Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. Thank you so much to Fameanon (and Oratt, V'Las, Kuvak and L'Vek), Scarlettbrandi, maba7x, and the anon reviewer for reviewing! You are all wonderful!

Desiree stroked her hand up and down his powerful chest, her fingers combing through his gray chest hair. She rubbed him gently, then vigorously, her thoughts lingering on their long love-making session. They had been at each other for hours on end, and it was now very late or very early. She wasn't sure which.

"What time is it?" she murmured, nuzzling into his chest.

"0100," came the soft reply. She kissed his flesh with gentle lips.

"Damn...you're wonderful, honey bun...and I can't help but want more...how many times did we...?"

"Five point three five nine times," Oratt replied, his voice tinged with disbelief.

"What's the point three five nine for?" Desiree asked with a dark little giggle.

He turned to her with a serious look. "Those are the instances I factor in that do not involve actual penetration, the oral-"

She pressed her finger to his lips. "I get it." She raised her head and kissed him softly. "I can't believe I love you this much," she sighed.

A green flushed tinted Oratt's cheeks, and he did not reply. But he did run his fingers through her caramel hair, letting the pads of his fingertips brush her scalp, and she felt his true feelings on the matter flow through his fingers to her skin. She sighed again and nuzzled into him.

"It is hard for me to understand that, Desiree. I am nothing you should want. It's not logical. You are young and aesthetically pleasing, and if you wished it, any man on this planet, on any planet, would fight a mighty army to be yours."

She blushed and kissed the flesh of his shoulder with a passionate, open mouthed kiss, and she let her tongue lightly touch his skin. He gasped.

"Sweet talker. I only want you...it's...it's so crazy, I...I feel like there's this large part of me that's always been waiting for you, and this bond thing...it...it feels so right!"

Tears sprung to her eyes, unbidden, but uncontrollable. "I would gladly fight a mighty army if it meant sharing my life with you," she continued. "But...my past is very ugly. I'm amazed I've found such a wonderful person who likes being with me, and a Vulcan at that," she said with a laugh. "However...not everyone is so kind."

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer to him. "Surak taught us that what is, is. It is logical to assume then that what is or has been in your life has made you the woman I desire to bond with. Kindness has nothing to do with it, Desiree, it is simply logic applied." He kissed her forehead. "If you find our current bond agreeable, then you will be most agreeable to the marriage bond. We will be able to speak without words to each other, in our minds. You will know me as none have, and I you, and we will be never and always touching."

He looked into her eyes. "My past is not pleasing either, Desiree. I would hear your story, if you wish to share it."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, and she felt a rush of reassurance from him. She smiled slightly and kissed his chest again.

"Well...about five years ago, I was working in an off-Broadway theater...Broadway is this continent's most prestigious commercial theater group. Off-Broadway means a lesser-known theater. I was in musical theater, doing a tour of Les Miserables, if you want to know. It's really ironic...I was playing Fantine...anyway, so I was doing the tour and...I met Ethan Lockheart. I thought he was heaven-sent. He was kind, he was smart, he was handsome...I loved him, or at least thought I did. I don't think I really loved him. But at the time, I was naive enough to think that he was the man I was going to spend my life with. Until, I found out one day...he was cheating on me."

She took another deep breath and tried to hold back the tears. "I cannot tell you how much it hurt to find that out. I talked to him, I said I would give him another chance...and he ruined it!" She choked on the words. "He ruined another chance, and another, and I'm just glad I had a friend who was brave enough to drag me out of that relationship."

Her tears continued to flow, and she sniffed, thinking she sounded pitiful. "And...I confronted him, told him we were through...and that bastard had the gall to blame me for the failed relationship! I mean, I wasn't perfect, but..." She took another deep breath. "I moved here, never answered his calls or messages...and I've been here ever since. My work in theater suffered, so I decided to quit...but I got two degrees in college, and I have a license to teach. So I took that and used it here, and now I teach at the local community college."

She could feel his anger flowing rapidly through his touch, and she looked up at him. His eyes were dark and his features were set in displeasure.

"I would have killed him for you." he said bluntly. "I will if he ever bothers you again. He was a fool, Desiree, the fault was his, not yours. That is not an ugly past for you, but for him, it is his shame." He made a face, almost like a grimace. "Would you hear my story now, so you might see that?"

She frowned up at him. "Ok..." The thought that he was willing to kill for her was both frightening and arousing in a strange way, and she shook her head at the thought. "Go ahead, I'm all ears."

He frowned down at her, an endearing look of confusion on his face. "I do not understand."

She grinned and giggled, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. "It means 'I'm listening'."

He took a deep breath, then began to speak. His voice reverberated through his chest, and she closed her eyes and listened to his words. "On Vulcan our marriages are arranged when we are young. My mate was from a powerful clan, and she was sought after by many. How my parents secured the pairing I do not know, for our clan is small. When it came time for us to be bound in marriage, she called kal-if-fee, a marriage challenge, which means a fight to the death. She did not desire me as a mate, she wished another. So I fought and I won."

