A/N: Trip gets a jolt, a wakeup call. Is Trip and T’Pol’s marriage headed for the rocks? Well, read on. Please comment. As usual, jT is a great Beta. She tactfully moved me towards a better story. Thanks jT.

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Trip stood talking to Admiral Gardner, Admiral Stottlemeyer, and Lt. Commander Reed. It was an easygoing chat which Trip was enjoying.

"Hello, who is that handsome young Vulcan male T'Pol is talking to? She sure looks lit up by him," said Malcolm.

Trip turned to look at T'Pol. Malcolm was right. T'Pol was looking up at the young male with bright eyes and she seemed animated.

"Excuse me," said Trip. He strode quickly over to where T'Pol stood talking to the handsome young male. He took her by the waist and pulled her away. "Join us," he said.

"Your manners," said T'Pol brusquely.

Trip made the sign of the Ta'al, "Live long and prosper." He didn't bother to wait for the response. He pulled T'Pol back to the group he had been with.

"My wife, T'Pol," he said. "T'Pol, you know Admiral Gardner already, this is Admiral Stottlemeyer. You know Malcolm.”

"'I have heard that Captain Tucker was married to a very beautiful woman but did not know that was a gross understatement," said Stottlemeyer.

"Thank you, Admiral," replied T'Pol.

"What were you and that young Vulcan male talking about? You sure looked interested," said Malcolm.

"Interested? In what?" asked Trip.

"That is what I was wondering. The conversation or him?" said Malcolm.

"The conversation," said T'Pol shortly. Trip noticed that her voice sounded cool.

"Excuse us," said Trip. "Come on, we have to talk," he said to T'Pol. He urged her over to a secluded alcove. "What in hell is the matter with you, flirting so openly with that young male?”

"I was not flirting. We were in a conversation."

"Like hell you weren't. I saw your eyes when you were looking at him."

"I did not know you were observing me."

"I wasn't until Malcolm called my attention to you."

"Malcolm had to tell you?"

"Yes, now what is going on?" Trip gritted.

"You are neglecting me. You leave me alone at receptions. This is the third one. You get in a group and ignore me. I am left to fend for myself. I know no one. The human females evade me, and the males are afraid to come near because their wives will object so I stand alone. The young Vulcan was the first opportunity I have had to speak to anyone,"

"That doesn't mean you have to be so damned pleased by it."

T'Pol eyes darkened. "You neglect me in other ways. You don't tell me that you love me anymore. You haven't kissed me for weeks. At night you turn your back to me in bed. You don't hold me as you used to. You take me for granted. You have stopped loving me. I should return to Vulcan and wait for your petition to divorce me." Her tone had grown more chilly as she spoke.

"Aw hell, T'Pol, I am busy with this new warp drive."

"I work alongside you on that I am part of your development team. I don't use that as an excuse to neglect you."

"I have a lot on my mind."

"I don't? I work on that project and I have much on my mind too."

Trip began to realize that T'Pol was serious. He had to admit that he had been neglecting her.

T'Pol turned and started to walk back in to the reception.

"Where are you going?" demanded Trip.

"To join the young male. He is interesting. He will be traveling back to Vulcan in two days. I can travel with him and await your divorce papers. Perhaps by the time they come he and I will be better friends."

"You are not going anywhere. You are my wife."

"You remember that? I thought I was a cleaning woman with benefits. Benefits that you never use. Not exactly the wife I want to be. But since that is the way you want it. I have no choice but to accept it."

"T'Pol, that is not fair. When we come home at night, I help prepare dinner. I help clean up. I help with the housework, everything. I have never once said or intimated that I thought you are a cleaning woman. Never."

T'Pol looked icily at him. "It seems that way to me. You would treat me better, I suppose, if all I was was a menial. You don't seem to need or want a wife."

Now Trip was in a panic. T'Pol was very unhappy and sounded like she was prepared to leave him.

