estirise

This is a Katie/Trip fic for

mariko_azrael. It's rated 8+ and is post-series. 755 words.

Summary: Trip's brother comes to town.

Noble Calling
by EstiRose
c 2009

Katie shook her husband awake as he mumbled into the pillow. "Trip. Wake up."

"I don't want to," he said, but then again, it was supposed to be the weekend. And they weren't supposed to have had any visitors. Or calls.

"Your brother is in town." If anything would wake him up, that would; she felt sorry for waking him up, though. He'd had a late night doing an emergency repair call and it was far too early in the morning.

"He is?" Trip was instantly awake. "When had he arrived? Does he know where - oh, wait."

Katie knew that Trip was communicating telepathically with someone when she saw his eyes close in that way of his. Probably his brother, the same one who had called their house looking for him. She'd met his brother briefly at the wedding on Xybria; they'd had to have it there, of course, for the Xybrian government to recognize it, and it was the only way his family was going to recognize it.

Trip opened his eyes. "I told him to come here," he said. "I didn't know he was coming to Earth; I guess there's something he had to do here."

"And he decided to come pay a visit while he was at it?" Katie asked. The house could use a bit of cleaning before any visitor came, but she doubted that she'd have time.

"I'm still a member of my family, Katie," Trip chided gently. Sometimes it was hard to remember Trip had a family, since the rest of them were still on Xybria. "It's customary to greet visiting family."

Katie nodded. "I'll just have to clean extra fast, then." At least they didn't have kids. Yet. Though the last communication from her mother in law was about carrying on the family name, and how natural it was to have children born naturally. The Xybrians were particular that way; no genetic engineering for them.

"He's not exactly a 'neat freak', Katie," Trip said gently, with a smile. "Our house is okay."

"Still," Katie said, tidying up. "This house is a mess."

"I don't think so," Trip said, but she noticed he moved to help her. "It'll be okay. He's nice."

Katie hurried to neaten up, and was still cleaning when the door signal bleeped. Trip greeted a slightly younger Xybrian, barely into adulthood, the same one that Katie had met at the wedding. The first time she'd met her prospective in-laws, he'd been absent, at some school for the specially gifted.

"Hello," Trip's brother said, his Xybrian accent coloring his words. "I was hoping to see the two of you." He smiled. "I thank you for taking me in on such short notice. I would have called you, but I didn't want Mother to know I was coming."

"She'd disapprove," Katie realized. "You're Arhi, right?"

He bowed. "I'm Arhi. You have my name right."

"So, Arhi," Katie said, as Trip went into the kitchen, "What are you doing here that you didn't want your mother to know about?"

She ushered him to their living room as Trip came in with some particularly fragrant Xybrian tea. He must have been making it while she was cleaning up.

"Well, I want to take certain... tests," Arhi said. "I want to join Time Force."

Katie inwardly winced. Trip's mother was not going to be happy to see both of her sons join Time Force.

"I'm going to see if they want me. And then I'll go from there," Arhi said. "Mother is going to have to live with this, as I think the human idiom goes."

Trip served the tea while she looked at him. "She's not going to be happy," she said.

"No," Arhi said, "But I'll survive." He turned a sunny grin on her. "With my older brother and my older brother's wife in Time Force, at least I'll have family here."

"It's dangerous," she warned. "You might not live to start a family." Families were a big thing to Xybrians, she knew.

"No, but I think it's a noble calling," Arhi said. "May I stay with you until I know?"

She knew Xybrian custom. She knew it was polite. And she knew that Arhi and Trip's mother would rather her son be someplace safe. "All right. And we'll tell you all about Time Force, too." Hopefully enough to dissuade him.

"Thank you," he said, sipping his tea. "I'll bring honor to the two of you, you'll see."

Katie just hoped that he'd make it out alive.