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Regression - Part 3

Author - Hoshissis
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Regression

by Hoshissis

Disclaimers in Part 1

********

Chapter Five

Captain Archer walked into sickbay ten minutes later. At first glance, everything looked normal – Trip was seated on the far bio bed eating a sandwich and Phlox was standing near him looking unconcerned, but as he got closer he could see that things looked a little off. For one, Trip was looking at him in a very wary way, as if he was unsure and uncertain about him. Phlox also had a very concerned look on his face, as if he was about to issue very bad news.

“It’s good to see you awake at last Trip, you had me quite worried there for a sec. What happened?”

Trip didn’t answer. He carried on giving a wary look while looking also at Phlox for reassurance.

“Can I have a word with you in private please Captain?” asked Phlox, indicating for them to go to the work benches on the other side of the room. “I’ll just be over there talking to the captain Trip. I won’t be long. Would you like to go and see some of my pets while we are talking?”

“Yes please,” replied Trip in a quiet voice as he slid off the bed and cautiously walked over to a large cage in the corner.

“Don’t touch – I don’t want you to get hurt. I’ll introduce you to them properly when the captain has gone.”

Trip nodded then stared into the cage with a wondrous expression on his face.

“Phlox, is everything alright? Is there anything I should know?” asked Captain Archer in a puzzled tone of voice. After seeing the exchange just now between his chief medical officer and his chief engineer, he was more confused than ever.

“I’m not sure how, but Commander Tucker seems to have regressed to a childlike state with no memories at all of his latter life.”

“Regressed!” replied a very shocked Captain Archer, “How?”

“I haven’t been able to conduct any deep scans yet to find out the cause because it’s taken me this long to gain his trust. I didn’t want to frighten him unduly.”

“This could be a side effect from what knocked him unconscious, which would mean he could return to normal in time, right?”

“I can’t say for sure, Captain, without further analysis. Normally this would be the result of aphasia, but the normal signs that would account for this are not apparent. Therefore I can only conclude that it is an occurrence of the mental trauma that Commander Tucker has just suffered. Has Lieutenant Reed found any evidence of what happened or how it occurred yet?”

“No, he’s completely drawn a blank. My next option was to ask him to interview our guests, Toldar, Serena and Calla.”

“We have only two guests, Captain,” replied a puzzled Phlox. “Toldar and Serena. Who’s Calla?”

“She’s the old woman Trip carried into sickbay. She was in the ship.”

“I’m sorry Captain, but I don’t recall anyone else in the ship but Toldar and Serena, who were huddled together. You picked up Toldar, while I carried Serena back to sickbay on a stretcher. Commander Tucker just followed on behind us.”

“Phlox I’m not going daft or hallucinating. I remember her introducing herself to us right here in sickbay and she even sat down and had dinner with me. She was real.”

“Captain, can we continue this discussion some other time,” asked Phlox as he glanced other to Trip who watching them both very closely. “I don’t want to cause Commander Tucker anymore stress and anxiety than he is already feeling.”

“Sorry Phlox, your right,” replied Captain Archer as he looked at Trip’s concerned face. “Let’s think about Trip now. His health and well being are more important now – that’s all that matters. I would guess everything seems a little strange to him now. What do you suggest we do?”

“I think the best thing we can do at the moment is make him feel secure. As far as he is aware at the moment he is just 4 years old, so he must be feeling very frightened and scared without anything or anyone around him that he would consider familiar – his mother and father for example. So we’ll all have to be a good substitute for them and be there for him when he needs us.”

“Well I don’t remember being 4 years old, but I would think you’d be pretty helpless at that age, so if anything he’s going to need you a lot Phlox.”

“Me, Captain? He’s going to need all of us. You are his friend. He’s known you the longest. If anything he’s going to feel the most secure around you, at least much more than anyone else.”

“That was before. He hasn’t got a clue who I am know. I’m sorry but I have got too much to do running this ship. I can’t afford to waste time babysitting. Take care of him Phlox, I’m going to see T’Pol and Malcolm about our THREE guests. I’ll let them know what’s happened.”

Phlox shook his head and walked back to Trip. He knew the captain was having a hard time dealing with the events of their previous mission, but he was doing a huge disservice to himself by cutting himself off like this. He just hoped he realised this before he lost his friends completely.

Speaking of friends, Phlox thought, as he smiled at his patient. “Would you like to see my bat, Trip? I’ll let you stroke and feed her if you like.”

Trip’s eyes lit up. “Wow, a bat?”

