Unexpected Redux-Chapters 12 & 13

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

Thanks once again to my excellent beta Peter Simon

Chapter Twelve

Nearly three weeks had gone by since Enterprise had left the Daladian ship and headed off on their new course to find the Guardians. They hadn't come into any contact with anyone during this time, and tensions were finally beginning to ease.

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Trip stood standing outside the entrance of a huge dark cavern. All around him the atmosphere was eerie and foreboding. He felt frightened, scared, and trapped. He didn't want to go inside because he feared what he would find, but he couldn't stay outside either because then they would catch him. Deep down he knew the solution to everything lay inside that cave, but he could feel his fear welling upside him as he tried to pluck up the courage to go inside. Feeling some trepidation, he stepped forward into the all encompassing blackness.

The moment Trip stepped into the cave, he jerked awake.
Just like the previous couple of nights, he was sweating, breathing heavily, and his heart raced ten to the dozen. Standing up with the aim of calming his frayed nerves, he reached over for a t-shirt, and walked out of his room to the mess hall. He hoped a mug of hot milk and some cookies would calm his nerves.

Phlox was the only one in the mess hall when Trip entered. This wasn't unusual; it was in the early hours of the morning, and Denobulans -- unlike Humans -- required little sleep.

"Couldn't sleep again, Commander?" Phlox asked, making more of an unhappy statement than a question. "How many times is that this week?"

"Too damn many," Trip replied. He sat down next to Phlox, and ran his hand through his hair.

"Do you want to talk about it?" the Denobulan asked.

"Not much to talk about, Doc. I'm just having some weird dreams, that's all."

"Well, I do have a degree+ in psychology; maybe I can help interpret what's troubling you?"

Trip threw Phlox a resigned look at first, but then gave in and told the doctor about the dream he had had for the last several days.

"Well, the cavern could be a representation of the future and of the anxiety you are feeling towards that future -- in regards to your situation at the moment," explained Phlox.

"You mean being pregnant?" answered Trip.

"Yes, having a baby can be a stressful situation for anyone, but I would imagine more so with you being male."

"I don't feel anxious about having this baby," Trip replied. "In fact, I'm quite looking forward to seeing her," he mused as he stared off into space, causing Phlox to cast him a curious look. After a minute, Trip probed Phlox further about his dream: "What about the monster that's chasing me? I mean, it's silly, I've not been frightened of monsters under my bed since I was 5 years old."

"They could be a representation of your subconscious fears," probed Phlox.

"Geez, what could I be worried about at the moment?" Trip replied in a sarcastic tone of voice.
"We're running away from brutal killers. Seems quite normal to me."

Phlox didn't quite catch on to Trip's tone, so he carried on. "Are you concerned about the Daladian attackers finding us?"

"It's been a little over 3 weeks, and we haven't seen anyone, so I'm feeling a bit less on edge. I'll be a lot better when we can get in contact with these Guardians though."

Phlox tried another track, "How are you and T'Pol getting on? You seem to be quite close."

"We're fine, and that is all I'm saying on that subject, Doc."

Taking the hint, Phlox asked another question that could be at the root of Trip's sleeplessness. "Are you worried about what the crew is thinking?"

"I was at first," Trip explained. "Especially, after people started catching on that I couldn't fit into my uniform anymore, and when she started showing through the clothes. But I've kinda got used to the funny looks and stares. It just kinda annoys me when I catch slight sniggers behind ma back."

"Has there been much of that, Commander?"

"No, at least not within my earshot," Trip said as he slowly sipped his hot milk. "There was an incident with two stewards a while back, who didn't realize we could hear them when me, Mal and Kelby were grabbing a coffee break.
Stupidly, I got a bit upset and had to leave quickly."

"That's understandable," Phlox comforted.

"Understandable yeah, but still embarrassing. Anyway, while I was trying to convince Mal to not go back and shoot them, Kelby went back and racked them over the coals. He also went and told Chef what had happened, so Chef gave them a roasting also. He had them scrubbing his ovens for the last two weeks with a toothbrush," Trip answered,
shaking his head in surprise.

"You sound surprised."

"I am a bit," exclaimed Trip, "especially after the problems me and Kelby had over the loss of his promotion when I came back from the Columbia. I thought he'd be at the head of the queue in those thinking I'm the laughing stock of the ship."

