Stardate 2340.50

"Arriving at Earth in thirty minutes," chimed the friendly voice of a woman over the intercom. "Passengers are advised to return to their cabins and prepare for arrival."

Safi stood and stretched her arms above her head. After two and a half weeks of traveling, it was about damn time.

"Hold!" cried the toddler at her feet.

Safi gazed down at T'Para, her two-year-old niece, and decided she couldn't refuse the little girl's request. She picked her up, raised her over her head, and smothered her with air kisses. "Are you excited to see grandma Dagny?"

"She has only met her foremother on two previous occasions and one of those was on the day of her birth," said a voice behind her.

"And whose fault is that?" Safi asked, turning to tease her youngest brother Laren, who was T'Para's father.

"I fail to see how anyone is to blame for this," he replied, his face stuck in the classically neutral Vulcan expression. "Our mother raised eight children of mixed heritage. Surely she did not expect all of them and their progeny to live in close proximity to her for the remainder of her life."

Safi gave him a patient smile. She barely knew her baby brother. Laren was born two years after she left home to attend college on Earth and he was the only one of her siblings who elected to follow Surak's teachings. Her parents had even quit the Terran Medical Corps when he was eleven and moved to New Vulcan so he could study at Vulcan schools. She supposed it was a prime perk of being the last fledgling to leave the nest.

"My wife has asked for my assistance with packing the rest of our belongings," Laren said.

Safi sighed and set T'Para down. "Run along, little lady."

No sooner were they out of the cabin than Maera wandered in, a sandwich in one hand, a PADD in the other, and a sour expression on her face.

"What did that little turd want?"

"I assume you're talking about Laren, not T'Para?"

"Oh come on, I love my niece. And it's not her fault she's got a fundy twit for a dad."

"Maera, he's our brother."

"Doesn't mean he isn't a fundy twit."

Safi rolled her eyes and flopped back down in her seat. "I'm pretty sure the last thing mom wants at her hundredth birthday party is to have her kids fighting."

"I promised I wouldn't say anything mean in front of mom," she said earnestly, taking a bite of her sandwich. "But mom isn't here right now."

Safi closed her eyes and nodded. It was strange to think how her parents had brought up nine children—three adopted, four biological, and two grandchildren—only to have them turn out so drastically different from one another.

There was Maera, the oldest, who ran away from home at seventeen and joined a resistance group trying to smuggle Romulan refugees into Federation territory. When she was finally caught two years later, it was only thanks to the backroom dealing of their grandfather Silek that she only served eight years for piracy and violating the Neutral Zone, rather than the life sentence for treason the Federation prosecutor had recommended.

She gave birth to her first son Henry in prison at the age of twenty. Henry spent the first seven years of his life with his grandparents while his mother served out her term and that separation irrevocably damaged the relationship between mother and son. Maera never spoke about Henry's father but Safi always got the sense that he was the truest love of her life. The only thing anyone knew for sure was that he was human and dead.

Once out of prison, Maera married the Vulcan lawyer who had assisted in her case, a nice guy named Vos who technically followed Surak's teachings but in as loose a way as possible. He helped get Maera through law school and they had a son together who they named Rhaal after the biological father she'd never met. Eventually they moved to Cestus III, the site of the Federation's main refugee camp for non-Federation citizens, and started a foundation to help asylum seekers.

Then there was Malen, Maera's full biological brother, who enlisted in Starfleet as an engineer at age eighteen. He always dreamed of becoming an officer but it was hard for him to escape his Romulan ancestry and he eventually retired at a mid-level enlisted rank. In 2285 he married Bethany Tarses, a human Starfleet nurse, and they had four kids and eventually settled on Mars Colony 3. Their oldest son Vince and his wife just had twin sons of their own two weeks earlier, Simon and Spencer. Safi couldn't wait to meet them.

Christopher was the third, her half-Romulan adoptive brother who was orphaned when the Gorn attacked Cestus III. Safi and Christopher were close in age and as a result were very close growing up. Because their parents were in the Terran Medical Corps and moved every three years, friends came and went, but siblings were forever. Leaving home to go to college was hard for Safi, but leaving Christopher was hardest.

Like Malen, his Romulan heritage severely limited his opportunities, but he eventually found work on a freighter hauling ore between the Federation bloc and non-Federation planets. He worked hard for many years and eventually started his own company but to stay competitive, he was forced to take on increasingly more dangerous routes. They wouldn't hear from him for months or even years at a time, then he would just show up with lavish gifts and wild stories, stay for a week, and disappear again.

He was killed in a Klingon incursion in 2303 and the months following his death were some of the darkest of Safi's life. Out of that tragedy came shocking joy and surprise when they learned Christopher and his partner Jane had a two-month-old daughter named Lily, who had been back on the trading station with friends when her parents were killed. She was the second grandchild her parents would raise.

Safi was the middle child, born on Cestus III in the spring just before the Gorn invasion. She was very close to her father growing up and seriously considered following the path of logic, but strong empathic abilities made training in logic almost impossible for her. She drifted through her teenage years, never sure what her purpose was, and at age eighteen went to Earth to go to college.

