Trigger Warning: This story features rape... I don't know how many of my current readers read this story the first time that I posted it, years ago before I deleted everything and disappeared, but since then, I have removed the brutal rape scene which was originally written in it. It was hard for a lot of people to swallow, and when I deleted the story, my friend, who saved all of my work didn't wish to save that particular part. It was hard enough for me to write the first time, so I won't try to re-write it, but if y'all have seen Plato's Stepchildren on TOS, the rape in this story occurs during that particular set of events. It's kinda like if that episode met an episode of Spartacus:Blood and Sand... It was extremely hard to take, but now - the rape is only spoken of in mentioning later on in/throughout the story. VERY DARK THEMES. VERY DARK!

Plato's Stepchildren

Three months after their second return to the starship Enterprise, three months after their daughter's one year birthday, three months after spending one year on Earth, bringing the girl, Sanaa, up around a planet mostly inhabited by humans, and allowing Sytar and Styik to live among them, as well... a terrible situation arose for Spock and Nyota...

They had decided to take their time away from the ship for Sanaa's development on Earth, mutually agreeing that New Vulcan had not been very beneficial for their marriage. Earth, however, had proven to help not only their marriage, but their family relationship substantially. Spock had allowed himself more expressions of public affections, towards his wife and his children, particularly his baby girl, who looked even more like her mother than their firstborn, Sytar, but slowly and steadily was becoming more and more like him. Nyota thought it funny that Sytar had given her the least problems during pregnancy, but was now a certainly mischievous and rather hyper three year old. Sanaa did not let her have a moment's peace for the nine months that she carried her, the twelve hours she was in labor, or the first three months of life, which she spent crying shrilly, something that Sytar hardly ever did as a baby; however, from four months until even now, Sanaa was extremely calm and usually not emotional.

Crew members joked that she was "Spock's daughter", a joke that Spock resented, as of course she was his daughter. She had come forth from Nyota, she was clearly partially Vulcan, and Nyota was his wife, and only shared herself with him in that way... Nyota had to explain that they meant it as it related to their personalities. Their eldest son, a son by adoption, but their son, no less, Styik, was more like Spock, as well. He was not very much like Spock, but like him in many ways of Vulcan, as he was half Vulcan and half Romulan. Styik had recently turned twelve, and was a figure of authority for his brother and sister, particularly, his brother. There were times when Nyota tried to handle Sytar, in which he ignored her, but when Styik took over the situation, the child hastened to obey. Sytar had become a very good speaker, and sometimes was too outspoken, a trait that he surely developed from his mother, but may have been honed by watching his brother (and role model) as well. Styik often had to silence the toddler.

Sanaa hardly said anything. For a while, Spock and Nyota wondered if she had been exposed to too much nonverbal communication, and therefore apt not to learn spoken communication, but every now and then, shed did speak, and from the few times that she did, they both could tell that not only could she speak, but she had a better grasp of it than Sytar had at her age. She had a more Vulcan grasp on it, as she seemed to have on most things, past her crying as a young infant.
Sytar's hair was very curly, and they generally kept it cut short, but Sanaa's hair grew in tighter, even softer curls, and became "the cutest little afro" that Nyota had ever seen. She had allowed Sytar's hair to grow into one until she had gotten pregnant with Sanaa. That pregnancy was too rough on her for her to maintain Sytar's curly hair. Now, Sanaa's hair was always worn in two puffs on the sides of her head, and was evergrowing. Styik kept his hair long, as well. He wore his black and gray strands slick back into a ponytail, and made it known that he had no intention of cutting his hair, at all. Nyota did not mind it, and Spock did not seem to mind it, either. Nyota herself had taken to wearing shorter hair. She had hers cut to her shoulders shortly after Sanaa's birth. That little girl had been life altering. Of course, the arrival of all of her children had been, but Sanaa had been the most difficult to get used to, and now, she caused the least trouble.

