"Returning The Favour"- ST:Enterprise (Phlox)

[SleepingPhlox]

This is a little nerve-wracking, I actually don't even know why I'm doing this except that now that I'm here maybe I can get this little thing out of my private head-space and share it. It's long, so it is broken down into parts and takes a while to get to the "good stuff", for which I apologize!

Summary: "You've looked after me more times than I can count. It's time for me to return the favour."

-Hoshi Sato, Enterprise "Regeneration"

As the sole physician aboard the Enterprise NX-01, it's Dr. Phlox's job to look after the crew and any little illness and scrape they bring to him. When the tables are turned during a break on Earth, Hoshi Sato relishes the chance to show him a little care for a change. But she soon finds that doctors really do make the worst patients, and that time Phlox remarked that humans are lucky their colds are so mild-he really wasn't joking...

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PART 1

Throughout the apartment, there was stillness. A vast assortment of containers and cages covered nearly every available surface, their denizens hidden and quiet. In the bedroom, a figure lay supine on the bed, unmoving. This figure was humanoid, but not quite human, the most notably different feature being the cartilaginous ridges that encircled the outer edges of its eye sockets and ran up the forehead.

Noticing any signs of life in this figure would have required fairly close examination, at least up until the point when its previously dramatically slowed biological processes, as if in response to a silent alarm clock, began to quicken. An accelerated heart rate started pumping increased amounts of blood to extremities that were now feeling their sensation return. Rhythmic chest movement returned as lungs began to fill to capacity, sending a flood of fresh oxygen into the body.

A closed eyelid twitched, which was just a prelude to the entire face scrunching up into first a grimace, then a scowl. One eye opened tentatively, then shut quickly in response to the early afternoon sunlight streaming relentlessly in through the window. After a brief moment, two impossibly blue eyes snapped open and scanned the unfamiliar room in a panic.

What is this place? Where am I? Who brought me here?

The eyes relaxed as memories came flooding back. He was on Earth, in San Francisco to be precise. The room was unfamiliar as he'd had precisely three hours to become acquainted with it before beginning a six-day hibernation. The apartment belonged to his dear friend Dr. Lucas, who had been more than happy to allow him the use of it for the three weeks he would be here.

That's right. The Enterprise was undergoing upgrades and repairs and had been emptied of its entire crew for the duration. "Take everything with you that you can't live without" were the orders, which was why his menagerie had been transplanted here. They couldn't very well be left without food and attention for three weeks, now could they?

He stretched his limbs, feeling movement return to his fingers and toes. This break had been the ideal time to let his body run through a full hibernation cycle for the first time in quite a while, but he was starting to have his doubts that it had actually been six whole days. He didn't feel as rested as he usually did upon waking. More...fuzzy, like he still had a couple more days of sleep left in him. He moved the stretch into his spine, grunting sleepily.

Dry throat. Sore throat. The former was usual, and to be expected after not consuming liquids for so long. The latter...that was a new one. Well, the atmosphere on an actual planet was different than the sterile, circulated air on a starship. He must just need to get re-used to it after all this time. But that wasn't important right now. Right now, he needed water. He pulled himself up, propping his wide frame up on his elbows. The weakness in his arms told him that he very much required food as well.

Then he caught sight of something on the bedside table next to his head. A large glass of water, a banana, and a piece of paper. He smiled warmly. She really would think of everything, wouldn't she? He picked up the paper and read:

Phlox,

I figured you would probably be hungry and thirsty when you woke up, so here you go. Hopefully this makes waking up a little easier! Everyone's been fed, and they all seem to be doing well. You didn't need to worry about the bat, her appetite came back after she settled in! Be dressed and ready to go out at 18:00 sharp. Don't worry about why, just do it. I'll be here to pick you up then.

Hoshi

Phlox had enlisted the help of Ensign Hoshi Sato, linguist extraordinaire and the Enterprise's communications officer, to help feed his animals. She was pretty much the only one he trusted for such a task. Although he would protest that he had no emotional attachment to the motley assortment of creatures from various planets, they were extremely important to him, not least because they had important medical uses he relied on to treat patients. He was certainly very relieved to read the news about his Pyrithian bat. She was, after all, the creature he would be the most attached to if he was attached to any of them at all. Which he wasn't, and he wished everyone would just stop thinking he was.

