The Plot
Together
Together begins with Doug and Lili happy. It’s a direct sequel to Reversal, and they are living their dream. The first chapter makes it abundantly clear that they are where they need to be. There are little bumps in the road, but that’s life. So far, so good.
By the time we get to the second chapter, we learn that Jenny‘s wedding will be soon. Malcolm can bring a date, so he sends a note to Pamela, inviting her. Therefore, the astute reader should also understand that this is also a direct sequel to Intolerance.
Since there are no stories without conflict, and since a relationship such as Lili and Doug’s should undergo testing, the events are set into motion. And the main event is a massive kidnapping of humans.
Coupling
The kidnapping is a chance to introduce two new original species, the Imvari and the Witannen. Furthermore, a third original species, the Zetal, get a mention but they are not seen.
Melissa & Doug (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ten humans are removed from the NX-01 (Lili and Doug are aboard as they are hitching a ride to Jenny and Frank‘s wedding). Because the Witannen want them to interbreed, the group consists of five men and five women, and there is a separation into couples, namely –
- Lili and Malcolm – the idea is to play off Malcolm’s earlier attraction to Lili and also counterpoint her issues with Doug.
- Doug and Melissa – here, Doug’s frustrations with Lili are balanced with Melissa’s bisexuality, e. g. this is an area where Leonora cannot fulfill what her partner needs.
- Jonathan and Deborah – for him, it’s a chance to have someone to protect. For her, it’s the fulfillment of a long-term crush.
- Tripp and Hoshi – this combination plays off their friendship and also is an answer to endless Star Trek: Enterprise fan fiction about Tucker and T’Pol.
- Jennifer and Travis – for her, it’s appalling as she is about to be married. For him, he’s with the hottest woman on the ship. But she is so horribly damaged that it’s no fun for them at all.
This is not to mention the other couples in the story, from before, during and after the captivity. Plus, what happens with Pamela? Stay tuned.
Music Together
Music drives the story as characters come together and break apart throughout. Every major character has his or her own song, and couples share songs, too.
- Lili – by herself, her song is Crowded House’s Something So Strong. With Doug, to start, it’s John Legend’s Ordinary People. With Malcolm, it’s A Flock of Seagulls’ Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You). In her small family unit, with Doug and Joss, it’s Emilie-Claire Barlow’s O Pato but the fallout is Joe Jackson’s Breaking Us in Two.
- Doug – by himself, his song is Snow Patrol’s Shut Your Eyes. With Melissa, it’s The Cure’s Let’s Go to Bed.
- also, for Melissa – by herself, her song is the Allman Brothers’ Sweet Melissa. With Leonora, it’s k.d.lang’s Constant Craving.
- Malcolm – by himself, his song is the Style Council’s Wanted. With Pamela, it’s Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.
- in addition, Jonathan – by himself, his song is Jefferson Airplane’s Somebody to Love. With Deb, it’s The Cardigans’ Lovefool.
- Deborah – by herself, her song is the Divinyls’ I Touch Myself.
- Tripp – by himself, his song is Matthew Sweet’s Sick of Myself. With Hoshi, it’s Joe Jackson’s Kinda Kute.
- and for Hoshi – by herself, her song is Bette Midler’s Do You Wanna Dance?
- Travis – by himself, his song is Marvin Gaye’s Stubborn Kind of Fellow. With Jennifer, it’s Duran Duran’s Rio.
- Jennifer – by herself, her song is the Cult’s Fire Woman. With Frank, it’s Maroon 5’s This Love. Their wedding song (and this is the song played at any wedding where Jenny is a bride), is Dusty Springfield’s I Only Wanna Be With You.
- Brian and Yimar’s song together is Michael Jackson’s PYT.
- The final song is the Cure’s Love Song.
The story isn’t a musical, per se, but there is so much pertinent music that it practically could be.
Themes
Hence the story, in some ways, ended up an exploration of not only relationships but also of our mores as a society. What do we accept from people? Also, what do we expect them to do when the chips are down? People in the story make good decisions, and they make some terrible ones as well. Fallout does not stop just because you wish it all away, and the fights are harsh because it’s the people who love you – and know you better than anyone – who can truly hurt you if they really want to.
Story Postings
- Together on Ad Astra (contains reviews)
- Together on Fictionpad
- also, Together on Trek BBS (this version is Rated T)
- Together on Fanfiction.net (this version is Rated T)
- in addition, Together on Wattpad (this version is Rated T)
- older posting of Together on G & T Show forums
- Together in context
Rating
I put the rating at T, with the racier version on Ad Astra at M.
Upshot
The story goes in a bunch of different directions, and it was to tie up loose ends up and then create any number of others in order to generate more plot ideas, including the idea for Temper, a story that really doesn’t work without Together as its foundation. Furthermore, any number of other overall plot elements don’t work, or can’t work as well without it.
