Nyota felt a ripple of amusement flow through Spock as she leaned over his shoulder, watching him page through Auntie Val's quiet book full of farm animals. She tried and failed to imagine what about the exquisitely rendered scenes he found funny.

"What has you on the verge of a most unVulcan-like fit of laughter," she asked, smiling a little herself.

Her husband closed the book without answering and rose to his feet. She sank into the chair he'd just vacated, blinking in confusion as he crossed the terrace again and disappeared into their bedchamber.

He returned moments later, carrying the largest of the cloth-wrapped bundles they had been slowly opening and making note of in order to send out appropriate thank-you communications. Kneeling in front of her, he placed the large box, covered in command-gold, into her lap.

"Val's gift reminded me of your first meeting with James Tiberius Kirk," he said without preamble.

Nyota scrunched up her face as she tried to figure out how a drunken brawl in an Iowan bar could be associated with Val Vancampen's beautiful artwork. All at once she saw the connection and had to choke back a laugh of her own, so as not to wake the babies.

"Farm animals!" she chortled. "Only you, k'diwa. Only you would think about that night while looking at a baby's book."

Spock merely raised an eyebrow and gestured with his chin to the box on her lap.

She shook her head, still smiling, and began searching for the seal to the gift wrap.

"Who is this one from?" she asked. Although she had her suspicions, when dealing with Spock, one was wise to make certain.

"James Tiberius Kirk."

She looked up in time to see a fleeting smirk leave his handsome face. Suspicion stopped her hands moving.

"You know what's in here, don't you?" she asked, knowing the expression she wore was guarded.

"Maintaining suspense among his friends is not among the captain's strong suits," he pointed out. "Leonard told me he has not been surprised by a single one of the surprise parties Jim has planned since their first year at the Academy."

Nyota thought about the few of their captain's surprises that truly had been surprising. She pushed the box towards Spock.

"Maybe you should open it."

Her husband smiled fully at that.

"There is nothing dangerous about this gift, beloved," he promised her. "It is meant for our daughters and has prior approval from Leonard."

She wrinkled her nose at him, but scooted the box back up her legs. Quickly finding the seal, she pulled of the cloth and set it aside for Len's quilt.

The box was filled with stacks and stacks of soft natural cloth in an array of colors. She pulled out one large pile and realized she was holding more than a dozen newborn-sized bodysuits. Spock lifted the box from her lap and she placed the pile of baby clothes in its place.

"I don't understand," she said, glancing up at her half-Vulcan curiously. "This was actually pretty thoughtful of Jim."

"Open one up," Spock ordered.

With a last suspicious glance at his carefully composed face, she complied.

And her mouth dropped open.

"Jim has assured me that there are enough jumpsuits and t-shirts, in enough sizes, to last our daughters through the time they are old enough for him to look after in our absence," he told her.

"As if we'd ever let that man babysit our babies," she retorted with a soft snort, sill staring at the little green diaper shirt.

"As a child, Jim passed a babysitting certification course."

Nyota glared at him and turned the shirt around so that the words and picture on the front was facing him.

"Yes, beloved, I know," Spock said

He reach out to touch the fuzzy brown cartoon chick sewn into the fabric beneath one line of embroidered words that read

"Uncle Jim's"

and above a line that simply said

"Magnet.

Spock lifted a face glinting with barely held-in-check humor to meet his wife's eyes.

"As he has told me you intimated on the night he met you, it would seem that Jim might harbor a romantic interest in farm animals."


A/N: Thanks to TheSouthernScribe for suggesting Kirk's gift! (See a photo manip of this gift at lj's spock_uhura comm.)

Disclaimer: I don't anything Star Trek. Onsies (Reg U.S. Pat & TM Off.) is a registered trademark of Gerber Childrenswear, and, as I know from the letters they have sent to my newspaper, they vigorously protect the name.