Title: While you were hibernating
Author: Rinne
Written for: JadziaKathryn at the LJ Enterprise Ficathon
Archive: at Warp 5, other archives ask
Word Count: 4077
Summary: Phlox has been in hibernation for six days; now he has to deal with all that occurred. Set in season 2.

A/N:Huge thank you to kate98 and Cha Oseye Tempest Thrain for betaing and to Cha Oseye Tempest Thrain for letting me to allude to her Hess.

Phlox hummed happily to himself. Six days in hibernation, and the ship still seemed to be intact. Six days without any deaths or serious injuries – it had to be a record. Of course, that didn't mean that there weren't hundreds of minor incidents waiting to be dealt with; he had forty messages from Commander Tucker alone.

And twenty messages from Ensign King. Phlox raised his eyebrows in surprise. More than likely a new crisis had developed with her potted plant; he just hoped that it didn't mean that she was sleeping in her bathroom again. The woman had more neuroses than a spotted kala bird - how she got to serve aboard a starship was beyond his ability to fathom. But, he did have to concede that she seemed to be very competent at her job...as long as no rabid potted plants were trying to attack her.

He frowned slightly upon noticing a message from the Captain. Porthos wasn't feeling well, but it didn't appear to be urgent. It could wait until he sorted out whatever was bothering Commander Tucker. He won out by sheer volume. If something was upsetting him that much, it had to be important. Phlox checked the duty roster, and was surprised to note that Commander Tucker was not listed as being on shift, or on the shift after or before the current one. He quickly checked on the Commander's location, and, ascertaining that he was in his quarters, he left to make his first house call of the day.

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"Commander, just open the bloody door!" Lieutenant Malcolm Reed yelled wearily, before slumping against the wall beside the door, massaging his forehead in frustration. He wasn't going to kick the door, no, he wasn't.

"Not going to do that, Malcolm," Trip Tucker's equally as annoyed and weary voice came over the comm. "Not until I see Phlox, and he fixes this. I'm not coming out, and nobody is coming in."

"This is utterly preposterous," Malcolm muttered underneath his breath, trying to remind himself that blowing the door up or making a hole, of any sort, in it wasn't an option. Damn the Captain for being a non-trigger happy, reasonable man. If his Chief Engineer decided that he couldn't stand being near any other member of the crew and locked himself in his quarters, with layer after layer of adaptive security that his Chief of Security couldn't break (which was fantastic, by the way, as it was his Chief of Security's responsibility to make sure that there was nothing that could represent a security threat to the ship, and a Chief Engineer who could lock said Chief of Security out was a security threat), that was fine by the Captain. Of course, something was wrong with the Captain's mutt, so that excused his lack of caring about the potential threat to his ship. Not.

"Commander, if you don't bloody well come out right now, I'll-"

"Problem, Lieutenant?"

Malcolm turned toward the voice, and the Denobulan it belonged to, in relief. "Doctor, about time! The Commander has quite clearly gone insane." He shouted the last few words directly into the comm, hoping to get a rise out of the occupant of the room.

"Doc, is that you?" Trip's anxiety was clear in his voice.

"Yes, it is I, Commander. May I come in?" Phlox asked genially.

"Yes! But only once Malcolm and his goons leave."

"Commander!" Malcolm said indignantly, shifting closer to the door.

Phlox raised a hand, forestalling any further forward motion. "I don't think that's unreasonable; do you, Lieutenant, hmm?"

Malcolm turned the comm off. "I'm not sure whether that's a good idea, Doctor."

"Why not?"

Malcolm hesitated before speaking, trying to choose his words carefully. "The Commander has been acting...oddly. I'm not convinced that he's not a threat to you, himself, or the ship."

"Has he tried to hurt anyone or himself?" Phlox asked.

"No," Malcolm conceded, "but I'm fairly certain that he created false intruder alerts throughout the ship to distract me so that he could go and get food. That is not something that the Commander would do if he was thinking straight. He's also put in place so many layers of adaptive security that we can't get into his quarters."

"He won't let me in if he thinks you are still out here," Phlox pointed out.

"Which is why I won't be outside, at least not until after he lets you in. Just be careful, Doctor."

