In The Eyes of Sanaa

Sanaa watched a lot. She noticed that people wanted her to engage in conversation, now that she could talk, but that simply meant to her that she should be more quiet. Unless someone was teaching her to improve how to say things, she was not committed to having those frustrating interactions in which she tried to say something and they guessed wrong 2-6 times before getting to the word to help her with.

Things that she noticed through her observations?:

1. Despite his small stature and lack of purpose in her life, Sytar managed to get a lot of frivolous, counterproductive things done.

For instance, on today, he cultivated his creativity by screen top artwork, then abandoned his device without turning it off so that he could play with his toy robots, which he also decided to strand in the living room, on the floor. He went into his room, causing much noise to the effect that she imagined a mad scientist constructing a monster. When he came out, covered in green goo and colored sand, she thought maybe she was not imaginative enough! He tracked the mess with him back into the kitchen and rewarded himself with snacks that he had not gotten confirmation that he could have. He slid her a portion of soft fruit for bribery purposes. She ate it, only because she knew if she left it there, it would be more mess for someone else to clean up. After all of that, he had the audacity to announce that he was tired and take himself to the couch for a nap.

2. Despite all of his responsibilities and desires, Styik spent a lot of time on damage control. Eventually, he emerged. She had gone to the entrance of his bedroom several times to gain his attention, but noticing he was busy, kept electing to come back. He entered the living room, looked at her in the walker and mused, "I hope that you never do these things." Just the suggestion was insulting and she intended for her entire face to convey that. Styik went to the kitchen to prepare her a bowl of soft fruit before beginning his mission of cleaning up Sytar's mess, waking him up to urge him to go clean himself and his room, while he was at it, and setting the living - couch and carpet as well, and the kitchen, covered in handprints and foot tracks to presentable order.

"I am going to go back into my room to complete my research for my courses." He activated the baby monitor on her walker, "If he tries to repeat these antics, just push the red button for my attention." She nodded her head once and pushed it. "It works. Only press it when he messes something up." She pressed it again. "Sanaa…" Then he heard a small noise behind him and turned to see Sytar, dragging a bag of colored sand towards the trash, and creating a whole trail with it. Styik sighed, pushed her walker in front of the TV to turn on a show about a wunderkind doctor, exploring galaxies to take on xenobiology projects. Sanaa had seen this one… It was her favorite. There were Vulcans on it and they were not as kind to the child doctor as a lot of places were, but not angry… just not impressed. She enjoyed when she had a chance to see Vulcans in entertainment, because they had no representation usually. (She was too young to know that all Vulcans on entertainment programs were simply other humanoid forms dressed up to look like them).

She glanced at her brothers to see Styik vacuuming the sand and Sytar pouring out his goo in the trash, but making also a puddle of it on the floor near the unit. She pressed the button and Styik jumped at alert in his ear and turned. "Sytar! Just… wait for help."

"You said clean up my mess!" Sytar defended himself.

"Yes, not to make more of a mess in trying to do so. I meant more along the lines of make sure your robots are put back in place, your activity padd is off and put away, and your clothes are changed into something that is not going to track all of the big messes back through our quarters."

"So, you meant organize, not clean?" Sytar said.

Styik angrily swallowed down his impulses and said calmly, through his teeth, "My apologies. You are correct. I needed to be more clear about my expectations, as Father would be. Proceed to organize and abort your cleaning project."

And abort he did. He dropped the remainder of his play goo onto the floor next to the trash, tracked it back into his room…

3. Despite how tired she sometimes whispered to Spock that she was at the end of the day, Nyota did a lot of additional leg work in the house. This morning, she did yoga, began communications for today's delegation of duties, sent off all the laundry, completed the grocery and supplies orders for her family quarters, devoted proper credits to proper avenues of daytime childcare and Styik's computer courses, washed up, got dressed and prepared breakfast for her family. (All of this was prior to her work day.) Spock would comment that when he is scheduled to do some of these things that he will do them, but if she reached them first, she just "went for it."

Sanaa had learned not to call out for her, even if she woke up hours before her "wake up time," because she had witnessed, at least in partial glimpses that her mother did all of these things, trying to finish them before it was time for her to do the whole "mother thing."

