Chapter Eighteen: Conclusion

Three Months Later.

Star Fleet Headquarters, Medical Bay.

Hoshi was just finishing getting dressed.

Malcolm waited in Phlox's office for her. He was as nervous as a cat. He drummed his fingers on the desk until Phlox finally reached over and put his hand over the Brit's without looking away from his computer screen. At last Hoshi came in.

Malcom jumped up, almost knocking his chair over. He had just been cleared to go back on active duty, just over twelve weeks after the terrible ordeal on Capella Prime II. There had been times when it had seemed that he might never be restored to full health, as there were more than a few set-backs. But after three full months he'd finally been able to pass Phlox's medical exam and psychological tests – though he still had to check in once a month for the next ninety days before he was completely released.

"Have a seat, Hoshi," Phlox said, indicating the chair opposite.

She sat down and smiled anxiously.

"Well?" Malcolm demanded, unwilling to wait one more second for the news they so desperately wanted.

"First of all, let me be clear, I never agreed to this," Phlox said. "Had I known Hoshi was pregnant and that she had had her embryo removed so that she could go on some dangerous, unauthorized rescue mission…"

"We know Phlox, we know," Hoshi interrupted.

"Yes, we're quite aware of your feelings on the subject," her husband added, rather waspishly. "You've scolded my wife numerous times and I can't say that I disagree – though since she was instrumental in saving my life, I can hardly complain. But right now, I just want to know if I'm going to still be a father or not!"

Phlox sighed, and then smiled. "The embryo is quite healthy and has been successfully re-implanted safely inside his mother's womb."

With that both Hoshi and Malcolm shouted for joy, leaped up and hugged one another. Then Hoshi ran around the desk to hug Phlox.

"But, young lady," he finally said, "you will go on an extended leave of absence. This is now a high-risk pregnancy. Removing and re-implanting embryos, is a very risky business, even by today's standards."

"Anything you say doctor, anything you say!" Hoshi replied.

"Does this mean we can finally tell people?" Malcolm asked.

Phlox grinned one of his famous grins.

"I'd say it's safe to tell your friends and family."

Again, the couple shouted for joy.

=/\=

Liz's Apartment, San Francisco.

Travis was bored out of his mind, had totally tuned out the wedding planner and by now had even dozed off. He didn't give a flying flip about the colors, the flowers, the venue, the cakes, the menu, the chair covers, the china, who sat where, or any of it quite frankly. He just wanted it over with already.

"Travis.

"Travis…Commander Mayweather!" Liz raised her voice.

"What!" he finally answered, startled.

She directed a fake smile at the wedding planner and then kicked her fiancé under the table.

"Ow!" he exclaimed. "What was that for?"

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you'd nodded off!" she said through her teeth, "Commander."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were going just a little overboard, sweetheart. We agreed to keep it simple, nothing too extravagant."

"You agreed to keep it simple. I was born extravagant…dear!"

"Don't call me dear…dear," he said, his smile starting to fade. "And you are just being extra, again, my love."

"Extra!" she said, her own smile now gone completely. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what that means: being extreme, adding unnecessary extensions!" Travis snapped. "Ms. Extra Elizabeth Elaine Cutler!"

"That's Doctor Extra Elizabeth Elaine Cutler to you!" she shouted back.

"Don't holler at me," Travis said rising abruptly. "You know what, if I didn't know any better, I'd think that this wedding isn't about anything more than all this stuff." He gestured at the samples of china, champagne and wedding cake. "If I didn't know any better, I might just think it wasn't about us, about me, or being in love at all, it's just about you and your damned wedding!"

"Uh, maybe I should go," the wedding planner suggested, rising, alarm on her face.

"Shut up!" they both said at the same time.

"Well if I didn't know any better," Liz continued, "I'd think you didn't want to get married at all!"

"Yeah, well, maybe I don't!" Travis shouted.

"Well too damn bad, Commander flyboy Mayweather, cause you fucking are getting married! I bought a dress, told my parents and sent out invitations, and your ass is going to show up!"

"Wanna bet?" the helmsman shouted.

Liz didn't say more. She just grabbed a handful of the sample cake, walked over to her fiancé and politely pushed it in to his face.

He wasn't just shocked, he was pissed off. Then he wiped his face, calmly walked over to the cake, scooped up some of it, walked over to where she stood fuming and pushed it in her face.

She wiped her face off, walked over to the cake and was just about to push some more of it in Travis' face when he grabbed her and kissed her. Pretty soon they were going at it pretty aggressively.

