Missing Scenes from Season Four: Home

Chapter 1

SPOILERS: "Home" and it may make little sense without it.

DISCLAIMER: All things Star Trek belong to CBS/Paramount. "Home" was written by Michael Sussman.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: My muse was reluctant to get to Vulcan (not in the mood for suffering, most likely), so she decided to linger in the many open spaces of this episode for awhile, which means there will be multiple parts. For those of you who have read the Commander Tucker series, I'm trying to go in a different direction this time around (to the extent canon allows), so this Trip has a different family. Many thanks as always, reviewers.

The fanfare of the welcoming ceremony over, the family reunion was staged in a gym on the Starfleet grounds. The crew entered in an approximation of parade formation that probably horrified their MACO contingent, and then the gathered masses were released upon them in a chaos of shrieking and hugging and crying. T'Pol and Archer stood a little to the side, observing it all; clearly, neither expected to be reunited with anyone, which struck Trip as a little sad in the moment before his mom's tackle practically knocked him over.

"Oh, honey!" she kept saying, holding him in a tight hug that just wouldn't quit. "Oh, it's so good to have you home safe!" She all but patted him down, squeezing his arms from the shoulders down to his wrists and pulling both his hands out to examine them, too. He withstood it patiently, ignoring the twinges where he was bruised. There was something about her compulsive examination that made him feel that yes, he really was home; yes, he really had survived. "What happened here?" she asked, touching him lightly next to the faint scar on his cheek from his interrogation.

"Nothing to write home about," he said, smiling down at her, thinking that she'd aged more than a person should in the time they'd been gone, though she still gave the impression of boundless energy. "Where's Dad?"

Her face clouded. "He asked me to tell you how proud he is."

"He didn't come?" Trip had never known his father to miss anything.

"This whole thing, it just takes him back to what happened to Elizabeth." She gave him a pained smile. "Your grandma's keeping an eye on him for me today."

His father had to be watched?

"Don't worry, he'll get better. He did before." She smiled tightly. "What's important is that you're home at last! Tell me how you are!"

"I'm fine," he said automatically. "How are Cathy and Nate and the rest of the gang?"

"They're all fine, too. Hoping to see you soon. When are they going to let you go?"

"Pretty soon, I hope," he said. "Come say hi to Cap'n Archer. And I want you to meet T'Pol."

"Ooh!" his mom said. She gave Jon a big hug, which Trip thought was probably something his friend could use at this point, and then she shook hands politely with T'Pol, who hesitated only slightly in accepting the contact and looked at Trip as if to say See? I shook hands with your mother.

"I suppose your family is on Vulcan," his mom said.

"Yes, I am looking forward to seeing my mother. It has been over three years since I was home."

"She must be missing you something awful."

"She has made it rather clear that my presence is required," T'Pol said, which made Archer chuckle.

"Mom was curious when we're going to be free to go," Trip said, who also wanted to know. He had wrapped up most of his duties faster than expected, partly because his crew was so eager to be on their way, and partly because Starfleet had detailed a number of teams to help.

Archer frowned. "The project lead wants to do a walk-through with both of us, which we could probably get done tomorrow morning, and there's another mission de-briefing scheduled tomorrow afternoon. Assuming there are no issues with that, you should be free to go as soon as you're done testifying."

"Testifying?" Trip said, and both women turn to look at him. It hadn't occurred to him before that T'Pol was almost exactly the same height and build as his mother. Of course, their complexions were quite different.

Jon said, "Don't go looking for trouble, Trip. If there are any issues, they'll be for me to deal with, not you. In fact, Admiral Forrest already told T'Pol she could safely plan on taking a transport to Vulcan this Friday."

"Friday?" Trip said. He turned to T'Pol, "How long are you going for?"

"I haven't decided."

Some of the free-floating anxiety he'd been feeling suddenly congealed into a concern he could label without difficulty. "But you are coming back?"

Archer said, "We're working on that. The admiral is trying to get T'Pol formally commissioned as a commander." He grinned. "You wouldn't have any objections to that, I take it?"

"'Course not," Trip said. "About time she got the pips to go with the workload."

His mom patted him on the arm. "Honey, if the captain and T'Pol will excuse us a moment, I want to say hi to your friend Malcolm," his mom said. "I met his parents earlier today. They certainly are very… proper."