Desiree gasped slightly, biting her lip at the thought of him killing anyone. But she understood through the bond that he was as disgusted with the thought as she was, though it was cold comfort.

"She allowed me to touch her just once, and then never again," he continued. "She kept our bond closed, so that I would not know her thoughts as a husband might. I desired her, Desiree, I believed I...as you said, loved her. When she gave me news of her pregnancy, I was pleased. I had erroneously believed it would bring us closer, and open our bond, but she became more distant. I raised the son she bore for twenty years as my own. And on the eve of my attaining the position I have now, I discovered that he was the son of the man I had killed, and worse yet, she who was my wife had taken another lover not long after we were bonded."

He closed his eyes, and she touched her nose to his neck and rubbed her thumb up and down his carotid artery. She could feel tears building behind her eyes, but there was more to be said. A tear trailed down her cheek and stopped when it reached his skin.

He continued. "He was entering his pon farr...that's what you helped me through...and she wished to call a marriage challenge. I dissolved the bond. I had no desire to kill or be killed for her." He carefully placed her head on the pillow, rolled onto his side, and gazed at her. "So which of them in the stories we have told has the dirty past? We who gave what is right or they who have taken what they do not deserve?" He shook his head. "The boy who I thought to be my son will not even speak to me, not even now, and will not call me father, even though I have raised him. It is their shame, not ours, teslu, not yours, not mine." He stroked her cheek with his two fingers and fell silent.

"And you've been alone ever since?"

"Until you came," he whispered, the shadow of a smile gracing his lips. She traced them with a light finger.

He cupped her cheek with his hand and pressed slightly, and her eyes were almost forced to close. She saw herself as he saw her, like the dawn of love over a dark horizon, spreading light into a desolate valley. He pulled away and she opened tear-filled eyes, but she grabbed his hand and pressed hard, knowing now that such an action was very intimate, only shared between bondmates.

"Our bond is strong," he breathed, his voice dripping with pleasure. She nodded and closed her eyes, and he stroked his fingers over hers.

"So...we both know the pain of being with those kinds of people," she whispered finally. "I swear to you, I will not cheat...I know that pain and would never want anyone else to feel it, no matter what they've done. And besides..." She swallowed thickly. "I love you too much to look at anyone else that way. You were ashamed of hurting me, and Lucy says you ran because that is who you are. I know that you ran because you were still worried about hurting me. And when I asked you to come, you came for me, and you stood by me," she swallowed back tears, "you stood with me even though my family is crazy and probably can't be trusted. So...I..."

She had no more words, but rather shoved him down onto his back and straddled him before he could speak. His eyes were wide with disbelief, as if he couldn't believe she was doing this, and she smirked, leaning down and kissing the tip of his nose.

"Having a hard time believing this is real?"

She could feel through his touch that he thought just that. "I am considered cantankerous, even by my own species, and you have touched me more than anyone in my life, and you do so with love and affection," he replied, his voice tinged with what sounded like desperation. "Can you blame me?"

She grinned and, without further ado, plunged her teeth into the middle of his chest, marking him like he had marked her, and when she felt a gush of his cool, coppery blood flow into her mouth, she raised her head and licked her lips.

"Is it real now?" His eyes were wider now, and she thought he had never looked so endearing. His hair was still in disarray from the 5.359 times they had gone at each other, and he looked younger, and extremely appealing. She teased him with her fingers until he was ready for her, and she showed him her love until the first rays of morning light peeked in through the window.

…

Oratt walked barefoot over the cold floors, and yet he did not mind. It had been three days since his long-lasting "session" with Desiree, but still he was very sated and felt calmer than he had ever felt in his life. She had still made love to him in other ways the other nights, and he was still amazed that she loved him, that she wanted to touch him, that she enjoyed having him so much. He felt lighter and stood up straighter.

He accessed his messages and scanned them, and his brow furrowed as he noticed an important message from the highest tiers of the Council of Physicians. He accessed it and began to read, and his expression turned from calm to worried to dark in a matter of minutes.

He felt soft hands wrapping around his chest, and he leaned back into her, fighting a gnawing, roiling anger that was forming in his gut.

"You're upset," Desiree murmured.

He did not have the time to argue, and if he were completely honest with himself, he would agree that he was upset. He was very upset, displeased, and about to use everything in his power to stop this.

"What is it, Oratt?" She kissed the back of his thin cotton shirt, and he sighed. "Talk to me."

"The Council of Physicians, of which I am a part, has just sent me a notice. They are accusing me of ethical misconduct, and I am to report to Vulcan in two weeks' time for trial."

Desiree let go and came around to face him, and he looked back at the message. "I am entitled to a hearing before the ranking medical officer in the province or territory where the accusation took place. That would be here, and the ranking medical officer is Dr. Sokat...as far as I know, he has never liked me, but he is not an avid supporter of the higher ranking members of the Council, or of the High Command. He is a man devoted to logic...and recently widowed, if I'm not mistaken."

