REP ENT Little Girl Bridge (Alt-Ending challenge), PG, 1/1
Gojirob
Author : ‘Goji’ Rob Morris
Series : ENT, slight alternate to series finale
Type : Family Drama
Part : 1/1
Characters : Trip, T'Pol, Phlox
Rating : PG
Summary : Phlox offers Trip and T'Pol a desperate chance to save
little Elizabeth Tucker. Follows an alt-path from the events of 'Terra
Prime'
Little Girl Bridge
by Rob Morris
Phlox was blunt.
"I can save Elizabeth, but it comes at a high price."
Tucker shook his head.
"Do I need to say it?"
T'Pol tried to calm him.
"Trip, I do not believe the Doctor refers to a cost that we will pay."
Tucker accepted the calm across their link.
"Well, who then? Not Elizabeth. She's paid as much as she's ever going
to, you can make book on that."
Phlox rose up.
"The very same instability that those fools placed in when they
created her in such a slapdash manner provides me with a very narrow
out. But you both must be fully aware of the consequences of this
procedure."
Almost feeling death swooping closer to the innocent, the two nodded
after glancing at each other. Phlox pointed to one of his seemingly
endless medicinary creatures.
"This little fellow is far gentler than it looks. It's also far more
dangerous than you can imagine. Once it tastes a sample of your DNA,
it will want more. In fact, it will want it all. I use it to clean
wounds of people contaminated by other species, when that other DNA
might prove harmful."
"And this helps Elizabeth how?"
"Trip, if I am not mistaken, Doctor Phlox means to use that creature
to back out one of her competing genetic structures. She will no
longer be torn apart by her poorly-synthesized duality."
"Darlin', I know just a little bit about this. Doc, you can't do that.
Her genetic integrity will fall to nothing. She'll die a worse death
than what she's facing right now."
"Commander Tucker, do you honestly believe I'd propose such a thing?
As one set of DNA is emptied, I intend to refill it with properly
synthesized DNA from the now-dominant parent genes."
"Sooooo, she'll be either just Vulcan or just Human. A singular clone
of one of us, instead of a binary. My God, that's a hell of a choice."
"And one, as you've likely surmised, that must be made soon."
T'Pol had closed her eyes, just after Phlox made his proposal. She now
opened them.
"What will she be, after you are done?"
Phlox knew several good Italian doctors, and the way his hands now
broadly gestured as he spoke, one would think he'd been adopted by
their families. At least on Wednesday evening suppers, this was not
far off from being true.
"She will either be a Vulcan with an attraction and proclivity towards
things Human, or a Human with the inverse bent. There will still be
the barest traces of the recessive parent's influence. It’s necessary
to avoid genetic crash, so to speak."
T'Pol lightly touched Tucker's hand.
"I think she should be Human. Despite the new government, a Vulcan
child with such leanings might not be treated as kindly as we would
want."
This once, Tucker had realized something T'Pol had not.
"T'Pol, we're not gonna play any part in raising her."
She seemed confused.
"Why? She is ours. We both still have relatives who would aid us, when
our duties call us away."
Trip sighed.
"Elizabeth Tucker is a polarizing symbol to two worlds. I won't let
her grow up as some bigot's rallying point. Whatever we do with that
sweet baby girl, darlin', it makes no difference at all. Elizabeth
Tucker the Second has got to die. The next looney that gets big-time
racist ideas is gonna have to look at someone else's kid."
T'Pol nodded.
"Most logical. It is odd that I did not consider that myself."
Phlox smiled.
"A condition, Commanders, that I call motherhood."
"But then, where will she go?"
"If you both don't mind, I have a family in mind. They're Vulcan
translators, and they wrote a large part of Miss Sato's database in
that regard. They live in Minnesota, and both have enough medical
training to ensure that Elizabeth will not have to see outside doctors
until she is mature, and her nature harder to detect."
Trip caught a tear from his own eye.
"If T'Pol says yes--then let's get moving. We have to plan her funeral
and make the lie of it stick."
T'Pol wondered what her own infant face would have looked like, were
her blood red, and her defining features totally gone. She would find
out soon.
"Yes. Please begin, Doctor."
-----------
SIX YEARS LATER...
Jonathan's speech was done, and the dinner was also nearly finished.
T'Pol felt the exhaustion of herself and all her friends.
Unthinkingly, she pushed her dessert away. Little eyes brought a
hungry visitor to her table.
"Are you gonna eat that?"
"No--you may have it."
The child smiled broadly.
"Great. I love Pecan Pie. It makes you feel good inside."
Before T'Pol could react, a mother who was doing her best to keep a
secret moved on the little one.
"Lizzie Grayson! Just how many pieces of that pie are you going to
eat? I..."
Realizing who she was standing near, Alicia Grayson sent the little
girl off to the arms of the only father she would ever know.
"She's healthy. And she just has so much interest in all things
Vulcan. She wants to be a translator, like we are."
T'Pol allowed a light smile.
"I thank you. And he thanks you as well."
"But I---thought-- Commander Tucker died recently."
T'Pol saw the child making a run for yet more pie as her father chased
her.
"Yet he is here, with us."
Philippe de la Matraque
that Elizabeth lived and I do dearly love adoption!
Gabrielle
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