Once the men had left, Evelyn opened her eyes. Carefully and painfully she stood up, clutching her wounded side. "Men." She said as she shook her head. She moved off down the corridor and turned the opposite direction from her companions. She soon came to the room she was looking for. A few computers were lined up on large platforms. She moved to the closest one and pulled off the access panel.

Putting her hand inside she pulled out a flat, octagonal shaped object. It was a very bright green transparent item. Reaching in again she pulled out more of them. When she could carry no more she staggered for the exit where she hoped her EV suit was still waiting for her.

She came to the storage area not far from the air lock and discovered that Captain Archer had taken her suit with them. Sighing heavily she grabbed the nearest Romulan EV suit and struggled to put it on over the uniform.

Looking up at the stars, Evelyn could see Enterprise and then the two shuttlepods flew over the surface of the asteroid and headed to the ship.

"Jacobs to Enterprise. One to beam up, and have Doctor Phlox ready." She said into the EV suit's communicator. Within a few seconds the transporter was activated and Evelyn was no longer standing on the cold, dark asteroid.

-&-&-&-&-&-

The arms lowered and magnetised onto the shuttlepods, bringing then both safely into the launch bay. Archer got out of one pod via the hatch, meeting Trip and Reed coming out of the other pod the same way.

To the left of them the door opened and in walked T'Pol in her red uniform. "I trust your mission was successful?"

"Not exactly T'Pol." Archer replied turning to look at Malcolm. T'Pol looked at his eyes and it looked as though he had been crying.

T'Pol took a breath before giving her report. "Ensign Sato is currently translating the data modules from the base to find out what the Romulans were doing there."

"Data modules?" Trip asked. "What data modules?" The situation was slightly confusing.

"What are you talking T'Pol?"

T'Pol looked at Archer, Malcolm and Trip, thinking they should know what she was talking about. "The data modules that Crewman Jacobs retrieved and brought back with her."

"Wait a minute!" Malcolm quickly interrupted. "Evelyn's dead! She got shot, she died in my arms!"

"Doctor Phlox is treating her in sickbay as we speak." T'Pol replied.

Without another word being said Malcolm bolted for the door. Trip quickly followed.

-&-&-&-&-&-

The doors to sickbay opened and Malcolm stopped dead in his tracks. He couldn't believe his eyes. The last time Malcolm had seen her she was dead, lying on the corridor, dead. But now Evelyn was sitting on a bio bed in her skivvies, with Phlox treating her wound. She looked up upon hearing the doors open and smiled at seeing Malcolm, mouth wide open.

"What's the matter Lieutenant?" She asked smiling, even though she needed no answer. Malcolm couldn't even give one away. "You really thought that you could get rid of me that easily?" Trip was finding it hard not to laugh.

"B… bu…" Malcolm stuttered, taking a couple of steps closer to the crewman.

"You were dead." Trip said for his friend.

Evelyn shook her head with a smile. "No… I pretended."

Malcolm was confused. "You weren't breathing!"

Evelyn smiled even more at how dumb they were both being. "Ever heard of holding your breath?" Trip then smiled, laughing slightly at what had happened.

"But why?" Malcolm asked in confusion, and in concern. He had been so worried about her. He looked deeply into her eyes waiting for an answer. Evelyn could tell how Malcolm felt about her.

She took a deep breath and watched as Archer walked in followed by T'Pol. She winced in pain as Phlox tightened the bandage a bit too much. "Phlox! That's too tight!"

"Sorry." He replied and gently loosed it and continued.

"Well?" Malcolm asked waiting for the answer to explain why she had gotten him so upset.

"Because I know in the condition I was in you would never have allowed me to and get the data modules."

It was T'Pol's turn to speak. "And they have proved very useful."

Evelyn smiled, but only very slightly. She knew she was going to be reprimanded or something similar for her actions on the asteroid.

"But that doesn't excuse you for what you did! Pretending to be dead! What if you had been too slow and Enterprise had left?" Archer shouted.

"But I wasn't… and I'm here now."

"A Starfleet officer would never have acted like you did, nor risk their lives in the hands of the Romulans." Archer moved forward, standing just a couple of feet away from Evelyn. He turned away and then looked back at her. "I'm not sure what I should do with you." He continued, pacing back and forth with Evelyn's eyes following him. "Throw you in the brig or…" he paused and looked at Evelyn. He lowered his voice to a more normal tone, maybe just a little quieter than normal. "Or dismiss you from Starfleet." He turned away again and walked behind her so that no one could see what his face looked like. Having to dismiss someone from Starfleet was not the easiest thing for a captain to do to one of his crew, but he was so close to having to do it to Evelyn.

Evelyn's face was that of slight shock of hearing being dismissed from Starfleet. She had a feeling her punishment would be severe but not that severe. Malcolm and Trip were too surprised to hear their captain suggesting such things.

"Perhaps…" Archer turned and faced the speaker, who was T'Pol, standing near the door with a data PADD. She had just been talking to Hoshi and had the translation of the data modules. "… it would help your decision if you knew what the Romulans were doing."

"Go on." Archer's voice was in monotone. Evelyn had never seen his so disappointed before.

"According to the sensor readings from one module it appears to have been some sort of tracking station."

"Tracking what?" Trip asked.

"Vessels. Human, Vulcan, Tellerite, Andorian, Klingon and Rigellian. All ships in the region. 2 other modules contained recordings of communications between the vessels and planets."

"They've been monitoring everyone." Malcolm concluded.

"Indeed." T'Pol replied as she moved over and handed the PADD to Archer.

He looked up from the PADD and over to Evelyn who was sitting quietly on the bio bed. He sighed and looked at the PADD again. "Perhaps we can skip the court martial…" he looked at Evelyn again. "This time."

"Thank you sir." Evelyn replied as she watched Archer leave, T'Pol following him, her hands neatly clasped behind her back. She sighed heavily. She was had just escaped being kicked out of Starfleet she had never been so relieved. She then looked at Malcolm and slightly smiled at him remembering what they had said back on the asteroid. ""t looks like i have myself one steward, Lieutenant."

Trip was now puzzled. "Steward?" he said looking between Jacobs and Reed.

Malcolm cleared his throat. "Just a little joke Commander."

Trip, however, didn't believe him. He could tell by the way the two of them were looking at each other. Smiling.

Malcolm moved over to Evelyn. "And you really think after what you just did you deserve a steward."

"We made a bet… sir." She smiled at him. "Do you think you can get me a sandwich? I'm a little peckish." Malcolm turned to leave when Evelyn's voice interrupted him. He didn't look back round at her but stayed facing the door. "A cheese sandwich… with a glass of orange juice, none of the bits in though."

Trip smiled as he watched Malcolm's face turn redder and angrier. He knew the arguing was never going to stop between Lieutenant and Crewman.

"You were just lucky crewman." Malcolm said as he headed for the door. His voice then dropped to a very low whisper. "I'll get my own back on you." And with that he was gone.

Trip moved over to Evelyn. "You know… Deep down he actually loves you."

"Yes sir… I know that now." Evelyn replied, brushing a hand through her hair.

"How long have you know?"

"Since I faked my death." Trip looked at her in slight surprise. "I guess I really wanted to know, couldn't think of any other way cause I know if I just asked him he would deny it immediately, especially after all the arguments we've had."

"Yeah." Trip laughed and patted her shoulder. "I don't think I realise how lucky I am to not have person like you in my engineering team."

"I think you're very lucky." Evelyn said, knowing that if there were two people like her on Enterprise, life on the ship would be a nightmare.