The Ceremony

Summary:

Just a little image I liked the idea of and thought I'd share. I'm a 25 year old women without kids so if there are decrepancies with Trip's character in this, that's probably where it comes from, I can only imagine this stuff. Also I'm not a fan fic writer so please forgive this. I just wanted to contribute SOMETHING to you guys that have written so many fantastic fics and all I've done is enjoy them. So thank you.

Disclaimer: I dont own star trek or anything to do with it, not making any pennies.

Trip stood and watched the ceremony battling against the lump forming in his throat. He couldn't believe this day had come. He was dressed in Vulcan ceremonial robes and couldn't help but think back to the day T'Pol and he had first set eyes on her: Their baby – his little girl.

He'd forgotten about Paxton, the guards and even T'Pol in that moment. She had been beautiful and he fell in love instantly. It was the strangest thing, but he understood now what T’Pol had meant when she had told him that she knew that the baby was theirs. He could feel her. The feeling was so much like what he felt from T'Pol that he almost couldn't tell the difference. It was somewhere in his head, but now that he was standing with them both in the same room, he recognized it, the two separate consciences. He didn't understand it, but he hadn't really cared either. A life had flashed before his eyes, with him, T'Pol and their little one… and the happiness that came from it was blinding. It wasn't until Paxton had pulled him away that he was reminded that the people that had orchestrated this weren't doing it to give anyone, least of all his new family, a new beginning. He wasn't going to be able to walk out with her and start that new life – at least not just yet.

He remembered finally getting her back to the ship; he and T'Pol looking down on her in the incubation chamber in awe and a little frustrated that he hadn't been able to pick her up and hold her yet. T'Pol, selfish but always maternal, hogged the tiny thing to herself until Phlox had convinced her to put her down. And then the soul shifting memory of T'Pol telling him she wanted to call her Elizabeth. He hadn't been able to say much after that.

The gongs sounded and they brought him back to the present. He looked over at T'Pol and she glanced back at him, her face serene but aware that she was thinking the same as he was. He saw the tiny smile behind her eyes and couldn't keep a couple of tears from escaping. She took his hand, and he turned to watch as that Vulcan man knelt down in front of his baby and began the ceremony that would take his beautiful girl away from him.

He had to remind himself again and again that she wasn't his baby girl anymore, wasn't a baby anymore, she had grown up, she was a women and he was a broken hearted old man.

He felt a squeeze from T'Pol and looked up at her, her eyes now dancing in amusement. "You are being a ridiculous and overly emotional husband." He heard clearly in his head. He almost scowled and then, "She will always be your baby girl." He felt a rush of affection and certainty and it lifted his sprits enough to smile at her.

He turned back to the scene in front of him. V'Lec put his had out to his daughter two fingers extended and she joined hers with his, Elizabeth's control could be impeccable but she was known to let loose a Tucker grin often enough, and so Trip wasn't at all surprised to see it surface then. He'd worn the exact expression the day he married T'Pol. He might be upset about the whole damn proceedings, but knew V'Lec was a good man. Maybe not good enough for his baby but that wasn't his choice to make. Elizabeth loved him and that's all that mattered. He thought back to that conversation they had late one night in the kitchen.

"You don't have to marry this guy you know." He'd finally managed to corner her.

"He's a logical choice."

"Exactly!"

She'd rolled her eyes at him.

"He accepts me for who and what I am, we share the same interests..."

"Sweetie, I've told you time and time again there's more to life, and marriage." He quickly amended. "Than just logic and acceptance and similar..."

"And I love him."

That had shut him up, then he'd narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're not just saying that to keep your old man happy?"

She'd smiled at him then, looked him in the eye and took a breath. "I love him Dad, and he loves me... just don't tell mother." He'd laughed and grabbed her in for a hug.

"Come here you."

She'd never know it was T'Pol that had put him up to this conversation.

He grinned at the memory and noticed at the corner of his eye T'Pol giving him a perplexed look and then lightly shaking her head before looking back at the priest as he began the ritual words. Despite his mood, tt made him grin wider. "What thee are about to see..."

