Chapter Two

Tough Love

"Thank you, Captain." Hoshi says, turning off the intercom and sitting down on Liz's desk chair. "I've got the morning off." She tells her friend unnecessarily. The Exobiologist had heard every word she'd said from where she sat on the edge of her bunk.

"You don't need to stay." Liz protests, though not very convincingly. "I don't need a keeper."

"No, you don't. If I thought you needed a 'keeper', I'd have you in restraints."

Liz laughs ruefully. "That's what got me into this mess!"

"Huh!"

"Your own darned fault; suggesting it to Tia a couple of months ago!"

"Again: Huh?"

"You remember, round about that time we found out about that 'Daasii' thing."

"Oh, yeah." Hoshi smiles, remembering the outlandish discussion in the Mess Hall and the nearly calamitous denouement! How Trip Tucker had ever lived it down she never knew! "Seamus had tied me spread out on my bed that previous evening and spent the night having his way with me." She smiled at the recollection. "And when I told you and Tia she wanted to try it, to see if she would like it, but she was scared to raise the subject to Commander Tucker."

"Yeah. 'A woman does ask a man for pleasure not'." She quoted the naïve young Auran. "We sure cured her of that."

"I don't know about that. But anyway, we told her if she wants to try something new she should just go to him and ask for it."

"We didn't expect her to do it in a packed Mess Hall!" Liz laughed.

"I'd never seen a man go so white so fast!" Hoshi exclaimed, unable to fight her own mirth at the memory.

"And then from white to purple! I thought he was going to have a coronary! I thought I'd have to perform CPR right there!"

"But it all worked out well in the end." Hoshi said. "Though I wonder, did he ever wind up tying her up?"

"Darned if I know! 'Women do sex discuss with one another not', remember?"

"Yeah, right. That was a yolk I think she was glad to free herself of, with a bit of help."

"She's come a long way, with us pushing her. Though I wonder sometimes if another Auran would recognize the new, open Tia. Or if we did her a favor by influencing her with our earthly ways."

"I don't know. I just wanted to help her get to Commander Tucker like she wanted."

"But it got me thinking about it." Liz continues, abandoning the happy memory. "Then came the day when Jim was totally stressed out, and I went to visit him. There was no bondage, but Jim 'arrested' me a couple of weeks ago, during the Pineda/McCabe investigation."

Light dawns. "Did a strip search and a body cavity probe, I'm sure."

Liz smiles at the memory. "Kind of."

"Well, looks like we've found where the contraband was planted."

x

Suddenly, the good times vanish as if a switch has been thrown, and the smile falls from Liz's face. It is as if for those moments she has forgotten her problems, and then suddenly they descend upon her with brutal force. She puts her face in her hands. "What am I going to do?" She asks in a tremulous, desperate voice.

"My vote is for telling him." Liz looks up at her, her expression grim and haunted. "I'm not changing my vote." She again buries her face in her hands, her manner one of complete hopelessness.

"I know." Her voice breaks. "But I'm scared!"

x

This is something that Hoshi, knowing the man as she thought she did, was not expecting. She stands up, stepping closer to her friend, her voice turning deadly.

"Liz, I've a black belt in Aikido. If you tell me there's a reason for you to be afraid of Jim, I'll break both his arms and make him eat them!"

Liz shakes her head, her face still buried hopelessly in her hands. "It's not like that. But he's not ready for a child either."

"He said so?" She shakes her head again. "Then how do you know?" Again that hopeless shake. "Liz, look at me. Talk to me."

"It's hopeless! I can't do this!" She insists, her voice muffled, starting to shake with her emotion. "I'm scared! I cannot have this child! We cannot have this child!" She starts to cry. "I should abort it!"

"Liz -!"

"No!" She exclaims brokenly into her covering hands. "I'm going to abort it!"

"Liz."

"No! I'm going to abort it!"

x

"Liz," Hoshi says firmly, compellingly, standing over her, "I want you to dry your eyes and look at me."

Liz Cutler gives a trembling sigh, trying to pull herself back together, to not give in to the tears. She rubs her eyes clear and lowers her hands, looking up.

x

Hoshi's hand cracks against her cheek so hard she is almost knocked off the bed onto the floor had the enraged Linguist not grabbed her shoulders, keeping her upright, her grip so tight her nails are digging into the startled woman's flesh. Liz stares up at her friend, so astonished she does not even register yet how much the slap hurts!

"Now you listen to me!" Hoshi demands furiously, her eyes blazing. "We're friends and we are going to get through this! I'll run interference with Jim if you want! I'll use what influence I have with the Captain to keep your berth on Enterprise if that's what you want! I'll hold your hand while you're in labor and I'll help you change diapers and spot you for 0200 feedings but I will damned never hear that word out of your mouth again!

"How dare you! You are so focused on what a 'tragedy' this is that you are completely missing what a beautiful thing it is! What a blessing! This is a life inside you! This is what every woman dreams of from the days when she's a little girl playing 'dress-up' with her mother's high heeled shoes! There are half a dozen women on this ship that would love to be in your shoes right now. I know one woman on this ship who can't ever have kids! She'd trade both her arms and both legs to have what you have and would throw away!

"Now I know you're in shock. This is a lot to take in and I know you're scared – so that's why I just used my hand and didn't loosen one of your teeth! But if you ever give in to that plan I will make sure that from that day on you eat all your meals with a straw!"

Liz stares up at her furious friend, hand pressing lightly to her stinging cheek, her ear ringing from the force of the blow. "I never thought I'd see the day that 'meek, timid Hoshi' would come out and belt me."

Hoshi smiles ruefully. "It took you getting me pretty mad! But as you said about Tia a couple of weeks ago, 'tough love; sometimes it's the only way'."