Thaya, chapter 3

"Excuse me. Pardon me."

Standing sideways in the aisle of the crowded shuttle, Saavik moved her duffel to her other shoulder in an attempt to quit crowding the man behind her. The duffel's sides bulged with coloring books, crayons, snacks, Thaya's favorite blanket, and many other things Dr. Creighton had insisted she needed, and she was finding it difficult to avoid bumping into things. The man behind her smiled in appreciation when she moved the duffel away from him, but she realized an instant later that she had managed to hit the woman in front of her in the back of the head. The woman turned and glared, but fortunately the crowd began moving before she could say anything.

"Thaya, please walk. It is time for us to disembark the shuttle. We are delaying the people behind us."

Thaya shuffled forward, so Saavik followed. The girl seemed to be glued to the front of her, however, and they had moved less than a meter when she stepped on Thaya's heel. The man grabbed her elbow before she fell.

"Here, let me take that." He lifted the duffel from her shoulder. "You just concentrate on steering the little girl."

Saavik nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

He chuckled. "Think nothing of it. I have two at home just about her age."

She moved in front of Thaya and took her hand, and soon they found themselves in the main terminal of the Charleston Spaceport. Thanking the man again when he returned the duffel, she began scanning the crowd for Michael. He had arrived two days ago, and although it was only yesterday that she, herself, had arrived on Earth, it had seemed to take an eternity to dispense with the formalities in San Francisco.

She looked down at Thaya, unable to keep the excitement from her voice. "You will like Michael very much. He is very fond of children, and he knows all about the beach. Perhaps you could help me look for him. He is very tall and slim, with brown skin and short brown hair, an easy smile... There! There he is!"

She stood on her toes and waved so that he would see her over the crowd, but he was already moving in her direction.

"Saavik, hello!" He pulled her into his arms for a brief, enthusiastic hug, then addressed Thaya. "And you must be Thaya. Welcome to South Carolina."

Thaya regarded him with very serious eyes.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a shell. "I found this just as I was leaving. Would you like to have it?"

She still did not respond.

He watched her for a moment, then shrugged and put it back in his pocket. "Well, there's a lot more where that came from. Maybe you'd rather find your own."

Saavik nodded her appreciation at his attempt to gain Thaya's friendship. "It is so good to see you, Michael."

Reaching for the duffel's strap, he gave her a quick kiss and transferred the duffel to his shoulder. "It's good to see you, too. I'll bet you're ready to go to the beach."

"Very much so." She took Thaya's hand, and they started walking toward the door. "It seemed that we would never get away. I had to fill out form after form and participate in far too many meetings with the child welfare authorities."

"I'm sorry that it was so difficult for you."

"It was more tedious than difficult. We are here, and that is what matters."

"Do you know how long you'll get to stay?"

"Nothing is certain, but they anticipate that they will not require our presence for at least five days. I hope that this does not conflict with your schedule."

"Not at all! I had arranged to take two weeks off. I've already used about half of that, but I might be able to stretch it a little further if there's a good reason to do so." He reached for her free hand and squeezed it. "Do you know of any good reasons?"

She tilted her head, pretending to consider it. "Perhaps."

"What about you, Thaya?" He stepped aside and allowed the two of them to precede him out the door. "Do you think that we might find enough to keep us occupied for five days or longer?"

Thaya didn't appear to hear him as she took three steps through the door and stopped. Her eyes were huge as she looked up at the expanse of crystalline blue sky that painted a long swath between the terminal and the parking garage, and Saavik realized that she had probably never seen a sky of exactly this hue before. It actually came very close to matching the color of her skin.

She steered Thaya away from the human traffic jam that had quickly begun to back up at the door.

Kneeling in front of Thaya, she also looked up at the sky, and suddenly she was taken back to a time when she, herself, had arrived on Earth for the first time. She had been ten standard years old, and she and Spock had landed at the Honolulu Spaceport the day before Mr. Sulu's wedding. She had been astounded at the colors and the scents—lush green foliage dotted with flowers so vivid they almost hurt her eyes, the tang of seawater sharp in her nostrils despite the fact that they could not see the ocean—and she distinctly remembered how the gentle Terran sun had felt on her upturned face.

She closed her eyes and inhaled, and she thought that maybe, just maybe, she could smell the seawater today like she had so long ago.

Her reverie was interrupted by the weight of a small hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Thaya reaching toward the sky, straining on her toes as if she could touch it if she only tried hard enough.

