Together {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

It's Not Enough

"So, whaddaya think?" Melissa asked, when it was just her and Norri in communication.

"Well ... I dunno," Norri sighed, "We have the kid coming. And I want to go to grad school."

"I know. We're going to lead busy lives."

"Are these dreams restful? I mean, you're pregnant. You need to get rest, Mellie."

"I think they are. I'll ask. But I gotta figure they are. He had – Doug had – explained a little of that to me. It's how they met, actually. I'll tell you the details some other time. But it did seem like, if it wasn't restful, he couldn't do it. And he dreamed like that for a while. But when they finally got together, he stopped."

"Why?"

"Because he thought it was cheating," Melissa explained.

=/\= 

Pamela and Malcolm were back in the hotel room, "Dinner?" she asked.

"Oh, sure. I'll, I will buy you dinner," he said.

"Then I'll have a steak. But – what do you think of all this? You seem to be hot to do it."

"Is it that obvious? I am, of course. Whatever I can get – and to not be sneaking 'round. She doesn't want that, and neither do I. I just don't want it to be some horribly clichéd affair, where we go to sordid motel rooms that are rented by the hour, or we tell him that she's traveling for some reason or another. I don't want it to be a lot of lying."

"At least it wouldn't be," she said.

"Yes, although it is, as I said, a half a loaf. I don't suppose Starfleet scheduling would allow more than that anyway," he looked out the window as the lights of San Francisco began to wink on. The Golden Gate Bridge was nearby, shimmering as the August day settled into a cool night.

"Reed?! Hello! Earth to Reed."

"What? Oh, sorry. What were you saying again?"

"I said – I wanted to know what you'd do if this arrangement never gets off the ground, and never happens."

"Oh. I, uh, I don't know," But he looked tired, and older, and set his mouth in a hard edge as he looked at the city. The lights shone in his eyes and he seemed to be searching.

"Just don't – promise me you won't die for love," she said.

"I don't think anyone does that these days."

"Sure they do. Remember my classmate Owen?"

"Aussie chap, right?"

"Yep. He and my other classmate, Blair – they went out for a year or so. He was totally all over her. He wanted it to be forever and all of that. Drove him to cheat on tests because he was failing out of school and they'd be separated. He wasn't thinking with the right head, know what I mean?" she said, "And when we left the Enterprise, he was found out, and expelled. She broke up with him – she was angry that he was endangering everyone's career, and may have made it harder, when we were all sick, to get us cured. Although now I doubt he had much to do with that – I think that was just a tough thing and it was almost coincidental. But it didn't matter to her. She couldn't trust him anymore, so she said sayonara."