In many ways, it is a centerpiece story, and many other tales hang off it, either as sequels or as prequels or in conjunction with it. Aside from Reversal, people read this story more than the others, and for good reason. This is because it helps the reader to understand so much more of my overall story line. Plus, I think it’s just a good, complex tale.
I’m very proud of this one.
[…] Between Days story that takes place after Fortune. I also added a dream story taking place between Together and Temper, […]
[…] Lili’s story was in Reversal, Malcolm’s was in Intolerance, Melissa’s was in Together and Doug’s was in Temper. Therefore, this story would be assigned to […]
[…] when it does not work, Pamela reports, in Together, that Will hangs […]
[…] Together […]
[…] and it has allowed me to give him quirks like lactose intolerance and personal interests like crossword puzzles. Stay tuned, as there is a lot more Malcolm to […]
[…] Together, I wanted to make Jenny Crossman and Frank Ramirez‘s first dance an occasion for people to […]
[…] originated in Together, as a sweet toddler, very Mommy-centric and very, very bereft when Lili and Doug are kidnapped. For […]
[…] the end of Together, I wanted the very, very ending to be a bit of a surprise. Lili is pregnant throughout, with a […]
[…] such as are in The Light, Intolerance and Reversal, things begin to get down to business in Together. While the ship speeds toward Earth to deliver Jennifer Crossman to her wedding to Frank Ramirez, […]
[…] Quadrant species. Except for her mother, Chefra, the only other Witannen shown in my fiction is Together‘s Quellata (kell-uh-tuh), although there is a reference to one in the HG Wells series named […]
[…] else. It is ostensibly Malcolm’s story in the same way that Reversal is Lili‘s story, Together is Melissa‘s, Temper is Doug‘s and Fortune is Leonora‘s, but it’s also very […]
[…] I began writing Together, I wanted a villain who would be more of a business person than an actual evil being. Ferengi had […]
[…] about silence. It takes place in the In Between Days time period and the Prime Universe, after Together and before The Cure is Worse than the […]
[…] But he can’t say anything; she’s off to marry someone else. As he confides to her in Together, her life is just zooming along and away from him, and he can’t do anything to stop […]
[…] to the Star Trek: Enterprise canon relationship with T’Pol and the fanfiction relationship in Together. But he sees MACO Corporal Amanda Cole, and begins to flirt with her rather openly. Phlox is also […]
[…] Together, and Rellie, from Temper. Perhaps just as oddly is the fact that I have written more fully realized […]
[…] wasn’t until Together that I established that he real first name is Chandler and, yes, that’s a connection to the […]
[…] one of the most important works of literature is Jane Eyre. It crops up in all sorts of places. In Together, the paper book is given as a belated wedding gift to Lili and Doug, by Hoshi and Chip. The book […]
[…] Together, when they decide to open up their marriage to Malcolm and Melissa (and, by extension, Leonora), […]
[…] on the other hand, is much more of a jokester. In Together, he dreams of doing […]
[…] weekly free writes. For the TGIF prompt, I released Friday Visit, which is a kind of prequel to Together. For the AWOL prompt, I wrote Demotion, which is a prequel to three works that are still in rather […]
[…] Then I may go back to posting more of my backlog there. But not right now. I finished spooling out Together and that will be it for my backlog there, as of […]
[…] context. Pacing was added in context – it is a story that takes place between Intolerance and Together. The Facts and The Play at the Plate were also added in context. Those are both post-Fortune […]
[…] option there (thanks to my friend who goes by tahmtahm) and so I made sure that Reversal, Demotion, Together and Paving Stones listed that […]
[…] is canon so he’s not totally gone from my writings. But I do try to write him with angst (Together, Temper, and Fortune) or at least a feeling that he’d rather look at an engine than talk or […]
[…] his relationship with Lili is tested in Together, Doug has few communications strategies at his disposal. When they argue, he very quickly hits […]
[…] inappropriate for him or are utterly unattainable, a fact that he acknowledges in Concord and Together, in […]
[…] with Lili and particularly with the failed connection in Reversal and then the achieved one in Together. And then when I wrote Temper, I hit upon the ending as it dovetailed with the plot. And […]
[…] (the same word is used for both the singular and the plural) were originally brought into Together as a kind of beefy muscle. They were meant to be very tall (over two meters, which is more than six […]
[…] way I write him, he can have some melancholy, particularly in the context of Together. But things start out differently. In Party on Risa (a missing scene from the canon episode, Two […]
[…] smart and organized, Laura is, as she says to Lili in Together, “not the marrying kind”. Her work takes her to various diplomatic situations. In […]
[…] Morgan‘s Sick Bay. The bat makes appearances in Fortune, Day of the Dead, Entanglements, Together, Reflections Down a Corridor, The Further Adventures of Porthos – The Stilton Fulfillment, […]
