Christmas at Lake Tahoe

Chapter 6

As they entered the house T'Pol said she was going to lie down for a while and asked if it was okay to use his bed.

"Of course. You don't need to ask."

"You have a very comfortable mattress," she commented.

"Like I said, no need to ask. Anything else you need?"

She answered no, then inquired if they were going to attend Hans' dinner tonight at the Hilton. Jonathan wasn't over the moon about the idea; he'd rather be alone with her. It sounded like it was something she wanted to do so he agreed. In a way it was pleasant to witness this change in her. He remembered fondly the time they'd spent together on the catwalk, when he'd practically had to order her to fraternize with other crewmembers.

While she rested he took Porthos for a walk. The pup was restless, having spent most of the day alone in the house. On their return he fed him, then went to check his messages on the computer.

There was a communiqué from Admiral Gardener to all crewmembers confirming that Enterprise would be ready to depart on 5th January. The crew was to report back to duty on the 4th, to make preparations for departure. Jonathan switched off the screen and got himself a beer out of the fridge. Feeling slightly hungry he munched on some potato chips while he read more of the sci-fi thriller Malcolm had bought him for Christmas.

T'Pol emerged from the bedroom an hour later, hair askew, dressed in her robe. Jonathan smiled as he spied her walking in. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Almost 7pm."

"We should get ready then," she said, noting he was still dressed in his black ski suit.

"What's the dress code for this shindig?"

She assumed he meant the dinner. "Casual, I believe. But I don't think you can go in your ski suit." She noted he hadn't changed since coming back from skiing.

"Jeans and a sweater be okay?"

"I believe so."

"What you wearing?"

"Something similar. A pair of black pants and a sweater."

"When did you get all these Earth clothes?" He'd never seen her wear then aboard Enterprise.

"When I was staying with Soval, I often spent the days roaming around Union Square perusing the different shops. Phlox accompanied me one afternoon. He wanted my opinion on a gift he wished to purchase for you."

"The cologne?"

"Yes, he was in a hurry. He was leaving for Denobula the next morning and didn't have a lot of time."

"You picked it out?" he asked.

"Phlox had narrowed it down to a choice of three. I picked the one I preferred."

"You made a great choice. Why didn't you attend the crew get together at the 602 if you were in town?"

"I was not aware of it. You didn't invite me."

"It was Hoshi who organized it. I suppose she thought you'd gone to Florida with Trip as well."

She exhaled and made her way towards the living room window. It had started to snow again. "Does everyone think I'm still involved with Commander Tucker?" she asked in a whisper.

He got up to join her, and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I don't know. It's not as if you made an announcement that you'd split up."

"I never announced we were together."

"T'Pol, are you upset? Earlier when I mentioned what Sarah Collins said you weren't bothered."

"I am not concerned what people who don't know me think. But I wish my colleagues didn't make assumptions."

"Well maybe I shouldn't speak for Hoshi. I don't know why she didn't invite you to the 602 club. It could be a simple case of she didn't know where to reach you."

T'Pol didn't answer. She didn't want to admit that Hoshi's excluding her injured her a little. She was supposed to the model of stoicism — the perfect Vulcan. Trivialities like social gatherings with the crew should have left her feeling indifferent. And she almost wished she and Trip had announced to the crew that they were simply friends.

The crew had probably started whispering about her and Trip long ago. Tales of Vulcan neuropressure had probably swept threw the ship like wildfire whilst they'd been in the Expanse. She couldn't undo the past.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked with concern.

"Yes," she whispered.

Jonathan's hold on her tightened and she felt his warm lips nibble at her neck. She relaxed at his touch and thoughts of Trip and the crew's assumptions vanished. She turned around in his arms and he bent down to kiss her. Their embrace soon became passionate.

"We can't," she whispered. "We'll be late."

"Think Hans would mind?"

"I don't like being late."

"Okay," he answered a tad disappointed. He released her. "I'll go shower and change."

"Jonathan?" she said as he walked towards his bedroom.

"Yeah?" He stopped and turned to face her.

"We can always pick up where we left off later tonight."

He beamed at her, returning to her side. He took her hand and brought it to his lips. "I like the sound of that." He told her he wouldn't be long, and headed off to get ready.

Hans Schneider had reserved the entire restaurant at the Hilton for tonight's buffet. Jonathan and T'Pol entered at 8 o'clock sharp.

"Liebling!" Hans' called across the room.

Jonathan glanced around wondering whom he was calling to. Then he saw Hans making a path towards himself and T'Pol.

