This is such a wonderful story in so many ways. It is so insightful on so many different suble emotions, that I always come back again and again to read it. Thank you. Now having said that, I'll go and read Roaring Mice's 'Thus I Stand On The Brink'. Your story and her's seem to be almost intertwined.

Argh! Now what are you doing to us volley, tormenting us all like that!? Damn, girl. Here I am, thinking what has he gone and done this time to get himself blown up or whatever, and suddenly "and then he woke up" lol! I got into so much trouble in school for writing stories that were only dreams.

Daft Trip. Letting himself into Malcolm's quarters like a thief in the night. Lucky for him he didn't end up in sickbay for his trouble lol.

Its quite cute that Malcolm finds it so hard to believe that Trip would be so deeply affected by his death, even though he himself would have felt the same way about Trip dying. The martyr complex is well and truly entrenched in his psyche.

Love the little encounter with T'Pol at the end. Guess it could have been worse. Could have been Hoshi lol!

You worried me for a moment, volley!

Great fic - one of your best, I think.

And LOL - Trip breaking into Mal's quarters...!

HoVis

That was wonderful! It almost had me crying at the beginning. Wow! Excellent story!
-Emma

This fb is long over due. I do so apologize for the delay because half the stuff I intended to say, I've forgotten. The one thing I haven't forgotten is what a brilliant piece of writing this is.

I LOVE the way you write the easy frienship of Malcolm and Trip and then you layer it with lots and lots of beautiful depth and genuine emotions.

You bring the reader through the darkest of stormy nights and at the end, the humor is injected to herald in the dawn.

There are lots of places where the writing is more than first-rate - places where the turns of phrase catch my attention and really make me FEEL what the character is feeling. I can't wait to read your next offering.

Just a note: I don't think a writer should EVER be afraid to write a death story for fear of what the readers will think. Only the emotionally immature whine about that in light of the fact that the same charcter who dies in one story, lives again in another.

Fabulous!
I loved it!
I was quiet shocked and upset when i read the first few paragraphs...thank goodness it was a dream :)

Especially loved the emotion you added in!
'He had convinced himself – his conscious self – that Malcolm was virtually invincible. After all, the man had a way of coming out of the direst situations almost unscathed. And when he didn’t, Phlox was invariably there to patch him up. Phlox was another member of the crew Trip had come to think of as omnipotent.

But this time they had both failed him.'

Brilliant use of language here!
Volley you are fast becoming one of my favourite writers...please continue! And Thank you for sharing :)

(falls laughing hysterically) Oh, that was amazing. You scared the ** out of me at the beginning for a second. Very dramatic! But I loved the conclusion. Very smooth and great job balancing Malcolm and Trip's personalities! I adored the ending!

*gigglesnorts* Unfeeling SOB indeed. :P Loved that whole exchange, and Trip's "admiring the view" when T'Pol walked by.

Daa~ang, gotta love those structured dreams. I know where Trip's coming from on this one. Called my brother at 4 am once because I knew - I just knew - he had been in a car accident... He hadn't been, however, and his response to a 4 am phone call wasn't quite as, eh... NICE as Malcolm's response to Trip. ^^;;

A believable story, this one, and nice to see Malcolm finally start to realize that, hey, people do care for him as a person.

Thanks for writing!
cheers~
Muirinn

I thought you had really killed him and was all amazed and horrified - and then you twisted it. Another great story from a great Enterprise writer.

This was so amazing! It was so true to the show, and so perfictly done. Love it love it love it!

Cheers
~therealpenny

Wow,that was so moving, I felt the tears filling my eyes at the beginning. You write angst really well and captured the characters of Trip and Malcolm.
I've added you to my author alerts and the story to my favorites.
Thanks for a great read.

I knew you wouldn't kill Malcolm, but the first part of your story was very intense. You almost had me in tears. But you captured all the characters so very well that I loved the scene, as sad as it was. Although I don't like "reset buttons" I was very relieved to find out that Malcolm isn't dead. The scene in Malcolm's quarters is great and the ending of the story is just hilarious. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story.

Gabi

I don't think there's too much to worry about if T'Pol saw Trip leave, because she's not a gossip and doesn't jump to conclusions.
Once again, you've done a great job with their friendship. I'll admit that when Trip woke up I thought, "Oh no, it was all a dream," but you used it for a meaningful conversation, which I liked. It's kind of weird to think of death everyday, but if anyone were to do that I suppose it'd be Malcolm.

Another great story, volley. I nearly cracked a tear at the first part, too. It was moving. And the second part, well, those hints you let at how Malcolm feels about himself, or how he feels others feel about him. What does that say about his upbringing? That would intrigue Trip, wouldn't it? Very good job.

I did see one typo. Let me see if I can finding it again:

One were things were not said but understood all the same.

I think you want: One where things...

Lol, for a second I thought you'd killed him off, but then I remembered thats more my thing :P Which was a huge relief because Malcolm rules and should never die in other peoples stories :P

Great story, really touching, and the bit at the beginning I almost cried *nods*

fantastic one shot :)

~*~Hannah~*~