Four years later she earned a degree in education and worked as a teacher in the New Paris colonies until a series of devastating earthquakes rocked the planet. That very difficult experience taught her she had a rare aptitude for working with victims of childhood trauma and it wasn't long after that she applied to a renowned university on Betazed to hone her innate empathetic talent. She graduated in 2291 with an advanced degree in child psychiatry and spent a decade working in Federation Children's Services until Maera told her about the refugee camps on Cestus III. In 2301, she moved back to the place of her birth to help child refugees affected by the ongoing war between the Klingons and Romulans.

After Safi came her brother Soren, born 2267.312, exactly seven years and three days after Safi. In fact all of her biological siblings were born seven years apart, obviously the products of the hyper fertility brought on by pon farr, even though no one ever actually said anything about it. Soren was the jokester of the family, always loud and eager to be center stage. His gregarious personality caused their father considerable confusion growing up, but Soren and Voris never really argued, they only existed in two separate planes, unable to relate to each other.

He left home in 2287 to move to New York, hoping to find work as a stage actor on Broadway. He came home with nothing to his name several times but always went back, eventually discovering he had more talent for producing than acting. He won numerous awards for his plays and married his partner James in 2298. Seven years ago, they adopted two Romulan orphans from the refugee camp where Maera and Safi worked.

Her youngest sister Sara was born 2274.301, less than a year after the Terran Medical Corps transferred the family to Mars Colony 3. Safi was fourteen when Sara joined the family and because she missed most of Sara's childhood, she often found it hard to separate her adult sister from the helpless baby that she once was.

She grew up to be a passionate animal lover, always bringing home abandoned and injured critters of all shapes, sizes, and species. Their mother still loved to tell the story about how when they were living on New Berlin, Sara had traded a gold necklace given to her on her birthday for a Terran chicken that Orion traders were trying to sell to hungry Nausicaans. She named the chicken Captain and threw a fit when their father didn't allow the bird to sleep in the bed with her.

She got a good education in either zoology or ecology or both—Safi couldn't quite remember—from a good school on Earth with a name Safi couldn't quite remember, but now she worked with the Federation Conservation Corps performing surveys of potential new colony worlds and making recommendations about minimizing impacts to native flora and fauna. She married a Vulcan biologist twelve years earlier and together they were raising three daughters aboard the ship they were posted to.

After Sara came Henry, Maera's son, who was born in a prison hospital on Terra Nova in 2276 and raised by their parents. Safi was nearly sixteen when Henry came home and like Sara, she had few memories of her nephew. By everyone's account he was a happy baby, but because of their parents' work in the Terran Medical Corps, they weren't able to take him to visit his mother more than once or twice a year.

When Maera was finally released in 2283, he begged to stay with his grandparents but was still sent to live with her and her new husband on New Vulcan. Difficulties in adapting to life on a logic-loving planet with a mother and step-father he resented resulted in him returning to his grandparents by the time he was eleven. He grew broodier as he grew older and when the family settled on New Vulcan in 2292, sixteen-year-old Henry decided he'd had enough.

He came to live with Safi on New Paris for a time, coasting through school as easily as he coasted through girlfriends. When he was nineteen he hitched a ride on an Andorian schooner and wandered the quadrant for several years before eventually attending art school on Andoria. He opened a moderately successful tattoo parlor in Toronto several decades earlier and ended up with four children by three different mothers but was by all accounts a very devoted, very tattooed father.

Last was Laren, or as Maera so kindly referred to him as the "fundamentalist twit" or when she was feeling particularly loving, "fundy twit." According to Sara, Laren had been a happy kid who used to like to play with her and Henry but one day just decided he preferred logic. He was fiercely intelligent even by Vulcan standards and when he started school, was often bored and frustrated living in a household with only "average" siblings to keep him occupied. He often pleaded with their parents to allow him to live on New Vulcan with their grandfather Silek and eventually they permitted him to attend boarding school there.

When their parents' tenure in the Terran Medical Corps was complete, all of their other children had already left home aside from their grandson Henry, so they packed their belongings and moved to New Vulcan to be closer to their last dependent child. Laren excelled on New Vulcan and dove headfirst into all the crazy rites of passage her father once told her about—the kahs-wan, the martial arts training, the Rite of Tal'oth.

He attended the New Vulcan Learning Center and the New Vulcan Science Academy, which by 2300 had become institutions nearly as prestigious as the former versions that had existed on Vulcan. He became a renowned xenolinguist and learned half a dozen languages before picking up the old S'chn T'gai mantle of interplanetary diplomacy. Unlike most of the rest of his family, Laren was rather conservative, which led to many disagreements over the years. Four years ago he openly criticized his Great Uncle Sarek's progressive plan for negotiating with the Klingons and he was an ardent proponent of limiting refugees entering from governments openly hostile to the Federation, which put him at odds with most of his family. He was now considered a rising star among New Vulcan's conservative party and several years earlier he married a conservative fellow politician, T'Sina, and now had a daughter by her.

