Disclaimer: I do not own Amanda or Sarek

Special thanks to Beta Notes from the Classroom

Most Eligible

"I request a different dance instructor," Sarek said.

Josef looked up from his PADD. "Did Madame Toullard grab your ass, too?"

It was 19:25 on the night of Sarek's first dance lesson. He had returned immediately to the office, knowing Josef would be there. Twenty-five minutes ago he had successfully fought back the urge to toss Madame Toullard across the room...now he was fighting off the urge to do the same to Josef. If nothing else, living among humans did provide ample opportunity to test one's emotional control.

Forcing his voice to remain even, Sarek responded. "You knew of her inappropriate behavior, and yet you sent me to her?"

Friedmann shrugged. "I thought she had good taste. Now I see it was just desperation."

Sarek tilted his head. "Insults will not compromise my emotional control. Now, is there another instructor I may deal with?"

"Not that I know of personally. Madame Toullard is really quite good, when she remains focused. She also taught the Ambassador," Friedmann said.

"I doubt she subjected the Ambassador to the same...affections," Sarek said, keeping his arms stiffly at his side.

Friedmann shrugged. "Hard to say. We humans can be lascivious." He looked back to his PADD. "I'm sure if you look online you'll find someone."

And then he sat up straight again and tapped a stylus against his desk. "Of course, they might not be any better. The best way to be safe is to get a partner."

"A partner?" Sarek asked.

Friedmann shrugged again. "Someone to make the instructor -- or other students if you go the group lesson route--think you're taken."

Then Friedmann's attention was diverted. Looking up quickly past Sarek he called out, "Amanda! Vulcan class just get out?"

Sarek turned. There was Amanda in the doorway, a bag slung over her shoulder.

"Hey, Sarek," she said stepping into the office. "Hi, Josef."

Sarek was illogically pleased that she greeted him first.

"It's been a long time since I've seen you," Friedmann said with a smile, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Sarek tilted his head, perplexed by the expression on Friedmann's face.

"They moved our class to the basement for a while," Amanda said with a shrug. And then she smiled wide. "I actually saw you, Mr. Friedmann, just this weekend. Only honorable mention? It's a shame."

"What?" said Josef, his smile vanishing, a furrow showing between his brows.

Amanda pulled a PADD from her bag, touched the screen a few times and began to read. "Since he would not return our requests for interviews, we were forced to take Josef Friedmann off of our list of San Francisco's Most Eligible Bachelors, but we couldn't resist naming him as an honorable mention..."

Standing up quickly, Josef walked around his desk to Amanda

Amanda seemed not notice. "...it takes chutzpah for anyone to talk Vulcans into letting them into a position involving numbers. That is just what Josef Friedmann has done. And ladies, with the Vulcan-to-Terran credit exchange rate being what it is..."

Snatching the PADD from her hands, Josef stared down and said in a low voice, "No one talks Vulcans into anything illogical...and I told them I did not want my name in here..."

Tilting his head, Sarek scanned his mental dictionary. Chutzpah; the quality of audacity, for good or for bad, derived from the Hebrew word huspa meaning "insolence", "audacity", and "impertinence." Audacity, insolence and impertinence were negative traits...but humans believed they could be good or bad. What an ambiguous word. And alien concept.

...and apparently Terrans themselves thought it was something other than merit that got Friedmann his position.

Amanda crossed her arms over her chest. "Huh. I thought you'd think it was funny."

Clutching the PADD so tightly his knuckles were white, Josef muttered, "Disrespectful." His brows knit tightly together.

Sarek stared at the man, triply annoyed--annoyed that Friedmann had received honorable mention as 'Most Eligible Bachelor,' annoyed that Amanda knew this, and annoyed that he was annoyed about two things that were completely inappropriate to be annoyed about.

From beside Friedman's desk, Amanda said suddenly, "Oh, hey, you were invited to the Federation Ball. Me, too..."

"Really?" Sarek and Josef both said in unison. Sarek's eyes slid to look at the human man...and found Josef eying him, too.

"Well...my invitation was second-hand." Amanda said, picking up the card and examining it. "My parents are friends with the Senator from the North American Northwest Province and the Senator's sending his son...and his son needed a date...so I'm going..." She looked up at Sarek and said in Vulcan, "Potential husband number nine." Then she laughed and switched to Standard. "That sounds so much funnier in Vulcan--I guess because you don't go shopping for your mates?"

