Closure, chapter 1
"Father! Father! The wedding is tonight!"
As Spock stepped through the front door of his home near Atlanta, he was met by the sight of his daughter running down the hall to greet him, with her long dark hair swinging behind her and the thudding of the purple snow boots on her feet echoing through the house.
He swept her into his arms and settled her on his hip. "Yes, T'Myakam. I am aware of that. Your mother made it quite clear that if I did not come home early on this very special day, she would 'have my hide,' as our old friend Dr. McCoy would have said." He studied the large, puffy boots on her feet. "I know that you are very fond of your boots, but do you think that your sandals might be a better choice for tonight?"
"I do not like my sandals. They are not purple."
"We are going to the beach in July. Snow boots are unsuitable, and we purchased your sandals specifically for this event."
She frowned. "I want to wear my boots."
"You will spoil the appearance of your new dress." He put her down. "Do as I say and put on your sandals."
She crossed her arms. "I do not like those sandals! They hurt my feet."
"T'Mya."
"No!"
"Now."
She pressed her lips together in a stubborn line and glared at him until her shoulders finally slumped. "Yes, father," she said mournfully. "I will wear the sandals."
As she started dragging her feet back to her room in utter defeat, he said softly, "Very well. You may wear them. However, you must take the sandals with you and promise that you will put them on for the ceremony."
She immediately brightened and scampered back to her room, calling out "Thank you, father!" just as she vanished from his sight.
"You spoil her, Spock."
He turned to see T'Val approaching from the kitchen with an expression of amused tolerance on her face.
"Perhaps," he replied, raising two fingers in her direction, "but I assert that any father who is fortunate enough to have had a daughter at the age of 153 is entitled to indulge said daughter."
She pressed her fingers to his. "I assert that your wife was at least partly responsible so should have some say in the matter."
"Yes, certainly, but you must concede that it in this case it was the father who had the foresight to select a wife young enough to bear children for him."
Suddenly serious, she said, "Not that young. I was blessed, too, Spock. We both tend to spoil her. I know that we agreed not to raise her in the strict Vulcan fashion, but we must be careful to ensure that she is still a well-mannered and productive member of society."
He smoothed a strand of hair away from her forehead. "Ah, T'Val, she is merely four years old, and we have only agreed to let her wear snow boots to a casual beach wedding. It will not doom her to a life of crime."
T'Val looked down at her feet and took a heavy breath. "I know," she murmured. "Forgive my foolishness. Sometimes I still do not believe my good fortune at having a kind husband, a strong and handsome son, and a beautiful daughter. It has been many years since I fled Vulcan and my… situation there, but sometimes I feel as if everything we have here could simply vanish."
He put his arms around her shoulders and drew her close. "You know that I will never let that happen."
"I do." She relaxed against him for a moment, but then pulled away and walked briskly back to the kitchen. "But I do wish that we had never bought those accursed snow boots when we visited your cousin's family in Montana last January. She would sleep in them if I did not pry them off her feet at night. The only consoling factor is that eventually she will outgrow them. Now, I must finish making the salad Saavik asked us to contribute to the meal."
He followed her into the kitchen, "Speaking of our strong and handsome son, I understand that he is bringing a guest tonight."
She glanced over her shoulder as she picked up a knife and started chopping an apple. "So you have spoken to Saavik, as well?"
"Yes. She said that he will be escorting a woman that he met at Starfleet Medical, by the name of Li Song. Why have we heard nothing of her?"
She gave him a wry look. "You know that it is often the parents who find out last."
"Evidently so." Washing his hands, he said, "I understand that he is quite taken with her."
"I will be interested to find out how Saavik knows so much about it."
"It is very possible that she is embellishing reality." He remembered when Saavik was a girl and she was convinced that he should marry Nyota, or when she was older and encouraged him to be with T'Val. "She has been known to do that."
"But it is also possible that she is astutely assessing the situation. She has been known to do that, as well," replied T'Val, clearly thinking of the same examples.
"Perhaps so." He took a knife from the drawer and picked up one of the apples. Joining her at the large cutting board, he asked, "How soon must we leave?"
"I told Saavik that I would help her set up, so no later than 1500 hours." She put down the knife. "Actually, if you do not object to finishing the salad, I must count the silverware I borrowed from the neighbors so I can ensure that I return it to the proper owners."
He nodded and bent to his work as she went over to the table and started lifting forks, spoons, and knives out of boxes.
…..