The last child her parents raised was Lily, Christopher's daughter. By the time Lily came to live with them in 2303, they had relocated to San Francisco and were working half-schedules at a local hospital, ready to embrace a quiet, stable, and lifestyle as empty-nesters. Lily threw a small hitch in that plan, but they never complained.

Lily had the luxury of being her parents' only "only child," or rather, the only child they raised who didn't have siblings living in the household at the same time. She was spoiled rotten. Her parents went to every school play, every dance recital, every field trip to local museums. Safi sometimes wondered if she should be jealous of her niece for having a childhood filled so much devotion and undivided attention, but decided she preferred her own busy upbringing with inexperienced parents who just never seemed to have enough hours in the day.

It made her much closer to her siblings and she still received love in droves. At least one of their parents still went to every school play or orchestra performance or martial arts tournament, even if they were fifteen minutes late and standing in the back with dark circles under their eyes. They still went places together as a family, even if those trips featured packed lunches and sitting in the back of a car with all the kids shoving their elbows and stinky breath in one another's faces. Those experiences provided her and her older siblings with a lot of self-reliance and freedom and in the end, she was certain her parents loved all of them equally, regardless of the differences in how they were brought up.

After eight kids and her father's desperate attempt to sow a passion for medicine in each of them, it finally stuck when he got to Lily. Sixty years to the day after their mother graduated from medical school, Lily graduated from the same university near the top of her class. She now worked at another hospital in San Francisco and shared a close relationship with the grandparents who raised her, coming over at least twice a week for dinner.

"Safi, are you listening?" Maera asked.

"No," she confessed, finally opening her eyes and realizing she was dozing off.

Maera was licking the last of the sandwich off her fingers and reading her PADD. "Another eight Romulan refugees arrived at the camp this morning. Two kids. Do you want me to send you their profiles?"

Safi gave her sister a solemn nod. No matter how many children she helped, it always felt like she was baling out an ocean with a teaspoon. In some ways she felt guilty for taking so much leave to come home, but it took between two and three weeks for a one-way trip to Earth and it was her mother's hundredth birthday, so she really didn't feel like she had a choice.

The last time she talked to Henry, their mother wasn't in the best of health. She was growing fatigued more quickly and the last surgery she had on her hip had uncovered yet another tumor—easily treatable since caught early, but nerve-wracking nonetheless. Safi couldn't imagine an existence without her mother in it. It terrified her to know her human mother probably only had another fifteen or twenty years left, maybe thirty with some luck and continuing improvements in medical technology. Her heart broke thinking about her Vulcan father, who at 130 years old was just beginning to crest middle age.

How badly she wanted to quit her job and move home and spend whatever time her mother had left by her side and be there to help her father pick up the shattered pieces of his heart when the inevitable end came. She hadn't told Maera yet, but she hadn't actually arranged for return travel back to Cestus III. Safi was sure she would go back, maybe next week with Maera and Vos or maybe a couple of weeks later. Maybe a couple of years later. All she knew was that she wanted to get home and hug her mom and see where things went from there.

Twenty minutes later, Safi, Maera, Vos, Rhaal, Laren, T'Sina, and T'Para went through security and then boarded the small shuttle that would take them from the transport vessel down to the Earth's surface. Safi sat between her brother and sister in an effort to keep the peace while Vos, Rhaal, and T'Sina made polite conversation in the row behind them. By the time they actually landed, several of the other passengers expressed concern that a fight was going to break out between Maera and Laren and when the hatch opened for them to disembark, Maera was shouting, "I'm your sister! If the policies you dream of passing had been in place a few decades ago, I would have never been allowed to stay in the Federation!"

"You do not know the policies I prefer. I have never once advocated for rejecting asylum seekers, it is merely that-"

An exasperated voice interrupted, "Hey mom. Hey Laren. Not much has changed, I see."

Henry stood at the edge of the gate, arms crossed and a bored look on his face. The sides of his head were artfully shaved, leaving a long central strip of partially dyed green hair that he'd slicked back and carefully styled. The phoenix tattoo on his neck looked new too, but he had so many Safi couldn't keep them all straight.

"Well at least you're acknowledging I'm your mother these days," Maera scowled, pulling him into a compulsory hug. She glanced down at the raven-haired girl standing next to him and gasped. "This can't be Norah? You were just a teeny tiny baby when I last saw you!"

"I'm six, grandma," the little girl said proudly. She looked over at the rest of the group, raised her right hand in the ta'al, and proudly proclaimed in a squeaking voice in shaky Vuhlkansu, "Dif-tor heh smusma!"

Safi smiled. "Live long and prosper to you too, kiddo."

After exchanging warm hugs with Safi, Henry led the group down to a rented van and he, Vos, Rhaal, and Laren loaded the luggage into the back. She called shotgun and plopped into the front seat while Maera and Laren did their best to avoid each other in the three backseat rows by stacking as many family members as possible between themselves. It was a cool San Francisco morning and the vibrant sun peeking between the skyscrapers filled her with powerful nostalgia. She had been born on Cestus III, but she had done a lot of her growing up here.

