"Someone had a talk with the Eldest Mother," Trip said to T'Pol looking at her for help. He saw T'Pol hinting him to return the hug and he gently slung his arms around T'Pau. They stood for several seconds before she stepped out of his embrace.
"I have decided to resign from my post. I have come to the conclusion that I am not yet ready for this responsibility... with a little help."
"Leave it to dad to make you see reason," Trip said with a satisfied grin.
"You knew?" she asked.
"No, but I suspected. From the day he met you he was convinced that you are way too young for what you're doing. It was only a matter of time that he would talk to you about it. My parents love you to bits, honey."
"I also have affection for them … and you," she admitted.
"Aw, that's sweet honey," he said, taking her hand. "And before you start that 'imposing on our hospitality' talk again – you're not imposing, get it?"
She nodded with as much of a sheepish expression a Vulcan could muster – a raised eyebrow.
"Will you need to go back to Vulcan to hand over your job?" he asked.
"Yes, I will leave in five hours and return within the week."
"You may deposit your belongings in our home on Vulcan," T'Pol offered and gave her a small PADD with the access codes.
"There won't be much to deposit," T'Pau admitted. "I grew up in the desert."
"Don't worry, honey, we're gonna change that when you're back," Trip said with a grin and planted a small kiss on the tip of her nose. He nearly started laughing about the pronounced greenish blush that crept up her cheeks.
T'Pol's 'giggle-brow' went far north.
=/\=
the next day...
Trip fidgeted. Standing in front of the airlock was hardly an activity worthy of being nervous, but this wasn't just some dignitary passing by. On the ship that was currently docking with the station was the queen of a whole Empire, a queen he had banged the brains out of in a swamp. It sounded so ridiculous, one couldn't make it up. And T'Pol suffered, so much was obvious.
He looked back at Malcolm and Hoshi, who flanked T'Pol. She hid it well, but he could see that T'Pol felt threatened and he could also see the barely hidden look of reproach on Malcolm's face. Hoshi tried to give him an encouraging smile, but he knew that she also was less than pleased with the emotional conundrum he had put T'Pol into.
While he could understand their misgivings, Trip also felt wrongly accused. It wasn't as if T'Pol had given away any sign at the time that she was interested in him, in fact it would take another two damn years until she finally would acknowledge that she loved him. And what was he supposed to do? He had gone two years without at the time, his girlfriend had dumped him, heck he had had all the right in the world to go to town when Kaitaama ditched the dress. Hoshi had gotten laid way before that – on Risa.
But it didn't change the fact that the very same woman would soon meet them and his wife was suffering. He hated life sometimes.
While Trip was still mentally ranting about the situation he had gotten them into, the airlock pressurized and a slender figure in an elaborate dress darted out, clinging to him in a tight hug.
"I was so scared," she sobbed, completely lost in fear and self-pity. "If your people had not come to our rescue..."
The rest was just a blur. He heard a growl from behind, clearly indicating that T'Pol was less than appreciative of the intimate attention Kaitaama had afforded him. He pushed their guest away as gently as he could in his panic and prepared to present himself as a target for T'Pol's wrath, rather than letting her kill their royal visitor, but all he saw was T'Pol sinking to the ground – nerve-pinched by a very fiercely scowling Malcolm.
He rushed over and caught T'Pol's body. Malcolm had been ready to do the same, but he beat him to it. Without a word Trip ran off towards sickbay with the limp body of his wife in his arms.
=/\=
"She desires him, does she not?" Kaitaama stated the obvious as she saw her one-time lover run off with the unconscious female clutched to his chest. Although the female had changed her appearance, mainly the longer hair, she had immediately recognized her as the one, who had so fiercely glared at her when they were found in the swamp.
"She's his wife," the clearly displeased human, who had incapacitated the female, replied.
Kaitaama sank to the ground, sliding down the wall. Her face was still tear-stained, but she also felt a great relief. The humans were not her subjects, so she did not have to keep up appearances. If anything, those creatures seemed to be her guardian angels.
"Are you ok?" the human female, who seemed to be attached to the scowling male, asked.
"I have spent the last four days thinking of a way to let him know that we can never be together," Kaitaama admitted. "I still love him dearly, but we can never..."
Her sentence was cut short by hysterical laughter from the two humans. Looking at them in confusion for a moment, Kaitaama started laughing, too. It was good to be allowed this lapse in her royal appearance. In a mix of tears and laughter she accepted the female's hand, which was offered to help her stand up.
=/\=
the next day...