The bit about being ready at 6pm didn't leave him particularly overjoyed. Not that he wouldn't appreciate company, being the social creature that he was, and it did spare him from having to worry about what to do with his time but, well, he hadn't worked out the finer details of how to move from this spot yet, much less get ready and go out. He flexed his fingers. At least his fine motor skills had returned, even if his head still felt groggy and heavy. Letting out a small grumble that included a few choice words in his native Denobulan language, he pulled himself into a full sitting position. First he grabbed the glass of water and gulped it down, finishing the entire thing without taking a single breath. When that was done, he peeled the banana, stuffed half into his mouth, swallowed, then repeated the same with the other half. It was such a shame to discard the peel but, as he had discovered during his first encounter with a banana, they were quite impossible to chew. Still, such a waste of nutrients was a pity indeed.

With his metabolism returning to its normal state, he was going to need a lot more nutrition than that. Would there be dinner at this mystery outing, he wondered? Actually, never mind, it wouldn't matter. He could eat now and be more than capable of eating dinner a couple hours later. He could have a snack now and still be capable of having a meal after that and then eating dinner a couple of hours later. Maybe he should stop thinking about all the food he could eat and go actually eat. Perhaps he should find his jar of dried leeches to snack on.

Turning to get out of the bed, he rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and sniffed. It was not at all uncommon to need to give the sinuses a good clear out upon waking, but although he had a bit of an itch, for now, that's all it was, just a bit of an itch, just noticeable enough to be mildly distracting. As he stood, the shock of his bare feet touching the cold floor caused a gasp to escape from his lips. Long, talon-like brown and yellow striped toenails clicked against the ground as he walked to the kitchen. They had certainly been busy, growing as fast as ever while the rest of him all but stopped. He'd have to trim them before attempting to put shoes on. He added that to the mental list of Things That Needed To Be Done.

The cages and containers sprang to life as Phlox passed them: some shaking, some chirping, some hissing and jumping, all very aware of his presence. He paused at a particular noisy wire cage, it's inhabitant hidden under dense foliage; but, judging from the noise, very much active. He smiled and chuckled softly.

"Don't you-" he attempted to say, but it just came out as a phlegm-choked squawk. He coughed to clear his throat, wincing as it caused a wave of burning pain in his trachea.

"Don't you try and trick me. I know full well you were fed this morning, and you won't be getting any more until tonight."

He spoke with an unusual, lilting accent with an odd inflection that always gave the impression of jovial cheerfulness, even now, when his voice was coming out at a much lower register than it normally did.

Right. Food. Eat. Snack. Now.

The jar he was seeking was right on the kitchen counter where he left it. He'd left a note next to it:

HosHi,

PleAse Help YourselF iF You wAnt SoMe

Phlox

Underneath which, she'd written:

Thanks, but I'll pass

Her writing, so small and neat, when placed next to his own made it look like a childish scrawl. In his defense, the writing system these humans used was so incredibly different to the Denobulan writing system he had used and perfected for years. Even so, it was a little embarassing.

He pulled the lid off the jar and grasped a rubbery, slippery black oval between his thumb and forefinger, hungrily placing it into his mouth, smacking his lips and licking the slimy residue from his fingers. It was...disappointing. Yes, the rubbery, chewy texture was perfect, but the taste left something to be desired. He ate another one, taking more time to chew this time. No, still quite bland. Very unusual.

Still, food was food. It didn't matter what it tasted like as long as it filled his ravenous stomach. He stood, leaning against the counter, absent-mindedly consuming his snack, thinking. Perhaps a shower would do him good. Yes, a steaming hot shower. It would clear his head, wake him up, and get rid of this annoying heavy feeling.

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(To be continued...)

[blackrose]

this is REALLY good!

[Cutelittlenose]

this is REALLY good!

Very interesting.

[uniquelyme]

YESYESYES YES THANK YOU!!! I love Phlox so much!! so excited for the next part

[ellwren]

Yes! Star Trek! Thank you so much for writing this! Your writing is really good, and I look forward to more!

[SleepingPhlox]

I want to thank everyone for their comments. I wasn't sure how this would go down, how many other people would be into this, it's like a niche inside a niche. I also kinda meant to post this bit ages ago but Life got in the way to the point where even the time to turn on the computer was limited.

Some notes:

-Denobulans as a race are not as developed as others in the Star Trek universe. I have fleshed their species out quite a bit in my own little head-canon and there will be a lot of details that come from that. As much as possible, this just expands on stuff from actual canon though.