Phlox nodded in agreement. "All right."

Malcolm gestured to the two security officers with him, and they moved off down the corridor. Phlox pressed the button to activate the comm.

"They're gone, Commander," Phlox said. "You can let me in."

"You're not lying to me, are you?" Trip's voice was filled with suspicion. "Because Malcolm tried that trick earlier."

"I promise you, I am not lying."

"Okay, then. Just give me a sec." There was a brief silence. "On second thought, maybe a couple of minutes, I need to remember how to unset this thing."

"Take all the time you need, Commander," Phlox said. "I'll still be here."

Three minutes later, the door to Trip's quarters swished open, and Trip tentatively poked his head out, looking both directions in the corridor with a suspicious expression on his face.

"I assure you that there is nobody here but me," Phlox said

"I believe you, Doc," Trip said, gesturing for Phlox to come in. "But I don't trust Malcolm."

Trip backed up until he was against the far wall in his quarters as Phlox stepped into the room. "Now, what is the problem?" Phlox asked, moving towards Trip again. Trip quickly sidestepped, keeping the same distance between them. "Commander, if you want me to help you, I need to examine you."

"Can't you do it from over there?" Trip asked hopefully, gesturing to where Phlox was standing.

"I suppose you can tell me what has been happening," Phlox said, noting the Commander's almost paranoid behaviour and the fact that he looked exhausted. "But, I am going to have to examine you at some point."

Trip slumped against the wall and sighed. "All right." He ran a hand distractedly through his hair. "I think it all started three days ago. We found a Minshara class planet that was practically paradise. Temperate climate on the largest continent, a huge variety of flora and fauna, and enough oddities to keep T'Pol entertained. The Captain thought that we might as well have a bit of a shore leave, so we took Porthos down and went for a hike. Phlox, stop staring at my hair!"

Phlox looked back down at the Commander's face, startled. He hadn't even noticed that his gaze had drifted. It was a tad disconcerting.

"See," Trip gestured despairingly towards Phlox, "this is why I've stayed in my quarters for the last two days. To cut a long story short, Doc, Porthos decided to run away from us, and go for a swim. I fell in the river, trying to get him out, and had to go through decon when I got back. About six hours after I got out of decon, I noticed that people were staring at my hair. Not long after that, Crewman Rostov touched it. He was embarrassed afterwards, said he had no idea why he'd done it. Then it was Lieutenant Hess, and when I went to see T'Pol to see whether she could figure out what was going on, she did it too. I ran into Malcolm in the corridor, T'Pol had sent him to look for me, and his hand was twitching like he wanted to get in on the action too, so I locked myself in here."

"You've been locked in here for the past two days?" Phlox asked.

"Well, no," Trip said uncomfortably. "A couple of hours after I locked myself in, I realised that I needed food if I was going to stay here until you finished your hibernation. So, I waited until night shift, created a diversion for Malcolm, and went to the mess hall. Even then, there were people who wanted to touch my hair." He sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "I only just beat Malcolm back here. And I mean just. If I had spent five seconds more deciding what pie I wanted, I'd be a goner." He slumped forward and rested his chin on his hands and his elbows on his knees. "What's wrong with me, Doc?" he asked plaintively.

Phlox started approaching the Commander, giving him enough time to tell Phlox to back off again. Trip just sat there, not moving, allowing the doctor to come right up to him. Phlox's hand hovered near the Commander's head. He could feel a strong compulsion to touch the Commander's hair, but not so strong that he couldn't resist it. Phlox pulled out his scanner and started taking readings.

"Have you slept?" he asked.

"A bit," Trip answered. "Malcolm kept on talking to me, though, which made it a bit hard, especially since he got louder if I didn't reply. But, I managed to put together a few spare parts I had to create a voice-activated recording of my voice, telling him that I wasn't coming out and to leave me alone. I got some sleep after that."

"Very ingenious," Phlox said, noting that he'd isolated the problem. "Well it appears, Commander, that when you went for that swim you picked up an unwanted guest. Well, several million unwanted guests."

Trip raised his head. The frown lines had smoothed out, making him look less tired than he had first appeared. "I did?" he asked.

