Unexpected Redux

Unexpected Redux

By Hoshi’s Sis

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Paramount invented the characters and the original storyline, I just went and played with it a bit.
Genre: Friendship/Angst
Date: 05/31/05
Ok to archive

Thank you to my beta – Peter Simon

Summary and Author’s Note: This was originally supposed to be just a general friendship fluff fan fiction piece, hence the subject matter – Trip getting pregnant again, but after “Terra Prime” I thought it would be a good idea to make it into a Trip/T’Pol one. Dramatic events like losing a child can either tear a couple apart or bring them closer together. I thought it would be good to do both in this story, having them torn apart from losing Elizabeth, but also bringing them together even stronger by having T’Pol support and help Trip deal with this new pregnancy. The child represents hope for her home world and as Trip’s pregnancy progresses, the idea grows on her that it could apply to a child of theirs also.

The idea for this story came from TNG programme the Dauphin, where Wesley falls in love with the Ambassador who they are escorting back to her homeworld, Daled IV. She was taken from this planet as a baby and raised in seclusion by her Guardian, called Anya, who is an allasomorph. I think Salia, the Ambassador, has this ability as well. Now that she has turned 16, they are returning to unite her people, the light side and the dark side, and bring peace to the world. I have used the Daledians in my story and the baby’s future will be based on the events based in TNG storyline above. The story will focus though on Trip and T’Pol as they deal with the new events.

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Chapter One

Six months had gone past since the death of their child; and regrettably, it seemed like Trip and T’Pol’s relationship had ended the same way as well. At first, T’Pol had accepted Trip’s support and help in dealing with her emotions of grief, but pretty soon she closed herself off and withdrew unto herself. Trip initially wasn’t surprised by her reaction. This had always been T’Pol’s way of dealing with raw emotions she couldn’t handle; she locked them away and acting as if the incident had never happened in her portrayal of a typical, cold hearted, non-emotional Vulcan manner.

Seeing her like this hurt Trip. He knew from their shared bond that T’Pol was suffering just as much as he was, and he had hoped that she’d let him help her deal with her grief, but her constant brush offs, closed off aloofness, and her reluctance to even speak with him was driving him to distraction. Deciding that he wasn’t going to stand for it anymore, Trip cornered T’Pol into a confrontation on where they were headed ‘as a couple’. Unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t to his liking: T’Pol explained that she just couldn’t handle a relationship with him at this moment in time, because when she looked at him all the emotions of what they had lost just kept filtering back. She said she needed time. Trip didn’t want to see her hurting and in pain like this, so he reluctantly agreed to give her the space she needed.

Six months later they had at least been able to gain back a good professional working relationship, although the distance was still very much between them. On the outside they were still good friends, but on the inside they were like two lost souls, each wanted more, but the fear being too great when they remembered what Paxton and others like him had put them through. There would always be opposition to their pairing from both Humans and Vulcan’s alike. Paxton’s group may have acted in the extreme, but there was still enough hatred to make a life together hard for them on either of their home planets. T’Pol wasn’t sure if what they had was strong enough to withstand the opposition they would face. The bond was still there, but as the distance grew the effects began to wane.

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It was late Friday evening, and Malcolm, Hoshi, and Travis all decided that Trip needed some distraction from his troubles. All he seemed to be interested in these days was to immerse himself in work. So they invited him to Hoshi’s quarters to play a couple of rounds of poker. Malcolm had brought enough beer for all of them and Trip had brought a variety of chips and pretzels that everyone was eagerly dipping into. Their conversation was lively and jocular throughout the night, especially since Trip was losing badly to Hoshi because of her amazing bluffing ability.

“God damn it!” exclaimed Trip as he lost another round to Hoshi. “Son of a bitch, ya did it again.”

Hoshi just threw him an innocent look, much to the amusement of Malcolm and Travis who were rolling on the floor with laughter.

“I’m glad I’m such an object of amusement for you guys,” said Trip trying to feign annoyance.

“Hey, take pity on us. It’s been a while since you were pregnant,” laughed Malcolm.

