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XIV
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"Jim," McCoy says, more urgently than before, "They've spent the last three months caring for three infants 24/7. The last thing they want is you bursting into their hotel room, unannounced -"
Kirk stares down the doctor, makes an exaggerated display of knocking thrice on the door before pushing his way in despite there being no answer from the inside. "Hello?" Kirk says, poking his head in through the hotel room door, "Can we come in?"
"Wait for a response at least Jim," McCoy snaps, following Kirk so closely he steps on the Captain's shoes.
Kirk flicks on the light, "Everybody decent? Everyone is waiting for you downstairs. Did you forget the welcome back party?"
"The bedroom door is closed, Jim," McCoy says, pointing, "They're asleep. Let's - "
That's when both men notice the noises coming from the crib across the room. McCoy grabs for the Captain a second too late. Jim is already halfway across the room.
"Hey guys," Jim says, grinning hard at the baby girl and the baby boy inside. The pair are facing one another, making noises to each other but when Jim interrupts their conversation, they turn to look at him, "I know you two. Your daddy sent me pictures and videos. I'm your Uncle Jim." Kirk reaches down to pinch the girl's chubby cheek.
"Look at her, glaring at you," Leonard says, leaning over Jim's shoulder, gesturing towards the baby girl's narrowed eyes, "I already like her." McCoy bites his cheek hard to hid the fact that he find them both obscenely cute. Damn it. "I'll be you fifty credits. She's gonna want you to call her just Uhura. Family tradition."
"No. She loves me," Kirk says, leaning closer. He pauses and from the look on his face, McCoy is certain the Captain is formulating a stupid idea, "I'm wanna hold one."
"At least ask first, Jim," McCoy say blocking Kirk. The doctor pushes Kirk's hands away, "Or sit down and let me hand you them."
"I'll sit down," Kirk says, hurrying towards the couch.
"And try to remember you're holding a delicate infant," McCoy says, adjusts Kirk's arms. The doctor crosses the room, watching the babies for a moment. The boy seems a little bit less squirmy. He places the infant in Kirk's arms, "Support his head, Jim. And -" McCoy stops. Jim's a natural.
In the crib, as if realizing she is alone, the baby girl begins whining.
"Oh, Bones," Kirk says, looking up from the boy in his arms, "Go get her."
"I'm respectful. I'll wait until Spock and Uhura get here," McCoy says, looking at the crib against his will.
The baby's cries grow in intensity and Kirk makes a pained face, "How can you hear that and -"
"Alright," McCoy snaps. He stomps over to the crib and picks up the baby girl. Her cries slowly fade. She leans back in his arms to look up at him and he stares back, "Just turn it and off, huh?"
He plops down on the couch next to Kirk. "Happy?"
Kirk reaches out, says, "You can give her to me. You know. So you can be respectful."
The baby's hand is wrapped tightly around one of McCoy's fingers, "Just shut up."
Jim begins making annoying sounds and McCoy tries not to follow suit. After several minutes, the door to the bedroom opens and Spock exits, a third infant clad only in a diaper with a prominent scar on her chest in one arm. He sees the doctor and Captain and notes, "I see you have made yourself comfortable."
"You know," McCoy says, gesturing towards the infant in his arms, "Babies make people stupid. And there wasn't much brain power for Jim to lose anyway."
"Hey," Kirk says sheepishly, trying to suppress a smile. Spock is wearing a bright orange shirt with the words 'Chug It' on the front. It's from the bag Kirk packed for him; some of the Jim's things much have mixed in, "I like your shirt."
"I will have it washed and returned to you," Spock says.
"Nah," Kirk says waving a hand, "Keep it. I don't even want to know what that stain on it is."
Spock's eyes fall on Dr. McCoy. Leonard is making a big show of testing his baby's reflexes, "I'm here to do medical clearances," he assures Spock, "Have you been doing those exercises I suggested? The ones where you lay them on their stomach so they can build up their back and neck muscles?"
"Nyota refers to them as 'tummy time,'" Spock says nodding, "I spent an hour earlier doing the activities you suggested with them."
"She's got great head control so I believe you. Soon, they'll be crawling and running and breaking everything. Nice work." McCoy says, "You're late to your own party, you know."
"I apologize. The children were cranky on the shuttle. Nyota was exhausted from our travels and suggested a nap. We have overslept."
"Go back to bed then," the Captain says. Kirk groans, settling his baby on his chest, nuzzling the infant's soft hair, inhaling the sweet smell, then nodding as if the actions have affirmed something, "Yeah. You are never getting him back. I'm in love." He holds out a hand, "Want me to hold her too so you can get dressed?"
"You may hold her temporarily," Spock says, "I must awaken Nyota."
"Oh, I could eat you," Kirk squeals as Spock comes closer and the third baby is more visible. This makes Spock raise his eyebrows in distress, "I'm kidding. I'm not a cannibal."