He kissed T'Pol's hand and shook Jonathan's. "I've been telling everyone about my star pupil," he enthused. "I'm glad you both could make it. I hope you're both hungry. Please help yourselves," he instructed pointing to the extensive buffet to the right of them. "There should be something that tempts your palette."

They did as instructed and proceeded over to the buffet. T'Pol started out with a plate of salad, while Jonathan helped himself to the leek and potato soup which looked appetizing. He had a hot bread roll with it.

They found a vacant table and sat down. "I can no idea Hans had so many students," T'Pol observed, noting the restaurant was crowded.

"Do you know if they are all students? Some could be other instructors or just friends he's made."

"That's true." She sliced a celery stick into biteable portions and then loaded her fork with one of the pieces along with a piece of tomato and cucumber. "Jonathan, is Liebling a German word?"

"Yes. I was going to ask you about that and if you knew what it meant."

"I don't. I assumed it was some type of friendly greeting. He used it this afternoon during the lesson with most of the female students."

"I suppose he does mean it in a friendly way then."

"And it's meaning?" she asked.

"I believe it's the German form of darling."

"In English that is considered an endearment between men and women, is it not?"

"Most of the time," he agreed. "It depends, sometimes friends use it amongst themselves."

Finishing his soup, Jonathan got up to get himself a main course and asked T'Pol if he could get her anything. She replied that she'd help herself when she was ready.

He perused what was on offer. There was a large selection of meats, fish, pastas, pizza, rice, and vegetarian dishes in the hot food section. He placed small portions of different items on his plate, wanting to sample as much as possible.

As he returned to the table he noticed T'Pol and Hans engaged in lively conversation. He was laughing, and kept touching her arm. T'Pol appeared amused. Jonathan joined them. "Am I missing out on a good joke?" he asked.

"I was telling T'Pol the story of one of my students back in Austria. She had endless lessons but could not get the hang of it. She was convinced she'd be a world class skier and even I could not dissuade her. When I left for the States, I'd heard she signed up for lessons with my friend Gerhard. I had to warn him, so he knew what he was letting himself in for."

Jonathan wasn't sure why the story was funny, but smiled to be polite.

"I'm glad to see you have a healthy appetite, Captain," Hans noted.

"You have an extensive choice. It's hard not be a glutton."

"That's what a smorgasbord is all about. Enjoy yourself! And there's freshly baked strudel, so remember to leave room for that."

"Sounds delicious," Jonathan enthused.

"It is, Captain. I gave the restaurant's chef my sister's recipe. She makes the best strudel in all of Austria."

"I'll make a point of trying it then."

"Good! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to attend to my other guests. See you both a little later." Hans walked off to mingle with others.

"He seems very friendly," Jonathan noted.

"Yes he is." She finished her salad and went to see what vegetarian dishes were on offer.

For dessert Jonathan picked the apple strudel and had it served with ice cream. T'Pol took a bite from Jonathan's plate. He'd attempted to coerce her into having her own piece, but to no avail.

"Don't like it?" he asked, after she sampled a piece.

"It is too sweet, like all Earth desserts."

As dinner came to a close, she noticed a group of people enter and start to set up musical equipment at the far end of the room.

"Looks like Hans has hired a band," Jonathan said. "He really does this every week?"

"From what I gather, yes. Perhaps the band is something special as it's the holidays."

A few minutes later the band began to play and couples drifted onto the dance floor. Jonathan was about to ask T'Pol if she'd like to try, when Hans appeared out of nowhere and asked her first.

"Thank you, but I'll decline. I don't know how to dance."

"That's not an excuse. You'll pick it up in five minutes, trust me."

T'Pol attempted to make further excuses but it was obvious Hans wasn't going to take no for an answer, so she relented. After they got up and left, Jonathan couldn't believe he'd just sat there and said nothing. He should have told Hans she was going to dance with him, but then that would have been a lie. He hadn't had a chance to ask her, Hans had beat him to it!

He turned his head in the direction of the dance floor and watched them. He wished he was the one teaching T'Pol. The Austrian had been correct again. Within a couple minutes, T'Pol had mastered dancing.

"You're a delightful dancer," Hans complimented her.

"It isn't as difficult as it looks," she noted. "Do you have dancing every week?"

"No, I hired a band just for tonight's dinner. I was going to have a New Year's Eve party, but I have to be in San Francisco that night to pick up my fiancée from the airport. She's flying in from Vienna."

"That's nice."

"Yes I haven't seen her since the end of October. Long distance relationships can be difficult. I miss her."

