The Trip of a Lifetime
Title: The Trip Of A Lifetime
Author: Zoe
Author's e-mail: [email protected]
Date: 25.11.03
Archive: Permission to archive granted to EntSTSlash, ReedsArmory,
MEGA, tuckerreed. Anyone else, please ask…no doubt I’ll say yes.
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Category: slash
Rating: PG-13
Status: complete
Pairing: Tucker/Reed
Summary: More fluff…a wee first time story. With a wee bit of
angst. Don’t worry, it’s not a lot!!! You know me…don’t do angst v. well!!!
Warnings: It’s FLUFF!!! That’s warning enough!
Feedback: Yes please. If you feel it warrants it! Thank you.
Beta: SueC, a marvel among marvels! Thanks for putting up with my
fluff!
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Not mine, I’m a poor wee nurse, please don’t sue.
THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME
Trip woke up in a glorious
mood, despite the 6am alarm call. He had a secret. A very delicious
secret. So secret that no one, not even his best friend, Jon, knew. After
thinking about it for several minutes, he unfurled and stretched his body like a
lazy cat.
Stretches
over, he sat up, swung his long legs out of bed, stood and made his way to the
bathroom, whistling as he went. One shower and shave later, he virtually
danced to his closet, put on a clean uniform, and, winking at his reflection in
the mirror, left his room.
In the mess
hall, he gave the room a once over. Spotting the one person he wanted to see,
he collected his breakfast and cup of coffee and sauntered jauntily over.
“Anyone sittin’
here?” he asked, grinning widely.
“Please, feel
free, Commander.” Lieutenant Malcolm Reed motioned for him to sit.
“And how
are we, this bright fine mornin’?”
“Trip?”
Malcolm gave him a very wary look. “Are you feeling all right?”
Trip raised
his eyebrows in surprise. “All right? Why wouldn’t I be feelin’ all right?
Can’t a fella ask a simple question?”
Malcolm was
still cautiously looking at him. “Hmm, you look…I’ll ask again, are you
feeling all right?”
Shaking his
head, Trip tucked into his breakfast. He was about five mouthfuls in when he
realized that his breakfast partner had stopped eating, and was just sitting
watching him.
“What? Do
I have something on my nose?”
“No…no, I
was just wondering. We haven’t been on any away missions recently have we?”
“Nope…unfortunately.”
“And we
haven’t encountered any aliens on strange spaceships recently either?”
“Huh? No,
Malcolm, you know all this as well as I do.”
“Uh huh.”
Malcolm turned his attention to his rapidly cooling cup of tea.
It was
Trip’s turn to look puzzled. “Malcolm, why the questioning? You gonna tell me
what’s going on in that head o’ yours?”
Malcolm
smirked. Now, Trip had always liked Malcolm’s smirk. He thought it very sexy,
and it sent shivers down his spine. Usually. Today, however, he didn’t notice
it, interested as he was in Malcolm’s train of thought.
“Malcolm?
Please?” He almost winced at the whine in his voice.
Malcolm
finished his tea, stood up and said, “Well, normally when you are this cheerful
Trip, you’ve either been on a very successful away mission, or shagged some
alien babe!” Then he turned on his heels, chuckling at the astounded
expression on Trip’s face.
Trouble
was, he thought, as he walked away, it wasn’t some alien babe he wanted Trip to
shag. Then the thought hit him: Trip obviously had met someone, but it had to
be someone on board. That’s the reason for his cheerfulness, it had to be,
Malcolm reflected.
“Now that’s
depressing,” he whispered to himself, unaware that Trip had followed him down
the corridor and into the turbo-lift.
“What’s
depressing, Malcolm?” Trip said, before Malcolm had had chance to turn around
and notice him.
Trip
scarcely had time to finish his sentence before he was hurled against the lift
walls, with an arm across his throat.
“Oh…Commander.
I’m sorry, you startled me. I was miles away.” Malcolm blushed as he released
his superior officer. He stepped back and gave Trip some space.
“S’okay
Malcolm. So, what’s depressing?” Trip had a morsel and wanted more.
“Pardon
me?”
“I heard
you say somethang about somethang bein’ depressing?” Trip smiled winningly at
the man across from him. A man, who, at that very moment, had an extremely
appealing innocent look on his face.
“You have
such a way with words, Trip.” Malcolm grinned, swiftly changing the subject.
“You should have appeared on University Challenge!”
“Univer…what?”
