Oh my God, it's been three months! I can't say how sorry I am, you guys. If you're still sticking around to read this. I wouldn't blame you if you gave up. I probably would have stopped waiting around. Special thanks to all of you who decided to wait it out and not give up. I am eternally grateful. So, this one was difficult as I wasn't sure where to go with this. Also, a friend of mine told me that Elle and Alex would make a good couple. I've set up a poll on my profile so please let me know your thoughts. And, just one last thing, this story will soon leave Earth so things will get a bit more interesting. Thanks again to all of you. Enjoy!

Stardate: 2275.114

Elle hung from a tree branch by her knees, swinging back and forth slowly as Kelsey asked her questions from where she stood below. Normally she would be worried someone would see her for what she was if they passed by, but they were far from the city and Elle felt comfortable in her belief that no one would find them It had been a week and still Kelsey never stopped asking questions. It was as if she never ran out of ideas. But Elle never grew tired of it. It was actually rather nice to speak to someone for once. And Kelsey never judged anything she said.

"I can't believe you would hide who you are," Kelsey exclaimed. "Being Vulcan sounds amazing!"

Elle shrugged, "It's not that great."

"But you've got so many powers. It's like you're a superhero."

"Heroes don't exist, much less superheroes."

"Why are you always like that?" Kelsey sighed.

Elle blinked in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"You're always so sad, like you don't believe in the world. Dad always says people who feel that way have been knocked down and can't get back up. Is that you?"

"It's not that I can't get back up. I've simply stopped trying."

"Why? Dad says you said never give up."

"I've heard that before."

Kelsey frowned, "Then why are you giving up?"

"If you don't try, you can't get hurt. I don't try anymore and nothing can hurt me."

"…So I should give up? I should tell Mom and Dad to stop giving me medicine, stop taking me to the doctors?"

Elle very nearly slipped off the tree branch as she heard the sad edge in Kelsey's voice. She had never heard the girl anything other than cheerful. It made the world feel wrong, that she had made a mistake, for the ever-positive girl to sound so melancholy. Elle straightened up, sliding off the branch to land in front of Kelsey. She didn't reach out to the sickly girl, and nor did Kelsey reach for her. It had become their unspoken agreement that, since Elle wasn't completely comfortable with physical contact, they would keep skin contact to a minimum.

Elle gazed at the girl with a stubborn glint in her eyes, "No. You have a chance to get better. There's no chance of me becoming anything other than a half-Vulcan."

"I'm not going to get better. The doctors say I'll only make it three more years at most."

"I've done the calculations myself. You have a 17.639% chance of living past age twelve."

"So I have barely eighteen percent. That's not much."

"Listen to me, Kelsey. That's still not a complete chance of you dying. If anyone can make that chance, it's you."

Kelsey smiled, "See. You haven't given up yet."

"I'm not giving up on you. I can't promise any more than that."

"How about I make you a deal?" she said with a grin.

"Let's hear it."

Her green eyes glinted in delight, "If I live past twelve, you have to stop hiding what you are."

Elle's smile faded, "I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I've already fooled everyone into thinking I'm human. What would they do if they found out it was a lie?"

"Everyone thinks you're a mute who likes to be left alone," Kelsey pointed out.

"Maybe I prefer that one."

Kelsey shook her head, "I think it's yourself you need to keep from giving up on."

"Kelsey-"

"I live past twelve and you tell everyone you're Vulcan. Deal?"

Elle sighed, though she was secretly pleased to have something to hope for, "Deal."

She never should have hoped for such a foolish idea. It only ended up hurting her five months later.

Stardate: 2290.357

I found Elle a few blocks from the house, lying with her back against one of the branches of a tree and her feet flat against the trunk. Her eyes were closed but her arms were crossed over her chest in the same manner as she did whenever she was trying to keep from losing her temper. It was always the little things that gave away what she was feeling.

"Hey," I muttered, nudging what I could reach of her arm. "Are you alright?"

She glanced at me through the corner of her eye, "I'm…fine."

"You're lying," I replied.

"Vulcans can't lie."

"Then you're not telling the whole truth," I retorted with a frown.

"I know," she sighed. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Everything. For lying to you, for keeping secrets, for deceiving you."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, "You're actually apologizing for all that."

"I should have told you before."

I shrugged, pulling myself up onto an adjacent branch, "You didn't know what to say. And, honestly, it wasn't that important. I shouldn't have gotten so angry."

"You had every right. You trusted me but I didn't trust you, not completely."

I leaned against the trunk to get a better view of her face, "Everyone should have their privacy."

She shook her head, gray eyes gazing up at the darkening sky, "It wasn't that I wanted privacy. I was afraid to tell you."

"Why?"

"It's complicated."

There was a minute of silence before Elle glanced at me and sighed in defeat.

"There has always been a limited number of how many people knew what I was and found nothing wrong with it. I hadn't spoken to anyone in months, years if you don't count when it was unavoidable. When I met you, you just seemed to find everything alright. Nothing really mattered to you. Then I saw that you were friends with Spock. I thought maybe things could be different with you. Maybe, because you already knew a half-Vulcan, I could find a family in you and your Father."

"So what happened?"

"I persuaded myself not to tell you."

I raised my eyebrows in a silent question and Elle took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Ever since I was nine, I spent my time building up walls around myself. I could mimic being human all too well, but I still kept myself distant. If I didn't get close to people, I couldn't get hurt. When my mother died…that was a difficult time for me. My isolation grew worse. Before, I had at least tried to be social. But I couldn't find it in myself once she passed. I expected the worst of people. So I never told you, too afraid of you disappointing me like so many others before. I'm safe when nothing can touch me. So I tried to keep it that way."

