Thank You

Thank You

By Amok2

RATING: G
GENRE: T/T vignette, Romance, not so angsty this time
DISCLAIMER: The lucky execs over at Paramount and UPN own all things Trek. No copyright infringement intended.
SPOILER: Missing scenes (I wish!) from “Home”

NOTE: I wondered what T’Les meant when she said “I’ve noticed” when Trip told her T’Pol said ‘Thank You’ all the time…

Also, many thanks to the Vulcan Language Institute – a lifesaver, as always.

==

0400, Vulcan

Trip blew out a long breath as he squinted at T’Pol’s silhouette patiently standing in the doorway and the last echoes of a metal gong faded away. His sluggish mind was processing her morning – is it morning already? – greetings to him. She was waiting for him to get up so that they could prepare breakfast.

He knew Vulcans were early risers, but why, for the love of jet lag, did they have to start their days this early?

T’Pol stepped inside the room as Trip turned on the lights in the guestroom. He quietly groaned as he threw the covers back and swung his legs over the side of the bed, still slightly slumped over although mostly upright.

T’Pol was at his side in an instant. “I should have told you that we are early risers by Earth standards,” she said. “I know you must still be exhausted after our journey.”

“It’s all right, T’Pol,” he said. “My mama didn’t raise me to be a disrespectful guest. I’m real appreciative your mom’s letting me stay here. Just let me shake the sleep off for a sec. Maybe a shower would help.”

“Perhaps it would,” T’Pol said. She tilted her head toward him and after a long minute she spoke. “Do you regret coming here with me?”

Trip looked at her quickly as her words cut through his drowsiness. “What? No, no, never. Just because I’m a grouch in the morning doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here. Besides, living on our starship these last couple years, it’s not as though I haven’t had to get up in the middle of the night for some reason or other.”

T’Pol looked relieved at his response and resumed her serene disposition. Trip smiled and in the unguarded moment in-between her display spontaneous emotion and shields up, he snuck in a quick kiss, which she returned and deepened, drawing his hands around her waist. He reluctantly pulled away.

“That beats an alarm any day,” he softly murmured.

“Indeed,” she said, her lips still only less than an inch from his.

Trip chuckled and shook his head and rose from the bed. “I better go shower and get ready. Don’t want to make a bad impression on your mom on my first morning here.”

Here goes the eyebrow, he thought. And he wasn’t disappointed.

“My mother doesn’t think of you in a negative light,” she said, clearly disturbed to Trip’s watchful eyes. “She merely wondered why you had come with me, since I had previously never brought home a colleague.”

At that, Trip’s own eyebrows rose, digesting the nugget of information and storing it for another day as he turned around and headed for the shower.

==

0430

Trip found T’Pol in the kitchen, laying aside several unfamiliar looking vegetables and fruits and something that resembled bread.

He hovered behind her before poking his head over her shoulder, hands firmly on his own hips, for once. T’Pol straightened up at his presence and subtly leaned back, almost touching his shoulder before turning around to face him. He took a step back and let her appraise him – now showered, hair still a bit wet but styled from its bed-head look of only a half-hour ago, donning a clean white polo shirt and khaki pants.

From the look on her face, he’d say he cleaned up right good. Trip smiled and T’Pol caught his gaze for a moment before she turned back to meal preparations.

Trip stepped forward and beside her at the counter. He looked down inquisitively at the assortment and T’Pol’s deft handling of said food. As with everything else she did, food preparation was done with precision and grace, a feature Trip found endlessly fascinating.

“How can I help?” he asked.

“You can begin by making quarter-inch incisions on this,” she said, handing him what looked like a large green zucchini. “And please, be careful with the knife. I would not want you to injure yourself.”

“Aye, aye ma’am,” he said, twinkle in his eye as he concentrated on his assignment. When he was done, he handed his finished plate to her.

“Thank you,” she said.