"There appears to be something bonded into the structure of your hair. I'm surprised that this wasn't picked up when you went through decontamination. It's releasing a pheromone that appears to be an attractant." Phlox passed the scanner up and down the Commander's body. "Did you swallow any of the water?"

Trip's eyes widened. "M...Maybe. I went under when I fell in, and I remember that I coughed some of the water up. Is there something wrong with me?" He stood up and walked agitatedly away from Phlox, standing against the wall with his arms tightly around himself.

"There's nothing to worry about, Commander," Phlox said soothingly. "If you swallowed some of the water, some of this substance may have found its way into your bloodstream, but that can be easily fixed. If you'll come with me to sickbay, we can sort all of this out."

Trip stared distrustfully at him for a few moments before unwrapping his arms and following Phlox to the door. The door opened, revealing Malcolm standing in the corridor. Phlox stepped through, gesturing for Trip to follow him, but he stopped, staring wide-eyed at Malcolm.

"I thought you said that Malcolm wasn't here," he protested, a frantic edge to his voice. He started edging away from the door back into the room, shaking as he backed up.

Phlox held out a hand, moving slowly towards Trip. "It's all right, Commander. Lieutenant Reed is just here to accompany us to sickbay and make sure nobody goes near us on our way. Isn't that right, Lieutenant?"

Malcolm didn't move from where he was standing in the corridor, allowing Phlox to try and calm Trip down. He was ready, however, to subdue the Commander if he needed to. "That's right. Nobody's going to come near you, Trip."

Trip stopped, looking uncertainly from Phlox to Malcolm. He swallowed heavily, looked back at Phlox and nodded. "Okay," he said quietly.

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"Sub-Commander!" Phlox said cheerfully. "I'm glad you could join me."

T'Pol stood beside Phlox. "How is Commander Tucker?" she asked.

"Resting comfortably; I gave him a mild sedative to decrease his agitation. What I wanted you to look at was this." Phlox pressed a button on the screen in front of him and brought up a representation of an organic structure. "This is one of the Commander's hairs. As you can see here and here," Phlox pointed, "there appears to be something bonded to the structure of the hair. It's organic; almost looks bacterial."

T'Pol pressed a number of buttons on the display, bringing up another image that looked similar. "Ensign Cutler found these same bacteria in the water samples she collected. It appears to be in a symbiotic relationship with a large aquatic animal that the Ensign's team found, as well as being prevalent in the water. The bacteria release a pheromone that attracts small animals and insects, providing the animal with food. The animal, in turn, provides a fertile ground for the bacteria to breed."

"Ah," Phlox said with amusement, "the Commander's hair is trying to provide him with food."

"My hair is trying to eat people?" The incredulous voice came from behind the curtain separating the Commander from the rest of sickbay.

"Not quite," T'Pol said with a voice raised enough that it would carry to the Commander. "Your hair is trying to attract people for you to eat." She placed a slight emphasis on the word 'you'.

"Oh, that makes me feel so much better..."

"Commander, you should be resting," Phlox said sternly, opening the curtain that blocked his view of Trip and startling him in the process.

"How am I supposed to rest when your animals don't stop whistling and chittering and you keep on talking?"

T'Pol raised an eyebrow. "Obviously the mild sedative was too mild."

Trip glared at T'Pol and opened his mouth to reply.

"Commander," Phlox pre-empted, "do you want me to give you another sedative so that you can sleep? By the time you wake up, I should have a solution for turning your carnivorous hair back into ordinary hair again."

He stared at Phlox, appearing to think for a few seconds, before nodding. Phlox got a hypospray and filled it with a more potent sedative before giving it to the Commander. Trip's eyes gradually closed and he relaxed into sleep. Phlox gestured T'Pol away from the bed and closed the curtain again.

"He does seem...agitated," T'Pol allowed.

"A very small amount of the bacteria made its way into his blood stream and to his brain," Phlox said. "It's affecting his judgement and perceptions, but, fortunately, little else. Luckily, the bacteria do seem to be dying off; in the time since I first examined him, the levels have decreased by 2 percent. It doesn't appear that they can reproduce or feed on the Commander. The human genetic structure may be incompatible with their own, which is good news for the Commander."

"Do you need me for anything else, Doctor?" T'Pol queried.

