Disclaimer: I own nothing to do with Star Trek

"Are you feeling alright captain?"

The question roused Archer from his reverie, where he had been gazing off in to the vastness of space. He had not been himself for the last few weeks, and people were starting to notice.

First to notice was the captain's oldest friend, Trip Tucker, who had quietly asked the question while on the bridge. Then the good Doctor Phlox had a quiet word with Archer when Porthos came in for his check up. Next, Hoshi Sato alluded to the Captains apparent distraction, until soon all of the senior staff had spoken to Commander Tucker, expressing their concern for their captain.

The only person who seemed not to take any notice was Sub-Commander T'Pol who, if anything, had seemed to withdraw from the general atmosphere, becoming more aloof and even cold towards the crew, who had only recently begun to accept the Vulcan in their midst.

Back on the bridge, Commander Tucker asked to speak to the Captain privately, hoping to get to the bottom of the problem. They went in to the Captain's office, just off the main bridge, all of the senior staff craning their necks to see what was happening. Only T'Pol remained uninterested, staring at her viewer.

The door cycled closed and Tucker turned to Archer, a mixture of expressions on his face.

"Cap'n, are you...feelin' alright? Don't take this the wrong way, but you've been a little distracted lately, and people are starting to worry about you."

"Trip, I'm fine. I'm just....."

The silence stretched, prompting Tucker to look up at Archer, to see an odd expression on his face. It looked almost like...fear, anxiety maybe. The look was frozen on to the Captain's face for perhaps twenty seconds, then he visibly shook himself and looked at Trip.

"What was I saying?" he asked, in a perfectly normal manner, as if there had been no break in the conversation.

"That's it Cap'n, you're gonna see the Doc. You're not doing the crew any favours by making out that you're alright. I'll have him remove you from duty if I have to" the threat was meant as a mild wake up call, and Trip smiled to let the Captain know that he was only mildly joking. The idea of having his ship taken away from him was like a red rag to a bull, and Trip had no desire to incur Archer's wrath...after all...he WAS the Captain.

Tucker practically frogmarched the Captain down to sickbay, then left to conduct a diagnostic on the plasma injectors (A/N, do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? lol)

"Ah, Captain, what a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you?" asked Phlox, his ever cheery voice ringing through sick bay.

"I need you to run a quick scan on me Doc. Trip's worried about my concentration and I'd be grateful if you could just let me go with a warning" Archer made to get off the diagnostic bed, but Phlox firmly planted a hand on his shoulder, simultaneously running a scanner over the Captain. A slight change in the Doctor's expression told Archer that there was something not quite right.

Captain,' Phlox began in his careful way, 'have you been taking drugs for any reason?"

"Not unless you've given them to me' Archer smiled at his light humour, then continued, looking a little troubled 'why? Have you found anything?"

"I may have, yes. You've got raised levels of certain chemicals in your brain, and that might be causing your lack of concentration. If you don't mind Captain, I'd like you to take a few hours off...I just want to run a few tests. I could make it an order..." Phlox slipped the veiled threat in to his request as he saw Archer about to protest.

"Alright, fine,' Archer grumbled, 'but only for a few hours, then I'm getting back to the bridge"

At Phlox's nod, Archer swung off the bed and headed out of the door, possibly to the gym, maybe to his quarters, Phlox didn't know. As soon as the doors hissed shut behind the captain, Phlox moved to the intercom system on the wall. Flipping the switch he asked for T'Pol, reaching her on the bridge and asking her to come down to sickbay. While he waited, the doctor fed a small batlike creature and took a second, then a third look at the results of the Captain's scans.

The doors to sickbay opened again and Phlox turned to greet the Vulcan second in command, his ever cheery demeanour undimmed by T'Pol's emotionless expression.

"Ah, there you are, I hope you are quite well today" he said, bustling over to the large area that served as his desk

"Doctor, I am rather busy on the bridge. What did you need to discuss with me?" T'Pol, as usual, got straight to the point, joining the doctor at his desk.