"Can she not find work here?" T'Pol asked.

"She wouldn't want to live in the States. She loves Austria. I'll be back there when the ski season is over here. I'm a tour guide, taking groups hiking through the Alps in the summer months."

"And your fiancée?"

"She joins me, she has the summers free. She works as a teacher and schools shut in early July for the summer vacation."

"Well at least you get to spend some time together. That's more than a lot of Starfleet crew get."

"Yes. That is a downside of space exploration it seems. May I ask you something, T'Pol?"

She nodded.

"Captain Archer and you…are you couple?"T'Pol didn't know how to answer. Hans didn't belong to Starfleet. But how would Jonathan feel if she told her ski instructor they were involved? Out on the slopes today he'd seemed adamant about keeping it a secret.

"We are close friends," she answered. That reply seemed safer.

"Only friends? Hmm…I was sure there was more to it.""Why do you say that?"

"I've been told I'm a good observer of people. Also, from the way your captain is watching us right now, he doesn't appear very pleased that I asked you to dance before he had a chance to. I hope I didn't upset him."

"I'm sure you didn't," she answered, glancing in Jonathan's direction. Hans was right, he didn't look very happy.

"I'll tell you a little confession, T'Pol. It was an experiment — I wanted to see his reaction. But it was just a bit of fun, nothing serious."

"Oh."

"You're not upset with me are you?"

"No."

"You and Archer make a handsome couple. I believe you care for him a lot. If you really are just friends, I think you should change that. Life is so short, when you find the right partner you shouldn't waste time not being with them…or pretending to just be friends."

She was amazed at how intuitive this man appeared to be. Or were his guesses very lucky?

The music came to a close and the band announced a five-minute intermission. "Thank you, T'Pol." He walked her back to the table where Jonathan was waiting.

"Your Vulcan is an excellent dancer," Hans told Jonathan.

"I noticed," he answered.

"Thank you again, T'Pol. Enjoy the rest of your evening." Hans left and went to talk to another one of his guests.

Jonathan sipped at the beer he'd got from the bar while waiting for T'Pol to finish her dance lesson. "Enjoy yourself?"

The sarcasm was not lost on her. She was in no mood to start an argument with him. "I didn't wish to be rude. Would you have preferred it if I'd said no?"

"Is that the way it was with Trip? You didn't wish to be rude."

"Jonathan, why are you acting this way?"

"What way?"

"Like a jealous fool. It's unbecoming. I don't understand. Earlier you were the one telling me that Hans was merely being friendly."

"Perhaps I was mistaken."

"Actually your presumption was accurate."

She was about to tell him about Hans' fiancée but then decided against it. She shouldn't have to prove anything to him. And what did he mean about Trip? She was perplexed. He was hard to fathom.

He drank his beer and said nothing. The musicians returned to their instruments and began to play.

"Would you like to dance?" she asked Jonathan.

"Not really," he answered. "Besides, I have two left feet, I wouldn't want to step on your toes."

T'Pol was sure he wasn't telling the truth. He was merely being difficult because Hans had danced with her first. "Very well," she replied icily, "let's go home then." They bumped into Hans on their way out, and he thanked them again for coming and told T'Pol he'd see her tomorrow for her lesson at 10am.

The journey back home was in silence. T'Pol was annoyed at Jonathan's overreaction to her dancing with Hans. It seemed juvenile. Or was it insecurity? She had no knowledge of his previous relationships with women, so didn't know why he should be insecure.

Jonathan walked into his bedroom wordlessly as they entered. He shut the door behind him. Was that a sign? Did it mean she was unwelcome? She waited a few minutes, then knocked on his door.

There was no answer, but she entered regardless. The room was empty. The bathroom door was shut. She sat down on the edge of his bed and waited for him to re-appear.

He came out prepared for bed. "Were you going to fall asleep without saying goodnight?" she asked.

"I'm tired."

"I think we should talk."

"I don't."

"You're upset about something."

He didn't answer.

"Jonathan, if you talk to me maybe I can attempt to understand…this behaviour of yours."

"You mean my foolish behaviour?"

"So he asked me to dance and I accepted. Why would that upset you? From my knowledge of Earth customs, dancing is not a proposal of marriage."

"Fine. Make jokes about it."

"Well maybe if you laughed at yourself, you wouldn't be so tightly wound. It was all a joke anyway."

"What do you mean?" he asked, frowning.

"Hans asked me to see how you'd react. He had a theory and wanted to test it out."

"Nice!" He felt cold so put his robe on.

