"

"We will need to meditate together regularly, but otherwise there should be no effects. We will, in time, be able to read each other's thoughts and project to each other."

Archer, painfully aware of his own feelings towards his subordinate, began to get angry, with her and with himself. He hated to feel out of control and he hated that T'Pol was seemingly unaffected by the monumental change she had wrought in his life. He forgot that this bond was not T'Pol's fault, that she did not form it alone and that Vulcans were trained from an early age to suppress their emotions, which was causing the apparent detachment of the Sub-Commander. He got up from his seat on the desk and almost began to pace, but caught himself just in time. He swung round to face his first officer, who merely looked questioningly at him, eyebrow raised. The simple, spare gesture inflamed Archer's temper even further, and he couldn't stop himself. The words spilled from his mouth without resting in his mind long enough for him to process them, leaving his very little time to realise what he was saying, or what he was admitting to.

"Do you actually care what this is going to do? Do you even know? You might be able to pretend that you have no feelings but did it ever occur to you that other people might not have that option?' he sighed deeply, 'This is going to…no this has changed my life, the way I command, everything and you just stand there like nothing has happened!"

Archer did not realise that as he was abusing T'Pol verbally, he was also projecting his feelings mentally, throwing the equivalent of a mental bomb at her, amplified by the strengthening bond. And among the anger were many other emotions, T'Pol could sense them all, even those Captain Archer was not aware of himself. She felt the anger, the rage, directed partly, irrationally, at her and, more oddly, at himself. She found shame, hurt and buried deep in the back of his mind a more positive emotion, one that the captain seemed to by suppressing, holding back and at the same time daring to hope that it could grow to be more.

Dimly aware that Archer was still speaking, and getting louder, T'Pol realised that she had to do something and without thinking of the consequences, she reached with her mind.

The sensation was enough to effectively stop Archer mid flow, and allowed T'Pol a moment to step forward and place her hand on the side of the Captain's face, looking deeply in to his eyes.