USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Bridge

The face on the main viewscreen lifted an eyebrow again and then lowered. "Under those conditions then, I ask permission to come aboard. I believe you have something of mine."

The communication had ended shortly afterwards. The Spock on the screen shifted his eyes to his younger self, and for a second, stayed there.

Those eyes hadn't changed physically. The Spock standing here on the Enterprise bridge saw them every day in his mirror. His older self's had a few lines along with those on his face, but only a few, with the hair still dark and the body still lean as well.

No, those eyes weren't different. Physically.

The nonphysical: peace. Serenity. Balance. McCoy once used a phrase, 'comfortable in your own skin'. That older Spock was comfortable in his own skin. Together with the children, a wife that had at least a strong relationship with the twins and Setik, and now this new tally mark that scored against who Spock was now.

In one second, he had to reassess everything about himself at the hands of his own, older self.

The channel closed there.

"Mr. Spock," Chekov interrupted the quiet, "do you think that's really you?"

"It is the initial theory," he answered in his usual composed manner. He had accomplished this at least, he reminded himself. "We will make certain of it when he comes on board."

Kirk looked up at him. "Captain Spock asked for a moment before he beams over."

Ah, yes. My counterpart was in his own captain's chair. That hadn't made as much an impact as seeing—what Spock never thought to accomplish. It would be Jim's first priority, however.

Kirk mulled over the other Spock's request for a minute before he began asking for reports. "Mr. Spock, you ran that check?"

"Yes, Captain. I completed the search on the physical description given by the people we rescued. Seventy-seven crewmembers met the criteria, all have been accounted for as being on the Enterprise and fulfilling their duties. That is both for today and since joining the crew. I also confirmed a total personnel number. This person is not one of us."

"That confirms what we thought. Mr. Sulu, has the other ship tried leaving again?"

The helmsman spun around rather than answer over his shoulder. "No, sir, only the two times. They're back below us again, matching our course and speed. We still don't know why Captain Spock went to leave just to immediately come back. If it's because the three people are here, then why go at all?"

The captain looked back to the viewscreen. "Hopefully, if that is Spock over there, he can give us answers. At least the ones that are safe for us to know. Uhura, coordinate with them for Sulu and Chekov to drop out of warp when Captain Spock is ready to beam over."

Interesting, this Spock noted, how each person emphasizes the captain title.

"Aye, Captain. Sir, the delegates were complaining about the delay, but they've stopped. I don't know why."

He smiled at her. "Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth. Anything else?"

Chekov turned in his seat. "I coordinated vith the transporter chiefs and Mr. Scot. Ve confirmed vith Mr. Spock's scans: all members of the landing party returned vith no additional personnel."

"Good. That eliminates that at least."

Spock asked the navigator, "Have you confirmed no other transporter activity has happened?"

"Yes, Mr. Spock-"

Now they emphasize the mister.

"- all transporter stations report negative on other people coming on board."

Exactly as they had thought. It did leave one more possibility. "Mr. Chekov, they will have to lower their shields when their captain beams over. Monitor our own stations to ensure this other person does not take advantage of the situation."

Their captain. I am no better than anyone else with the prominence I place on it.

Their married captain with three children and in harmony with himself.

Kirk thought out loud, "It could be what he's waiting for. If it is, we'll get him, especially with the other ship monitoring as well. One of us is going to see him if he tries it."

"Sir?" Lieutenant Uhura again. "Can we ask about the three people we have on board? Are they all right?"

Kirk blinked. He most likely remembered that the conversations between the landing parties and him would be played out loud on bridge, to keep Sulu – who had the conn – and the others informed in case of necessary action: standard procedure.

So they knew that the three people were not only here, but children. Like good officers, they kept it to themselves.

They had probably pieced together what Kirk said about the three children asking for Spock along with his you have something of mine.

So Kirk smiled over the concern and answered honestly. "Yes, they are. McCoy's taking good care of them."

