A/N: I know you're so impatiant for this chapter, even though it's not even been a full week. I hope you enjoy the continuation of this story. Thank you all who've faved and followed this story.
PLEASE REVIEW! I LIKE hearing what you have to say as it actually gives me ideas to fill the story in with. So PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, GIVE ME FOOD FOR THIS STORY!
Thank you and have a good day.-Seph
Chapter 4: It's Painful Raising Kids
On their way back to the bridge Kirk remembers that he didn't get what Dasa was trying to say, back when she had found him. Glancing down at her he smiled. She looked so happy swinging her arms as she was holding both his and Uhura's hands causing their arms to swing too.
"Dasa, what was it you were trying to say before?"
"When," she asked innocently glancing up at him.
"Back after you had found me. You started saying that I was where something… and then we got on the topic of Uhura being your new mommy. Do you remember now?"
"Oh, that," she said nodding her head knowingly. "Mommy had asked the comp-something where you were, and it was right!"
"I asked the computer," Uhura explained to Kirk.
"Right, that." Dasa said with a nod. "The Comper."
"Computer," Uhura says again.
"Compuper."
This continued for a while more with Dasa's attempts at saying 'Computer' getting weirder and weirder. When they reached the turbolift, Kirk, who was not participating in the attempts, finally told Dasa with a shake of his head chuckling softly, "Call it whatever you want."
"Ok, I will call it Compy." Dasa said with a definitive nod of her head.
Kirk found Seph to be indispensable while moving to one of the family apartments just down the hall from his previous quarters. While he and Hadassah were on the bridge, he was actually working while Hadassah was hiding from helping move, Seph spent an unknown amount of time packing his stuff, and he had a lot of random stuff he picked up from going random places and things he picked up from previous missions, and then when his day was done he and some of his senior officers would move the boxes to his new apartment, where Seph would then spend the next day unpacking it. Seph set it up this way so that everything would be organized, orderly, systematic, and they wouldn't have boxes piled up all over the apartment. As Kirk was super thankful that Seph had spent more than two weeks moving and organizing his stuff and then Hadassah's stuff when they had returned to earth after their last mission, he, with Starfleet's permission, gave his previous quarters to Seph.
The family apartment Kirk picked had a main area with a small dining area off of it that also had a door to the kitchen area in one of the walls. The kitchen was a fairly good size but still not big enough to fit a center island or even a small table in the middle. There were three rooms, a bathroom setting between two of them, and a master bedroom and bathroom in the back part of the apartment. It wasn't a huge apartment but it also wasn't a small place either, though, for just the two of them it was fairly big.
Seph had set it up like this; in the main area on the wall with the door to the hall had a holographic television set, around it were chairs and two sofas; the dining room had a table that could fit six comfortably, but could fit eight to ten with a tight squeeze; all Seph had done in the kitchen was organize it so she could find what she wanted when she went to make dinner for their "family", as she was the only one who knew how to cook anything, she did, however, pick creams and golds for the main rooms and kitchen; the first room that is on the right, once you leave the living room, was Hadassah's room this meant that she got to pick how it was decorated, what color everything was, and how it was set up, needless to say, and much to Kirk's distress, Hadassah chose to have her room in hot pink and neon purple; next on the right was the bathroom, Seph made it soft creamy-golds with deeper reds as its colors; the last room on the right was the guest room, as Seph made the case that Kirk's brother or mother may decide to visit and having them in the apartment will make it feel more like home to everyone, Seph set the room in varying shades of golds and browns; across the hall from the guest room was another room that became Kirk's office, as he had originally had it set up in one small corner of his room, in his office he had an actual filing cabinet that he has all his mission reports, various people he needs to know and/or semi keep in contact with, and other such files he needs as the captain of a fairly large ship. Last but not least, at the end of the hall was the master bedroom and bath; this room Seph let Kirk set up how he wanted, what he decided on was rich blues, reds, and golds in intricate designs around the walls and furniture, with the furniture not being metal like he had before, but rich golden toned woods. This theme of his carried over to the bathroom with the walls being red and blue, but the cabinets being golden toned and the counter tops being a darker tone. Over all it took Seph close to three weeks to get all the rooms set up nicely as both Dasa and Kirk would come in at the end of the day and move something to some random place, Seph would have them both move it back to where it had been before they had moved it. Kirk had found that even the excuse that he had captain stuff to do would not get him out of helping.
