Is it Because He's Human?

Summary: T'Resa Tucker studies human and Vulcan behavior while on a visit home from school.

Author's Note:  This is for the March "Nature" challenge.  It is based in my Love Languages universe.

T'Resa Tucker walked into the kitchen and set the water to heat for tea. She had come home from college today to visit her parents. T'Resa sat at the table on this fine Saturday morning thinking about her father, Charles Tucker the Third. She could see him out in the garden through the large kitchen window.

T'Resa had spent her entire life studying the differences between humans and Vulcans. She was aware that this would be a life long endeavor. The young woman decided that she was very lucky to have such a wonderful father. T'Resa wondered if many men could have dealt so gracefully with two mixed-species children. She was also very proud of her mother for allowing them to find their balance between two so dissimilar cultures. T'Resa and Morgan had never once been called to account for showing their emotions, in fact their mother had admitted on occasion to being gratified by the sound of their laughter. 

T'Pol Tucker stepped to the table with two cups of tea, handing one of them to her twenty-one year old daughter. As T'Pol sat, she asked, "How are your classes progressing?"

"Very well Mother, I'm taking a statistics course from Uncle Alan this semester. He really is an excellent professor."

T'Resa pushed her long blonde hair behind her pointed ears and leaned forward to take a sip of her tea. She watched her father through the window. He was digging a series of holes in the flower bed, wearing only a pair of denim shorts and sneakers. She realized that her father was a very attractive man, or as her roommate insisted, 'extremely hot'.

T'Resa could see that he was sweating profusely. "Mother, why does Daddy insist on doing the gardening with no shirt on? Doesn't he realize that he'd be cooler wearing a loose cotton shirt?"

"He knows, but he insists that he likes the feel of the sun on his skin. Your father can be very contradictory."

"Mother, humans call it hard-headed."

"Ah, an apt description. At least I insist that he wears sunscreen."

"You know, the first time I realized how contradictory Daddy was, was the first time I ever saw him cry."

This caught T'Pol's attention, "When was this, daughter?"

"We were in your hospital room a few days after Morgan's birth. Dr. Phlox came in and told us that Morgan had passed his crisis and would be fine. I'll never forget how Daddy began to cry and hugged us both. To a seven-year-old it seemed backwards to me that he would cry when we had received good news."

"I have found that Trip tends to get emotional when under great stress."

"Of course I can see that now; however I wasn't quite as logical at seven."

"Yes, but you thought you were when you tried to use logic to get your father to let you stay up until midnight to watch a movie."

T'Resa began to chuckle as she remembered her one and only temper tantrum.

A bubbly seven-year-old T'Resa came down the stairs with a padd in her hand. There was a movie that she really wanted to see coming on late tonight. She had been in her room making a list of reasons why she should be allowed to stay up way past her bedtime. The confident little girl had come up with what she considered to be twelve very logical reasons. All she needed to do was present them to her parents and they would surely agree.

T'Resa's mother and father were sitting on the sofa, curled up together, as they tended to do. She had already had her bath and was wearing her pajamas when she stepped in front of them, padd in hand.

"Mother, Father, I have a proposal for you," the little girl declared.

"Indeed," her mother said with a straight face but a smile in her eyes.

Trip looked at his beautiful little girl with her bouncing blonde curls. "And what would that be, sweet-pea?"

"There is a very educational program on tonight that I wish to see. I've made a list of the reasons it would be logical for you to allow me to do this." T'Resa started to rattle off the points on her list one by one.

About midway through, Trip interrupted his daughter. "I'm sorry honey-bun, but that is way too late for little girls to be up. Me and Mom will record it for you so you can watch it during the day."

"I agree with your father, you need your sleep my daughter."

"But you are not listening, all my reasons are logical so I don't see how you can say no." T'Resa didn't want to wait and was becoming angry at her parent's refusal to understand.

Trip got to his feet, "Darlin' we know what's best, so you just go on to bed and I'll come tuck you in."

"No!" T'Resa shouted. "You have no logic, so I don't have to listen to you," T'Resa yelled stamping her foot.

Trip reached behind his daughter and gave her bottom a sharp smack. "Logic be hanged, I'm your father and you will do as you're told," her father said sternly. "You get your little butt in the bed, Now."

T'Resa laughed. "That was the day I learned just how far I could push Daddy using the logic card. I never did that again."

"That was very insightful of you, Daughter."

"Yeah, sassing Daddy wasn't very smart; fortunately I'm a fast learner."

T'Pol and T'Resa watched as the man they both adored began to set the newly purchased flowers in the holes he had just dug.

"By the way, where's Morgan? I would have expected him to be helping Daddy with the flowers." T'Resa missed seeing her fourteen-year old brother every day since she had moved into a dorm room at college.

"He is on a field trip with Soval today. They are studying Earth desert reptiles."

T'Resa shuddered, "That sounds like something my little brother would enjoy."

"I admit I have never been able to understand your brother's fascination with snakes." T'Pol would never admit it but snakes made her skin crawl. "I would be helping him with the flowers myself except your father forbade it."

"Try to be understanding Mother, he just worries."

"I know, but I am not an invalid," her exasperated mother replied.

"After what happened seven years ago, Daddy is just trying to take extra special care of you."

T'Pol and Trip had unfortunately had a miscarriage when T'Resa was fourteen and Morgan was seven. Trip was devastated and T'Pol tried to keep it bottled up as her heritage demanded. T'Resa knew her mother well though and could tell her heart was broken. Now, seven years later her mother was pregnant again. Trip was thrilled and determined to take care of her.

"I fear your father will smother me with attention before this baby arrives, even though Phlox has given me a clean bill of health. Some days it takes all my Vulcan control not to find a phase pistol and stun him."

The two women looked up as Trip headed into the kitchen to wash up and get a glass of lemonade. His face lit up in a smile when he saw his beautiful girls.

"Hello ladies, what're you talking about?"

"Just catching up, Daddy. How is the flower planting going?"

"I'm almost done, if you don't have lunch plans how about I take you two out for a meal after I shower. That is if you feel up to it, T'Pol." Trip kissed his wife on the top of her head.

T'Resa nearly choked on her tea at the sight of her mother rolling her eyes. "That sounds great," T'Resa replied trying to stifle her laughter.

"Good, give me about half an hour." With that Trip headed back outside. 

T'Resa laughed out loud, "Have patience Mother, you know how Daddy gets when he's in protection mode. He tends to go overboard, as they say."

The young woman continued, "Remember my first date. It took me the better part of my junior year to get David to be comfortable around me. I was thrilled when he finally asked me out. Then Daddy nearly scared him to death. He used his 'Captain Tucker' voice to grill the poor kid about everything from his intentions to his driving skills. I'm surprised David ever asked me out again. Father can be rather fierce when he is protecting one of us."

T'Resa glanced out the window at the most important man in her life.  "Daddy's emotions have sometimes perplexed me.  He encourages, laughs, cries, disciplines, protects, and loves with all his heart." Wrinkling her brow, she curiously asked, "Is it because he's human?"

T'Pol thought for a minute, "I have lived around humans for a very long time. One thing I have learned is that they are as different as the flowers your father is planting. No two are alike. Your father reacts to situations the way he does, not because he is human, but because it is his nature."

The End