Title: What Really Happened
Author: T'Ryl
Beta Editor: Selek (Many Thanks)
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Sa/Am
Time Period: About 18 months after Spock left for Starfleet
Summary: Sarek comes to Earth at the request of his son, to find his wife living with another man.

Disclaimer: The Star Trek characters are the property of Paramount Studios, Inc. and Viacom. I intend to make no profit on the sections of their lives that I have created for them.

What Really Happened

Sarek walked through the cold New Jersey Rain. It was late fall and the weather was just cold enough to bring a chill to the air. Yet it wasn't cold enough to turn the rain to snow. With his cloak held tightly against him the tall Vulcan walked to the house Amanda was staying at. At least were his estranged son had told him she was staying in his message. As he walked he thought of the events that brought him here.

It had been eighteen months since the chain of events drove his wife and son out of his home. The unwillingness of his son to conform to the Vulcan tradition of attending the Vulcan Science Academy as he had and his father before him, and his wife's decision to give up their marriage to follow her son had caused him such pain it was easier to be Vulcan and just let them walk away than to admit he loved them. Or to face the fact he was afraid he would lose his son to some battle Spock might be part of.

Then there was the stargram Spock had sent, less then a week ago, which had found him on Delta. Spock had been most insistent that he come to Earth immediately. The details of the message had disturbed him greatly. His wife was living for the past three months with a human named Tom Garrett. Amanda apparently had asked Spock to spend a weekend with them in New Jersey, where she flaunted her new male companion in front of her son. They had even shared the same bed and kissed one another according to Spock's stargram. It was enough to cause Sarek to drop his conference, and catch the first shuttle to Earth.

The mere thought of his wife bedding another man angered him in a fashion that was very un-Vulcan. He knocked loudly, bringing forth his anger in his pounding, making a rather large dent in the door. Sarek knew it was better to turn his anger to an inanimate object instead of a living being; the way he felt at the moment it wouldn't take much to do a great injury to this human male.

A tall man in his late 40's answered the door. "May I help you?"

Sarek looked the man over; he was half a head taller then Sarek. He had deep green eyes and dusty blonde hair with a chiseled face. By human standards he was most handsome. "Yes, I have come to see my wife." Sarek's eyes blazed with the anger he would never openly admit to.

The man peered curiously at the Vulcan, "You must be Mandy's hubby." Amanda told him Sarek would come once her son got ahold of him.

"Yes, I am Amanda's husband," Sarek replied, desiring as little conversation with this man as possible; especially, if this was the man his son referenced in his urgent message. "Now, where is my wife?" It took a lot to get Sarek to a point where he allowed his emotions to rule his actions, and right now he was running on nothing but bitter jealousy and rage.

"Tom, who is it?" A woman's voice was heard from the other room. Sarek raised his eyebrow at the sound of this to-familiar voice coming out of this man's house. He went to enter the home but his access was blocked by Tom.

"Mandy, it's Sarek," Tom said as he stood in the doorframe. He was not about to let Sarek in unless she wanted him in, even if he knew she would.

"Well it's pouring outside, let him in Tom," Amanda said as she approached the door. She smiled at her estranged husband and watched as he entered the foyer. Inside she laughed at what it took to bring her logical husband to her. "Sarek, I assume Spock told you I was here?"

Sarek looked at his wife, then to this Tom, "Spock has informed me of your… indiscretions." He tried to keep his voice even, but knew Amanda would notice the difference in emotion.

Tom looked at Sarek, then to Amanda. "Any 'indiscretions' that may have occurred would not have if you listened to your wife's needs."

Sarek looked at Amanda, ignoring Tom altogether. This was an issue he would take up with his wife alone. "Amanda, we need to discuss this matter."

"Yes, I suppose we do. Will you come to my room?" she asked as she turned to the back of the house. She was going to play this for all it was worth. One way other the other, she was going to get her logical husband to admit he wanted her to be a wife. If it took making her son and husband believe she was having an affair then so be it.

Sarek moved to follow his wife after he took of his wet cloak setting it on the coat rack. Once he reached her room, he looked around thinking he would find male items as well. "Amanda, explain." He watched her as she sat on the bed. His patience was running very thin; this was his wife and he was not about to let another take what was his.

She frowned. "Explain what? Tell me Sarek, do you think I made mad passionate love to Tom?"

"That was the impression I was given by Spock," he said as he clasped his hands behind his back. "You shared his bed, is that not what we did when we shared a bed?" He looked at his wife with fire in his eyes and rage in his voice greater then any other he had before.

"I asked you…do you think I would do such a thing!? Do you really think the vows I made to you mean so little to me that I would have an affair?" she asked, her voice suddenly racked with anger. The lesson she wanted to teach her husband wasn't going the way she thought it would. She knew he would be upset but never this enraged. It just wasn't Vulcan.

Sarek lifted an eyebrow at her anger. "Given the evidence I was presented with, I drew the logical conclusion that you were, yes."

"My God, Sarek! Do you think so little of me, to think I would really do that to you?" She was at the brink of tears. Inside she was hurt deeply by the thought he really assumed she would have sex with someone besides him. She had never had sex with anyone besides her husband and never would. "Sarek, open our bond. Ever since I left Vulcan you've kept yourself closed away from me. See for yourself! I never did anything other than act for Spock. I knew if he thought I was having an affair he would tell you. I hoped it would get you to talk with your son." She left out the fact she hoped it would make him come to her, she wanted her husband desperately but would never return to him unless it was what he wanted.

Sarek opened his bond to his wife, and felt her thoughts and the truth about this 'affair'; images of Spock coming to this house to see his mother embraced in a passionate kiss with Tom. He also saw how his wife thought of the kiss as nothing more then a tool to get her husband back. The anger quickly left his eyes and was replaced by a renewed longing for his wife. "Amanda, I had come with the intentions of making you come back to Vulcan. I am instead asking you to please return home with me. This has shown me I can live without many things, except you, my wife." Perhaps, one day his son too would be brought back to him as well.

Amanda looked to the suitcase that sat next to the bed, "I've been ready ever since the day Spock left to go back to Starfleet Academy." She smiled at her husband and moved over to him, "but there is something I want to do first." She bounced on the bed as it broke into ripples under the covers. "It's a waterbed, Sarek…" she smiled at him sending images of what she intended to use the bed for.

Sarek lifted an eyebrow at his wife. "Indeed?" He moved to the bed and sat with his wife.

In the front of the house Tom had heard Amanda yelling and waited to see if things would get worse. She was his best friend…but that's all they would ever be. After time the sound of Amanda's screams carried through the small house. They were most definitely not the scream of an angry woman…rather the screams of a woman at the brink of ecstasy. With a smile he gathered his coat and walked out of the house into the pouring rain. 'Tinkering in the garage might be a good idea right now,' he thought.

END