Chapter Two- Making Connections
Amanda came to in a brief panic, the last thing she remembered was Sarek looking down at her with eyes that seemed to show a whole new world within them. And then? She took a moment to become familiar with her surroundings, she was back in the dressing room. How did she get here and more importantly, what had happened?
She felt a cool cloth brush against her head, hearing the faint stir of an oxygen ventilator which sat humming on the table beside her.
"Hush," A feminine voice softly informed her," You fainted."
Amanda opened her eyes slowly. She was on the chaise where the robes she had been wearing had once laid, but her robe was gone and only her simple, light shift remained. Beside her sat the young priestess, surveying her for any unforeseen side effects. Her small translator had evidently been lost between her fainting and arrival here in the dressing room, but standing by her side stood T'Plilar, ever diligent in her role as the family translator.
The offer of a cup of water was quickly accepted and she drank it just as rapidly, the cool liquid going down far too fast. She had not realized how thirsty she was until that moment and downed a second one in quick succession, and setting her on a coughing fit.
"You should drink more slowly, Amanda," T'Pliliar took the cup from her hands.
"Tres manu'k disam arite nesu, " The priestess turned to her husband's niece appraising her of her findings.
"It appears to have only been the heat and the thin air here in Hav'Duc'et Norem that caused you to lose consciousness. You needed to have your tri-ox pills upgraded to a higher dosage for this altitude in the mountains. T'Sunu does not believe that bonding itself has caused you any ill effect."
Amanda settled back into the pillows somewhat relieved, "Did it work? The bonding I mean?"
There was a moment when the two Vulcan women exchanged a few brief words before T'Plilar translated, "There is no way to know for sure. Only Sarek himself will be able to confirm if and how well it took in time. T'Sunu says that she done all she can."
The young priestess looked at her for a few long moments, with a gentle, calming glance, before tuning to leave.
"Cha'alat Amanda, I am honored to have assisted you and the Xcha'ala'at," she spoke now in heavily accented Earth Standard, and Amanda smiled, nodding in response.
"I am honored by your help, T'Sunu."
"I will… advise… Xcha'ala'at Sarek of my …appraisal. May you have Peace and Long Life," With that the young priestess moved to leave the room.
T'Plilar joined her at the door, "I will send my uncle to you as soon as he has finished speaking to T'Sunu. I am sure that you are wanting to see him, a meeting that I believe is mutual."
Amanda imagined a smile in that voice. The young Vulcan was an easy read, at least to Amanda as she had many of her uncle's mannerism. She smiled back in return, "Please."
The door was left open as T'Pliliar left and Amanda could hear the whisper of voices in the hallway, easily picking out the unique texture of her husband's voice as he drew closer. The conversation was not long, and although she cursed the loss of the translator, it was doubtful she would have picked up much of the conversation, the tones were so low.
Finally, Sarek entered the room, the heavy ceremonial robes now shed as well. He was back to being her husband, nothing more, nothing less. Carefully, he secured the door behind him, diligently maintaining their privacy.
"T'Sunu tells me that you will be alright. I feared that the bonding may have had an ill effect when you fainted."
"No, it seems it was only the thin air that got to me," She smiled, reaching for the pitcher of water but he caught it first, pouring another glass and putting it to her lips. She allowed her hands to cup his as he offered her the drink.
"You need to stay hydrated, always. The ceremony was too long, and too stressful for you. I should have expected this," He shook his head slightly, in disapproval of his own actions in holding the meld too long, "It was important that we do our best to try to create the bond, but it was at the possible expense of your health. For this, I ask forgiveness."
"It needed to be done, didn't it? And I wanted the best attempt that could be made. But it's over with now. We are official?" She questioned him as he bent to place the cup back on the small table.
"We are."
"So I am no longer Cha'ala but now…."
"Cha'alat. My bondmate and wife."
"That sounds nice," She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself up to face him, and kissed him, a long and tender kiss filled with promise, "I can't wait to get you home."
"Indeed. However, it is common first to share a meal with family and witnesses before we depart for home."
Amanda let out a small groan, eliciting a set of raised brows on her husband's part, "Well, this will be a first, dining with your family. I guess I can wait a little longer to get you alone."
He took her hand and fashioned her fingers, leaving the index and middle standing, and mimicking it with his own, touched hers.
"That's interesting, it never felt quite like that before," she said, feeling a slight current.
"We are bonded now, so you should feel a reminder of it in this touch. This is now the acceptable means of showing what is permitted in terms of affection."
