I want to clear up a few things before going into this chapter. Several people have asked why T'Pol doesn't have Hoshi teach Avarak English, there's a couple reasons. The first being that Hoshi already has a job, and a new assignment, so she's not actually going to be around much longer. The second is that T'Pol has lost all contact with the other members of Enterprise at this point. Trip is the only one she has contact with and is really the only one she's interested in having contact with.

Any how, the end of this chapter is really sweet and I'm really happy with how it went. We see T'Pol and Trip take what will hopefully be a positive step forward.

I hope you like it and don't forget to leave a review because they more often then not make my day!

- Galia

Chapter 5

I'll find repose in new ways

Though I haven't slept in two days

'Cause cold nostalgia chills me to the bone

But drenched in vanilla twilight

I'll sit on the front porch all night

Waist deep in thought because when

I think of you I don't feel so alone

- "Vanilla Twilight" By Owl City

By Thursday Trip is starting to wonder if T'Pol is really going to call him at all, he's been waiting eagerly but after three days the worry that maybe she doesn't want to go to lunch with him starts to creep into his head. She seemed to like the idea on Friday when he'd asked but maybe she'd thought it over and decided against it.

It's with these thoughts that Trip gets out of bed, showers and walks out the door to head to work. Deciding against taking the bus in today he goes down to the parking garage to where he's parked his car and it's just as he's pulling out that his phone rings.

"Hello?" Trip says, hitting the answer button and putting it on speaker.

"Good morning Trip." T'Pol's voice says.

A wide grin spreads across Trip's face. "T'Pol, I was beginning to think you weren't gonna call."

"I apologize for the wait." T'Pol says. "Avarak came down with the cold as soon as Kuvok and I were better, but both are well today so I've taken them to school and day care. I was wondering if you were free for lunch?"

Trip turns out of the parking garage and onto the street, smiling all the while. "Course I am, you want to meet at the Eveleigh at noon then?"

"Certainly," T'Pol says, he hears honking in the background, she must be waiting on the bus. "I will see you at noon."

"I look forward to it." Trip grins, she hangs up and he's left the grinning idiot in his car.

The day seems to pass achingly slow, but he's in a good mood, so good even his students seem to notice it. Many of them ask what's gotten to him but he brushes it off and tells them to get back to working on the engines. Just before he's getting ready to leave for Lunch Hoshi stops in, she's due to leave for training tomorrow and they'd already said their goodbyes last night.

"Hey Hoshi, what brings you here?" Trip asks, putting the last of the tools in the locked.

"Well I heard a rumor that you're very happy this morning." She chuckles. "T'Pol finally call you back?"

"Yep." Trip grins. "I'm headin' to the Eveleigh right now."

"Good, I told you she'd call." Hoshi says. "Well have fun and good luck."

"It's not a date Hoshi." Trip says, picking up his wallet and keys and tucking them in his pockets.

"You want it to be." She says.

"Maybe." He mutters. "Okay yes, I'm hoping to take her on a real date this weekend, but right now I have to go or I'm going to be late to this date."

"Alright, have fun." Hoshi grins.

Trip grins back at her and starts towards the parking lot. Since he first saw her last week T'Pol has been on his mind and this lunch has been there too. He wonders if T'Pol will agree to an actual date with him on Saturday, she certainly seemed receptive to the idea of spending time with him.

When he arrives at the Eveleigh he's still got another 15 minutes before T'Pol is due to be there, so he goes up to the bar. He's been coming here since he was in STC and he knows the owner, Jack, well.

"Hey Trip," Jack grins. "What brings you in here on a work day?"

"I'm meetin' someone." Trip grins.

"It that Vulcan lady?" Jack asks. Having made a point to come here every time he was back on Earth Trip has told Jack a lot about T'Pol over the years.

Trip blushes a little bit. "It is yeah, she's back on Earth and we're meeting for lunch."

"Doesn't she have a husband?" Jack asks, drying some of the glasses and putting them on the rack

"She did," Trip says. "Divorced."

"Divorced huh? So you're takin' her on a date then?" His friend grins.

