The Three of Us

Part 35 - Purposes

As their lives went on, the combined crew settled in well. Jonathan and Ebrona dated, and he was respectful and pleasant to her, but she continually rebuffed him whenever he proposed. He wondered about that, why she was unwilling to get married. But he decided to bide his time. Perhaps it was because Phlox had not yet perfected human-Ikaaran interbreeding? It seemed as logical a reason as any, but Ebrona would not say.

Charles Tucker IV and T'Les Elizabeth Tucker were born in early 2041 and Tripp and T'Pol decided that they were more than enough. There were other births, too, including Hoshi and Sekar's second child, their daughter, Yoshiko.

The prisoners worked as hard on Amity as they had on Paradise. The weather was cooler and even less predictable. Crops sometimes didn't come in as expected. There were three visits during their incarceration. These were to pick up harvested crops and drop off supplies, and to grant conjugal visits to Brown and Kemper. Emily even conceived during one of these visits.

The visits were also to monitor Chang and Curtis, as it was difficult to tell from the camera shots, but it appeared as if their behavior was becoming more and more erratic. After the year-long stint in a more temperate zone of Amity was concluded, they were sent to Amity's North Pole for six more months of punishment as Kemper and Brown were released. The twin acts of releasing the two lesser offenders and shipping Curtis and Chang to a frigid wasteland, was enough to cause them to tip more precariously over to the deep end.

=/\=

It was early in 2042, and Lili was again about to undergo a Cesarean. This time, they knew that it would be a girl. The consensus among the three of them was for Malcolm to name her, regardless of who ended up being her father. He had taken to the task with relish and had come up with Madeline Suzette. The Suzette part was a concession to both Jay and Lili. Jay wanted the middle name to not be Susan and Lili wanted something to be at least somewhat French, in order to acknowledge her mother's side of things.

Unlike the last time, the Cesarean was planned and scheduled. So Lili found herself lying on a surgical bed at oh eight hundred hours as Phlox told her to count backwards and Malcolm and Jay waited anxiously nearby with Joss.

=/\=

As before, but much more briefly this time, Lili dreamt while she was under.

"How are ya doing there?" asked a voice that was at times familiar, at times not.

"All right," she answered cautiously. "I think I remember you now. It's like I forgot you before, but suddenly I remember you again."

"Yeah, I guess so," said the voice. "This time, it's a lot less urgent. Madeline's looking good. You're almost there."

"Malcolm says he thinks it's a sensible girl's name. Does she turn out to be a sensible girl?" Lili asked.

"You'll have to wait and see. Ah, they're done. Everything's fine."

=/\=

"You have a healthy baby girl," Phlox said. "Ensign Jones, if you please." The doctor handed the baby to Diana. She took her away to get her a little cleaned up and take a blood sample. "Now, Andrew," Phlox said, "you'll close up."

"Yes, doctor," he said. He'd been practicing. He carefully stitched Lili up and applied a numbing gel to the site of the stitches. "There."

"Ah, that's looking very good. Ensign O'Day, are you awake?" Phlox asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Is she a sensible girl?" Lili asked.

Malcolm came over. Jay was holding Joss and was right behind him. "I imagine we'll have to wait to determine that. How are you feeling, my love?"