Jonathan Archer had used Starfleet’s flagship to get a lift to Vulcan for the wedding. Trip had laughed and called it ‘improper use of Starfleet property,’ but Archer insisted there wasn't much good in being an Admiral if you didn't have any privileges. Since the ship was in orbit, he had also insisted that they use it for the reception. Elizabeth and T'Pol had eagerly agreed that there weren't many places on Vulcan that were built for a whole load of humans, particularly Tuckers in full celebratory swing.

Elizabeth had decided that since she had a traditional Vulcan wedding she was going to go all out on the traditional human reception. V'Lec didn’t object.

And so here Trip sat in the bustle of one of the new starship diplomacy lounges. Everyone had eaten their fill and now the rest of their table was listening to the debate between Jon and T'Pol about the new Orion agreements. How they always managed to get on politics Trip would never know, but it was the same every time he visited. Jon always insisted on the 'no shop talk' rule yet inevitably, Trip would find the two of them in some heated debate over something political. He smiled and met eyes with his daughter who rolled them at him. He laughed…

…Bringing the attention of the table on him.

"Something funny Trip?'

"No Sir!" he said to the Admiral, smirking. Jon knew exactly what to say to wipe that grin off his face.

"Hey isn't it about time for the father-of-the-bride speech?"

"It is tradition for you to make a speech," Charles Tucker the IV chimed in. And the word was caught on by the neighboring table before Trip could say anything.

"Yeah, we need a speech," his good friend Malcolm Reed announced louder than necessary. That did it, turning the table’s attention to Trip and beginning a chant. It wasn't long before every human was chanting the word and as the room rose in decibel several Vulcan eye brows lifted.

Trip smiled shyly and looked over to his daughter who was grinning at him with a small greenish tint to her cheeks as he stood up with a glass of champagne. The room erupted into cheers.

He looked over at Archer.

"Sure you're not up for this Jon? You do a great one about gazelles.” Archer scowled at his friend.

Trip hit the crystal glass with his fork to quiet the room. And then took a deep breath.

"It's times like these you can't help but think about the past. Every time I look at Elizabeth I think of my baby girl and I wonder where all the time went... As most of you know she came in to our lives a total surprise, but we loved her the moment we saw her. She was the best thing that ever happened to us and she's even more precious to us because it was such a hard slog to get her safe and home and healthy."

He looked to Elizabeth that was wearing an expression begging him not go into all the, by now, boring details of her early childhood again. "And then I look over at V'Lec and I think... that son of a bitch is stealing my daughter," The room erupted in laughter, Elizabeth looked a little shocked, V'Lec raised an eyebrow as did T'Pol. "But I've come to realize that I'm not losing a daughter today... I'm gaining one hell of a good Vulcan botanist," there was another round of laughter and Trip raised his glass to V'Lec. "I'm proud to have you as part of the family and even though she'd deny it to her dying day, she's a lot like her mother that way... I know you'll make my baby happy."

In the midst of cheering and “here here-ing” humans, V'Lec nodded respectfully at Trip and looked over to his new wife with an expression, Trip was sure, of pure love. Elizabeth just looked back at him rather embarrassed.

Later on the next morning Trip was getting ready for bed. The party had lasted the entire night but before he crawled in he pulled out an old family album. As he lay in bed still quite drunk he flicked threw the pages reliving memory after memory, several tears had fallen before T'Pol arrived upstairs looking to see why her husband was not yet fast asleep.

"Surely you were aware that one day she would grow up and marry." Her voice was tender with a touch of light sarcasm as she crawled to lie next to her husband and view the album.

"Yeah... I guess I was just hoping I'd be long dead before then." he laughed. T'Pol looked over to her husband and kissed him on the cheek and when he turned to ask what it was for she kissed him again.

"Then you would not have been able to meet our grandchildren.” Trip's eyes brightened. He'd never thought of that. Grandchildren, he suddenly couldn't wait. He'd sure love to have a granddaughter to spoil rotten.