A/N- Once again, special thanks to Vulcan Language Dictionary!

Ten

Shanna awoke the next day to a crying, raging Ananda and an even worse headache. "Owww." The baby's screeching cry made it that much worse. "Come on, kid," she halfway whispered, "have some mercy on me." Even talking hurt!

She stood to get Ananda ready for the day and opened her curtains. The daylight hurt! Walking over to take care of Ananda, everything hurt!

She got Ananda fed, cleaned up and dressed and was only able to halfway get herself ready. She took the baby to her mother's house and decided to finish getting ready over there hoping her headache would have eased up some by then.

"What happened to you?" asked her mother the moment she saw her daughter's pain-stricken face.

"I have a headache like you wouldn't believe," she said as she stepped into her home and handed Ananda over.

Shanna immediately went and began fixing her hair in her mother's hallway mirror as the older woman brought the baby into the kitchen to sit her in a booster chair and mix her up some rice cereal.

"Anything you know of that brought it on?" her mother asked from the kitchen.

"I suspect it was my impulsivity," she whispered past the pain.

Her mother was confused by that answer, but she didn't exactly know how to address it. "Maybe you shouldn't go to work today. Maybe you should lie down right now." She was obviously worried.

"I'm all right, mom. When I get there I can get a hypo from the pharmacy near the embassy and I'll be okay." She was dabbing on a tiny bit of gloss because adding anything else that day was nothing short of painful.

"Get that hypo as soon as possible," her mother was saying to her.

"I will, mom," she promised as she walked out onto the street to catch a shuttle to work.

Shanna picked up an extra strength headache medicine from a pharmacy two blocks from the embassy, went into the pharmacy bathroom and administered it immediately. After walking out and back onto the pavement she could feel the hypo starting to dull the pain. It made it easier to walk and function, but the pain was still there. She knew that after some more time the hypo should kick in even more and take all of the pain away. But to make matters worse, was that a stiff neck she was starting to get?

She pushed herself onward, glad that the pain would be easing up soon and eager to see Siranon that day. Is he my husband now?

##

Siranon heard a thought stray into his mind while he was sitting behind his desk. No one was around and he found himself giving off a half smile and answering it with his own return thought:

Yes, ashal-veh, I am your husband now. And you are my wife…

He could feel an answering sharp burst of surprised joy from Shanna. But he could also detect a note of deep pain. He frowned. Why was she in pain? His eyes widened and then he knew why she might be in pain. Why had it not occurred to him until now that she might develop side-effects from the bond?

He turned to his terminal and called up the embassy to speak to his cousin, the Healer on staff.

Sokam appeared on his screen. "My cousin, how may I help you today?"

It was difficult for him to admit it, but he said, "I do believe I have performed my bonding improperly and I may need your help to-" he paused.

He saw that Sokam was very much not pleased. "Did I not tell you when it was time that you should come to me to perform your bonding?"

Siranon frowned at him. "It was not planned." He expected his cousin to upbraid him fully then about his illogical impulsiveness.

But Sokam merely nodded. "I have been in such a situation myself. Shall you be bringing her in now?"

He swallowed. "She has not yet arrived for her work duties."

His cousin sat there on the other side of the screen, face impassive. "Am I to understand you bonded a human female to you and then you allowed her to leave your side?"

"Yes, that is correct. There are extenuating circumstances."

Sokam blinked three times. "Your self-control was sorely lacking and then it became impeccable. I do not understand these flights of illogic you have been given to lately. Perhaps you are closer to your Time than you initially estimated."

"Say nothing to her of that!"

Sokam was intensely curious by that outburst. Was his cousin in a panic? "You have not told her."

He gave off an almost imperceptible sigh. "I have not told her."

Sokam's brows lifted. "Be certain when you do that I am out of the city. I too made the error of not informing my human wife until after the fact. Her reaction was- unprecedented."

Siranon found his left brow lifting. Ever since Sokam had married his wife years before, he had been given to cryptic human humor. But there was not one hint of a smile on his face. "As soon as I am able, I shall bring her to you for an examination."

Sokam merely nodded in answer and then disconnected the call.

##

Shanna went straight to Telvin and began her duties that morning. She sat Telvin's tea down before him and then went to get his schedule together. It felt like daggers were stabbing her through the eyes and up into the back of her skull but she was trying her best to not show it. "I'll be right back," she said to him as she walked out of his office and made her way to her terminal.

She sat down and began getting his schedule together on a travel PADD. Looking at the screen, the pain was once again becoming unbearable. It seemed as if a taut rope were pulling tighter and tighter along the back of her neck and spine. She couldn't understand how that hypo wore off so quickly, she had only just taken it less than an hour before. If anything, the hypo should have had more effect as time went on, not less!