"And then I reacted exactly how you expected me to," I muttered.

She nodded slowly, "I don't blame you. I would have probably done the same. Which is why I'm sorry. It was ridiculous of me to expect you to react in any other way than how you did."

"Why are you telling me this now?" I asked. "Why not just let this go? Let things return to normal?"

"I can't do that. I didn't trust you completely before, but you always trusted me with everything. You deserve the same. I want to trust you, Alex. But old habits die hard and this is the best I can start with. I don't want to push you away like I've done with everyone else."

"You couldn't push me away," I said with a shake of my head. "You know I'm too stubborn for that."

Elle laughed softly, something I had only heard a few times before, "Don't I know it. From your father's stories, it must be hereditary."

"Hey. If it wasn't for our stubbornness, we wouldn't very well be here, would we?"

"I suppose not," she smiled.

I shifted awkwardly on the tree limb, "Um, Elle, if you don't mind me asking-"

"You want to know what my father and I spoke off that made me so angry."

"You don't have to say anything," I said quickly. "I'm just curious."

Elle sighed, "He said the reason he never replied to my letters, why he didn't find me when Mother died, was because she told him not to. He said she told him that she didn't want to hold him back from his culture when he had to marry his betrothed on Vulcan. She apparently didn't want the complication that would come with it, either. He told me she didn't want to place such a burden on him and he respected her choice."

"He told you that?"

She nodded sadly and I realized for the first time that tears were trailing down her face. They sparkled in the moonlight like diamonds against her olive skin and the darkness of night.

"She loved him so much that she let him go. She didn't want him to stay away from his family, his people, because of her. And then she kept my existence from him because it could potentially ruin his marriage. But it didn't occur to him to do the same for her. It makes me wonder, if he didn't love her, then why did he stay so long?" –she exhaled slowly, trying to calm down- "I never wanted anything so much than to meet my Father. But now I don't know what to think."

"Well, nothing's going to happen if we just stay out here," I noted. "We don't need to go back in."

"I hate it when you do that."

"Do what?"

"Try to use reverse psychology. It doesn't work on me."

"I thought Vulcans don't feel hate," I teased.

"If you're going to start making Vulcan jokes, I swear to God, I'm going to kill you."

I snickered softly under my breath, but of course she heard me. Before I could move, she had reached down and pushed me off my branch. I landed gracelessly on the cold ground with a cry of surprise and gazed up to see her grinning in the darkness. I brushed myself off, smiling at my success.

"See, there's the Elle I know," I called up. "Now, are you going to come down or am I going to have to get Uhura to drag you back?"

Elle dropped down from the tree branch to land in front of me. Her movements had always been graceful and smooth. Now I knew why. Many things about her behavior were explained with the revelation of her blood.

"I doubt you should trouble Uhura," she replied as she walked beside me.

"So, your father and his wife are staying for dinner. Won't that be fun?"

Of course it wasn't. If you've ever thought your family dinners were the most awkward occurrences in the world, you're wrong. You're wrong on too many levels to count. Imagine practically adopting someone into your family only to find out, eleven years later, that she wasn't even human. And how you found out was her father and his wife, who most certainly isn't her mother, popping in for dinner on Christmas Eve. There are no words to describe it.

Conversation was sparse and, when some brave soul did happen to speak up, it was often met with nervous mutterings or silence. Kaleth, as we had soon found his name was, and his wife seemed unaware of how uncomfortable the whole situation was. Everyone else was painfully aware of it, including Spock who had been dragged off to speak with Uhura privately ten minutes before the meal. At the moment, Dad gave Spock a nudge with his elbow and tried to nod inconspicuously at Elle, who noticed but did her best to studiously ignore the motion.

"Mr. Kaleth," Spock started, apparently understanding what Dad meant. "If you do not mind, how did you become acquaintances with Elle's mother?"

Or not.

Elle's hand slipped on her fork, causing the metal to bend slightly. She grimaced at the piece of metal and did her best to straighten it. Lyel stared at his food as if it were a particularly trying puzzle while Bones looked as though he was torn between burying his face in his hands in exasperation or smacking Spock upside the back of his head. Kaleth looked up to meet Spock's eyes.

"As it would happen, I was attending one of her lectures on the genetic engineering used during the Eugenic Wars and how it could be used to cure many terminal illnesses in both humans and other species."

"Elle, you never told us you mom was a scientist," Dad noted, hoping to diffuse the tension.

"Theoretical geneticist," Elle corrected. "She quit her job to spend more time with me."

"So your mum enjoyed splicing DNA before she had you."

Everyone went silent as they turned their attention to Lyel. Realizing his joke had been both in poor taste and at a disastrously wrong time, he muttered an apology and returned to moving his fork around on his plate.

"You'll have to excuse us, T'Maire," Uhura announced, looking at Kaleth's wife. "We weren't actually aware had family who were still alive."

"Or Vulcan, it would seem," the woman replied, gazing evenly at Elle. "It is strange that you choose to pretend to be human; and how your mother gave you a human name."

"My mother was human. I don't see why she wouldn't choose to give me a human name. Furthermore, I was born and raised on Earth. It seemed more apt to behave like a human. Personally, I see nothing wrong with either choice."

"It simply is strange to raise a Vulcan child as a human."

"You seem to forget that I am half-human," Elle replied icily. "And it is difficult to raise a child with a culture that you barely know."

Nervously, I raised my glass to my lips and took a gulp. It was fairly obvious that Elle wouldn't stay calm much longer. But still T'Maire continued.

"Which is exactly why you will be traveling to New Vulcan with us once you have finished the new semester."

There was silence at the table. The only sound was that of glass cracking against the floor and water spilling out into the carpet. It was a full minute later before I realized the fallen glass was my own.