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Forsaken - Pt 2Forsaken By stub
****************************** Part II
Doctor Phlox smiled and nodded. I stood in front of him with my hands on my hips. He'd been closely monitoring the crew physically and emotionally since the weapon was destroyed. I, apparently, was one of his closer studies. "You can't make me, Doc," I said indignantly. I knew very well that he could, of course, but there was no way I was going to voluntarily agree to counseling sessions. "If you prefer, Commander, you can consider it more…couples therapy," the doctor said determinedly. "The hell I can," I muttered. "It's only for one session," Phlox reasoned. "We'll be back on Earth in a couple of days. You need closure, Commander." "I have closure." "You don't have closure with the captain," he said softly but firmly. "You lost a sister and a lover in less than a year's time. I'd hate to see you lose a best friend, too." I sighed heavily and glared at the Denobulan. Looking at Phlox I saw a stubbornness in his eyes. There was no way I was going to get out of this. All he had to do was make it a doctor's order. "I expect to see you here tonight at 1930. I can make it an order, Commander," Phlox said, as if reading my mind. I turned around, acquiesced with a vague nod and left Sickbay. Closure, I thought. It was a little late for closure. I've already had that conversation with Archer. * * * "You wanted to see me, Cap'n?" I said as I stepped into his ready room. He had his back to the door, staring out the window. Archer slowly turned around. The expression on his face set my nerves on edge. He looked positively sick. "Trip," he said quietly. "Sit down." I was scared. What the hell was going on? I was too nervous to sit. "What is it?" I asked. I took a step forward. "T'Pol-" he choked out, then cleared his throat. "T'Pol's been hurt. She was shot." "Shot?" I repeated. "Twice in the stomach." "She's going to be ok," I said quickly. "She'll be fine. She's strong, Cap'n. Stronger than you and I combined." Archer said nothing. He wouldn't even look at me. "I'm sure Phlox can fix her up in no time," I continued. "You've seen what he can do with those-" "Trip," Archer interrupted. "She's not here." I stood there with my mouth open, staring blankly at the captain. "Soval took her." My forehead creased into a frown. "Took her where?" I demanded. Archer sighed, clearly struggling with how to tell me what was next. "He's taking her back to Vulcan with him." "Huh?" Why was he going there? "He just sent over a transmission," Archer explained. His voice was soft but firm. "T'Pol's wounds are...she won't make it, Trip." "Wh-what?" I gasped. It felt like the wind had just been knocked out of me. He cleared his throat again. "He said he needs to return her to Vulcan so her katra can be…I dunno, released or something." "Released?" I asked. I didn't understand. "Her katra?" I looked down at the floor, trying to process what Captain Archer was telling me. "I think…I think it's the Vulcan equivalent of a soul. There's a ceremony to be performed when Vulcans die." I looked up and stared at Archer. "But she's not dead," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "Soval said she most likely will be by the time they reach Vulcan. He doesn't give her much hope." Soval, that son of a bitch. I snorted derisively. "He never has given her much hope," I said with disgust. T'Pol was a part of our crew, not his. She fit in better with us than with her own people. Why did he suddenly want to take her with him? She didn't belong there; T'Pol belonged here with us, with me. "We have to go over there and get her, Captain. I know Phlox can save her. Just give him the chance!" I was getting desperate. Archer stood. "It's not my decision, Trip." "I want to see her." "You can't," he said quietly. "They're gone." "Why did you let them go?" This was unbelievable. My world was collapsing around me. "What choice did I have?" "You could have beamed her back! Sent over a team of MACOs! We could have done something! She could be here on Enterprise, in Sickbay!" I glared at him and lowered my voice to an even keel. "You could have told me sooner." Archer stepped out from behind his desk. He gently grasped my shoulders. "Trip, she's gone," he said quietly. I couldn't look at him. I couldn't speak. Hell, I could hardly breathe. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. The captain was saying something, but I couldn't hear him. My ears were buzzing, my head stuffed up. I shrugged out of his grasp as I felt tears prickling behind my eyes. I turned and glared at Archer. "How could you let this happen?" I accused. Without waiting for a response, I turned and walked out of his ready room.