Trip rubbed his temple. His dear wife had woken up after Malcolm's nerve-pinch and instead of retaliating against him, she had decided to go into a Vulcan style giggle fit. She was still mental-laughing through their bond. As much as he liked to hear the sound in his mind, the fact that T'Pol seemed unable to stop was making him slightly uncomfortable. Having been told by Hoshi and Malcolm that both Trip and the newly minted queen of Krios Prime had been drawing up plans to let each other down gently had sent T'Pol into an almost delirious joy and amusement.
He sent her a mental image of a crashed shuttlepod, reminding her that he was trying to pilot a Mark-V without killing another planet's royalty in the process.
Forgive me Ashayam, she sent amid mental giggles. The relief of hearing the news is taxing my ability to control myself. I will make up for it."
Feeling frisky he sent her a picture of the sauna in the spa.
Meet me there at the usual time, came her clearly aroused bond-reply. We are still to use the facility for an intimate encounter. This will change tonight, Ashayam.
He sent back an image of a heart – his usual reply for 'I love you'.
Talk to her, T'Pol instructed. A serious undertone returned to her mental voice. I cannot begin to imagine the hardship of giving you up, despite her obvious affection for you.
He sent the mental image of a heart again. T'Pol's affection was resonating in his mind.
Somehow managing to keep enough concentration on the task while having a mental talk with T'Pol he set down the shuttlepod in a park in Japan that Hoshi had suggested. This being the middle of winter the air was chilly but fresh. The landscape was covered with snow.
He helped his passenger out of the hatch. She was clad in a thick coat, made of synthetic fur. She took his hand and stepped out.
He offered his arm and she put her gloved hand in the crook of his elbow.
"We're quite the couple," he said as they slowly started to walk. "So basically we've both been thinking up ways to let each other down with minimum hurt."
"I will not lie to you Trip," she said, putting her hands on his chest. "I still love you and I will cherish those few days with you for the remainder of my life. But I am first monarch now and I have to accept my people's will."
"Guess you weren't able to change all the rules then," he said, alluding to their parting words.
"I knew you would never come back," she said and he could hear the sadness in her voice. "And even if you had, Krios would never have accepted an off-worlder. And your wife – now I know why she looked at me so furiously when your people found us. She desired you."
"I never meant to hurt you," he said sincerely. "Had I known that you would..."
She silenced him by planting a kiss on his cheek.
"You have not hurt me. You have given me memories that I will cherish for life. I would not be here now, discussing an alliance with your people if it wasn't for you. You have saved me and you showed me a gentleness that is unknown in our world."
He looked at her, not realizing he had raised an eyebrow, T'Pol style.
"Kriosian men are... unimaginative," she said with a giggle. "My royal consort is still learning new things. Do you think they will let me access appropriate sections of your database?"
Trip started laughing.
"Don't worry. I'll prepare something for your royal consort," he forced out amid chuckles.
He stopped and put his hands on Kaitaama's shoulders. "So there won't be a diplomatic incident then?"
"No," she replied, slinging her arms around him. "Even if we cannot be together, I would wish very much that we could stay good friends."
"Sure thing," he said with a smile and hugged her tightly. They were standing for several moments, embracing each other, before she took his arm again. She directed them back toward the shuttle. She obviously wasn't very fond of snow.
"So, are you thinking about joining the coalition?" he asked.
"That would be too early," she said. "My people are slow to accept change. But I am trying to reach a compromise. Our deuterium and dilithium resources in exchange for protection. My people will see it as a simple trade."
"Well, you've seen what we're up against," he said. "Your people need to understand that the Romulans aren't muckin' about."
"Indeed," she said as they reached the shuttle.
"Let's show you a bit more of the planet and then get back to repair your ship," he said, holding out his hand to help her back into the shuttlepod. "I'm happy we could talk things out."
"Likewise," she said and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Show me some warmer places."
Trip took the shuttle in the air and laid in a course towards Florida. If she wanted to learn about Earth, she should as well see the scars the planet had taken and what it meant to be under attack. And it was definitely warmer than Japan in the winter.
=/\=
"They didn't really remember we were coming too, did they?" Malcolm said as he climbed into the bathtub, his whole body shaking from fear. Fairly unmistakable noises could be heard from within the sauna. Who would have thought that T'Pol was so vocal?
"It's not like we paid much attention a few days ago," Hoshi giggled, holding on to the badly shaking hand of her husband, while mentally recollecting how she had seduced Malcolm in the sauna and taken him on the spot a few days ago.
"Good to see this whole Kriosian thing pass without a major crisis though," Malcolm replied and distracted himself from his shivering by gently kneading Hoshi's breasts.
"I'm feeling bad for her," Hoshi said, puffing out her chest to give him better access. "It's not hard to see that she still has it bad for him."
