Title: Twilight: Elegy

Author: Edible Lit

Author's e-mail: [email protected]

Fandom: Enterprise

Pairing: Tucker/Reed

Rating: G

Category: Slash

Summary: A little prequel to the episode "Twilight."

Spoilers: Season 3, Twilight

Comments: This is for Alcott, who wanted some post Twilight episode fics. So I
wrote a prequel. Go figure. Thank god this never happened, because I would be
despondent for days if Tucker and Reed had actually died that way.





  Malcolm was folding his last uniform, pressing the creases with exaggerated
care born of years of repeating the same action...and the fact that everything else
was packed, except for two more changes of uniform. Reluctantly he placed it
neatly in the suitcase on the bed, knowing he should be acting as if it didn't
matter for Trip's sake, but he couldn't and it was pointless. Trip sat on their
couch watching his every move. He'd been helping Malcolm pack until it
became apparent that Reed was entirely to fussy to allow the man to contribute
without redoing every fold. Besides, Malcolm hadn't wanted to rush it. For
nearly ten years they'd shared the same quarters, the Captain's quarters, ever
since Charles took command of the Enterprise. It had been years after the
destruction of Earth; those long, terrible years during the war with the Xindi
that had seemed like they were more the walking dead than the last human
survivors.

  Trip was talking incessantly, about the Intrepid, about new shield and engine
designs which might give them the edge against any Xindi that might invade.
About everything but the fact that Malcolm was leaving Enterprise to take
command of his own ship. Really, it wasn't such a big deal, the two ships never
left the Seti-Alpha system; they could speak to each other as often as their
duties allowed, they could get together maybe once a week, take time off
together to visit the colony. But no longer would they share the same bed, where
after a long shift one could slip next to the other and for a few hours be warm
and safe. When they'd first started sharing quarters, they'd found themselves
clinging to each other as they slept in a way that they never could behave while
awake. For ten years Malcolm could only sleep properly with his arms wrapped
tightly around Trip, tossing and turning when alone until the tall man lay down
next to him. In the early days of their relationship, they'd been unable to keep
their hands off each other but, as with all relationships, the desire hadn't cooled,
but became common place as lust turned to love, and though they were no
longer as sexually active, the need for Trip's body next to his own was critical to
Malcolm's well-being. And now he had to go take command of the Intrepid, and
the leave the only comfort left to him after his world was lost.

  "Damn it, Charles, I already know all that," Malcolm griped in reference to
Tucker's description of the Intrepid's Impulse turning ratio. He slammed the lid
to his suitcase out of frustration. Really, the man could go on and on about gear.

  Trip ceased his monologue, gazing at Malcolm completely unruffled, then he
grinned in that lop-sided way of his, and Reed's eyes stung with moisture. He
turned away, but Trip rose and drew him into his arms. Inevitably the man
understood what was bothering him, knew it without the need to ask, or to
speak. Malcolm relaxed into the embrace, his head resting against Trip's chest,
the faint smell of soap and skin drifting into his nostrils. It was Trip's smell, and
he closed his eyes, losing himself in his partner's presence.

  "Why did I take this commission,"Malcolm asked weakly.

  "You know why," Trip said softly, and he did. There was no one else. No one
else with the experience they needed at the conn of the other battle cruiser.

  Malcolm tilted his head up, kissing Trip gently, his hands softly gripping the
back of his neck, drifting through his short hair. "At least I won't have to listen
to you complain about my beard anymore," Reed said, rubbing his chin along
Tucker's jaw, the man shuddering.

  "I have a little secret," Trip said, grinning, "I've always loved it."

  "Why did you complain about it, then?"

  "Just to give you a hard time."

  Malcolm laughed, jugging the man fiercely.

  "So," Charles said after a pause, "wanna have one last go on our bed?"

  Malcolm couldn't help but laugh, "You're irrepressible."

  "Of course I am," the man replied playfully, "that's why you've been my sex
slave for the last twelve years."

  "And all I was trying to do was get a good performance review,"

  Malcolm said, playing, "I guess I needn't have bothered."

  Trip growled throatily, laughing, and pulled Malcolm down onto the bed,
knocking the suitcase off. Silently Reed was glad he'd closed it and it hadn't
spilled all over the floor. Then thoughts of the suitcase were driven from his
mind as Trip insistently kissed him, hands tugging at the zipper of his uniform,
his own drifting over the man's back, still muscular after all these years.
Gripping Trip's hips, he pulled them together forcefully, their desire equally
obvious to each other.

  "At least we know time hasn't rendered us impotent," Malcolm said as he
caught a breath of air.

  "You know, now we're going to have to do this at least once a week," Trip
said lasciviously, "I want conjugal visits, you hear?"

  "What was the longest we went without doing this," Reed asked, pulling the
man's uniform open to the waist.

  "Oh...a month...I think," Trip answered between kisses on Malcolm's neck,
"Back in your frigid days."

  Malcolm pushed him away, outraged, "you were being a prick as I recall."

  "Shut up and take your shirt off," the man ordered, his mouth closing on
Malcolm's, silencing him.

  <Bridge to Captain Tucker,> Hoshi's voice rang over the comm.

  "Ignore her," Trip said, his hands just having slipped underneath Malcolm's
sweater, but Reed put a repressing hand on his shoulder.

  "We can't," he said reluctantly, "That will be the shuttle." Trip sighed, gazing
into the man's eyes longingly, "Fine," he pushed himself up, his walk pinched as
he adjusted himself in his uniform, "Go ahead, Sato," he growled.

  <Captain Archer's shuttle is on approach, ETA in ten minutes,> she said, her
voice amused, clearly correctly guessing what they'd been up to.

  "Understood, Tucker out," he wandered back to the bed, Malcolm grinning at
him as he lay back down beside him.

  "Don't tell me ten minutes is enough," Reed said, "I'm not twenty anymore."

  Trip laughed, and drew the man in his arms, "God, I love you," he said softly,
kissing him gently.

  "He was my North, my South, my East and West," Malcolm quoted, grinning.

  "Not Auden again, you'll make me cry," Trip said half-heartedly.

  "It was my readings of Auden that made you fall in love with me," he replied.

  "It was Dillan Thomas, not Auden," he corrected, his hand caressing
Malcolm's cheek, gazing into his entrancing grey eyes.

  "My working week, and my Sunday rest..."

  "Who gets rest around here?"

  "My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song..."

  Trip touched his finger to his partners lips, "Don't go there," he said, not
wanting to hear the next line he knew so well.

  Malcolm winked at him, but obeyed, skipping it, "The stars are not wanted
now, put out every one..."

  "You could just say you love me back," Trip implored, fighting the sting in his
eyes.

  "Why, when someone else has said it so much better than I ever could:
Dismantle the moon, and put out the sun..."

  "Because it means more to me."

  Reed relented, not sure he could finish anyway, "I love you, Charles Tucker
the third."

  They lay quietly for a long time, gazing at each other, words so rarely
necessary anymore, and sometimes simply to overpowering. Finally, Malcolm
reluctantly looking at the time, he pushed himself up.

  "We should get down to the docking port," he said.

  "Yeah, see how the Captain is doing these days," Trip said, rolling off the bed
clumsily.

  "Everything could be different from now on," Reed said hopefully.

  "It all ready will be," Charles said, taking Malcolm's hand as they left their
quarters, unwilling to give the man up just yet.