Chapter 2

Jon blew out a nervous breath when his door chime rang. He did a quick scan, mentally checking off the room. Dinner ready, pitcher of iced tea, game loaded, ready to play. Was the single rose in the center of the table and candle lights around the room too much? He decided no.

He opened the door and the smile instantly disappeared when he saw Trip wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants, and an angry glare.

He quickly stepped to the side as Trip barged through, making it known that it was either get out of his way or get run over. "Um, Trip? You seem upset."

Trip spun on Jon. "You're damned right I'm upset! How dare you! What the hell do you think is going to happen tonight, huh?"

Jon shook his head in confusion. "I-what? What are you talking about? I thought we were going to have dinner and watch the game."

Trip waved his hand around the room. "Candles? Oh and look! A rose? Ok… the rose is a nice touch, but you really think I'm just gonna jump in bed with you like that?"

Now Jon was really taken aback. "Wait, whoa! Ok, you need to start at the beginning because I'm completely lost here. I thought you understood that I was asking you for a date, but I sure as hell didn't say anything about sleeping with you. Not tonight anyways."

"Uh-huh. And you just happened to think about a pillow."

"For you to sit on! I know your hip still gets uncomfortable when you sit in one place too long, and the game is over an hour, longer if it goes into overtime. I just thought… oh god." Jon groaned as he finally made the connection. "Look Trip, I wasn't implying-"

Trip cut him off. "You talked to Phlox about this!"

Jon's head dropped. "I fucked up again, didn't I?"

"You're goddamn right you fucked up again! I can't believe you asked Phlox if you could have sex with me! What the hell was going through your head?"

Jon gestured to the chair. "Honey, please sit down, give me a chance to explain."

Trip's jaw worked for a moment as he debated with himself. He decided he'd give Jon a chance to explain, but he was still pissed. "Alright, but this better be good." He ground out as he sat down.

Jon sat across from him, taking Trip's hands into his own. "Ok, I did talk to Phlox about us having sex, but it's not like you think. I've been thinking about asking you out for over a month, but with your leg still healing, I've been nervous about it. At some point, it's only natural that things will progress to a… more sexual nature. I mean, I have no problems with taking things slow, but if something should happen at some time, I just wanted to know that you wouldn't be harmed by it. I just don't want you to get hurt, that's all."

Trip huffed. "I think I'll know when I'm ready to have sex, you don't need to ask Phlox or anyone else that."

"Come on Trip, we both know how you can be when you want something bad enough. I'm not going to be the cause of you getting your leg hurt and setting back your progress. If things do happen between us, at a later time, I just wanted to make sure it's safe for you."

Trip let out an amused snort. "Rule of thumb, if it hurts don't do it."

Jon chuckled as he nodded. "Good rule to live by. Are you still mad at me?"

Trip thought about it for a moment as he looked around the room and gave Jon a good look, noticing the light blue-green silk shirt and black slacks he was wearing. "That color always did bring out your eyes. Suddenly I feel very underdressed. You put a lot of work into tonight, didn't you?"

Jon smiled. "Well it is a date, and I wanted to make a good impression. I'm sorry that I ruined it."

"Naw, I ruined it by getting mad about something when you were only trying to have my best intentions in mind. I should go back to my quarters and put on something better."

"You look fine, Trip, don't worry about it." Jon leaned in and gave him a slow, passionate kiss.

Trip snaked his arm around Jon's back, pulling him in closer as he worked his kisses down Jon's neck, nuzzling under the collar of his shirt to give small nips to the collarbone. "Mmm… Hoshi made a good choice with the cologne." He whispered out.

Jon lightly laughed. "This isn't the one Hoshi picked."

Trip pulled back with a small grin. "We're not gonna tell her that, are we."

Jon smiled as he shook his head. "No, definitely not." He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against Trip's as they sat a moment, smiling and looking lovingly into each other's eyes. "I love you, Trip."

Trip ran his fingers through Jon's hair, raking his nails at the side of Jon's scalp, making him shiver. "I love you too. I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions like that."

Jon pulled back. "It's ok. I guess I probably would have taken it the wrong way too if the shoe were on the other foot. You're right, I shouldn't have talked to anyone else about this except you."

"Mmm well, I guess you were just trying to get a medical opinion. That's the trouble with you clinical-minded people, inside your own head too much. Sometimes you just need to let your heart do the thinking."

Just then, Trip's stomach growled loudly. "And other times your stomach. I'm starving, let's eat."

They both laughed as Jon got up to pull the table to the chairs, so they had a good angle of the monitor screen for the game. As they ate, Trip couldn't help but to concentrate more on the food, slowly chewing on a small morsel.

"I swear, this chicken cacciatore tastes exactly the same as what we had in that restaurant on our first date."

Jon smiled. "I'm glad you like it, I had Chef make it just for us. It seems he's good friends with the head chef from Alioto's and got the recipe."

Trip was stunned for a moment. "Are you serious? From what I've heard, that recipe has been a highly guarded secret for over a hundred years! How the hell did Chef pry it out of them?"

Jon shrugged. "I guess there's some perks to being the captain of the first deep space vessel." He smirked as he shoved a fork full of the cacciatore into his mouth.

Trip shook his head and laughed. Suddenly, Trip yelled out, startling Jon. "Oh! Did you see that shot? Yes! Another point for Texas!"

Jon looked up at the monitor. "Hold on there, pal. Looks like the ref is pulling out a penalty card. Oh! Goal declined! So sad for your boys. Now all we need to do is set up for this pass, make the goal, and we're ahead 3 points."

"Not gonna happen. My guys are going to win it this year, I can feel it."