"It's not bad but still I prefer this way of showing affection," she held him tight against her, diving into another long and satisfying kiss, "Do you think we can find that translator so I can understand some of what is being said about me before this dinner?"
Sarek pulled the small device from his tunic pocket and deftly clipped it within the braids of her hair.
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It had been a very long day by the time they returned to the house in ShiKahr. Amanda had enough of ceremony and formalities to last several weeks. All she wanted now was to rinse away the dust of the day and get into something comfortable.
Once the idea of a water shower being a luxury would have seemed silly to Amanda. It was a fact of life, you took a shower, you used water. But here, even knowing that the water she used would be recycled for the fountains and then as water for the plants, it still seemed a waste, so usually she went for the sonics. But tonight, tonight she wanted nothing more than to feel the cool water beating against her skin, running through her hair, washing all the hidden bits of sand and dust that today, more than ever, seemed to find purchase in every possible hiding space.
That she had such a shower was a treat, as was this room that she considered her 'retreat', the place that she could escape the mid-day heat, the air temperature adjusted to Earth-tolerable, with just a hint of extra oxygen thrown in. But the only time she slept there was if she needed to nap and get away from the extremes of the day. The bed was more often used as a resting spot for wardrobe choices on what to wear than for sleeping.
Wrapping a towel around her still wet hair, she opened the pocket doors to the adjoining room. Technically she supposed that this was her husband's bedroom, but in fact it was truly both of theirs.
As Amanda plopped herself down on the bed, Her husband looked up from the pad he had been reading.
"I thought 'No pads in bed!' ", she teased before craning her neck to see what he was so absorbed in, "Anything interesting?"
"There are minor riots on some of Earth's outer colonies by a growing fundamentalist group that appear to be somewhat troublesome."
"Any one I know?"
His raised his brows and looked at her, she imagined an equal amount of mischief in those deceptively dark eyes of his, "I would hope not."
"Which colonies?"
"Delta Five and Alpha Centauri."
"Last I heard my mother was doing some work on one of the Alpha Centauri moons." It was a long time since she had heard anything from her mother, but still, "I hope she's okay."
"I will see if Ambassador McHenry can find out any information regarding her whereabouts."
"Thank you," She settled in beside him, making herself more comfortable, "Speaking of families, I still don't understand all the ins and outs of yours!"
"Household dynamics can be complicated. You have questions?"
"Yes, let me try and figure this out. How far back can you go?"
He looked at her, "I can follow least 200 generations with ease. After that, it becomes a bit more complex. But I do not think you wish to go back that far."
"I'd say that's way too far back for me. Let's start with your grandfather, Solkar," she nodded to herself, "Start with someone I know."
Amanda dropped her head to his shoulder, setting her brow as she started to follow the line,"He has a sister?"
"Half-sister, yes. T'Pau. The shared a mother, T'Pular."
"Now Solkar holds the seat for Seven Winds."
"Yes, Duc'et Norem."
"And T'Pau, she has some sort of seat as well?"
Sarek nodded in agreement, "Unali'a' Ka. This was through her father's line."
"Unali? That's the carnivorous plant, isn't it? Not a very pleasant name, I would think," She had settled in, nestling herself on his bare shoulder, "These house names are certainly colorful, aren't they?'
"They are tens of thousands of your years old, My Wife. This plant is very common in the Dre Da Shar where that tribal seat is located."
"So the tribal names can be quite a bit more…interesting because they are all Pre-Reform?
"Indeed."
"If they were modern Vulcan, I suppose that they would be latitude and longitude."
Sarek gave her a subtle look of disapproval.
She ignored it, "But okay, got that. Any cousins there?"
"No, her only child is deceased."
"So, I don't have to worry about that line any further," She continued without skipping a beat, "And Solkar married-"
"Na-se-reen of the Sa Sai Eier. She is from one of the High Houses along the Western Coast, Sa Sai Eier, Sun's Fall."
"Is that where you get those hazel green eyes and wavy hair?"
He sighed and nodded in response, no was no use denying.
"How many children did they have?"
"Three. My father, Skon, my aunt, Nus-sca-si, and my uncle, Sunralk."
"I know that your father died about twenty years ago. How about your aunt and uncle are they still alive?"
"My aunt lives as a member of their mother's High House on the coast. My uncle retreated to Gol many years ago."
"Gawl?"
"You might say it is is like one of your cloistered religious orders, devoted to the study of the mind and logic. They renounce all worldly goods and emotional connections. My grandfather would tell you that there is always one in every family."