[…] I explicitly make sure to not have football in the Mirror Universe (Doug comments on that in Together), Mirror baseball fills a bit of that niche, as it also fills a hockey fight-type of niche. […]
[…] could fill in at Science during the evening shift. Plus Jennifer Crossman needed a bridesmaid in Together. And so Lucy was […]
[…] also sings, but she’s not a professional. In Together, she sings O Pato to Joss. In Temper, she sings Arroz con Leche to Tommy. In Fortune, she sings La […]
[…] Calafan, Miva is Lili‘s obstetrician in Together and Fortune. It is she who tells Lili that sex with Doug during pregnancy is not advisable, and it […]
[…] the time of Together, he’s working full-time as a sous-chef. And by the time of Fortune, he has become the chef […]
[…] Susan is playful and even rather sexually liberated, according to Jay in the E2 stories and Doug in Together. But all is not right, for in both universes she depends upon synthbeer to get through her days. […]
[…] The Harvest Salad is mentioned in both Reversal and Fortune. The Duck Burger gets a shout-out in Together. Will decides to have both, plus a glass of the house […]
[…] is usually on the lower end of read counts for the first five big books (Reversal, Intolerance, Together, and Fortune are the other four), along with Intolerance, but in the case of Intolerance, […]
[…] Together, she reveals a playful and sexy side but, in the end, chooses career over romance, failing to […]
[…] what you’d expect. They’re huge, mean and dangerous. But they also make good eating. In Together, it’s established that the upper half – which is more than enough to feed seven adults and […]
[…] Together (this story has over 20,000 reads on combined URLs) […]
[…] Together, Malcolm attends this foreign film – even though, in canon, he’d prefer films with a […]
[…] waiting around – seemingly forever – in hospital rooms. Small children are seen there, and in Together, Temper, and Fortune, among other places, including The […]
[…] more and more often to Captain Archer, on whom she develops a raging crush, described in both Together and in the alternate timeline story, The Black […]
[…] are worse off than the others. One of them is Melissa. At the time, I was already thinking about Together and so I wanted the name to be out there, perhaps in the back of the minds of readers. Melissa was […]
[…] Jenny is the second-in-command engineer on both the USS Enterprise and the ISS Defiant when Reversal begins. In our universe, she is somewhat unaware or is perhaps in denial about her own obvious beauty. She doesn’t even know that the men refer to her as the Redheaded Bombshell until Travis tells her in Together. […]
[…] Together, he goes after all three bridesmaids and is turned down by all of them, undoubtedly due to being […]
[…] really not fair to call this hookup a relationship. Instead, after the wedding in Together, he notices Pamela and makes his move. It’s entirely possible that, in the prime timeline, he […]
[…] him as just, she knew he was the one. He visited her on a blind date, she explains to Travis in Together, and then Frank didn’t leave for several days […]
[…] was a doctor, although I did not have a handle on the type of doctor she would be. By the time of Together, I needed for Lili to have an obstetrician, so that decided her specialty. Her name, a reference to […]
[…] in, in order to pave the way for the ambitious vixen, Polloria. Treve, their eldest son, reveals in Together that Chawev and Yipran really can’t divorce, as no one wants to believe that the First […]
[…] canon, he has no known relationships. I follow on that and, in Together, when Lili and Doug meet with his sister, the attorney Laura Hayes, she confides that he had no […]
[…] In addition, the new restaurant, Reversal, opens up. Lili and Doug can barely look up, and there is no time to do renovations and put in a bigger and more modern stove until the couple depart for a vacation to Oberon for Jenny and Frank‘s wedding, which Lili will cater (Together). […]
[…] by the time of Together, that son, Jeremiah Logan Beckett – who they call Joss – is carrying around a stuffed dinosaur […]
[…] thereby neatly prefiguring his becoming a chef (hinted at in Reversal, and then fully realized in Together and […]
[…] A Long, Long Time Ago and The Three of Us all made it to over 10,000 reads on just one URL. Together made it to 20,000 reads on just one URL. At this point, there are 11 stories with at least 10,000 […]
[…] career. Yimar is given a small bracelet, prefiguring the Cuff of Lo gift in Friday Visit, Together, and Temper, and the bracelet for Melissa in Fortune. Chelben, who is still a rather small child, […]
[…] and not everyone can get what they want or who they want. In keeping with what I had established in Together, Lili ends up with José […]
[…] the end of Together, Doug, Lili, Malcolm, Melissa, and Leonora are ready to start the arrangement and live their lives […]
[…] On Wattpad, I continued posting Together. […]
[…] Wattpad, I finished posting Together and then posted Where No Gerbil Has Gone Before, which was also entered into this year’s […]
[…] a direct sequel to Together, I wanted to begin to show the Beckett-O’Day-Reed-Digiorno-Madden arrangement and how it […]