“Oh, I
think you may know it better as College Bowl? It used to be a highly
intellectual quiz show for people who were at university. You would have been
ideal…’Ah know the answer, is it somethang goes inta somethang to make…um…somethang?’”
Malcolm easily had Trip’s accent down pat.
“How’d you
do that? Dang, but yer good!” Trip had heard Malcolm do his famous impression
before, but not usually at these close quarters.
The lift
drew to a halt, spilling them both onto the bridge. The differences between
the two men couldn’t have been wider than on that particularly morning.
Malcolm
quietly said his good mornings, a general greeting, to the captain, Travis,
Hoshi and T’Pol who were already there. Trip, on the other hand, was loud and
brash, and jolly.
“Well, good
morning to you all. And what a beeeeeuuuutiful day it is too. Hope you’re all
ready for a good, hard days work.” He went to his usual spot, standing just behind
Malcolm. One of these days, he thought, Malcolm was gonna catch on.
“Is there
something you want to tell me Trip?” Captain Archer enquired. “I mean, it’s
0730 hours, and you come onto the bridge, bright and breezy. Are you feeling
well?”
“Why does
everyone think there is somethang,” he glanced at Malcolm, “um, something wrong
with me, j’st ‘cause I’m cheerful? Can a guy not be cheerful?”
“Well,
sure,” Archer responded, grinning. “Only, when you’re cheerful, there’s
usually some reason for it. Care to share?”
Trip
blushed. A rare occurrence in itself, but most particularly whilst on duty.
Particularly when standing behind the reason for his blush.
“Cap’n?
May I have a word in your ready room?”
“Certainly
Trip. Sub-commander, you have the bridge.” Motioning to Trip to follow him,
he walked into the room, and sat in a chair. Trip sat down opposite him. And
sighed. Several times.
Archer sat
quietly, just watching the emotions run across his friend’s face. “Trip?”
“Oh Jon,
I’m so nervous, it’s untrue. And I’m not sure that I can go through with my
plan. Probably won’t even be bothered. That’s if I dare ask ‘im.”
Archer sat
back in his chair with a puzzled expression on his face. “Um, I’m afraid you
lost me there. Care to explain?”
Trip
grinned sheepishly. “There’s someone on board…oh god, you’ll probably hate
me.” He held his face in his hands.
“Trip, come
on. You know what you say to me will go no further. Although your euphoria
just now will already have people talking.”
Heaving a
huge sigh, Trip began. “Well, there’s someone on this ship I really like,”
hesitating, he grimaced, “an’…an’ I’m not too sure how happy you would be if we
started a relationship.”
Jon raised
his eyebrows in surprise, but said nothing. He could see Trip was somewhat
embarrassed, and he didn’t want to put him off his speech. Even though he was
almost certain he knew who Trip was besotted with. Kind of obvious, actually,
he thought. In fact, he’d inadvertently overheard Travis and Hoshi gossiping
about them recently.
Trip
continued. “I was…AM…planning a quiet meal for us, sort of a ‘get to know you
better’ type meal. With wine, soft music, good food, candles if I can beg some
from T’Pol. But now I’ve said it out loud, it seems a little too formal, ya
know?”
Jon decided
he wanted to play devil’s advocate. “Why Trip? Most females love being wined
and dined.” He grinned, as Trip blushed even harder.
“Not
Hoshi?” Trip shook his head.
“Hess then?
No? Okay, um…” deliberately, Jon looked at the increasingly embarrassed
engineer, “Travis?”
Trip jumped
out of his chair and paced up and down, an anguished expression on his face.
“Not
Travis…Ml’cim.” he mumbled.
Archer
smothered the laugh he felt coming. “Who? Sorry, I didn’t hear the last
word.”
Trip sat
down, put his left elbow on the chair arm, rested his red face in his hand and
gave up all his pretence of dignity. “It’s Malcolm.”
“Ahh. And
you haven’t told him before because…?”
“What?”
“I asked
you why you haven’t told him before. You’ve had plenty of opportunity.”
“I know.
But…it’s Malcolm. Mr. ‘if it blows up I love it’ Reed, Mr. ‘most dangerous man
on the ship’ Reed. Would you tell him?”
Jon openly
grinned at the discomforted man before him. “Certainly. Particularly if I
knew he liked me…”
Trip made a
face. “Exactly. I don’t know that he likes me. But I’m fed up of waiting and
watching him. And…” Trip’s voice tailed off as the implication of Archer’s
last words hit him.
“Jon? What
did you say?”