She frowned up at him, and he could feel her thoughts spinning wildly in her head. He sent her all the calm he could muster, and she relaxed.

"So you go to this hearing, and what?"

"I defend myself. There is absolutely no law explicitly saying that a Vulcan cannot explore intimacy with outsiders, or marry an outsider, or have a child by an outsider. I know of no other reason why they would call for this hearing."

"They're calling it because of me?" She sounded vulnerable and heartbroken, but he cupped his beloved's cheek and let her see something close to a smile on his face, even if it was a wry smile.

"They are calling it because of us," he whispered, drawing her close. "They are calling it because they do not understand this relationship we share...they cannot understand...but I will make them. I swear I will do everything in my power to fight this."

"But they can't do this!" she growled, her voice rising to a shout. "You haven't done anything wrong!"

He sighed. He could not share his suspicions that the High Command was corrupt and falling to ruin, bringing Vulcan with it. That they would try him for some petty reason as this...had the concept of IDIC fallen so low?

"I know," he whispered into her hair. "But there is nothing I can do right now but prepare myself for this hearing."

"You're sure they're nothing I can do?" she murmured to him, her fingers carefully wrapping around his.

He closed his eyes and relished this, not sure if he would have her always. He would do his best to fight this, but her concern for him was driving him towards a fixed and intense focus. He had the chance to have more than he could have dreamed, and he was not about to let that be cast aside just because the High Command was a panel of xenophobes and pompous bureaucrats. There was more to life than logic alone. There were personal connections and new things to explore. He had a telsu to fight for, and an unborn child. He would win this for them.

"Yes, there is," came a voice, and they both turned and stared at Lucy.

"Sorry for barging in on your business, but I thought I heard Desiree's dulcet tones and thought I'd come to investigate," she said casually. "What's this about you being tried?"

Oratt sighed. "It is none of your concern."

"Um, if I'm going to have to face this same crap when I marry Strom, I'd think it would be nice to at least know what I'll be facing. As I was saying, there is something you can do to fight this. They'll never suspect it, but it will help some."

"What is it?" Desiree asked, and he looked to Lucy expectantly.

"Marry her," she replied, gesturing to Desiree. "That way, you'll become a citizen of Earth and Earth will be required to provide you with legal representation."

Oratt was struck with the most bizarre sensation, as if the bottom of his stomach had fallen away. His fingertips were tingling madly at the suggestion, and he turned to Desiree and shook his head.

"Desiree, I would never want to pressure you into doing such a thing for me. You should-"

"I'll do it."

He was very tempted to let his jaw drop at that, and he stared at her in disbelief. "You...you would do that for me?"

Her eyes were fiery with conviction and defiance. "I've got you where I want you, and no stupid Council is taking away my baby's daddy. You're stuck with me, Oratt."

Lucy laughed and headed for the console. "I'm friends with some lawyers who can help you out. They owe my father a favor or two, and I'm calling them in now. And I'll call the Consulate and talk to Sorak. If anyone, I think he, and maybe even Soval, can help us."

"You know Sorak?" Desiree asked with disbelief. "Soval's aide?"

"He's...good friends with my mom," she said softly with a wink. "I have the nagging suspicion that he's madly in love with her, but she's kind of blind to it. Or maybe she likes giving him a hard time."

Desiree giggled and detached herself from him, stepping forward and embracing Lucy from behind, and the tanned twenty-year-old made a noise of protest.

"No time for your love, Desiree, must get on the line," she growled playfully, and Oratt was momentarily transported to another time when he forced a spoonful of oatmeal onto a catatonic teenager's lips. "Though I do think you are incredibly attractive and consider myself lucky." She winked at Desiree, who laughed and blushed.

"Ms. Hardister, you cannot know how-"

"Save it, Oratt. You lifted Strom's travel restrictions, it's the least I could do."

He watched as the screen turned to a woman with voluminous brown curly hair and a friendly expression. Lucy grinned.

"Hey, Sarah, is either Suzanne or Ricky in?"

"Suzanne's on vacation, but Ricky should be in his office, Lucy Lou. What's the deal?"

"Legal problems. Can I talk to him?"

"Sure thing, sugar. Hold on a minute."

Lucy turned to Desiree and waggled her eyebrows, and his telsu giggled. The screen turned to a man with thick black hair and dark eyes, with tanned skin much like Lucy's.

"Lucy Lou!" the man exclaimed! "Long time, no see! How are you?"

"Wonderful. School's great, things are looking up...Mom's dating again, actually."

The man's eyes softened. "That's great, Lucy. How can I help you?"

She grinned. "I've got a wonderful case for you, Ricky."

…

V'Las smirked to himself as he completed his reading and turned his thoughts to Oratt's hearing. He had called for a hearing on Earth, as was his right, unfortunately, but V'Las was sure that it would fall through and Oratt could be tried on Vulcan. One did not simply defy the High Command, or its administrator.

An alarm went off at his console, informing him of an important message, and he accessed it, and as he read, his eyes narrowed and his lips drew in to a thin, displeased line. So this is how it would be?

He would see about that.