Phlox nodded to her. "No, that's all I need, thank you, Sub-Commander." She turned away and walked purposefully towards the door. "T'Pol," Phlox called. She stopped and faced him, an eyebrow arched in query. "The Commander told me that he came to see you and you touched his hair."

"That is correct," T'Pol agreed, her body stiffening.

"It would be understandable if the loss of control over your actions made you feel uncomfortable."

"There was a logical physical reason for my actions," she answered, before walking out the door.

Phlox laughed quietly to himself, before checking on the Commander. Noting that everything seemed satisfactory, and the bacteria were still dying, he headed to the Captain's quarters to see a man about a dog.

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When Phlox entered Captain Archer's quarters, he was met with the sight of a morose beagle, and its owner trying to comfort it, mainly by petting it. It was the first sign that whatever was afflicting Porthos was probably the same thing that was afflicting the Commander. Which also explained why the dog was looking so dejected: even a dog could take only so much petting before it was fed up with the world in general, and its owner in particular.

"Doctor," Archer said with relief, "am I glad to see you. This little fella isn't feeling too well, are you Porthos?" He gave Porthos another rub around the ears and the dog whined in response.

"Captain." Phlox gestured that he'd need the Captain to move if he was to examine the dog.

"Sure," Archer said quickly, getting up and moving over to his bed.

Porthos put his head down between his paws, so it was resting on the floor and looked at Phlox with sad eyes.

"Now, let's see what the problem is," Phlox said gently, running the probe from the scanner over the dog. "Ah, just what I expected."

"What's wrong with him, Doctor?" Archer asked anxiously, shifting slightly back and forth on the bed. He put a hand out, bracing himself to stand up and return to the beagle, before seeming to realise that he had to give Phlox space.

"When Porthos went for his swim three days ago," Phlox started, "millions of bacteria adhered themselves to his fur. The bacteria give off a pheromone that acts as an attractant. In their native ecosystem, this would attract food for an animal that the bacteria are in a symbiotic relationship with. Have you felt a strong compulsion to pet Porthos?" Phlox looked over at the Captain.

"Yes, actually," he replied. "I just thought it was because he was sick." He paused, before looking up in sudden understanding. "Is this what was affecting Trip?"

"Yes," Phlox acknowledged. "I would like to take Porthos back to Sickbay with me, Captain. I can keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't get any sicker. Hopefully, in a couple of hours, I should have something to make both him and the Commander feel better."

Archer sighed in relief. "Go ahead, Doctor."

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Three hours later, Phlox had developed a cream that would remove the bacteria from both the Commander's hair and Porthos' fur, over several applications. Unfortunately it would take numerous applications over two or three days for it to remove all the bacteria, but it was a start. He had also developed a serum to neutralise the bacteria contained in their bodies. That would also take several days to work, so it seemed like they'd both be stuck in sickbay with minimal visitors in the meantime.

Phlox injected both with the serum and decided to wait until the Commander was awake again to start the cream treatment. The cream would have to stay in his hair until the next application of it and, as it was a green colour, he would probably be distressed if he woke up and had not been informed about it. Porthos had already had his first treatment and had seemed to glare at Phlox the entire time that he was applying it. He had immediately started trying to lick it off (something which Phlox was grateful that the Commander wouldn't be trying to do), resulting in Phlox sedating him.

Now that he had two peacefully sleeping patients whose bacteria levels were slowly going down, and he had let Ensign King know that he would see her after lunch, Phlox could get something to eat. Hibernation always left him hungry.

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The Mess Hall was crowded. Phlox spotted Ensigns Sato and Mayweather and made his way over to their table when they gestured his way.

"Ensigns," he said genially as he sat down, starting in on his chicken and vegetables.

Hoshi smiled in reply as she ate another bite of her dinner and Travis replied with an enthusiastic, "Doctor! How was your hibernation?"

"Quite relaxing," Phlox replied, after swallowing a mouthful. "Particularly as it wasn't interrupted this year by an Ensign with a broken leg." He smiled at Travis as Hoshi chuckled.

"Do you dream when you hibernate?" Hoshi asked, putting her cutlery on her empty plate.

