Together {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

The Arrangement

Cake baking, Lili sat down, "Brian, can I ask you something?"

"I guess," he was busy taking the dishes out of the sanitizer and putting them away.

"I don't mean to embarrass you, but, do you like my babysitter?"

"She's a nice enough girl, I guess," he reddened and almost dropped a bowl.

"I think she has a crush on you."

"Oh. Um, well, she's underage, right?"

"In our morality, yes," Lili conceded.

"Well, whose morality applies to us?" he asked, "I mean, aren't there species that still have child brides? Do we go by their rules, or ours?"

"I guess we do what we think is most right," she allowed, "All the while hurting the smallest number of people."

"Assuming that all works together," A bell dinged. He said, "Cake's ready. You do the decorating. I still haven't gotten the hang of using the pastry bag and tip."

=/\= 

The party was held in the Observation Lounge, and was crowded. Lili hadn't gotten a chance to cook at all on the Enterprise until then, so there was a definite demand for her cake.

She and Doug arrived with Joss. They put on their best fake smiles – Joss's was real, of course – and looked around at the assembled guests.

Brian brought out the cake with two candles on it. It was decorated with a picture of a huge shuttle on it, as Lili had promised. There was also, in the lower right corner, in green and blue icing, a bit of a jungle scene. Malcolm recognized it but kept the information to himself – it was day lilies and reeds.

"What is the significance of the candles?" T'Pol asked Jonathan.

"You blow them out and make a wish," he replied.

"Seems a rather less than assured manner of making a wish come true," she said.

"Shh. It's supposed to be magic. Joss still believes in that," he said.

The guests sang and then the two of them blew out the candles. Lili and Brian started to cut pieces of the cake. Joss was jumping up and down and clamoring for a piece.

Malcolm stood off to the side but then came over, "Joss, may I speak with you a moment?"

Doug glared but Lili held his arm a little, "Allow this," she said softly.

"Now, Joss," Malcolm said, kneeling so as to face the child directly, "We are the hosts of this party. And all of these lovely people are our guests. And that means that we serve them first. And we must thank them all for coming to see us today."