"SPOCK!" Alex screeched.
Her cousin, were he human, would have sighed. How had this happened?
Well, actually he knew exactly how it had happened. After three weeks of settling in, home study (apparently summer holidays didn't exist on Vulcan) and trips around the local cultural sites, Alex had asked if she and Spock could go 'exploring' in the mountains. It turned out that she was quite the nature girl. Her long disappearances used to be a constant worry for her parents, afraid of her being lost without medication. But she had never forgotten it or her way yet. Still, Amanda had decided against it and Alex was apprehensive of even asking Sarek. If she was honest, and she generally was, her uncle's severity made her feel strangely inhibited around him.
Of course this refusal had made her more determined in the pursuit and she had persuaded her cousin to go along chiefly to keep her out of trouble. "After all, you wouldn't want me to be going alone, would you? And you did that khas-wan thing, right? We'll be fine!"
They had not been. Within an hour of their excursion, his cousin's medication had been misplaced. Spock knew he should have insisted upon returning immediately but the exuberant human had walked on, calling "We'll be back before my next shot. You can go home if you want" behind her. He replied that he would do no such thing and trailed after her.
For a while it had been considerably more enjoyable and the two children sat on a ridge, surrounded by course grasses, watching the sun fall across the cloudless sky and the ebb and flow of the shadows over the peaks. "Man, we could do with a picnic up here! It's beautiful! Are there birds up here?" Alex rambled. Spock was still getting used to her aversion to long silences. She had leaped up with a laugh and flapped her arms making sharp cawing sounds in between giggles. "Excuse me, Alex, but what are you doing?" Spock asked, furrowing slanted brows.
"I'm an eagle! Or a phoenix? Yeah, definitely a phoenix" the girl decided.
"I would advise caution, Alex. You are drawing quite close to the edge and it looks to be rather unstable" her cousin warned.
"You've got to relax, already!" the girl yelled.
That was before the sediment beneath her feet gave way. Despite Vulcan agility, Spock was unable to reach his cousin before she disappeared out of sight. A moment of agonising silent confusion stretched before he heard Alex's cry. He scanned below the ridge to see her lying in a steep groove some 20 feet below, holding on to a seam of harder rock with trembling arms. "Spock please!" sobbed the girl "I'm slipping!". A human boy might have given in to a similar panic but Spock calmly analysed the situation. For one thing, Alex was not in as severe danger as she believed. A further fifteen feet down the slope, a shelf of rock would prevent her from falling further. For another, he could see a clear path for him to reach the shelf from his current position. He would be able to guide her down. If he could persuade her to cease panicking, that was.
"Alex, attempt to calm yourself. You will be perfectly safe if you follow my instructions. Are you injured?"
"I don't know! My leg I think…" she was beginning to hyperventilate.
"Alexandra, try to breathe gently and regularly. I will attempt to join you to guide you down. There is a shelf of rock approximately 15.1 feet below you."
"No don't! You'll fall too!"
"How else do you propose that I offer assistance? Besides, Vulcans receive extensive training in survival skills from approximately four years and six months. I will be quite safe".
"We really need to define approximately, Spock" the girl replied. Good, sarcasm suggested she was considerably calmer.
The descent was rather harder than Spock had anticipated. Several times he scraped his limbs, causing Alex no small amount of anxiety. He reached her level and began the difficult task of guiding her to the shelf. Once both of them were safely seated on the outcrop, Spock inspected his cousin's ankle and his brows furrowed again. It was twisted, swollen and covered in purpling bruises. She was also bleeding from several shallow cuts on her right limbs. "What is it?" she asked.
"You appear to have a severely sprained right ankle as well as several lacerations-" began Spock.
"God, I'm so sorry Spock! This whole thing was stupid. I'm so stupid" the girl held her face in her hands in guilty embarrassment.
"It is most illogical to apologise for being injured. And I do not believe your actions, however imprudent, to prove deficiency in intelligence."
She gave a lopsided smile and took a deep breath, attempting to get to her feet.
"I do not believe it wise to put weight on that ankle, Alex" he told her and, for once, she heeded his words.
"What are we going to do? Oh, God! My meds! My next shot's due in an hour!" she cried "I feel like I need it now. And have you seen the sky?!"
Spock had indeed noticed the beginning of the Vulcan sunset "I believe it would be unwise to move from our current position. I have brought a communicator with us but it is back at the higher ridge. I will fetch it and call my parents to appraise them of the situation. You must wait here."
Alex bit her lip and nodded. "Can you tell them I'm sorry?" she asked softly, clearly feeling that the next few moments would be some of the longest of her short life.
When Spock returned from comming his mother at the higher ridge, he assured Alex that assistance would arrive within 2.4 hours. "The sky's pretty" she stated. Spock couldn't help thinking that it was a rather strange time to appreciate nature but agreed with her.
Over the next two hours, Alex's condition worsened. She began shivering and her breath came in wheezing gasps between apologies. Spock wrapped her in his overtunic and folded an arm around her shaking shoulders as his mother had done in his infancy, his cousin's need for comfort and warmth eclipsing his own aversion to excessive physical contact. Touch telepathy with a girl in pain and a state of high anxiety was a less than pleasant sensation. By the time the small transport shuttle arrived, she was asleep.
Later that night, after Alex's medication had been administered and the healer that usually treated Amanda summoned, Spock was given a severe reprimand from both of his parents. Of course, Alex had been scolded and given the standard 'and what would we have told your parents?' lecture but it was much less than she felt she deserved, mainly owing to her weakened condition no doubt. Alex could be wilful and rebellious but she was also a girl of integrity and it hurt to hear her cousin bearing the verbal brunt of her own stupidity. "I would expect better of you, my son" Sarek began sternly.
"Uncle Sarek, please! It wasn't his fault, honest! I told him I was going to go whether he came or not and he felt he had to come with me to, you know, keep me safe 'cause he knows it round here. He was only protecting me and he saved my life up there. I'm an idiot and selfish and it was all my fault. And I hope you and Aunt Mandy won't send me away and it doesn't mean I can't come back sometime because I really like it here. It won't happen again" she finally paused for breath, looking up at the Vulcan hopefully. She had stood, despite the pain.
There was a strange, if subtle expression in Sarek's eyes. He was quite taken aback at the eloquence of his niece by marriage who had unleashed this apologetic tirade having spoken barely a sentence to him before. He was also very appreciative of her repentant defence of her cousin and, could it be, slightly amused. He didn't exactly smile but his face definitely lost some of its usual controlled tension "You need not worry about the possibility of future visits, Alexandra. You will still be most welcome. A childish lapse will not incur our permanent disapproval. We merely wish to impress upon you the seriousness of the danger you may have placed yourself in. In regard to Spock, he should have consulted either myself or Amanda and so some responsibility must fall to him. The healer will soon arrive and it would be wise to rest before she inspects your injury." Sarek inclined his head and left the sitting room.
"Well done, Alex" Amanda told her, rubbing her good arm affectionately "thankyou for being honest. It would have been easy to let Spock take the blame. "
"No it wouldn't! He's too logical!". Amanda laughed.
"You won't tell Mum and Dad will you?" Alex asked with a wince.
"Alex, I have to. You nearly broke your leg! They visit in a couple of weeks anyway but I think they'll want to come earlier now. Just to make sure you're okay. Now, get some rest."
Then the cousins were alone. They exchanged a glance. "I must leave to complete my studies, Alex, I will return to check on you later" Spock said. He didn't say thankyou. He didn't have to. Alex was becoming quite good at reading Vulcans and appreciation was in his eyes, which had been called human.