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"Perpetuating the Misunderstanding" Rating: G Trip didn’t know how long
they sat there in the silence. Long enough for his tears to dry, that’s
for sure. Minutes. Hours. It didn’t matter. What
mattered to him were Vulcan females. Two in particular. One Vulcan/human
hybrid, one purebred. One he lost, one he was determined not to
lose. T’Pol had a headache.
Her grief was on the verge of being overwhelming. She had been trying to
meditate, but the grief she was feeling from Trip, in combination with her own,
made it impossible. It had overwhelmed her earlier to the point of
tears. That and the effort it took to maintain her mental shields to keep
him from feeling her powerful emotions, were causing severe cranial discomfort. Trip glanced over to his
right, taking in T’Pol’s profile, and immediately, subconsciously, recognized
the minute indicators of a Vulcan in pain. His Vulcan in
pain. He let go of her delicate hand, leaving it resting on his thigh,
only to reach up to her neck and gently press the correct neural nodes along
her spinal column. T’Pol exhaled quietly in
relief. How he knew of her headache, she was not sure. She slowly
turned her head to look at him, his hand still cool against her neck. She
said nothing, just gazed thoughtfully at him, her face a picture of Vulcan
composure. Trip gazed back. When
she remained silent, he canted his head slightly to the left. “What’sa
matter?” he softly asked. “Did I do it wrong?” “No.” Her eyes
blinked slowly. “Your technique was flawless.” Trip’s thumb gently brushed
the skin below her left ear. “Then what’s wrong?” She suppressed a shiver as
his thumb again swept across the sensitive flesh under her ear. T’Pol
closed her eyes. “How did you know to do that?” Gathering that she wanted
to know why he’d just performed the neuropressure, he
frowned. “You were hurtin’, darlin’. What was I suppose to do?” T’Pol opened her eyes to
gaze upon him again. Her features softened. “The bond?” Trip looked away in
thought, realizing she wanted to know how he knew of her headache. After
a moment, he shook his head. “No, not the bond. I just looked at
you…and I knew.” He smiled weakly at her. “I just know you,
darlin’.” T’Pol cocked an eyebrow at
him in bemusement. His lips twitched
again. “I’ve had a lot of practice readin’ you,” he admitted dryly.
He looked away, frowned, and turned back to her. “Now that you mention
it, why didn’t I feel that through the bond?” His expression turned to
puzzlement. T’Pol mentally
winced. Not sure she was up to the coming conversation, she
hesitated. She was aware she and Trip needed to talk about the bond and
what it meant to be “bonded” to one another. She’d, in fact, had every
intention of having that discussion with him days ago, ever since that moment in
the corridor after the Orion incident when he’d told her they “had a lot of
work to do.” As it turned out, repairs and preparations for the
delegation had conspired to keep them from speaking of it. Then came Paxton. And
Terra Prime. And And suddenly, T’Pol didn’t
want to wait anymore. This human was her bondmate. It was an
inescapable fact, and she owed him a full explanation of the ramifications to
that. She lifted her hand from
his leg to her neck, gently taking hold of his hand once again, the IDIC
pendant still clasped between them. She brought their joined hands down
to rest, this time, in her lap where she gazed at them sightlessly. She
felt Trip lean forward slightly. T’Pol turned her head
toward Trip but kept her gaze downcast. “Trip,” she paused before
continuing softly. “May we speak?” Trip’s brow furrowed while
he puzzled over her question. Since they were already talking, he figured
she meant something deeper. And coming from T’Pol that usually meant
their relationship. He sat thinking for a couple of minutes before he
realized that he was ready to speak, think, and worry about something
else. He was okay with putting He gave her hand a gentle
squeeze. “Yeah, I think I’d like that,” he murmured. He scooted his
backside forward and turned so he was facing T’Pol. She accommodated his
need for direct contact by turning herself more in his direction, their hands
still clasped between them. It was at that point he noticed her eyes had
a green tint to them, matching his own reddened ones. He was shocked to
realize she’d been crying recently. T’Pol really had no idea
where to start. She mentally cast about for a starting point, finally
settling on the basics. She looked down at their joined hands and ran her
thumb across his knuckles, subconsciously noting the pale, tiny scars from
wounds past. She had long been fascinated by his hands. So large
compared to her own, they almost appeared clumsy when, in fact, they were so
often graceful given the work he did daily. They were an odd combination
of strength and gentleness, very much like the man to whom they belonged.