-I normally don't care for pairings in fandoms but for some reason I ship Hoshi and Phlox SO HARD it's not even funny, so that is a thing in this story.

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PART 2

Phlox emerged from a steam-filled bathroom, carrying a towel. Dripping a trail of water behind him as he went, he hummed to himself as he made his way from one room to the next. First his curly brown hair got a vigorous going over with the towel, then arms lined with soft brown stripes had their turn, and finally his ears got their enthusiastic scrubbing before he tied the towel around his waist.

His cheerful warbling stopped for a moment as a familiar tickly feeling from earlier returned. He blinked and scrunched up his nose.

"You're back. Well, happen if you're happening, or go away if you're not, I don't have time to play this game right now."

He was perfectly aware that addressing a sensation in his nasal cavities as if it could understand him was...well, silly. But, voicing every little stray thought that came into his head when he was alone was an old habit, and a good way of dealing with silence. After being away from the communal nature of his own people for years, he still found silence and solitude very hard to deal with sometimes.

The tickle, at any rate, appeared to pay his warning some heed, and went away.

Went away, that is, for approximately seven seconds, after which it returned, taking Phlox so much by surprise that he had no time to even contemplate covering it. It erupted from his lips suddenly, and forcefully, bending him forward at the waist, the noise startling the animals in the nearby cages into a frenzy of squawking and flapping. He needed to take a breath to steady himself after that. That was a true Denobulan sneeze. It was loud in a way that humans could not comprehend. Some humans had the annoying habit of shouting when they sneezed and that is what they understood as a loud sneeze. Not so for a Denobulan. Very little voice, just pure expulsion and force. Actually, in truth, Phlox's sneezes were extremely moderate for a member of his species, a species where pulled and torn muscles and other injuries caused by too-violent sneezes were fairly commonplace. Although he had treated many such injuries, he had never experienced one himself. Around his own kind, he didn't mind sneezing so much, but he did try to limit how much the humans were exposed to displays of his nasal capabilities. Oh, also the Vulcans. Especially the Vulcans.

He brought the back of his hand up to his nose to stop the drip that was threatening to form. The sniffling that the shower had managed to clear had now come back with a vengeance.

"My apologies, my apologies," he crooned to the panicked creatures. "I didn't -sniff- mean to startle you. Let's all calm down, hmm?" At the very sound of his voice, they began to settle and quieten.

If he didn't know better, he'd swear his nose had just played a trick on him to let him know who was boss, as he'd just had the audacity to believe he had the authority to give it orders. He gave a low chuckle to himself.

"Perhaps my nose has gained sentience, hmm? A brand new species. The captain would be delighted! It would certainly make for an interesting first contact, now wouldn't it?"

He grinned, quite tickled with his own joke and entirely disappointed that nobody else was around to enjoy it. However, his moment of mirth was cut short when he realised that he needed to go back into the bathroom to grab some tissue to wipe his nose...and also, to a lesser extent, his hand. Rather disappointingly, even after giving his nose a hearty blow, he still felt sniffly and tickly.

"I know what you're thinking," he said aloud to his still hopefully non-sentient sinuses. "And absolutely not. You will not do this. I have already lost six days of my vacation to sleep, and I won't lose any more time to..." He paused. Saying the word that was in his head would be too close to bringing it into the realms of reality. After a moment of thought, he finished the sentence with "...anything else!"

Throwing his shoulders back and his chin into the air, to illustrate his determination, he marched proudly (which made for a slightly ridiculous sight, given his current half-naked state) into the bedroom, where his suitcases lay, packed neatly with clothes and essentials.

The decision of what to wear was a very easy one. All his clothes were of exactly the same style, just different colours and patterns. And the dark green shirt and brown trousers had the thickest fabric, so were the obvious choice on a day that was so oddly chilly for the time of year it was. In fact, a jacket was very much necessary on top of it all. That was all there was to that. Once he was dressed in his loose, comfortable clothing, and his hair dried and fluffed, he was good to go. It was ten minutes to 6pm, and Hoshi was always exactly five minutes early so he had-

An abrupt tickle in his nose cut sharply into his thought process and he hastened to the bathroom to grab a handful of tissue. On his way back out, before he'd had a chance to expel the irritation, the doorbell rang.

