By the time I get back to the house, it's very late... and my head's a little fuzzy. I expect T'Pol to be asleep, but the light in the front room was on. I open the front door and find T'Pol huddled on corner chair, reading a book. She has changed out of her back dress and is now wearing her blue silk pajamas.

She gets up but stays a good distance away from me and asks, "Where have you been?"

Not being completely in my right head at the moment, I reply with a laugh, "Like you actually care." I keep walking, trying not to fall down due to the amount of alcohol I have in my system. "Jon and I had a few drinks."

"A few?" She responds.

Not wanting to deal with her right now, I say, "Don't give me any crap, T'Pol. I'm not in the best mood right now."

"Neither am I, Trip." She still has not moved from the spot she's in.

"No, of course you're not," I begin to yell. "Our child has just died. And I know that keeping your emotions in check is important, especially since you don't want to go off the edge, like you did when you when on trellium... but you've always been able to come to me. Whether it was just to calm down or to listen to your excuses for wanting what you want." She just stays completely frozen so I go on. "And I've accepted all of those things because that's who you are and I know that. But now? You can't even be near me."

When she doesn't respond, I yell, "Are you going say anything or are you just going to stand there, ignoring me, like you've done since she died?"

I walk a step closer to her, and when she has the gall to step back, I get pissed. I pick up the lamp on the center table and throw it against the wall. After I do this, T'Pol finally speaks, "Trip, I think you should go to sleep."

"I think you're right," I reply, not wanting to deal with her anymore. I stumble out and head to my room. I pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow.

When I wake up, I have a splitting headache. Being on a planet that always sunny doesn't help a hangover. I try to remember the events of last night, but everything is blur. I, grudgingly, get up and head to the shower. Freezing showers always wake me up and get me a little more sober, despite the fact that they feel like hell. I get dressed and go out to the kitchen. T'Pol was nowhere in sight. I think about making something to eat, but with how I feel, food doesn't seem like the greatest idea. Since Enterprise leaves later today, I don't really want to throw up in Engineering. I go around the house, closing all the blinds to make everything darker. While I'm doing this, I notice the lamp that used to be on the table, in the living room, is gone.

KNOCK. KNOCK.

I go to the front door and prepare myself, for the blinding sunlight that will be coming in when I open the door. When I do, I find Jonathan in my doorway. He has on sunglasses... great idea. Too bad I didn't bring any.

"Feeling great?" Jon asks, sarcastically.

"Oh, just perfect." I reply, opening the door all the way as an invitation to come in. I head to the couch.

Jon comes in the shuts the door. He looks at the closed blinds, takes off his glasses, and asks, "T'Pol here?"

"Nah, she was gone when I woke up about an hour ago." I lay back on couch because sitting up feels like it would exert too much energy.

"Not a surprise, Trip." Jon sits on the other couch that's across the table in the center. "It's already noon."

"Shit, I didn't even check the time," I say.

"Did you go straight to sleep when you got back last night?" Jon asks.

Putting my hand through my hair, I answer, "I barely remember anything about last night."

"You can thank the Andorian Ambassador for that." Jon says, referring to the Andorian ale we drank last night. It was a gift from the Ambassador when he came to the conference. Jon and I both laugh a little about last night, and when we do, T'Pol enters the house. At this point, I sit straight. She has a bag that's carrying something huge in it, but she pauses when she sees that Jon is here. "Captain." She refuses to call him by his name even though we are off duty.

"Hello, T'Pol," Jon says. "What's in the bag?"

"Nothing of importance." T'Pol dismisses it. "Why are you here?"

"I actually wanted to talk to you both." Jon gets off the chair and faces both T'Pol and I.

"About what?" I ask, getting up, also.

"Well, we started talking about this last night," Jon begins. "I want you two to take some time off before coming back to work." T'Pol and I both look ready to interrupt but Jon keeps going. "I know that neither of you really want to, and that why this isn't a request, it's an order."

"Jon-" I try to cut in.

"Trip, you need some time." Jon says, then looks at T'Pol. "Both of you do."

I just sit back in the chair, so he continues, "I'm not saying that you need to spend a month off. A week is all I'm asking."

Since I don't say anything, T'Pol replies, "We will take the time off, Captain."

"Okay," Jon says. He then looks at his watch and says, "I have to get going now, I have a meeting with T'Pau before Enterprise leaves. I'll see you late, Trip."

"Bye, Jon," I say, without bothering to look at him.

Once he walks out of the house, T'Pol, without saying anything, opens her bag and pulls out a new lamp.

As she sets it down on the table, I ask, "What happened to the other lamp?"

She just looks at me for a few seconds – not in the eyes – then looks back at the lamp and asks, "You don't remember coming back last night?"

I begin to shrink. "Not really." Thinking I drunkenly stumbled into the table last night, I ask, "Did I break it?"

Instead of answering my question, she says, "It's fine. I cleaned it up and got another one."

"I'm sorry, T'Pol," I apologize. "Jon and I tried to take our minds off of things and I guess we overdid it."
"I noticed." T'Pol replies.

I shrink even more. I must have acted incredibly stupid last night. "What did I do?"

T'Pol hesitates before answering, "You... you came back very late. I had stayed up waiting to... see if you were all right. You then began to vent and when I didn't respond, you smashed the lamp against the wall."

"T'Pol, I am so sorry," I say, completely mortified.

"You weren't in your right mind," she replies. "It's all right."

"It's not all right," I say. "No matter what, you don't deserved to be yelled at."

"You were in a considerable amount of pain, Trip," she says, finally looking me in the eyes. "It's okay."

She gets back to trying to make the living room look better, so I get up to go back to my room. Before I reach the doorway, I hear my name. I turn around to see what she wants. Completely shocking me, she takes a couple steps towards me. She begins to open her mouth to say something, but then stops herself. T'Pol then takes a step back, looks away, and says, "There's medicine in the bathroom cabinet if you're still feeling bad from last night."

Knowing that that was not what she was going to say, I simply nod and say, "Thanks."

I am about to turn, but she speaks again. "Should I notify T'Pau about getting a ship for your return?"

"What do you mean?" I don't quite know what she's talking about.

"I assumed that since Captain Archer gave us mandatory leave, you would want to spend that time on Earth, with your family."

"Actually, I wasn't planning on going to Earth." I honestly couldn't take my family trying to comfort me about my daughter's death. After everything they went through with Lizzie, I think going to them now would just make things a lot harder than they need to be. Not knowing if she particularly wants me to stay in her house any longer, I say, "I can make other sleeping arraignments, if you prefer."

When T'Pol doesn't answer right away, I assume, she's trying to find a way polite way of saying, "Get the hell out of my house." Which is why I'm shocked when I hear, "That won't be necessary."