“Do you know why Vulcans suppress their emotions?” she asked softly. Trip watched her trace over
his knuckles, watched her take hold of his hand with both of hers, and watched
her run her fingers over his palm slowly. Her touch was light,
soothing. At her question, he looked up at her face. Her eyes were
still focused down as he answered, “I guess I just thought your physiology made
it so you couldn’t physically handle ‘em, but truth is I never really gave it a
whole lot of thought.” He sighed in self disgust. “Guess I
should of, though. Seein’s how it’s such an important part of who you are
as a Vulcan. Some S.O. I am, huh?” He shook his head.
“Sorry.” T’Pol made a small sound of
disagreement and gave his hand a squeeze. “It was just a question, not
meant as criticism. I was merely attempting to establish a starting point
for this discussion.” She paused as she thought back over his
comments. Her brows dipped low in confusion, then quickly cleared to
blank Vulcan stoicism. She peeked up at Trip and cocked one of those
brows in question. “S.O?” Trip smiled wryly.
“Significant Other.” He gave a self-conscious shrug, looking away in a
fit of shyness. “Its how I started thinkin’ of myself after you told me
‘bout the bond. ‘Cause I wasn’t real sure what that made me…in relation
to you, that is.” He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his left hand,
wincing slightly at the pull on his injured shoulder. “I was just hopin’
the bond made me ‘significant’ somehow,” he muttered sheepishly.
He looked back down at her hands, which, to his disappointment, had stopped moving
over his. T’Pol mentally chastised
herself for letting this man suffer needless insecurities. Her expression
again softened as she gazed at him. “Bondmate,” she whispered. Trip’s gaze shot up. T’Pol met it without
flinching. “You are my bondmate, Trip. That is the Vulcan
terminology.” Trip offered her a small,
sweet smile. He liked the way the word sounded. “Bondmate,” he
echoed quietly. His bondmate raised her
brow at him. “It is significant by Vulcan standards.” His smile grew. “Yeah?” Her lips twitched as she
suppressed a smile. “Indeed,” she confirmed. Silence descended between
the two. T’Pol resumed the stroking of his palm. After a few short
moments, Trip tilted his head. “Why do Vulcans suppress their emotions,
T’Pol?” She blinked slowly at
him. “To allow them free rein would destroy us.” Trip frowned. “Why?” “Three thousand years ago,
the Vulcan people did fully express emotion.” She saw Trip’s eyes
widen. She continued, “It nearly made them extinct.” It was almost as
though she could see him thinking as his head tipped to the side, his
tongue running across the inside of his cheek. “Why?” he again asked
thoughtfully. T’Pol just looked at him,
thinking of the best way to explain. Moments later it came to her.
She raised her chin. “You and Mr. Reed are friends, yes?” Trip was beyond curious
now. “Yeah. Gotten to be pretty close friends after everything
that’s happened. Why?” T’Pol canted her head again.
“Did he ever describe the events that occurred when we encountered the Seleya
in the Expanse?” “Sure,” Trip replied
quietly. “Said those Vulcans were actin’ pretty crazy.
Out of control and such.” “Those Vulcans,” she
explained with intensity, “had been stripped of their emotional control by the
affects of Trellium-D.” She saw his eyes widen in growing
understanding. “Unsuppressed, Vulcan emotions are too intense to
manage. They cause us to revert to a primitive state, focusing only on
primitive needs. Any obstacles to meeting those needs are met with
primitive force. Three thousand years ago, Vulcans slaughtered each
other.” Trip nodded, developing a
vague understanding. “Then Surak brought enlightenment with the logic and
all?” T’Pol was pleased with her
bondmate’s intelligence, how he quickly grasped the finer points of her
explanation without needing gratuitous details. “Yes.” Trip grinned. “So
your emotions are bigger’n mine.” His grin grew as her ever-expressive
eyebrow rose high on her forehead. He could feel her amusement, whether
through the bond or just because he could read her like a book, he didn’t
know. He just knew she was amused by him. He squeezed her
hand. “You’re just dyin’ to laugh at me right now, aren’t ya? Come
on, admit it!” Though nothing showed on
her countenance, T’Pol felt a rush of bittersweet emotion sweep through her
when she saw him smiling and joking. She was pleased to ease his pain,
even if only for a moment. She rewarded him by letting a large burst of
her mental joy flow out through her shields and rejoiced at his subsequent
laughter. An awed expression crossed
Trip’s face. “Is that you?” he asked as the wave of joy flooded his mind. T’Pol nodded shyly,
dropping her gaze back to her lap. Trip leaned forward.