Phlox took two deep breaths and brought the handful of tissue to his face just in time to catch a heavy sneeze in its soft cradling embrace. He blew his nose, hoping that would sort his sinuses out for a good while, and having no better option available in a hurry, stuffed the used tissues into the pocket of his light brown jacket.

Then he opened the door, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.

He was greeted by a...vision. Aboard the ship, he was so used to seeing Hoshi in uniform: bulky dark blue jumpsuit, straight black hair pulled back severely, no makeup. Very different from the Hoshi standing in front of him now: pink tank top with tiny straps exposing delicate shoulders, long white flowing skirt with delicate rose pattern, black hair tumbling over her shoulders in gentle curls.

"Are you okay?" she said, tilting her head to the side in a gesture of concern. "I heard a strange noise just before you opened the door."

"Hmm? Oh...yes...that. I dropped something, but nothing breakable, so everything is fine."

She narrowed her eyes, sure there was a deception in there somewhere, but not quite sure if it was important enough to follow up on. "Okay," she said eventually. "As long as you're fine."

"Oh yes, indeed. Never better, in fact!" He gave her a broad smile, then turned his eyes downward and scratched the back of his head. "And you...er...look simply beautiful today."

It was Hoshi's turn to avert her gaze. "Thank you. And you look...well rested."

It was a bald-faced lie. He looked nothing of the sort. Seeing him now, if she hadn't witnessed him deep in hibernation every day for the last six days, she'd have accused him of not having slept at all. But she wanted to return a compliment with a similar compliment and that was the first thing that came to mind.

"Are you sure you want to wear the jacket?" Hoshi said. "You're going to be far too warm in that. We are in the middle of a particularly warm San Francisco summer, you know."

"I won't be too warm, don't you worry. We Denobulans prefer a much higher temperature than humans do."

That was his bald-faced lie. Although Denobulans on the whole did tend to prefer warmth more than humans did, there were no sigificant differences in their temperature requirements. Hoshi had known him long enough to know that, and he hoped that either she wouldn't catch his lie or wouldn't be too angry at him for it.

She just shrugged. "Your call. Ready to go?"

Phlox smiled. "After you. You are the one who knows where we're going, after all."

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To be continued and thank you for reading

[uniquelyme]

This is adorable and very well written! Phlox is really in character! Thank you so much for continuing!! So excited for the next chapter

[SleepingPhlox]

uniquelyme: Thank you so very, very much for reading. And thank you for commenting too, it is appreciated. Although I'm going to be updating this at least once a week so please don't feel like I'm expecting people to comment every time or anything. It does make me happy to know that folks are reading it though!

Part 3 notes: The language snippets in this (and all future parts) are based on absolutely nothing canon, because there is very little canon on Denobulan language, but I did try to make it sound like it fits in with what does exist in canon.

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Part 3

"Have you really not figured out your surprise yet?" Hoshi asked playfully.

Phlox smiled. "Well it is obvious we're going to Madame Chang's, for two reasons. One: you know full well it has been my favourite Earth restaurant for years and you do have a habit of being very thoughtful. And two: this is the street it is on. So there you are, mystery solved."

"Oh really? And for what occasion would we be going there, I wonder?" she said with exaggerated mock innocence that seemed lost on its intended target.

Phlox sniffled into the back of his hand. Hoshi decided not to comment on it since he seemed to be going through so much trouble to avoid drawing attention to it.

"I assumed it was because you enjoy my company."

"That's all? No other reason you can possibly think of?"

"I'm in the dark there, I'm afraid. Although you must let me treat you, to show you my gratitude for the rather large favour I asked of you."

They stopped at the door to their destination and she turned on her heel to face him, arms clasped behind her back.

"Oh, I can't do that," she said. "The occasion demands that we treat you."

Phlox cocked his head. "We?"

"Mm. I'm afraid I could only manage to get Travis and Malcolm. Everyone else had their own business to attend to, you know, families, important Starfleet meetings, whatever it is T'Pol does as soon as she manages to get away from us, that sort of thing. So it will be a smaller celebration than you deserve, but we'll have fun."

"Celebration of... -sniff- I am afraid I don't understand at all."

Hoshi laughed, a heartfelt, sparkling laugh. "Wow, Phlox. Either you are extremely good at playing dumb or you genuinely have no idea what's going on. Come on, I'm sure it will make sense once we get inside."