She walked back into Telvin's office and gave him the PADD with his schedule, turned to walk back out. Before she could make it through the door of his office, the pain suddenly doubled and caused her knees to buckle. She braced herself with one hand on the wall and thankfully was able to keep in the sound of pain trying to escape her mouth.

She never knew Telvin could move that fast! The older man was standing just behind her almost instantly, holding her up. "Young Shanna?" he asked, obviously very concerned about her. "Come, sit," he said as he guided her to the nearest chair.

As soon as she sat down, "I'm fine," she tried to get up.

"Kroykah! Fa wak tor du ra karthau!" he chastised as he forced her to sit down. (Stop! You will do what I command!) "Sit down this instant!"

She couldn't believe such a frail looking form could generate such strength, but he was making her stay put simply from pushing her down into the chair and she actually couldn't move from the spot. "All right, I'll stay down," she promised as the pain in her head seemed to get even worse.

"You should return home at once and see to receiving proper medical care. Whom may I call at this time to make certain you do so?"

She swallowed back a frown. Now was as good a time as any. "Call Siranon."

Telvin's face shifted and he was then looking at her as if he knew it all. "I see." He went to the intercom. "Siranon, this is Telvin. My assistant says she is in need of you. Attend immediately!" he snapped.

Shanna wanted to put her head down and rest, but the moment she sat forward to put her head into her arms, the pounding in her cranium became worse so she sat straight back up. "This is the worst headache I have ever had," she declared as neutrally as possible, not to prevent looking bad in front of Telvin, but because she noticed excess emotion made her head feel even worse. The bright lights of the office were killing her, so she simply sat up with her head and neck as straight as possible and closed her eyes. And then the dizziness hit. "Oh hell no," she found herself muttering. "So it can get worse?"

Siranon walked through the door. "What have you been doing with my assistant?" Telvin demanded to know.

"What has happened with her?" asked Siranon.

"It's just a bad headache, that's all," Shanna was saying.

"Young Shanna is in need of medical care but she is asking for you?" said Telvin. "May I ask why? Have you engaged in improper telepathic contact with her?"

"The contact was not improper since she is now my wife. Did you not call me to attend her?"

"Could you guys stop talking for a minute?" Shanna cringed. "The sounds are hitting me in the head."

Telvin's demeanor changed instantly. "Take her over to the embassy to see the Healer this minute. In fact, beam over with her. I shall take your place with Sarek today."

"I thank you," Siranon said quickly as he assisted Shanna to her feet and walked her out of Telvin's office.

"This really isn't necessary," she was insisting. "I should just go home and go to bed or something. I should have bought the Klingon strength hypo," she halfway joked, trying to get out of seeing the Healer.

As soon as they walked out of Telvin's office, Shanna immediately tried to pull away from Siranon and walk on her own. She knew what was proper and what was not and she knew that he would not want to be seen in public with someone having physical contact with him.

But to her surprise, he grabbed her back to him. "You are not only injured, but it is due to my negligence," he said halfway chastising her for pulling away. But beneath it, she could sense he was palpably angry with himself.

"What?" she asked, confused. "Injured? Your negligence? What are you talking about?" she whispered as she gratefully leaned on him.

Already, people were staring and worried. One wound up asking, "Shanna, are you sick?"

"Sure as hell am," she answered dizzily.

"I'll help," said another well-meaning co-worker, Richard Miller. "You can go back to work, Siranon. Where you need to go, Shanna? Embassy doctor?"

"I have her," Siranon said as he continued walking.

"Didn't figure them to be the touchy feely type," someone else muttered.

Telvin then took everyone's attention by standing in his doorway and announcing sharply, "Return to your duties. Siranon shall help his wife, as is proper."

Most of the heads whipped back around just in time to see the two already on their way out of the office door.

He walked her into the guard station on the first floor of the building. "Permission to transport over to the embassy med bay," he said to the guard on duty.

"Identification," said the Vulcan guard, since that was the protocol.

Siranon pulled his identi-swipe out of his pocket and gave it over to the guard whom cued it up immediately. "Come this way," the guard said on a nod once the proper details came up.

She was helped into the transporter room and then they both beamed over at once straight to the embassy Healer. As soon as they rematerialized, Shanna was hit with an even worse wave of dizziness and nearly dropped to her knees as Siranon picked her up quickly. "Bring her to me," said Sokam.

Shanna slowly opened her eyes to look up at the Healer after Siranon placed her on one of the bio beds. She had seen the Healer many times before, but never knew exactly who he was. He had the most peculiar copper colored eyes and she could definitely see a strong resemblance between him and Siranon. "I can tell you guys are related," she found herself saying since the headache was starting to make her slightly delirious.

Sokam's eyebrow rose as he looked down at Shanna. "Can you tell me of your core symptoms?" he nearly whispered knowing she was probably in a lot of pain.