"She takes it quite well, though," he said gently massaging Hoshi's bust as the shaking subsided.
"You better be prepared to do something about making me horny, stud," Hoshi said in a husky voice and rubbed her body along his. "I've always dreamed of doing it in an onsen.
Without much delay Malcolm gently entered her and the fireworks started.
=/\=
Trip observed the firing-up of the Kriosian engine, more than just a little pleased with himself and his crew. His team, made up of humans and Vulcans with a few Andorians thrown in for added flavor had worked a miracle. While Kaitaama was busy haggling with politicians, her ship started to look like new – well at least on the inside. She would have to renew the paint job at home.
He chuckled, recollecting the events of the day before. To say T'Pol was enthusiastic was an understatement. They might have been late to make love in the sauna, but they had more than made up for it. And to add to the hilarity of the moment they had found Hoshi and Malcolm wildly doing each other in the spa when they had finally come out of the sauna. Leave it to Hoshi to find ways of making Malcolm love the water.
"Hey boss, you have that goofy grin again," Anna taunted, wiping her oil stained hands on a cloth. "Care to tell me what this is all about?"
"You just keep guessing," he shot back and checked the output on his monitor.
"Time's up, boss," Anna said, looking at her watch. "You've been in here for twelve hours and before I have your wife threatening to kick my ass again,... Make yourself scarce."
"She didn't!" Trip protested, not very comforted by the thought of T'Pol going around threatening other officers.
"No she didn't," Anna said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "But she made it clear that she wants us to keep track of how long you enjoy doing your old job and none of us wants to find out what it means to make Commander T'Pol angry. Your shift's been over two hours ago, so get the hell out of here. If I remember your schedule right, you were supposed to meet Lieutenant-Commander Sato ten minutes ago."
"The things you do for the safety of your people," Trip sighed and threw his hands up in the air theatrically, but his grin gave him away.
He heard Anna's giggle as he left.
=/\=
Trip walked into Malcolm and Hoshi's quarters on Buran and nearly doubled over in laughter. When Hoshi had asked back about her visitors identity after he pressed the door bell, he knew she was probably not fully clothed, but when he entered he found Hoshi lying on the bed, stark naked, reading a book.
"You're the dream wife, hon," he said cackling. "No endless shopping for clothes with you."
"C'mere," Hoshi ordered, putting the book aside.
He walked over. Hoshi grabbed his collar, dragged him down and planted a kiss on him.
"You've done well, buddy," she said releasing him.
"Do I get to know what exactly I'm praised for?" Trip said stumbling back while Hoshi sat up on the bed.
"Make yourself at home," Hoshi said and tilted her head towards the beer mugs on Malcolm's desk.
"Want one, too?" he asked and when Hoshi nodded, he filled two of them.
"K, hon," he said sitting down in one of their desk chairs having brought her a mug. "I don't think you called me here to show me how lucky Malcolm is to come home everyday to that gorgeous view," he ventured pointing his mug at her naked body.
Hoshi giggled and he saw her blush slightly. For all her brazenness he had quickly realized that Hoshi loved being complimented on her looks and harvesting compliments with a body like that wasn't really hard. She could almost compete with T'Pol – almost.
"First of all, the kiss was for you handling Kaitaama without hurting her or T'Pol," Hoshi said and Trip had to suppress a chuckle about the 'foam beard' she was sporting after taking a swig from the mug.
"You must have missed the bit about Malcolm having to nerve-pinch her," Trip answered and his mood got a bit more serious.
"That was pre-arranged," Hoshi admitted. "We had discussed including Terval in the welcome party, but Malcolm was sure he could handle T'Pol in case the bond-reflexes kicked in."
"She knew this could happen?" he asked.
"She was actually pretty sure it would," Hoshi confirmed. "Starfleet insisted that as the second SOLCOM captain she must be there, so we made a backup plan."
"Shit," Trip swore. "I would've liked to spare her that."
"You can't fight nature," Hoshi said and started to grin mischievously. "By her heart she knew that nothing's gonna happen, but the Vulcan instinct is still there. I'd say you more than kissed and made up for it later on."
"Says the one we found bent over the deck chair begging for more," Trip shot back, nearly laughing about Hoshi's massive blush when she realized that Trip and T'Pol knew about her amorous adventure with Malcolm.
"Trip," she said after a while, quite somber after their mutual needling about each others intimate encounters.. "Malcolm and I had a talk, I've talked to T'Pol about it, too. We all have squirreled away lots of money over the years. It only was a joke of Malcolm at first, but the more I think of it, the more sense it makes."
"Well currently you make none, honey" Trip said downing the rest of his beer. "What are you trying to tell me."
