Chapter 6

As it turned out the Ambassador and Admiral were delayed by two weeks. Jon was now sixteen and was beginning to resemble his old self, although his hair was longer and lighter in color. His green eyes sparkled and his sense of humor was now legendary on the ship. He had been behind some elaborate pranks, and the crew had come to expect anything from him. The crew was surprised that their captain had such a sense of humor, having seen him during their mission to destroy the Xindi weapon. It turned out that the captain was simply a clown. He loved trying to make the crew laugh, and he usually succeed. He was now allowed to work on the bridge, shadowing Travis at the helm. They all knew the captain was an excellent pilot, and that he had learned early to pilot so he excelled at the helm. He now spent four hours on the bridge every day and during that four hours, anything could happen. The bridge crew enjoyed having the captain back with them even if he was an exuberant teenager as he kept them entertained with his jokes and stories. As he aged, more and more of his memories were surfacing and he loved telling them to the crew...all but the embarrassing ones.

He had,since that day in the mess hall, come to really like T'Pol and his special delight was trying to get her to smile. He would take every opportunity to do it. Once, she had let a slight smile grace her lips, but almost immediately took on her usual Vulcan face, but not before the bridge crew saw it. Now Jon took great pleasure even when she would look at him and raise an eyebrow at his antics. He loved teasing both her and Trip about their relationship, but never in public. He had come to think of Trip as a big brother and liked him more than anyone else on the ship. Being an only child it had been great to have Trip to talk to. He really didn't know that the relationship was really the other way around and Trip looked up to Jon as a big brother, that Jon was twelve years older than Trip.

Trip had been having a ball getting to know his best friend as he grew up. The last five weeks had been great, learning all the ins and outs of his friend. He knew that this side of Jon was something he'd never been privy to. When they had entered the Expanse, it had changed Jon. He had become so engrossed in the mission to find the Xindi weapon and save Earth, that he had pulled away from the crew and became moody. He had been forced to do things that Jonathan Archer would never consider, but he'd done them to make sure they succeed in their mission. Trip had seen the changes in his friend, and now it was so good to see the boy untouched by the weight of command and the fact that the fate of their world rested squarely on his shoulders. And Trip had watched a deep bond of friendship develop between Jon and T'Pol even stronger than the one they had forged before. It had been a shaky start. At first, Jonny had had a hard time getting past his experience with his broken arm, but after a couple o weeks, he had started to warm up to T'Pol. It had been hard on T'Pol too. At first, Jonny had just tolerated her presence and had only spoke to her in one and two word sentences. He had stared at her most of the time with a thoughtful look on his face. Trip knew it had been hard on her, but he had been there to give them both moral support. And Porthos had also been there to give Jonny his support.

It wasn't till the third week that Jon had started to warm up to T'Pol. He began asking questions and soon would seek her out to talk to her. Trip had begun letting them get together alone, and soon Jon had told him that he thought T'Pol was okay. It had happened last night as they had returned to the captain's cabin. Jon was sitting on the bed, playing with Porthos and Trip had sat down on the couch. Trip was no longer sleeping there, but he spent time with the captain.

"Trip."

Jon said with a thoughtful look on his face. Trip looked at him and saw a younger version of his friend. He smiled as he said

"What's on your mind Jon?"

"I guess I just want to say that you were right...about T'Pol."

Trip looked at him and said

"And what was that?"

Trip knew what he was going to say. He had watched the interaction between the two this last week and had seen the change in Jon's attitude.

"Well, that T'Pol is a nice lady. I should never had blamed her for what had happened."

After a moment he continued

"I guess all Vulcan's aren't bad."

He looked at Trip, and grinned. Trip smiled back and said

"I'm glad you finally came to that conclusion. T'Pol's a special lady."

Jon watched the look on Trip's face soften as he thought of the science officer and he got a mischievous look in his eyes.

"So when are you gonna ask her to marry you?"

Trip looked at him and said

"What makes you think I'm gonna ask her to marry me?"

Trip knew that he had gotten very close to her and had finally admitted to himself that he indeed did love her, but he had never thought of marriage. After they had returned to Earth, he had went with her to visit Vulcan and had met her mother, T"Less. It had been awkward but he had actually liked her. And then, to save her mother's career, she had gone through with her marriage to Koss. It had been hard to watch her get married and it was at that very moment that he had admitted to himself how he really felt about her, how he so enjoyed their sometimes heated conversations. But maybe when Jon was back to normal, he'd consider the idea. He was pretty sure that T'Pol liked him, but did she feel the same about him as he felt about her? He wasn't sure. He watched as Jon rubbed Porthos' ears and saw the tail thumping on the bed. The dog loved to have his ears rubbed and Jon never disappointed him. Now Jon said nonchalantly

"Well maybe she's just waiting for you to tell her how you feel."

He slyly looked up at Trip, a small smile gracing his face. He has broached the same subject with T'Pol just yesterday, and she had raised an eyebrow at him, but had not seemed put off at the idea of being with Trip. In fact, she had hinted that it would not be undesirable. Now Trip was staring at Jon with a startled look on his face.

"And just how would you know that?"

He had a feeling that Jon was playing matchmaker with them, and that he had planted a bug in T'Pol's ear. At the thought of her ears, he again got a soft look on his face. He loved the elegant curve of her ears and longed to take his finger and trace them. He came out of his daydreams when he heard a little laugh from his captain.