“Why can’t I feel that kind of stuff from you all the time? Usually its
just vague stuff that I have to concentrate really hard on figuring out.
What’s up with that, T’Pol?” She brought her gaze back
up to meet his. “My mental shields are raised to prevent my emotions from
reaching you.” He was unable to hide his
faint hurt and disappointment. “Why?” T’Pol was startled by his
disappointment. Could he actually want this bond? He paused and a look of
worry flashed across his face. “Oh, God. Will it cause ya to lose
control of your emotions? Will ya start actin’ like those Vulcans on the Seleya
if ya drop your shields?” Now he was worried about her, his worry
causing his accent to thicken. His eyes narrowed in thought. “That
can’t be right, though. I’ve seen your emotions a bunch of times, even if
ya didn’t want me to. You weren’t out of control then.” She gave a minute shake of
her head. “It would, more than likely, actually help me to lower my
shields.” Her control wavered, allowing a sigh to escape. She
turned her head away and whispered, “It is quite exhausting maintaining them
permanently.” Trip pulled his hand out
from under hers in order to reach up and turn her head back toward him.
“Then why, darlin’?” T’Pol closed her eyes and
whispered, “I did not think you wanted this bond. You said it wasn’t a
‘big deal.’ I raised them to protect you from the bond’s effects.” Trip groaned and tipped his
head back. “Darlin’, if there’s anything you an’ I have done right,
relationship-wise, it’s perpetuatin’ misunderstandings.” She raised her soulful,
pleading, big, brown eyes to his. He gently speared his fingers into the
hair above her ear, cupping her head in his hand as he drowned in her
gaze. “I love you. I’m in love with you. Have
been for over a year.” He smiled as her eyes widened in shock at his
blunt declaration. “Anything, and I mean anything, that
brings me closer to you…I want.” T’Pol just blinked at
him. She was flooded with so many emotions she couldn’t possibly
categorize them all. It took every ounce of her Vulcan will and mental
fortitude to suppress them. She leaned slightly into his hand. Trip could read a wealth of
emotions in her eyes. Years of experience made him an expert on the
miniscule signs. He could also feel a hodgepodge of emotions through the
bond, too rapid to catch hold of, one right after the other. He lightly
scratched her scalp. “When I said the bond wasn’t a ‘big deal’,” he
murmured, “I meant that it wasn’t anything I was gonna get upset over. I
was totally okay with it. I am totally okay with it.”
His brow furrowed as a thought crept up on him. “Are you okay
with it?” he asked anxiously. T’Pol could not suppress
the half-choke, half-gasp that escaped from deep in her throat. She
stared at him in disbelief, unable to fathom how he could think she didn’t
want the bond. She’d practically begged him to return to Trip sighed and muttered
dryly, “That was a stupid question, wasn’t it? Ya probably wouldn’t have
asked me to stay or kissed me in the hall otherwise, huh?” He gave her an
abashed smile. T’Pol blinked in
relief. Her faith in his intelligence was not misplaced after all.
She briefly looked away before leaning forward completely into Trip’s body,
knowing instinctively that he would support her. She buried her face in
the space where his neck met his shoulder, making sure to avoid his wound. Trip enveloped her with his
good arm, hugging her tight to him. T’Pol’s voice was muffled
when she unequivocally stated, “I, too, want this bond,” her voice soft and
low. But he heard her. He
pulled back far enough to see her face. He slowly moved in, giving her
all kinds of time to back away. When she didn’t, he continued until his
lips pressed lightly against hers. Unlike their last kiss, this one was
delicate, soft…affirming. After a long moment, Trip
pulled back a fraction. Eyes closed, he whispered against her lips, “Drop
your shields, darlin’.” ---END 08/06/08 The story continues in Not Close Enough. |
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