"Grandma was really worried you guys weren't going to make it," Henry said, shooting her a glance.

"It wasn't like we planned to get held up on New Vulcan," Safi sighed. They should have arrived on Earth two days ago, but a problem with the ship had delayed their journey. "But the party isn't until noon, right? We made it with about three hours to spare."

"You weren't the only ones cutting it close. Sara and her family got in late last night."

"She's bringing the kids?" Safi squealed. "I haven't even met the youngest two."

"Yeah, Lina's three now and Lyla is about to turn one."

Had it really been so long since she'd seen her baby sister? The thought that she had two nieces she'd never even met made her feel empty.

"She'll be so happy to see you," Henry said, running his hand through his emerald-colored coif.

"Mom or Sara?"

"Both," he laughed. "With you and Maera living out on the border, we don't get to see you as often as we like."

She felt tempted to tell him about her plans for a sabbatical from her work on Cestus III, but she wasn't ready to deal with Maera's unsolicited opinions about her decision. Instead she just said, "I've really missed mom."

"She's been talking about this visit non-stop for the past few months. I honestly think this is the first time the entire family will be together under one roof."

"That can't be right," Maera insisted.

"Actually, that is correct," Laren interjected from the backseat. "An inevitable consequence of our mother bearing long-living children over the course of twenty-one years."

"Actually, the whole family won't be under one roof," Safi corrected quietly. "Christopher won't be here."

Laren cleared his throat. "I presumed you were referring to all currently living family members."

The mood in the van shifted. It was sad thinking her mother would never have all of her kids together, not even on her hundredth birthday, but even before Christopher's passing there was always someone missing. Most of the older kids had moved away from home by the time Sara and Laren were born and though there had been get-togethers for weddings and funerals and baby showers over the years, there was always at least one no-show because of work or school commitments.

No one said much for the rest of the ride but things took a turn for the better when the van pulled up outside a small yellow bungalow with a bright red door in Daly City, just outside of San Francisco. Sara, Lily, and Malen were on the front lawn with Sara's two older kids, who were using croquet mallets to smack the ground rather than the balls. Safi leapt out of the car and waved frantically but stopped in shock when Lily turned around. Hanging from her niece's slender frame was a bulging pregnant belly.

"Lily?" Maera gasped in shock. "When did this happen?"

"Um, about nine months ago."

"Were you going to tell anyone?"

"Well, I told grandma and grandpa but I've been keeping it pretty low key."

It hurt in a way Safi hadn't expected to know her niece was having a baby any day now and she didn't even know. Had it really been that long since she'd had a conversation with Lily or her mother that was long enough to exchange important family news? How did time manage to slip by so fast?

Safi gave Henry a playful punch in the arm. "When were you going to tell me your cousin was having a baby?"

He gave a coy shrug and scooped up three-year-old Lina, who had come barreling toward him when she saw him standing on the lawn. "Now, I guess?"

"When are you due?" Maera asked.

"Yesterday, actually," Lily groaned, rubbing the underside of her belly. "Dave's been a nervous wreck for weeks now."

Laren asked, "Have you two finally gotten married then?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "You sound just like grandpa. You don't have to be married to have a baby together. Dave and I are happy with things the way they are."

The group wandered inside and greeted the rest of the family. Safi gave big happy hugs, Maera delivered her usual self-deprecating humor and sharp wit, and Laren offered his typical stiff standoffishness. It was a very full house with four generations running around.

There were just too many people to catch up with, too many new spouses to meet, too many toddlers to tease, and too many babies to cuddle. She didn't even know where to start. For the first time, it truly dawned on Safi how very blessed her parents really were in the game of life. She was in the middle of asking Henry's three-year-old daughter Rachel if she liked puppy dogs because of the pattern on her t-shirt when she heard a voice that warmed her heart in ways no one else's ever could. It was older and shakier than she remembered, but it was unmistakably the sound of home.

"You made it!"

Safi turned around, stunned to find her eyes were watering at the sight of the woman standing by the kitchen island. "Hi mom!"

Her mother wrapped her in a warm embrace. Her body was hunched and frail, her hair was nearly white, and there were deep creases lining her face, but her eyes sparkled with the same fire they always had. Those blue eyes were Safi's favorite gift from her mother.

"Let me look at you," her mom sighed, pulling back and cupping her hands around Dagny's cheeks. "You still look just like your father."

"Where is he, by the way?"

"He's outside tending the barbecue grill. You know he likes his veggies cooked a certain way."

"It's so good to see you, mom. Happy birthday."

She gave Safi a warm smile and moved in for another hug. "It's good to see you too, my baby girl."

"I'll be eighty this year, mom."

"And about eighty years ago, I was wiping spit up off your chin and helping clean your poop out of your dad's hair."

Safi uttered a shocked laugh. "What?"

She winked. "You'll always be my baby girl. That's what."

Her mother went on to hug Maera and Rhaal and when she came to Laren, she stood in front of him looking hopeful and a little sad. Laren looked conflicted for a moment but in the end, leaned down and gave her a gentle hug. Maera chortled and Safi gave her a death glare, promptly shutting her up.