I remember I had gone straight to Major Hayes to get the details about what had happened. He was very short but concise with his answers. They'd been ambushed from above while T'Pol was hacking into their database to swap coordinates. Everything was going according to plan except for the secret catwalks above. Our scans hadn't been able to penetrate them. We had no idea they were there. It had been like shooting fish in a barrel. She didn't stand a chance. To his credit, though, Hayes and his men managed to lay down enough cover fire to pull T'Pol out rather quickly. It could have been much worse. "Commander?" My attention snapped back to the present. Lieutenant Hess was holding out a data padd to me. I offered a tight smile and took the padd. "Are you all right, sir?" she asked. She was frowning. "I'm fine," I nodded. I wasn't, though, not really. It's been six weeks and I was still dwelling on T'Pol's death. Everyone on board knew it, too. "Maybe you should go lay down for a while, sir," suggested Hess. "We'll be back to Earth in a couple days. There's not really much to do until then." I looked at her. Hess offered me a sympathetic smile and gently pushed me towards the doors. "Thanks," I replied and took my leave of Engineering. I wandered back to my quarters trying not to think about anything. I lay down on my bunk and closed my eyes. I hadn't realized how tired I was. Exhausted, really. Six weeks of not sleeping had finally caught up to me. I fell into a blissfully dreamless sleep. The next thing I knew Phlox's voice was squawking at me through the comm. "Commander Tucker?" I sat up with a start. "Commander?" the voice repeated. I pushed the button on the comm. "Doc?" "It's 1935, Commander." Oh shit! "I'll be right there," I said quickly into the wall unit. I jumped out of bed and made my way toward Sickbay. Captain Archer and Doctor Phlox were waiting for me when I arrived. They were seated in Phlox's office, talking quietly. I sat down in the empty chair and looked at my knees. "Well," Phlox started. "Captain, perhaps you'd like to begin?" Talk about cutting to the chase, I thought. Archer said nothing, just shifted uncomfortably in his chair. After a few moments of tense silence, the doctor turned his attention to me. "Commander? Anything you'd like to say to the captain?" It was my turn to shift uncomfortably. I kept my eyes on my knees and my mouth shut. Phlox sighed loudly. "You two remind me of my sons when they were about eight years old," he stated. I looked up at him then. "There's nothing childish about this, Doc," I said coolly. "I didn't say there was." The three of us sat in silence for long minutes. The captain and I refused to look at each other. I studied the things on Phlox's walls and countertops. He had quite an assortment of degrees. Occasionally the doctor would clear his throat, an attempt to urge us on. "Maybe this wasn't a very good idea, Doctor." Archer finally spoke. He stood up to leave. He turned towards me and said, "I'm sorry, Trip." I sat for a moment processing that. He's sorry?!? I thought. It sounded almost flippant to my ears. Does he have any idea what he's apologizing for? I turned to his retreating form and yelled, "Sorry for what?" Archer stopped. I saw his shoulders slump. Slowly he turned around and took three steps toward where I was sitting. "I'm sorry T'Pol died," he replied quietly. I narrowed my eyes at him. "You think I've been waiting for an apology?" I asked. He gave me a tired shrug. "Whether you have or not, I'm giving you one now. I'm sorry I had to make that decision and that that decision came at the expense of a good friend. I'm sorry she's gone. And I'm sorry that I lost my best friend because of it." He looked so exhausted and beaten. He looked as if he wanted to cry. Captain Archer looked so much older. "I didn't want to send her, Trip," Archer continued. His eyes were the saddest I've ever seen. "She had the most training, the most experience. I had to. I can't let my personal feelings get in the way as the captain of this ship. Earth was at stake. The human race was on the brink of extinction. I had to send the best person for the mission." Archer heaved a sigh and looked around the small office. I could see him blinking back tears. He caught my eye again and tried to smile. "As T'Pol would say, 'It was the logical thing to do.''' "She'll never say those words again," I heard myself say. I was still so angry. I was shaking. "I – I understand why you sent her, but I don't know if I can forgive you for it so easily." "Trip-" "You took the one thing from me that made me the happiest," I blurted out. Archer stood gaping at me. "It wasn't personal." "Yes! Yes, it was!" I shouted. I stood up. "You have no idea what she meant to me. She was my world. Earth is saved, but my world is destroyed!" "I-I had no idea," he said quietly. "I know you didn't," I replied bitterly. "You weren't around." I sat back down heavily in the chair. "The last few months I thought you were jealous of what I had with T'Pol. But now I realize that you just…couldn't be bothered to look around you. To care enough what was happening to your crew…your friends." "Is that what you think?" Archer said loudly. "That I didn't care? I was saving our planet!" "WE were saving our planet! You weren't doing it alone!" "I'm the captain! I couldn't risk getting emotionally involved!" "Saving our species isn't emotional?" I shot back. I snorted. The captain sighed looked at Phlox for help. "Just forget it," I said. "I know you were doing what you had to do and it worked. But I don't see things going back to the way they were. I lost two best friends out of this." I got up and walked out of Sickbay.