"Jonathan, there was a time when you would have laughed over something like this."

"When?"

It was before the Expanse. He'd smiled, laughed and joked a whole lot more than he did now. The post-Expanse Archer was subdued and serious.

He sat down next to her on the bed.

"I'm jealous, T'Pol. I didn't used to be. Before…before I thought we had all the time in the world. I didn't have to tell you how I felt because I didn't expect anyone else to vie for your affections. But Trip beat me to it…"

"Jonathan—"

"There's nothing for you to say. It's how I feel."

"And seeing me dancing with Hans reminded you of this past jealousy?"

"I guess. Sure it was simple thing like dancing, but I wanted to be the one to teach you. But for all I know Trip's probably beaten me to that as well."

"I have never danced with Trip. My relationship with Trip is in the past. As for Hans, well as you yourself said earlier tonight, he was being friendly. He's engaged and his fiancée is flying in New Year's Eve."

"Oh."

"Do you see how your jealousy is without foundation?"

"I guess."

That's all he had to say? She found him distant and incommunicative. Why was he putting up walls between the two of them?

She kissed him gently on the lips. "Didn't we have some unfinished business from earlier?" she whispered in his ear as she nibbled on his lobe.

He moved away from her. "I'm not in the mood, T'Pol."

"I see." Well he'd made his position very clear. She said goodnight and retired to the guestroom.

Jonathan woke up with a bad headache. He'd slept in a bad position and his neck felt really stiff. He climbed out of bed and put on a robe. He owed T'Pol an apology for acting like a jackass last night. What had come over him? Not wanting to dance with her and then refusing to spend the night with her? Was he totally nuts?

He hated it when his insecurities got the better of him. If he had to have them, at least he should try to keep them to himself. Putting them out on display was the last thing he wanted. She'd been right — he'd overreacted. And a few years ago he would have laughed at Hans' joke.

He needed to get past the fact that she'd had a relationship with Trip. It didn't seem to bother T'Pol that he'd had past relationships. But he wondered how she'd feel if Margaret, Caroline, Erika or Rebecca were part of the senior crew and had to sit across from her at meal times. Would she understand how he felt then?

He'd tossed and turned last night, before finally drifting off. The bed had been so large without T'Pol at his side. His arms had felt so empty without her to hold. This wasn't going to work out, was it? It had all been too good to be true, her turning up on Christmas Day like that. He'd thought that maybe he could make her love him.

Now in the light of day it seemed he'd sabotaged his chance. Perhaps he should try to salvage what was left of their friendship…that is if she was still talking to him. Before the dinner last night things had seemed so promising…

He exited his room and noticed the door to the guestroom was open. There was no sign of T'Pol. The bed was neatly made up. His first thought was that she'd packed up and returned to San Francisco until he noticed her hand cream on the dresser.

He walked into the living room, calling her name but there was no answer. He spied a note on the kettle, just like the one he'd left her the other day. On it she wrote that she was taking the shuttle bus to Heavenly to attend her skiing class at 10am. She'd be finished at 1pm. If he wanted to meet with her then, she'd be pleased to see him.

He let out a sigh of relief. Things didn't seem that dire!

He had breakfast, took Porthos for a walk and prepared to meet T'Pol. He arrived at the Heavenly Valley gondola around 12:30pm. As he waited in line he noticed there was a weather warning posted outside the ticket booth. A weather front was heading in. The probability of a severe snowstorm was 80. Skiers were advised to be cautious — visibility could become poor. It also stated that if the winds became too strong the gondola and chair lifts would close.

"What's the chance of the lifts being shut down?" he asked the ticket vendor.

"We just put that sign up as a precaution. I wouldn't worry, sir."

"Okay, thanks." He bought his ticket and made the journey up to the summit. He didn't put his skies on straight away. T'Pol might be hungry after her lesson and want to grab a bite. He tied them up to one of the ski stands provided, and strolled over to join T'Pol.

Hans was bringing the lesson to a close, and announced that tomorrow's session would be at the same time. The class dissipated and Jonathan saw Hans saying something in private to T'Pol.

A moment later she skied over to join him. "I'm pleased you came."

He smiled at her. "How did the lesson go?"

"Very well. I won't require anymore. Hans says if I wanted to continue I'd need to join his intermediate class."

"So you're still the star pupil?"

"Indeed she is, Captain," Hans joined in. "You two going skiing this afternoon?"

"We were hoping to," Jonathan replied. "What do you make of this weather warning?"