"Only at the beginning and the end of the hibernation period," Phlox replied. "The dreams are usually very vivid. For example, I dreamt that I was swimming in a lake. I could feel the water around me, the sun on my face, the waves that I created."

"And we're lucky to even remember our dreams," Travis commented.

"Ah, but human dreams contain so much meaning," Phlox said, warming to the subject. "They're often a reflection of issues that are bothering the dreamer, whereas Denobulan dreams tend to be memories or sensory experiences without any additional meaning."

"I had a dream last night where I couldn't translate a language. It kept on changing, just when I got somewhere with it," Hoshi offered. "And then I was at school and I had a language test that I didn't know about and hadn't studied for."

"A perfectly normal anxiety of failing manifesting itself in a situation that is unlikely to occur," Phlox said, taking another bite, before changing the subject. "Has anything interesting happened while I have been asleep?"

"Commander Tucker," Travis commented, nodding to Hoshi. "He's been acting real weird."

"Ah, yes; well, in a couple of days he should be back to normal," Phlox said jovially.

"He sure wasn't happy with falling in the river," Travis said, a grin on his face. "Or with having to walk back to the shuttlepod soaked. And the smell of wet dog on the way back to Enterprise was not pleasant."

"The Captain thought it was pretty funny though," Hoshi added with a small smile.

"What else..." Travis said. "Oh, movie night was meant to be High Noon, but somehow it got changed to The Day of the Trifids."

"Leanne King ran out part way through the movie," Hoshi said quietly to Phlox. "I thought you'd want to know. She's been staying in Ensign Holdman's quarters."

"Thank you for letting me know, Ensign," Phlox replied. It certainly explained all the messages from Ensign King.

"Oh, and the latest in the saga of Bill and Claire." Hoshi leaned in towards Phlox, happy to be passing on the latest news in Enterprise's own little soap opera. "Claire split up with him, because she found out about Julia."

"But," Travis continued, "Bill told her that she was the only one for him, and they got back together. She found him with Julia two days later, and hasn't spoken to either of them since."

The drama was made all the more interesting by the fact that Claire and Julia were bunkmates and Bill had been seeing both of them at the same time for weeks. Somehow the rest of the ship knew about it, but the women didn't, each thinking that they were the only one seeing Bill and wanting to keep that relationship private.

"Other than that, it's been pretty quiet," Travis finished.

Hoshi smiled mischievously. "I don't know about that; I think I remember hearing something about a certain Ensign tripping on the bridge this morning."

"Hoshi!" Travis exclaimed, wide eyed. "You said that you weren't going to tell anyone else."

"I lied," Hoshi said with a giggle. "And, anyway, I wasn't the only one on the bridge. Everyone probably already knows about it by now."

"Great," Travis said dejectedly. "I'll be the laughingstock of the ship."

"At least the Captain wasn't there," Hoshi said consolingly, still smiling.

"Yeah, but Sub-Commander T'Pol was," Travis said dourly. "I think that was worse. At least the Captain probably would have ignored it; she had to ask me whether I had hurt myself and call attention to it."

Phlox finished his last mouthful. "I'm afraid, Ensigns, that I have to get back to Sickbay," he said.

"Say hi to Commander Tucker for us," Hoshi said.

It was more proof that Enterprise's grapevine worked efficiently. "I will, Ensign," Phlox said as he got up from the table. He'd check on the Commander and Porthos, and then go and see Ensign King and try to convince her that her potted plant wasn't going to attack her.

He arrived back at Sickbay to find an annoyed Lieutenant Reed sitting on a biobed having an argument with a very much awake Commander Tucker.

"...had to have done something."

"I didn't do anything," Lieutenant Reed said indignantly. "She attacked me for no reason."

"Oh, come on. You had to have done something," Commander Tucker replied, with a doubtful expression on his face. "She wouldn't attack you for no reason."

"Commander, Lieutenant," Phlox interrupted. "What appears to be the problem?"

"Lieutenant Hess would be the problem," Malcolm said scathingly.

"Now, wait just a minute..." the Commander started.

It was going to be a long afternoon.

A/N: Written for the prompt of: What Phlox missed during his annual hibernation, using the phrase "utterly preposterous" and at least a passing mention of Travis.