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Chapter Six

Captain Archer was strolling around the corridors taking Porthos for his daily morning walk, while pondering his conversation with T’Pol and Malcolm from the previous night. Unlike T’Pol who had remembered Calla and admitted to having a conversation with her, Malcolm did not recall the woman at all, repeating more or less the same as Phlox. In fact this turned out to be true for Hoshi, Travis and a lot of his other officers as well. It was puzzling, // why were he and T’Pol the only two people who remembered this woman? They couldn’t both be hallucinating could they? //

Then there was Trip – what were they going to do? Phlox had finished conducting some deep scans late in the night and his assessment of the situation looked puzzling. All of Trip’s behaviour and mannerisms pointed to him having suffered aphasia, but he had no medical evidence to back this up and all of his scans had come back normal. So why was he behaving like a four year old child with no memory of his past life. He and Malcolm had spoken to Toldar and Serena about Calla, but they both had been very vague about her. They had admitted to knowing of her but they could offer no evidence about her, where she had come from or why she had been with them.

All signs pointed to her being the cause of Trip’s mishap, but if this was true, they were going to have a hard time finding her again if only he, T’Pol and their two guests could remember the woman. In his condition, Trip couldn’t remain on the ship as it wouldn’t be safe or fair to him, but he had no one back home who could care for him in his present condition and Archer was not willing to place Trip in an institution for the rest of his life. The solution to this dilemma was to find Calla, but the question was how, when no one else on the ship could even recall her. So as he walked along with Porthos trotting along next to his heels, Captain Archer was in a complete quandary about what to do next.

“What’s the matter boy?” asked Archer, as he noticed Porthos stopping to look at something behind him.

As Captain Archer glanced backwards, he heard a slight scuffle as if someone was trying to hide. He smiled, instantly knowing who it could be.

“Phlox to Captain Archer……..”

“Archer……”

“Captain, I’m sorry to disturb you but it seems that Commander Tucker has wandered off. I’ve alerted Lieutenant Reed and he’s getting a security team ready to begin a search.”

“It’s all right, Phlox. Tell Malcolm not to bother. I think I’ve found our missing crewman. I’ll bring him right back.” The captain ended the call then grinned. “I wish I had some help walking Porthos…….” he said loudly, while glancing back at the same time. “I need someone to throw him his chew toy, …… someone who can throw real good….” Captain Archer smiled as he heard the scuffle of feet again and saw two eyes as a head peeped out from around the corner. “Are you good at throwing a chew toy….” he continued.

Trip nodded his head as he nervously walked up to both of them. Porthos barked, and with his tail wagging furiously, ran up to Trip and jumped up to him waiting to be petted. Trip looked up to ask permission, then began to stoke and pet the dog.

“Shall we?” asked Archer as he called Porthos back and began to walk down the corridors towards the shuttle bay.

Trip was a little unsure whether to follow at first because he didn’t think that this man liked him after his outburst in sickbay yesterday. But he was bored and he really wanted to play with the nice dog so with some trepidation, Trip started to follow, eventually quickening his pace until he was walking alongside them.

----------------------------------------

Two hours later a completely worn out Porthos was lying down on his rug in Captain Archer’s quarters, while Trip and Archer sat down cross legged on the floor playing cards. Since Trip couldn’t remember many games they were happily playing Snap, which to Trip’s delight, he was winning, evidenced by the huge pile of cards next to him.

“Damn your just to good at this game,” laughed Captain Archer as Trip won again.

Trip just beamed a huge smile on his face as he pulled a huge pile towards him once more.

“Can we play again?” he asked excitedly.

“Are you going to let me win for once?”

“No!” smirked Trip with a big cheeky grin on his face.

“I hope you’re not cheating,” teased Captain Archer as he tried to put on a solemn and serious face.

“No!” replied Trip, looking at Captain Archer with a pair of huge innocent blue eyes.
Archer just laughed as he reached down to shuffle the pack once more.

“Phlox to Captain Archer……”

The captain stood, ruffled Trip’s hair affectionately then moved to his wall comm..
“Archer…..”

“Is everything okay Captain? I was expecting you to bring Commander Tucker back to sickbay two hours ago.”

Captain Archer looked at Trip who was staring at him with a questioning look on his face. He looked like he was enjoying himself so much, he didn’t want to stop and go back.

“Sorry about that Phlox, I lost track of time,” replied Captain Archer as he eyed Trip’s disappointed face. “Is it alright if he stays here with me for a little while longer? We were just in the middle of a game.”

“No bother Captain. He can stay as long as you like. There isn’t much here for him to do anyway. Tell him I’ll see him later,” said Phlox before he signed off with a big smile on his face. // It looks like there is hope for the captain after all. //

“Where were we?” asked Archer as he looked at Trip with a smile on his face. “Ah yes, I believe I was getting my ass kicked.”

Trip giggled and picked up his new hand. This man was fun.

TBC

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Three people have made comments

Very cute. Some of the sentences earlier in this part jarred a bit, some of it was probably not needed. Other than that, very good!

awwwww, i want my own little Trip!

How cute, write more soon plz.

Gr8 chapter i love that archer is coming outta his shell a bit :D

I wanted to give Archer a kick in the a_ _ at first but he redeemed himself in the end. Loved the card playing scene.