It was when the clothes started flying off that the wedding planner cleared her throat and asked, "Uh … should I come back another time?"

"Oh, uh…yeah…sorry," Liz said, blushing. "That is, unless you want to watch."

With that the poor woman grabbed her purse and ran.

"You're crazy, you know that," Travis said, kissing her again.

=/\=

Jon's House. San Francisco.

Erika had been invited over for a drink. Jon had something he wanted to discuss with her. He let her in and made her a gin and tonic, and poured himself a bourbon. They chatted for a while.

"I'm really glad to see you doing better, Jon," she said. "You had us all worried for a while."

"It's been a long road to recovery," he replied. "I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was when Phlox cleared me to return to active duty. It's been over three months."

"But that was some really nasty business on Capella Prime II," his former lover said with a frown. "I just hope we can all move past the things we saw and experienced with a reasonable degree of closure."

Jon put his drink down on the breakfast bar and leaned forward toward Erika as she sat on the bar stool. "I have to admit, I still have nightmares. I remember when Trip was first infected with those parasites and what he went through. You know the anger and aggression, the brain damage and all that. Then the way I treated him afterwards…"

"Jon you didn't know," Hernandez tried to say. "No one knew what Trip was really going through. We just all thought he was going crazy or something. I accused him of doing drugs for heaven's sake! All you knew was that he was disobeying orders and doing things that were totally out of character. You had no way of knowing he'd suffered brain damage because of those parasites."

"I know, I know," Jon replied, his brow wrinkled, his face troubled. "It's just that looking back, having had my own experience with a version of those things… I can only imagine what Trip was going through…alone. It makes me sick to think about it."

Erika reached her hand out and covered his. "Hey, it's okay…" she started, when suddenly the front door slid open. A little boy ran in, followed by Raijin carrying bags.

"Daddy!" the little boy said and ran to greet Jon.

Archer picked his son up and kissed him. "How's it going, sport?" he said.

"Just great, daddy! We had fun! We went everywhere! We rode in a hover car! And we went to a place called a zoo! And mommy went shopping! And…"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down, daddy can't keep up when you talk fast like that and I don't want to miss anything, okay?"

"Okay daddy!" the little boy said. "Hi, Auntie Erika! Mommy, can I go play now? Thanks!" Then he ran off into the back room where his toys were kept.

"Erika, I'm sorry," Raijin said, with a slightly embarrassed look.

"No need to apologize," the Commodore said. "He's a kid.

Raijin laughed a little. "He's a little hyper. We're working on that. How are you?"

"I'm great. You?"

"Couldn't be better," Raijin replied. "Hey, I'm not going to interrupt. I'll just go to the back and

hang out with Johnny until you guys are done." Then she exited the room.

There was a moment of silence.

"I'm sorry," Jon said. "That's what I wanted to tell you."

"Are they living here?" she asked quietly.

"Oh, no," he replied. "But they have access. It's just easier if they can come and go, kinda, as they please. But she doesn't take advantage…It's not like I'm seeing anybody."

"Jon, you don't owe me an explanation," Erika said, but she couldn't help feeling a little hurt.

"Well, I feel like I do, at least on some level," he explained. Then he cleared his throat and continued. "Raijin and Johnny are going to be leaving soon. She said she's going to go back to Praddox Prime. It's the closest thing she has to a home. She wants to re-open her business. But she's promised to stay in touch, to bring Johnny to UE at least a couple of times a year. I'm going to try to get there as often as I can too, every chance I get."

"I understand that, you should," his former lover stated emphatically.

"I just didn't want things to be weird between us," he replied. "Look, I handled our break-up badly. So badly, that it's been difficult for us to even be friends and for that I'm profoundly sorry. And Erika, there've been so many times that I wanted to call you up and say, say…well I don't know what I would've said, to be honest, but I wanted you back."

Erika's heart skipped a beat. She wanted to run into his arms, but she didn't move. There was a little problem in the back room – two of them, in fact, and she knew she couldn't live with them. She finally got up from where she was sitting and walked around the bar to where Jon was standing. She looked into his eyes, and then she kissed him.

"Jon," she began. "We don't work. We tried, two, three times, and we just don't work. I'm not going to give up my career for what you have back there," she said, gesturing toward the back room where Johnny and Raijin were. "At this point in my life I don't want to have a baby, I'm not even sure I want to get married anymore."

"Erika…" he tried to interrupt.

"No, Jon, it's okay – really, it is. I don't think I knew for sure until this moment."

"But you came half-way across the universe and risked your life for me," he said in a low voice.

