Malcolm and Hoshi: The Missing Scenes

“Enjoy yourself at Madame Chang’s tomorrow, love.” Malcolm leaned down and kissed her.  “I don’t think I’ll be back in time, or I’d join you and the others.”

 

She rolled over and reached up to put a hand to his chest.  Behind him the French window stood open to the veranda, and the dawn sunshine was just spilling into the cloudless sky.

They’d checked into the luxury hotel under fake identities, avoiding the endless attention that had already begun to become wearing after the simplicity of life on board ship.  A week was far too short a time to enjoy being able to relax and make love in such sumptuous surroundings, especially when Malcolm had had to take time out to go bar-crawling with Phlox and Travis, chiefly to avert suspicion from what he was actually doing with his accumulated leave time.

 

It was that outing that had brought a hiatus to their idyll.  He had gone out more resigned than anything (though that hadn't stopped him from wearing his jacket with the Enterprise badge – a closet show-off lurked beneath that shy exterior), and returned deeply troubled by the xenophobia that they’d encountered.  The presence of an alien had triggered ugly scenes in one of the bars they’d visited, and while nobody had been injured, the discovery of the less palpable changes that the Xindi attack had wrought on Earth had worried him deeply.

 

He was setting out now to visit some ‘friends’ who could give him more accurate information on the broader picture.  Although disappointed by losing him for a couple of days, Hoshi understood his compelling sense of duty to investigate the viciousness he’d described.  And she didn’t intend to waste her time moping while he was gone; she had shopping to do and friends to visit, and the visit to Madam Chang’s with Phlox had been an understood thing for a long time, on account of the Denobulan’s inordinate fondness for the egg drop soup they served there.

 

“Please be careful,” he said now, and she knew he was torn, thinking of the scene in the bar the night before.  “I wish I could be with you, but it’s a decent area around there.  Better than where we went.”

 

“Phlox went back to the ship,” she said inconsequentially.  “I’ve got to go see him for my last check-up.”

 

“Well, that’s no problem.”  He kissed her again.  “I’m sure Travis will fly you up there.  And you can bring Phlox down with you.  And if you don’t stop looking so irresistible I’m going to take all my clothes off again and get back into bed with you.”

 

“I could live with that.”  She smiled up at him languorously.

 

“Vixen.”  Malcolm pulled up her left hand and set his lips gently to the blue stone that was sparkling on the ring there.  “And don’t forget to take this off before you go.  Or Travis will have a field day.”

 

“I wish we could tell him.”

 

“Well, so do I.  But I have enough to worry about, wondering whether Trip’s going to drop us in the smelly stuff one of these days.”

 

“You’ve got a point.”  She sighed.  “But there’s not much chance of him getting up to any mischief on Vulcan.”

 

A wry smile appeared on his face.  “You know better than that, love.  Trip Tucker could get up to mischief if he was tied up and wrapped in cotton wool and locked in his own cabin for a week.”

 

“T’Pol will keep him on the straight and narrow.”

 

“Hmm.”  He looked uneasy again, staring into the distance.

 

“You don’t think ...”

 

“Oh, I don’t know what I think.  Perhaps I’m just borrowing trouble.”  With a visible effort he smoothed out the worried frown.  “I’d better get off, the flitter will be waiting.  If you need me, call me.  Any time.”

 

“I will miss you, you know.  Especially after supper.”  She saw in his face that he was remembering the previous evening, and that the flitter’s attractions were wavering.  So she laughed up at him, and sent him on his way.

 

But he’d promised to be back late tomorrow night.  And he was a man of his word.

 

And then he was going to make it up to her.

 

She could hardly wait.