Tripp sighed as he put his son to bed. He kept coming back to the question that T'Pol asked while they were in sickbay. Were they doing the right thing raising a family in space in the middle of a war? Tripp glanced down at Charlie to see how much he looked like him. He knew that one of them could be gone tomorrow and leaving the other to raise their son by themselves.
He hasn't had time to answer T'Pol question because after the doctor came back T'Pol had been called to the captain's ready room to talk about the Tellarites and how they want to go about getting them as an alliance against the Romulans. Tripp had left sickbay with Charlie to find something to eat. He thought that he might talk to her about it when she got back to their quarters that night, but by the time she returned it was late and they both just wanted to sleep. It was a hard day for both. He was glad that he got to hold her that night.
It didn't take them long before they got to the Tellarite home world. T'Pol went to the plant with Jonathan to talk and Tripp stayed up on the ship to oversee the repairs. Tripp hasn't seen his wife for several days. Tripp's days included handing off Charlie to Crewmen Edgerton in the morning. Do some repairs to ship, command the ship, and check base with everyone on the ship, before getting his son from Crewmen Edgerton. Charlie and he would find dinner in the mess hall with either Malcom or Travis. After dinner he would take his son back to their quarters to speak to T'Pol over a call. After the call, Charlie would call for his mom and Tripp would spend most of the night trying to calm Charlie down before they fall asleep on the couch. Tripp would wake and put Charlie to bed. He would go to his bed and try to sleep, but the bed always felt cold.
Tripp left his sleeping son and went back to the living area. He looked around the room and saw what a mess it was. He went and picked up the toys and other baby things. T'Pol never liked a mess. After the mess was cleaned up, Tripp took out a PADD to read a few reports before heading to his cold bed and trying to fall asleep. He thought about bringing Charlie to his bed, but T'Pol didn't want their son to start sleeping in their bed. Tripp glance at T'Pol's meditating area before jumping in the shower. He got out of the shower and crawled in bed. He tossed and turned before settling his hands behind his head and staring at the ceiling.
Tripp heard the outer quarters open. He was ready to jump out of bed to protect his son when he realized that he knew the footsteps. He waited while she went to Charlie's room to look in on him. He knew that she would stand there for a moment. He thought that he would get up and meet her by the door, but it was better that she came to him. He heard when she left Charlie's room and made her way to their room.
Their doors opened and his wife stood in the doorway. Tripp looked her up and down to see that she tired. He met her glaze and her emotions very close to breaking. She needed a moment to herself. He didn't say anything as she went to the bathroom. He knew that she was showering. He watched as she came out and went to mediate. Tripp didn't say anything because he knew that she needed it. He kept one ear out for Charlie, but Charlie was sleeping through the night for the most part.
Tripp closed his eyes to see if he could find sleep, but he knew that wasn't going to happen until T'Pol was next to him. He heard her move and come to the bed. She crawled in bed and made her way to his side. She wrapped an arm around him. Tripp brought one arm down and wrapped it around her. He slept well that night.
Tripp woke up to find T'Pol was gone. He reached over to feel her spot to find that it was still warm. Tripp fell back on the pillows and moaned. He wondered what time she got up and left him. He tried to close his eyes to sleep but he heard Charlie cry and knew that it was time to get up. He pulled on some pants and made his way to Charlie's room. He didn't realize that Charlie had stopped crying until he got to the room. He found T'Pol sitting in the rocking chair with Charlie. He stood there and watched his wife and son. He saw how happy his son was that his mother was back.
T'Pol looked up at him, Tripp felt his heart skip a beat. He had missed seeing her face.
"Tripp," He felt her in his mind.
"Love," Tripp felt how much she missed him and Charlie. He knew that she would never say anything out loud. Tripp made his way over to her and kneel by the rocking chair. He could see how close she was to losing her emotions. He took her hand and gave it a squeeze to let her know that they had missed her too. They stayed that way until T'Pol was called to go back on the world. He kissed her before she left.