"The black sheep?"
"Black sheep?"
"Odd one out. Never mind, right now I am trying to get this all down pat," She gave him a light peck on his cheek, causing him to turn to her with a raised brow, "And your mother she is from?"
"Her tribal house is on the other side of the Sas A Shar, Lmal Shar, Red Sands. As she resides in ShiKahr, she frequently holds that chair for her house in council meetings, though technically it is her sister's."
"Then it's just you and your sister, TPrala. No one else that I don't know about? No other black sheep hiding in Gawl?"
"Gol, and I have a second sister who you have not met. She resides in the Hav'Gior Devol in the Northern Forests."
"And her name is?"
"T'Panoa."
"Married? Any children?"
"Her husband is Zohol and she has two sons, Zheron and Zhinai."
"Now I know T'Prala, and is married to Stahl and T'Plilar is their daughter. What is he in the grand scheme of things?"
"He is a member of one of the minor houses of Unali'a' Ka."
"No big important family connections? What happened there?"
"That was to have been me that had the politically advantageous marriage," He sighed and brushed his thumb softly against her chin.
"Oh," Amanda bit her lip and looked over at her husband, "we sort of screwed things up, didn't we?"
"indeed, we did."
"Well, I guess we had better make something of it then."
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Did she expect that some sort of change in their lovemaking to occur as a result of the bonding? If so, she was wrong, as all went on as before. There was no great sensory overload, no dramatic explosions of minds, no new and different conclusions now that they were bonded. But truth be told there was no real disappointment in that finding, sex was exciting and enticing enough as it had always been.
But she felt more… secure. Yes, that would be the word. Secure in his feelings for her, secure in knowing that they were both totally adequate for one another's needs. Secure that they would both be there for one another. Still, she felt the need to voice the questions.
"I thought things might change after the bonding? Some great merging of minds…"
"What is the physical is physical. What is mental is mental. The two are not mutually inclusive in an intimate relationship. There is only one time when a bond is used in correlation to such activities. "
"And I suppose that you don't want to talk about this?"
"Amanda, my wife, I would say this, that it will be soon enough that such talk will be useless. I fear the time will be upon me before either of us know it," He let out a deep sigh, as if finally tired of protesting, "It may be best to ask what you may now "
"So will I know when it is time? How will I know?"
"If I am short with you. If I seem to be more … emotional," It almost pained him to say the words, "If I seem to be less in control, you will know that it is time."
Amanda watched him closely, although it seemed that he dared not look at her, but instead sought to focus on the ceiling high above them. She reached out and let her fingers tenderly brush through the dark waves of his hair. He always seemed so powerful, so much a dominating force of nature, always aware and in control. It hurt her just to hear the doubt and discomfort she felt in the edges of his voice, for there surely was a shadow of pain hidden. She could hear it linger in the margins of his well-modulated tones, the velvet of his voice giving way to an almost undetectable hoarseness that lingered after his words were spoken. Maybe it was the bond that made it all the more obvious to her, or maybe as he implied, it was just the dreaded time moving closer.
She swung her leg over his waist and raised herself, straddling him, forcing him to look at her.
"I promise I will be there for you," She took his hand and placed it along her forehead, "You can feel that now, just as I can feel your love, even if you won't use the word."
"They do seem inadequate, these words of yours."
"Then how about this," she bent down and left a trail of kisses across his furrowed brow, down his glorious nose, resting long upon his lips. When he allowed her to finally pull away, she pulled herself back up to a sitting position.
"I believe that it is a sin to think that those lips of yours were not made just so that I could kiss them."
And with that she proceeded to make best on her implied threat.
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Author's Notes: On Canon: This seems as good a place any any to reiterate what I consider canon, because it's pretty narrow. For me, canon is aired TOS, and the TOS movies except for V (Roddenberry and Fontana did not consider V to be canon, why should I?). I do not consider any subsequent series (and this means you, TNG) to be canon. There is no nasty P-woman in my universe, no Bendii Syndrome. (See my story The End of All Things, if you have not yet read it.) I do not consider pro novels to be canon, they all contradict one another anyway. And, needless to say, I do not consider fanon to be canon, though I may at some point incorporate some ideas such as bonding/bondsmate into my universe. This leaves a whole lot of room for My HeadCanon. And be prepared to receive quite a bit of it along the way of these next two stories. I will try to explain things as part of the telling, but if any of you, my dear readers, find anything confusing, I ask you to please let me know. As always, it is my deepest hope that you will enjoy!