Disclaimer: I don't own. I don't profit.

Special thanks to my beta Notes from the Classroom. She has two fantastic Star Trek fics out right now: Changelings and Running in the Dark. Both are in my faves.

Sorry, for the long absence. I published the second novel in my "I Bring the Fire" myth!Loki series; it's called "Monsters" and it's available for Kindle, iBooks and will be on the Nook soon. You can read an excerpt of "Wolves" the first in the series if you go to "My Stories".

If pure sci-fi is more your thing, and you want to read the Spock/Uhura baby!fic I'll never write, you should check out "Murphy's Star" (it was going to be a Spock/Uhura story, but my husband made me make it an original story). Anyway...on with the show!

Amanda

The earthquake echoes Amanda's mood. Amanda loves her husband. Deeply. Truly. Madly. Which doesn't mean sometimes she doesn't want to strangle him.

As soon as the flitter's engine stills, Amanda hops out, slams the hover door, and swishes in her long robes around the front of craft before Sarek has even exited the driver's side. Putting her hand on her hips, she plants herself on the path to the house.

Sarek gets out of the flitter and shuts the door gently, on the surface looking perfectly calm and unflappable. Through the bond Amanda can feel he is actually as unsettled as a basket of nervous squirrels. He could keep these feelings from her. That he doesn't is a testament to how much he doesn't want her to be mad at him. Or he is getting better at the subtleties of emotional blackmail. Or both.

Walking up the to her, Sarek stops. Tilting his head he says, "The conference was cancelled, Amanda. It is logical that we return home."

"Oh, don't give me that!" Amanda says. "You're here because Spock has a guest you want to meet!"

Sarek blinks at her. "You want to meet his female guest, too."

Amanda huffs and rolls her eyes. "Yes, of course -"

"Well, then," says Sarek, stepping around her.

Amanda grabs his arm. "We should give them some time alone."

"We will give them time alone. After we've been introduced, we shall retire to the kitchen for tea-after inviting them, of course," Sarek says, barely breaking his stride.

Amanda rolls her eyes. As though Spock or the girl he's mentioned would feel comfortable turning down that offer. "Spock is really serious about this girl -"

Sarek stops. Turning to her he says, "So I have gathered. More reason for us to meet her. She should know that just because we live on Vulcan and you have accepted Vulcan ways, we welcome her and respect her culture."

All very logical. But Amanda's not buying it. She narrows her eyes.

Sarek looks at her, face smooth, the Vulcan equivalent of feigned innocence. In truth it looks nearly identical to non-feigned innocence. But through the bond, she can feel Sarek willing her to believe.

Amanda narrows her eyes further.

Sarek lets out a breath of air. It's barely audible, yet it conveys so much. A Vulcan equivalent of a sigh. "Amanda, if he is truly serious about her...they may bond."

"Someday!" says Amanda.

Sarek tilts his head. "Accidentally. You know how Spock is. He is emotional. He lacks control."

Amanda crosses her arms over her chest at the insult. "I remember a certain full Vulcan who bonded accidentally with me." The words spill out before she's thought them through.

Leaning down, Sarek swallows. "Precisely. We were lucky. 1 in 4 Vulcan-Human bonds produce painful debilitating side effects in the human. They need a trained healer in their presence."

Sarek begins walking towards the door again and Amanda sighs. If he was angry she might be able to fight him, but he's genuinely worried, which makes it harder for her to be angry...which makes him harder to fight.

As he approaches the door, she tries one more ploy. "Maybe they're just having sex," she says, hoping Sarek will be dissuaded by the potential of an embarrassing scene, or even just angry enough at the thought of his son indulging in unbonded marital relations to allow Amanda to get angry back at him for being judgemental.

Sarek straightens. She scowls, bewildered and perplexed. Through the bond she feels a complete and utter blank.

"Unlikely," says Sarek. "Spock is too emotional to indulge in unbonded sex."

"I found condoms in his room at the academy!" Amanda says.

Sarek turns and opens the door. "Undoubtedly his human roommate's." With that he steps into the house and begins taking off his shoes.

Lowering her voice as she enters the foyer, Amanda hisses. "They were in Spock's nightstand, Sarek."

Sarek blinks up at her. "Perhaps Spock's roommate was hiding them from his nosy mother."

Skin prickling with anger, Amanda slams the door. "I was not being nosy! I was looking for the tissues. He always used to keep tissues in his nightstand when he lived at home."

"I did not say you were nosy," says Sarek, and the stunning truth of it is that he is being innocent in this, he wasn't accusing her. He meant it when he said Spock's roommate might have had a nosy mother. Stepping into the hallway, he says, "Where is Spock?"

The house's computer responds, "In the library."

Turning to Amanda he says, "A very logical place to take a future bond mate." Though his face remains flat, Amanda feels Sarek's approval and something else, a bit of wonderment, and pride. Turning a little green, Sarek thinks to her: He has more self control than I did.

Suddenly very unwilling to argue any more for fear of bursting his bubble, Amanda follows Sarek to the stairs to the library. At least Sarek was right about one thing-it is a very "logical" place to take a date. Although romantic in its own way, the library was a place where they were at least very unlikely to interrupt anything embarrassing.

As they travel down the stairwell, they hear some low whispers, and then in front of her Sarek straightens and the bond echoes with shock.

As Amanda clears the stairwell she sees why. The bookshelves on one side of the room have fallen down like so many dominoes.

"Father, mother, may I introduce to you Miss Nyota Uhura?" Spock says before either Sarek or Amanda can ask the obvious question-how did bookshelves, stable and steady for hundreds of years wind up horizontal on the floor.

Both Amanda and Sarek look to their son and his guest with wide eyes. Nyota Uhura is very pretty, her skin is a rich coffee color, her long hair very black. She has beautiful almond shaped eyes, full lips, and a heart shaped face. Even through the Vulcan robes, her poise and slender frame hint at the body of a dancer. Spock has told Amanda about Miss Uhura's intellectual gifts, but Amanda hadn't expected her to be quite so lovely.

Miss Uhura brings her hands together and wrings them, a little color rising to her face. "It's a pleasure to meet you...Miss..."

Stepping forward and holding out a hand, Amanda says, "Please call me Amanda."

Sarek inclines his head. "I am Sarek."

Miss Uhura nods and bites her bottom lip. Spock puts his hands behind his back. Amanda tilts her head. Is Spock's hair slightly rumpled?

"We were just in the library when the earthquake hit...and...ummm..." she gestures at the bookshelves.

Sarek walks over and stares at the base of one. "These were secured to the floor, the inspectors came not a month ago - the shearing force of the earthquake must have been very unusual. Spock, did you note it?"

"I was...distracted," Spock says.

Amanda blinks. Is her son going a little green?

Miss Uhura turns her head to Spock, and Amanda notices her cheeks go a little darker. "We were very engrossed in a book," she says.

Sarek kneels down by the broken bookcase supports, back to the rest of them.

"Very unusual shearing forces," he murmurs. "It is difficult to believe an earthquake could do this."

Miss Uhura swallows, "It was quite an impressive force of nature." She shoots a narrow eyed look to Spock that Amanda knows well...because she's given that look to her own literal minded, bound to truth-telling Vulcan on more than one occasion. It's a look that says clearly, Work with me here!

Beside Amanda, Spock straightens. A wicked little half smile forms on his lips. He raises an eyebrow in Miss Uhura's direction. "An impressive force of nature..." the other side of his mouth lifts up ever so slightly. "...I will give you that."

Amanda's eyes snap wide, and she puts a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing as Sarek, completely oblivious, says flatly, "Impressive indeed."

~ FIN ~

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