Sick Bay was lively and loud. Ethan Shapiro, who was getting stronger all the time and walking pretty well with a cane, had beaten as hasty a retreat as possible out of there, for, in the middle of Shelby's Cesarean, Mara and Robert Slater had come in. She had gone into labor and was, essentially, in the on-deck circle.
Ethan wandered a little, staying out of people's ways and doing his best to get stronger. Speech was still hesitant, and he was still far weaker on his left side than on his right. But that made sense. Phlox had checked, and Ethan had sustained a bit of brain damage on the right side of his brain. It was a permanent scar from his suicide attempt of over a year previously.
He found himself in the cafeteria. José Torres was sitting there, lingering over cocoa. Lili and Brian were in and out of the room, coming back to grab dirty dishes or wipe down tables. The lunch rush was done and they were still in clean up mode.
"Hi," he said to José, "this ... seat taken?"
"Of course not," José said, putting down his PADD. "How ya feelin'?"
"Okay. Sick ... Bay is overcrowded. Too many ... babies."
"I guess so," José said.
"I think ... pretty soon ... Phlox will ... kick me out."
Lili came in, "Oh, hiya. Want something? I'm sure I can whip up something with cauliflower in it."
"That's ... okay."
"She seems to know," José watched as Lili departed, "everybody's favorite."
"It's ... her job."
"Yeah, but I think she telegraphs how she feels about people. I see her getting the captain iced tea all the time."
"M-maybe. Do, uh, do ... do you think ... I could ... live on ... my own?"
"I dunno," José said, "I guess you'd need to live near Sick Bay. And that means E deck. If you were sick of crying babies before, I bet it's a lot worse on that deck, eh?"
"Yeah. Numbers four ... and ... five ... being born ... today."
"And a few more are in the pipeline. They probably wouldn't want you living by yourself in any event. What if something happened?"
"Yeah. It ... was ... a pipe dream."
"No, maybe it isn't," José said.
"Huh?"
"Well, if you had a roommate, they wouldn't mind so much, right? Plus they're gonna need child care."
"Me, take ... care ... of kids?"
"Actually," José said as Brian and Lili came back in, "I was thinking that I could help take care of the kids. I mean, the mothers have gotta go back to work, or else we'll really be short-handed in Engineering and the MACOs and probably Tactical. Victoria can't do it all, right?"
"But ... you ... are Engineering," Ethan pointed out.
"Sure, but you never know. I mean, I like kids. Even if they aren't my own. 'Sides, I bet the honeys would notice. Right?"
"Sure they would," Lili smiled as she came back over, "a guy who likes to babysit? How awesome are you?"
José smiled a little. "Or maybe there'll be alien women. Those Ikaarans, didn't we learn that they have ships segregated by sex? Well, then ya gotta figure, there's an all-girl ship out there somewhere."
"Or Susie or Patti will take a shine, hmm?" she persisted.
"Maybe," José said. Or maybe you, he thought to himself but did not vocalize.
YOU ARE READING
The Three of Us
FanfictionDuring the Xindi War, the Enterprise was thrown back in time, to 2037. The male to female ratio was uneven. How did people cope, and adjust their expectations? Star Trek fan fiction starring Captain Jonathan Archer, First Officer T'Pol, Chief Engine...