It was a sharp gasp at his side that awoke Sarek from his light sleep. He immediately sat up, blinking away the momentary disorientation that accompanied his sudden awakening, and turned to his wife, prodding delicately at the Bond between them to see what was happening.

He received distress and pain from Amanda as he leaned over the his mate. "Adun'a, what is wrong?" he asked, kneeling beside her and touching her face softly, fingers brushing over her sweaty brow and to her temple, sending thoughts of calm and serenity to her to counteract the panic he could feel quickly rising within her.

"There's something wrong," she said, her voice strained with pain. Her hands clutched at her stomach, encircling the round form that carried their unborn child protectively. "The baby. It hurts. Kicking shouldn't hurt this much. I shouldn't be having contractions—Ah!" She cut herself off and cried out in pain again, gasping for breath, "for several months!"

Sarek calculated for a short moment, thinking quickly. As of yet, Amanda had not complained of the baby kicking. Only feeling subtle shifts. This was the point in the pregnancy when it had been predicted (given the unique blending of Human and Vulcan DNA, there would be deviations from the normalcy of either sort of pregnancy) that the baby would be developing free motor skills. Had Amanda not said that kicking shouldn't hurt this much, the thought may not have occurred to him and he would have gone to procure medical assistance immediately, but he had an idea as to what the problem was.

"Calm, Adun'a. I do not believe the baby is injured. Merely kicking. He is half Vulcan, and he may have superior strength," he said, laying his hand over her bulbous belly. Sure enough, moments later, he felt the baby's foot kick out and his hand bounced an inch away from Amanda's skin from the force. This was accompanied with another groan of pain from his wife.

"Sarek!" she gasped out, squeezing her eyes shut tightly as the baby kicked again.

Sarek smoothed Amanda's hair again, attempting to soothe his wife. He did not like seeing her in pain. He moved his hand away from her face, then, both moving to her stomach. He leaned close, spreading his fingers, opening his mind and searching the space beneath his palms for something.

It would be nothing like melding with a sentient being. The baby was not developed enough to have coherent thoughts or telepathic abilities on par with a typical Vulcan (if he ever truly did). But if he was developed enough to kick—which Sarek felt against his left hand again, with startling force, resulting in another soft sound from Amanda—then he was developed enough to be reached telepathically.

Sarek closed his eyes, concentrating, and reached out with his senses until he found was he was looking for. It was a strange presence, unlike any mind he'd ever touched before. It was hazy and in coherent. Things seemed to raise at random, then fade back again. Most of all, he sensed restlessness, which was the main cause of the kicking.

At first, he almost began to tell the child to stop, that it he was injuring his mother pointlessly and such was illogical, but then realized it would do no good, because their son had yet to develop any true thoughts, not to mention any understanding of language.

Instead he merely concentrated on thoughts of stillness and rest. He attempted to form a simplistic concept of, as Amanda would have put it, 'pulling punches' and limiting the strength the baby used.

Sarek waited, seeing if it had worked, and when a few long moments passed without any more hard kicking, he pulled away from Amanda's stomach and looked up at his wife's face.

He hands were on either side of her stomach, as if bracing herself, and she had leaned back into the pillows. She breathed heavily, as if she had just finished some sort of strenuous activity, and he exhales were shaky. Sweat glistened on her face in the dim light of the night. Sarek moved so that his face was near hers again.

"How are you, Amanda?" he asked, his hand going to push her hair away from her face again in a comforting, very human gesture that he'd picked up over the years spent with his very human wife.

"Better," she said, and gave her husband a weak smile, "just shaken up. I thought something was really wrong for a minute. Thank you, Sarek."

"Thanks are not necessary, K'diwa," he said and kissed her forehead softly, one hand traveling down again to skim gently over the surface of her belly comfortingly.

–

A/N: I've been dying to do something like this for a while. I've always wanted to do something Sarek/Amanda, and especially having to do with either her being pregnant, or when Spock's really little. Anyway, Peachly (who I'm starting an AWESOME project with, which I'm sure you'll all enjoy!) kind of off-handedly joked about Sarek melding with the tummy and being like "Stop harming your mother. It is illogical" when we were talking about how killer her pregnancy must have been. Anyway, that was quite a while ago and the idea sort of stuck with me and this came about. Hope you like it!