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There were only two other people in the mess hall as Tucker arrived to fetch himself a late night snack. T'Pol and Phlox. And they were so engrossed in their conversation they didn't even seem to notice him. So, selecting his pie, Tucker fine-tuned his hearing to reach across the mess hall. What were they talking about at this hour? The odd word he could just make out...test..test of loyalty..or was it love? He sipped the coffee he didn't really want and had only ordered to procrastinate and concentrated harder. T'Pol was speaking now.
"Research is a perfectly valid reason to engage in sexual relations."
It was at that point that Tucker's coughing fit caused both Phlox and T'Pol to notice the engineer for the first time.
"Ah, went down the wrong way," Tucker explained, waving them to sit again from their half-risen positions.
"Come and join us, Commander," said Phlox expansively, "we were just discussing this evening's movie."
Mental head smack. The movie, naturally. Taking the proffered seat, Tucker berated himself on several levels. One, of course T'Pol wasn't conversing casually with all and sundry about their night together and, two, he really needed to get a handle on his sensitivity on that matter. His imagination had been running riot, pitching scenarios left and right, all involving T'Pol making him look like a fool in some way or another.
Taking a calming breath and a bite of pie, he settled down to listen to the continuing post-mortem. Although wild horses wouldn't drag an open admission out of him, T'Pol and Phlox often had highly profound things to say about human behavior. In fact, with T'Pol it went further than what she was actually saying. In addition, Tucker loved to watch her face and her body language as she spoke. When she was truly intrigued she was beautiful and she was intrigued tonight. Just the sight of her sent Tucker's rational mind off on a little holiday. The words began to fade as his fantasy of T'Pol and a vat of cream took over pole position. It was only when the words ceased altogether that Tucker snapped back to reality. Both T'Pol and Phlox were looking at him expectantly, evidently a comment requiring some sort of reaction had been launched in his direction.
"Excuse me?"
"The simplicity of the tales told by moving film," Phlox smiled, "while Earth literature is usually as gloriously tangled as real life, you have to admit that the films we have been viewing, particularly recently, have been quite unrealistic. The idea that humans mate only once and for love alone has been a recurring theme these past few weeks."
Tucker frowned. He had chosen most of the recent movies himself. True love, the type of love that broke through all barriers, the type you found in Frank Capra movies, was something the romantic in him secretly and desperately believed in despite his own relationship history.
"It would seem the sole purpose of stories such as these is entertainment," Phlox went on. "They are very effective morale boosters. But I think that is all they are."
Something was coming back to Tucker, a half-listened to conversation between T'Pol and Phlox, weeks ago, they had been discussing marriage. Denobulan marriage, Vulcan marriage, the bonding rituals of other species. Were they saying humans were unable to mate for life? Were they mocking humans for reaching for an ideal and failing?
Disliking the defensive tone in his voice but for some reason unable to extinguish it, Tucker told Phlox, in fact he told them both, for it looked like T'Pol was about to add her weight to the doctor's argument, that just because not all humans were fortunate enough to experience a life-long bonding with another, didn't mean that humans should be condemned as generally feckless.
"You misunderstand, Mister Tucker," soothed Phlox, "I merely mean to say that human interpersonal relationships are complex, they are driven by many motives, and when it comes to ironing them out for presentation to the masses, the most interesting wrinkles and creases are all but gone. For an example of a complicated relationship look at Lieutenant Reed and Major Hayes."
Malcolm and Hayes. Tucker swallowed, wondering if Phlox knew how he had once felt about Malcolm.
"Yeah, so there're doin' more than beatin' each other up these days. What's complicated about that?" He was pleased that his voice had remained absolutely level. Phlox wasn't going to push his buttons about Malcolm.
"What's complicated is that the lieutenant already has feelings for another man. They cannot be together, even though the feelings are returned, because the man is a superior officer. There's no doubting the mutual attraction with the major but it's hardly a simple case of love, is it? I have a colleague on Denobula who would just love the opportunity to closely study the conflicting influences of basic need and anger and frustration.." Phlox tailed of, the expression on his face leading Tucker to speculate that he was in fact looking at 'the colleague on Denobula'.
"Wait a minute. Malcolm has feeling, returned feelings, for a superior officer?"
"Yes, Commander. The captain, of course."
Damn. He had said that out loud and damn, the officer in question was the captain.
Double whammy. He struggled for speech.
"Malcolm and Hayes..Malcolm and the cap'n..how can this be when...when.."
"When he could have you?" T'Pol finished smoothly.
Quailing under the combination of arched eyebrow and wide grin, Tucker decided to leave them to it and get some shut-eye. There was just no reasoning with T'Pol when she was intrigued and as for Phlox.. Draining his cup he made good his escape before the conversation could turn from Reed and Hayes to himself and T'Pol.
Reed and Hayes. Reed and the captain?? Tucker had been convinced that Reed had been moving slowly but surely towards Tucker himself before the Xindi attack on Earth had turned all their lives upside down. Speaking of Reed, the man was walking towards him now, heading for the mess hall.
Tucker assumed his face must still have been frozen in the grimace he seemed to have been wearing for as long as he could remember because Reed was looking at him with concern.
"Everything okay, Trip?"
"Fine, fine," he ran a hand over his face. "Just need to wind down, get some sleep. See you in the morning."
"'Night, Trip."
Pausing for a moment, Tucker watched Reed disappearing into the mess.
Good luck in there, he thought.
***
~the end~