Main power was in the process of being restored by the time Leryn and Amanda got to sickbay. Thruster control was back online, so at least the ship wasn't slowly falling out of orbit anymore. The USS Challenger was on its way to rendezvous with them and offer assistance.

Amanda quickly made her way over to her mother and threw herself into her arms. Nyota held her close. "It's okay," she told the little girl. "I'm here."

"I was scared," she whimpered, starting to cry.

"I know you were. I'm sorry I wasn't there." Amanda was basically unintelligible at that point, so Nyota just held her.

Leryn was standing beside them, staring at her father in utter shock. "Is…is Papa…" she stuttered a few times, but couldn't force any other words out. Spock had always seemed so strong, like stone. Now…now he looked as fragile as glass, and it was terrifying.

"Dr. McCoy's doing everything he can," Nyota told her.

Leryn started to reach out to take his hand, but thought better of it, seeing how badly his skin had been damaged. Treating the ugly burns was something that would have to wait until all of the equipment was functional again. "Does he hurt?" she asked.

Nyota bit her lip. "I'm not sure…He's sleeping right now, basically."

"When is he going to wake up?" Amanda asked between hiccups.

"We don't know. He needs rest to make sure he gets better. Um, Dr. McCoy said that he's probably doing a type of meditating, concentrating really hard on recovering."

They all stayed together in silence for a long while before McCoy approached. "We're going to take him for surgery," he told Nyota. She stood with Amanda in her arms.

"How long will it be?"

"Depends on how extensive the damage to his lungs is…Why don't you go on home? I'll contact you as soon as we know anything new."

Nyota shook her head. "No, I'm not going to leave him."

"Yes, you are," he shot back. "It's going to be a long night, one that they don't need to be here for." The doctor gestured to her daughters. After a pause, she finally nodded.


Nyota was still carrying Amanda by the time they got back to their quarters, but she finally put the little girl down once they were inside. "Go get your pajamas on, princess," she told the little girl. "It's past your bedtime." She obediently headed for her room. "Wouldn't hurt you to get some sleep, too," she told Leryn.

"Okay."

Nyota went into her own bedroom. A few items had fallen from their places when the ship had been rocked by the explosion, and she carefully righted each one. After sitting down on the bed, she looked around the room for a long moment. It now all appeared just as it had that morning when she left for her shift, but it was possible that nothing was ever going to be the same. There was a non-zero chance that she'd never share her bed with her husband again. The thought made her feel sick.

"Mom?" a voice asked, and she turned to see Leryn and Amanda in the doorway, both clad in pajamas. "We...we were wondering if we could sleep with you tonight?"

Nyota swallowed a sob as she nodded. "Come on."


Amanda soon fell asleep, but Leryn and Nyota remained awake. "Mom?" she asked into the darkness at one point.

"Mmm-hmm?"

"The ship came really close to being destroyed, didn't it?"

"Yeah…yeah, it did."

Leryn nodded slowly. "I could feel it…it was just like that on the ship I was born on."

Nyota threaded her fingers through her daughter's. "I'm sorry; that must have been scary."

"Yeah…What's going to happen to us now?"

"I don't know yet. The ship took a lot of damage…Don't worry about that tonight, okay? You should get some rest." She thought for a long moment that Leryn had complied, but then she heard her voice again.

"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"I want to tell you something…and you're probably going to get mad at me, but I don't care. I need you to know."

That had her attention. "Okay."

"I snuck out one night while I was grounded. After everyone was asleep. I went to go see Ryan."

Nyota slowly nodded. If she was making this confession after getting away with it, then there was a short list of reasons why. "What did he do?" she asked.

"Nothing. I mean, he tried to…I don't know what he was really trying to do – and have tried not to think about it – but I know that I didn't want him to do it."

"Did he hurt you?"

"No, he just…he was kissing me, but I didn't like that he was touching me. I don't think I'm ready for anything like that yet."

"Keep thinking that for another few years," she told her daughter.

Leryn cracked a smile. "You were right, Mom."

"About what?"

"Fourteen isn't THAT old. There's a lot of things I can do now that I couldn't when I was little like Amanda, but there are a lot of things I wouldn't want to have to worry about. When me and Amanda were here before, waiting to see if the ship would be okay…I thought about what it would be like i-if something happened to you and Papa. I know it's selfish, but I didn't want to have to take care of her. I'm not ready."

"I know that we expect you to look out for your sister, but we'd never expect you to have to take care of her on your own. We haven't talked about it before, because we didn't want to scare you, but…if something did happen to me and…" She wasn't able to finish that thought, but that didn't matter. "We've made sure you'd be taken care of. Preferably still on this ship, but if that wasn't possible, it would be up to your grandparents – my parents and Sarek – to determine what would be best."

"You mean we might get split up? Me on Earth and Amanda on Vulcan?"

"Nothing's set in stone. It would depend a lot on how old you were at the time. You wouldn't be living together anyway if you were already in college… Although, I guess we don't know where that will be anymore, do we?"

Leryn sighed. "Can I tell you something else?"

"Go ahead."

"I don't really not want to go to the Academy…I'm not sure why I said it. I thought there would be a bigger reaction, though."

"We were definitely surprised…did you think we'd be upset?"

"Yeah. I mean, I've always said that I wanted to go."

"You were very young when you made that decision. I think we've always wondered if it was what you really wanted, or what you thought we wanted."

"Don't you want me to go?"

"We want you to do whatever will make you happy."

"But you'll make Amanda go, won't you?"

Nyota frowned. "No, we want her to do what's going to make her happy, too…Why would you think that we would want things differently for her?"

"Because she's really your kid."

"You've been 'really our kid' for six years."

"It's not the same…I guess I've always thought that eventually I wouldn't matter as much, since you have her."

"Leryn, that's not going to happen."

"How do you know? I mean, people get divorced from somebody they chose to be with for the rest of their lives. How do you know you won't change your mind about me?"

"Because a child is different, regardless of where they come from. I don't even know if I can put it into words, but…you're waiting and preparing yourself for something that isn't going to come." Leryn was quiet. "How long have you been silently stewing on this?"

"I don't know. A while."

"I wish you would have told me."

She shrugged. "I kind of always hoped I was wrong, but was afraid that if I actually asked, I'd find out that I wasn't."

Nyota held her closer. "You and Amanda both were the best surprises your father and I could have asked for. As you get older, we're probably going to butt heads on some things, but that's only because we want what's best for you. Don't ever doubt or forget how much we love you."

Leryn didn't answer for a long moment. "We…" she finally repeated, considering the word. "Mom? Is Papa really going to get better, or is that just what you're telling Amanda so she won't be scared?"

"I…I don't know. I'm praying that Dr. McCoy is right – that he's going to come back to us – but I don't know."


TBC...

A/N: Kudos who everyone who recognized the ties with Star Trek II. I was never a fan of TOS until ST2009, and now I think that's at the top of my list for the original movies. There will be more ties with the prime universe, but you'll just have to keep reading to find out how. :-) And, as always, thanks for the feedback!