"I didn't do that for you Jon, not really." Erika replied. "I did that for me." Then she took his hands in hers. "Let me talk to you for a moment, Admiral Archer…Don't you dare let Raijin take your child away from here again. I really don't think she's doing it to hurt you this time. I think her motives are pure. But there is another solution. Now, let me ask you a loaded question, do you love her?"

He hesitated. "I-I don't know," he replied. "I care for her deeply."

"Well, that's something," his friend said. "Maybe you ought to give it a chance. Ask her to stay, try to make it work with her…see what happens." With that she kissed his hands, kissed him on the cheek, and then turned and walked out.

=/\=

Trip and T'Pol's House, San Francisco.

T'Pol entered the room to find Trip in his underwear, engaged in his favorite pastime of late, playing video games and drinking beer.

She came in, saw what was on the vid screen, reached for the remote and turned the game off.

"What did you do that for?" he yelled. "I was about to reach level twenty-seven! Thirteen more levels and I'm the new champion!"

"That is of no concern to me!" T'Pol replied sternly.

"You had no right!"

"You promised me you would find something more productive to do today. You said you would speak to Starfleet Academy about teaching a class."

He looked sullen. "T'Pol, they're not going to let me teach a class."

"Not a class for the entire term, no. But perhaps a workshop, or a presentation on a particular engineering subject."

"Alright, alright, I'll do it if you'll stop nagging me!" he shouted, and then switched the game back on.

T'Pol didn't respond. She just stared at him for a moment, then she turned and left the room.

She went into the kitchen and began to prepare lunch. After a few minutes he came in and sat down at the island where she was chopping vegetables.

"I'm sorry, T'Pol," he said. "I can't seem to do anything right anymore."

"Trip, that is not true and you know it."

He turned away for a moment. "I'm just frustrated. I'm the only one who still hasn't been cleared to return to work. Phlox says my brain is still healing. He said I need to give it time to heal."

"Then that is exactly what you need to do."

Trip just laid his elbows on the counter and put his head in his hands.

T'Pol stopped her work for a moment. "It may help if you talked about what happened when you saw Phlox two weeks ago. You have not discussed with me what happened."

He lifted his head and looked at her. At first, she thought he was going to protest and storm out as he had done so many times before. This time however, he didn't.

"Well, you know his exam consists of a series of random questions to test memory. Then he observes me for a couple of hours doing regular stuff, you know, reading a PADD, performing some minor task, just having a conversation, having a meal. He puts me in the imaging chamber and looks at the results, then asks more random questions."

"Yes, he shared with me the nature of his tests. He is a licensed psychiatrist, so he is able to perform psychological testing as well."

"Yeah well, he did that too. As well as an hour of counseling. You know, how do you feel? How are you sleeping? Tell me about your nightmares, etc., etc."

"Anyway, my test was going good. Then he asked me something I couldn't answer. For the life of me I couldn't answer the question. I just drew a blank…and things went downhill from there."

"What was the question?" T'Pol asked, her lunch preparations forgotten.

Trip frowned, looking at his hands. He hesitated for such a long while that she thought he was not going to tell her. Finally, "He asked me what was the name of my sister who died while we were in the Expanse."

There was silence for a few moments. "I didn't know," he said softly. "I really didn't know. I couldn't remember my own sister's name. Lizzie! Elizabeth! I just couldn't remember her name. Then, the damn room started spinning, and everything went black. I couldn't see, and it happened! The headache! The…goddamned parasitic headache! Why was I having a blinding, searing, splitting, headache? It was because I was trying to remember my sister's name, that's why! It was because I still had a little residual bit of parasitic infection somewhere lodged in my brain. At least that what Phlox said. "The whole thing lasted about five minutes."

There was silence again. She watched as Trip wiped a tear off his face.

"I am sorry, Adun."

"You don't have to be sorry. It's not your fault," he said and smiled weakly. "But that wasn't the worst of it. Seems I got a little out of control. Phlox ended up sedating me. I woke up an hour later on a bio-bed, with a big ole "FAILED" sign stamped on my forehead."

T'Pol raised her eyebrow at that. Trip just frowned and waved his hand at her.

"Listen, don't worry about lunch for me. I'm gonna go for a long walk," he told her.

"That is fine. Just please don't forget tonight."

"Tonight, what's tonight?"

"Admiral Archer's party. He wants to celebrate everyone's progress three months after the Capella Prime incident. He is expecting us at 8:00 pm."

"Oh, hell no!" Trip exclaimed. "I'm not going over there! What the hell do I have to celebrate? I'm the odd man out! My life is going backwards compared to everyone else's! No, I'm not going!"

