Chapter Three

Later that night, after Trip had left, Archer handed Sally a mug of hot cocoa before sitting down next to her on the couch. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong," he asked with a hint of concern in his voice. "Something's been bothering you since all evening since we finished looking through Dad's old things." There was no reply as she sipped her cocoa slowly. "I don't blame you anymore for what happened between you and Dad, you know. Things may have been a bit rough between us when I was younger, but I grew to realize just how much stress he was under from his work and how it was tough on you."

"It's not that," said Sally softly, as she patted his hand to show that she understood.

"Then what is it?" asked Jon, growing more and more concerned.

"Jon, I don't want to cause any upset--"

"Mom!" interrupted Jon in a pleading tone that said he wasn't going to drop the subject.

"Do you know why me and your dad split up?"

"Yeah, because of his work and the stress, strain and pressure that he was under from the Vulcans not being more forthcoming," he replied with a hint of bitterness underlying his voice.

"That was part of the reason … but not the main one," she said sadly.

"What was the reason?" asked Jon, feeling a little unsure of what he was about to find out.

"He had an affair …"

"Dad! An affair? You are kidding right? Dad would never do anything like that!"

"Remember that trip we took to Yellowstone when you were about nine, where you learnt to rockclimb?" explained Sally. "I confronted him about having an affair then and he admitted to it …"

"But!" replied Archer, absolutely floored by this new revelation, "Who? How long?"

"I'd suspected something had been going on for a while but I just didn't want to accept the truth and confront him. I hoped that we'd be able to sort out the problems between us, but Henry just became more and more obsessed with his work and he started to drift away from us. I thought at first that it was due to the stress of the Vulcans continually slowing him down and dragging things along, but I later found out that he'd been spending a lot of time with a young woman who had recently started working there …" explained Sally, a little unsure about carrying on.

"How'd you find out?"

"From a colleague he worked with, who was a good friend of the family. Jim didn't want to cause upset or trouble between me and Henry, but he thought it was in my best interests to know what was happening … considering my circumstances."

Jon threw her a puzzled look, "Should I even ask?"

"I was pregnant, Jon, with your brother …"

"Well this just keeps getting better and better …" exclaimed Jon after a few minutes of imitating a fish. "Not only do I find out that Dad was having an affair, but he was also carrying on behind your back while you were pregnant. Is there anything else that you're going to throw at me while you're at it?" he exclaimed, as he threw his hands up into the air.

"The young woman in the photo that your friend pointed out …"

It took a few minutes for her words to sink in before it dawned on Jon just where she was going with this. "Trip's mom!" he said, feeling like he'd just been punched in the gut. "You're saying Dad had an affair with Trip's mom?"

"Jon--"

Sitting down on the sofa, holding his head in his heads, "Look … it's late … I need time to take all this in. I'll call someone and ask them to escort you to some quarters, so you can get some rest."

"Jon--"

"Please, mom, I don't blame you so don't take this personally, but I need some time to take all this in. My whole perception of my father has just been destroyed … by my best friend's family, of all people. I need time to digest this."

Sally nodded and let him comm a crewman, who escorted her back to her cabin for the night. "Damn that woman," she thought as she walked back through the corridor, "30 years later and she's still able to destroy my family …"

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