Chapter 14: A not very Vulcan holiday
On Friday, Trip collected the car and headed out across the Golden Gate Bridge just before seven that evening. He had agreed to collect T'Pol a couple of blocks from the Vulcan compound in the hopes that neither of them would be recognised.
He pulled into the designated meeting point and got the shock of his life when a glamorous woman, wearing large sunglasses, and sporting a sleek, jaw length bob with blunt cut bangs got into the car. He realised it was T'Pol as soon as she touched his hand.
"I theorised that the wig and sunglasses would be an adequate disguise." She told him. "I can see by your reaction that my hypothesis was correct."
Trip was pretty sure if she'd been human she would have been laughing. He could only theorise himself about how high her eyebrow was behind those sunglasses and bangs.
"You look like a heroine out of film noir." He told her taking in her hair and sunglasses as well as her slim, black pants and mock turtleneck; paired with a belted, half length trench coat. "I was half expecting you to tell me to listen very carefully because you would say it only once*." He joked, referencing 20th century film and television in one perplexing exchange.
T'Pol, who would never stoop being baffled by his cultural references, gave him one of her patented 'I have no idea what you are talking about' looks.
He laughed and put the car into drive, he didn't want to even begin to explain those two references.
It was dark by the time they arrived. Although it was built from wood, the cabin was not designed in a traditional forest cabin style, but was more like a 1950's modernist home with a mono-pitched roof sloping down to the back of the building. On the other side of the cabin the large, south-east facing, floor to ceiling windows and sliding glass doors, were designed catch the early sun and to take in the view, which wouldn't be visible to Trip and T'Pol until morning. To further maximise views, all the rooms were built in a line, with the living room in the centre, the master bedroom at one end and two smaller rooms at the other.
They stood for a moment in front of the inky black windows of the living area, slightly awkward all of a sudden, and looked at each other. Trip realised that this was the first time they had truly been alone together since their relationship started. It was with that thought that he had almost stripped her of her clothes right there and taken her on the rug in front of the cold, living room fire. A slight green flush spread across T'Pol's cheeks and she dropped her gaze, almost as if she could discern the direction of his thoughts.
"Um, I'll take the bags through to the bedroom." He said, suddenly unsure of himself.
He walked through to the master bedroom and placed the bags on a chair. He noticed a small pellet stove in the corner of the room and activated the ignition switch at the front after checking that the small hopper was already loaded.
"It seems somewhat primitive and inefficient to heat a home via combustion."
Trip jumped at the sound of T'Pol's voice an turned to look at her. She had followed him into the room and was looking at the little pallet stove with something akin to suspicion.
"Yeah, it is pretty old fashioned. The electricity supply in these kind of places can be a little unreliable, this kind of unit has a back up battery, that means you can get heat even if the power goes out." he looked her with a wicked look in his eye. "But there is something to be said for the romance of a fire."
His thoughts strayed back to the plush rug in front of the living room fire again as he imagined the possibilities. They stared at each other for a moment as their thoughts ran along similar paths, until they simultaneously closed the distance between them for a desperate kiss. The need of the past month roared through them and they manoeuvred themselves to the bed while, at the same time, stripping each other of their clothes.
Trip laid her down on the bed and covered her body with his own. He felt like he'd just spent the last month lost in the desert and finally come upon a sparkling oasis. He would have held back except it was clear her need was as urgent as his own. She threw back her head and gasped as he entered her, wrapping her legs around him, pulling him closer and deeper. Their coupling was frantic and raw and they reached their peak together, shattering around each other. As he emptied himself into her, Trip experienced a strange sense of dislocation as though he was simultaneously inside and outside of his own body. Like he was looking down at her and up at himself at the same time.
He collapsed on top of her drained by the intensity of their coupling. They lay like that for a while catching their breath and regaining their equilibrium. Trip finally lifted his head and kissed her gently
"Sorry about that, darlin." He said as he rolled onto his back next to her, one arm thrown across his eyes. "there was a certain lack of finesse there."
"I am not dissatisfied." She replied evenly "I believe my need was just as great."
"Still, not my best work." He joked. He removed his arm from his face and dropped his hand to stroke her hair, surprised to find she was still wearing the wig.
She suddenly sat up and straddled him, taking both his hands in hers and pinning them above his head. She lowered her head and began kissing him down his neck along his collarbone, speaking, between kisses.
"As First Officer, performance reviews are one of my responsibilities." She grazed her mouth across his. "If your efficacy has dropped, it is my duty to ensure you are brought up to standard." She started to slide down his body, gliding her hands down his arms and along his chest.