[…] Doug tells her to take it easy, and some of the interplay between them foreshadows later issues in Together and Fortune. The third storyline is in the deeper future, in the HG Wells timeline, as Rick […]
[…] relationship with Tripp is outlined in Together. But the song that is the title of the piece, and is woven throughout this songfic, was played […]
[…] man she has ever loved (she did not love Malcolm when they dated in Intolerance and met again in Together. She was mature enough to never say it back to Malcolm), and he ends up being the only man she ever […]
[…] On the G & T Show forums, I began to post Together. […]
[…] the best and easiest way of accomplishing that was for her to conceive Doug’s child during Together. Tommy is not planned at […]
[…] On the G & T Show forums, I continued adding to Together. […]
[…] On the G & T Show forums, I continued posting Together. […]
[…] used this story as a kind of bridge between Together and Temper, but on the Mirror side of things. And I think it works out well and helps to fill in […]
[…] Cage came about because I needed to bridge a gap between Together and Temper on the other side of the pond. For a prompt about being trapped, I decided to write […]
[…] in Together, the Witannen and the Imvari capture ten humans for war games. But they are working for a third […]
[…] work consisted of creating a bowdlerized version of Together and an HTML-coded version of […]
[…] There’s Something About Hoshi and posted it to Star Trek Logs. I also started spinning out Together on Trek BBS and Ohio on Ad Astra. I also created The Facts on Ad Astra and The Rite on Star Trek […]
[…] has been posted online, Reversal is still the big winner, with over 15,000 views. Next highest is Together with over 12,000 views and then Intolerance with over 8,000 overall views. These are all […]
[…] individual story after Reversal on Ad Astra, and third-most read when you count combined reads (Together beats it with over 31,000 combined reads). See the Stats page for individual read and review […]
[…] On Wattpad, I finished posting Intolerance, and then moved onto Barely Tolerable, Pacing, The Gift, and Voice of the Common Man. I then began spinning out Together. […]
[…] the G & T Show forums, I finished posting Together. I then added Broken Seal, Movie Night, Equilibrium, Ceremonial, Tumult, and Achieving […]
[…] to leave the practice of making war. When he can’t find anything else to do with himself in Together, he eventually becomes the captain of a defense unit on Lafa II, and instructs […]
[…] in Together, the Witannen and the Imvari capture ten humans for war games on a grand scale. But they are […]
[…] established that both Doug and Melissa enjoy hunting, partly for sport, but mainly for food. In Together, I briefly mention perrazin and described them as big, blond buffalo. By the time of Temper, I […]
[…] (the immediate aftermath). Lili discusses the matter with Doug in Reversal, and with Malcolm during Together. There’s even a small foreshadowing in Protocols, where Captain Archer comments that she […]
[…] For a look at Doug and Lili‘s early married life, from even before Joss, I went with what was essentially a scene missing from Together. […]
[…] of all, on Wattpad, I continued posting Together. I entered a fanfiction contest with […]
[…] Together […]
[…] Together […]
[…] for sharp-eyed readers, the stage is set for this species. Hence when the Witannen show up in Together, he really should have remembered them. But with him losing consciousness in canon, it fits that he […]
[…] afraid of fire, her maternal grandmother, Lilienne, makes her cook. Lili explains to Malcolm, in Together, that she was a difficult teenager, getting into minor trouble such as joyriding. She loses her […]
[…] isn’t until Together that humans actually taste it and refer to it by name. Olowa (pronounced: OH-luh-wah or OH-luh-wuh) […]
[…] things go differently and, in Together, Pamela tells Malcolm that Blair is engaged to someone else (as of this writing, there’s no […]
[…] reed (which of course is the lower, non-flowering part of a plant), is evoked as he and Lili, in Together, talk about the flower and the reed, and she assures him that the flower is pretty and all, but the […]
[…] of her being hired to work on the NX-01, and she had talked about her childhood in Reversal and Together in particular, there was no depiction of Lili as a teenager until this […]
[…] Later, when I wrote Everybody Knows This is Nowhere, I wanted someone to probate and read Jay‘s will. Laura was not an option (it would have been a legal conflict of interest). Hence I revisited Emily and gave the two of them something of a friendship. The friendship is also briefly mentioned in Together. […]
[…] the best and easiest way of accomplishing that was for her to conceive Doug’s child during Together. There is no planning for Tommy at all (or for […]
[…] Together, I wanted a wise woman who would have a bit of medical-type training. Enter the Xindi humanoid, […]
[…] fight from Harbinger and reworked it twice, both times involving Malcolm. Once was with Doug, in Together. The other was in The Three of Us, with Jay This is as a reprise of the fight, and Lili even […]