"When this war is over, we want to call it quits as far as active duty is concerned. And if anything happens to either of us..."
"We'll look out for each other, hon," he reassured her.
"We want to build our own space station," Hoshi stated bluntly. "And we want you to be the captain of it."
Trip, having refilled his mug fell down back on the chair heavily, looking at her.
"That's...err...well, unexpected," he stammered in surprise.
"First time I've seen you speechless and I thought these would do the trick," Hoshi answered with a grin jokingly lifting her breasts with her hands as the door hissed open in the background.
"That works jolly well on me, luv, but he's having a different model in mind," Malcolm quipped entering their quarters, greeting Trip with a friendly pat on the back and Hoshi with a searing kiss.
"Is she always like that?" Trip asked, chuckling about Hoshi's antics.
"Have you never wondered why, unlike you, I have no trouble ending my shift when it actually ends?" Malcolm replied drily, filling his mug from the wall-mounted keg.
"I get the idea," Trip conceded with a chuckle. "Should I leave you to whatever happens next?"
"Have you gotten an answer out of him yet, luv?" Malcolm asked Hoshi, commandeering the second desk chair.
"Not yet," Hoshi admitted.
"You're serious about this station business, aren't you?" Trip asked, looking at Malcolm, ignoring Hoshi's playfulness for the moment.
"We've done it twice now mate," Malcolm reasoned in reference to their rebuilding of Salem One and Jupiter Station. "Next time we'd be doing it for our own good, preferably with no war going on."
"And enough space for Hoshi where clothing is optional," Trip quipped, laughing at her deep blush.
"I won't complain," Malcolm declared cackling, clinking mugs with him.
"Hell, I hope she rubs off on T'Pol," Trip shot back and they all started laughing.
=/\=
Charles Tucker jr. pushed the button once the connection was finally established. Their connection time would be very limited, but he had looked forward to speaking to the second Vulcan he had taken to his heart. Who would have thought that one day he would have two aliens in his family and both would be so dear to him.
"Hi there, honey, how yer doin'?" he drawled when the face of T'Pau appeared on his screen.
"I am well, grandfather," she said, trying the appropriate appellation for the first time. "I presume the same applies to my En'ahr'at?
"They're all fine, hon, don' worry. How's the job transfer going?"
"As expected, Soval was elected to be my successor," she reported. "We have started the process of passing responsibilities."
"When are ye coming back, hon?"
"I shall leave Vulcan tomorrow."
"Means you're back by Friday," he said with a smile. "Cath will have a field day with 'at. She's come up with a mushroom risotto she wants you to try. We're takin' you home for the weekend but it's damn cold, so if you've got any jackets left from your tour with the Andorians..."
"I am sure Trok can advise me on preparing for the visit."
"Y'kow what honey?" he replied, barely able to contain his glee. "Why don't we invite your Trok along?"
"He is not my property," she replied hotly, eliciting a wide grin from the human.
"I'll let him know that he's spendin' the weekend on Earth," he said smiling,
T'Pau severed the connection, ashamed by her emotional reaction, but also strangely invigorated by the thought of Trok accompanying her on her second visit to Earth. It would be slightly more accommodating than the antarctic this time.
=/\=
"It's not like she's new," Trip said. "But she's good to get you home."
"Do all humans refer to their ships as women?" Kaitaama asked.
"Only the pretty ones," he answered with a boyish grin. Kaitaama slung her arms around him.
"It is much harder to say goodbye this time," she said, her voice breaking.
"We'll stay in touch honey," he said, embracing her gently. "We're now the ones protecting your planet and we mean it. We will not let you down."
"Until then my royal consort has some learning to do," she quipped amid tears, tapping the PADD in her pocket that he had given her.
"He looks like a nice guy," Trip said, remembering the picture of the muscular Kriosian she had shown him. "He'll do his best."
"He will never be you," she whispered in tears and after planting a hot kiss on him she disappeared through the airlock, leaving him behind.
He sank to the ground.
"Why am I hurting people like that?" he demanded of nobody in particular and broke down crying helplessly as emotions bottled up for many months broke through his weakened defenses.
=/\=
"It's worse than you thought, T'Pol. It looks like he's completely losing it," Malcolm whispered.
"Zap him and off to sickbay," Hoshi whispered back.
"I will carry him," T'Pol added her whispered demand.
"We both got a penchant for living another day T'Pol, we won't compete you on that," Malcolm whispered sarcastically before she darted out of their hiding place to render Trip unconscious with a nerve pinch.
"And we've all been adding to it," Hoshi said bitterly in a breaking voice as Trip slumped to the ground.