Tripp sighed as he went to work, he knew the repairs were almost done, he didn't know how the talks on the world were going. He hoped that it was going well because they were going longer than with the Vulcans. Tripp knew that they needed them as ally. They couldn't fight the Romulans with only the Andorians and the Vulcans.
He went through the motions of the day and ended the night alone with his son. Tripp got his son to sleep and put him in bed. Tripp tried to stay up and wait to see if T'Pol was going to here tonight. He couldn't keep his eyes open tonight. It was probably from not sleeping well the last few nights and only having one good night of sleep.
Tripp crawled into bed and fell asleep.
Tripp knew that there was dead, the battle was hard on both sides. He knew that the bridge was hit, and he almost ran to the bridge to see if T'Pol was okay. He had to stop himself and focus on his job. The battle was over, and Tripp took a breath as he asset the damage to the ship. They were bad, it was going to take while to get the ship in good shape. They might have to find a base and do repairs. He knew that he was going to spend many hours here to fix everything. T'Pol wasn't going to like it very much, because she was going to have to deal with Charlie by herself. Charlie was having no problem showing his emotions about what he wanted. He knew how to say no, and Tripp wondered when T'Pol was going to lose it with their son. Tripp chuckled to himself as he looked over a report that someone handed him.
"Commander Tucker to sickbay," Tripp heard the voice of the doctor over the comm system.
He traded a look with one of his people before running out of engineering. He ran all the way to sickbay, not caring who he was running into. He made it to sickbay and found that it was packed with people who had injuries from the battle. He saw the doctor talking to the captain. Tripp looked around the room before making his way over to them.
Captain Archer was the first to see him and there was a mournful look on his face. "Tripp," Jonathan started but he couldn't get any more words out when Tripp let out a cry.
Tripp saw his wife laying on bed. It looked like she wasn't breathing. Tripp took a moment to look at the doctor to see green blood all over him and his smile was gone. Tripp looked back at his wife and started to cry. He fell next to the bed. He grabbed her hand to feel that it was growing cold. With his other hand he ran it over T'Pol's head.
"Please, don't be gone," Tripp said even those he knew that she was gone. He tried to reach her in her mind but there was no way that she was going to respond. "I need you," The tears started to really fall for him. "Charlie needs you." Tripp looked back at the captain and doctor. "Charlie?"
"He is fine. Crewmen Edgerton is with him," Phlox said. Tripp nodded before looking back at his wife to see that she gone from his life and the life of their son. They were trying for another baby and now they were never going to get that.
Tripp leaned over and kissed his wife's cold lips one more time. "I will always love you, T'Pol." Tripp took a breath before turning to the captain. "How?"
"When the bridge was hit, she went flying and hit her head. We got her to sickbay as quickly as we could," Jonathan looked at the doctor. "He did everything he could for her." They were waiting to see what Tripp was going to do with this information. They were worried that he would go off the deep end and start yelling at them.
Tripp nodded and stood. He glanced at his dead wife. "I need to see my son," Tripp made his way around the people in sickbay. Phlox and Jonathan watched him leave, they traded a glance. They were hoping to see him yelling at them that they didn't try hard enough to save T'Pol. This quiet Tripp had them worried about what he was going to do.
Tripp made his way to his quarters; he opened the door to see Crewman Edgerton sitting on the couch with Charlie. "Dadda," Charlie said and reached out of him. Tripp picked up his son and held him close.
Tripp turned to Crewman Edgerton. "I'm sure that you heard what happen," Crewman Edgerton nodded.
"I'm sorry, sir," Crewman Edgerton stood and left father and son to mourn in private.
Charlie looked at Trip with his blue eyes. "Mama," Tripp tried to hold in but Charlie asking for T'Pol broke him. Tripp sat on the couch and held on to Charlie and cried. How was he going to explain it to Charlie that his mother was never coming back?