Safi decided to let them catch up and wandered out into the backyard where Soren and his husband James were watching their adopted twin daughters turn cartwheels on the lawn with Norah while Alyssa, Henry's oldest daughter, cheered them on. She found her father studying the grill, a spatula in one hand and some kind of orange and pink drink with a little umbrella in it in the other.

"Hi, everyone," Safi announced with a little wave.

Soren laughed and scooped her into a huge hug. James' hug was slightly less exuberant but still tight enough to compress her ribs. Her father glanced up and gave a nod, but Safi knew him well enough to know he was very happy to see her. She shared a much closer bond with her father than any of her other siblings seemed to. Humans might have called her a daddy's girl, perhaps, but it was more than that. He never spoke of it, but when she was a teenager, her mother told her the story about how her father had initiated a paternal bond with her to keep her safe while they hid from Gorn soldiers on Cestus III.

The four of them made idle chit chat for a while, though Soren dominated most of the conversation with details about his upcoming play that was set to debut next month. When her brother and his husband went inside to get another drink, she turned to her father and said, "How are things going?"

"Quite well. How are you doing, Safi?"

"Grandpa, grandpa!" The two little voices interrupted in unison.

Soren's twins were standing expectantly on the edge of the concrete pad, eyeing the plate with the portabella mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes that had already been pulled off the grill. He exchanged a knowing look with them, speared two mushrooms with unused skewers, and handed them over to the hungry seven-year-olds. When Norah and Alyssa observed what had taken place, they queued up and were also promptly served a preview of the meal to come.

Safi crossed her arms. "Where's mine?"

"If you continue to consume the vegetables as they come off the grill, there will be none to serve later." He then speared a mushroom and handed it to her.

The burst of juicy flavor in her mouth was nothing short of nostalgia and transported her back to countless family cookouts on at least three different planets. "Still perfect."

He turned to Safi. "I hope you did not think the interruption would excuse you from answering my query."

Safi laughed. "How am I doing? I'm doing fine, dad."

He took a sip of his tropical drink. "Fine has variable definitions."

"I mean, I'm healthy. I work a lot. I miss the family. Sometimes dealing with Maera can be exhausting."

"Your sister is very passionate about her work."

"And I am too but sometimes I feel burnt out," she sighed. "There are so many kids and no matter how many I help, twice as many show up at the refugee center the next week."

Her father turned to her, a sad look forming in his eyes. "I served in the Terran Medical Corps for a number of years. I know it is a difficult thing to encounter so many people needing assistance but only being able to help a few."

"It never feels fair," Safi mumbled bitterly. "And sometimes I worry that my life is passing me by while I'm up to my elbows listening to one tragic story after another. I'm sure it must sound really selfish, to worry about my life when so many of these people, a lot of them kids, are dealing with so much worse."

"It does not sound selfish at all. Many people would never even consider entering the profession you are in."

"It feels so wrong to be complaining and wanting to quit though."

"I believe you are suffering from what your mother once referred to as compassion fatigue."

"I have a hard time imagining mom ever feeling this way."

"I cannot speak for your mother, but I do recall a number of incidents over the years that nearly made both of us want to leave frontier medicine and return to Earth and open our own small practice."

"Really? It's hard to think of mom ever feeling worn out and jaded out but you?"

"Several years after you left for university, your mother and I were called away from our post at New Berlin to assist with emergency famine relief on Sklara Prime for a month while additional resources were being gathered. We were the first to arrive and we had a medical staff of seven to assist more than thirty-thousand starving Sklarians. We only had sufficient Federation rations to feed perhaps fifteen percent of them. I remember one night signing the death certificates from that day and when I reached the hundredth name, I announced to your mother I wanted to quit medicine. Fortunately, your mother convinced me to stay. It always seemed to work that way—when one of us felt it was too difficult to go on, the other would find some hidden strength of character and carry the other one through."

Safi sighed. "I don't even feel right taking time out of my schedule to have a personal life, so I have no idea when I would find the time to find a partner so I could have someone to lean on the way you and mom had each other."

"How long have you been working with child refugees on Cestus III?"

"Almost forty years."

"How many children have you helped in all that time?"

His question gave Safi pause. "Well, last year was a pretty average year and we helped about five hundred new kids under the age of twelve coming into the camps, so maybe around twenty thousand?"

"If you had only helped even one child, it would have been enough," her father said, raising the lid of the grill to remove several skewers. "Few people have the honor of being involved in the rescue and rehabilitation of more than twenty thousand children."

"So you're saying I should quit and pass the torch on to someone else?"

"I am saying we are only granted one life and should spend it doing what we think is right, but no matter what you choose, you have accomplished what very few people could. I am proud to be your father."

The back door slid open, interrupting their heartfelt conversation. Soren's head popped out and yelled at the kids to come inside before turning to Safi and Voris and saying, "Hey, mom wants to get a picture of the whole family out in front of the house."

"Tell your mother we will be there directly," their father replied, grabbing the last of the skewers from the grill.