Standing between Saavik and T'Val on the South Carolina beach with the setting sun slipping ever closer toward the roof of Saavik's house behind them, Spock was struck by the radiant expression on Rachel's face as she gazed upon her groom, Seamus. Rachel had white-blonde hair and rosy cheeks like her mother, and it was hard to believe that she could be descended from people as dark as Saavik and Michael. Also like her mother, Rachel had a lively and outspoken personality, to put it politely. In this respect, it was very easy to believe that she was descended from Saavik. Saavik had actually despaired of her youngest great-grandchild's ever finding a mate, but Spock had pointed out that Saavik had found a patient man in Michael, so perhaps Rachel would be able to do the same. And, of course, she had.
He slid his eyes to the left so he could see T'Val without appearing inattentive to the ceremony. Someone who did not know her well would not be able to detect the melancholy expression on her face, but it was very evident to him. Rachel had been born the year Spock and T'Val married, and because Skonn had arrived soon after that, he and Rachel had been close childhood companions. T'Val was fond of the groom and very pleased for Rachel, but this marked an important milestone in the lives of not just Rachel, but Skonn, too. Spock knew that like any mother, whether human, Vulcan, or some other race, she was struggling with the fact that her child was no longer a child.
As if on cue, T'Val's eyes drifted to the other side of the circle where Skonn stood with Li Song.
Skonn and Li Song had arrived only moments before the wedding, so neither Spock nor T'Val had been able to speak with them. In addition, Saavik had been so busy with the preparations for the wedding that he and T'Val had not been able to get any details from her, either. He sincerely hoped that he would not have to wait substantially longer to satisfy his curiosity, although as he watched, Li Song looked up at Skonn, and the expressions on their faces when their eyes met might have just provided the answer he sought. T'Val sighed softly, and he knew that she had seen it, too. She sighed again an instant later, but this time it was tinged with exasperation, and he allowed the corner of mouth to turn up when he realized that she was looking at T'Mya, who stood next to Skonn wearing the purple boots. He and T'Val had tried to get her to join them when the ceremony was ready to begin, but she had pretended that she did not see them, no doubt because she knew that they would make her remove the boots.
There was a quick smattering of applause from the crowd, and Spock returned his attention to the ceremony just in time to see Seamus kiss Rachel. The young couple turned toward their family and friends, and an instant later he heard the pop of multiple champagne bottles and other sounds of celebration.
He and T'Val joined the crowd that had gathered around the bride and groom to offer their congratulations. Rachel followed the Vulcan practice of pressing her palm to each of theirs to demonstrate familial affection, but when Skonn walked up behind them, she threw her arms around him and gave him an enthusiastic hug. He gamely returned the embrace, and Spock was amused to note the expression of surprise on Li Song's face. Skonn had possessed natural Vulcan dignity from the moment of his birth, and he had taken easily to the Vulcan mind rules and standard mode of behavior. People perceived him as Vulcan and treated him as Vulcan. However, his family knew better. Underneath his Vulcan reserve was a young man who moved easily between the Vulcan and human sides of his family. Clearly, Li Song was to see a facet of him at this event that she had never seen before.
T'Mya tugged on Rachel's skirt, so Rachel picked her up. Skonn introduced Li Song, and they exchanged a few words, but soon he and Li Song had moved away to allow someone else access to the bride and groom, and Skonn brought Li Song over to meet his parents. T'Mya remained in Rachel's arms, clearly relishing her place at the center of attention.
"Mother, Father," said Skonn. "This is Li Song. Li Song, these are my parents, Spock and T'Val."
"Greetings, Li Song," said Spock. "It is good to meet you."
"Ambassador Spock and Doctor T'Val, it's good to meet you, as well. Skonn has told me so much about you."
Resisting the urge to chide his son by saying that Skonn had told them nothing about her, Spock merely said, "Please call us Spock and T'Val. There is no need for such formality."
"I understand from Saavik that the two of you work together at Starfleet Medical," said T'Val, with emphasis on the words 'from Saavik.'
Skonn had the good grace to look slightly abashed. "Yes, mother. Li Song was recently reassigned there from the USS Constellation."
"Ah, so you are newly acquainted?"
"No, we have known one another since medical school." He exchanged a glance with Li Song and added, "We have been friends for a long time, but recently things have changed."
Li Song smiled. "Yes, they have."
"I did not deliberately keep this information from you, Mother," continued Skonn. "It is simply that I asked Saavik if I could bring a guest, and I was unable to resist the interrogation that followed."
"Quite understandable, son," said Spock.
They were interrupted by the appearance of T'Mya, who exclaimed, "It is time for the toasts, but you do not have champagne!"
"Then we shall have to remedy that, T'Mynah Bird," said Skonn. He caught the eye of someone carrying a tray of glasses filled with champagne.
"I am not a Mynah Bird," retorted T'Mya. "I tell you that every time."