Tripp was going to have to raise Charlie by himself. T'Pol and he knew the risk about working on a ship in the middle of a war. Tripp thought that they would make it out of this war and settle down somewhere on Earth to raise their family. They wanted to give Charlie siblings, but now they will never happen. Tripp didn't know how he was going to raise his half-Vulcan son. All he could think about was giving him all the love that he needed to succeed in life.
"You got this, Jon," Tripp pated Jonathan on the shoulders. They were standing in a room before Jonathan Archer made his way to the many worlds sitting in a conference room.
The Federation was something that Jonathan made come true. "Thanks, I'm nervous as hell about this." Both men looked down at Charlie, who was playing with some of the toys that Tripp had brought. Charlie notice that someone was looking at him and looked by at his dad and Uncle Jon.
He smiled at them. "Daddy," Charlie wondered what was going on.
Tripp bent down and ran a hand through Charlie's blond hair. "You're fine, Four." Charlie nodded and went back to his toys. Tripp stood again and looked at Jon.
"She would be proud of him," Jonathan said.
"I know," Tripp stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"Five minutes, captain," A young woman came back to them with a PADD in her hand. Jonathan nodded.
"Go and change the world, Jonathan," Tripp smiled at his friend. Tripp held out his hand.
"You take care of yourself and that little boy," Jonathan shook Tripp's hand, but pulled him into a hug. The friends would never say that tears fell while they hugged each other.
Jonathan let Tripp go, took a breath before making his up the ramp to stage where he would be standing. Tripp watched his friend as applauds started for the great man. Tripp took a breath before gathering his son and their things. He took Charlie's hand.
"Let's go home, Four," Tripp headed out when the crowd stopped clapping and Jonathan started to speak.
"Okay, Daddy," Charlie held on to his father.
"Dad, have you seen my cap?" Charlie shouted from his room.
Tripp made his way to his son's room. "This cap," Tripp had found it in the living room.
"Yes," Charlie grabbed the cap from his dad. Charlie looked at the cap, it was an old cap that Charlie had found in basement. Tripp knew that the cap used to be his when he was on the Enterprise.
Tripp looked at his son to see a man standing in front of him. Charlie was going to Starfleet Academy to start his first year. Tripp felt that he was looking into a young version of himself, but Tripp knew that his mother was in him too. Charlie like to keep his ears covered, but they were the one thing that he got from his mom.
Tripp looked around the room to see memories that Charlie had made in the last fourteen years. There were toys that he had from his childhood that he would never give up to the baseball sitting on his desk that his grandfather gave him. There were also some things that were Vulcan that came from T'Pol's family.
Tripp turned back to his son. "Are you ready?" He smiled, but he wasn't ready to let his son go.
"Yep," Charlie grabbed his bag. Tripp followed his son out of his room to the front door of their house. There was a transporter that was waiting to take him to the academy. Charlie placed his bag on the ground, turned around, and hugged his dad. "I will miss, Dad."
"I will miss you, too," Tripp let go of Charlie. "Take care, Four," Charlie rolled his eyes at his dad. "Your mom would be so proud of you," Charlie nodded. He only got to know his mom for a short time.
Charlie picked up his bag and headed for the transporter. Tripp watched Charlie as he boarded the transporter and as the transport fly away until it was dot.
Tripp woke with someone shaking him. He saw his wife there. "Tripp, are you okay? You were crying."
"Yeah," Tripp wiped his face. "Just had a dream." He reached for T'Pol. "How much do you need to meditate?"
T'Pol raised an eyebrow at him. "Why?" She moved out of his way.
"I want to hold you," Tripp reached for her.
"Is that all?" T'Pol let him pull her closer.
"I want to feel you," Tripp pulled her down on the bed. He ran a hand over her butt. Tripp heard a hitch in her voice. He knew that he might have her. T'Pol leaned and over and kissed him.
Tripp knew that he had her. Tripp pulled her over him and they spent the rest of the night without words.
A/N: Thank you for reading. This past weekend I went to Mission Chicago where I got to meet Conner Trinneer, Dominic Keating, and Anthony Montgomery. I had a blast and they were awesome to meet. -sjt