Sanaa was Spock's pride and joy, although it was never stated, Nyota would see him with her, helping her to do something, or speaking to her, gently about something that he was explaining, and Nyota would smile, every time, although neither Spock or their baby girl were smiling about the cute and obviously intimate moments. Sanaa had darker skin than Sytar, but she was not dark, necessarily. Nyota described the girl as "caramel", but Spock rejected the description, refuting that caramel served as a flavoring, not as a color, and he did not particularly wish to have his daughter described as a flavoring. Nyota had laughed, to his displeasure, then explained that she was laughing at the fact that eventually, someday, Sanaa would be interested in a boy, and judging by his actions, Spock would probably behave "worse than a human man" about the issue. Spock defended that unless Sanaa somehow went through Pon Farr that she would be an adult before ever attempting to unite with a young man, and that when she is an adult, her decisions would be hers to make. Then, pointed out that it was not likely she would experience Pon Farr, as he had yet to experience it, now being in his thirties, and that if she met a man in her adult life, he was confident that he would be a man of logic.

They had several such conversations about their daughter's future. Their sons, not so many. Nyota gathered that Spock had a sexist undetone to his beliefs, even if he did not think so, because he seemed far less concerned about the boys in similar regards. He credited it to being able to deduce about them already. Styik had a bond mate. She was Vulcan, and autistic, but she existed. Styik had made what he felt to be a logical decision in selecting her. Sytar would most likely choose a human mate, much later in the future. Spock deduced from Sytar's love of social interaction and affection that if he did ultimately select a Vulcan, she would be a Vulcan of passion. Since leaving New Vulcan after Sytar's first year of life, Spock had become more sensitive about using the phrase "Vulcans of passion", rather than "Vulcans without logic". Even on Earth, where they really were not exposed to many Vulcans, at all.

Now, they were back on the ship. Nyota was slim, again, but more voluptuous than she had been when she and Spock married, a change that Spock informed her through transmission of emotions was not only not minded, but actually preferred. Spock and her relationship was the best that it had ever been. They had gone through a lot together, and gotten over much, much more. As far as either of them were concerned, nothing would ever be able to come between them, because their imaginations did not foresee anything that could be any worse than anything that they had already experienced. Then came the situation...

Spock had hoped that this particular "adventure" would never happen in his timeline. Many things did not, and many of the things which they faced had never happened to Elder Spock. But, when the situation did happen, though he was uncomfortable, he was not prepared for the extreme terror and horror that the Platonians were going to put himself, his friends, and most importantly, his wife through.

Being under someone else's control made him angry, but he could not prepare himself for the emotions that he felt after the wretched Platonians heard Kirk apologizing for the kiss they were forcing between the Captain and Uhura.

"Why would your Captain apologize to YOU, for kissing another member of the crew?" Philana asked, amused.

Parmen responded, "Oh, do you not see it? He is a rather particular creature, but I believe that it is evident, especially through the human woman... there is a lover's connection between the two.." Their taunts echoed in Spock's head... The joyful way that they made them switch partners.

Kirk was going to violate Nurse Chapel instead of Nyota, and then, Spock was forcing his wife down, powerless to stop himself from harming her. Desperate to the point of begging, his Vulcan pride shattered by his lack of mastery over himself, and the Platonians' disregard for the comparison of his strength to that of what his wife's body was capable of handling. He was terrified. If he couldn't gain control, she might die at his hands. Being so brutal with her was painful throughout his core and all the while, he heard them laughing in the background, making jokes, taking turns to make their puppets do or say whatever they wanted, for fun... for sport... for nothing at all - they were destroying sacred things - his wife's body, to some degree, her mind and certainly to another degree, his...

By the time power was regained over themselves and the Platonians were overthrown and captured; Spock wanted nothing more than to rip them apart with his bare hands and leave them in pools of their own blood, but he recalled when he took his vengeance on Livingston Kurok and nearly lost Nyota. No - he had to rush her to safety and to make sure that she would be alright. He could not care about the tears that his comrades and crew members saw on his face. He would not think of the probabilities of what might be wrong with her and her survival at this point as Dr. McCoy panickedly interrogated him when he rushed to check on her. "Just do your job, Doctor," Spock ordered and McCoy waved in other doctors for assistance as a team helped to get Lt. Uhural onto a bed, Nurse Chapel insisted that she was fine to help, and Kirk gave out orders of what to do with the Platonians and what to tell Starfleet Command. Echoes. All echoes in Spock's mind as he stepped back to let them work on his unconscious wife. All echoes...