Whenever she came to retrieve Sanaa from the nursery, she had either done a lot of this already, or let her sit on the couch while she got it done, sporadically engaging her in a smile or announcing what she was doing and how soon she would receive milk. Honestly, Sanaa just wanted her to maybe take a break, so that she wouldn't be so tired when she got home that she would be withdrawn from playtime.

Nyota tripped over a robot and cussed under her breath, widened her eyes, looked to Sanaa and apologized, "Never ever say that word, okay? No no word. Bad mommy!" She picked up the robot, placed it front and center on the table and went to finish preparing breakfast.

As soon as the boys entered, she asked, "How did I manage to trip over a robot this morning?"

Styik sighed and Sytar simply sat at the table, as though not responsible for it. "I must have missed it, Mother," Styik said. "I apologize for not getting him to clear everything away."

Nyota sighed and told Sytar, "Go put it away, please." When he happily rushed to do it, she complimented him, "Thank you, my big boy!" She asked Styik as she set plates on the table, "Do you need backup when we aren't here?"

"Mother, with all due respect, it was one robot…" Styik said, not wanting to mention the hours he spent making sure that the place was immaculate after Sytar's commission to mass destruction in every room. Sanaa wish she had the words in her vocabulary to testify on his behalf.

Nyota nodded, understanding. "I know. I know. But, you do have a lot on your plate and if you need help, I need to know, so that I can make arrangements."

"At my age, no Vulcan child should need of assistance in the home without parents. I am not far from manhood," he said, indignantly. She sighed, having not thought about that. He was 12 now… He had only a couple of more years or so before he reached puberty and with his Vulcan genes… "Don't bother yourself with anxiety, Mother. I am more than capable and more than happy to be responsible for the children when you and Father are not home."

Sanaa folded her arms and looked at him with disappointment. He ought to give an honest report of the shenanigans of Sytar. "Sydar bad." She told him.

"He's not bad. He is, well… human and a toddler. It isn't his fault." He explained and pulled her arms free. She folded them again and turned away from him.

"Where him?" She wondered.

Nyota called, "Sytar! You got that robot put away, Son?" He came running back and had some kind of mess in his hair. Mother laughed, "What is this?" She wondered and picked it out. "No kinds of crafts before daycare, and you'd better clean up anything you messed up before you leave."

"Of course, Mommy," he said sweetly and dug into his breakfast.

"Sydar bad," Sanaa whispered before Nyota handed her a bottle of breastmilk, so that she could feed herself that while Mother collected the kitchen items to put into the wash.

4. Despite commonly not being the most active of the big people, Father was the absolute smartest and most efficient.

Spock came into the kitchen and said, "Sytar, I've just passed by your bedroom and you've made a mess. Pause on eating your food and clean and organize it. The quicker you finish, the quicker you may finish breakfast." Sytar rushed to do this. "I will check on you to be sure that it is acceptable," Spock added and took a seat at the table. "Styik, Tirza sent me a message that you made unlikely errors on yesterday's assignments."

"I apologize, Father. I must have been distracted," Styik said.

"Sydar," Sanaa gurgled, getting milk on her chin and frowning about it.

Spock glanced at her, then looked back at Styik, "Well, if your brother is becoming a distraction that gives way to error on your assignments, we will provide additional support for him."

"Father, I can…"

"It is our responsibility to parent the three of you. You are not required to help raise our children. We have been placing an obviously unfair workload on you in allowing you to do so."

Styik sadly replied, "I feel like I have failed you, now."

Spock reached for Styik's shoulder and said, with no emotion, "It has been our mistake to ask you to pick up slack in parenting. You have made your mother proud and I see no failure in any of your efforts. I am more concerned that your lessons be untarnished than your childcare exploits." He removed his hand and looked at Sanaa, "Thank you for looking out for your brother. He has gotten used to being someone who looks out for everyone else and forgets himself."

"This is utilitarianism, Father."

"I appreciate that you are concerned with such values. This characteristic will benefit you greatly as an adult. Right now, please refrain from self sacrifice in order to allow us to pick up extra hours at work or sleep in later in the morning." Nyota furrowed her eyebrows, but didn't refute that or look at him. But, Sanaa noticed.

Sytar came back and said calmly, "Father, will you check my room to see if I did this right?" Spock got up to do so.

5. Despite all of the things that everyone did around the place and the fact that Sanaa did nothing, everyone made sure that she was tended to…

Spock often brought her with him to his computer while he was working, so that she might take in some of it, or just to keep her out of the way while Nyota helped Sytar with crafts or Styik worked on a project. He talked to her often, shared with her mentally, fed her, cleaned her up, and such.