Trip threw him a look of disgust.

“I’m sorry, Sir, but it’s so funny,” laughed Travis. “You should know by now what a shark she is, but you stubbornly refuse to give up and keep plugging away, giving her more ammo to whip your butt with.”

“Watch who you’re calling a shark,” smirked Hoshi as she gathered up another stash of chips from the centre of the table.

“Maybe you should play a game where you’ll be more evenly matched?” Travis grinned at the Commander. “How about Snap?”

“Are you kidding?” Malcolm laughed. “I’m sure Hoshi will wipe the floor with him even in that game.”

“Har, Har, Har.” said Trip as he stood up, “on that note I’m off.”

“Come on, Sir!” pleaded Travis. “Don’t leave … we’ll stop.”

“Sorry, Travis, but if I’m gonna have any pay left this month, I have to leave now.”

Just when Trip turned round towards the door, there was a sound of someone imitating a chicken squawking, but he just shook his head and smirked before walking out of the door.

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Ten minutes later Trip walked onto the bridge towards the Engineering console.

“I thought you were off-duty?” Archer asked him.

“I was,” Trip replied, “but since Hoshi decided to wipe the floor with my ass and take three quarters of my pay in a poker game, I thought I would put in some extra hours to make up for it.”

“I thought you knew better than to challenge Hoshi in a poker game,” laughed Archer as he walked towards him, leaning on the railing.

“Didn’t ya know I’m a sucker for punishment?” Trip replied with a grin. “I thought she was having me on when she said she was thrown out of the Academy for running card games.”

“That wasn’t even the half of it.” Archer replied. “I had a hell of a time convincing brass into reinstating her for this mission.”

“What do ya mean, that wasn’t the half of it?”

“Why don’t you leave that and join me in my ready room?” said Archer, steering him towards the door. “You’re not going to believe half of the stuff our little linguist got up to…..”

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Trip shook his head and laughed at what he had just heard.
“It’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Archer confirmed with a smile, “compared to the image she portrays, she sure was a wild one. Although having said that, you’ll never find a more loyal and truer friend.”

“What am I? Chopped liver?” replied Trip, pretending to be put out.

“Beside you,” laughed Archer, throwing him a ‘pain in the ass’ look as he went to get two more bottles from the fridge. “Do you want to watch the new game I got sent through last week?”

“Sure, who’s playing?”

“Texas verses Miami.” Archer chuckled as he walked over to his desk to pick up the memory chip with the recording. “From what I’ve heard, it sounds right up your alley – a tight match with plenty of questionable calls that you can yell at.”

“Bring it on!” Trip said with enthusiasm, and settled himself down into a comfortable position on the coach.

Just then, the comm.. buzzed.

“Archer?”

“Sorry to disturb you, Sir, but we’ve picked up a distress call three light years away from our current position.”

“Change course to rendezvous and call up the senior staff,” the captain replied, “we’ll be there in five minutes.”

“Sorry Trip, looks like we’ll have to postpone this for another time.”

“No rest for the wicked,” said Trip, chuckling. “Come on, let’s see who needs our help this time.”

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Chapters 2 & 3

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Half a dozen of you have made comments

It's a good start, but you ought to consider posting larger segments of your story at a time. Just when it started to get interesting, it was over. I'm gonna die of terminal frustration here before I ever get my fix! I'd also love to see the events in chapter one shown rather than told. Sounds like it would be a lovely angst-fest. Pleeeese post soon!

Wait, how did Trip get pregnant again? Did I miss the explanation?

? is this the first story? indeed i have no idea how he got pregnant again, maybe you could include that in your next prologue or something? for the rest, its genuinely good writing, though ill have ta go with distracted ; its probably better to post bigger bits of your story at once.

Sorry for the confusion. In my summary I was just outlinging what how the story will go. This first couple of chapter's is generally just a set up of how things are going to happen.

Trip hasn't got pregnant yet, that will probably happen I think in the next Chapter which I will post in a few days.

Is that it? Were's the rest??????

Interesting beginning. But I want to have more!!!