She didn't listen much to his advice and for the next couple of weeks it was the same thing, meals in her quarters and heading to the gym late at night to avoid seeing anyone. Most of her duties had been scheduled to be overnight so as to let her avoid her brother, but sooner or later Lieutenant Reed would need to perform the regular assessments of everyone in his department, and with Mallory not quite prepared to see or speak to him just yet may just cause problems in that area. Captain Archer was concerned about her, the only person she seemed to be talking to was him, or Phlox, and that wasn't really doing her any favours. He was going to have to do something about that. Luckily an excuse to get her to do something eventually presented itself. Commander Tucker needed an extra pair of hands on D deck to install some new power couplings behind a set of bulkheads. It was a fairly quick and simple job, but so much easier with two pairs of hands.

"Cap'n Archer tells me that you were only seventeen when you joined Starfleet?" Tucker started up a conversation, lying on the floor, his head half way into an open panel. Lieutenant Riley was seated on the floor next to the toolbox, handing him the tools and equipment that he asked for. "How'd you manage that?" He asked, knowing that applications to Starfleet Academy here were restricted to those above the age of eighteen.

"Malcolm was signing up for it and it sounded like fun, so I joined him. They thought I would never make it through the academy so let me enter." She replied, passing him the plasma torch that was in her hands. He took it and began using it inside the junction, his aim was careful. Once finished with it he handed it back to her and she put it back in the tool box, rummaging around for the next one and holding it out to him.

Trip turned his head and smiled at her. "Must've been a shock to them when you passed." He dropped his smile when he noticed that she wasn't, realising he was on a touchy subject of conversation for her. It was either that or she was still uncomfortable being around him, he couldn't quite tell which it was. He'd not seen her smile. Not once since she realised she was not on the ship that she should have been on.

She nodded her head. "Earned a lot of respect for it though."

"I bet." He smiled again and returned his attention back to the junction he was dealing with. "Could you hand me the micro calliper?" He held out his hand and waited as Mallory picked up the tool and paused. She was about to pass it to him but instead dropped it and began standing up quickly. The tool clattered noisily as it made contact with the floor nowhere near Trip. He turned his head to find out what was going on and noticed that the colour had completely drained from her face. "Lieutenant, you ok?" He began to sit up.

"Excuse me, Commander." And with that she darted off down the corridor, one hand covering her mouth. He could only watch in slight surprise as he was left alone along the corridor as she darted into the nearest bathroom.

"Riley? Riley!" Concerned, Commander Tucker downed his tools and followed her, dusting off his hands as he walked. He waited outside for the Lieutenant, his arms crossed over his chest as he rested against the bulkhead.

Emerging from the bathroom a couple of minutes later she was startled to see him waiting for her. She was still looking pretty pale and looked a little shaky too. "I'm sorry about that, Commander." She said as she wiped her mouth on her sleeve, droplets of water were visible on her skin from where she had splashed the cool liquid on her face and not wiped it away.

"You should go and see Phlox." The man said calmly as Mallory tried to avoid making eye contact with him.

"I'm fine. Really. We should get back to those couplings." She tried to lie to him, just wanting to get back to work. She tried to move off, but the Commander gently grabbed her arm to stop her, turning her to face him and pulling her back towards him.

"I know the signs, Lieutenant. I've been pregnant myself." She stared at Trip and finally gave in, nodding her head as she recalled one of the earliest missions when Trip had been accidentally impregnated with a Xyrillian foetus. "I can come with ya if you want?" He offered, showing support for the youngest member of the Reed family. Again she nodded her head, wanting a little bit of company. He placed a hand on the small of her back and began to gently usher her in the direction of the turbolift that would take them to E deck.

Mallory was thankful that the Doctor had no other patients in Sickbay as he ran his scans to see if Trip's diagnosis was correct or not. She was sat on a bed with Trip and Phlox either side of her as Archer entered. All three were pretty silent as they heard the footsteps approaching and looked his way.