As she had already observed, Nyota would bring her with her as she took care of business, too. Sometimes, in the harness, and she always explained to her what was happening. Not once did Sanaa ever have to wonder what her mother was doing, probably because she couldn't communicate with her telepathically, or because she just loved talking, but her voice was very soothing and it did give Sanaa comfort that someone felt the need to speak with her, even though she knew she wanted her to talk back.

Styik made her feel important in that he seemed to trust her to communicate with him, in what she thought of as an assistant capacity. If course, she did not contain this vocabulary, but she did know the feelings she felt. Styik was to her, a third parent. It was going to take her some time to separate in her head that even though he was one of the big people… he was apparently… one of the small people? He was to be cared for and raised, like her and bad Sytar. She tilted her head at that realization and reached her hand out to him. He gave her a semi smile and touched his fingers to hers.

Spock came back and reported, "I am pleased. Resume your breakfast."

Sytar asked politely, "Will you rewarm it for me, please?" Nyota moved in to do so, and Spock stifled a sigh as he sat down again and began to feed Sanaa her formula.

"I intended to do that," he commented.

"I'm already up," Nyota said.

"Have you eaten, yet?" Spock wondered.

"You ought to know that I haven't had the chance yet," she said, with a smile, but Sanaa knew that was no smiling voice and tone.

Spock offered, "I recommend taking a seat, allowing yourself to eat and I am more than capable of finishing up anything else that is needed this morning."

Sanaa said, "I help," getting formula on her chin and frowning about it. The smile that brightened Nyota's face at her voice was alarming, but very nice.

She came over to the table, kissed her on top of her curly hair and wiped her face, "Thank you, but Mommy's got it!" She went to grab Sytar's food and place it back in front of him.

Sytar, lowered his head, like she sometimes did, said a short little grace under his breath and finished eating.

Spock picked up Sanas's empty dishes, got up, took them and everything Nyota had in her hands and said, more sternly, now, "Eat." She threw both hands in the air with a smile and went to do so. He informed her, "And, I will be scheduled to wake up two hours before you, so that you do not overwork yourself when it is my turn to maintain these tasks. We created the agenda for reasons, among them - you experiencing burnout from exhaustion. This is especially illogical because you have a Vulcan partner, whose body and mind can endure both of the obligations that we share combined alone; therefore, for you to volunteer yourself to…" She stuffed a piece of fruit into his mouth and sat back down.

"Got it, Commander," she told him, as Styik chuckled silently and Sanaa just observed.

6. Despite the tension that Nyota's humanity sometimes brought into the room, everyone was whatever that whole happy thing people talked about was.

Nyota and Spock would debate over who was responsible for what… both attempting to take a load off for each other and for Styik, but they pressed their faces together a lot, too. Sanaa was told that was something that happy people in love liked to do. She didn't know about any of that. She didn't like anybody within a foot of her face, unless they were coming with a spoonful of something good or an interesting video or something. Not their bodies. Unless it was her parents. They got a pass because she was allowed to sleep on them, in a harness or just on the chests or laps. It was much more pleasant with Father, because he was comfortably warm. But, Mother was softer and smelled like pretty things, so that was nice too.

Styik, while vexed about constantly picking up after Sytar, also regularly laughed and played with him. He had a chance to see a Vulcan boy grow up in a healthy environment and have happiness, something that he himself did not get to have at Sytar's age (and one of the main reasons he was so eager to offer his provisions. When Sanaa watched him tickle his little brother, or give him high fives, or lift him onto his shoulders through a chorus of laughs, she did not respond or react, but inside; it was nice to see that even though Sytar made a mess of Styik's life on a daily basis, Styik still wanted him in it. That was that whole… love thing she was told about again. And, she figured as long as he had Sytar to pick up and toss about and playfully tackle to the floor, she never had to worry about such horseplay being brought to her personal space.

Suddenly, Sytar said, "DO SANAA!"

And she knew that for a moment, her eyes went wide, because Styik looked at her in her walker, slowly backing away and told Sytar, "She doesn't like that. She likes, you know… like quiet and order."

"She's a baby like Father," Sytar said.

With that one comment, Sanaa accepted that maybe, she was happy with this bunch too… Yes, even him.