"A little snowstorm never hurt anyone. Course if you can't see where you are going, I'd suggest you pack up for the day. Otherwise, just enjoy yourselves."

He wished them a pleasant afternoon and left. "I'm sorry about last night—" Jonathan started.

"I know you are."

"I don't deserve you. I wish—"

"Let's not talk about it now, Jonathan. If this bad weather is headed our way, I think it would be prudent to use the time we have skiing."

"You're right. Did you want to grab a bite before we start?"

"I'm not hungry. Are you?"

"A little."

"Very well, let's eat something."

Jonathan had a hot dog, fries, a danish and washed it down with a hot coffee. T'Pol merely watched as he consumed all this food. He offered her some fries, but she declined.

"Skiing gives me quite an appetite," he commented.

"So I see."

"You sure you don't want anything? I mean you had breakfast hours ago."

"I had a cereal bar about an hour ago. I will be fine."

He reached his hand across the table and placed it over hers. "I'm really sorry about last night."

"Jonathan, this is a public place."

"I don't care."

"Yesterday you indicated you wished to be discreet."

"I said a lot of stupid things yesterday."

She raised an eyebrow in surprise. "We should leave. It's getting late."

"Okay."

Outside he put his sunglasses on. It was bright and sunny, the weathermen were probably wrong about this storm. T'Pol was about to retrieve her skies from the stand, when Jonathan grabbed her from behind.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear. "I know I can act like an idiot at times, so hopefully you'll forgive me and remember that."

"I know, Jonathan," she said turning to face him.

He kissed her on the lips in full public view. To a passer-by they looked like a man in sunglasses in a black ski suit embracing a young woman in a burgundy and white suit.

Fifteen minutes later they hopped off the chair lift and headed for their first slope.

It was 3:30pm and still no sign of the predicted storm. The sky however had changed. Jonathan surveyed the clouds — they looked dark and a little threatening, but for the time being he gathered they were safe.

Half an hour later the flakes began to fall. At first it was just a light snowfall, but soon picked up momentum. "We should head down to the gondola," Jonathan suggested. "The visibility will be poor soon."

She agreed and set off first. Jonathan had been about to follow but noticed the binding on his ski was loose. He called out to her to wait, but she was already out of earshot. He bent down and adjusted the binding. Satisfied that it was secure he set off.

By now he couldn't even see more than a few feet in front of him. Everything was a white expanse. There was no sign of T'Pol, but he assumed she was far ahead of him by now.

He was cautious on the journey down, no point in speeding down when you couldn't see where you were going. He'd been in these conditions before but was a little concerned for T'Pol. He told himself she'd be fine and was probably at the bottom impatiently waiting for him. Hopefully she'd got into the queue for the gondola ride down.
The wind was really picking up, blowing the snow off the trees into his path. The temperature had dropped. His face felt numb.

Five minutes later he was approaching the bottom of the slope. He stopped and looked around for a burgundy and white suit. No sign of her yet. Visibility was poor, so he skied over to the gondola. He noted the chair lift up to the mountain he'd just skied down had stopped. The chairs were swinging in the wind — he assumed they'd deemed it too dangerous to continue running the lift.

He hoped they wouldn't shut the gondola down. He didn't care for the idea of being stranded up here for several hours waiting for the storm to pass.

He arrived at the queue and removed his skies. He started looking around for T'Pol. There was no sign of her. He walked the length of the queue twice to make sure. He noticed Hans was there talking to one of his students.

"Have you seen T'Pol?" Jonathan asked.

"Not since the lesson, no. Is there a problem, Captain?"

"I doubt it. She skied off ahead of me, I assumed she'd be here waiting for me."

"Would you like me to help you look?"

"No thanks. I'm sure she'll turn up." It was too early to worry, he told himself.

He walked back to the start of the queue and scanned the area. It was hard to see anything with the snow practically falling into your eyes. It seemed to be coming down at a horizontal angle now.

He took out his communicator and tried contacting her. There was no answer. If she were still skiing down, she wouldn't be able to answer. He couldn't do anything else but wait.

He positioned himself at the foot of the mountain, staring out into the white expanse. No one else was skiing down. The slope looked empty and deserted. He tried the communicator again — no response. He went over to inspect the gondola line once more, but no sign of her. He went inside the café where they'd had lunch. He doubted she was there, but he had to rule out all possibilities.

It had been half an hour now since he'd arrived here and he was getting anxious. What if she'd been injured? She was stuck out in this snowstorm. He tried the communicator one more time…then decided it was time to get some help.

TBC