When the entire family was gathered on the lawn, the sight of four generations filling up the patch of grass in front of the house filled Safi's heart with countless emotions. It took nearly half an hour to get everyone situated but in the end, Henry suggested the kids should stand in order in the back row with newer generations up front. Almost on instinct, Safi and Malen left a gap between them for where Christopher should go. They looked at each other and decided without uttering a single word they would leave that space empty.

It took a while to get the youngest kids to agree to pose for a picture, but the end result was truly stunning. Voris and Dagny had six living children, thirteen grandchildren ranging in age from sixty-four-year-old Henry to one-year-old Lyla, and six great-grandchildren with another one due any day. They had come from as close as twenty minutes down the road and as far away as Cestus III, some had brought spouses and some had come alone, but the family was all here as if some magic twist in the universe had ordered it.

Because there wasn't a table both large enough to sit all thirty-two people and small enough to fit in their parents' typically-sized dining room, people grabbed food from the buffet and found seating wherever they could. Safi tried on numerous occasions to sneak in a quiet conversation with her mother, but because she was the most loving of matriarchs and also the person whose birthday they were all present to celebrate, she had a crowd of at least four people gathered around her at all times.

Rather than finish off the festivities with a cake—her mother had always shied away from birthday cake, for some reason—they all crowded into the living room and adjacent kitchen and dining room, sang happy birthday, and took turns telling her what it meant to have her in their lives. Safi laughed at some stories and got choked up at others, and when it was finally her turn, she found herself in a position of not knowing what to say.

She stammered out a rambling speech about her being the best mom in the universe and then yielded the floor to Laren, who delivered a surprisingly tender tribute to their mother. How she wished she were a better storyteller. It was nearly dark when the first people started to trickle out of the house and go back to their homes or the hotels they were staying in all over the city. Safi lingered longer than most and around 2100 hours, she found herself in the kitchen packing up the leftovers when her mother came in.

"You don't have to do that," her mother insisted, trying to shoo her away from the dirty dishes.

"It's your birthday," Safi argued. "And I don't live with you anymore but I'm never too old to do chores. Please, go sit down and rest."

"And I'm still your mom and you can't tell me what to do in my own house." She crossed her arms, trying to look serious but failing spectacularly.

"And I am your husband, it is your birthday, this is my house also, and I insist the two of you allow me to complete this task," said a voice from behind them.

Her mother wheeled around and grinned at the sight of her father approaching. He stopped in front of her, lifted his two forefingers, and gently tapped them to hers. She led Safi out into the living room.

"It's getting pretty late," Safi mumbled. "I guess you're probably wanting to go to bed."

"Not so fast," her mother replied. "I haven't seen you in nearly two years and I barely got to talk to you today."

It was the invitation Safi had been hoping for. She sat down on the sofa and expected her mother to join her, but she stopped by the hallway table and pulled a PADD from one of the drawers first.

"What's this?"

"Family album," her mother said proudly, holding it up to show Safi the image taken earlier that afternoon of the whole family out on the lawn. "It's a little tradition of mine, to go through these pictures on my birthday. Something I started with your father a few years after you were born but I was hoping I could do it with you this year."

"I would love that!"

"I'm glad," her mother smiled. "I always start here, with your grandmother Sofie."

She toggled to the start of the album to reveal a woman who looked startlingly like a younger version of her mother. Her stomach was swollen and her thick red hair was tied back in a braid.

"This was your grandmother when she was when she was pregnant with Martin."

Safi swallowed hard. She knew her mother came from a large family that had been killed in a neutronic storm but her mother very rarely spoke of them growing up. They spent nearly an hour looking at pictures of aunts and uncles who had died before Safi was born. Several times her mother wiped away tears as she flipped past picture after picture, each featuring her parents, brothers, sisters, and other people that once lived on a salvage ship called the Albret.

When her father was finished tidying the kitchen, he entered the living room, stopped in front of her mother, and kissed her on the forehead. "Try not to stay up too late," he urged.

"I make no promises."

He gave her a small nod. "I will wait up for you. Then he turned to Safi and added, "Goodnight, daughter."

"Night, dad."

They returned to perusing the picture album, looking at pictures beginning in 2261 when the family first arrived on Earth. There was a picture of her mother wearing a shocked face and holding up a PADD with a message announcing she'd been accepted into the Federation's Occupational Experience in the Health Professions Program. There were countless pictures of early childhood, from Safi's first steps to Maera's first day of kindergarten.

There were pictures of Aunt Aisla too, the Orion woman who had moved in with the family when she came to Earth to attend nursing school. Aunt Aisla had always been so much fun and Safi was ashamed that she hadn't thought of the woman who had helped raise her in several years.

They stopped at a picture labeled 2267.151. Her mother was wearing a cap and gown and stooping to hug her, Maera, Malen, and Christopher.

"Your graduation," Safi said wistfully. "It's amazing to think you made it through medical school with four small kids. You inspire the stars out of me, mom."

"Your dad helped so much," she insisted. "And so did your Aunt Aisla. I never could have done it without them. Your dad made you all dinner and put you kids to bed on his own many nights while I studied."

