The BLTS Archive - Tempted by the Fruit of Another
Fifth in the Night Moves series
by Sue Duenn (sduenn@optonline.net)

---

Date: Posted to EntSTSlash 01/01/2003

Archive: Permission to archive granted to EntSTCommunity

Warnings: AU (Though they might be changing that this season)

A Beta: Claire

Author's notes: Title taken from Squeeze, I hope they don't mind.  We
have angst, betrayal and emotional seismic activity.  You have been
warned...

---
Previously in "A Humble Request" ...

After dropping the Vulcan contingent off at the Edana T'rel, the
extraction team's shuttle docked with Enterprise and the team filed
out, exuberant from a job well done.  Archer grabbed Mike by the wrist
and asked, "Do you have a moment?"

Mike shrugged his shoulders in acquiescence, motioning his team on.
He hung back, still inside the shuttle and turned to the Captain.  He
swiped one hand over his head to pull down the skull cap letting his
head breathe.   Sure, what's up?"  He asked looking down at his wrist
still being held captive by the Captain.

Archer looked at their joined hands then looked slowly up into Mike's
deep brown eyes.  He licked his lips, suddenly nervous.  How did one
broach this subject tactfully?  "How do you ... what I mean is ... the
tension from the mission."  He sighed.  "Oh hell."  He hooked his free
hand behind Mike's head and pulled him into a deep kiss, pushing the
team leader back against the wall of the shuttle.

Working on instinct from the mission, Mike returned the kiss and moved
his hands, shedding the Captain of the top of his uniform in record
time.  Working his hands beneath the layers of cloth to reach the hot
skin beneath, Mike took charge of the kiss, thrusting his tongue into
the other man's mouth.  Archer intimately cupped him, rubbing him
through the thin fabric of his body suit.  The stimulation and the
tactile awareness of the light fur on Archer's chest caused Mike to
moan.  At the sound, both men looked up then sprang away from each
other, rearranging their clothing, the same words on both their lips,
"Oh shit!"

---

Trip sighed as he stepped back from his lover.  Yet again, Jon had
turned from him, not wanting to be touched by him.  Usually their
relationship held a lot of little touches, even in public.  Everyone
knew that was just Jon's way.  Lately though?  Even in private Jon
kept to himself. Worried, Trip had been studying Jon's behavior and
had finally concluded that it must have been something he'd done.  Jon
acted the same to the rest of the crew; he was just cold and reserved
around Trip.  Without a word, Trip left their shared quarters and
roamed the halls.

He needed to talk to someone, badly.  The person he'd most like to
talk to wouldn't even look him in the eye lately.  Malcolm was always
hanging around with Derek and the Extraction Team, so wasn't around
either. He knew he'd probably rip the heads off the people in
engineering if he went down there, so he dejectedly entered the mess
hall and sat himself in a corner with a mug of hot chocolate with
mint.  The scent rose to him and he smiled vaguely when they were
young, his mother would prepare the drink for them when they needed
cheering.  Trip knew he wasn't the only one of the Tucker brood
to fall back on it when times warranted.

He sat with his back to the room, hunched over his mug staring into
its silken depths.  The outside world faded away so that nothing else
stayed in his mind but trying to figure out what he did to cause Jon
to shun him like this.  He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder,
and looked up startled into Rick's eyes.  He opened his mouth to ask
the man to go away, but Rick beat him to the punch.

"You don't really want to be alone.  You need to talk.  I know that
posture, Rick said sitting beside the engineer and putting his own mug
of  coffee down.  "My sister Robin gets like this sometimes; I never
quite know  how she s going to handle it though.  Sit here quiet like,
not saying  anything."  He chuckled, "Scream and yell and try to gouge
my eyes out."  He looked  at Trip s bent head and smiled, "She did
that twice.  She gave me the scar  through my eyebrow, you know.  Or,
sometimes we'd just sit and talk quietly."  He sipped from his mug,
watching the blond closely.  If Trip chose the second option, he
really didn't want hot coffee getting into the mix.

Trip snuck a glance over his shoulder and confirmed that they were the
only ones in the mess hall.  He felt like a dam about to burst, and
didn't want just anyone to hear what he had to say.  He pulled the mug
closer to himself head hanging lower.  Barely above a whisper, he
said, "Jon won't come near me lately."