The way that Dasa's "family" was set up is like this; Jim's her dad, as he really is; Seph is her aunt, as again she really is; Uhura is her mom, because "she's pretty"; McCoy is 'Uncle Bones' cause "he's funny"; Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, and Spock, also became her uncles sometime during the past three weeks.
Dasa somehow got Kirk to agree to let her sit in the Captain's chair whenever he wasn't just to spite Spock and keep him from telling her to stop whenever he saw her in the chair.
At the moment Kirk is pacing the bridge thereby letting Dasa sit in his chair, for the moment. Spock is setting at his console working on something both Dasa and Kirk agreed was another "random project", Uhura was sitting in front of the Captain's chair playing a game of tic-tac-toe with Dasa as she hung out of the chair, and everyone else was doing their own jobs and being boring grown-ups.
The reason Kirk was pacing had to do with the call he just finished with Starfleet. According to them, Dasa needed to start school soon, as she already is five and a half years old.
"So," Kirk began, "Dasa basically needs to learn; reading, writing, math, science, history," he paused looking at McCoy who was also on the bridge as he normally like to be, "Am I missing something?"
McCoy shook his head frowning, "I don't think so."
"Ok, so who's gonna teach what?" Kirk asked.
"What can Seph teach," Uhura asked, "Because if she can't teach something then we need to find someone who can. So I ask, what can she teach?"
"Not math," Kirk said snickering.
"What?" several people asked.
Kirk decided to clarify. "Seph can only do addition, subtraction, basic multiplication and division, and fractions. The only reason Seph can do fractions is because she cooks, and that is all about fractions."
"Wait, really," McCoy jumps in, "Seph can only do basic math? How did she graduate High School?"
"Umm, Seph graduated high school because she was homeschooled." Kirk said.
"Jim," McCoy said as if explaining to a child, "you are aware that only the more 'extreme' religious groups homeschool their kids, groups like the Mormons, Jews, the likes."
"Um, Bones," Kirk asked, "you are aware that Seph is Jewish, right?"
"Seph's what?!"
"Jewish."
"What?"
"Bones, why can't you seem to get that she's Jewish?"
"Because Jews are weird and not normal and Seph can't be Jewish."
Spock steps in with a very-small-hardly-noticeable-slightly-there frown, "Excuse me Doctor, but I fail to see how her religious affiliations require such a reaction."
"Because Jews are weird and not normal and Seph can't be Jewish." McCoy states again.
"Bones, please," Kirk said with a pained voice, "can you just stop with the disbelief? Please?"
"Aunt Seph speaks Hebrew fluently," Dasa cuts in, "So why's it so hard to think she's Jewish, cause she is. So there."
"Dasa is right," Kirk continues, "Seph's first language isn't standard, it's Hebrew."
"Was she raised in Israel?" Uhura wanted to know.
"No," Kirk said shaking his head, "Thank G-"he glanced at Dasa, "-oodness," he finished, "Seph didn't have to deal with that."
"I do not understand," Spock said.
"In what was once known as the Middle East antisemitism is still known and those that follow the very old way make it their lives work to kill as many Jews as they can. In the last three hundred years, this includes WWII, The Eugenics War, and WWIII; over a billion Jews were massacred by people that hated them. This count doesn't include those that aided them, but if it did the count would be almost a trillion people dead from all races and religions. However, even with all these deaths the Jews are still not allowed on the Protected Races of Earth list."
"The What?" McCoy wanted to know.
"The Protected Races of Earth list," Uhura said, "It's a list of all the racial groups on earth that with the low population numbers they have will die out in a few hundred years, so to allow them to grow to a safe number they are registered and protected by the governments on earth."
"Ok," McCoy said still not understanding, "Why aren't the Jews on that list if they've been massacred so much?"
"I can explain that one." Kirk said raising his hand excitedly, "It's because they have weird genes." As Uhura went to interrupt him he continued, "No, no, no, let me explain. Chayah actually studied genetics in collage. Her thesis for entering the master's program was on the difference between the genetics of different races of humans, and the Jews were on her list. Chayah found that the Jewish genes are the only ones with some unusual mutations. These mutations allow them a much higher fertility rate then other humans, a near Vulcan level of intelligence, a lifespan of over a hundred-fifty, and many other stuff I didn't pay attention to as they weren't as cool as that stuff I just listed. Anyways, from what Chayah found, the less Jews there are the greater their fertility is, and they have more years they can have kids in then normal people. And that's why Jews are never put on that list for protection. They're too awesome for it!"