He watched as she carefully cut and assembled vibrant-red fruit, what T’Pol called Yon-savas. The colorful arrangement that T’Pol organized that fruit and the more citrusy Sash-savas made Trip think that indeed, Vulcans did have a very keen appreciation for beauty. Now that he knew where she grew up, he could see how her sense of aesthetics had developed, quite naturally.

T’Pol also had set a pot to boil as she made plomeek soup. But since she was multi-tasking on her end of the counter, she asked for Trip’s help in preparing the soup.

“Commander, would you?” she asked, nodding at the plomeek. Trip glanced over at this, a familiar sight, and deposited it in the percolating water.

“Thank you Trip,” she said.

“You’re welcome T’Pol,” he said, smiling. “I may not be able to do much cooking, but I think I can still figure out how to boil an egg.”

“Need I remind you a child can do that?”

“Are you looking to lose your kitchen help?” said Trip, who was trying to keep a straight face.

“I thought your mother taught you to be a respectful houseguest,” came T’Pol’s retort.

“All right, all right. I’m nothing if not a product of Southern manners,” Trip said, his hands up in mock supplication. “What else do you need me to do?”

“Since boiling water seems to be your forte, I suggest you prepare our tea,” she said.

“Very funny, T’Pol,” said Trip, who was actually not put off at all. How he loved their verbal sparring, which had settled into a comfortable banter as of late.

Trip prepared a kettle for the Theris-masu, a favorite herbal tea T’Pol had preferred since her youth and also set Mut – a type of grain most like wheat – into an oven to let it rise.

They were both silent for a few minutes before Trip wondered if anything was amiss. Looking at her, he could tell she’d slipped into an introspective mood. It prompted Trip to ask her if everything was all right.

“I realized I have a great deal of apprehension in speaking to my mother. She has not agreed with the choices I have made. I am glad you are here,” she said. “Thank you for agreeing to come home with me. I am grateful for your support.”

At that, Trip’s smile grew as wide as one of Phlox’s patented grins.

“T’Pol, everyone has problems with their parents at one time or another. Trust me, I’ve put mine through the ringer once or twice. But at the end of the day, they’re blood and nothing can change that,” he said. “And T’Pol? There’s nowhere else I’d rather be and no one else I’d rather be with.” He gave her a lingering, tender look before returning to his job. T’Pol resumed hers as well.

Unbeknownst to the two, who were busy staying close to one another and reaching around and in front of the other without a second thought, they were being watched by the observant eyes of a certain Vulcan female whose verdict was still out on this stranger her daughter had brought home and his effect on her.

As she watched her daughter’s ease around the human and his around her, T’Les had little doubt the two were romantically involved. She suspected as much when she first saw the two, the way this Commander Tucker teased T’Pol and how she immediately responded. T’Pol’s reaction to Koss’ correspondence also spoke volumes about how attached she had become to this human.

But at least the Commander had the manners to follow Vulcan tradition in rising early and helping T’Pol prepare the morning meal.

Now, if only T’Pol would start acting like a Vulcan herself, she thought.

Fin

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

*chuckle* love their banter. wouldn't that have been something for her to kiss him on the show?!!

Thank goodness for fanfic! Loved that scene, and T'Les spying. Too bad she didn't see that bedroom snog! LOL

Loved these little missing scenes. Great characterizations! Thank you!

Awww.. this somehow makes Home more heartbreaking, seeing their little moments before the angsty end.

I like your "missing scene" very much. This one is very good and would have been nice to see on screen.

I was kinda disapointed with the rewrites for Home, especially when the dialogue between Trip and Koss was dropped from the final filmed version!

I particularly loved T'Les's introspection in this story as she observes her daughter and Trip interacting. Love it that in her eyes Trip is acting more Vulcan than T'Pol! Ali D :~)

Nice missing scene!

This was good. I love how cozy T & T are in each others presence. You captured it well.

Lovely little scene -- deft handling of the characters (wonderfully done!) and also an interesting glimpse of Vulcan daily life. Nice to see T'Pol in this setting and especially nice to see how easily Trip fits in.

Great missing scene. Loved it!

I loved it!