"You work together.  Of course he has to come near," Rick replied.

"No, I mean..." Trip pushed the cool mug from him and ran his hands
over his face.  With a deep sigh he looked Rick in the eyes.  "Off
duty, he won't look at me, let alone talk to me or God-forbid touch
me."

Rick frowned.  "That doesn't sound like Archer to me.  He's always
getting personal.  Not just with you, with everyone.  It's like, a
core of what he is."

"I know."  Trip stared at the bulkhead before him, leaning his cheek
on his hand.  "It's just me he's avoiding lately.  I must have done
something, but for the life of me, I don' t know what.  I just want
him to talk to me.  I can't fix it if I don't know what's broken."

"I don't know which is worse, the way Jon's acting, or the way Mike
does when something's not right."  At Trip's questioning look, he
continued.  "He s like a dog with a bone.  He will gnaw at a problem
until it goes away.  If it's something between us, we can be up for
hours and hours yelling and screaming until we've got it hammered
out."

"Hey, at least that's communication.  Of a sort, anyway.  I don't know
if I could deal with screamin' and yellin' though."  He shrugged.
"Anything's better than this silence though."

Rick took his own perusal of the mess before rubbing his backside and
saying "Well, I know for me, I'd like a night off.  Mike's been on a
rampage lately, wanting sex all the time.  It's worse than when we
first started going together.  At least if he was yelling, I'd have a
clue why he's doin' what he's doin'."

Trip chuckled.  "Next time he comes to ya for it, you just top him.
Then he ll know."

Rick snorted, quickly covering his nose and mouth.  "You don't know
Mike, then.  He's let me top him once.  In all the years we've been
together, only once.  Somehow he thinks he's giving up control if he's
the bottom.  Whatever.  I let him have his delusions."

Trip smiled at the thought and realized he felt a lot better.  Back on
par, no ... but better certainly than he'd been when he walked into
the mess.  "I m gonna give Jon one more day of silence.  If I don't
hear anything, I'm talking to him tomorrow night whether he likes it
or not."

"Sounds good," Rick said standing.  "I'm glad I could help."  He
looked warily at the door then back to the engineer.  "Now, to
convince Mike that he's too tired for anything strenuous..."

---

Captain Jonathan Archer winced inwardly as he turned a corner in the
corridor and saw Mike, the Extraction team leader walking towards him.
After that incident in the shuttlepod, he'd been trying to avoid both
Mike and Trip.  No, it wasn't right, but he didn't want to have to
deal with the feelings he had, the pure lust when he saw the big man,
pure guilt when he saw his lover.  As he passed Mike in the hallway,
he could see the other man was torn as well.  It was like they were
opposite poles of a magnet, irresistibly drawn to each other, no
matter what their brains and hearts told themselves.

The typical reaction of late occurred yet again; they looked at each
other, lust burning in their eyes, then tore their gazes away,
embarrassed by their lack of control over their thoughts, the guilt of
mentally betraying the ones they loved.  Archer drove himself onward,
resisting the urge to turn around to see the play of the other man's
buttocks in his ecru uniform as he walked away.  With a groan, he sped
up, praying to reach a private place soon so he wouldn't betray his
thoughts to everyone on the ship.

Keying open a storage closet, he ran in and locked the door behind
him.  He settled himself down among the crates and boxes of toiletries
and such and hung his head in his hands.  He couldn't go on much
longer like this. It wasn't fair to him, to Mike, to Rick, and
especially to Trip.

Trip.  What had he done?  Trip had been there with him for what seemed
like forever.  He was Jon's better half, and he didn't mean that
jokingly. Without Trip he wasn't whole.  So why did he act out and
kiss and grope Mike like that?  Sure ... he'd been attracted to other
men since he'd met Trip, but he'd never once seriously thought about
doing anything about that attraction.

Now, he'd known Mike for around two months and done something like
this?  The attraction had been there from the beginning.  He wasn't
stupid enough not to see that right off.  But both of them – he and
Mike – were in long term committed relationships with men they loved
more than they loved life itself.  Why couldn't he get the team leader
out of his thoughts, his fantasies?  The electricity he felt was
something he'd never felt before.

