Epilogue
"You want to stop?" Trip eyed T'Pol warily.
Her skin was flushed a deep green, she was leaning against the wall of the corridor, trying to regain her breath. She shook her head 'no'. Phlox had said he would release her from Sickbay when she could breathe well enough to walk the entire length of the ship unaided. She needed to keep going.
Trip kept from rolling his tongue in his cheek, that would completely give him away. Phlox had shared that it was physiologically impossible for her to make the distance, it would take another two days until her lungs were healed enough. He'd sworn Trip to silence, the attempts by his stubborn patient were the best form of physical therapy he could devise, and more reliable than any course of physical therapy.
A part of Trip held out Phlox was wrong and she could manage the distance. She deserved to if only for her dogged determination, the fourth try just for the day. If anyone could overcome the odds by sheer force of will, she was the one.
But as in the past days, she couldn't go much further than the halfway point, her lungs unable to carry her the rest of the way. He knew she wouldn't complete the loop and swallowed his disappointment, adopting as neutral a look as he could. At least he hoped it was neutral, he didn't have much of a poker face ever. And he waited. There was not much else to do. Eventually, T'Pol would bow to the inevitable, he'd give her all the time she needed and more, and stand by her side until then.
T'Pol pushed off the wall, nodded without saying a word. Trip half-suspected it was to hide how out-of-breath she was. Still, he knew the signal. He hit the clip-on equipment he was carrying, which gracefully and silently unfolded into a wheelchair. T'Pol stared at Trip, although he could have sworn it was more of a glare. He stared back at her, careful to keep his face still. T'Pol glared balefully at the wheelchair, this time it was a glare, there was no doubt about it. Trip waited another couple of minutes before she sat in, resigned to the fact that getting back to Sickbay in a wheelchair beat being carried there on a stretcher.
The day was getting long. Any other attempts would have to wait. She'd try again first thing tomorrow, and he'd be at her side the whole time. Trip wheeled her back to sickbay, helped her on the biobed. She looked beyond exhausted. She was asleep before he had finished bringing the coverlet over her.
THE END