"Look, I will change right . . ." Trip stopped. He was going to say right after the project was finished, but he knew that was the wrong thing to say. ". . .away. I promise that I won't neglect you anymore. I will tell you how much I do love you, and I will prove it every day and night. You have my word on that. You will never again be left alone at a reception. I won't turn my back on you at night. I will smother you in kisses every day. My word."

"If you had done half of those things, it would have pleased me very, very much," said T'Pol.

"T'Pol, why don't we go on a second Honeymoon? To that place in Australia where we had the secluded beach, house, and lots of privacy. I will tell Gardner we are taking two months leave. Would you like that? We can reconnect. I can make up the things I have neglected."

"Would Admiral Gardner permit that?"

"It is either that or we resign our commissions."

"But what would we do if we resign?"

"No problem. I get at least one offer or more a year from the three largest engineering firms on Earth. I could resign in the morning and be head engineer at any one of them by noon at an obscene salary."

"What of me? What would I do?"

"You are a brilliant scientist. There are scientific companies that would be glad to employ you--companies that already employ Vulcans. Or," grinned Trip, "we can always start that family we want."

"But where would I work then? I could not work at a scientific company."

"You be a contractor and teach at the Starfleet Academy. They would hire you without question. You could record your lectures at home. Give them to your teaching assistants they would play them."

"We should ask the Admiral. He may grant our request," said T'Pol.

"Come on." He guided her back to the group. "Admiral Gardner, T’Pol and I are taking two months annual leave. We have at least two years leave accrued. We work long hours, weekends, holidays. We are burned out."

"Two months! Impossible. I can give you a few days . . ."

Two months or we are resigning our commissions, leaving Starfleet and the project immediately," said Trip.

"I will refuse your resignation."

"You cannot. It is peacetime so we can resign and you must accept it," said T'Pol.

"But two months. What will happen to the project?" asked Gardner.

"We are starting the testing stage. Rostov can handle that. He will have the results of the tests for our analysis when we return. We will not lose any time. My wife and I are not needed to run the tests."

"Two months and not a day more. I want you back here the day after your leave is up," snapped Gardner. "Where will you be in case I want to contact you."

"Secret," smiled Trip. "We don't want to be found or contacted."

"Let’s make arrangements," said Trip. “First call the Australian Tourists’ Board."

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A voice came on the line: "Australian Tourists’ Board."

"A few years ago my wife and I rented a private beach and house. It was secluded and we had all the privacy we wanted. We were on our honeymoon. We want to have a second honeymoon. Is that beach and house available?"

"What is your name, sir?"

"Tucker, Charles Tucker."

There was a few minutes pause then: "Yes, we have it on record. The beach and house have been vacant for three weeks. It is available."

"For two months?" asked Trip.

"Two months? One moment . . . Yes. It has not been booked, so we can let you have it for that time."

"Good, we will take it."

"We will be there tomorrow evening. We will pick up the keys and take a flyer to the site. Can you have a week’s worth of food delivered before then? You should still have a record of what we ordered last time. We can give you a more complete order after we settle in," said Trip.

"Yes, sir. The keys will be waiting and the food will be delivered today. Goodbye."

"Goodbye," replied Trip."Now, for transportation." Trip made arrangements for the trip to the beach and house.

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Two days later T'Pol lay basking in the heat of the sun. She was in the afterglow of intimacy. Trip had kept his word to her. She knew he would. He had never broken his word yet, and she was certain he never would.

Trip lay beside her, lightly dozing, his arms draped across her body. T'Pol was peaceful. She had her husband back. The first night they were in the house they made passionate love all night. Trip was exhausted by morning so he slept the morning away into mid afternoon. They swam and napped in the sun that day. The next night their lovemaking was tender and serene.

T'Pol idly wondered where Malcolm had hired the young male she had been talking to at the reception. Even being as close to him as she was, his make-up looked so good she could not tell he wasn’t Vulcan. Only his accent would have given him away, but that would take a Vulcan to detect. When they returned to San Francisco, she would ask Malcolm. She would tell Malcolm and Hoshi that the plan worked perfectly.

T'Pol remembered a Human idiom: All is fair in love and war. Especially love, she thought.

Finis

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