Aftermath

Since their near-death encounter with the logic extremists, Sarek and Amanda were instructed to stay home until an investigation had properly been conducted. While Sarek spent all day in his office upstairs tending to various work engagements, Amanda was in pain.

After surviving the experience with three broken ribs, two broken bones in her face and a concussion she struggled to watch her baby be cared for by another women. While she was never one to turn down help whenever it was offered, watching other women feed and rock her child as he cried felt like a dagger in her heart.

Due to her broken ribs she could barely pick him up or feed him from her own breast unassisted, so every three hours the nanny would watch Amanda over her shoulder as she held Spock to her breast to feed him. She would watch from the doorway every night as the blonde-haired woman rocked Spock to sleep and hearing her sing the lullaby, she sang to Spock every night since his birth made the tears fall from her eyes.

After two weeks of watching another woman with her child, she could not take it anymore. When the nanny left the nursery, she struggled to pick a content Spock from his crib. She sat down painfully in the rocking chair and held the baby in her arm fighting the pain it caused her physically.

"Hello, my sweet boy." She cooed through the pain.

Yet, it seemed the more she held the baby and the more pain she was experiencing, the more upset the child became in her arms. She gave in after ten minutes and placed the crying Spock back into his crib. Tears of sadness ran down her aching cheeks, and a pain ran through her chest. He did not want her. Her child did not want his own mother.

When the nanny rushed into the room, Amanda reluctantly took her leave. She made her way to bathroom in their bedroom, peeled the dress off her bruised and aching body, put the shower setting on low and allowed the tears to fall down her cheeks as the warm water fell on her bruised and aching body.

Spock's cries through the baby monitor rang in her ears, and the soft voice of the nanny comforting him only made the tears run faster down her cheeks reminded her of her incompetence to care for her own child.

She could not calm Spock, if anything she felt as though she made it worse. She couldn't feed him; she could barely hold him on her own and now she feared that he was beginning to bond with another woman.

She thought to herself as he leaned her aching body against the wall of the sonic shower that it was perhaps wrong of her to suggest to Sarek to have a child. She thought herself as not a good mother, and as she lingered in the shower, she could not see herself as even a good person.

The more she stood under the running water, the more her aching body and mine began to relax, she took in a breath and began to do something she had not done in years. Something that always made her happy.

He sat on his knees, a soft cushion under him with the smell of lavender scented candles as he purged his thoughts. So many things raced through his mind as he focused on his breathing, there was work, there was Spock, and then there was her… Amanda.

He knew she struggled, how could he not, but what was he to do? He could not speed her healing bones, and he could see no logic in removing the woman his wife felt so much distain for. So, he did the only logical thing and kept his distance.

He could feel her emotions the more he focused on his breathing. Her loathing of the woman caring for their son came through, but above all the hate that she felt, he placed sadness as the cause of it all.

Through the sound of the fussing baby down the corridor, his sensitive ears suddenly heard something softer. Opening his eyes, the sadness he had felt from his wife was being replaced…by calm. Fascinating, he thought. Curious, he made his way to his feet and followed the soft sound down the corridor.

The sound took him to the bedroom and then in the doorway of the bathroom where he saw his wife, his beautiful wife, singing in the sonic shower. Seeing the back of her body covered in bruises spurred on a sudden wave of anger which he quickly repressed. It, secretly, hurt him deeply to see his wife in such pain, and it hurt him even more that he could not do anything to make it better.

He focused on her soft voice as she sang about someone giving another their heart on Christmas day and giving it away the next day. He was slightly impressed when her voice hit a high note, which caused him to almost become lost in her voice.

He suddenly felt his own body relax and even with years and years of logic training, he was unable to repress the small smile that grazed his lips. She turned and gently brushed her soapy hands over her broken ribs, noticing her slight flinch at the pain the simple gesture brought.

Even though she was bruised, in pain, and sad he felt a warm feeling in his chest as he observed her. He knew it was love, but on this occasion, it felt as strong as it ever had been.

He only noticed that she caught his gaze when her beautiful singing suddenly stopped. Looking in her eyes, he had noticed that they were red with streaks running down her cheeks. Why had she been crying? He hated it when she cried.

Closing the bathroom door, he undressed himself and stepped into the sonic shower reasoning that it is logical to comfort his human wife during times of distress. He wrapped his arms gently around her from behind and held her in his arms. As she lingered in his arms, he sensed through their bond that the sadness was beginning to overwhelm the calm.

"Sing." he whispered softly against her ear. "It is a pleasant sound."

She fought through tears as she continued to sing the song, and the more she sang the more the sadness faded away. He tenderly helped her wash her body and remained in the shower until the skin on both their bodies began to shrivel. As she dried her body, he caught her lips form into a small through the reflection of the mirror.

He secretly enjoyed her smile. He secretly wished that she never stopped smiling, for it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

~The End~