Sulu gave Spock a near apologetic look. "If you don't mind me asking, are they yours, sir?"

"Clearly, they are not since, as everyone here well knows, I have no children. As for the possibility of their being that male's," Spock bobbed his head down in the direction of the Contact, "we would need to know he is me at a later point of my life."

Chekov looked at his mentor. "I didn't know you vanted a keptaincy, Mr. Spock."

"Neither did I, Mr. Chekov."

The question and his answer earned him a lot of looks from startled to measuring, but he couldn't tell any of them what he didn't know himself, how someday he would desire to command a starship as well as being the father he saw reflected in the children's eyes.

"Sir?" Sulu addressed Kirk, bringing everyone else's eyes off of Spock. Thankfully. The helmsman's tone matched his expression of stoic acceptance. "We can't help them much, can we?"

"No, we can't. The truth is, if I had known who they were before we found the children, I wouldn't have beamed them over."

"Keptin!"

Kirk gave the twenty-two-year-old Chekov a near avuncular look that turned firm. "This ship recently learned that anything can destroy time. You can do something that's good, but it ends up ruining the future of billions of people. It can be hell to put things back the way it has to be."

The entire bridge crew looked startled, because they didn't know the details of what happened to Kirk on that mission with the Guardian, but Spock did. His captain's sharp tone came from it, from what he had to do to her: Edith Keeler.

The captain nodded his chin at the viewscreen, even though the Contact wasn't in sight. "They know it too or they wouldn't do something so small as to drop below us. The good news is," he managed a smile, "no harm seems to be done taking our new… passengers on board. Now we get them back to their Spock and hopefully watch his ship be able to go home."

Kirk clapped his hands on the end of the chair's arms. "Let's use the time to update our guests on what's going on."

Spock noticed the careful way he lifted himself up from the seat because of the wound in his back. He really should still be in Sickbay for that extra day, but he was fit to command and the emergency had reached a level where the Enterprise benefited from her captain.

They went into the turbolift where Kirk gave the order for Sickbay. He stared at his first officer and Spock waited, knowing his captain wouldn't stay quiet for long.

He didn't. A ride in the lift didn't give much time. "I can't imagine what it'd be like to see myself older. I wonder what I'm like, how much I've changed."

Spock gave it thought. "There would be the level that comes from experience. However, I suspect you would be much the same."

A smile. "I'm not capable of change?"

"On the contrary. Yet, you know who you are and what you want from your life. Therefore, I believe you would find your future holds the essential James T. Kirk with experiences giving you additional wisdom."

"You don't see that in your future self?"

"I see that… and more."

The door snapped open. Kirk stepped out first and used himself to block Spock.

"If you ever do reach a point where you want your own ship-"

"Sir, I have no desire to become a captain."

Another smile. "Things change. You're not disloyal if that ends up being what you want. I had friends come with me from my first command to the Enterprise."

Something flashed across Kirk's face. The people who had followed him met bad ends. Gary Mitchell being first, Spock thought. Kirk's best friend whom he had to kill when the man became affected by energies from the galactic barrier. Then Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney faked his death and had tried to frame Kirk for it.

"But," he continued, "other friends asked me to go with them to their commands over the years. But I saw my own captain stripes in my future, so I didn't go with anyone else. I didn't stay with my captains either, even if Captain Garravik had lived. I always left to move up the ladder."

"That didn't mean I was disloyal, Spock, and you won't be either if you go. After all, we've known since the kids got here that you leave the Enterprise for the Contact at least."

"No, Captain," Spock declared, "I did not know it as a definite fact. I thought it might be a temporary assignment."

"True." Kirk grinned as he encouraged him, "My point is, my ego can take it if you move on. Now let's get to Sickbay. I don't want to hold up the other you once he's ready."

"Jim!" McCoy pounced on them the second they walked into the ward. He took hold of Kirk by the shoulders and maneuvered him to stand in front of the window screen. "About time. I need you to stand here."