Archer shrugged
his shoulders. “I only said I would tell him if I knew he liked me.”
Trip’s
heart leapt up into his mouth, and his eyes held a hopeful gleam. “You
mean…you…you…” he stuttered.
“He likes
you, Trip. I’ve watched you both, mooning over one another, and it’s been
extremely difficult to stop matchmaking. Oh, and I’m not the only person to
have noticed either.”
“Shit. Who
else has noticed?” Trip was panicked now. He’d thought he was being
discreet. Unfortunately, discreet wasn’t a word that figured largely in the
Tucker family vocabulary.
Jon leaned
back in his chair and observed Trip. He’d already noted his flushed cheeks,
his uneasy disposition. Sighing, he couldn’t let Trip suffer. “I overheard
Hoshi and Travis gossiping the other day.”
Jon almost
fell off his chair laughing at the forlorn look on Trip’s face. Apparently,
he’d genuinely thought no one had noticed.
“What did
they say?”
“Oh, they
were just chatting about you and Malcolm. How infatuated you two seemed to be
with one another. In fact, Hoshi said if one of you didn’t make a move soon,
she was either going to pull her hair out, or do something herself.”
A slight
grin on his lips, Trip shook his head in disbelief and stood up. “I guess I’d
better do something then, hadn’t I? See you later, Jon. And…thanks.”
Palming the
door open, Trip departed, leaving a smirking Jon behind. He was just happy
that Trip had made the decision to do something.
Down in the
armoury, Malcolm was whiling away the time. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stop
thinking about a certain blue-eyed engineer. What made it worse was the fact
there was a huge absence of work, which gave rise to his unruly thoughts.
These were making him more dejected the longer he sat at his station.
He just
couldn’t stop thinking about Trip and the obvious fact that he was now
partnered up. Trip was all he’d dreamed about for months, and now Malcolm
couldn’t even cling to the tiny hope that maybe, just maybe Trip might have
asked him out. Not that the engineer had ever been likely to have looked at
him, he thought, gloomily. Friends, nothing more. That was all he had now.
He leant
his chin on his hands, and gazed around him, his eyes not really seeing, his
mind not really taking in the work that was going on around him. The longer he
sat, the deeper his feeling of isolation and loneliness became.
Shaking his
head, Malcolm tried to clear the depressing thoughts that were clouding his
mind. Standing, he paced the floor, watching his armoury staff work quietly
and efficiently, as they undertook the few tasks that needed doing. With
relief, he realised that his shift was finally over, and he could leave. Why
be depressed at work when I can just as easily be depressed in my quarters, he
pondered glumly.
Before he
could actually move, the door swooshed open, spilling the chief engineer in.
Malcolm’s
heart raced as he watched the former, imagined, love of his life walk towards
him. He felt the blush touch his cheeks, pinking up at the sight of Trip,
gorgeous sexy Trip, the Trip of his dreams. The Trip of a lifetime. The Trip
who had now found someone on Enterprise,
someone not Malcolm. He smirked, almost sadly, to himself as Trip reached him.
Trip
noticed Malcolm’s smirk and grinned. That armoury officer’s smirk was so sexy,
he thought. What he would give to wipe that smirk off his lips, by kissing
alone. Shit, Trip, down boy! Remember, he told himself, Malcolm liked him, Malcolm
LIKED him. Malcolm liked HIM!
“Hiya,
Malcolm. Whatcha up to?”
Waiting for
you was the answer Malcolm wanted to give. However, he dampened down his
desire, and replied, “Just about to finish work. I’m a bit bored, actually.”
Take me, kiss me, do whatever you want to me, his undisciplined mind yelled.
Quashing his yearning, he gazed at Trip.
“Um…I was
wondering, er, if you…if you…” Trip ducked his head, and rubbed the back of his
neck. He was soooo nervous, but he was determined to go through with this.
Raising his head, he glanced back at Malcolm, observing the other man’s puzzled
gaze. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, he continued. “Would you like to have
dinner with me tonight, Malcolm?”
“With me?
But…I thought…” Now he really WAS blushing, his heart pounding so hard he
thought it was likely to burst through his chest right into Trip’s hands.
A
heartbeat, a lifetime passed. Two men stood. One anxious, overwrought,
desperate. The other, astounded, amazed, joyous.
“Um…Mal?”
Trip prompted, his heart in his mouth, waiting for the answer.
“Yes, Trip,
I would be delighted.”
An
exhalation of breaths, a shared smile, a walk into togetherness.