Whisper: Practicing With The Bond

Rating: PG, for minor language.

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek, I just play with the people I like.

Summary: My entry for the December "Whisper" challenge.

Author's Note: This follows "Love Languages" and "The Logic Of Trees."

Captain Charles Tucker the Third was sitting at his desk looking over specs for the prototype assembly area of the Warp 7 complex. He needed to make sure that all the safety protocols were in place. The protection of his team was foremost in Trip’s mind. But now he realized he'd been at this for so long that he was getting cross-eyed.

Leaning back in his desk chair, Trip glanced around his home office. Having all his cool stuff displayed around the room gave him a feeling of contentment.

Trip heard his wife’s voice in the back of his mind, “Any more ‘cool stuff’ and you will require two offices to house it.” This made Trip chuckle. T’Pol always tended to check in with him when she felt his fatigue. Sometimes he was envious of his wife’s telepathic abilities. True they were bonded, but Trip’s abilities were much more limited. He tended to sense strong emotions from his family such as fear, anger, or joy. T’Pol was able to discern much more subtle feelings.

Trip remembered a time on Enterprise when T’Resa was only a few years old. She had managed to slip away from her sitter to go in search of her parents. The baby toddled around several empty corridors before realizing she was lost. T’Resa had squatted down in the hall and begun to cry. Trip and T’Pol happened to be in a lift at the time. Both instantly realized something was wrong.

Trip could sense her fear but not the cause, “Is the baby hurt, I can tell she’s crying?”

T‘Pol had a clearer sense of the problem, “No, she appears to be lost and afraid…in a corridor she does not recognize.”

Trip hit the comm, “Tucker to the bridge. Malcolm, can you use the sensors to give us a location on T’Resa?”

“Certainly Commander,” Malcolm replied.

They had found her quickly: no harm, no foul. That emergency, like many others over the years, made him aware of his limitations in this area. Trip wished he could wring a few more details out of this bond thing. Maybe he just needed to practice.

Trip propped his feet up on his desk and closed his eyes. He tried to center himself on that place in the back of his mind which held his family’s gentle presence. He began by reaching out to his daughter.

Trip was aware that she was in her tree in the back yard. She was safe and well, he knew that much. Suddenly, Trip felt an explosion of happiness. A butterfly had just landed on T’Resa’s hand.

“Well, that was no test,” he mused with a smile, “I could have felt that from Jupiter station!”

After chuckling for a moment at his daughter’s delight, Trip decided to switch his attention to his beautiful baby boy. Morgan was awake and dry, he could tell that. Oops! Eighty-six the dry part.

T’Pol must have gone to him. Morgan was almost humming with contentment.

Trip remembered the first time that his son had peed all over the front of T’Pol’s blouse when she was changing him. He nearly laughed his ass off and expected all kinds of affronted Vulcan dignity.

Instead, Trip felt warm motherly affection and humor rolling off his wife. Apparently, mother love has no species boundaries he decided. This was hardly a surprise, T’Pol’s maternal instincts were fierce.

Trip could tell that Morgan was now asleep. Thinking of his beautiful wife, Trip decided to concentrate on her now.

He could hear noises in the kitchen and figured T’Pol had gone back to putting up the groceries she purchased earlier today. He wasn’t getting much sense of what she was thinking and he began to suspect she was messing with him. Most people would never believe how much humor T’Pol possessed and her absolute delight in teasing him. Well, Trip wasn’t above a little teasing himself.

He started to think about their romantic interlude last night. The passion between these two had not been diluted by work and family responsibilities. Their lovemaking and desire was as smoldering as it had ever been. The more Trip remembered of last night, the more fierce his desire became.

Taking a deep breath, Trip sent a burst of lustful feeling toward his wife. Suddenly, from the kitchen, Trip heard what sounded like several cans hitting the granite counter top.

With a snicker he thought, “Maybe I’m better at this bond than I thought.”

Still propped back in his chair, Trip laced his fingers behind his head and smiled. He saw T’Pol appear at the door to his office. His gorgeous wife walked over to his chair and threw a long leg over him, sitting in his lap.

“My husband, you are more than proficient with our bond,” T’Pol leaned over inches from his lips.

“However, if you do not cease your practice, I will never finish filling the cupboards.”

She leaned in the last few inches and gave Trip a scorching kiss. T’Pol then disengaged herself and headed back toward the door.

“Perhaps we could practice more tonight after the children are asleep,” and with a sway of her hips, she was gone.

“Trip Tucker, you are one lucky man,” he decided with a shake of his head.

Years ago, Malcolm had asked him if he felt like the bond was an invasion of privacy.

Trip remembered his reply, “No Malcolm, it’s not an invasion of privacy, it’s a whisper of love.”

THE END