Before Saavik could respond, Michael bent down and swept the child into his arms. Thaya's eyes widened in fright at the suddenness of his action, and Saavik couldn't stop herself from taking a protective step in their direction. The next instant, however, Michael was holding Thaya at full arm's length over his head, one hand securely under her posterior and the other gripping the side of her waist, and Thaya was laughing, actually laughing, with her small, thin arms stretched up toward the sky.

Saavik felt her own mouth drop open at the carefree, joyous sounds that emanated from Thaya's mouth. Until this moment, she had not even seen Thaya smile.

She threw her own head back and looked up at the sky. The motion dizzied her, and she heard Michael's rich laugh when she had to place her hand on his shoulder to steady herself.

Michael swung Thaya down to chest level, and then transferred her to his hip so that her eyes were level with his own. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Are you ready to see the beach?" he asked.

She nodded eagerly, so he set off toward the parking area. Saavik watched them walk away, raised an eyebrow, and hurried to catch up.

...

Saavik rubbed her hair with a towel as she walked through the French doors that separated the guest bathroom from the bedroom. She paused to admire her surroundings—the high, vaulted ceiling, the antique wardrobe, the huge bed piled with pillows—but the sight that truly drew her was the ocean that glimmered in the dark outside her room.

She draped the towel over her shoulder and stepped out onto the deck. The breeze was warm enough that it did not feel uncomfortable even on her wet hair. Leaning on the railing, she looked at the ocean for several long moments, then turned so she could see the rest of the house.

Most of the lights in the house were off, but the moon was full, and she could easily distinguish the high, gabled roof, the deck that ran from one end of the house to the other across the second story, and the delicate white woodwork at the eaves that glowed against the gray shingles of the house. If she craned her neck, she could see the landscaped patio below, and the steps that marched resolutely toward the ocean only to fade in the drifting sand. This was such a large house, extravagantly, almost wastefully large, yet she did not see how it could be any different. Michael said that it had been passed through the generations, coming to his great-grandfather, then his grandmother, then his father, and that it had weathered hurricanes, undergone numerous renovations, and witnessed many joys and sorrows, the most recent sorrow being the death of Michael's mother.

Saavik glanced to her left to see the large, glassed-in room that had been added to the back of the house. Michael's mother had been an invalid for as long as he could remember, and he had been a tender sixteen years old when she had finally been unable to continue the fight. Michael's father, Lawrence, had put shutters on the windows of that room and kept it dark for many years, but just six months ago he had met another woman, one who persuaded him to throw open the shutters and allow light into the room once again. Her name was Ronnie, and while Michael found her rather flighty and flamboyant, Saavik knew that he also didn't begrudge his father his newfound happiness. Ronnie was an artist, a young, free spirit from Jamaica, and she had turned the sickroom into a studio—a place of creation rather than a place of death. Michael had expressed mixed emotions about that, but Saavik thought that it was only appropriate. If Michael's mother was anything like Michael, no doubt she would have approved, too.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

She looked to her right to see Michael emerge from the room next to hers, which she knew was his old bedroom. "I am admiring your home. I am not often given to hyperbole, but I truly do not think I have ever seen a more beautiful dwelling."

"I'm glad you like it." His hands on her shoulders, he turned her toward the beach, stepped close behind her, and wrapped his arms around her. "It's always been my favorite place in the universe."

"I can see why. I would never grow tired of this." She relaxed into the warmth of his embrace. "I am certain you are glad to be back."

"I am, but I miss Vulcan, too. I wouldn't trade my life there for a life here."

"That is not what you said the last time I talked to you about it."

"I was having a bad week, and I was blowing off steam. I was so mad at Zach that I didn't know whether to kick him in the ass or leave. I settled for kicking him in the ass. I felt a lot better after that."

She turned in his arms, shocked that he would treat his lifelong friend that way. "Michael! You kicked Zachary? In the posterior?"

"No, no, I'm speaking figuratively. But we did have it out. It took me two weeks to put the apartment back together. I wouldn't have thought he'd find enough rowdy people on Vulcan to have a party like that, but he managed."

"It was rather inconsiderate of him to leave your apartment in that condition."

"Yes, it was. Even worse is that he had the party while I was at work. I missed the whole thing." He turned her back toward the ocean. "What did you ever see in him, anyway?"

"He was an attentive suitor, and quite handsome, too. In addition, he was very accomplished at kissing, and—"

"Okay, okay. I get it."

"Ah, but you do not know the best part yet." She leaned back in his arms. "He introduced me to you."

"Hmmmm. I guess he did, at that." He tugged the collar of her robe away from her neck. "Where's the kid?" he murmured as he pressed his lips to her bare shoulder.

