"A Night in Sickbay" By Alelou Rating: PG Disclaimer: All things Star Trek belongs to CBS/Paramount. Genre: Adventure, Missing Scenes, Angst, Trip/T'Pol Description: Missing scenes from Season Two. Trip went to the mess hall at lunch time a happy man.  He had his new plasma injector - and two spares to boot.  The captain had swallowed his pride, or whatever it was, and done what was necessary to keep Enterprise shipshape.  The malfunctioning injector still concerned him, because it suggested the others might also soon experience problems.  But at least for now, the pressure was off. He was still dead tired after an abbreviated night's sleep, which meant that he was strung out on coffee and craving sugar and solitude.  He added a slice of pie to his lunch tray and took it over to a quiet corner of the room, where if he was lucky he could relax quietly before heading back to what he hoped would be an extremely uneventful afternoon shift spent disassembling the bad injector. "May I join you?" The science officer stood before him with her usual lunch of salad and water. "Sure," he said, proud that he had not allowed even the slightest hesitation to enter his voice.  And it was okay, really.  When they weren't sparring - and Trip was in no mood for sparring today - T'Pol was usually a restful companion.  She would probably appreciate a Vulcan-style meal without conversation. "You look fatigued, Commander." Or perhaps not.  "I am a little tired," Trip admitted.  "The captain had me out of bed in the middle of the night to ask about the plasma injectors, and then I couldn't get back to sleep."   There was another, longer stretch of silence, long enough that Trip had decided they were going to eat in quiet companionship after all, when she said, "I don't believe I have ever seen the captain quite so irrational and irritable as he has been during this mission." Trip took a deep breath.  Apparently she actually needed to talk about work with him, and that was rare enough that he really shouldn't mind it.  He was also tempted to simply vent his own frustrations with Jon's recent behavior, but that wouldn't help anything.  "His dog was sick.  When Humans are worried about someone close to them, they can get a little, um, dysfunctional." "I fail to understand why Starfleet allow pets aboard starships." Trip grinned.  "They don't.  I don't think the cap'n ever asked; he just made it clear he was going to do it.  Rank has its privileges." She stared down at her salad for a moment, before asking, "Does this mean the captain is also free to disregard non-fraternization policies if he wishes?" Trip raised his eyebrows.  "He's never been much of a stickler for them that I've noticed.  Is there something in particular that concerns you?"  "This morning he made some reference to the tensions that can arise between officers of the opposite sex."  Trip stared at her, utterly nonplussed.  He couldn't help remembering the captain's very weird middle-of-the-night question about how long it had been.  "It was in the context of apologizing to me for his behavior," T'Pol added.  Trip said nothing.  He was too busy replaying over a year's worth of impressions of Jon in relation to T'Pol and wondering if he'd missed something.  He'd never seen the slightest sign of attraction there, on either side, but maybe he was just oblivious? "Do you think I should be concerned?" T'Pol asked. With some effort, Trip refocused on his lunch companion.  "About?" She shifted uncomfortably.  "That the captain might pursue, or expect..." "Oh, no," Trip said.  "No, he would never...  Hell, that's probably why he has Porthos in the first place." T'Pol stared at him.  "He keeps the dog as a sexual partner?" "Oh, no, no!  Nothing like that!"  Trip laughed uncomfortably.  "No.  God.  Humans keep dogs so they'll have a friend ... a companion ... a creature they can be affectionate with ... NOT sexually, just ... you know, petting and hanging around with. You already know that Humans have an emotional need for companionship.  And a captain by definition is going to be fairly isolated. Porthos probably just helps the cap'n, you know, not get too lonely out here.  Not too lonely and not too cranky." Which made Trip wonder: What if the captain really did have a thing for T'Pol - but it was something he'd never even consider acting on unless he was reeling from the potential loss of his beloved dog?  It would be understandable.  They worked together a lot.  Not to mention T'Pol was gorgeous, and brilliant, and loyal, and brave, and had those beautiful brown eyes you felt you could sink right into... Don't even go there, Tucker.  Especially if the captain had his eye on her. "It's not like you'd ever consider it in a million years anyway, right?" he said, as flippantly as he could.  "Him being a smelly Human and not very logical and all." She just raised an eyebrow, and returned her attention to her salad. Trip looked at her head bent over her meal and felt a stab of pure loneliness.  He wished he had a dog. Next installment: Marauders.

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