Chapter Thirteen
Three weeks later, with still no sign of trouble, Enterprise rolled into the last leg of their journey. Tiny anomalies and subspace disruptions frequently forced the ship to slow down to Warp 2, so Trip was constantly on hand worrying about the engine. The dreams hadn't stopped either; in fact they had become more pronounced as the monster had revealed itself into a ferocious two headed beast that seemed intent on ripping him to pieces.
Phlox wasn't too happy with this because the child had progressed to just over half way in its development, and Trip was definitely beginning to feel the strain from his lack of sleep, the workload and the pregnancy. Kelby and Hess had both taken a great deal of Trip's responsibilities on themselves in an attempt to relieve the pressure on him, but the stress was still taking its toll on the Commander. Phlox had asked Captain Archer to relieve Trip of duty for the remainder of the pregnancy, but Trip wouldn't hear any of it. He had just thrown an absolute rant at the suggestion.
"No damn way, Capt'n! You can court-martial me if ya want, but I'm not gonna step down now."
"Trip," said Archer, trying to calm his friend down, "Phlox is only looking after your best interests--"
"He's over-reacting as per goddamn usual," interrupted Trip. "He won't be happy until I'm stuck in ma quarters knitting booties! Kelby and Hess have already taken on half of my work at his request; they won't even let me twiddle ma fingers, climb up ladders, or lift up a wrench anymore because they say it's too taxing for me. Please, Capt'n," Trip pleaded, "the only thing I can do at the moment is to fill in reports and to arrange schedules! Don't take that away as well -- I swear, I'll go mad if ya confine me to my quarters for the rest of the mission."
Looking at Trip's sorrowful hound dog expression, Archer just caved and agreed to let him carry on working for the time being. "Alright, but Phlox is going to have my hind for allowing this."
"I probably know which animal he's gonna use to chew it off with as well," laughed Trip, glad that he'd at least won one battle.
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Later that night, however, it looked like all of Trip's good intentions were going to hell in a hand basket. An anomaly had caused severe disruptions to the intermix chamber, and Hess and Kelby were having a hell of a time stopping Trip from climbing in there to sort it out himself.
"Get T'Pol down here now," hissed Hess to Kelby, who was standing besides her looking exasperated as Trip walked off to don an environmental suit.
"Do you think she'll be able to stop him?" Kelby asked, but Hess just threw him a 'this is T'Pol we're talking about, dumb-ass, cause she will' look.
Five minutes later, just as Trip was placing the helmet on his head, T'Pol and Kelby walked into the changing room.
"Commander Tucker, please remove that helmet and suit at once, and follow me outside." It looked like Trip was going to ignore her, so she added: "That is an order, Commander."
With a furious look on his face, Trip did as he was told.
Once he was back in his sweat pants and shirt, he began his protest. "How--
"Please follow me to my quarters; if you are going to have a showdown, we should do it there ... in private." Not waiting for a reply, she turned around and walked off, down the corridor. With steam pouring out of his ears, Trip turned around and followed her.
When they were inside her quarters, Trip let loose with all guns blazing. "Just what the hell do ya think you were doing preventing me from doing my job--
"Getting in there physically and manually doing the work yourself is not part of your duties anymore," interrupted T'Pol in a calm manner.
"I'm the Chief Engineer of this--
"A Chief Engineer who is no longer physically capable of performing that part of his job in his current +situation."
"Will ya stop mothering me and treating me like a child? I can handle--"
"We will stop treating you like a child, when you cease behaving like one," interrupted T'Pol.
This realization hit Trip hard. He had been so frustrated lately that he couldn't believe he had let his selfish desire to 'get in there and get his hands dirty' override his protective nature. He had to remember that his duty was to protect this child at the moment and to deliver her into safe hands. The Chief Engineer part of his life was on hold while he had this mission to complete.
Sensing that all this tension wasn't doing Trip any good, T'Pol carefully held onto his shoulders and pulled him close. "You said you would protect this child," she said softly, "if this is to be achieved, you will have to cease placing yourself in dangerous situations. I know this is difficult, especially when you know you could do the job better and quicker yourself, but you must learn to step aside for now and to rely on your staff. You trained them, so you know they are capable of performing their duties."
Feeling quite dejected, Trip just nodded his agreement.
"Sit down and join me in some meditation. I'll give you a back rub afterwards to ease away your tensions."
"T'Pol, I'm not--"
"Sit, Commander!" T'Pol ordered as she led him towards the meditation mat. "That wasn't a question."
"I thought you said that you'd let me wear the trousers in a relationship," queried Trip with a smirk.
"That is hardly an appropriate course of action in your current situation," teased back T'Pol.
Trip laughed and shook his head. "Ya know, you're really catching on with the humor lark."
"Thank you, Trip. You're an excellent subject to gain practice from."
"Ha, Ha, T'Pol. Very funny," replied Trip as he struggled to sit down in the correct position due to his bump.
"Need I remind you, Trip, that in order to succeed you have to be quiet?"
Trip just rolled his eyes at this, and then closed them at last.
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