"She is in your brother's room, in bed. I did not think that she would go to sleep so easily, but she was exhausted."

"I know. The sun and the sand can really drain you."

"Yes." Closing her eyes, she leaned her head to the side. "It gives me an odd, lethargic sensation. I find that I rather like it."

"I know what you mean."

Even though his arms were strong across her breasts, she began to feel too limp to remain standing much longer. She twisted around and tilted her face up to his in invitation. He obliged by gently brushing his lips against her own, and then engaging her in a deep, searching kiss.

"I've missed you so much," he whispered.

She pressed the length of her body against his. "And I, you. I thought that this moment would never come."

He didn't reply in words, instead allowing the increasing vigor of his caresses to express his pleasure at finally being close to her. The ocean murmured in the background, but she could hardly hear it for the blood rushing through her ears. Finally, she pulled away and took his hand.

"Come with me," she said.

They walked through the door to her bedroom, and she led him to the huge bed in the middle of the room. She knew that the belt to her robe had loosened, and she was satisfied to see his eyes darken when she reclined on the bed and propped herself up on her elbows.

He knelt next to her and carefully untied her belt without opening the robe any further, and then he slowly ran his fingertips down the gap in the front. He made no attempt to push the robe away or to increase the pressure of his fingers, instead simply studying her face as he brought his fingers dangerously close to all the places he knew she really wanted him to touch. Finally, she decided to put an end to his teasing. Gripping his shoulders, she pushed him onto his back and straddled him with one smooth motion.

He chuckled. "In a hurry? I've heard about aggressive women like you, women who have their way with—"

She silenced him by bending down and kissing him. Her damp hair hung like a curtain around their faces, and she nipped his lip when he attempted to speak again.

"There will be time for talking later," she said.

He wrapped his arms securely around her and rolled her onto her back. "Believe me," he said, "talking is not what I have in mind right now."

"Good." She fumbled with his shirt until it fell open. "I know of a much more effective form of communication."

"So do I."

She threw her head back when he kissed his way across her jaw to her neck. The robe was still wrapped loosely around her, and she kicked her leg free so she could twine it around his. She arched her back, enjoying the sensation of his lips on her bare shoulder, and...

He stiffened, and she opened her eyes to see that he was looking at the doorway.

"Uh, hello," he said.

Saavik pushed him away as she hastily closed the robe. "Thaya," she gasped. "Why are you up? You are supposed to be asleep. Go back to bed."

Thaya wrapped her arms tighter around the ever-present stuffed animal, and Saavik could see the tears begin to well up in her eyes.

Saavik tried again. "If you return to your bedroom, I will be there soon to check on you."

Thaya's lip trembled, and she somehow managed to make herself look even smaller.

"Aw, that's okay." Michael clambered awkwardly off the bed. "It's scary to be in a new place."

"I am sorry, Michael. She slept with me in my quarters. I had hoped that she might sleep alone tonight."

He silenced her with a wave of his hand. "Don't worry about it. We'll just, er, say hello to each other some other time."

"Very well. Come along, Thaya. Help me turn back the covers."

Saavik sighed in frustration and met Michael's eyes when the child scampered to the bed. He grimaced and tugged on his pants as if they were too tight.

"I believe I'll just go take a shower now. A cold shower. See you in the morning, ladies."

"Good night, Michael." Saavik watched him leave before facing the girl. "Thaya, we will do this tonight, but tomorrow you must sleep in your own room."

The girl climbed under the covers and waited expectantly, so Saavik reached for the bedside light with the intention of turning it off. She halted at the last moment, however, surprised by what she saw on the nightstand.

"Ah, Michael? Michael!" she called out.

He reappeared in the doorway. "What is it?"

His expression indicated that he hoped she had beckoned him back with the intent of asking him to stay with her, but she held up her universal translator instead.

"It was off," she said. "I turned it off and placed it on the nightstand before I took my shower, and I had not turned it back on."

At first he did not react, but after a moment comprehension dawned across his face. "She understood us."

"That is correct."

"Huh." He studied Thaya, who returned his appraisal from her warm spot beneath the covers. "So, little girl, you know Standard. Very interesting."

"Very interesting, indeed," agreed Saavik.

"Well, then, goodnight."

"Goodnight, Michael."

Saavik listened to him walk away and turned out the lights. As she made herself comfortable in the bed, she wondered how someone as tired as she had been only twenty minutes ago would have difficulty sleeping tonight. For she knew without a doubt that it would take her a very long time to fall asleep, indeed.

End chapter 3