Safi considered the picture more carefully. "2267.151? Soren was born 2267.312. Were you pregnant with Soren when you graduated?"

Her mother gave her a sly smile. "Soren took us both a bit by surprise. We thought we were being careful but it turns out pon farr makes Vulcans particularly fertile."

Safi knew this of course, but it didn't stop her from moaning, "Ugh, mom."

"Well, it's true. You know, when he was about twelve, he asked me once if he was an accident and I tried to tell him he was a surprise but he smirked and told me, 'Nuh uh, I was born on purpose.'"

Safi snorted. "He would say something like that. There were so many times growing up that I thought dad's head would explode from trying to make sense of Soren."

"He did try, bless him."

"It must have been hard though, having Soren right before finishing medical school."

"Having a brand new baby to take care of set me back a year in my residency, but I'm so glad your brother joined the family when he did. He slowed us down a little bit and reminded me of what was really important in life."

They continued on, past pictures of Maera and Malen starting middle school, Christopher and Safi losing teeth and having awkward growth spurts, and Soren's baby pictures. Suddenly her mother laughed aloud. "Do you remember this trip to Norway?"

"I do!" Safi studied the series of images dated 2271.360-364 and smiled.

"My family is from Norway and your father thought it would be a good idea if I visited it before the Terran Medical Corps sent us to our first posting on the Alpha III colony."

"I was so mad we had to move," Safi reminisced. "I'm so glad that we did, but at the time, I thought I hated you for taking me away from all my friends."

"All kids go through that," her mother said, giving her a small hug.

There were many images of the children frolicking in the snow, trying to erect a snowman and drag each other around on sleds. Her father was in the background of most of the shots, bundled under so many layers of coats and scarves that only his eyes and nose were visible. There was a nice close up of him where someone had convinced him to remove the balaclava long enough to take a good portrait, but Christopher could be seen in the background pulling his arm back to take aim. Another image captured a fraction of a second later was a rather candid shot of her father making a shocked face as he was struck in the back of the head with a snowball.

The pictures soon showed scenes of the family on the picturesque Alpha III colony. Some of her most vivid memories of growing up came from this place. Safi had been going through her moody teenage years then, Malen was always tucked away in the basement tinkering on various projects, Christopher was always out with his friends, and Maera had become increasingly passionate about the plight of Romulans trying to flee the Romulan Star Empire. All of the tension and anxiety of growing up seemed to show in these pictures.

Maera had run away while the family was living on Alpha III and it pained Safi to see so few pictures between the years 2273 and 2274, but in 2274, three years after having her existence turned on its head by being carted off to Alpha III, the Terran Medical Corps gave them relocation orders and they moved to Mars Colony 3. Later that year, Sara was born, and a whole new flurry of baby pictures took center stage.

She laughed when she saw pictures of herself wearing a poofy and angular purple dress and standing next to a nervous-looking human boy. Tom Cisneros, her first boyfriend and deliverer of her first kiss. They were going to a school dance and she had vivid memories of hanging out behind the administration building with his friends, being pressured into smoking some kind of Andorian herb, and coming home so high and so sick that she was terrified she was going to die.

Her father found her vomiting in the toilet, examined her, interrogated her, gave her fluids through an IV, and never spoke another word of it again. She was certain he never told her mother about that incident, because she would still be grounded if he had. After that, she broke up with Tom, never tried drugs again, and had a newfound respect for her father's ability to be an understanding and discreet parent.

There were images of Malen shipping off to Starfleet and pictures of the family at his graduation from the basic enlisted engineering course, then the family album went dark for nearly a year until pictures of newborn baby Henry appeared. She exchanged glances with her mom and instinctively decided to give her a hug.

By 2277, the family had moved to the more remote Barisa Prime and only two years later, Safi turned eighteen and went to Earth to attend university. All the family pictures that came after were still of her family, but also seemed like someone else's family.

As they scanned through pictures of toddler versions of Sara and Henry splashing in a creek while Soren looked on under a floppy hat, Safi asked, "Is it ever weird to you that we were all so spread out?"

"Sometimes," her mother admitted. "You, Soren, and Sara bridged the gap a little, but sometimes it did feel like I was raising kids in sets, rather than in a single family. I guess it didn't help that we moved around every three years. I gave birth to all my children on different planets, which I suppose is pretty unusual. Sometimes I wonder if we made the right choice, joining the Terran Medical Corps."

"I never liked moving away from Earth but in hindsight, I think it was really good for all of us. It made it feel like we were all in it together."

Her mother smiled. "You have no idea how nice it is to hear you say that."

Safi was feeling quite tired by the time they reached images of the family's life on Barisa Prime and Laren's baby pictures. More baby pictures were appearing too as more grandchildren entered the picture. Maera had Rhaal in 2287 and a few months after that, Malen's wife Bethany had Vincent.

As Sara, Henry, and Laren grew older, she was struck by how Henry and Laren seemed joined at the hip when they were little. There were pictures of Henry teaching Laren to ride his bicycle and of the two of them playing together in a tree house.