"Kind of, well - not really." TRip admits. "This is just a friendly lunch, but I'm hopin' she'll agree to a date this weekend."

"Have you ever had a woman say no?" Jack teases. Jack had been privy to the strings of girls Trip had 'dated' in STC, though Trip wasn't sure they really counted considering they were typically one night stands. Trip hadn't been interested in a long term relationship then, but things had changed.

"This is different." Trip says. "She's got two kids and I've been in love with her for seven years. I'm not just lookin' to get her in bed."

"Well that's a first." Jack teases. "How about the booth in the back then?" He points and Trip glances over his shoulder, it's out of the way and probably quieter than the rest of the bar at this time.

"Thanks Jack." Trip grins. "She'll be here in a few minutes, send her over when you see her yeah?"

"I will." Jack nods.

Trip crosses the bar to the booth in the back and sits down, nerves starting to settle in, what will it be like to have dinner with T'Pol again? He wasn't sure he counted their shared coffee from last week because he hadn't known if she'd be there and hadn't had much time to get nervous. Now he knew she was coming and he definitely had time to get nervous.

"What can I get for you sir?" the waitress' voice pulls him out of his thoughts.

"Oh um, sweet tea and peppermint tea if you have it." He says, thinking T'Pol will probably prefer that then the cold sweet tea he's partial too.

"Alright, I'll be back in a few minutes." The waitress smiles.

Trip check's his watch, it's noon exactly, glancing towards the door he doesn't see any sign of T'Pol. She's not usually late but he supposes she could be this time, maybe she had a busy day at work or something.

The drinks arrive a few minutes later and Trip is just looking at his watch again when the door chime signals someone entering, he looks up, T'Pol. He doesn't know why but seeing her in the blue starfleet uniform surprises him, she'd never worn it before but it looks good on her. Jack points her to the back where Trip is and Trip smiles as she starts towards the back.

T'Pol arrives a few minutes late, having to drop off records of Kuvok's flu vaccine had taken longer then she'd initially thought it would. The bartender seems to recognize her and points her to the back where Trip is seated, she makes her way back and sits down across from him.

"My apologies, I had to drop vaccine records at the daycare." She says, she notices the cup of tea in front of her and raises her eyebrows.

"It's fine," Trip says. "Oh, I ordered you some tea, peppermint, still your favorite yeah?"

"Yes I do still like peppermint." She says. "Thank you." She picks up the mug and takes a sip, it's hot but she doesn't mind.

"So the kids feeling better?" Trip asks.

"Yes, much better. I'm so sorry for having to cancel on Monday, I didn't think we'd get that sick, they usually don't." She explains, the waitress appears next to them.

"Are you ready to order?" She asks with a smile.

"Um, I am, what about you T'Pol?" TRip asks, T'Pol looks down at the menu, most everything contains meat of some sort.

"Do you have a vegetarian option?" T'Pol asks the waitress.

"We have a garden salad." The waitress says.

"I'll have that." T'Pol says closing the menu and handing it back to her.

"And you sir?" The waitress says, turning to Trip.

"Just a cheeseburger." Trip smiles, handing her the menu and looking back to T'Pol as the waitress walks away. "Sorry, I didn't realize they didn't have many vegetarian options.

"It's fine," T'Pol says. "I'm fairly used to a lack of vegetarian options."

"I'll do better next time." He smiles. "So kids are all healthy now?"

"Yes, Rakky wanted to stay home again today but I feel that has more to do with him not liking school then it does with him actually being sick." T'Pol explains.

Trip chuckles. "I'd bet it does, I'd've done just about anything to get out of school when I was a kid."

"He's not usually like this." T'Pol says quietly. "I think it's because of being picked on. I've got an appointment with his teacher after school today."

"Poor kid." Trip frowns. "Have you found a tutor for him?"

"Yes I did," T'Pol nods. "She doesn't speak Vulcan but has been teaching English as a second language for 10 years, she'll be meeting with him three times a week after school, but I need to speak with the teacher to ensure the bullying stops."

"Yeah you do, I can't believe any parents would allow their kids to act like that." Trip frowns.