"What's going on?" He queried as he looked between the three of them. He could see that Mallory was looking a little paler than she usually did and being called to Sickbay he was concerned about her.

Seeing that the young Lieutenant was nervous about answering, Trip spoke up for her. "It looks as though Mallory wasn't the only one pulled through the portal, Cap'n." He placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently.

"What do you mean? Did she bring along a bug or something?" He questioned worried that the whole crew might be in danger of an illness of some kind, although it seemed unlikely. She had been there three weeks already and nothing had happened, although he was fully aware that some viruses could lay dormant for months, some even years.

"Nothing like that, Sir." She spoke up and gently rubbed a hand over her stomach as she was still feeling a bit nauseous. She glanced at Trip and his gentle smile was all the encouragement she needed. "I'm pregnant." She added with a sigh, looking at Captain Archer before looking away again, feeling very vulnerable, nervous about how he would react to the news.

He was momentarily stunned into silence and stepped forward closer to them. At least it was actually good news, he had been preparing to hear something much worse. "How far along?"

"Nearly two months." Phlox replied and then stepped away to find some medicine.

In a way Archer was relieved that she was that far along as she had been with them for just over three weeks, but then he could see why she looked so nervous. There were certain rules and regulations about intimate relationships within Starfleet and she didn't seem to be the kind of person to ignore those sorts of things, so it was most likely another senior officer or someone not in Starfleet. "Who's the father?" He watched her closely. Mallory remained silent, staring down at the floor below her feet, feeling uneasy. It was the one question she didn't want to answer right now.

With one look from Archer, Trip nodded his head. "I'd better get back to work, those couplings aren't gonna replace themselves." And he left sickbay, giving Mallory a bit of privacy.

"Mallory? Who's the father?" He asked again now that Commander Tucker had left she might feel happier telling him.

"What does it matter? He's never going to know now." She snapped at him, regretting it instantly. Hormones were a pain. She hung her head, hiding her face from the Captain. "I'm sorry, Sir. I…"

"It's ok. No need to apologise." Archer didn't seem to have been too offended by her outburst. Once Phlox had injected her with an anti-nausea drug he let her leave on the promise of coming back regularly for check-ups, and to get some rest. Escorting her back to her room, Archer didn't press the question any more. He was sure that in her own time she would tell. With a baby now due there would have to be some bigger changes on board. Life was certainly never dull on Enterprise. "Can I get you anything from the mess hall?" He asked once she was sitting on her bed.

"Just a glass of water. Thank you." She requested and Archer turned heading for the door. Just as his hand was about to reach for the door release she called out a name. A name that didn't really shock him too much. "Trip." He turned and looked at her. She was staring at the floor beneath her feet, fidgeting with her hands. "Trip's the father. My Trip." That certainly explained why she didn't want to say while he had been there. He'd had his suspicions early on that Trip and Mallory were a lot closer than she had been saying. Now those suspicions had well and truly been confirmed.

Jonathan headed back over and sat gently on the bed next to her. "The two of you became close during the mission into the Expanse?" Mallory nodded her head. "That's why he wasn't Lorian's father?" Again Mallory nodded her head. "Just out of curiosity, who was?"

"You were." She replied and he watched as a couple of tears splashed onto her knee. "I don't want anyone else to know."

"Not even Trip?"

"Especially not Trip." She looked at him as she pulled out the emerald ring from her pocket. Archer stared at it and took it as she offered it to him to be able to inspect the piece of jewellery. It looked quite old, an antique and possibly an heirloom. Turning it slowly in his hands he looked at Mallory, waiting for an explanation. "Two months ago he asked me to marry him. I said yes." At least he now had answers to a lot of questions, in particular why she had been reluctant to help Trip in the first place. It had taken some persuading, now he knew why. He handed the ring back to her and she sat looking at it.

"All right." He stood back up. "But talk to them, and soon." He headed for the door and turned to look at her again. "Don't make me make it an order." And with that he left the room, leaving her to think things over.