She had been expecting Christine Chapel or even Pavel to be at her door. She had yet to say goodbye to the only two people who seemed to understand her pain. She was not expecting Spock.

"May I come in?," he asked.

She shrugged and walked over to the couch and sat. She looked at him expectantly and gestured impatiently for him to begin. "What do you want?"

He sat beside her and she stiffened. He was reaching for her hand but stopped himself. "I have come to apologize," he began and looked at her face.

"Okay, well, that got my attention," she commented, "Continue."

"I did not mean for you to hurt Nyota. I do not want you to leave. I would like for you to stay."

"Stay? And be privy to your affair with Kirk? Stay and be hurt over and over as you all disregard my pain, stay and suffer?"

Spock nearly sighed. "I am sorry Nyota. I—I am sorry about us. I am sorry about our child, I am sorry that you were in pain. Please. Let us repair the rift between us--,"

"No," Nyota moaned, "No, no, no. You do not get to do this. No. You do not get to come here, and give me some lame apology and expect me to stay. It doesn't work like that. I no longer want to be here and that's the end of it."

"I am no longer with Jim," Spock told her.

She wrinkled her brow in confusion. "But—why? I thought that was what you wanted, you know, it being destiny and all," she sneered.

"I do not feel the love the elder Spock spoke of in his lifetime with the other Jim Kirk. I--,"

"You just wanted to get your jollies off with our own Mr. Captain, break things off after you got what you wanted and you expected to come back to me, offer an apology, I'd take you back and we'd be together like nothing ever happened right?"

Spock opened his mouth and then closed it. Nyota had an insane urge to giggle. She had a knack for making Vulcans speechless. If she had been feeling less pain and heartbreak she might have been able to bring herself to even laugh.

Spock hung his head and then stared into Nyota's eyes. "Perhaps you are right. I was attracted to Jim, but I do not expect things to be the same between us. I hope they will be better."

Nyota shook her head and sighed. "If you had told me this months ago, I may have been ecstatic. Hurt and ashamed, but ecstatic nonetheless. Now, I realize that I want more to life than just being your lover, or Kirk's back up personnel."

"But you are more Nyota. Besides my mother, you are the strongest, most decent human being I have ever had the pleasure to know and I have and will always love you for it."

He gently traced fingers across her hand and she angrily pulled away. "You are not getting a free pass on this. You hurt me! You hurt me more than anyone ever has. You left me! You left me for the man I was supposed to respect and admire. I don't know if I can ever forgive you for the way you callously threw me away and disregarded my feelings. You acted as if this was MY fault."

"I understand that you have feelings of anger Nyota, but I have never blamed you."

"No, you just wanted me to stop being hurt, and act as if nothing was wrong. You acted as if I should have been grateful that the man I loved was with someone else. Well I'm sorry if I ruined your perfect little fantasy but I needed the space to heal, I needed to hurt and I needed to forgive, IF that is what I wanted, in my own time, not yours not Kirk's and certainly not elder Spock. You acted despicably Spock. You hid those emails from me! You lied! How could you do that to me! To us?,"

Spock wanted to reach out and hold her as she cried, and found himself reaching out before stopping himself.

"I would like for you to give me the opportunity to make amends Nyota," he told her and boldly placed his hand upon her shoulder.

She shook him off angrily. "Go to hell Spock," she told him between gritted teeth, "And while you're at it, take Jim with you."

Shock was plainly evident on Spock's face. "Nyota, please--," he told her and tried to reach out to her once more.

"Don't touch me! I am leaving and there is nothing that you or anyone else can do about it. Now get out!"

"Nyota,"

"Get. Out. Now!!,"

Spock stood and made his way to the door. Once the doors slid shut behind him, he was sure he could hear her crying on the other side.

********