"Seriously Jim," Seph said having walked in just in time to hear his explanation as to why the Jews weren't on the list.
"Oh, hi Seph," Kirk said embarrassed that she had caught his very pathetic attempt at explaining what really had more to do with politics than anything else, with genetics in an attempt at deflecting the issue in a humorous way.
"I just came up here to see if Dasa wanted to help me make dinner tonight."
"Really?!" Dasa squealed with delight, "I get to help make dinner?!"
"Do you want to?" Seph asked her, "It's really hard, and you have to make a lot of things at the same time."
Dasa bounced out of the Captain's chair ran over to Seph and gave her a big hug as she yelled, "Yes, yes, yes."
Kirk laughed, "You look as happy as uncle Bones with his Hypos."
"Hypos?" Dasa asked confused before her face lit up with understanding, "Is that like a… hey Mommy what's that scientists word for teeny-tiny?"
"Macro, Micro, some others I don't know," Uhura replied waving her hand in a vague manner.
"That's it, micro," Dasa said as she tried to snap her finger like she's seen her dad do, "So a Hypo's a micro hippo, right?"
"Let me teach you how to snap your fingers before you try that, baby." Kirk said laughing.
"But Daddy," Dasa whined "I know how to snap my fingers. I just don't have grown-up hands, so that's why it doesn't make any sound. But anyway, can I have a pet Hypo, Daddy?"
"Look, darlin'," McCoy starts getting down to her level to explain something he just knew Kirk would mess up even more, "Hypo is short for Hypodermic." At Dasa's blank look he tried a different way. "You remember when you first got here how I had to give you some shots, right?" At her nod he continued, "That's a Hypo, not a tiny hippo, got it?"
Dasa pouted when he finished, "But I wanted a tiny hippo."
"Sorry baby," Kirk said still laughing, "I don't think such a thing exists."
"But," Dasa whined.
"No buts," Kirk said trying to be stern. "Now back to what we were discussing before we somehow got on to the topic of tiny hippos. Who will we get to teach Dasa for school?"
"I don't want to go to school. It's boring!"
"Baby, you need to go to school," Kirk stated to try to reason with her.
"I don't wanna, and you can't make me!"
"Dasa, you need to go to school, and that's final."
"No! I won't go to school!"
"Hadassah Elizabeth Kirk, you will go to school and you can't change that." Kirk said losing his patience.
"I won't, I won't go! You can't make me! I hate you!" Dasa yelled stomping her foot before running off the bridge in tears.
Uhura came up beside Kirk and laid a hand on his arm, noting the helpless look on his face, "Let me talk to her. I may be able to get her to change her mind." Without looking at his face she left the bridge too, leaving Kirk to feel even more helpless.
Dasa glanced up to her bedroom door as it hissed open. When she saw Uhura standing there she turned back around so that her back was to the door.
"I don't wanna go to school," she cried with a pout, "Why does Daddy hate me so much to send me somewhere that boring?"
"Oh baby," Uhura said as she sat down by Dasa, "It's not that daddy hates you, it's just that Starfleet said that if you don't have people teaching you here, that you will have to go back to earth and you won't be allowed to be on the Enterprise with us until you reach High School. And that won't be for another ten or so years."
"They said what?!" Dasa demanded aghast, "If that's how it is then I will go to school and I'll do so good that they'll let me stay forever! I don't want to leave you Mommy, or Daddy, or Uncle Bones, or Uncle Scotty, or Uncle Spock, or Uncle Sulu, or Uncle Chekov, or the Enterprise, or everyone else I know here. Please Mommy, I'll be good." She begged.
"Oh sweetie," Uhura said giving her a hug, "I know you'll be good. But we need to set up a school schedule for you to send to Starfleet so they know what you'll be learning, and if they approve it you'll be staying with us. Sound good to you?"
"Yes Mommy,"
"Ok, first off, I'll be teaching you how to read and write in standard and some other language you'll pick when you're older. Uncle Spock will teach you science and math; while Aunt Seph teaches you home-ec, which is how to cook and stuff, and history; and Daddy will teach you whatever he thinks you'll also need. Sound good to you?"
"Yep," Dasa said with a grin, "When will I start?"
"Once Starfleet agrees."
A/N: Hope you liked the tiny hippo=Hypo joke I threw in there. Next chapter- Dasa starts school!
Have a great day, and PLEASE REMEMBER TO REVIEW! Thank you.-Seph