Author note: I was actually entertaining the idea of cutting Archer some slack. And then I realized how much I would be compromising my I Hate Archer ideals. I just couldn't do it. Trip might hold Archer in high regard on the show, but then again, he hasn't lost T'Pol, either. Love make people do crazy shit. Maybe some (a lot, all) of you won't be able to see Trip acting this way, but I can. I guess that's why I wrote it. Besides, there's always Part III.
Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS! A whole mess of folks have made commentsStub, there is no way Trip would be able to cut Trip one inch of slack. You go girl with the anti-Archerness of this story...it's his fault, and Trip needs to make sure he knows it! Okay, on a less a-a couch hogging note...this is a great story, we can only hope that at the end we'll find out that Soval is being really just being a git, and that T'Pol is still alive. (Ever hopeful me!) Yes, yes, yes. That´s okay with me too. And I soooo hope T´Pol is still alive... I can't believe that Soval would assume T'Pol is going to die. For that matter, I can't believe that Phlox would allow her to be taken when her life so precariously hangs by a thread. Damn that Soval. Trip must go find her! More chapters...PLEASE! Okay, I had to go back and re-read Part 1 to get my head back into the angst... Great continuation; you're right, the friendship is OVER, beyond repair. But I do hope that T'Pol recovers, and that her father contacts Trip personally to let him know, and invites him to Vulcan. I'd love to see the conversation when they meet. :) Very, very nice, stub! And absolutely on character for Trip and Archer as they've been developed in the Expanse. Yes, you were hard on Archer, but it was the truth. He's isolated himself from his crew. He's shut them out. Can't wait for Part 3 Soval contact them? They didn't see it happen? If you don't see it happen, then it might not have happened. Soval didn't want her on the ship in the first place. Getting T'pol back from the Vulcans could be just the thing to get Trip and Archer talking again. hmmmmm she's not dead, say it with me people, she's not dead. Trip.... *sigh* You are both idiots and both made bad choices and good choices you have to forgive and find each other again. I may not hate Archer as much as you but in this case... "Archer get's nothing!" I didn't want to see Trip forgive Archer! I don't care how logical it was! He killed Trip's woman! He deserves nothing!!!!!!!!!! Yeah with the archer hate!!! Oh, and the rest of the story is very good too. I'm pretty much a true-neutral Archerite; he is merely a vehicle to keep OMT on the air. Personally, I don't think Trip'd hate Archer -- I think he'd be distanced from him, though. He might recognize the need for Archer's actions without being able to recognize his friend any longer. I think he'd be too wrapped up in T'Pol's loss to have anything to spare for Archer, and in fact might push Archer away as people sometimes do "to spite their face". stub, please hurry up and write part three, the suspense is killing me! oohhhh i liiiiiike considering how trip lashed out at malcolm i could see trip at least for awhile acting like thia and being so angry. and i could still see them coming together to get tpol back. considering how trip lashed out at malcolm i could see trip at least for awhile acting like thia and being so angry. and i could still see them coming together to get tpol back. wonderful!! i love this story. but T'Pol can't be dead... she can't... There's no way that T'Pol is dead. RIGHT! Has Soval contacted Enterprise yet, and told them that she's dead. I believe not. Looking forward to Part 3. WOW. I just got around to reading this and I love it. However, I'm not willing to entertain the idea that T'Pol's dead. The Trip and Archer scene was incredible. I don't think Archer ever understood that he wasn't in this alone. He distanced himself away from the crew and forgot about them. Can't wait for the next chapter. |