Safi paused on an image of Henry pretending to stick his finger in Laren's nose and Laren obviously laughing. "I didn't realize they were so close."

"Thick as thieves. Laren really looked up to Henry when he was little."

"What happened? I can't imagine two people being more different now."

"Laren was bullied a lot when he was younger. He was smaller than the other kids and so much smarter. I don't say that as a proud mom either: he was too smart for his own good and could be snotty about it. Whenever Henry stood up for him, the teasing just seemed to get worse. Eventually your father started teaching him some meditation techniques to cope with it, and Laren was sold in the idea of Vulcan philosophy ever since."

"Does that ever make you sad?"

Her mother swallowed hard. "When I was pregnant with you, one of my biggest fears was that you would grow up to be like your father. You know, that you would follow logic and not want anything to do with your emotional, human mother. Laren's decision was really hard for me to accept for a long time, but he's happy. He's my son and I love him and I would be a fool to be disappointed in any of my children. It mostly makes me sad that it's driven a wedge between him and Maera, but Maera is responsible for that too."

Safi's eyes began to water, which obviously distressed her mother.

"What is it, Safi?"

"I miss being part of this family so much," she said, sucking in her breath to stave off tears.

"When did you stop being part of this family?"

"When I moved to Cestus III. Besides Maera and Rhaal, I hardly ever see or talk to any of you anymore. I didn't even know Lily was pregnant."

"Safi, you're very busy working in those refugee camps. Those children need someone in their corner and I am so proud that my daughter is that someone."

Tears finally started rolling down Safi's face. "I'm starting to wonder how much I've missed out on because I've been too busy with work for the last forty years. Everyone's gone on to have these amazing families and I haven't even been on a date with someone in a decade."

"Is having a family of your own something you really want or just something you think you should do?"

"I- I don't know."

"Can I let you in on a secret?"

"Sure," Safi coughed.

"I never thought I would have kids." She waved her hand at the PADD on the coffee table and said, "And look how that turned out."

Safi choked in disbelief. "How could you go from not wanting kids to having seven of them?"

"A very wise person once told me that not every happiness is chosen. Sometimes the best things in life are the ones that appear out of the blue. If you meet a nice person and decide one day to get married and have some babies of your own, I would be overjoyed, but if you didn't, it wouldn't change a thing. Sometimes I imagine all the babies you help in those camps are my own grandchildren. In a way, they are. You didn't give birth to them, but you've given them a second chance at life so don't think for a minute that they aren't a tiny bit a part of this family too."

Safi started bawling and pulled her mother into a tight hug. When she finally calmed down enough to talk she said, "I was thinking of taking a break from work for a little while and staying on Earth to be closer to you and dad."

"I would love that, but only if it's what you want."

"I honestly think it is," she confessed, suddenly certain of her choice. "Maera will be furious."

"Maera's always had very strong opinions, but it's not her decision to make. I understand what it's like to help desperate people day in, day out with no end in sight to their misery. By the time your father and I finished our twenty years in the Terran Medical Corps, I thought my soul would never be whole again. We all need a break sometimes."

"I want to be part of a family again."

Her mother closed her eyes and thought to herself for a moment. Then she flipped through the photo album back to the image taken of the family on the lawn earlier that afternoon. "You never stopped being part of this family. I love all of my children equally, the ones I gave birth to and the ones I didn't, but of all the babies I raised, you will always be a little bit more special than the others. Look at all of these people, Safi. None of this would have been possible if you hadn't come along and surprised the hell out of me and your dad."

Safi was on the verge of ugly crying. She grabbed a nearby throw pillow and nodded.

"Tomorrow is a new day full of new decisions," her mother continued, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I should take my medicine and get going to bed but why don't you stay in the guest room and we'll continue this in the morning?"

"I just want to stay up and look at these pictures a little while longer if that's ok."

Her mother kissed her a second time and shuffled off down the hall to her bedroom. Safi barely made it through images of Laren's graduation from the Vulcan Science Academy before she slipped into a sea of vivid dreams. When she awoke the next morning, she was covered in a light blanket and soft gray light peeked in through the French doors in the kitchen.

She stood and stretched, instantly regretting passing out on her parents' stiff couch. She wandered into the kitchen to make some tea but paused when she noticed both of her parents were awake and sitting together in lounge chairs on the patio, watching the sunrise hand in hand. She tiptoed nearer to them, keen to observe the beauty in the moment but unwilling to disturb them.

Her mother leaned her head on her father's shoulder and said, "We did good, didn't we?"

He rested his head against the top of hers and replied, "Yes Dagny, I believe we did."

Author's Note: I've been promising a happy ending for literally two years now, and I hope I've delivered on that promise. I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who read and reviewed this. I'm a little sad that it's over, but I started a new Vulcan OC story called Velek and Mavis Go on an Adventure. It features two rather unconventional Vulcans in an action/comedy romance rather than the ongoing angst of this story. Check it out if you like, but if not, thanks again for giving No Winter Lasts Forever a shot over the past two years.