disturbinglynic

Title: Forced Hand
Fandom: Star Trek ENT
Pairing: Tucker/Reed
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1237
Warnings: none
Summary: Trip and Malcolm are forced into a bond, but is it really a bad thing?
Disclaimer: If I owned them then I wouldn't have to play with them in stories.
A/N: Written for the forced soulbonding prompt on my bingo card for

hc_bingo

“Can he do that?”

“Apparently Commander, he can.”

“But how is that even possible, and what does it even mean?”

“It means Commander, that you and Lt. Reed are now connected in more ways than you could possibly imagine. When he is hurt, you will feel his pain; the moment he enters a room, you will be aware of his presence. It is not something that is done on two people who are not in love. Are you sure there are no feelings you were unaware of, or that you were hiding?”

“How can I love the man when I can hardly even get along wit him!?” Trip was shouting now, but he didn’t care. T’Pol was completely useless. Soulbonding. What kind of crap was that? And him and Malcolm weren’t even Vulcan. It couldn’t be possible, it shouldn’t be possible, but damn it, she was right, because he suddenly became aware that Malcolm had just entered the room.

“Damn it, Cap’n, can’t you do something about this?”

“I’m sorry Trip, but from what T’Pol tells me, there isn’t anything that can be done.” Trip muttered under his breath, turned and stormed out of the room, not even glancing at Malcolm on his way out.

He wandered the corridors, not even realizing that he had taken the path the led him to his quarters. He was being childish, he knew, but he didn’t care. He paced his quarters, going over everything T’Pol had told him.

Soulbonding was something people did by choice, and it wasn’t common among humans. Usually, people who entered into a soulbonding were in love and wanted a closer connection. He sure as hell didn’t want a closer connection with Malcolm. All the two of them ever did was argue. They barely qualified as friends.

The lights in his quarters blinked out and the emergency lights came on. What the hell was going on? That was when he felt it, a searing pain in his arm. It felt like he had been stabbed. Then, there was another one, his leg this time. He cried out in agony, as if he had actually been stabbed.

He hadn’t been, though. He was here in his quarters alone. Then he remembered what T’Pol had said. He would be able to feel Malcolm’s pain. Was this what she had meant? If so, and he knew this thought was completely selfish, but could he die if Malcolm died?

That thought was enough to get him out of his quarters and on the move. He didn’t care what was going on around the ship, he had to get to Malcolm, to make sure neither of them died. So caught up in his mission to get to Malcolm, he didn’t even notice that he wasn’t weakened, like he would be if he were losing the amount of blood that Malcolm probably was.

He ran across the ship, not paying any attention to anything that was going on, using his new connection to Malcolm to find him. He finally found Malcolm, lying in a puddle of blood, and from the looks of it, it was his own. Trip knelt down next to Malcolm.

“You came for me,” Malcolm said, without even opening his eyes.

“Well, I wasn’t sure if the bond meant that if one us dies, then so does the other.”

“So, that’s your only reason?”

“Well, I don’t hate you Malcolm, so I don’t want you to die.”

“I guess you haven’t noticed that even though you might feel my pain, you aren’t the slightest bit weak.” Trip had definitely not noticed that. How could he have not noticed? Did he come all this way because he actually did love Malcolm?

It didn’t matter right now, he could figure that all out later. Right now, he needed to help Malcolm. He undid his uniform enough to pull off his undershirt, tearing it in two to tie over each of the wounds.

He picked Malcolm up and headed to sickbay. On his way there, the lights came back on. He wondered if whatever happened was finished. He could find out later what happened. He thought briefly about asking Malcolm, but he really was weak, and he was going to need his strength to heal. He hoped Malcolm wouldn’t die. He enjoyed arguing with Malcolm. Who would he do that with if Malcolm died?

He was glad he finally arrived at sickbay. He was suddenly feeling weaker. Not much, but enough that he didn’t know if he could carry Malcolm for much longer. He placed Malcolm on a biobed and turned to leave. He figured Malcolm wouldn’t want him around, but a hand grabbed his, stopping him.

“Stay, please.” Trip turned around to face Malcolm. Malcolm had his eyes closed, and it looked like he was concentrating hard. Suddenly, Trip felt a wave of emotions that weren’t his own. There was sadness, hurt, and…no, that couldn’t be. Was that love? He shot a questioning look at Malcolm just as Dr. Phlox showed up.

“We can talk later. Will you just stay?” Trip didn’t answer, he just pulled up a chair and took a seat, watching Dr. Phlox work. At least it gave him time to think.

He and Malcolm argued all of the time. He had enjoyed it, yes, and maybe he had even provoked Malcolm a few times too. And he had noticed that Malcolm was good looking. Okay, so Malcolm was hot. He could admit that. And sure, there had been a couple of tough situations together where Trip had put his life on the line for Malcolm. But love?

“I understand your bond is in perfect working order, Commander.” Trip was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of T’Pol’s voice.

“What are you talkin’ about?”

“I just finished talking with Dr. Phlox. It seems that you had enough strength to carry Lt. Reed to sickbay.”

“Yeah, and?”

“Dr. Phlox also informs me that Lt. Reed had lost a significant amount of blood. Significant enough that he could have died.”

“Do you have a point here, T’Pol?”

“My point, Commander, is that you and Lt. Reed do love each other.” Trip just stared at her like she was speaking a foreign language.

“Commander, his last thoughts must have been of you, and they must have been happy enough to strengthen the bond on your side, and weaken it on his side. You must have also done the same for him.”

Even though that made sense as to why Trip had suddenly weakened, he spluttered as T’Pol walked out of sickbay, trying to form a word, any word.

He hadn’t managed a coherent word, when the hand he was holding suddenly squeezed his hand. He turned in time to see Malcolm open his eyes, and it was really just that easy.

He got up off of the chair and climbed into the bed with Malcolm, kissing him briefly, before settling in next to him. He heard Malcolm sigh before his breathing evened out, and he dropped back into sleep.

He was stupid to not have seen it before, but glad that they would have the opportunity to explore it. Also, he didn’t know if it was because it was Malcolm or if it was the bond, or if it was a combination of both, but as brief as it had been, that had been one hell of a kiss.