They argued for quite some time about the party, with Trip adamant that there was no way he would go. But when the time came, he did.

=/\=

That Night. Jon's Place.

The atmosphere was light. There was good food, music, dancing, jokes, laughter. Malcolm made his announcement about being cleared for active duty, and everybody cheered and toasted him. Then they sprung the news about the baby and everybody went wild!

Travis and Liz updated everybody about the wedding and all the women looked at pictures of the venue, the colors, the cakes, etc., etc., while Travis rolled his eyes.

Jon announced that he had been cleared for active duty and was being promoted to full Admiral. He would no longer be out in space, opting to remain local to spend more time with his son. He also announced that Raijin and Johnny would be remaining in UE indefinitely, though he didn't add that they would be moving in with him.

This was a night of great news for everyone.

When it came time for Trip and T'Pol to share their news, however, the atmosphere went South.

"Well," Trip began. "No need for cheers and a toast for me – I was handed a big fat denial, for a third time, to return to active duty. Had an episode right smack in the middle of the test. Seems I still have some residue of the parasite infection in my brain, and it's still affecting me." He looked around bitterly at the shocked faces of his fellow-officers – his ex fellow officers now, it seemed.

"Now Starfleet can't have somebody that's prone to forget who he is, where he is, what he's doing or why he's doing it, even goin' blind cause of a splittin' headache out there captainin' a ship, can they? Even if it's for five minutes. I wouldn't have a sick bastard like that as Captain of one of my ships."

Everyone just stood there stunned, holding their drinks in their hands. T'Pol was embarrassed, but of course tried to look expressionless. Trip looked over at her. How long would it be before she, too, gave up on him?

"Trip," Jon started, looking at his colleagues. "I don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say anything," he replied. "It's not your fault."

"You should have said something," Malcolm interjected.

"Don't worry about it Mal."

Then Hoshi had to go and – quite unintentionally – make it worse. "Well, at least you have some news about the baby, right?" she asked with a smile. Everyone else was all smiles, relieved to have salvaged something from the ruins, until they saw Trip and T'Pol glance at one another then look at the floor.

Phlox set down his drink and took the liberty of speaking up, "If I may, Commander?" She nodded, so he took a deep breath and continued. "It seems the Tuckers will unlikely be able to conceive another child naturally for uh… personal reasons.

"Upon learning this, they made applications to be considered as potential adoptive parents on both United Earth and Vulcan. Unfortunately, they were turned down by both."

"United Earth was concerned that I would not be able to properly bond with and raise an Earth child," T'Pol interjected. "They were also concerned about Trip's health status. But they encouraged us to apply in the future once his situation is resolved. Vulcan was actually more open to the idea, but was concerned about Trip health status."

"My health status, my health status!" Trip snapped. "Yeah, it's all about my health status! But no, actually it's about a decision I made; me trying to do something to help my world win a war with the damned Romulans. I went to Krios Prime to get the warp seven technology and I got something I didn't bargain for: a woman who became obsessed with me and a damned parasite infection that I just can't seem to get rid of.

That one act has changed the course of my life. It's taken almost everything from me. It seems I'm climbing down the latter of success. But hey, listen, I've already ruined everybody's good time. I never meant to do that, I didn't even wanna come. I'm happy for all of you really, but, I'm just gonna go."

With that he pushed past everyone and exited the room.

But Malcolm followed him.

"Trip! Trip!" the Brit's voice carried down the corridor from behind him as he tried to make his way out to the parking lot.

Trip stopped and turned around slowly. "I'm sorry, Mal. Look, I'm a wreck. So, please, just let me get outta here so you guys can get on with your celebration."

"Come on, mate. You know I can't let you leave like this." Malcolm put a tentative hand on his upper arm. "You're one of us. I just wish you'd have said something. You know I'd never have let this happen. Never have put you on the spot like this."

"Yeah, I know, Mal."

"But you're here now, so come on back in. You know we don't see you as a failure."

"Malcolm, I just can't do this right now. I need to be alone."

The other man took a breath, and spoke firmly. "No, you don't. You need to be with friends," Malcolm replied. "Look, I'm sorry that those parasites chose you as their communications officer. If there was anything I could do to help, I would – you know I would, whatever it took. But if they hadn't, none of us would be here."

Trip blinked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that if you hadn't kept telling us what you were sensing and feeling, that we knew one another, we might never have made the connection. If you hadn't gotten us all together to try and make that final escape, I don't know what might have happened."

"That just got Dr. Yuris killed." The Vulcan's death still weighed heavily on his conscience.