"Bones, what is this? We don't have time for games."

"Just give me a second. It'll be worth it. Spock, you stand there." He pointed to a spot between the foot of the first and second medical beds. "The faster you do, the faster you get on to whatever. Okay. Let me just backup here so I have the perfect view of both your faces. Good."

He gestured to Setik who obediently moved to stand in front of him at the end of Sarek's bed. McCoy dropped his hands on the child's shoulders. Spock couldn't believe how quickly that rapport had built.

He should have taken that as a warning.

"Okay, boy, tell Captain Kirk and especially Mr. Spock what you just told me."

Setik did. "I am going to be a Starfleet doctor. I have begun what training I can for my age."

McCoy's arms flew up in victory. "Did you hear that?!" he crowed. "Jim, did you hear that?! A Starfleet doctor!"

Spock put on his best 'just another McCoy moment to be borne' expression as he envisioned being tortured with this the rest of his life. My son chooses McCoy to emulate.

Had he just thought my son? No, his older self's son. Not that McCoy would make that distinction.

Which was what was being shouted at him. "Your son wants to be like me! Me! Wait a minute, I forgot. Tell them the other part, boy."

Setik again did so calmly and Spock got the suspicion this discussion happened often later in his life. "Doctor McCoy has always supported me. He has taught me since I was old enough to understand, before my formal education began. He is my major influence."

Kirk's shoulders were shaking hard as he clamped a hand over his mouth and put an arm around his ribs.

"Major influence!" the doctor bragged. Spock wondered how his father didn't awaken from his trance. "Me! I didn't know it, but my whole life has been leading me to this moment."

"Clearly, Doctor, it is an influence my older self and his wife should have removed." Wife. How foreign that was to even think. He had barely managed to say it about T'Pring.

"Don't be a sore loser. By the way, I put this in my personal log so it's part of the official record. So what's going on, Jim?"

Kirk got his laughter under control, although it seemed to be ready burst out for the first minute. His eyes swept the ward. T'Kel ended up being behind them, but crossed the room when she saw they looked for her. T'Pren was behind Setik and the doctor, and came out too.

Spock realized who was missing. "Doctor, where is my mother?"

T'Pren looked up with large, dark eyes. McCoy caught those and shook his head. "No wonder your grandfather and father are putty in your hands. Jim, it's part of her education and it's nothing sensitive. All right? Go ahead, T'Pren."

She nodded and turned with great importance to Kirk and Spock. She subtly emphasized the latter, or at least she thought she did it subtly. McCoy was right: the information was mundane. Sarek's aide, Siavann, came to give the daily report. With the ambassador still in the healing trance, he informed Amanda that the other delegates argued. She left to speak with them, which answered the question of why the diplomats had stopped complaining to the bridge.

T'Pren looked at Spock, ready to say something else, before she abruptly switched to Kirk. He swiftly realized she would have talked with him as her father, as she normally would, but remembered his refusal to have anything to do with any of them, so she switched to the other one of them who gave her acceptance: Kirk.

Now he noticed their concealed, betrayed looks. Setik completely masked his; his studies leading to his maturity test made that possible. The twins were younger. I am already failing them. But he didn't know what to do about it.

"Grandmother said," T'Pren finished to Kirk, "that she was reluctant to leave us. She did not know when she could return. Doctor McCoy called the ambassadors ignorant – vIvupen."

"I didn't say that!" McCoy shifted guilty. "Although what I did say wasn't good for her to repeat."

T'Pren looked back up at Kirk, still reporting. "That is why I didn't say it. I thought it was one of those sort of words, but I did not know a better word like it, so I created one. We are not allowed to curse."

T'Kel examined a medical bed. "Not even like Mother."

Spock's head jerked around to stare at her. "Your mother uses such language? In front of you?"

Setik seemed to feel the need to step in. His head tilted to the side. "Mother rarely curses and never if we are there. However, we have twice come into a place behind her while she is saying something."

