A/N: Well, it looks like Best Served Cold and Second Servings had been quite interesting to people, mainly because of the lurking possibility of sequel with Journey to Babel remix in it. I know - remixes are good and fun and you can never have enough of them (*makes a note to herself to really start working on those remixes she wanted to write*). So, this is the so-not-promised sequel. With sugar Babel on it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just this particular AU and the OCs in it, as well as all the mistakes I did in this, are all mine.


Second Chances

Wow.

S'tark had been on many ships during his life, small ones, bigger ones, boring ones, interesting ones... He had been on space stations, too, and all that jazz but Enterprise had been just one big WOW.

We used to call the ship 'she' and 'our silver lady', back when I was still her Captain.

Do you miss Captaining? Or your crew?

Sometimes. But the last few days of my life as Captain had been so painful, that even if I were to become a Captain again, I would prefer to get assigned another ship, and completely different crew. Maybe the new crew, and new ship would not be so good, but I think it would only be my gain, to get not-full-of-geniuses crew.

Why?

That, my dear S'tark, is story for another time.

Mooooooom...!

Sometimes, being the only son - even if not by blood - of an Ambassador paid off. You got to travel all around the known space, meet soooo many new people, get some friends, get some enemies and lots of stuff you wouldn't be able to get otherwise. And now, he may be lucky enough to speak with his biological father. If that wasn't cool, he didn't know what is.

As he jumped out of their shuttle and turned back to help mom exit it, he could feel curious stares at his back. Well, the pointy ears and blue eyes didn't match what people thought of Vulcans (or more precisely speaking 'not-full Vulcans'), especially when they saw him next to his parents (human and Romulan), but these stares had been different, since the eyes belonged to people who thought his mother unfaithful whore (he didn't get to hear that from mom - but uncle Sam, or uncle Sam T. told him quite a lot of the time not so long after his birth). And as he saw mom obviously trying to remain serious (while she probably wanted nothing but to stick her tongue at them), he held his hand to her and looked back, giving the on-lookers wide smile, enjoying hearing mom chuckle at his antics, and some of the tension he could sense in her relaxed.

And ooooh, that Vulcan (well, half-Vulcan) over there must be Spock. His biological father. He had to nearly stomp on his excitement – his mother's voice, telling him 'hold your horses, young man' ringing clearly in his ears. But really – how are you supposed to be all detached when you have just met your biological father for the very first time. He just hoped that his father will be, well, less Darth Vader-ish than Darth Vader. He sure could live without his hand being cut off, just so he could hear "I'm your father!" (Not to mention he should probably cut down the time he spent by watching Star Wars).

His father's voice interrupted his musings. "Captain Spock. Doctor McCoy. Mr Scott," he said; his voice neutral. The Captain nodded his greetings and after some babble about how Romulus honours them with Ambassadors presence and blah blah blah, S'tark zoned half of it out, until he felt slight pressure on his shoulder. Mom noticed him zoning out and laid her hand on his shoulder to wake him up from his thoughts, bless her for paying close attention. It would be damn embarrassing to be caught not paying attention.

"I see you take good care of the ship, Mr Scott," mom said. "She looks brand new still, although she has quite some time under her belt."

"That she does, ma'am," puffed the man proudly. "And she is performing at 100% efficiency!"

"Then I hope the replicators are at top working order as well," intoned father, making the engineer squirm uncomfortably, before he mumbled "yessir".

"And Doctor McCoy," she turned towards her former friend, S'tark noticed the flinch at the word 'doctor', "from what information that reached my ears, you still wield your hypospray like a weapon against all illnesses. I hope no one will need your expertise during this journey, even if it's sight to behold to see you in action."

"You and me both, ma'am," mumbled the man, looking everywhere but the woman who spoke to him.

Spock himself had been watching the whole exchange without batting an eyelash."May I offer you a tour over the Enterprise? Or would you prefer to be taken to your quarters?"

"Can we take the tour?" S'tark asked excitedly, looking up at his father, who gave him a small smile. "If it wouldn't be any trouble, Captain, we would be happy to take you up on your offer," said mother.

"Cool!" jumped S'tark. It was unfitting and not cool to make such spectacle out of himself, he knew, but hey, not every day you get the three highest officers of a flagship intent on giving you a tour over their ship. And it was marvellous – Captain led them around the observation docks, showed them where the functions will take place, they were even allowed to take a short look in the engineering!

This will be such a cool journey, he decided. It just didn't occur him to be careful what he wishes for.