It was obvious to him that he couldn't answer these questions by
himself.  Flipping open his communicator and activating it, he said,
"Archer to Mike."

"Go ahead, Captain," the little speaker announced after a moment.

"I need to talk to you about something.  Are you free?"

A moment of silence felt like an eternity in the storage closet.
"Sure, Captain.  I'll meet you in the aft observation lounge on deck
three in, say, five minutes?"

"Perfect.  See you then," Archer said.  He put the communicator away
and stood, his head clear for the first time in days.  He was finally
going to get the man out of his head once and for all.

He walked into the observation lounge, happy to see he was the first
to arrive.  He felt like he had the upper hand then.  Well, only
slightly, but right now, he'd take anything he could get that would
help him to ignore what his body was feeling.  His breath caught as
Mike walked through the door.

No longer in his uniform, Mike had opted for well-worn denim jeans and
a short sleeved button down shirt that he'd left half undone, showing
the fur on his chest.  He casually sat on the couch, turned slightly
to the inside of the couch, a smirk on his face as he saw the
Captain's reaction to him. "Are you sure you wanted to ... talk ...
Captain?"

Jon swallowed hard.  God help him, he didn't want to talk.  He wanted
to make this man scream in ecstasy.  He wanted to come with Mike's
hard cock thrust deep inside him, his ankles on Mike's shoulders. 
Shaking, he sat at the other end of the couch, facing the big man.  "I
think that's for the best, don't you?"

A feral gleam entered Mike's eyes.  "No, I don't think that'd be for
the best."  He leaned up onto his knees slowly invading Archer's
space, his hand slowly caressing the growing bulge in his pants.  "I
think it's time we finished what we started in the shuttlepod."

Jon whimpered slightly before launching himself at Mike, reason and
morality gone out the viewport.  Lust and raw sexual need took over,
neither man hearing the door to the lounge opening then a few minutes
later closing.

---

"Would you calm down?  If you don't stop that bloody pacing I'll be
forced to stun you," Malcolm Reed said, exasperated.

Derek flung himself into the desk chair in Malcolm's quarters, his
eyes darting around, knees bouncing and it was obvious his hands
didn't know what to do with themselves as they picked at invisible
lint, wrung together, knuckles cracked.  "I know I'm not wrong this
time," he said.

Malcolm was wound up tighter than a watch spring from the other man's
nerves "Unfortunately, I'm not psychic.  You'll have to tell me what
the hell  has gotten you so upset in order for me to even have a
chance of trying to help rectify the situation."

Derek stood quickly and laughed bitterly.  "Rectify the situation?
How in the hell do you expect to rectify Mike fucking the daylights
out of Archer in the observation lounge?"

Reed turned deadly serious.  "Sit down and tell me everything you saw
from the beginning.  I swear, if Archer's hurt Trip, so help him God."

"Trip?  What about Rick?  He and Mike are essentially married for
God's sake " Derek raged.  "I grew up with Rick; he's closer to me
than a brother.  That bastard is cheating on him and deserves to have
his dick ripped off and shoved down his throat."

The two men paced around each other in the small space, each muttering
and devising their own revenge.  Malcolm finally stopped Derek and let
out a deep breath.  "We can't go off half-cocked like this.  We've got
to sit down and devise a plan, figure out what we're going to do."

"You're right, you're right," Derek muttered sliding back into the
chair at the desk.  He looked over at Malcolm as the Armory officer
slid onto the edge of his bunk.

"OK.  Start from the beginning.  Tell me where you were, what you saw,
what you did," Malcolm said as if he were leading an interrogation.

With a sigh Derek sat back and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I needed to get away from everyone and everything and just sit and
think.  We ve done full usage studies on the ship; I knew that the aft
observation lounge was rarely used, unlike the one on the starboard
which is full constantly.  I walked in, lost in my thoughts, ya know?"
At Malcolm's nod he continued.  "Anyway, it only took like a
nanosecond for me to realize I wasn't alone.  The moaning and grunting
was one clue, the smell of sex another, and flying clothes kinda
cinched the deal.  I heard Mike say, 'I'm gonna pound you into the
couch, Captain, and there's nothing you can do to stop me.'  Of
course, he didn't know I was there.  I was going to stop him if Archer
wanted it stopped.  But no, I distinctly heard the Captain say,  What
are you waiting for?'  So, I knew it was consensual and I walked out,
making a bee-line to your quarters."

