Harbinger-Added Scene

Harbinger – Added Scene

by pennyq

Date: July 17, 2004
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Angst?
Disclaimer: I own none of this and make no money from it. Paramount owns everything Enterprise.
Archive: Sure, why not?

Comments are most welcome.

Summary: It always bothered me in Harbinger that they never explained how Trip and T’Pol managed to be at their posts in full uniform when the alien started causing trouble in the middle of the night. This is just my theory of what might have happened in between.

“Rostov to Commander Tucker.”

Trip heard it almost in the back of his mind as he started to pull himself out of what had to be the best sleep he’d had in months, arguably years. It took him a good two and a half seconds to realize that his arms were wrapped around a beautiful naked woman. He started to smile, and four seconds later the events of the evening came flooding back to him.

I can’t believe this! I’m jealous…of myself?

No, absolutely not!

She’d actually looked disappointed! Which was what led him to change his mind and tell her the truth.

OK, maybe. A little.

What just happened here? Did we… Are we?

And those were the last words they’d said to each other.

“Rostov to Commander Tucker.”

Trip belatedly realized what had woken him up, disentangled himself from T’Pol, reached over and pressed the comm. button on the wall.

“Tucker here.”

“Sorry to wake you, Commander, but we seem to have a slow power drain in the EPS grid, and we can’t localize the cause.”

“I’ll be there in five minutes.”

Trip climbed over T’Pol’s sleeping figure and got out of bed to retrieve his sweatpants, which were crumpled on the floor, and his T-shirt, which was folded neatly on the desk. As he hurriedly pulled them on, he couldn’t help staring at T’Pol through the semi-darkness.

He whispered a hurried prayer of gratitude to The Powers That Be that he didn’t run into anyone as he came out of T’Pol’s quarters, and then another when he arrived at his own quarters without seeing anyone on the way. He quickly changed into his uniform, and, running his fingers through his hair, fairly trotted down to engineering, trying to wipe the grin off his face that was threatening to make itself a permanent feature.

As he lay on his back underneath the console, Trip kept replaying the night in his head. He couldn’t deny his attraction to T’Pol anymore – not to T’Pol and not to himself -- and he had to admit that it was the best sex he’d ever had. Neither of them had said a word. They just somehow knew what the other wanted. Well, at least she knew what he wanted. He couldn’t speak for her, but he also didn’t think the Vulcan woman was experienced at faking it. Still, the thought of facing her in the morning unnerved him. But worse was the thought of not seeing her. All he really wanted to do was to go back to her quarters and crawl back into bed with her.

Then he heard the tactical alert sound. Trip finished what he was doing, crawled out from under the console, stood up, and saw a figure rush at him. The next thing he knew, he was waking up in sickbay.

T’Pol heard the comm. She felt her back pressed up against his chest, his arms hugging her into his body, and she felt… safe. When he rolled away from her to answer the comm., she felt an overwhelming and unexplainable sense of loss. She kept her eyes closed as he climbed over her. She heard him searching around for his pants and putting them on, and she could feel his eyes on her. As Trip opened the door, she opened her eyes and watched him leave.

She turned onto her stomach, stretching her arms over her head, breathing deeply.

Her bed smelled like him. The scent was almost intoxicating.

And that was the thought that struck fear into her. She was losing control. She couldn’t believe what she had done – what she had initiated. For the first time in her life, she had felt jealousy, how ugly it could be, how hurtful it could make her. And as pleasurable as the evening had been, as right as it had felt at the time, she realized why she had done it. She was claiming him. She had been afraid that if she didn’t do something, she would lose him. As if he were hers to lose.

Mercifully, her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Ensign Sato’s voice.

“Bridge to Sub-Commander T’Pol.”

“Go ahead.”

“Sorry to wake you, Sub-Commander, but I think you’ll want to see this.”

“I’m on my way.”

She pulled on what passed for her uniform these days and left for the bridge. She didn’t have too much time to look at Hoshi’s findings before the alien started disrupting systems and they went to tactical alert.

After Reed and Hayes had successfully thwarted the alien from destroying the warp core, T’Pol made her way to sickbay to check on the casualties – well, one casualty in particular. The doctor was already up and about, having recovered from his attack. He claimed to still have a bit of a headache, but Phlox had his usual cheerful demeanor.

The alien lay unconscious on a bio-bed in the corner, under heavy guard. Reed and Hayes sat on the ends of adjacent bio-beds, both looking rather beat up. Commander Tucker lay unconscious on another bio-bed, actually managing to look peaceful. Still, upon seeing him unconscious, T’Pol could not keep the worry from creeping into her head.

She addressed the doctor, “Are they going to be all right?”

“Well, Lieutenant Reed and Major Hayes are a little worse for wear, but they’ll be fine. I really don’t think their injuries had anything to do with the alien. Commander Tucker merely had the wind knocked out of him. He’ll gain consciousness soon enough and be just fine.”

T’Pol breathed an internal sigh of relief, although she wasn’t sure how fine he’d be when she gave him an excuse for her behavior. Just then she realized that the doctor was giving her a quizzical look, apparently trying to read her expression. She composed herself and responded:

“I’m not sure how fine he’ll be when he finds out what’s happened to his engines.”

With that, the doctor let out a dry chuckle, and T’Pol left sickbay.

END

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

I loved that. They stayed completely in character, no wild declarations of love, just an acknowledgement of a change in their perception of one another. It was perfect. :-)

“I’m not sure how fine he’ll be when he finds out what’s happened to his engines.”

*laughs* T'Pol definitely has his number.

a welcomed change from the more prevalent forms of vocal declarations

Perfect! Very nice in between scene.

Good thinking!

"She was claiming him. She had been afraid that if she didn’t do something, she would lose him. As if he were hers to lose."

Ah, YES, T`Pol! :-))))

I thought the part about T'Pol admitting to herself that she had been trying to claim Trip was most revealing and hit the nail on the head. Well done, Ali D :~)

That time lapse in Harbinger always bugged me too. Your explanation was ... logical. Thanks! Enjoyed the story. :-)

Nice story I really liked this .I hope you'll write more stories great story.

One day, I hope TPTB will actually realise how annoying these little unexplained gaps are...no, wait, they already know, but they're all secretly fanfic addicts and they want to make sure we're all inspired to produce great fic to make up for the inadequacies of their screen-play.

This is a wonderful fill in, thank you for sharing it!

Loved it! Thanks for sharing it.

Bravo! Artfully done!

That transition in Harbinger always bothered me, too. I loved how you wrote this: straightforward and exactly what I imagined them to be thinking, especially considering their reactions the next morning. Great job!

DG

Ah, finally an explanation of sorts of why and how the ended up at their duty stations. Good stuff, loved the bit about Polly "claiming" hum. One nit-pick, how did Rostov know where Trip was or does all those kind of hails go out to every speaker throughout the ship? If so, that'd be pretty annoying for the crew.

nicely done. I like the ginger way you handled the scene and the added romantic(human) touch you gave it. Very good. More please......

I always wondered about how they arrived at their stations in uniform looking calm cool and collected! And pretty happy to read a fic that explains it!! Heehee!!