"Well maybe..."

"Oh come on Trip I know you like her and I believe she likes you. Why aren't you two dating or something?"

"It's not that easy. After all we serve on the same ship and the Cap'n..."

He stopped mid sentence and looked at Jon. For the last two weeks, Jon had been more and more curious about the captain, and why he'd never seen him. He had asked a thousand questions about it and now he was getting even more animate as to why he never saw the captain, and how a star ship could function without the captain. Trip wasn't sure what to tell him. Now Jon said

"Why haven't I ever met this captain? Why is he so secretive? Is it something I've done so he doesn't want to meet me?"

Now the look on his face had fallen a bit.

"And you told me that Porthos is the captain's dog, so if that's true, this must be the captain's quarters, so where is this captain and why has he let me stay here?"

They were all good questions, but Trip didn't know what to say. They had never really discussed how to tell Jon and when to tell him. When he was little, it was not a problem since Jonny had assumed that the captain was elsewhere doing his duty, but now it seemed strange to him that he had never met or seen the captain. Trip looked at the green eyes that looked back at him and sighed. Maybe it was time to tell him what had happened.

After a moment, Trip slowly got up and walked over to the communicator and opened the link and said

"Tucker to sickbay, Doc could you come to the Cap'n's quarters please, and can you get T'Pol too?"

After a moment, the doctor's cheerful voice answered and said

"We'll be right there Commander."

Trip broke the connection and blew out a breath as he turned to look at Jon. This wasn't going to be easy, but maybe it was time to tell him what had happened. At least then when the Vulcan ship arrived in ten hours, it would be easier for Jon.

"Why did you ask the doctor and T'Pol to come here?"

It was obvious that Jon was confused as to why Trip had called for them.

"Well because what I need to tell you, they are a part of and I just thought it would be better to have them here."

Trip was still not sure how he was going to tell Jon the whole story. As he was thinking on how to proceed, the announcer rang and he was glad that he was saved from any other questions from Jon at the moment.

"Come."

Trip said and the door slide open. Phlox's smiling face appeared and behind him was T'Pol who looked at Trip with a raised eyebrow.

"Commander, Jon how are feeling?"

Phlox said in his cheery voice. He gave Jon his wide grin and then turned to Trip and said

"So are you going to explain all of this to Jon?"

Phlox had been urging them to do so for the last week. Trip looked at the doctor and nodded. Now Jon said as he sat up straighter

"Tell me what? What's going on Trip?"

He looked at each with questions in his eyes. What was up? Why did he have the feeling that what Trip was going to tell him was going to change his life? He finally said

"Please tell me what's going on."

Trip finally sighed and said

"Jon what we have to tell you may seem unbelievable, but its what happened. I want you to listen to the whole story before you say anything, okay?"

Jon looked at him and nodded. Trip sat down on the bed next to Jon, as both T'Pol and the doc had sat on the couch. Trip was silent until Jon reached out and touched his arm and then he drew a breath and said

"About six weeks ago, we were exploring an anomaly that was giving off some unusual readings. We were getting all the readings we could when the Cap'n decided we needed to get closer. He wasn't ready to risk the ship, so he decided to take the shuttle pod to get closer."

At this point, Trip stopped and was silent. He remembered that morning and how he had argued with the captain about going by himself. So many days he had wished he had won that argument, but then now they'd be dealing with two crew who had changed. T'Pol took up the conversation.

"The Captain refused to risk anyone else, so he launched by himself. When he reached the anomaly, it began to fluctuate and then pulled the shuttle pod in and it disappeared."

She watched the emotions as they passed over the captain's face. He was beginning to look shocked, so she continued.

"After a couple of hours, the shuttle pod reappeared and we were able to grapple it back into the ship, and we all went to the docking bay and when we opened the shuttle we found...you."

Jon looked stunned. He frowned as what he was hearing began to sink in. After a moment, he said quietly

"I was in the shuttle? So I changed places with the captain? How is that possible?"

It was plain that he was not wanting to believe the fact that was the situation. The look of confusion on his face was clear. Now Phlox spoke up

"When we found you, you were quite scared and we were at first surprised to find a child instead of the captain. But when I ran a scan of you I discovered that your DNA..."

Before Phlox could finish, Jon said

"I'm the captain...right?"

He looked at them with a determined look on his face, and for the first time since this had happened, they were seeing their captain. Now Jon began to speak almost to himself

"That's why I've never met the captain...why I'm living in his quarters..."

He looked down at Porthos and the dog looked up at him with devotion in his soft brown eyes and thumped his tail and continued

"Why Porthos hasn't seem to miss his master."

He suddenly gathered the pup up into his arms and buried his face in the fur and held him close. Suddenly it was all too much to take in and he needed the comfort of his pal. Porthos seem to sense the change of mood and began to lick him and whimper. Then Trip said

"Jon, I think you need some time to absorb all this. I think we'll leave you alone, but I'd suggest you may want to access your logs and..."

He didn't continue as they all rose to give the captain some space. As they made their way to the door, Trip turned and said

"If you need to talk, just call."

They left him there on the bed as he still gripped Porthos and tried hard to grasp what had happened to him.

TBC