It didn't make sense once they got inside. Everything here looked exactly the same as it did the last time he was here. That was one of the things he found comforting about the place. Decorated in blacks and reds, and lit with a gentle lighting from candles and bulbs behind paper lanterns that diffused the light into a soothing red glow, the space inside had a way of welcoming in a quiet way. Yes indeed, he had missed this place.

Even the staff was the same. The girl standing at the podium near the entrance smiled wide and nodded at him when she saw him enter. She obviously remembered him. Of course, it would be hard to forget his particular face, but it made him feel special. He had spent many a night here when he first came to Earth and had yet to get to know anyone, but the people here made him feel so welcome and comfortable. Yet, to Phlox's surprise and intense disappointment, the girl spoke not to him but to his companion.

"Miss Sato, yes?" she said in an almost conspiratorial whisper. "The others are here, everything's ready."

"Thank you," Hoshi nodded.

Phlox forced himself to hide his disappointment at the percieved snub. It felt like being ignored by an old friend, though he tried to reason with himself that he was, after all, just another customer, just like everyone else here.

If that was the part that was supposed to make everything make sense, he didn't like this version of "sense" one bit.

"This way," Hoshi whispered, leading him by gently putting a hand on his elbow, leaving him plenty of room to move his arm without making a fuss if he decided he was uncomfortable with physical contact. Down to the very back, into the corner...Travis Mayweather and Malcolm Reed were already seated, and appeared to already have a beverage each. Phlox became aware that the corner seemed to be decorated with yellow and green balloons, and similarly coloured small bits of paper on the table. Interesting. He seemed to remember mentioning to Hoshi those being his favourite colours. As his brain slowly worked to put the, to him anyway, unrelated pieces together, Malcolm turned and spoke to him in a voice that indicated that his beverage was alcoholic, and definitely not his first.

"Well, there's the man of the hour! Sit down, Doctor. How was your nap?"

"Please, there's no need to be so formal, hmm? You don't have to address me by title, we're all off-duty here," Phlox replied with a friendly smile, obliging the request to sit, while Hoshi slid into the seat across from him. "And my 'nap' was quite restful, thank you for ask-"

He paused suddenly, and his face went blank.

"Doctor," Malcolm asked, suddenly concerned. "Are you all right?"

Phlox took a sharp breath, his eyes tearing up, trying through sheer force of will to stop what was happening. When he was forced to surrender to the futility of that endeavor, he gritted his teeth, trying to hold back the brunt of the force of it, and covered his nose and mouth with both hands.

"Hnggh'KSSHGGKH!"

Even with the determined stifling and two-handed cover, enough escaped to cause small amounts of the confetti in front of him to swirl and dance ever so slightly. He swore in his native language under his breath. Oh, but that hurt more than he'd realised it would. Although, really, he had treated a man for a ruptured blood vessel behind the eye from doing the exact same thing. He should really know better. Keeping one hand over the lower portion of his face, he gestured with the other toward the napkin holder on the table, while his blue eyes darted around to see if he had disturbed any other diners.

"I'b sorry...cad you...please..."

Travis, who was sitting nearest the napkins, took one and handed it to Phlox. Phlox responded by gesturing again. Travis handed him another napkin. Phlox, with a hint of annoyance, gestured again. Travis handed him a third napkin, rather bemused and amused and curious to see how long this would go on. Three, however, satisfied the man, and he folded them together and used them to wipe, and then gently blow, his nose.

Malcolm laughed. "You're not going to give us some weird alien disease, are you, Doctor?" Then his face grew quite serious. "Er...you're not...right..?"

Phlox hmph-ed. "No, no weird alien disease. My respiratory filtering system is just getting used to a planetary atmosphere again. I'm sure it happened to all of you, hmm?"

"No.

"Nah."

"Nope."

"Well then. I must feel the effects more strongly because I'm not from Earth."

Travis raised his hand. "Born and raised in space. Never happened to me."

Phlox opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again just as quickly when Hoshi held up her hands in a gesture of appeasement.

"We still have something very important to deal with here!" she exclaimed. "Phlox. Please tell me you've figured out why we're here." She pointed slowly and purposefully at a shiny "Happy Birthday" banner on the wall.

The expression on Phlox's face changed in a pronounced and comical manner, his jaw slowly dropping and his eyes widening as the final pieces of the puzzle clicked into place and the realisation finally managed to dawn on him.

"This...this is for me?"

"Yes!" Hoshi said, relieved. "Happy birthday. Well, happy two days after your birthday, but we couldn't really throw you a party while you were hibernating."