He couldn't believe the sensual, passionate, playful creature she could be when they were alone like this.
"I'm yours to command, Ma'am." He told her with absolute sincerity.
She lifted her head from his stomach and gazed at him, her expression as still as ever. Sometimes he'd swear he could feel her smile
Much later they lay together wrapped in each other's arms, basking in their post-coital glow.
Trip recalled the conversation with Captain Archer two days before. "The Captain knows about us." He told her quietly.
She was silent for a moment, processing the news. "What action does he intend to take."
"None, I think. He said he has discretion to ignore the fraternisation rules where he sees fit. Apparently we haven't let it affect our work so he's going to turn a blind eye."
"There was a chance he would have insisted that we serve on separate ships." She replied.
He sighed. "Yeah, I was worried about that too." He knew her well enough now to read her emotions between the lines.
"I would not have tolerated it if he had."
Trip almost laughed. What would she have done, stormed into the Captain's Ready Room, stamped her foot and demanded that she serve on the same ship as her human lover, or else! "Um, what would would you have done to prevent it?"
She gave him her confused look, usually reserved for when she was perplexed by cultural references and idiom.
Trip explained. "Usually when someone says they would not tolerate something, they mean they won't allow it to happen."
She narrowed her eyebrows slightly in annoyance "That is illogical. If it was a situation that I would not allow to happen, I would have said 'I would not allow that to happen.' When I say, I would not tolerate it, I mean I would have a negative physiological response to being separated from you for any significant length of time. In a similar way that Lieutenant Reed has a negative physiological response when he is exposed to certain plants."
Trip did laugh this time "Are you saying that you're allergic to not being around me?"
"No, an allergy is a hypersensitivity of the immune system to a substance in the environment that is normally tolerated by humans. It is merely a useful analogy for the physiological response that a Vulcan has to being separated from their mate."
"So we can never be apart again." The intellectual side of Trip told him he should have been bothered by that thought, but the emotional side was popping the champagne.
"As our relationship matures I believe it will be easier for me to tolerate lengthy separation, but in the short term I shall need to be in proximity to you on a regular basis." She paused for a minute unsure whether to elaborate on full nature of Vulcan bondmates.
"It is common for a psychic bond to form between mates." She told him, decision made. "The intensity varies but it is not unusual for bondmates to share emotions and thoughts, even memories in some cases. In the strongest of bonds the mates can communicate mind to mind and enter each other's meditation space."
Trip couldn't decide how he felt about this news. On the one hand, he already felt deeply connected to her; on the other, it seemed like a huge loss of privacy. "So we will develop one of these psychic bonds?"
"I do not believe so." She told him baldly. "Humans have limited psionic abilities. I do not believe it will be possible for us to form a psychic link."
Trip thought about the odd out of body experience he'd had when they made love, how sometimes he just knew what her emotions were even though she did not express them, and the connection he felt to her when they meditated. He almost told her about these strange feelings but he decided considering her telepathic skills, if he could detect a psychic link then surely she would. He reasoned the incidents were just products of his feelings for her, illusions of his mind. A worrying thought occurred to him.
"Will it be a problem for for you, not to have a bond. Will you miss it." He asked nervously.
"I do not believe so, I cannot miss what I have never experienced." She looked into his eyes. "Trip, just because there will not be a psychic connection between us does not mean we will not have a bond."
"Humans don't form bonds." He said sadly
"That is not entirely true." She shifted into 'Science Officer' mode. Humans have strong emotional bonds with each other that affect you physiologically. This is similar to some aspects of the bond that Vulcans form. I believe what we have is a bond of sorts, a hybrid of the kind of bonds each of our species form. I am deeply satisfied by it."
As was often the case, Trip had to read between the lines of her plain, direct language. She did not make emotional exclamations or embellish with hyperbole but that did not mean that her feelings for him were not deep and true. He decided that in her Vulcan way she had told him, once again, that she loved him. He realised that if he could understand and accept her Vulcan interpretation of their relationship and her way of describing it, she was capable of doing the same for him. "You make me happy too." He told her.
There was no more that needed to be said. They drifted off to sleep, each content in their relationship in the way that was most appropriate to each of their species.
Trip woke the next morning to the early sun streaming in through the bedroom windows and one of the most beautiful views he'd ever seen. T'Pol meditating, sitting bathed in sunlight, in front of the the large windows, with the redwood covered slopes as a backdrop, and not a stitch of clothing on. He decided he could definitely get used to this.
