ATC – Journey to Babel 6 – Father & Son
EPILOGUE

Amanda crept into the darkened Sickbay ward where her husband and son slumbered, each recuperating from their ordeals of the previous day.  Her heart skipped a beat as she panicked at the sight of Sarek's empty bed.  /Perhaps he's just in the bathroom,/ she thought.  /I'll just check on Spock./

Amanda looked over to her son's bed and flinched.  Either her son had gained a lot of weight overnight--and grown a second head—or Sarek and Spock we sharing one bed!  Amanda shook her head in wonder as she crept closer.

/Oh, how cute they look!/ she thought as she looked at her husband and her grown son squeezing together on one single cot.  Spock's head was tucked between his father's neck and shoulder, and Sarek's cheek rested on his son's hair.  Both were sleeping peacefully.  Amanda decided then and there she needed to have a holopic of the occasion!

Amanda noticed Nurse Chapel making her rounds of the three patients.  Amanda signed to the young woman for a camera.  Christine gave the ambassador's wife a smile and a conspiratorial wink.  She slipped out of the ward and soon returned with the requested equipment.  Amanda stepped onto a nearby footstool, aimed and snapped a precious image of her two favorite Vulcans.  Christine removed the camera's disk and gave it to Amanda who tucked it safely into a pocket.

/I'll make one copy and leave it in Spock's room before we leave,/ she planned as she looked at her sleeping men.  /I'll make another and leave it on Sarek's desk at home.  I'll put one in Spock's "baby" book, and lock the master disk in my safe./  Plans all made, Amanda bent low and oh so gently kissed the top of her son's head.

The movement caused Sarek to stir.  Opening sleepy eyes, he raised two fingers to his wife.  //You should be asleep,// he chided gently through the bond.

//I could say to same to you,// she teased back.  Amanda indicated Spock with a move of her head.  //What brought this on?// she asked.

//We were both cold.// Sarek defended.  //It was logical.  It also gave us an opportunity to… discuss important issues, come to an agreement.//

Amanda chuckled.  //You make it sound like a negotiation!//

Sarek raised a wry eyebrow.  //An astute observation.//

Amanda smiled.  //Of course I'm astute.  I'm a wife AND a mother!//  She gaze shifted to take in the sight of both men.  //This brings back a lot of memories.//

//Indeed,// Sarek concurred, remembering similar nights with a very sick boy. 

Amanda didn't miss his minute grimace.

//Pain?// she asked.  Sarek nodded.  //I'll get the nurse.//

Amanda move quickly to the nurse's station.  She found Christine loading up a hypo.

"Can Sarek have anything for pain?" she asked quietly.

"Right away," the nurse agreed.  "Then perhaps you can convince him to return to his own bed.  He's very stubborn."

Amanda nearly giggled.  "Very stubborn."

"
Well," Christine observed, "now we know where Spock gets it from."

"Oh, no," Amanda corrected the nurse.  "Poor Spock has a double dose.  I'm just as stubborn as Sarek!" 

The women enjoyed a quiet snicker before returning to the Vulcans' bedside.  Amanda motioned Sarek out of bed and patted his original bed that Christine had heaped with warmed blankets.  After the ambassador had eased away from Spock, moved a few feet across the floor and settled into his bed, the nurse injected him with the pain medication and he drifted back to sleep.

Spock meanwhile rooted sleepily for his lost source of warmth.  Christine placed more heated blankets on him as well.  Spock opened his eyes at the disturbance and found Amanda's blue eyes peering at him lovingly.  He treated her to a slight, sleepy smile before falling back to sleep himself.

Amanda stepped back where she could see both her husband and her son.  It was a good thing that they were both asleep.  She could just imagine them judging her "highly illogical" for her sloppy, happy smile and the fat tears coursing down her cheeks. 

In the end, Amanda decided that didn't really matter.  What did matter was the fact that father and son were on speaking terms once again.  Once again, finally, all was right with Amanda's little world

End