"I...I had completely forgotten I had a birthday coming up. I can't believe you remembered."

"You forgot your own birthday?" Travis said in disbelief. "I'm guessing birthday parties aren't that big on Denobula then?"

Phlox shrugged, and used the gesture to try to hide him rubbing his nose with the back of his hand and sniffling. "Not particularly, no. We have very big families. We would have to mark many birthdays. All that celebrating would get...exhausting."

"Well, I hope you like birthday presents," Hoshi said, as a waitress leaned over the table, placing a small glass in front of each person. "Because we have a little something we need to do before we start dinner."

The waitress put a bottle in the centre of the table. Phlox noted its existence, turning his eye to the person at the next table over, who had their menu open and was perusing it intently, as if to mock him with all the menu reading he was not doing at this exact moment. Whatever this "little something" was, it had better be quick, because he was seriously hungry, and growing hungrier by the minute.

Then he properly noticed the bottle. The shape looked familiar...and the label...the label had nothing resembling the bizarre Earth alphabet he'd been using for the last few years, and instead had rows of a series of dots and circles, some connected by lines. The others at the table thought it looked more like a musical score than a written language, but Phlox knew instantly what it said.

"This...this is..." he pointed at the bottle, unable in his state of surprise to articulate the words that he wanted to say.

"Imported, straight from Denobula," Hoshi grinned. "Not a reproduction or a facsimile. You have no idea how long it took to plan this. I was nearly afraid it wouldn't arrive in time. Interplanetary customs can be tough to deal with sometimes. Anyway, happy birthday. I believe your customs dictate that you must open it."

"What exactly is it?" Malcolm asked.

"A Denobulan beverage," Phlox explained, removing the foil, unscrewing the cap, and pouring a half glass of a reddish-orange liquid for everyone, leaving himself for last. "An alcoholic beverage, and one that just so happens to be my favourite, although I have no idea how you knew that."

"Oh, I have my ways. Isn't that right, guys?"

Phlox was smiling broadly, although trying to keep the width of his grin within proportions that humans would find normal, and not-as Trip would put it-"veering off into Creepytown", but as happy as he felt right now, it was difficult to suppress it.

"Well," he said. "Kalee jah...or as you humans would say, 'cheers'."

Malcolm was the first to try his drink, which was surprising, because he was easily the least adventurous of the lot. After a sip, he coughed and sputtered, slapped his chest, and then looked at the glass in admiration.

"I say...that is quite a drink."

Travis and Hoshi tried theirs, and had similar reactions, though offered different comments on the experience. Travis opined that there was an aftertaste of apples and cinnamon that he found extremely pleasant, while Hoshi theorized that her eyelids might be sweating.

Phlox suddenly felt the urge to cough. Upon observing everyone else's reaction to the drink, he decided his best course of action would be to take a huge gulp before allowing himself to cough to his heart's content. This stuff would never have such an effect on him, of course, but there was no way they'd know that.

"Of course, that's not all," Hoshi said. "Prepare for another taste of home."

With that, she produced a sealed bag of small, round, orange...things. They looked edible, but that was about what the others could ascertain from the appearance. Phlox, however, was quite moved by the debut of this modest looking bag. Hoshi couldn't quite tell, but it looked like his eyes might have teared up ever so slightly.

"Okay, I have to ask. What are those?" Travis said.

"A type of candy...I haven't had these in years. They were a childhood favourite of mine. Oh, we must open these, you must try them." He excitedly tore at the bag with his hands-then his teeth. He took out a single orange sphere and placed one in each person's hand. After the experience with the drink, they all looked at them rather suspiciously.

It was Travis who voiced what everyone was thinking: "These aren't going to be as...strong as that drink, are they?"

"Oh, heavens no! They are a candy, hmm? They're sweet, very sweet. G'wangtwyish."

The last part, which should have been "Go on, try it." was muffled due to his enthusiastic chewing of the candy he had tossed hungrily into his mouth. Eating one piece just made him feel hungrier, but the pleasant memories the familiar taste evoked overrode any possible negative feelings.

Encouraged, everyone was soon chewing on a piece.

"Wahw, deezh'r good!" Hoshi said, or rather attempted to say.

Travis, on the other hand, waited until he had swallowed his before saying "You know, I get why you like mangoes so much. That's exactly what these taste like."

Malcolm nodded. "I was trying to figure out what they reminded me of."