"I've got a headache like I was kicked in the cranium after drinking too much while whippin' my hair back and forth at a Dilithium concert." She groaned as she was hit with another dizzy spell. "The room is turning one way and my stomach is spinning in the opposite direction. Thank goodness there's no breakfast in there to make a repeat performance."

Sokam looked at Siranon with amusement in his eyes. "She is colorful in her explanations."

He held himself back from smiling. "Sokam, this is my bondmate. Shanna, this is my cousin, the Healer."

"I shall determine if she is truly your bondmate," said the Healer in almost censure. The first thing Sokam did was dial the lighting down in the room by nearly half.

"Thank you," whispered Shanna, relieved that the lights were no longer stabbing her in the eyes.

"May I?" Sokam asked Shanna in a hushed voice as his hand rose to her head.

"Please," she practically begged. "Fix it."

Sokam placed both of his hands on her face for a little less than four seconds. "Hmm." He then faced Siranon and did the same thing.

He then put one hand each on both their faces at the same time, closed his eyes and concentrated.

As she lay there, the first thing Shanna felt was a deep sense of drowsiness. She felt like her head was soaring in the night sky with the clouds and cool rain and the dizziness was more pleasant than annoying. The pain then began to lessen with every second that passed. Slowly, the dizziness subsided and then left.

The couple felt the connection to one another being changed, switched out for different connections. The bond that was only there by several tenuous threads was now being strengthened. Shanna's nausea reduced rapidly and she was filled with amazement as she truly felt a mingling somewhere deep within of their three minds. Then the Healer withdrew. Siranon was still there, like a sleeping shadow. Warm, welcoming, hers…

It took less than five minutes for Sokam to repair whatever had gone wrong. As soon as he withdrew from their minds, he informed Siranona, "I must record this now as your official date of bonding."

His cousin nodded quickly. "Yes, of course."

Shanna went to sit up, but Sokam said, "You will remain lying down at this time. I could not help but notice, there are other concerns in your physiology that must be addressed."

"Other concerns?" she asked as she lay back again. "The headache is gone and so is the dizziness. I actually feel great now."

Sokam activated the bio bed she was lying in. "You are terribly sleep deprived…" he continued looking at her readings. "You are in the midst of a severe iron deficiency. And your daily caloric intake is just below what it should be." He looked at Siranon with a question on his face.

"I was not aware her health had been this thoroughly compromised," said Siranon.

"And now that you are, you shall take steps to make certain your wife remains in bed for the next 72 hours after I release her from my care."

Shanna couldn't believe that he was blaming Siranon for her condition! Her eyes widened. "That's three days. I have a job! I'm supposed to be finishing my packing so I can move! What about Ananda?"

Sokam was unmoved by her protestations. "You shall only rise for the next three days in order to clean yourself, change clothing and partake of meals," the Healer said as he looked pointedly at her. "I shall leave you two to work out the particulars at this time." Before he departed, he looked back at Siranon, "And she should only rest while lying down."

After Sokam left, Shanna couldn't help but to laugh at that last sentence. "Why is he blaming you for my being sleep deprived and iron starved? It's not your fault."

Siranon sat next to her. "In our culture, the spouse is responsible for your direct health. I am responsible for yours and you are responsible for mine."

She shook her head. "We only just bonded, though."

"And I performed that quite unwell," he admitted.

"It's my fault," she sighed. "I pushed you into it."

He said, "No. It happened because I wanted it to happen overly much. I allowed my emotions to cloud my judgment."

Shanna was struck speechless to hear such an admission. From that moment, things were changing in her mind concerning him and what he did or did not do concerning her. She saw she had significant influence over him and it scared her just the slightest. No man she had ever gone out with cared that much how she felt or what she wanted to the point of doing something detrimental to them both. "I'll be more careful. I promise."

"As shall I," he said as he looked down into her eyes.

She swallowed back concern. "So, um, he said something about this being our official date of bonding?"

Siranon nodded. "We are official and legally married according to our laws and customs now since he was the one that went in and adjusted things properly. He will go and enter it in the family archives at this time and he will also see about having us registered properly with Earth authorities."

Her mouth dropped open. "What about our wedding?"

"Perhaps next year this time on the anniversary of this date?"

Everything was so out of control and up in the air. And she didn't even care. She started to giggle then as a sense of high joy and almost manic elation washed over her. "What is this feeling?" she asked.

"It is called 'Muhl olau'es Telsu'." He sought for as close a translation as possible.

"'Bonding euphoria'?" she translated it herself since her Vulcan was quite passable. Feelings of elation and happiness spilled from her as she started wiping tears from her face. "Do you feel it too?"

He looked down into her eyes as he could no longer control the slight grin at one side of his mouth. "I do." He leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. "Yes, ashal-veh, I do."