"So you do," he said.
They each took a glass of champagne from the tray, then turned toward a pinging sound for the beginning of the toasts.
…..
Much later in the evening, Spock sat next to Saavik in the shadows and watched everything that was happening around them. T'Mya had fallen asleep in his lap, and he could tell that Saavik was tired, as well. She had worked very hard to organize this wedding, and it was good that she could finally relax.
She leaned close to him and pointed at Skonn and Li Song, who were standing with Rachel's first cousins Sylvia, Juanita, and Steven. The four humans in the group were laughing uproariously at something, and although Skonn didn't join them in the laughter, it was clear that he was enjoying himself as he put his arm around Li Song's waist with possessive pride.
"Skonn told me that he enrolled in two exomedicine classes last week," Saavik said. "It is quite an unexpected thing for a neurology resident to do."
"It is likely that Li Song will return to space soon, and he intends to be eligible for starship duty in that eventuality. I am concerned about the fact that he has deviated from the course he set so many years ago, and all because of a women he has only recently begun seeing."
"He has known her for a long time, Spock. The change in his plans might seem sudden, but when you have been friends as they have, sometimes it becomes clear very quickly that the relationship will last." She paused to ensure that T'Mya was still asleep. "You are hardly the person to refute this, because it happened with you and Nyota."
He nodded grudgingly. "Your point is valid. We did not know where the change in our status would take us, but we did know that it was a path worth taking. My life would have been greatly diminished if we had not endeavored to be together."
"All of our lives would have been diminished." The hint of a sad smile crossed her face. "Nyota would have enjoyed today."
"Yes, she would have. She did not have the opportunity to know any of the children in Rachel's generation, but she had a great depth of feeling for the generations before Rachel's, and she would have loved the later generations no less."
"I still miss her so much, Spock. It has been 47 years since she died, but hardly a day goes by when something does not remind me of her. Every time it happens, it hurts as if we lost her only yesterday."
"I know. I miss her, too."
Saavik gazed over at T'Val, who stood with Saavik's son Derek far down on the beach where Derek's youngest great-grandchild hopped around in the shallow water under the moonlight. "Does it ever bother T'Val that you still miss Nyota? I doubt that I would ever remarry, but if I did, I think it would be difficult for my new mate to cope with my memories of Michael."
"T'Val understands, Saavik. We are all shaped by the experiences of our pasts, and it is illogical to deny that this is true. My time with Nyota was good, and I will always hold my memory of her close. T'Val, on the other hand, still suffers from having had a cruel bondmate who gave her no choice but to flee with only the clothes on her back. However, these experiences made her who she is, and neither she nor I would have wished for it to happen any other way. And not everything in my past is good, either, such as my relationship with my father. Although he and I were eventually able to get past my joining Starfleet, we were never able to recover from his marriage to Perrin."
Saavik scowled. "It still makes me angry that she came between the two of you. I have always maintained that your father must have already been suffering from Bendii's when he married her."
"And I have never disagreed with you. At any rate, my point is that T'Val's unhappy past gave her strength to shape her future. My dysfunctional relationship with my father gave me wisdom to be a better father to my own children. And my successful marriage to Nyota gave me the foundation with which to build a successful marriage to T'Val."
"This is all just a long-winded way of saying that I should be open to the possibility of finding another mate someday."
He raised an eyebrow. "There was much more to my message than only that. But I do believe that you would be unwise to dismiss future possibilities before they have a chance to happen. Like you, I did not expect to find another person with whom I would want to share my life, but I am pleased that I did."
"So am I, Spock." She reached over and rubbed T'Mya gently on the back. "When I was a child, I wanted you and Nyota to get married and provide me with someone I could regard as a sibling."
"Nyota would have liked that, too, but it was not to be. However, I must add that she was perfectly content with the family she had. She could not have asked for a better daughter than you, Saavikam."
"And I could not have wished for a better mother." A mischievous light came into her eyes. "It is good that this is another area in which T'Val is content not to try to compete with Nyota. I am delighted to finally have siblings, but I do not think that I could have borne a new mother."
Matching her wry tone of voice, he said, "Considering that T'Val is 21 years younger than you, any attempt she might have made at 'mothering' you would have been awkward, to say the least."
"At any rate, it is good to have her as my friend. You have been fortunate to have had two good marriages in your life, Spock. Perhaps someday I will be able to say the same."
"I hope so, Saavikam. That would make me very happy."
She met his eyes in surprise at such a bluntly emotional statement, and he nodded. She transferred her hand from T'Mya's back to his arm and gave him a brief squeeze, and then they both turned back to admire their thriving and joyful family.
End chapter 1