"Okay, let's find him," Trip said, and gave a parting smile to Jon and T'Pol. He wanted to see Malcolm, too, and he knew his mother had a good instinct for where extra hugs might be required.

x x x

Trip had offered his engineering crew a round of drinks at the 602 Club that night, his first opportunity to take them anywhere, but he was not terribly surprised when they preferred to begin their leaves instead. "I guess they didn't really think they should have to spend their first night back home in a bar with their boss," he told Jon. "I'll try to catch them on the return. How about you? Still up for that drink?"

"Sure, I'll have a beer, but then I want to go review some of my logs before tomorrow's debriefing."

It was quiet in the 602 Club – still pretty early. Trip didn't recognize the woman behind the bar and decided he didn't want to ask where Ruby was.

"Are we all set for the tour in the morning?" Archer asked, while they waited for their drinks to arrive.

"Yeah, no problem," Trip said. "Do you have any idea where T'Pol is?"

"She said she had to go to the Vulcan Consulate."

"Why?"

Archer shrugged. "You'd have to ask her. She did say she would let you buy her a drink, as I recall. Why don't you give her a call?"

"I think she was just being polite." The beer arrived. "To saving the universe," Trip toasted, which made the captain scowl. It was Trip's first beer on tap in over a year – not counting a brutal version he'd tried on that Human/Skagaran colony – and it didn't wow him as much as he had hoped.

Archer said, "I'm not sure T'Pol was just being polite. In case you haven't noticed, she shares a drink with us fairly often. I think maybe we've been a bad influence on her. Or at least you have."

Trip snickered. "I just hope she doesn't go back to Vulcan and decide to stay. I'd make a lousy first officer."

Archer tilted his head and gave him a long, appraising look. "I disagree. I think you've actually shared that role with T'Pol for the last three years. She does most of it, of course, but you've played a big role in her success."

Trip felt his cheeks warm. He was pleased that Jon had noticed his efforts there, and also a little surprised. "I try to help when I can. But First Officer isn't a good fit with Chief Engineer."

"I know. We'd have to put someone else in charge of the engines." Archer laughed. "You should see your face!"

"It's not funny! Those engines are mine."

"Well, with any luck it won't come to that." Archer lifted his glass in a toast. "To the current and hopefully future first officer and chief engineer … respectively … of the starship Enterprise."

Trip smiled and drank. That had felt like another one of those odd not-really-overtly-stated blessings from the captain, though he supposed he might be reading too much into it.

"Why I didn't see your dad today?" Archer asked.

Trip sighed. "Apparently he wasn't feeling up to it."

"He's ill?"

"Depressed. Lizzie."

Archer grimaced in commiseration. "You are going to go see them, aren't you? I know you've been talking about lying on all those tropical beaches."

"Oh, don't worry, they'll get me first. Probably tomorrow, if I really am free to go then."

"Good. I think you will be."

"How about you?" Trip said, cocking his head. "Don't you have anyone you want to go see?"

Archer gave him a tight smile. "Honestly… I think I'll be happy if I just don't have to say hello to anyone for a month."

Trip downed the last of his beer. "I guess I can understand that." The reception after the memorial service that afternoon had certainly been a traumatic way to end a very long day. Taylor's mother had broken down in noisy tears, asking him why? A few of the more demonstrative relatives had indulged in breast-beating, keening, and fainting. Hayes' and Forbes' families had looked pale and stunned, obviously still reeling from the awful news.

Although T'Pol had withstood all the emotions at play with no obvious difficulty, Trip could see her stiffening up as the reception went on. No wonder she'd run off to the Vulcan consulate. She probably just wanted to be in the one place she could be certain to avoid any further outward displays of grief.

Jon said, "You do want to spend time with your family, don't you?"

"Yeah, of course," Trip said, a little grimly. The truth, though, was that his dad in this condition was an alarming unknown. He couldn't imagine how depressed he must be to have missed today's events. He'd also never seen his parents' new place in Mississippi, and he wasn't exactly in the mood to ooh and ah over real estate.

Just to top it all off, his girlfriend was heading 16 light years away and who knew if or when she'd return or if she even considered herself his girlfriend at all.

"Why don't we go back up?" he said.

Enterprise felt more like home to him than any other place, now.

To be continued