"I'd like you to have a look at these scans for a moment, if you would"

T'Pol looked at the scan on the doctors computer screen for a moment, then turned to Phlox

"This is not possible. These chemicals should not...cannot be present in a human, and the underlying characteristics are undoubtedly human. These are typical to Vulcans during a meditation ritual, I know of no other species which produces them."

"That's what I thought. T'Pol, have you been meditating with any members of the crew? Hoshi, for instance?" asked Phlox, collecting samples together in a small case.

"Yes, I have guided Ensign Sato in meditation, also Ensign James and Lieutenant Addison. Why?"

"Just a theory I'm pursuing. Have you meditated with the Captain, by any chance? Helped him to relax?"

"I attempted to do so during the first contact with the Liarians...the Captain became...somewhat agitated and decided to abandon the exercise. I did not force him to continue; indeed I was surprised that he agreed to meditate with me in the first place."

"Ah ha, I see" was the doctor's enigmatic response. "You can return to duty now, but I would like you to return at the end of your shift. I need to run a few more scans, then I will need your help."

T'Pol nodded her assent and left Phlox alone with his theories.

----------

As requested T'Pol returned to sickbay at the end of her shift, where she found the doctor, gingerly feeding his selection of animals. He seemed particularly careful of a large furry creature, which he fed with a long padded glove. At T'Pol's enquiring gaze he explained that the creature, a Mondosian Firecat, was entering its mating season, and was apt to scratch, bite and burn anything that came near it.

"I imagine that it must be an endangered species then" T'Pol spoke as evenly as usual, but it was clear to the doctor that she had attempted to make a joke.

Knowing that she would hate to have so 'human' a trait as humour recognised, Phlox got straight to the point.

"Understand that everything we discuss here is covered by doctor-patient confidentiality. You may have noticed that the Captain has not been himself for the last few weeks...would I be correct in suggesting that your feelings...er...that is...sentiments towards Captain Archer are a little more than just concern on a professional level?"

Phlox dared to look up and meet T'Pol's eyes, and her stony demeanour did nothing to encourage him. He waited for her to speak,

"Captain Archer and I have developed a professional relationship based, I believe, on mutual respect. To use a human term, I would call us...friends. There is nothing further between us, nor is there any desire for anything more." T'Pol believed she had effectively quashed the doctor's theory, but the Denobulan had more to share with her.

"You're sure about that?" asked Phlox, in a deceptively calm voice, the tone that always meant that you were about to be proven wrong.

The Sub-Commander almost sighed, but she restrained herself from the show of emotion. The doctor was getting dangerously close to the truth, but how had he discovered her secret? Had there been some emotional display that he had noticed? Her scans, perhaps? It would be illogical (A/N had to get it in somewhere!) to believe she could keep the secret from Phlox, he would dig until he found it anyway. She reasoned to herself that it would take up ship's resources to have the Doctor engaged in a crew related mystery. T'Pol would never entertain the notion that she might want someone to confide in, but the idea was tempting.

"As you know, Doctor, Vulcans do not show their feelings, although we do have them. I have noticed that, in the course of this mission, my feelings have been...changing...toward the Captain. I have come to regard him as a true friend and as a good man. It is regrettable that he is human, and incapable of controlling his emotions."

"But surely, if he did so, he would cease to be such an effective leader and ambassador for the human race."

"I fail to understand how this has any bearing on the Captain's current indisposition" some of T'Pol's Vulcan acerbity returned as she prepared to leave sickbay, her confidences clearly over.

"Well, now...hold on a moment and I'll explain. I would like the Captain to be present for this, as it concerns his medical records, if you do not object."

T'Pol was not overjoyed at the idea that Phlox might expose her secret to the Captain. If anything was sure to get her a transfer, it was admitting to entertaining vague thoughts about her commanding officer in more than a strictly professional way. But there were strict rules about confidentiality, which meant that she had little choice in the matter.

There was a few moments wait while the Captain was summoned from his medical exile, during which T'Pol tried to compose herself inwardly, ensuring that her emotions were under tight control. She found a core of inner strength, one that she found she had been drawing on more and more of late, and used it to steady herself in anticipation.