"You have a lot more friends than you realize, Commander. Don't ever forget that." Trip just smiled and carried on sipping his drink. "So," exclaimed Phlox, getting back to solving the problem, "are you worried in any way about the child?"

"No," Trip said warily, and then turned the question back on him. "She's healthy enough, isn't she?"

"Very healthy ... and growing fast!" Phlox confirmed.

"Yeah, I know," chuckled Trip, "scared the Capt'n half to death the other night, when I felt her kick. ... Come to think about it, it gave me a shock as well. I didn't realize it would hurt that much."

"Considering you are only about six weeks gone, she is developing at an exponential rate," remarked Phlox, as he watched Trip cover his 'bulge' in a protective manner. "The data T'Pol downloaded from the Daladian ship doesn't infer that this is a natural occurrence for their species, so I have to assume that the rapid growth was genetically coded into the embryo."

Trip didn't look like he was too interested in this train of talk, so Phlox decided to pry deeper into how Trip was feeling. From Trip's whole demeanor and manner regarding the child, he was beginning to suspect that Trip's feelings for the child ran a lot deeper than he was letting on. "Have you given much thought to what's going to happen when we contact these Guardians?"

"What's to think about," replied Trip, in an evasive manner. "They're gonna transfer her to one of their kind and I'll be free to get on with ma life again."

"How do you feel about that?"

"I feel happy that we've been able to help saving her life," Trip replied, looking everywhere else in the room apart from the one person he was trying to convince. "Anyway, thanks for the chat, Doc, but I'm gonna try and hit the sack again. I think this milk an cookies have finally hit the spot."

"I want to see you in sickbay before your shift starts tomorrow, Commander. Don't forget your regular check up," Phlox reminded him when Trip stood up and walked to the door.

"Sure thing, Doc. Night," waved Trip as he walked out of the room.

"Night," replied Phlox quietly, deep in thought. He was growing quite concerned. Commander Tucker had gone through a lot this year. For the last six months, he had had to deal with the loss of his and T'Pol's child, and this loss had strained their relationship badly. Now, Trip had been violated, and had become pregnant with an alien child because of it. Phlox was concerned that this would drive Trip over the edge. The Commander had accepted unexpectedly the fact with little complaint or worry -- a little too easily, Phlox thought. That may or may not be a bad thing itself, but if Trip still carried some deep issues concerning the loss of Elizabeth, it would make the exchange of this child with the Guardians a lot harder for him to handle on an emotional level. Phlox was praying that it wouldn't be the last card in the deck that would bring the whole house tumbling down.

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Chapter Thirteen

Three weeks later, with still no sign of trouble, Enterprise rolled into the last leg of their journey. Tiny anomalies and subspace disruptions frequently forced the ship to slow down to Warp 2, so Trip was constantly on hand worrying about the engine. The dreams hadn’t stopped either; in fact they had become more pronounced as the monster had revealed itself into a ferocious two headed beast that seemed intent on ripping him to pieces.

Phlox wasn't too happy with this because the child had progressed to just over half way in its development, and Trip was definitely beginning to feel the strain from his lack of sleep, the workload and the pregnancy. Kelby and Hess had both taken a great deal of Trip's responsibilities on themselves in an attempt to relieve the pressure on him, but the stress was still taking its toll on the Commander. Phlox had asked Captain Archer to relieve Trip of duty for the remainder of the pregnancy, but Trip wouldn't hear any of it. He had just thrown an absolute rant at the suggestion.

"No damn way, Capt'n! You can court-martial me if ya want, but I'm not gonna step down now."

"Trip," said Archer, trying to calm his friend down, "Phlox is only looking after your best interests--"

"He's over-reacting as per goddamn usual," interrupted Trip. "He won't be happy until I'm stuck in ma quarters knitting booties! Kelby and Hess have already taken on half of my work at his request; they won't even let me twiddle ma fingers, climb up ladders, or lift up a wrench anymore because they say it's too taxing for me. Please, Capt'n," Trip pleaded, "the only thing I can do at the moment is to fill in reports and to arrange schedules! Don't take that away as well -- I swear, I'll go mad if ya confine me to my quarters for the rest of the mission."

Looking at Trip's sorrowful hound dog expression, Archer just caved and agreed to let him carry on working for the time being. "All right, but Phlox is going to have my hind for allowing this."

"I probably know which animal he's gonna use to chew it off with as well," laughed Trip, glad that he'd at least won one battle.