"That son of a bitch," Malcolm seethed.  "Captain or not, he's hurt my
man, and he's going to pay for that."  Seeing Derek blink in
confusion, he looked pained then said, "We're not exclusive – I
thought you knew that."

Derek waved that away.  "Oh, I know, it's all right.  But ... your
man?  You ve given your heart to who ... Trip?"  He saw the truth
light in Malcolm's eyes.  "OK ... does Trip know?"

"No!"  Malcolm jumped up, distressed.  "He can't know.  He's been with
the Captain for years.  He'd never look at me that way.  It hurts, but
I've resigned myself to loving someone that won't love me back."  He
whirled around and looked at Derek with murder in his eyes.  "I will
*not* sit back and watch him get crushed though.  By doing this,
Archer no longer deserves his love, and damn it, I'm going to make
sure Trip sees through that."

Derek put his hands on Malcolm's shoulders, gently pushing him down
onto the bed.  "Hey hey.  I can understand better why you're so upset
now, but you still can't go traipsing into the Captain's quarters and
tell him he's scum. We've got to at least give them the chance to tell
Trip and Rick.  If  they aren't man enough to, we'll tell them.  But
not tonight.  As pissed as  I am at Mike, I've gotta give him this one
last chance to try to reverse  what he s done wrong."

Malcolm sighed and leaned back on the bed.  "I hate it when you're
right."  After a moment, he looked up at the handsome soldier before
him.  "You know, Archer and Mike shouldn't be the only ones getting
any tonight," he said with a wink.  He didn't say much more that
evening that even represented cognizant thinking.

---

The next day Malcolm found himself working on faulty access relays in
the armory with Trip.  These times were always bittersweet for
Malcolm; sweet to spend time with the man he loved, bitter because he
knew he'd never have him Even knowing of Archer's betrayal of him,
Malcolm knew he didn't have a chance.  He'd heard Trip wax poetic
about the things he loved in his lover: the blonde hair, his height,
the furry chest, even hiking. All of those qualities Malcolm didn't
posses, including the ability to go hiking on a regular basis due to
his allergies.  With that thought, he let out a long sigh.

"Hey, cheer up," Trip said from within the access hatch.  "We're just
about done, and so's the shift."

"Thank God he can't hear my thoughts," Malcolm thought as he crouched
down to try to see the actual point the repairs were at.  "Bad move,"
his internal monologue continued.  "He's right here and he smells so
good. I'd love to just do him right here ... take his hot cock in my
mouth, make him scream as he came..."

Trip nudged the armory officer.  "C'mon let me out."

Malcolm sat up quickly, embarrassed at having been caught daydreaming.
 Sorry, sir.  Um, here, let me give you a hand out."

Trip took the hand and slithered out from the hole in the wall.  He
turned to stretch out his sore spine and sat back against the wall to
put his tools away.  "That should hold.  Well, until we get shot at
again," he cracked a grin.  "People just don't know how to be nice
around here it seems."

Malcolm let out a snort at the irony of his friend's statement.  "You
got that right."

Trip frowned at him as he locked his tool kit.  "That sounded like
more than just humor there, Mal.  Somethin' eatin' at you?"

It was the perfect time.  No one was in the armory, and they were in a
secluded spot.  Should he tell Trip what Jon had done to him the
night before?  Malcolm studied Trip's face.  No, the man was too down
as it was.  How could he add to it?  But Trip deserved to know.  With
a sigh, Malcolm answered, "Yes, but I'm not at liberty to discuss it." 
He stood and looked down at the engineer still sitting on the deck. 
"Go talk to the Captain.  Ask him what was going on in the aft
observation deck last night around 2200 hours."

---

The silence in the Captain's mess was palpable.  The stewards came in,
put down plates of succulent steak before the Captain and Commander
and left as soon as they could.  Neither man noticed.  T'Pol had bowed
out of their regular dinner to meditate, and Trip was glad.  Maybe he
would ask about the observation lounge – it was all he'd thought about
for the last hour since Malcolm had told him.

Trip pushed his plate to the side and kept his napkin in his hands.
"Jon, can we talk?"