McCoy grinned at Kirk. "You forget what little parrots they are."

T'Kel looked down at her body. "I am not a parrot."

Kirk bit his lip. "No, you are not, and Doctor McCoy should watch his language. But I came to tell you that I spoke with your father."

Three young Vulcans figuratively dropped what they were doing and snapped into a line. T'Pren was there already, so she fired off the questions. "Is he coming here? Is Mother with him? Are we going home?"

Kirk bent down to be closer to them, and Spock saw a quick wince pull at the captain's eyes. To help him, Spock started to answer the children himself, but Kirk shot him a look and shook his head. "He is coming here, alone. We can't know who your mother is, remember? Your grandmother said she'd explain all that." They nodded slowly. "We're first going to make sure he is your father and then we'll see about getting you home. All right?"

Three virtually simultaneous, Yes, sirs.

A door opened somewhere in one of the other Sickbay rooms, most likely the exam room next door, and Christine Chapel came in. She stopped in her tracks and her eyes grew at the sight of Setik and the girls.

McCoy barked, "Nurse, I ordered everyone to stay out. If this is a medical case, we opened that temporary clinic for a reason! Everybody gets treated there until further notice or call me if you need me to come down."

She forced her eyes to go to him. "I know, Doctor. I'm here for another reason. Rumors are all over the ship about the children being here. I knew you wanted that kept confidential, so I came to tell you."

"What do they know?" Kirk demanded.

"The crew knows they're here and that they are Mr.-" She looked at him and again forced herself to turn away, "Mr. Spock's. That there's another ship out there, one that doesn't fit in our time. Some people said there's a future version of Mr. Spock on that ship and that he's coming here. And that… his wife is also on board. Everyone is speculating who she might be."

McCoy ground out, "I bet they are. Gossip's going to be everywhere on whether she's human or Vulcan or something else altogether."

Kirk exploded over the breach of his orders. "Bones! I told you to delete every test result on the children!"

"Hold on, Jim! You're accusing me?"

"No! But the only way anyone could know Setik and the girls are Spock's is to see those tests! Nobody else knew and we don't have any other proof."

"And I'm telling you they had another way than those tests, and I can prove it!"

Spock interceded before tempers could go too far. "How, Doctor?"

McCoy spun towards him. He hadn't cooled down yet. "Because anyone who sees that data can tell you and everyone else about your wife!"

Spock's mouth parted. He wanted to tell McCoy not to say anything; he wasn't ready to know. As this abstract figure far in his future, he could manage the thought of her.

Kirk, however, spoke before he did. His anger faded into confusion. "Bones, how can you know who his wife is?"

McCoy's head went from one to the other. "I can't give you her name, so you can both stop looking at me like that. But think about it, Jim. She's in the kids' biology. I can tell you if she's human or Vulcan or if she's something else altogether. The point is, if someone stole those test results, they could tell you the same thing, and they didn't. With them spreading everything else around, why would anybody be quiet about that?"

Kirk rubbed his chin. "Could they not understand the results?"

"Then why steal them? I don't know how they found out what they did, but they didn't get it here. Anyone else who knew the children were in Sickbay didn't know they were Spock's. So it's a puzzle I don't have the answer to."

Spock had been staring ahead and saw the twins and Setik had pulled away from the argument. Not thrown off, merely waiting for the adults to calm down.

If McCoy is a major influence, they most likely are used to bad tempers.

The casual thought was only a reflex from his and the doctor's so called arguments. He held McCoy in high esteem and it did not surprise him at all that the man was around the children, any more than the thought that Jim was. If Spock thought any less of the Doctor, he never would have asked the man to come with him when he went to marry T'Pring.

Putting aside all that, Spock watched the children. He knew answers to their mother shouted at him with every movement. Setik's early calm was not his. The twins' coloring was not his. T'Kel's personality was not his or Amanda's or Sarek's, unlike T'Pren.

They belonged to their mother or someone in her family. The woman who married that older, advanced Spock.