Jon laughed. "You've been saying that every year since I taught you this game. Face it Trip, Texas just can't hold up against a great team like Stanford."

"Uh-huh. Wanna put your money where your mouth is?" Trip smirked.

Jon narrowed his eyes. "What did you have in mind?"

Trip thought for a moment. "Ok, if Texas wins, you have to serve me breakfast in bed everyday for 2 weeks. That includes weekends."

Jon smiled. "Deal. And when Stanford wins, you have to bring my lunch to the bridge everyday for 2 weeks… in full dress uniform."

"Dress uniform? Oh come on!"

Jon shook his head. "That's my terms. Of course if you're chicken…" Jon started making clucking noises.

"Ok, ok! It's a bet… one you're gonna lose."

§§§

After the game ended, they went for a little walk around the ship. Jon didn't mind walking slow for Trip's sake, and he didn't care about PDA rules when he slipped his hand into Trip's as they walked. What did bother Jon was Trip's demand to visit engineering, that he finally and reluctantly agreed to.

Jon was happy to stand back as Trip slipped up behind Hess, to talk shop with her. "So I hear you're trying to mess with my engine." Trip said in a mockingly authoritative tone.

Christine turned and smiled as she gave Trip a big hug. "So good to see you back down here, Commander. I would never do anything to your baby without your approval first. I sent the proposal to you, have you had time to look it over?"

Trip shook his head. "I skimmed over it last night, but haven't really gotten into the meat and potatoes of it. Why don't you walk me through your idea."

"Well sir, I was thinking, if we reroute the plasma flow through the hydro heating chamber on the initial dump, it wouldn't be as hard on the coils."

Trip nodded. "I think I see where you're going with this. We could also use less antimatter if the plasma isn't too cold on the initial introduction, but what about cooling the outer chamber? We need at least 3,300 Kelvin just to maintain impulse, double that to create a warp bubble. At those temperatures, we run the risk of melting the outer casing, causing a breach."

Christine smirked. "We recycle the matter-antimatter through the flow chamber and that will keep the outer casing cooled down, while maintaining the internal temperature."

Trip looked up at the core, thinking about how the reroute might operate. He started towards the core, just as he got a hand on the ladder to climb up, he heard Jon's demanding tone. "Trip."

Trip let go of the ladder. "Yeah, right. No stairs right now. Ok Christine, run up a mock trial, but I want to be here when you run the program."

Jon pushed himself away from the wall and took a step towards the engineers. "No, you can observe on video feed from your quarters."

Trip shook his head. "No I can't. I have to be here to see and hear what's happening as it's happening so adjustments can be made. I can't do that through a video feed."

"And if these adjustments require you to get on top of that core? What then?"

Trip huffed. "It won't kill me to climb a ladder as long as I take it slow and don't put too much pressure on my leg."

Jon gave Trip a look. "And what does Phlox say about being over confident?"

Trip put his hands on his hips. "It's not the same. It's not like… I mean it's not… I wouldn't have to…" Trip dropped his defensive stance. "Ok, I get it. You have a great idea Christine, but we're going to have to shelf it for now until I'm released back to duty. I'm sorry, this just isn't something I could do through a feed and I really feel like I need to be here to make the adjustments. It's not that I don't think you're incapable, it's just that if something goes wrong, I'd rather it be my ass to take the heat for it, not yours."

Christine smiled. "I understand sir. We've been running the system like this for over 5 years, what's a few more months before trying something new? Just hurry up with that leg of yours, we all miss you down here."

"Uh-huh. Even Kelby?"

"Are you kidding? He misses you the most! Like a lost puppy I tell you."

"I heard that!" Joe Kelby hollered from the scaffolding above them where he had been quietly working.

"I meant for you to hear it!" Hess shot back.

"I miss you too, Joe. Try not to screw up too much stuff for me to fix when I get back." Trip smiled up at him.

"Gotta screw up some stuff or you won't have anything to do when you come back, you dumb hick."

Trip barked out a laugh. "You're an asshole, but I still love ya, man. Now get back to work before I bust your rank."

"Aye sir." Joe smiled as he gave a mock salute.

Jon laughed as he led Trip out of engineering before he had any more ideas of climbing on the core. "I never knew you had that kind of rapport with your team. I thought you and Kelby hated each other."

Trip shrugged. "Well, at first we didn't see eye to eye, still have our squabbles now and then, but we've learned how to set our differences to the side."

Jon nodded. "That's good, I'm glad the two of you worked things out… sort of."

Jon walked with Trip back to his quarters. Standing outside the door, Trip bit at his lower lip. "You uh, you want to come in for a cup of coffee?"

Jon thought for a second. "Um, probably should head back to my quarters. I had a great time tonight and would really like to get together like this again soon."

Trip felt the heat rising in his cheeks. "I had a good time too. Jon, I- well, I'm glad we could get back to, y'know, this."

Jon cupped Trip's face, brushing a thumb against his cheek. "We got a lot of years to make up for, it's going to take some work, but I think we'll get there."

Trip smiled and nodded. "I'm sure we will. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Jon smiled. "Of course you will. We did have a bet after all."

Jon checked the corridor to make sure it was empty before leaning in to give Trip a passionate, lustful goodnight kiss that he was certain would give them both happy dreams. Holding Trip close to him, he whispered. "Goodnight honey, see you tomorrow. I love you."

"Love you too, darlin'." Trip smiled at Jon as he stepped inside. After the door closed, he let out a soft sigh and touched his fingers to his tingling lips before stripping down to his Starfleet blues and crawling into bed, anxious for his happy dreams to begin.