A guilty look flashed in Jon's green eyes then was quickly replaced
with cool indifference.  "You know, I'm kinda busy..."

Trip cut him off, his hurt plain to see on his face and in his voice.
"You ve been busy for quite awhile now.  At least where I'm concerned.
What happened to us?  I didn't want to think the worst, but I have to
ask you.  What happened last night in the aft observation lounge? 
Before you deny it, I even know the approximate time – 2200 hours. 
Don't lie to me.  I deserve better, and you know it."

"Who told you?"  Jon looked across the table and knew his worst
nightmares were now coming true.

"What does it matter who told me?  I know.  I just want to hear your
side of things."  He didn't know what had happened, but as every
second passed, he felt dread filling his heart.

"I didn't mean for it to happen, I really didn't," Jon said, staring
intently at his barely eaten dinner.  "I just wanted to talk to him,
get it all out in the open so I wouldn't feel so guilty anymore.  It
didn't turn out the way I thought it would."

Trip stared at his bowed head, terrified at what he was hearing.
"You'd better start at the beginning, and now."

Jon looked up, a tear slipping down his cheek.  "After that mission
with the Edana T'rel?  I asked Mike to hang at the shuttle for a
minute.  I had feelings and emotions I didn't know how to deal with. 
I wanted to ask him how he deals with them.  We ended up kissing."  He
saw the look of betrayal on his love's face and couldn't hold eye
contact.

"That's when you stopped talking to me.  You did it because you were
feeling guilty.  Jonny, why didn't you just say something?  We can
work this out."  Trip tried desperately to hold onto reason.

"You're right.  I should have."  Jon licked his lips before
continuing.   But I've done something inexcusable.  I've betrayed the
trust you have in me "

Trip snorted lightly.  "Jon, you kissed a man.  I'm not thrilled, but
we can work through that.  It's not like you slept with him or
anything."  He  watched Jon's face fall.  "You didn't."  He stood. 
"Jon, how could you?"  He turned to the window, slamming his hands
against the hull. He whirled back to Archer, murder in his eyes. 
"Don't call me, I'll call you. You just fucked up the best thing in
your life."

Jon watched the door to his mess close behind Trip and hung his head
in his hands as he let his pain out.  "I know, I know.  Oh, Trip, what
can I do?"


Trip flew down the corridors, his fist hitting the walls at uneven
intervals as his hurt and rage boiled over.  He kept enough of his
sanity to know that he had to vent this somehow.  It was still
dinnertime, so the gym should be free, he figured.  He changed his
erratic course to make a beeline to the gym.  That punching bag was
going to be sorry it had ever been created.

He breezed through the door, intent on reaching that bag.  What he saw
 boiled his blood further.  The Extraction team and Malcolm were
working out on the mat.  The man who caused him this pain stood before
him, acting as if nothing had happened.  The world reduced to himself
and Mike, and Trip's fist flew through the air connecting with Mike's
nose with an audible snap.

"You bastard!  I'm gonna wipe the floor with your ass," Trip yelled,
lunging for Mike.  "How dare you go after my man like a rutting pig?"

Malcolm knew exactly what this was about and quickly moved to hold
Trip back while Rick and Derek moved to keep Mike from retaliating.

Rick's expression moved from anger at the engineer for the attack, to
anger at his partner.  "You what?"

"Yeah, Mike," Trip taunted, struggling against Malcolm's arms.  "Tell
him how you fucked the Captain last night.  Bet you didn't want him to
know did you?  Too late, asshole!  You cheat on your man, he deserves
to know!"

Both Rick and Derek turned to Mike, their hold on him loosening as the
big man sagged.  Derek had to move to separate Rick as Rick started
joining in the yelling.  "You what?  You son of a bitch!  D, get your
hands off me!  I m gonna make him eat his precious cock till he
strangles on it."

Malcolm heard enough and got Derek's attention.  "Get him outta here.
Talk him through this.  I've got Trip."  His gaze turned to Mike and
got as cold as ice.  "And you.  I hope he was worth it.  You've
destroyed four lives here all for a lay."  He maneuvered Trip to the
door quietly talking him down.  Derek led Rick out, leaving Mike
behind standing in the middle of the mat completely alone.

---

The End