A/N: Yay! Chapter 2. I reread chapter 1 and realized its way short! Sorry! That's what I get for posting at two in the morning.

In the Shuttle Pod

The Comm. sprang to life-

"Archer to Tucker"

Malcolm almost cried right there. How was he going to explain this? He took a deep breath and answered the captain.

"Reed here Captain, were on our way back, but you better have Phlox waiting."

There that was good enough. The captain would know something was wrong and leave it at that.

"Why? Who's hurt and how bad?"

"Hoshi has been badly burnt and is not conscious."

"And Trip?"

Here Malcolm paused. He really didn't want to do this over the comm.

"Captain…please don't ask me that. I'll explain it on the ship."

Malcolm's voice broke and he knew it. He knew Jon caught it too.

"Okay Malcolm…just, how bad is it?"

"Jon its bad. Worse isn't really possible.

Ten minutes later the shuttle pulled into the docking bay and Malcolm handed Hoshi out to Travis and T'Pol. Phlox spoke-

"Lieutenant, I suggest, from what you said over the comm., that we treat the Commander first."

At this point Jon notices the dead look in Malcolm's eyes.

"Where is Commander Tucker?" Phlox asks but Malcolm can see that

Jon breaking and knows that he got it. Malcolm pulled the ring and chain from his uniform, looks at it, and hands it to Jon slowly. And said in a voice so chocked with sobs it was hardly distinguishable, yet no one missed a single word.

"He l-loved you with h-h-his l-l-last breath Sir."

Jon took the ring and looked at it as if he didn't quite know what it was. Then, slowly sank to the floor…not crying just staring and shaking. Phlox gave him something to sedate him and went back to treating Hoshi. The captain calmed down a few hours later and called Malcolm and Phlox into his ready room with T'Pol. Jon started.

"Malcolm are you okay to talk about this?"

"Yes Captain I…was there…it hurts, but at least I got to say goodbye."

"Malcolm, tell me what happened down there."

"First, tell me the significance of that ring I gave you. Trip was looking at that thing and holding it like a warp 10 engine. Was he married?"

"Yes." Jon smiled "Trip was married…to me. We kept it secrete because of the no fraternization regs."

"I suspected something like that. He died a hero Jon, doing something he loved to do."

"How?" Jon chocked out

"The cave or building, I'm still not sure what it was we were in, had a theory based warp reactor inside and it was fully operational. It started to function. It was going to blow up. It was my fault. Trip told me to go play with my weapons and let him do the engine work. I should have, but we always joke like that and he always lets me help. I don't know exactly what I did, but I took something out before turning something off and about that time some aliens come out of nowhere acting very unfriendly. Hoshi tried to talk o them you saw how well that turned out. When they attacked Hoshi I took them out on stun, but I was too late. One of them had already done something to the reactor and Trip said it couldn't be fixed but that he could delay it if we ran. I didn't want to, we argued about it, but time was running out and Trip's leg was most likely broken so he couldn't carry Hoshi and I didn't know enough about warp technology to do whatever it was Trip did to give us more time to get out. He ordered me to go, so we said goodbye, he gave me the ring to give to you, told me to tell Phlox and Travis and Hoshi and everyone goodbye, told me to stay out of trouble."

By this time Malcolm was openly crying and not making much sense.

"He called me his brother, did you know? He said I was his brother. I had a family…a real family for the first time in my life and now he's gone!"

"Malcolm calm down! Trip may still be alive."

Malcolm stopped as if all the air had been sucked out of his lungs.

"What do you mean? Why would you say something like that!? It's crule!"

"I'm serious Malcolm. Trip told you to give me this ring, but just after the incident with the (insert alien race here), when Trip and T'Pol almost died, we promised each other we would never take them off. Even in death. He said almost those exact words. Something like- 'If I have ta die, I want a piece of you with me.' Or something like that, but the point is… I don't think Trip thought he was going to die or at least he wasn't sure. He wanted me to know. We need to get back to that planet and get him. Even if he's dead Malcolm, he deserves to come home!"

"I believe you Captain. I know I shouldn't, but I don't want to believe Trip is truly gone so I do. We should go back now. If he's not…"

Malcolm paused to breath then continued

"If he's alive then he's most likely in a lot of pain."

"I agree"

So plans were made for Archer, Malcolm, Phlox and Travis to go down to the planet.