The problem with being able to multitask was these questions worked in his mind as he listened to Kirk.

"Put aside the DNA results. The only people who knew about the children at all were your two men, Bones," the captain discussed, "and the bridge crew." He chewed on the inside of his lip and shook his head. "I can't see anyone on the bridge doing this. Spock?"

He gave it serious thought. He went through each one, including people at secondary stations. "I agree, Captain. None display the nature to do this and that is borne out in their service records."

"I'll make it three," McCoy added. "I've been inside their heads as well as taking care of them physically. I don't mean it like a meld, T'Pren, but that's a good question. It means I understand how their minds work. Jim, I'd give my people the same vote of confidence."

He continued, "It's wrong that it got out, but let's be reasonable. The point is, it sounds like it's idle chatter, not something that's going to be the Enterprise to her knees."

"All right, let's be reasonable." Kirk said. "I don't like that someone did this. I can't ignore that, but... they haven't harmed anything. Chapel."

Spock looked back and saw the nurse still stared at the children. His wife is also on board. Everyone is speculating who she might be. Yes. Everyone.

Chapel broke out of her thoughts. "Yes, Captain?"

"Do you know who started this?"

McCoy interrupted, "Hold on a second. Setik, why don't you take your sisters to my office? Lock the doors. That will give you privacy to talk or whatever."

The boy gestured to his sisters who obediently fell into place behind him. He stopped in front of Chapel. "Excuse me," he told her, "I did not want to interrupt you earlier." He swept an arm across his chest and bowed smartly. "Greetings. My name is Setik."

Spock's eyebrows shot up.

Chapel turned wide-eyed, but gave him a slight smile in return. "That was very sweet, thank you."

"You are welcome. Doctor McCoy taught me the gesture. He said I must always be a gentleman."

His 'mentor' had to get over his own surprise before he could say, "Nicely done, boy. Now off you go."

Setik signaled again to the twins and they left. As soon as they passed through the archway, Spock heard their low voices discussing what was going on. When will Father get here? and Why does Mr. Spock not-? were the main points. The voices stopped as they grasped that they could be heard by at least him.

Most likely, they rely on telepathy again. He wondered for not the first time in his life what it would have been like to have a sibling. He had Sybok, but someone else, someone exactly like him, someone who understood what it meant. Not that his parents hadn't tried. Perhaps that was why his older self had three children.

McCoy grumbled. "Should have done that right away. Setik knows what he's doing. I gave him a tour earlier. Nurse, you were saying."

"Yes, Doctor. By the time I heard anything, it had passed through a dozen people already. Bits and pieces of it came from different groups. A few told me they had heard about the other ship, others heard about the children, and so on. Captain, it is only rumors, and no one is talking about it while on duty. The bridge crew doesn't even know, because they're still on their shift."

McCoy folded his arms over his chest. "Just as we thought, whisper down the lane. One person says, 'Don't tell anyone else,' and the next thing you know, the whole ship's buzzing with it. I can understand it, even if I don't like it. You too, Jim. I haven't seen you down here this much voluntarily in months. You know what else? I think all of it is just shots in the dark. Think about it. No one, as far as I know, had any idea Spock's wife is on that ship. So she might not be. They put together a couple of details, added a bunch from their imagination, and now they got a whopper of a story. It's rumors, that's all."

"And a few just happen to hit the mark?" Kirk pulled on his lower lip before agreeing. "All right. So the cat's out of the bag. I don't like it, but I… understand it too. As long as it doesn't affect their work or the children, it's not a problem. But I still want to know who's behind it. They should have known not to spread any of that information. Nurse Chapel, go back to the clinic so we take care of legitimate cases." She went out. "Bones, check the computers. Make sure those test results are really gone and no one looked them up."

McCoy objected. "They never were in the system. I did the basic tests and then destroyed the samples. I didn't log anything in. I even used a tricorder and then wiped it. Nothing about the children and this other Mr. Spock ever existed in the system."