"You'd be surprised." T'Pol mutters, she was all too aware that children -both human and Vulcan - could be cruel at time.

"You tried telling him to stand up for himself?" Trip asks.

"Yes," T'Pol says, moving back a little as the waitress returns with their food and sets it in front of them. "But he's not like Kuvok, Kuvok has never had any trouble standing up for himself, he can be a bit intense sometimes - not unlike me when I was a child. Avarak though, he's so timid, he's afraid of getting in trouble and having the other children be even meaner to him."

"In my experience it's usually the opposite." Trip says. "Kids usually stop if you stand up for yourself, teacher might not be too happy but if it's been goin' on this long then there really ain't much else for him to do."

"I've told him this," T'Pol says. "But he's still worried that the teacher doesn't like him and I don't think he wants to provoke anything, he's so much like Koss in that sense."

"Is he?" Trip says, taking a bite of his lunch.

"Yes he is." T'Pol says. "Koss never wanted to provoke incident when we were children."

"I thought you only met 4 times before the wedding." Trip frowns, wiping his mouth with a napkin.

"We did, but 2 of those meetings were when we were children." T'Pol says. "At our bonding ceremony, our families spent two days together, and at my father's funeral when I was 11. Both times he was rather timid. Avarak even looks like Koss."

"Does he?" Trip asks, T'Pol realizes Trip has never met Avarak, she reaches into her bag and pulls out a small photograph of the boys and hands it to him.

"Yes he does," T'Pol says. "The curls are Koss' too."

"Koss had curly hair?" Trip chuckles.

"When we were children he did." T'Pol says, Trip looks over the picture and hands it back, T'Pol tucks it back in her bag.

"Cute kid," Trip smiles. "Though I guess he's got pretty good genes."

"I suppose he does." T'Pol nods. "Though I wish he was a bit more confident."

"He'll get there." Trip assures.

The two of them spend the remainder of lunch discussing their old friends from Enterprise. T'Pol learns of Hoshi's position on the Intrepid, Travis' promotion to Commander, Malcolm's candidate for Captaincy and though she already knew Captain Archer was up for Admiral she did like hearing the story of his reaction to it. It wasn't entirely unexpected that he'd been both shocked and conflicted, she was never sure Captain Archer had thought of his career past being Captain.

The most interesting thing she learned however was of Phlox taking a fourth wife, Elizabeth Cutler, the two of them apparently had two small girls and a third child on the way. She'd never imagined Crewmen - now Doctor - Cutler being one of Phlox's wives, muchless living on Denobula.

After Trip paid for lunch - something he insisted on doing - she notices his demeanor changes slightly, from one of comfortable conversation to apprehension.

"So um," Trip says. "I was wondering what you were doing on Saturday evening?"

She raises her eyebrows. "If you mean what I usually do then probably putting the boys to bed and finishing my book. However if you mean set plans then nothing."

"Well I was um, I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner?" Trip asks.

"Dinner," T'Pol says. "You mean like one of those 'dates' humans often have?"

Trip chuckles and nods. "Yeah, a date. Saturday night, you and me."

T'Pol doesn't consider the offer but nods and says; "Yes, I would like that very much."

Trip breaks into a grin. "Really? Okay um, how about I'll pick you up at seven and we'll do dinner?"

"Seven works well, I'll find a sitter for the boys" She nods.

"Great, I'll um, I'll call you tomorrow and tell you where we'll go okay?" Trip asks. "I have to research vegetarian options a bit."

"Very well." She agrees. "I'll see you Saturday."

She leaves the restaurant feeling slightly apprehensive at the thought of a 'date' she's never been on one before, they're not a Vulcan custom and though she certainly likes the thought of one with Trip she hadn't really thought it through. She'd agreed without considering what it might mean for the boys, but what would be so different? THey'd been left with babysitters on Vulcan before, besides she doesn't plan on telling them of any relationship she has so early on.

She spends the remainder of her day thinking about this date and at the end of it decides it's a good thing she decided to go with Trip, she'd turned him down years ago and she didn't plan to do so without trying first this time.