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As promised, here's the link to my Enterprise Ficathon story. I got Distracted's prompt, which was slightly intimidating but cool. Fortunately, Rigil let me bug him with questions so it's more or less realistic.
Cineri Gloria Sera Venit

Nifty!

Very nicely done. I like this explanation better than simply saying that he ran out of options.

Nooooo! You evil thing, you! Couldn't you have thought of some OTHER reason why he didn't have kids?

Despite my knee-jerk denial response, this is a well written vignette, and very believable, JZK. It works well within the E2 storyline. Thanks for writing it, even if Malcolm really is NOT.DEAD.

Incidentally, why did you find writing my request "intimidating"? Were you afraid I'd jump all over you for writing the obvious answer to why he never had kids? I admit that I was hoping you'd come up with an imaginative solution that didn't involve a posthumous citation for bravery, but I've got to admit that yours is the most likely scenario. I'm not upset...not THAT much, anyway. Besides, it's your story. If that's the way you see it, then that's what you should write. (At least, I'm not nearly as upset as I was with Rigil when he killed off Malcolm in his stories for NO GOOD REASON. He redeemed himself by bringing Mal back, though, so I'm cool. )

Distracted wrote:At least, I'm not nearly as upset as I was with Rigil when he killed off Malcolm in his stories for NO GOOD REASON.

Hogwash. There was a perfectly good reason. He was trying to save the life of his best friend and was willing to do whatever it took to do so. How is that not a good reason? No greater love and all that...

But now, I've got tortured, angsty and scarred Malcolm to play with.

Distracted wrote:Nooooo! You evil thing, you! Couldn't you have thought of some OTHER reason why he didn't have kids?

Well, there wasn't much that would be cheerful for this prompt! I considered having the bullet not kill him but render him sterile. Then I realized that there are ways around that if he had non-biological children, so I would've had to castrate poor Malcolm, leaving him determined to be alone for the rest of his life. That would've been really, really weird for me to write, although I did consider it briefly before discarding it as too depressing. I went through my lonely, dark and angsty period in high school and, thankfully, have moved on. Also, my muse caught on to the last sentence and refused to let go.

Despite my knee-jerk denial response, this is a well written vignette, and very believable, JZK. It works well within the E2 storyline. Thanks for writing it, even if Malcolm really is NOT.DEAD.

I'm glad you find it realistic. Happily, they fixed the timeline so it didn't really happen!

Incidentally, why did you find writing my request "intimidating"?

Well, because you're such a good writer!

(At least, I'm not nearly as upset as I was with Rigil when he killed off Malcolm in his stories for NO GOOD REASON. He redeemed himself by bringing Mal back, though, so I'm cool. )

I still haven't entirely forgiven him for the fate worse than death he gave poor Malcolm. (Knowing Rigil, that's probably going to make him grin.) He was, however, very helpful in answering questions about retreating under fire.

Anyway, the last half of this story was really hard to write, so I'm glad it came out well for you.

I thought maybe he might have left Enterprise because he found someone who lived on a planet and so his offspring weren't recorded...or he fell in love with someone who couldn't bear him children...or radiation exposure during an accident in engineering rendered him sterile. I had a lot of crazy ideas.

It's always been my assumption that Malcolm died at the same time as Trip did in the E2 verse on one of their wild escapades. I have nothing to back that up, of course.