"Captain Spock," Kirk corrected. "He's the commander of the Contact."

McCoy didn't know where to look first. "Well, I didn't see that coming. But then who say any of this coming." He turned his head towards Spock, frowning with concern. "It's been a helluva day for you. How are you handling all this?"

Spock gazed back evenly. "As expected, Doctor."

"So terrible then."

"Bones, just check everything. Look, I understand curiosity. You're right, I got a good healthy case of it myself, and now that it's out there, I'm not going to go on the warpath. But I someone in my crew discovered something obviously meant to be kept quiet and spread it around instead. If I thought it was all right for everyone to know, I'd have told them myself."

"All right, Jim. I'm going."

McCoy walked out and Kirk crossed the room. "If that's all it is, someone who was just bursting to spread what they found out, then we settle it easily."

"It does appear to be nothing more, Captain."

"Until then, Spock, I don't want anyone coming into Sickbay for whatever reason. The kids are a big temptation. If we decide to take them out of here, fine, but not right now. I want to settle things with Captain Spock first."

Spock contended this was a bad idea. "You shouldn't go alone in the event this person is not who he says he is."

The children came back, saying McCoy had told them he needed his computers and it was all right to return to the ward.

"I can take care of myself," Kirk insisted. "I'll be fine. I'll still bring him here to do that DNA test. If it's him, he'll want to see the twins and Setik."

Kirk suddenly noticed T'Kel has sidled up beside him. "And to what do I owe this honor? Do you need me for something?"

"Yes," she said calmly. "I need you to move. I want the computer."

Outraged, Spock started reprimanding her, even if Jim found it funny, but only got her name out, when she went to Kirk, "Wait! I beg pardon, I forgot. I request that you allow me to reach the computer, sir. That is how I should have said it."

He accepted her apology and listened to her lament that talking correctly was hard and the whole thing was inefficient anyway. That was why she had her twin speak for her. T'Pren liked to talk, she confided, and was good at it.

"You get to give orders," T'Kel lamented, still aggrieved at the unfairness of it all, "and no one tells you you're rude."

Kirk nodded somberly in agreement. "I have to talk to admirals though. They're just as bad. But maybe you'll get to give orders someday. Let me know if you do. We'll take on the universe and T'Pren can talk for both of us. It'll be fun."

She thought this over. "Setik could work in Sickbay."

"Good point."

She lifted an eyebrow with a hint of pleading, "And my mother?"

Kirk smiled at her. "Definitely your mother. This is shaping up to be a grand adventure. I can't wait to go."

The intercom hailed him and he told the three of them that he had to leave. He couldn't pick up T'Kel, but he got out of her way and she scrambled up the bed. He left then, remarking to Spock, "It's a damn shame I'm not going to remember them once we put time back. You do good work, Mr. Spock." He winked and took off for the transporter room.

That left Spock with the children.

He took stock of the situation in the same way as managing his science department. Each of them showed slight signs of having been contained in a small space with little to do. But they handled it well. T'Kel asked him to set her up on the computer and requested it in the right way. Setik was at a standstill without McCoy, but went over what he had been shown already. T'Pren went through steps of a dance she recently learned at school while going over words from a language she was learning. At times she spoke like she was in the middle of a conversation to Setik and to him, and Spock realized she talked for her twin and herself.

Something made her forget and she called him, "Father."

He made the mistake he rarely made: he spoke before thinking his statement through. "As I have told you, I am not your father and you are not my children."

It was like he pushed the detonator on an explosive.

T'Kel's eyes got a strange light. "No, you are not."

Pandemonium. He didn't know what else to call it. The children spiraled into anarchy – while oddly still being in Vulcan control – and bombarded him. McCoy came running from his office.

"What the hell happened?! For gods sakes, Spock, do something!"

Spock pushed it back on McCoy, secretly begging him. "You have a daughter, Doctor, you must have the experience to do this yourself."

