Spock dreamed of Vulcan again a few days after they left the colony. Dreamed of his childhood home and his mother. This time, there was only one girl accompanying her by her flowers – a school–aged vision of the baby he'd put to bed earlier in the night.

"Is this enough, Grandma?" she asked as she poured water over some of the plants.

"Perfect," she told her namesake with a smile.

Little Amanda was the first to notice her father's presence. "Hi, Daddy!" she called, getting up to go and give him a hug. "Do you want to help?"

"I will watch you," he told her. She giggled before returning to her work.

Amanda got up to join her son. "She's beautiful, isn't she?" she asked him.

He slowly nodded. "This is who she will be?"

"Who she could be, based on the outcomes of a thousand different decisions that face you. For many, it won't be as simple as 'wrong' or 'right'."

It seemed overwhelming at that moment; a single misstep could cause the vision before him to be lost. "How will I know?"

"You won't always. I didn't. You can't even be certain that this is the best possible outcome. All you can do is make sure that she's safe and content – whatever that may mean for her."

"It is unfair that she will not have the opportunity to know you."

She smiled slightly. "I won't be far."

As Spock woke up and attempted to roll over to face his wife, he realized there were two lumps in the bed that hadn't been there the night before. Turning more carefully, he saw that both Leryn and Amanda were sleeping between him and Nyota.

She smiled when she saw that her husband was awake. "Leryn had a nightmare," she whispered in explanation. "I was too tired to fight with her when she asked to sleep in here. And then apparently Amanda felt left out."

He watched his daughters sleep for a long moment before turning back to his wife. "Thank you," he told her.

Nyota smiled. "For what?"

"Our family. The future we will have together."

"It wasn't all me."

"No, but you are our center."

Her smile widened. "Did you ever think that things would end up like this when you offered me a position as your teaching aide?"

"If someone had suggested the idea, I would have directed them straight to the Medical Center for psychiatric evaluation," he replied. She laughed, covering her mouth with her hand to keep from waking the girls. "However," he continued, "I would not change a single moment for anything."

FIN.

A/N: So, I hope everyone enjoyed the story. Thanks once again for all the feedback I got. I've actually started working on a fourth story for the series; that should be up sometime soon.