Chapter one- Mother's devotion

Summary: Spock is, at most, 32.5% human.

Spock could hear the sound of his mother's heels clicking on the floor of the healing center and estimate the speed of her motion, which fell into the category of running. Combining this information with the kinetic friction factor between the souls of her shoes and the smooth marble flooring he deducted her chances of falling flat on her face was at 72.9%.

She didn't, though, holding on to the doorpost at the last moment resort and projecting herself into the room. "Spock!" she breathed her relief, as her worried gaze fell upon her fourteen year old son scanning his beaten, yet alive form.

'My mother.' Spock transferred the information to the nurse via their touching hands, along with his apology for her unnecessary excessive behavior, 'Human' he conveyed and the nurse nodded with understanding, sending her condolences through their connection before retracting her hand and straightening up.

"I will come back with your pain medication at 19:00." she informed the youth and left the room, bowing slightly towards his mother but not looking at her, and taking quite a long detour in order to avoid a chance of random touch.

The nurse was rather rude but his mother seemed to neither notice nor care, instead she leaped forward, closing the distance between them, stretching her arms to attack him with a smothering hug.

"Mother…" he recoiled as her touch brought forth all her worrying, hurt and anger crushing into his mind.

"Oh… sorry, sweetie." She moved away and set on the chair near the bed, viewing him with concern, probably taking in the state of his blooded face. It brought tears to her eyes in 0.8 minutes which was an 11% improve in performance relating to the latest similar scenario

"I have a broken right arm, a fractured left eye socket and some minor incisions and hematomas on my face and chest, estimated time of recovery- three weeks, estimated time of release from the healing center- sixteen hours." He informed her with calm. He was relying on this information to bring her reassurance and relief but was surprised to see the opposite outcome.

"Spock, my dearest, why?" she begged him with a whimper.

The question puzzled him. Why what? Why three weeks? Why a broken arm? Why recent occurrences had resulted in injury?

He could not tell, so he kept silent and awaited her elaboration, while waiting, he glanced at her, wanting to do something so she would cease crying, her suffering and helplessness seeped into him even without the aid of touch, and it felt as if someone was crushing his heart, or choking his throat, both irrational sensations, but she had always brought the human out of him.

"Why do you let those boys get under your skin?" she finally managed to form a question that made some sense. "You are better than those bullies, you are better than… this!" she waved her hands around in mid air, seemingly indicating that he was better than his environment, that he was better than… Vulcan?

He bowed his head in frustration; will he ever manage to understand her?

"What happened this time?" she asked.

"This was their 38th attempt." He explained with a quiet voice. "Their success with evoking uncontrolled behavior out of me in their previous three attempts had led me to conclude that this was no longer done as an experiment, but as a mean of demonstrating dominance, and there was even a slight chance that they drew some enjoyment out of it, although this remains unclear. I have come to the realization that only an escalation of retaliation would ensure the conclusion of this pointless repetition."

His mother struggled to follow his line of thought, pinching the bridge of her nose and wrinkling her forehead. "So what you are saying is… you tried to beat the bullying out of the bullies?"

Now it was his struggle to understand. "Yes." He said thereafter.

"Is anyone dead?" she blurted out, smiling halfway through her desperation.

He could not help but blink.

"This was an attempted joke, my sweetheart, is there any reason for it not to be?"

"No." he hurried to reply so she could stop holding her breath.

"Darling child!" she mumbled and braced him again, this time ignoring his cringe, she drew his head to her chest, ruffled his hair and showered his bruised face with kisses. "I love you so much, you know?" she kissed the pointy edge of his ear; it was her favorite place to kiss. "My sweet, sweet boy!" Her hug became something more of a stir, and before he knew it, it was a full blown shake. "This ends here, you hear me! It ends here! No matter what it takes! I don't care if we move you out of the school, or even if we migrate to Earth, whatever it takes! Do you understand me?"

"I hope so." He answered, relived as she let him go.

"Alright." She tried to calm herself down, breathing in and out slowly. "We'll talk about it when we get back home; your father would probably…"

"Please don't!"

"Please what?"

"Please don't tell father."

His mother moved in her seat with discomfort "I don't see how we could hide your injuries from him, darling."

"The injuries no, the reasons for them however…"

"Are you asking me to lie to your father?"

"No… I am just asking you to withhold disclosure."

"Spock?"

"Humans can do this, right? Deceive and distort the truth?"

"I think I'm to be insulted."

"But the truth… the truth hurts, mother."

"What truth?"

"What those boys said, it was perfectly logical…"

"What did those boys say this time?" she was about to curse, he could tell by the twitching of her eyebrow, but she managed to gain control over that urge.

"They said that I am flawed, that I am an abomination, the embodiment of both races' shortcomings; that having me is something both you and father must have come to regret."

The humidity was accumulating again in his mother's eyes as she listened.

"I don't want father to hear this, it would only pain him, and Vulcans take pain harder than humans, I am sorry that you've heard this as well, I tried withholding but… but…you asked specifically, and I was unable to..." Spock could not help it, and to his horror he, himself, had started crying. "I've failed you, I'm worthless."

"This is not true, dearest, none of it is!"

"Mother, I have done my research, you could have only made me in a lab, since Humans have 23 chromosomes and Vulcans 31, furthermore- the genes discrepancy must have resulted in us sharing up to 32.5% of our genetic material, less than what a natural mother and son do. Your iron based blood system and my copper based one alone must have forced your undergoing of heavy medication during gestation and risk…"

"Stop is, Spock!" his mother shouted. "Stop it!"

"Risk your life." Spock insisted on finishing his argument. "Why?" he smothered his whimpering to the best of his ability, drying his runny nose on the sleeve of his healthy arm. "Why do it? If the result is just me, why bother?"

His mother drew a deep breath and smiled through her tears. "Your father and I both love you, Spock, love you beyond your current capacity of understanding. Yes, we did struggle to have you, yes, we went a great lengthen to get you, and so I did risk my life, but this is to show you the true meaning of love, sweetheart. Love makes you do irrational things, and I regret none of them, because I got to have you, and you are so very worth it."

"Am I?"

"Boundlessly so."

He had got quiet, trying to grasp his mother's words, trying to let it all sink in. At last he shook his head in defeat, he could not understand, it didn't make sense. Why would this human risk her life for someone who is less than a biological son to her? Why risk a well established life for a chance of another's, remote, almost alien to her? Try as he might, it just didn't compute.

"It is alright not to understand, Spock." She stood up smiling, guessing his deliberation.

"Understand what?"

"Mother's devotion." She answered and kisses his blood stained forehead. "You have to spend the night here, yes? I think I'll go home now, and bring you your PJs and toothbrush, and maybe something decent to eat. How about that? We can figure out how to handle the situation when I'm back, so I want you to rest now, my dear, ok? I love you."

"Thank you, mother." He answered, and his eyes tried to say more than his words.