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Later that night, however, it looked like all of Trip's good intentions were going to hell in a hand basket. An anomaly had caused severe disruptions to the intermix chamber, and Hess and Kelby were having a hell of a time stopping Trip from climbing in there to sort it out himself.

"Get T'Pol down here now," hissed Hess to Kelby, who was standing besides her looking exasperated as Trip walked off to don an environmental suit.

"Do you think she'll be able to stop him?" Kelby asked, but Hess just threw him a 'this is T'Pol we're talking about, dumb-ass, cause she will' look.

Five minutes later, just as Trip was placing the helmet on his head, T'Pol and Kelby walked into the changing room. "Commander Tucker, please remove that helmet and suit at once, and follow me outside." It looked like Trip was going to ignore her, so she added: "That is an order, Commander."

With a furious look on his face, Trip did as he was told.
Once he was back in his sweat pants and shirt, he began his protest. "How--

"Please follow me to my quarters; if you are going to have a showdown, we should do it there ... in private." Not waiting for a reply, she turned around and walked off, down the corridor. With steam pouring out of his ears, Trip turned around and followed her.

When they were inside her quarters, Trip let loose with all guns blazing. "Just what the hell do ya think you were doing preventing me from doing my job--

"Getting in there physically and manually doing the work yourself is not part of your duties anymore," interrupted T'Pol in a calm manner.

"I'm the Chief Engineer of this--

"A Chief Engineer who is no longer physically capable of performing that part of his job in his current +situation."

"Will ya stop mothering me and treating me like a child? I can handle--"

"We will stop treating you like a child, when you cease behaving like one," interrupted T'Pol.

This realization hit Trip hard. He had been so frustrated lately that he couldn't believe he had let his selfish desire to 'get in there and get his hands dirty' override his protective nature. He had to remember that his duty was to protect this child at the moment and to deliver her into safe hands. The Chief Engineer part of his life was on hold while he had this mission to complete.

Sensing that all this tension wasn't doing Trip any good, T'Pol carefully held onto his shoulders and pulled him close. "You said you would protect this child," she said softly, "if this is to be achieved, you will have to cease placing yourself in dangerous situations. I know this is difficult, especially when you know you could do the job better and quicker yourself, but you must learn to step aside for now and to rely on your staff. You trained them, so you know they are capable of performing their duties."

Feeling quite dejected, Trip just nodded his agreement.

"Sit down and join me in some meditation. I'll give you a back rub afterwards to ease away your tensions."

"T'Pol, I'm not--"

"Sit, Commander!" T'Pol ordered as she led him towards the meditation mat. "That wasn't a question."

"I thought you said that you'd let me wear the trousers in a relationship," queried Trip with a smirk.

"That is hardly an appropriate course of action in your current situation," teased back T'Pol.

Trip laughed and shook his head. "Ya know, you're really catching on with the humor lark."

"Thank you, Trip. You're an excellent subject to gain practice from."

"Ha, Ha, T'Pol. Very funny," replied Trip as he struggled to sit down in the correct position due to his bump.

"Need I remind you, Trip, that in order to succeed you have to be quiet?"

Trip just rolled his eyes at this, and then closed them at last.

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Chapters 14 & 15

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

More Trip&T'Pol please :-)

yeah, great, more, thank you for your time !

yeah, great, you gave me a smile, Thank you for your time !

yeah, great, you gave me a smile, Thank you for your time !

loved it caitn wait for more

good job. I can't wait for the rest!

Hang in there, Trip! Man, how hard is it gonna be for him to give up the baby? Hope he doesn't have a nervous breakdown - 'cause he's really into Surrogate-hood.

Looking forward to your next

This is great! Love the TnT interaction! Just a teeny weeny nitpick, though (And I know we've had this discussion before... and English IS a fluid language and yada yada yada)... but... 'lark' and 'queue' are British English words, and sound funny comin' outta the mouth of a good ol' boy from the southern U.S... at least I think so. I still love the story... but I thought you might like to know. : ) - D

Ok I know that "Unexpected" was one of the Trip centric Fav episodes,,,, But dang,, these men gettin pregnant storie lines just weird me out,,,, But Im totaly lovin the TnT healin,,, and God I hope they find this place soon cause if I were Trip Id want that kid out of me before it tried gettin out the Natural way.

thank you and i love the story so for please update soon