Unrequited (Trip x OC)

Four

Emily's Point of View

I could see Trip out of the corner of my eye looking to me for my reaction. All I did was stand there, staring at the debris.

A million thoughts were running through my mind. All of my friends were on that ship. My father was on that ship. Every single one of my possessions was on that ship. I had nothing.

Enterprise. That word had come to mean a lot to me. It was my home. It was a new start for me. And now it was my end.

I just kept staring, my thoughts staying on the inside. Finally, the debris with the writing drifted out of sight.

And I broke.

I sunk to the ground, buried my face in my knees, held my head with both hands, and I began to sob.

"Aw, Emily, come on," he sat down on the floor next to me and tried to extract my face from my knees, to no avail. "I'm sure it's just from--"

"From what?" I pulled back to look at him. "From another ship? What, did it ram into the enterprise, knock the letters off, and fall apart?"

"We can only guess," Trip mumbled.

"My father was on that ship," my voice broke and I shook my head.

"Hey, wait a second, woah. Whaddya mean, 'was'? We don't know what happened. The damages could be minor," he spoke quickly. I didn't look at him. "Hey." He grabbed my arm roughly and I looked up at him idly.

"You told me when we were arguing that you 'weren't going to give up that easily'. Show me the same determination here, huh?" he looked at me meaningfully.

I looked back at him for a second, then nodded. He was right. I had the determination, and now was the time to use it. I needed it now more than ever.

He smiled gently. "Now let's compose ourselves and assess the situation, Ms. Logic."

---

"What's the status on the com system?" I looked down at the list I had compiled.

"Down for the count," he tapped the buttons on the side control panel.

"Okay... How many days of oxygen do we have left?" I scratched the back of my head.

He checked the life support system, "Eight."

"And how long will it take us to reach the nearest subspace amplifier?"

"...Ten."

We looked at each other.

"Can we stretch out the oxygen supply any more?"

"We already have to stretch it out to last eight," he shook his head. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"Ah yes, when we're gasping for air, I'm sure tons of ideas will be running through our minds," I picked my book back up off the ground.

"Can you be just a little less pessimistic?" he sighed.

"I'm not being pessimistic," I propped my feet up on the control panel. "I'm being realistic."

He picked my feet up off of it and dropped them onto the ground. "You know... you're really stubborn."

"Like my father," I looked up at him. "For a captain, it is considered a great asset."

"For a teenage girl, it's considered being difficult," he grunted.

"Hey, it's hard for me, too, being this disagreeable," I waved my hands towards myself.

"So why do you do it?" he sat down in the seat across from me.

I put my book down. "I'm the captain's daughter. That's all I am. I grew up on that ship. Everyone watched me go through my awkward stages. When I was obsessed with old bands from the 2010s and gushed to Hoshi about them. When I went through my goth phase after Risa when I thought I was in love with the Risaan guy and he turned out to like Crewman Cutler. I have to wipe the memory of that silly teenager from everyone's minds. What other way to do that, to make a different name for myself, than to win every argument I find myself in by any means? All my life, even on Earth, I've found myself fighting to prove my intelligence."

"Trust me, you don't have to prove anything. I could ask anyone aboard, they'll tell me you're a genius," he chuckled.

"Old habits die hard," I looked down with a smile.

"Yeah. I'm glad you feel comfortable enough to confide in me," he patted my shoulder.

"Maybe it's just the leftover weak, naive girl in me," I scoffed, looking away.

"It's not weak or naive to confide in someone every once in awhile, it's just human," he said in disbelief.

"I thought I made my feelings about being human clear," I rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah, well," he sat down in the seat in front of me. "Whether you like it or not, you are human."

"Yeah, sucks for me," I frowned. "Anyway, eight days left to live, you got anything you want to tell me?"

He sighed. "Do you have any regrets in life?"

"No, not really. I decided pretty young I wasn't going to have any regrets. What about you?" I propped my face against my hand.

"Well... there was this waitress at a restaurant I used to go to... she was nice. She worked evening shifts Friday through Sunday--"

"Doesn't that seem kind of stalker-ish?" I crossed my arms.

He gave me a look.

"Sorry, go on," I held my palms up in surrender.

"I went there almost every night she worked. She was the girl of my dreams... Her name was Ruby. I never worked up the courage to ask her on a date."

"And now you're left wondering what could have been," I raked my eyes over him.

"Yeah. She was a beauty. Long blonde hair. Blue eyes. Round face," he laughed, "The cutest little button nose..."

I looked away. He had just described me exactly. But he could never think of me that way. Because I was 'a good kid'. Because he watched me grow up. Because he saw the stupid young girl I was before.

"Sounds great," I crossed my legs.

"What about you? Any boys on Earth you left behind?" he leaned forward curiously.

"There wasn't much for me to leave behind on Earth," I bit my lip.

"That's right," he said in remembrance. "Only thing you wanted were a couple of books and your own outfits. You didn't like the uniforms."

"They've grown on me since then," I looked down at his uniform, then shook my head. "I think that's enough heart-to-heart for today."

Grabbing my book, I walked over to the corner of the shuttlepod.

He scoffed and shook his head before turning back to the helm.