"They're your kids!"

Spock struggled on what to do and at last moved to the comm panel.

McCoy asked, "You're making a call now?!"

He answered solemnly. "Whenever facing an area where we know little on the subject, we must call in an expert."

At the comm panel, he waited for the person to answer the hail. "Mother? If you are available, I am in need of your assistance."

Amanda arrived to see T'Kel had found the control to the medical bed to turn it into a slide to practice her physical exercises, as well as almost taking apart the computer; Setik was into his grandfather's life signs and investigating how the Feinberger worked, poking at its circuitry; and T'Pren verbally ran circles around a confused Spock. Taking it in at a second, she called out firmly, "Kroykah!"

Three children immediately sat on the beds, quiet, and well-behaved.

Spock knew the lecture was coming, for the them and him. But first, Amanda targeted McCoy with a twinkle. "You asked me earlier if a Vulcan child ran and played."

He protested, "I said like human children! These are whirling dervishes!"

T'Kel scowled. "We run and play like children. Why segregate it?"

Spock lifted a mocking eyebrow. "That is two for them, Doctor." He recognized the pride as he said that. Perhaps this was not so bad after all.

Amanda bent down over T'Kel. "You are still in trouble, t'nash-veh rihag ko-fu-il." Spock saw McCoy bring up a translator thus letting him know she had said, 'my difficult granddaughter'. "So no lectures from you." Amanda circled T'Pren's face with a forefinger, indicating the girl's expression. "Don't you attempt this. You inherited that look from me, so it won't work. I'm immune to it."

Her grandson was next. Spock had to say this for the boy. He was unflappable and took the lecture responsibly. "Setik, this is not the behavior of someone who has passed his kahs-wan."

Spock remembered hating that lecture when he was a child. 'Hating' being a figurative word.

McCoy still rubbed his head, noting he had forgotten what it was like having kids this age.

"They can be like trying to control a sandstorm." Amanda's grin was all in the eyes. She diagnosed her son's (and company's) problem. "You tried reasoning with them, Spock. An enviable trait, but sometimes a parent has to enforce the rules and nothing else. We also shouldn't have cooped them up for so long with little to do."

Which Spock had just thought himself. He should have remembered it and the consequences of what he said.

He much preferred Amanda 'enforcing the rules' with her grandchildren than when it was him years ago. And today.

"As you said, they're children," she spoke to McCoy. "Any child would get this way, but Vulcan children? Their minds need something to do or they stagnate and that's trouble. You may not like what they find for themselves. Not to mention, they are taught to learn everything they can. Which backfired on you," she smiled on her son, "because you didn't know when to give them boundaries."

She turned back to her son. "They were testing you, Spock. You keep insisting they're not your children, so they decided to see just how far they could go with a father who doesn't know how to be one. You didn't score very high. But don't worry, you learn by doing."

Spock narrowed his eyes. "Mother, you are enjoying this."

"I am. There's a thing called the parent's curse. 'I hope you have children just like you.' I'm enjoying myself immensely." She smiled. "Although, my kingdom for a sehlat."

McCoy frowned. "I don't understand. The teddy bear?"

Setik and the girls gave him amused looks. They apparently had heard this many times.

Amanda explained. "I misled you about the teddy bear idea. They're large animals. Setik can still ride his for quite a while yet." McCoy paled. "They're also an answer to a parent's prayer: guardian, pet, and disciplinarian. Earth should import them. What would Ko-Kan have done if she had been here?" she asked firmly, turning back to the children.

They exchanged stares.

"So don't think anything I said to Mr. Spock excuses your behavior. You and I know both better than that. If Ko-Kan and I aren't enough to make you reassess your behavior, may I remind you that your father is coming and your grandfather can hear everything in that trance."

Three sets of eyes grew very big.

"Grandmother," T'Pren said hurriedly, "in our defense, we actually did nothing that wasn't part of our studies."

Kirk hailed Sickbay. Captain Spock was on board.