Disclaimer: Sarek and Amanda belong to each other, and too bad Star Trek belongs to Paramount, because I'd be rolling in it if it were mine.
Journey to Babel- Amanda reacts to Spock's refusal to turn over command, but instead of slapping him, she offers him some logic of her own.
"Mother, how can you have lived on Vulcan so long, married a Vulcan, raised a son on Vulcan, without understanding what it means to be a Vulcan?"
Amanda narrowed her sapphire eyes and stared at her son. He had seemed to have learned nothing from living and working among Humans.
Spock almost recoiled from his mother's palpable disgust and the flash of anger in her eyes.
"Spock, long ago, when you left for Starfleet, your father and I endured the most challenging time of our marriage. I went back to Earth for awhile, because I couldn't stand what it was doing to our marriage."
Spock raised an inquisitive eyebrow at this. "Surely such emotionalism is..."
"Illogical?," Amanda snapped. "I've some logic of my own, my son. Where was the logic in your father taking a Terran as wife? We married, not even knowing if I would ever be able to present him with an heir. Marriage with such a slim chance of successful procreation? Most illogical." Amanda raised her eyebrow in mockery and rolled her eyes.
"I think all these years, you've looked upon me as some sort of martyr, thinking I've been unhappy all these years because public expressions of emotion on Vulcan are so frowned upon. My bond with your father makes any of the deepest expression of love a Human man can offer his wife seem pathetic in comparison. It transcends love, Spock. Love is an inadequate term to express a strong Vulcan marriage bond. Oh, I played the Ambassador's wife in public, the steps behind and heeding his demands that I attend him. But unhappy? Unfulfilled? Unloved? Know this, just because you weren't a fly on the wall in our private quarters doesn't mean my marriage was cold and sterile."
"Mother, it is improper to speak of such things..." The tips of Spock's ears had started to turn green.
Amanda, completely uncowed, smiled wickedly. "Improper? I'm your mother, and you are no longer a child. In Vulcan society it is only proper that a mother speak to a son of these things. Your father would not. Although, I'm not surprised that you would think a Vulcan marriage so cold and unfeeling after that business with T'Pring." Ignoring Spock's embarrassment, she went on. "I always knew she was utterly wrong for you, my son. Don't ask me how. I went rounds with your father on this one before the betrothal bond even took place. I think your father wanted to ensure your safety because of your dual heritage. See how well it turned out? But I knew, even if it was just a hunch."
"A hunch?"
"Yes, a hunch! Don't pretend to not understand what it means! Oh, I've read up on the exploits of the Enterprise, and I can hear James T. Kirk use that word as sure as I'm standing here. I'd wager he's brought his crew out of some sticky situations with no scientific calculations- merely just on a roll of the dice. We humans don't always use logic to dictate our actions, we use our feelings, our instincts, our emotions. I once thought you turned to Starfleet because you would never be anything but Sarek and Amanda's half-Human son, and that in Starfleet, you could just be Spock, and begin to see the virtues of both sides of your heritage. Instead, you chose to eschew all that I am, regardless of the danger I went through to bring you into being, in the interest of being the Super Vulcan."
Spock was initially stunned at his mother's indictment of his values. But then he could deny very little in terms of the veracity of what she had said. Still, he straightened to his full height, impassive once again, and said, "I must return to the bridge, Mother."
Amanda's sapphire eyes brimmed over with tears. Spock recalled his childhood, when he felt they were ports in the storm of his existence. He could endure the torment of his peers, as long as he had his mother's beautiful eyes looking on him with love.
"Your father will die if you don't assist him. I will lose the love of my life, and on Vulcan, duty to one's family is considered honorable." Amanda paced, shaking her head.
Then she turned to her son with such a fierce look that it would have probably sent a lematya running in the other direction out on the Forge.
"I've got some logic for you. If Sarek dies, your career with Starfleet is forfeit. T'Pau will pull all the proper strings and you will immediately be recalled back to Vulcan. You will then take up Sarek's seat on the Vulcan High Council as well as his duties as a Federation Ambassador. You'll probably be given a list of 'appropriate females' to choose as consort and once again be bound to a system that has already failed you. All of your duties will be to Vulcan. Your pursuit of science will be a footnote in your past."
Spock went to the wall and pressed a button, "Spock to Engineering". The cheerful voice of Scotty replied. "Mr. Scott, report to the bridge immediately. My duties at this juncture are in Sick Bay."
Amanda was stunned. Spock then turned to his mother and stroked back an errant hair that had fallen loose from her elaborate hairstyle. "Flawlessly logical, Mother."
The End