He lay on the bed for a couple of minutes, just watching her, drinking in the sight of her and marvelling that she was his. He ignored the urging of his body, which seemed to be begging him to get off the bed, rouse her from her meditative state, and make slow love to her in the sunshine. Instead he got up from the bed and joined in her meditation.
Usually he would sit opposite her, ostensibly to stare at the flame, which he did not use to enter the required state anyway. For some reason, perhaps some devil on his shoulder, he sat down behind her, so she was sitting between his legs, wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her shoulder. He slid easily into meditation and and centred himself on the presence of her cool, quiet mind. He remained there until T'Pol roused, bringing him out of his meditative state as well. He lacked the honed ability to be able to accurately track time during meditation so he had no idea how long they had sat there together. He felt his stomach rumble and remembered they had not eaten the night before.
He squeezed her tight and ran kisses along her shoulder. "Morning darlin, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling kind of hungry."
She tipped her head to the side, inviting his attentions further, so he continued the kisses up the side of her neck.
"As we failed to eat dinner last night it is not surprising." She replied
Neither of them made a move to get up. Trip ran his hands up her stomach and cupped her breasts as she dropped her head back onto his shoulder, he continued to kiss her neck, occasionally sweeping his tongue around her ear while he squeezed her breasts and thumbed her nipples. She gave a sudden sigh and twisted, turning until she was facing him, sitting in his lap with her legs wrapped around his hips, while capturing his mouth with hers.
They didn't eat breakfast for at least another hour.
"So," Trip asked T'Pol as they finally ate their breakfast, "what would you like to do for the next four days?"
T'Pol looked thoughtful for a moment before she answered "I have never taken a holiday, in the human sense, before." She told him.
Trip looked sceptical "So Vulcans just work all the time?"
"No, we take time to pursue our own interests but it is more structured than the somewhat laissez-faire approach humans often take to their leisure time. A Vulcan would not leave home and go to a new location for four days with no plan for how to spend their time."
Trip grinned at her "I see," he said speculatively "Did you do your research and plan an itinerary for for the next four days?"
"I admit, that would have been my preference and I felt illogical not doing so, but I decided to experiment with the experience of a human style holiday to see if there is any merit in it for a Vulcan." She told him.
"But you think there is merit in it for humans?"
"Of course! The pressure of work causes stress for most humans. Stress causes a build up of cortisol in your bodies, which you can tolerate for a short period but longer exposure will shorten human life expectancy." T'Pol never stopped being a scientist.
"So do you think there may be benefits to Vulcans as well? You don't experience stress."
"That is true, but I am keeping an open mind, as you say. Perhaps there will be some unexpected results."
Trip had to smile to himself. He had noticed that in order to cope with the human style holiday, she had turned the whole trip into an experiment of sorts, thus placing a framework of structure over it. He'd die before he pointed that out to her though.
"Okay," He said as he got up from the table "as the human on this experiment I guess it is my job to 'not plan' our activities for the next four days."
"I am yours to command." She responded, using his words from the night before.
He looked at her intensely for a moment, memories of the night before flashing through his head, and proceeded to pull to the bedroom for another session of unplanned recreation.
True to her word, T'Pol refrained from planning activities and let Trip guide them. Under his expert guidance they holidayed in the great Earthen tradition in which they did lots of not doing much at all.
T'Pol put her wig back on and they drove back along the perilous, narrow, twisting road to Guerneville, stocked up on some supplies from the general store and had lunch at the local diner where they were the subject of numerous furtive stares. T'Pol considered the possibility that they had been recognised but Trip, who had skipped a day shaving and was wearing ripped jeans, a faded sweatshirt and a twenty year old gators cap, told her it was probably because they thought he was rich. Considering his state of dress, she expressed considerable skepticism that he would be considered wealthy. Whereby he advised her that it was the only logical explanation as to what such a stone cold beauty like her was doing with a slob like him.
They hiked the simple trails around the cabin while conducting a heated debate about the relative merits of ring nacelle versus twin nacelle configurations for warp field generation. They continued the discussion through the preparation and eating of lunch and the clean up afterwards. In the end Trip agreed to disagree and T'Pol agreed to accept that his logic would never be up to the task of fully understanding the benefits of the ring nacelle.
Trip coaxed T'Pol into the hot tub that sat on platform built out over the edge of the slope, set in a ring of redwoods. Despite her protestations that she had not brought her bathing suit, He assured her that no bathing suit was required. Once immersed in the hot water, it didn't take him long to persuade her of his position. During the following days he convinced her of several 'positions' in the hot tub.