...last time they had talked she'd only been up to potential husband number seven. It had only been a week. "Potential husband number eight came and went quite quickly," Sarek said.

"Well, it's quite an honor to be invited to the Federation Ball...Potential husband number nine sounds quite promising," Friedmann said in Standard, looking between the two of them.

Amanda huffed. "His father was invited...and is sending his son instead, which I think sounds like a snub from said senator...and I don't think just being the son of a senator is indicative of any sort of promise."

"I like your thinking," Friedmann said, the corners of his lips beginning to twitch upwards.

She huffed again. "Whenever our parents got together I had to endure his company when we were kids. He called me Bug Eyes."

"What is this charming gentleman's name?" asked Friedmann with a definite smile.

Putting the invitation back on Friedmann's desk, Amanda sighed. "Jason Ethridge. I'm only doing this to make my parents happy." Shaking her head she said, "And what about you, Mr. Friedmann? Anyone you're taking to the ball?"

Pushing up his glasses, Friedmann said, "Well, so far, my only company is Sarek here."

Sarek turned his head sharply to look at the other man.

"I had no idea you guys were so close..." Amanda said with a smile. Then her eyes got wide. "Sarek, will you dance?"

"That is currently in question," Sarek responded, turning away from Friedmann again.

"Hmmmm...it might help with interplanetary diplomacy," said Amanda with a smile. "May I have my PADD back, Josef?"

Handing the PADD back to her, Friedmann said, "Or hurt interplanetary diplomacy."

Sarek turned his head sharply to the human again.

"Well, you won't get any mockery from me, Sarek. My ballroom dancing skills are really rusty," Amanda said, putting the PADD into her bag and stepping towards the door. "I need to get home now. See you both later."

Sarek watched her exit the room. Turning back towards Friedmann, he noticed the other man's eyes had been following her as well.

Walking back to his desk, Friedmann said, "What you need is a partner."

x x x

Staring at his computer monitor later that evening in his apartment, Sarek steepled his fingers. Whenever miscellaneous medical expenses exceeded 100,000 Terran credits, transportation was the culprit. Eight years ago was no exception. The Embassy's own starship had been engaged, but he could not access its manifest. By the amount of anti-matter and matter purchased, Sarek could see either many passengers had been transported, probably beamed directly to the ship, or the ship had taken a few passengers a long distance.

He'd run through every news source available from two years ago. There was no report of any epidemics. A few Vulcan babies had been born, but all in Embassy or consulate med centers without complications. Perhaps someone had been severely injured, or there had been a serious illness that required a Vulcan transported back to the home planet for treatment? But why was that not clearly indicated?

Dropping his hands to the keyboard, he began devising a query to pull up every instance of the Embassy starship being engaged for medical purposes. There were over three hundred results. He ran a query on these results to see how many of these trips did not have an accessible manifest.

In over one hundred years there had been fifty such incidents--the episode eight years ago that he had just been researching...and three years ago as well.

Sarek sat back in his chair. One missing manifest was an oversight. Fifty was a definite pattern.

He was not supposed to be investigating this...However, he was doing it on his own time...He had not been told specifically to ignore the other incidents of high expenses.

He needed to get the Embassy ships' manifests. But how?

His concentration was interrupted by notification that Amanda had just sent him an email. He clicked to see what she had sent.

Sarek,

There is a lecture at UC San Francisco on comparative Vulcan-Human fetal development. Do you want to go?

Did he want to go? Was the force of gravity on Earth 9.81 m/s2? Sarek blinked at his own mental indulgence in a rhetorical question. Fascinating.

He read on:

It's one week after the Federation Ball. Can't wait to see you *there* twinkletoes. At least I won't be the only bad dancer making a spectacle of myself.

Amanda

Sarek's stomach constricted to a tight ball. There were few things that Vulcans liked less than being made a spectacle...

...except unwanted hands in unwanted places as had occurred with Madame Toullard earlier that day...Sarek found himself suppressing a non-affectionate growl.

He looked again at Amanda's message. A solution to his inability-to-dance crisis and Madame Toullard's unwelcome advances?

He dropped his fingers to the keypad and began to type a response...and an invitation.

A/N:

Short, but I hope entertaining! Romance and mystery continue next chapter!

Sister, can you spare some time? If you were mildly entertained review. It is the only way Fan Fiction authors and our betas get paid, and it really helps keep us going.