"Yes, it did. In a situation like that, there are almost certainly going to be casualties. But Trip, it also allowed Gannet to escape and to hook up with Venus and Helena. That turned everything around. And obviously, I'm sorry you were infected in the first place, and even more sorry that things haven't worked out for you, but because you went to Krios Prime, you got the warp seven technology from Kaitaama. I can't tell you how significant that was."

"Without it, we'd likely be under Romulan Rule right now," Jon said as he walked up towards them. "I'm sorry too, Trip. That I didn't understand what you were going through when you were first infected with those creatures. I'm sorry you were re-infected and for what you're going through now. But I know one thing: without your superior strength back there, we wouldn't have had an opportunity to escape, twice…"

"Neither of our escape attempts were successful," Trip said bitterly.

"Sure they were!" Travis had also followed. "When I escaped, I went right for that cave we found where you blocked it with that giant rock, and when Gannet escaped, she did the exact same thing. It was a safe haven for us. You made it that way."

"You guys are just tryin' to make me feel better." He scowled. Of course they were, and it wasn't going to work.

"Of course we are," Hoshi said as she joined the others. "That's what friends do, Trip. They try to make each other feel better when they're down. They help each other when they're in trouble. Just like when I was kidnapped, you risked your career, your life, to help rescue me."

"And the way you took a chance on me, risked being captured, and helped me find my baby when Kaitaama stole him from me on Krios Prime," Raijin called out from the balcony.

"And the way you helped get Columbia out of space dock when no one else could," Erika shouted out from beside Raijin. "Although you did jump ship and go running back to Enterprise

after three weeks, you lousy bastard!"

Everybody laughed at that.

"The point is," Hoshi said, "you're our friend, Trip. We love you and when you hurt, we hurt with you. We've been through too much together to let you go through this alone. Let us in… please."

Then T'Pol came out and walked up to Trip. "Do you see now why I wanted you to come?" she asked. "Not for them, but for you. We are a clan, and you needed the clan."

Trip sighed deeply and stared at the ground, his hands on his hips. "You are very wise, my darlin'," he said. Then he leaned over and kissed her lips in front of everyone.

They made 'oo'ing sounds as T'Pol turned slightly green around the gills.

"Hey, is this a party or what!" Liz shouted from behind Erika. "You know, we can move it down to the parking lot, that's nothing but a word!"

"Liz!" Travis warned as he rushed back toward the balcony, waving his hands. "Don't be so loud, somebody's gonna call the cops. Get back inside, you're being extra, again!"

"Extra!" she shouted. "What did I tell you about calling me that! My mama named me Elizabeth…." And she continued her loud tirade as Travis tried to quiet her.

Jon looked at Trip and clasped him on the shoulder. He gestured for him to 'c'mon'. Trip smiled and started to walk back toward the house alongside T'Pol.

Jon then waited for Malcolm to catch up as they observed Liz and Travis yelling at each other.

"What's with them?" Jon asked. "They seem to be doing that a lot lately. I've never known Travis to engage in bickering like that."

"Well she does seem to bring something out of him I didn't know was there. I don't think he did either," Malcolm grinned. "But he seems to like it."

"If you ask me, I think we have our new Trip and T'Pol," Jon said. They looked at one another, and then laughed.

When they were all back inside, Trip felt a lot better,

He looked around the room and decided that his life might not be quite so bad after all. He looked at his friends – all of them. And yes, they were his friends. They had been through so much together and survived multiple life and death situations together. They had survived the Capella Prime II incident and once again lived to tell about it. Now the guys were all restored to health and moving on. How could he not be happy for them?

It also helped that Phlox had pulled him aside and told him that the very small residue of infection still in his brain would likely be resolved with two-three treatments, but since Trip had abruptly left the day of the test and wouldn't return any of his calls, he hadn't been able to tell him. The doctor told him that he could test him again in about a month.

Trip then spotted T'Pol across the room. He admired her beauty, her commitment to him and just who she was as a person. And though they hadn't been able to access their bond since the whole Capella Prime incident began, he knew it would re-surface soon. But, no matter, with it or without it, he knew she loved him and he loved her. And if they never had a child, he could live with that. But somehow, he didn't think the last word had been spoken on that either. He smiled and decided everything really was right with the world.

Then, it was a party.

The End.

Author's Note: Thanks to all who took the time to read and review and to all you silent readers out there as well. I hope you enjoyed it and I really appreciate your support! A special thanks to LoyaulteMeLie, my wonderful beta reader. Until next time! Bri