"Anyway," Travis said, pulling a brightly coloured rectangle from underneath the table. "Mine isn't all fancy and imported, but as soon as I saw this I thought you'd love it."

He handed the rectangle to Phlox, who stared at it for a moment as if trying to figure out what it was and why precisely he should love it.

"Well, unwrap it!"

"Ah. Yes."

Phlox turned the rectangle around, looking for a suitable starting point. He chose a corner and began to peel the wrapping paper off carefully, revealing a...

Oh, it was a book inside.

"The Illustrated Weird And Wonderful Guide To Medical History," he read aloud. "The craziest cures and contraptions throughout the history of healing."

His eyes widened in wonder as he opened to a random page and began reading. "Oh," he chuckled to himself. "Oh, my, yes. Oh this is rather up my alley, as the saying goes, isn't it?" He turned the book over, practically shoving the page into Malcolm's face. "Look at this, hmm? Isn't this fascinating?"

"Oh, er...OH! NO!" Malcolm shoved the book away in disgust. "Don't show me that right before dinner! That's horrible!"

Phlox just shrugged, leaving the other two curious about what had been on that particular page, but entirely unwilling to ask, lest the good doctor take it upon himself to enlighten them.

Malcolm pulled a smaller wrapped box out of a pocket, and looked rather sullen as he handed it over.

"Well after those two thoughtful gifts, mine just seems...awful."

"Don't be absurd," Phlox said soothingly. "Any gift is appreciated. I wasn't expecting any of this, so it is all a welcome surprise."

Hoshi and Travis leaned in as Phlox gingerly unwrapped it. "What is it?"

"It's a pen," Malcolm sulked.

"It's a nice pen," Phlox reassured him. "It's a shiny pen. I shall use it the very next time I need to write with a pen."

Phlox stopped suddenly again and got that faraway look in his eyes. Travis and Hoshi leaned back in their seats again, trying to make the motion look as casual and unrelated to present events as possible, while Travis instinctually grabbed three napkins and handed them to Phlox.

Phlox's chest heaved mightily as he took in two massive breaths and he brought the napkins to his face just in time to catch a robust "HghhRSSSHmmff!"

Then he sighed to steady himself.

"Are you sure you're not going to infect us all with an alien disease?" Malcolm half-joked. Then, in response to the look Phlox gave him-a look that was all the more startling given that the genial alien almost never gave anyone that look-raised his hands in surrender.

"Okay...atmosphere...I won't mention it again, I promise."

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To be continued and thank you for reading!

[spirkestielgirl87]

What's this I found? An Enterprise fic? With sick Phlox no less? It's so hard to find Ent fics! This is awesome. Thanks!

[Cutelittlenose]

I thought the birthday party idea was adorable. And Phlox loves his new pen! Because it is shiny! LOL That was funny.

[SleepingPhlox]

So many thank yous for the comments. I appreciate it like you don't even know. Seriously. I am so happy to be able to share this with people!

This part is short, it serves as a transition between the two different settings.

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Part 4

"And then he said 'I thought there were only supposed to be two moons!'"

Travis finished his story with a flourish, leaving Hoshi and Malcolm choking on tears of laughter. Phlox did his best to join in the vocal appreciation of what had apparently been a very humorous tale, but he'd had trouble concentrating. He'd only managed to catch bits and pieces of the story here and there, and the bits he had caught didn't make any sense when put together.

He sat, with his head resting on one hand, lazily poking frosting from a plate and licking it off his finger. Although he was now more or less full after the appetiser, two main courses, one dessert off the menu and three pieces of the cake that had been brought out afterwards, his taste buds were completely unable to say no to chocolate frosting, and six days of no food did lead to quite the appetite.

He had been very grateful when the cake was brought out. The entire staff joined in singing Happy Birthday to him. They hadn't forgotten him or ignored him after all, in fact they had been co-conspirators in the whole surprise, organising the bits that Hoshi was unable to from the starship.

"Of course we remembered you," the owner had told him. "You are impossible to forget."

"Ah, hard to forget your only Denobulan customer, hmm?" he had replied.

"Bah. Human, Vulcan, Denobulan...all the same. Hard to forget our friendliest customer. That is why you are our favourite customer."

That had made Phlox smile with a warmth he could not describe.

And he was indeed happy, and trying his best to remain that way, despite his growing headache and feeling of fatigue. And, of course, the sneezing and runny nose that was rapidly filling his ample pockets with used, crumpled napkins.