They spent one rainy afternoon cuddling on the large sofa, staring into the fire, inadvertently slipping into a long, deep meditative state that persisted the entire afternoon. While T'Pol agreed that the meditation had been very restorative, she was still sceptical about the value of a fire.
T'Pol had an encounter of the furred kind with a couple of raccoons at the back of the house and became fascinated by them, particularly their dextrous front paws. She downloaded several articles and over the course of the next day became an expert in all things 'Procyon loto'. After what felt like a month of being lectured to about the behaviour, biology, reproduction, geographical distribution and intelligence of raccoons, Trip laughed and told her they were vermin. T'Pol gave him a cold look, shades of the first year on Enterprise, and told him that, as a native species to the American continent, Procyon loto had shown remarkable adaptability in the face of massive habitat change. Further, it could be argued, that considering humans were an introduced species in North America; that their population had grown exponentially over the past four centuries; that they had affected significant change to the environment and caused the extinction of numerous species, humans themselves could be classified as vermin. Trip laughed again and said it was lucky it hadn't been bears she'd seen looking for food, and went back to reading his warp engineering journal.
T'Pol started researching bears and he began to get worried that there may be another hike in their near future. A couple of hours later T'Pol looked up from her research an announced that an encounter with a bear was quite unlikely at this location as they would still be in hibernation at this time of year. However her research on the fauna of North America actually indicated that, if luck could be applied to the mammals they did and did not come across, then their lack of encounter with a skunk should certainly come in that category. In this matter, Trip whole heartedly agreed with her.
They performed neuro-pressure on each other in front of the fire and made slow sweet love afterwards. T'Pol later agreed that there was much to said in favour of a fire after all. They prepared meals, they did not finish, a different hunger overtaking them, coming out in the morning to find the remains of last night's dinner still on the table. They spent their nights making love, slept late in the morning, meditated then went straight back to bed for a couple of hours.
As he directed the car towards home at the end of the fourth day, Trip thought it was the best holiday of his life.
"Well," He asked her after they'd been driving for a while. "What are the preliminary results of your human holiday experiment?"
"It has been a satisfactory experience." She replied.
To Trip that sounded like high praise.
"I perceive some benefits to an organic approach to choosing activities. Had I planned the holiday I would probably not have encountered Procyon loto or taken time to educate myself about such a fascinating creature."
Trip smirked, he was pretty sure she thought raccoons were cute but would be insulted if he suggested it. "Was that all?" He asked.
"No, I was able to achieve some extremely deep meditation, I believe the relaxed nature of the holiday may have precipitated this. Of course my experiment only has a one subject, so it cannot in any way be considered definitive, but I believe there may be some benefit to Vulcans to take this kind of holiday occasionally."
"That's good, it looks like we both had a good break then. I guess I will have to take a Vulcan holiday now to see if there would some benefit to humans." He grinned. "In the interest of science of course."
T'Pol took a deep breath and looked at him. "That would be agreeable." She told him. "It has been my intention to invite you to accompany me to Vulcan to meet my mother."
Trip couldn't believe it, he'd been waiting for this moment for almost three years and had been certain this opportunity would never come. "Meeting your mother, huh? If I'm not mistaken, on some planets that's a precursor to marriage." Trip schooled his expression and did not take his eyes of the road.
T'Pol graced him with the eyebrow of death. "I believe I apologised to you for my treatment of you in the aftermath of the Zyrillian incident."
Trip couldn't contain his laughter anymore and decided to put her out of her misery quickly. "You did, and the fact that I'm prepared to joke with you about it, shows I have no hard feelings at all." He took her hand a gave it a squeeze. "And I would be delighted to go to Vulcan with you and meet your mother."
He thought for a little bit before he asked "What does she know about me? About us?
"I've never mentioned you." She admitted
Trip wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. "So you'd introduce me as?"
"Commander Charles Tucker the third, my mate and intended husband." She looked at him, as expressionless as ever but Trip sensed her nervousness.
He squeezed her hand again. "That sounds about right to me." he confirmed gently.
She took a deep breath and looked back at the road. Trip let go of her hand, and returned his hand to the steering wheel, processing the idea that he was pretty sure he just got engaged. After several minutes another thought occurred to him.
"What's your mother like." He asked trying to form a picture of the woman he would meet in a few weeks time.
"She is Vulcan." Was T'Pol's reply
Okay, Trip thought, 'nuff said.
*this was the catch phrase of the character Michelle from the British comedy "Allo Allo"
T'Pol said this to Trip after being informed of his pregnancy in the episode "Unexpected"