Two

Shanna only blinked at first two or three times. Her mind was in a loop. One third of her was terribly offended that he would think that it was okay to spring something like this on a woman. Another third of her felt so terribly about his predicament, she was starting to feel guilty for being angry and offended with him. And the last third of her just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and that led her back to being offended all over again. This made her forget to edit her words to someone who was, basically, her superior. "I have to be totally honest, but you must be nuts."

His eyebrows rose. "Have you accused me of insanity?" He was obviously affronted.

"Yeah, I guess I have. Because you have got to be crazy to think something like this is going to work."

"I do not understand. You are a human female in sudden possession of a child as am I. You can prevent Henry from being taken away from me." He looked down at his desk as if he were in his own mental loop. "I do not understand why you would accuse me of such. I only wish to keep him."

She automatically felt terribly for accusing him of insanity. "Okay, Siranon, I'm sorry I said that to you. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

He bristled then, still straight faced. "I have no feelings to hurt."

She found herself slumping in her chair and huffed out an inarticulate gust of air at that point. "I can't say anything right," she muttered as if to herself. "It has to be the exhaustion. A 4 a.m. feeding can do that to anyone."

"Please, tell me why you do not think such a situation could work? I believe it could."

She sat up again, straightening out and trying to ignore the exhaustion gnawing at her. "Point for point, and you can debate me if you want to-"

"Ah, yes, discussing logical points. This, I can do."

She sighed and continued, "Well first off, it's obvious to everyone around us that we are not dating. We've never dated. A couple of conversations at past office mixers does qualify either. I mean we've never even so much as gone out for soup and salad together," she said off the top of her head.

"What does that have to do with-"

"Human lawyers make a career out of proving sham marriages in cases like this. So you can't be single one day and then the next day show up with a human fiancé with a ring on her finger. Most Earth cultures these days don't work that way. Four or five hundred years ago the parents would have spoken and made some kind of agreement and it would have been a done deal. But well, those times are in the past for most of Earth's cultures. And as romantic as I think that is, that's just not the culture I come from at this moment in time."

He visibly frowned. "That is still the norm in Vulcan culture."

She looked at him then, deadpan. "What?"

"From a young age, we are put together by our parents and betrothed to be married. And then under most circumstances we do not see one another again for 15 to 25 years. At that time, we are reunited and ready to commence our lives as a married couple."

She was kind of shocked. "I really didn't know that." It dawned on her then, "Well then, where's your wife?"

"I do not wish to discuss that situation at the moment."

She felt a flash of anger pass through her and said not another word. She simply stood and began to leave his office.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Did he sound panicked? "I have to go. You're asking me to do something erroneous and then you have the nerve to tell me you don't want to discuss what happened with your last marriage or whatever? And you're asking me to be wife number 2?"

"She departed my company four years ago," he said quickly, simply to keep her from leaving his office.

That stopped her in her tracks as she looked back at him then, confused. "What, she died? You're a widow?"

"No. She simply did not-" and he was struggling for words. "She found another mate."

Her eyes widened as she went and quickly sat down in front of his desk, again. "Did you get cheated on?"

It still stuck in his craw, though he would never admit it. "That is the human expression."

She sighed and thought about her situation with her ex, Willem. But she had no idea Vulcans did such things! "I know the feeling," she muttered halfway embarrassed.

He looked at her then, surprised. "You were married?"

She shook her head. "No. I was engaged to be married and… well, my ex… when I found out about the other woman he was cheating with he didn't want to stay with her or anything, at least that's what he claimed. But I decided that I wasn't taking that back, and that was that." She was miles away at that point reliving the past. "That was over two years ago." She shook herself back to the present and looked back at the man across the desk and continued. "Anyhow, you can't just pop up with a human fiancé. That's just so not done in a situation like this. I mean if you wanted to be really convincing, we would have to be seen together first for a couple of weeks at least and then-"

He sat forward as he began listening to her words with rapt attention.

She realized her mistake just then. "Oh, no no no! I don't want you to think that I'm actually going to do this!"

"I still cannot ascertain why you would not do so. If I court you properly first and then we become engaged-"

"You're forgetting some pertinent facts!"

"And these facts are?"

"Siranon, do you even like me? Do you think I'm attractive? I can't marry a man that doesn't even find me tolerable in looks or personality or- I can't do that to myself. Do you know how many people are married, miserable, staying together just 'for the children'? And those people, at least, most of them started out with stars in their eyes and in love and everything. But we don't even have that to begin with! And do you how many of those people's kids all say 'they should have gotten divorced years ago'? Kids can tell when you don't really want to be together. I don't want to do that to these children! They're young and vulnerable and they deserve the best. We're strangers to one another. We can't give them the best."

"Shanna, can we not even simply attempt this? They will take him away from me." He looked in her eyes and she saw desperation and earnestness. "Please, do not allow them to remove him from my care. It has only been a month, but things have changed and I do not wish to return to how they were before he arrived in my life. If I no longer had Henry-" he didn't say one more word. He simply sat there and looked at her, stared her down, tried to convey emotions he would never admit to with only his eyes.

She found herself being affected by that look in his eyes. There was no emotion on his face, not one flicker. But his eyes… they were the eyes of a parent that desperately needed to keep their child at all costs. And she could understand his willingness to do something so ridiculous to keep his baby. "Oh dammit," she found herself whispering. She was now emotionally involved. "Dammit."

He had been around humans long enough to understand what that meant. "I shall press you no longer on the subject. Simply agree to one thing only at this time."

"That would be?"

"Allow me to come to your home or perhaps we may both meet at a neutral location with the children. I believe I have heard this referred to as a 'play date'?"

She had to suppress deep giggles. A Vulcan suggesting a play date. There was a first time for everything she supposed. She sighed as she thought about that. A play date. That was simple enough. "Okay. Two parents meeting for a play date… and that's IT."

"That is all I ask at this time. One play date with the children."

She had a feeling she was going to regret this. "Fine. One play date."