Although their patients were recovering nicely, neither Doctor Phlox nor Doctor McCoy wanted to leave Sickbay before they had recovered. That meant that Commander Tucker and SubCommander T'Pol were asked to come to the NX-01's Sickbay for their exams. Reassured that the exams would not take long, they complied while Captains Archer and Kirk met with Mr. Spock and Mr. Scott. They would join the conference when the exams were complete.

Trip found that he couldn't look T'Pol in the face. It didn't help that she was staring at him like he was some kind of new science specimen that she had picked up off of a new planet somewhere. Of all the things that he had thought about doing with the woman, having kids wasn't one of them. That was one of the reasons he was so abrupt with the doctors when he was told to get up on the biobed. "Can you make this quick, doc? I got a ton of work to do."

Dr. Leonard McCoy wasn't the small town, hillbilly sawbones he pretended to be. Not only did he have multiple medical degrees, he also had a ton of experience in interspecies interaction, from 'hi I'm about to kill you' to 'gees you're the sexiest thing I've ever seen' and everything in between. Tucker and T'Pol weren't the first couple he'd seen who had been thrown together unexpectedly into a marriage. From what he could see of their body language, he figured these two had a pretty good shot. "Don't you worry son," he said turning on the charm. "Your part in all of this is going to take just a few minutes. I'd recommend that you start reading up on Vulcan culture and history as soon as you can though. There's a lot that Vulcans don't talk about outside of their families that you're going to need to know in the future."

T'Pol was still learning about Human body language, but she understood the look Doctor McCoy shot her when he said this. On the one hand, she was relieved that he was not going to explain in front of everyone about Pon Farr. On the other hand, it was clear that he expected her to inform Commander Tucker about it, something that she really did not wish to do.

"Sure doc," Trip said. He didn't know what Dr. McCoy was talking about but he was sure that T'Pol did. The way she looked right now was almost identical to the look she was wearing when they'd had their talk about her engagement. Trip watched carefully as Dr. McCoy proceeded with his scans, more interested in the machinery the doctor was using than in what was actually happening. True to his word, Dr. McCoy's scans only took a couple of minutes. But then to Trip's embarrassment the doctor handed him a sample jar. 'It isn't like you didn't know this was coming,' he though to himself as he left to fill the jar.

T'Pol got onto the biobed as Trip left the room. "I thank you for your discretion doctor," she said. She had noticed the Human courtesy facilitated interaction among Humans in a way that she still did not quite understand.

"Of course SubCommander," he said. "You realize of course that he does need to have that information."

"Yes, I plan on ensuring that he is given the proper information after our bond is confirmed. Although Spock has informed me of its existence, I still do not believe it is possible. Commander Tucker and I are far too often adversaries for me to consider us to be compatible as bondmates. Spock tells me that such a relationship is possible for a Human though. Do the two of you really have such a friendship?" T'Pol asked.

McCoy grinned. He had wondered when someone would ask about that. "We are indeed friends but most of our arguments aren't just for fun. There is a real medical reason for them." He turned a more sober face to T'Pol. Hopefully he could convince this young woman not to make the same mistake that Sarak had. "Spock needs to express his emotions but he was raised as though he was a full Vulcan."

"He is not?" T'Pol was stunned. She hadn't been aware that Spock could have been anything else.

"His mother is Human. And living as a though he wasn't half Human has put a great deal of stress on the Human parts of his biology, such as his digestive systems. You see a Human literally needs to express his or her emotions or the stress of suppressing those emotions can lead to some serious medical problems. Since I came on board the Enterprise and we started our adversarial friendship, his stress levels have dropped by 50." McCoy was actually proud of that. It hadn't been easy to get Spock to let loose even a little. "Now, mind you, he's as much Vulcan as he is Human, so having him really let go would be a very bad idea. But he does need to let his emotions out a little bit just as a stress relief."

"As he was genetically engineered, why not eliminate those systems that would be affected by emotional control?" she asked. The idea that Humans needed to express their emotions was something she had never considered before. As emotional as they were, she had often wondered how they had managed to come as far as they had without assistance. Perhaps there was something she was missing in this equation.

"Because some Human biological systems are much more efficient," Doctor Phlox said enthusiastically. "Especially the digestive system. A Human can survive for almost a month without food while a Vulcan can survive for only about a week and a half. A Human requires far more water of course than a Vulcan, but a Human can digest things that contain water that a Vulcan can't. In fact, a Human can eat a much larger variety than a great number of species. Having to live a little more emotional than the average Vulcan shouldn't be a problem." Phlox didn't see it as one and couldn't believe that any physician would either. But apparently someone hadn't listened to those who had designed the poor man.

Trip walked in for the last part of the conversation. To his embarrassment, filling the jar hadn't taken long, mostly because the picture he'd gotten into his head of T'Pol in the decon chamber had helped. He wasn't sure how to deal with that. On the one hand, this woman was supposed to be his wife. On the other hand, this was T'Pol! She was the most frustrating and infuriating woman he knew. He knew he had a tendency to fall for strong women but she was a Vulcan. And he had to admit, if only to himself, that she had become less of 'the Vulcan' to him over the last few months than simply T'Pol, a fellow officer.

The knowledge that Spock was half human was actually comforting to Trip. He had talked to Scotty quite a bit about their situation and Scotty had absolute faith in Spock to come up with the answer of what was needed to close the rift before it destroyed both of their universes. According to Scotty, Spock was one of the smartest men in Starfleet and without a doubt he was the best First Officer. Their crew had been to the Klingon Homeworld to Hell and back again, several times, because of the senior officers without failing their missions or loosing too many members of their crew. If his kids could be even half as good a person as Spock was, then he wouldn't have to worry too much about them and T'Pol he was sure would see the logic in raising them to express some emotion. He wouldn't be stuck in a house full of non-emotional Vulcans, all looking down on him for venting.