He had to hang in there. This was of vital importance. He couldn't let everybody down. Earlier in the evening, Hoshi had leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially: "Have you ever been to the karaoke bar upstairs?"

"No," Phlox had replied, hesitantly. Singing in front of people had never really been his thing. Even singing in front of his creatures in Sickbay felt awkward.

"Legend has it that if you get Malcolm drunk enough, he'll get up there and start singing love songs. Are you in?"

And, after the group had finished the bottle of Denobulan alcohol between them, plus a couple of beers, plus whatever Malcolm had drank before Phlox and Hoshi's arrival, the state of being "drunk enough" was certainly approaching.

At that moment, Malcolm turned around and leaned in startlingly close to Phlox's face, staring with intently narrowed eyes at his chin.

"Tell me, Doctor" he said with slurred earnestness. "There's something I need to know. Do Granobulans grow facial hair?"

It seemed "Being Drunk Enough" had actually pulled into the station quite some time ago.

Phlox opened his mouth to reply but three things happened at once. His throat signalled an impending cough, his nose signalled an impending sneeze, and his left nostril began to trickle. Raising a hand to his nose to camouflage the last one, he hastily excused himself to the bathroom to try to stealthily solve all three problems away from inquisitive eyes.

As soon as she was sure he was out of earshot, Hoshi leaned forward.

"Thank goodness he finally left. Guys, one of you needs to make an excuse to leave."

"Leave?" Malcolm said with...possibly faux-horror. It was honestly getting hard to tell at this stage. "But the night has only just begun, and we're celebrating the good doctor's birthday!"

"Yes," she said. "But I'm sure you've noticed that he's not exactly himself tonight. I don't think he's feeling entirely well. And I don't think he's going to be the one to give up and go home first, because I don't think he wants to admit it in front of us so, for his sake, will one of you make an excuse to leave?"

"Wait a second," Travis said. "You mean he thinks we haven't noticed? It's kinda hard not to."

"I don't know. Maybe he's more used to being the one who looks after all of us. Maybe he doesn't really know what to do when the shoe is on the other foot. Who knows. It's Phlox. He...has his own way of doing things."

Travis shrugged. "Well," he said. "I do have a session of power-gliding booked pretty early in the morning."

Hoshi nearly found herself asking what power-gliding was, then decided she was probably better off not knowing. Merely hearing about Travis's adrenaline seeking pursuits set her heart beating a little faster than it ought to.

"Yeah," Malcolm chimed in. "I should probably call it a night too. I'm giving a guest lecture at Starfleet Academy at 08:00."

Travis arched an eyebrow. "Yeah...good luck with that." He leaned over to Hoshi. "I wonder if I can sit in on that lecture," he whispered playfully. "I have a feeling his hangover is going to have to be seen to be believed."

"And what are we all discussing, hmm?" Phlox's voice, dripping with congestion and tiredness, cut into the conversation. "Are we perhaps all ready to move on to the next stage of our night out?"

He sat down, trying his best to smile like his usual affable self, but the twinkle in his blue eyes had dimmed considerably and his facial expressions just seemed weak at best.

"Actually," Travis said. "I was just thinking about calling it a night. I'm going power-gliding in the morning, so I should probably go home and get some sleep. You have to be as alert as possible for power-gliding."

"Ah, yes," Phlox said as if he actually had a clue what Travis was talking about. Perhaps he did. Phlox was always full of surprises. "Do be sure not to injure yourself, hmm? None of the Earth doctors will have any osmotic eels on hand to treat you and you'll just have to make do with Human medicine."

"And me, I'm Starfleetacademy-ing, oheighthundred. Sharp." Malcolm said. Phlox wasn't entirely sure how he was meant to reply to that, so he merely forced a faint smile to hide his disappointment and said to Hoshi:

"It's just you and me left then, is it? I'm sure the karaoke is out, but I'm sure we can find a way to continue the night, hmm? It would be a shame to end early."

He looked so genuinely disappointed. There was a look in his eyes almost as if he were imploring her not to leave him alone, that she didn't have the heart to say anything beyond a hesitant "Um...sure..."

She'd figure something out.

"Hehh...hehhKSHEHH!...Oh dear. I do apologise. Cad you pass be...Thag you Travis."

She would definitely have to figure something out.

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To be continued and thank you for reading!