Back-up

Genre: November word challenge: “wrecked”
Disclaimer: No infringement intended.
Rating: G

Author’s Note: Well, I was really enjoying writing a story and I was busy with the last chapter, when my computer crashed. Nothing worked. I feared that all my documents, including the story were gone and I felt really bad. My first reaction was to whine on the whine thread, but then again, my computer didn't work. But my experience did inspire me to write a story, fitting for November '08 Prompt! My English is not perfect, but justTrip’n offered to beta. But I hope you still like this little sweet story.

BTW in my TnT universe Trip and T'Pol are forced to separate after “Terra Prime,” but come together again (T'Pol sharing her memories through the bond has something to do with it) and after the war they leave Star Fleet and move to a new planet.

Nooooooo...

Frustrated and desperate Trip looked at the blue screen in front of him. He pushed a number of buttons, but nothing happened. He tried to reboot the system. Nothing. The computer screen was nothing but a blue void. He looked at the cause of this problem. Trip had fastened him in his highchair, but his 18-month old son was trying very hard to escape his confinement. A confinement he should have put his son in in the first place, before he went to the kitchen to get him a drink.

Kiran just finished taking a nap and Trip was looking forward to spending the afternoon with his son. He liked to play with him. He just received some padds with games from Earth, so maybe he and Kiran could watch the game together. He was convinced that his son liked it; even T'Lessa liked it. T'pol had asked Trip once if Kiran was not too young to watch a Football game. Hey, nobody is ever too young to watch the Gators.

“Football is a part of human culture. And we agreed to teach the kids about both our cultures, didn't we?” he asked his wife.

“Cultural education is an agreeable goal,” his wife had answered with a hint of amusement, only to be detected by persons who knew her pretty well.

With the game plan of the afternoon already in his mind, he had gone to the kitchen to get Kiran some juice. Big mistake. When he came back, Kiran had climbed onto the chair before the desk and was pounding on the key-board of his computer. By the looks of it, his computer hadn’t survived the toddler’s attack. It had crashed, taking all kinds of valuable pictures and documents with it.

So instead of watching the game on his computer, Trip spend the entire afternoon trying to fix it. Not an easy task with an energetic son. “You wrecked my computer!” he told his son. He was angry with him, but most of all with himself. Kiran smiled back at him, a great big Tucker smile.

Trip sighed. “You're not going charm your way out of this, buddy,” he said “I invented that smile. Didn't I tell you: don’t put your hand in a bowl of peddles, don't go to Risa for vacation, and don't touch Daddy's computer!”

But Trip couldn't stay mad at him. Kiran was only a little boy with far too much energy and curiosity. He picked the little guy up and hugged him.

The computer was still a mess. When he thought about all the things on the computer, that were lost, he felt horrible. All his engineering journals from Enterprise, his personal logs.

And pictures.

T'Pol didn't like to have her picture taken. His favorite picture was one where T’Pol had been unaware of the camera. She was beautiful in her wedding dress, their fingers touched at the beginning of the ceremony and she looked at him. He loved that look. Her eyes revealed adoration, affection, a deep knowing that they were making the right choice, and a determination to make things works. Pictures and movies of the kids were also lost. Like the movie of T'Lessa first steps, which he had spent hours editing, pictures of Kiran smiling at him. This was a bad day.

T'Pol and T'Lessa arrived later that afternoon, they both had gone to an exhibition together.

He was sometimes amazed how different his children were. By appearance, T'Lessa looked like T'Pol: beautiful brown eyes with long brown hair. She was a little dreamer, soft and gentle. She could play for hours with her toys, reading books or doing some science experiments with her Mum.

T'Lessa had been a surprise. He and T'Pol hadn’t been expecting this child, but she was more than welcome.

Kiran was very different story. It had taken a lot of effort and time before he was born. Kiran looked like Trip: blond hair, bright blue eyes. Only the ears gave him a Vulcan look. He had inherited the curiosity of his parents, combined with Vulcan strength. A dangerous combination. Kiran used to climb on every chair, table, drawer that he could find. More than once he jumped from the table, almost giving Trip a heart-attack. And then there was the matter of tearing things apart. His mother told him that as a child, Trip had liked to take apart anything technical that he could he hands on, before fixing it. Kiran did know how to do the first part. He was totally clueless about the fixing-part.

At diner the whole family came together. “I sensed that you were upset this afternoon,” T'Pol started the conversation.

“Stupid bond” he thought, without realizing that his wife could pick up his strongest thoughts and emotions. When he saw her raised eyebrow, he knew she had heard him.

In the corner of this eye he saw his daughter chewing her food the Vulcanly slowest way possible, while Kiran made it impossible to answer T'Pol because he was screaming for his food. Good thing he didn't have to teach the kids the Vulcan ways of control. He wondered if Kiran would ever learn them.

In the evening he tried in vain to repair the computer. Moody, he went to bed early.

T'Pol entered the bedroom. She put her hands on his shoulder. “You are tense,” she concluded. “Are you upset because you cannot repair the computer?”

He looked at her. After her pregnancies he thought she had become more beautiful than before and pride at his family filled him.

“It's not the computer, it's what’s on the computer. I fear a lot of pictures are lost,” he answered.

“Pictures?” she wanted to know.

“You know, from our wedding.”

“I have also pictures from our wedding,” T'Pol said.

“Yeah, I know, but this is a picture of a special moment. And you know, that movie of T'Lessa first steps is also gone. And my personal logs.”

He wondered if she would understand. His practical wife would probably advise him to make back-ups next time. He and T'Pol had very different backgrounds and upbringing. While they had more in common than people would guess on first sight and tried to understand each other, sometimes Trip just noticed that one just didn't get what the other was saying. It was part of the challenge, the mystery of their marriage, but also sometimes a thing he had to live with.

But to his surprise she said, “So you are upset, because you think that a precious memory is gone.”

She does understand, he thought.

T'Pol continued. “Remember when we spoke about the differences between a human memory and a Vulcan one?”

“You mean, the fact that your memory is like a full color 3-D movie where you can smell and feel everything and my memory is like black and white flashes.”

After the year they were forced to be separated and the bond was restored, he had experience through the bond what a deeply moving experience Vulcan memory was.

T'Pol nodded. “If you like, we could join our minds and you could see my memory from certain events. It would be more than a picture.”

Frankly, he just wanted to left alone in his misery or get some sleep. Any Vulcan joining of the minds was pretty intense, and he was not really in the mood. But he knew this was T'Pol’s way of offering support, and to be honest, he did want to know more about her memory of their wedding day.

“Okay,” he said.

So they joined. And just like before, it looked like he had stepped back in time and he saw several events through the eyes of T'Pol. Funny, it made him realize once more how much T'Pol loved him and their children. After a short while, T'Pol stopped, always afraid to put too much pressure on his human brain.

They stepped into bed and he put his arm around her. He kissed her in the neck. “You're the sweetest thing, you know that,” he whispered in her ear. “You and the kids, alive and well, is the best thing. And Vulcan memory beats any picture or movie.”

“But you’re still going to fix the computer,” his wife told him.

“Have to find those pictures,” he muttered.

“You are so very human,” T'Pol said. He could feel her smile.

“Love you too, darling.”

And together they drifted into sleep.