The door hissed open and the Captain entered, looking around for the doctor, eager for news. He looked a little perplexed at T'Pol's presence, but overlooked it in his impatience, scanning sickbay for the doctor, who suddenly appeared from behind a screen.

"Doc, what have you got for me?"

"If you'd just sit on the bed for me Captain. Have you had any more lapses in concentration since we last spoke?"

"Funny you should ask Doc, I don't remember having any, but Malcolm said I was standing in the middle of the corridor, dead to the world, just before I came here. I think I might be trying to avoid you Doctor" Archer chuckled at his own joke, but typically, T'Pol remained stoic and Phlox chose to ignore the feeble attempt at humour.

"Captain, I believe I have found a reason for your lapses. I understand that you meditated with Sub-Commander T'Pol a few weeks ago...in fact only a few days before you reported your first problems. I believe you may have accidentally bonded during the meditation, and that the two of you are using each other for emotional support. I believe that the times when you appear to be losing concentration are when the Sub-Commander has greatest need of your inner strength to bolster her own reserves. I'm afraid that you will have to follow the same ritual again in order to lessen the force of the bonding, although research suggests that it will never truly disappear."

The doctor stopped speaking and waited for a response, but it seemed that the Captain had been shocked in to silence for the first time. Phlox gently suggested that he might want to take some time to process the information, which had the immediate effect of slapping Archer back to reality.

"What?!' He turned to T'Pol and speared her with a look, 'did you know about this?"

"No Captain, I was not aware that this could happen outside of Vulcan. I am...dismayed over this turn of events and I will schedule an appointment to rectify the situation as soon as possible."

Archer left his seat at Phlox' desk and began pacing the deck, an action which betrayed his agitated state of mind.

"Can we hear each others thoughts? How far will this 'bond' go?"

"If allowed to develop, the bond will get stronger, allowing us to read feelings with greater accuracy, possibly even coherent thoughts. This will not happen unless further bonding takes place, nor if either party is unwilling to allow the connection to continue." T'Pol said all this in, if possible, an even more emotionless voice than usual, seemingly trying to distance herself from the situation.

Archer breathed a sigh of relief, "alright, fine, I have to get back to the bridge, we can do this de-bonding after shift tonight." He made one final turn on his pacing, then abruptly left sickbay. Phlox, having given the two commanding officers a moment of privacy, hurried to the wall comm and called for the Captain.

"Ah, Captain, you cannot return to the bridge. I must insist that you take the rest of the shift off, a lapse at a crucial moment could be disastrous for this ship and it's crew. I have no compunction in relieving you of duty, if such a course becomes necessary."

"Alright Doc! I wish people would stop threatening me with that....you could have just said, you know" Archer sounded a bit peeved, but none the less, phlox exacted a guarantee that Archer would not return to the bridge.

Turning back to T'Pol, Phlox fixed her with a Look.

"you know, I've studied Vulcan rituals, and the type of bond that you initiated with the captain only occurs during betrothal or marriage ceremonies. And one, or both, parties must want the bond to occur..."

"Doctor, thank you for your concern, I believe I understand your hints, but they are unfounded. The bond was a mistake, I did not realise that it could occur between humans and Vulcans, I would have been more careful if I had realised. If there is nothing else Doctor...?"

Phlox sighed inwardly...she was never going to realise her own feelings

"No, nothing else Sub-Commander, thank you for coming down"

T'Pol left sickbay quickly, making a slight detour to her quarters, where she lit her meditation candle and sat for a moment of quiet reflection. She left her quarters, heading to the bridge; briefly leaning against the bulkhead for support, trying not to call on the inner reserves of strength that she now knew came from Captain Archer. As T'Pol smoothed her thoughts and face back in to Vulcan composure a voice, very, very deep inside sighed at the stubbornness of Vulcan women.

A/N flames are accepted and even expected on this one. Don't think I'll be trying this pairing again!