"I'll watch him," McCoy says. Spock hands the doctor his child, watching his Captain and Leonard for several second before vanishing into the bedroom.
"Come on," Kirk says when Spock is gone, "Let's steal them."
"How about some pictures instead?" McCoy says.
Kirk's eyes light up, "Hell yeah."
That turns out to be a mistake. Kirk wants every combination of pictures taken: one with him and the girls, one with him and the boy, one with him and all three, one with him and each one individually. By the time McCoy is done, Nyota has arrived, in a slightly wrinkled uniform with bags under her eyes, but smiling.
"Thank the almighty you're here. Make him stop."
Nyota takes the camera and snaps a picture of McCoy and Kirk and her babies on the couch. She looks at the picture in the preview screen and smiles, "Gonna have to frame that one."
"How are you doing?" McCoy asks.
"I feel asleep standing up yesterday," Uhura says, looking up from the screen, "And I was so exhausted last week I think I may have asked Spock to give them to a pack of wolves. But you have to ask him. I honestly can't remember."
"Sounds about right," McCoy says, nodding.
"I love it though. And I love them. The other night, he cooed at me for the first time and my heart just melted. It was like he knew I was his mother. Then she began smiling right after, like she had to outdo him," Uhura adds, laughing.
"May they always be fighting for your love," McCoy says.
"Daddy's little saboteur," Kirk says, smiling at one of the girls who instantly smiles back.
"Let's go," Uhura says, "I'm sure the crew is waiting for their guests of honor."
Spock has a ridiculous front and back, double baby carrier that Kirk insists on wearing. Making faces at the babies, he describes the new schedule that Spock and Nyota will have when they return to the Enterprise at the end of the crew's current shore leave.
"We're gonna do everything we can to keep you with us. Spock will be working Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and Nyota will be working Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays but you both get two Sundays off a month and don't worry, I've taken the liberty of changing my schedule so that I have every Sunday off. You know. Just in case."
"How generous for you," Nyota says.
"I'm giving you the twelve hour shifts though, instead of the sixteen hour ones," Kirk says. "I am nice."
It is a good schedule though.
"And he missed you so much he decided to occupy himself by remodeling your room," McCoy adds, a bit gleefully, "I mean there's no plumbing right now and I think you'll find there's more metal shards on the floor than you'd like but he says it's going to be bigger when it's done. Hope you like dust."
"I was going to wait until it was done - and it will be done by the time our leave is over - so you wouldn't be mad," Kirk says, when he sees Uhura and Spock's expressions, "But yeah, that happened too. It's not as bad as it sound, I swear."
"It is," McCoy says.
"It's fine," Uhura says, "We'll just stay with you until it's finished, Captain. And don't worry. You get used to 45 minutes of sleep every night."
"I will finish it," Kirk says, more to himself than them.
For the party, Kirk rented a large hall in the hotel where they are staying. When they enter, the entire crew goes silent and turns towards them. Then, everyone rushes forward at once. The babies disperse through the room.
"Absolutely beautiful," Chekov says about their son, as Sulu hangs over his shoulder.
"So cute," Carol says with Christine nodding happily.
"Look at those cheeks," Charlene squeals as Scotty cradles one of their daughters.
"What are their names again?"
"No, no, no," Kirk says before Nyota can respond. He grabs a chair and quiets the room, "I've - I mean we've been waiting so long for them. I'm going to make a real announcement. For our new crew members."
Nyota smiles at her Captain, "The one in the blue, he's the middle child. Raheem Grayson Uhura of the S'chn T'gai clan."
"You're gonna make me cry," Kirk says, before he raising his voice to announce the name.
"The female infant dressed in the green suit is our first born child," Spock says. After a moment of hesitation, he adds, "Her name is Jamila Pike Uhura of the S'chn T'gai clan."
Kirk's eyes drop for a second, presumably in memory of he and Spock's shared mentor, but then he smirks, "Oh really? Doesn't sound familiar at all. What a shameless effort to curry favor."
"I informed you previously that this would happen, did I not?" Spock says, in a low tone to Uhura.
"My sister picked Jamila," Uhura says, ignoring her husband, "She doesn't even know you."
"Yeah, yeah. Sure," Kirk says. He raises his voice to tell the crew, "We're going to have to give her a nickname to avoid confusion. Jaybird. J-Baby," He grins, "Maybe Jamie. That one's cute. We'll have a vote later."
"It is pronounced Jamila, Captain," Spock says.
"Of course. And the last one, baby is the flattering purple?"
"T'Lor McCoy Uhura of the S'chn T'gai clan," Nyota says.
McCoy who had been glaring at the couple since Jamila's name was announced looks up. Nyota slides closer to him, whispering so that only he can hear, "She might not be here if you hadn't sent me to New Vulcan."
McCoy's glare deepens but he leans over and kisses her on the cheek.
"You give me time. You give me time and one of them will have a Kirk in their name," The Captain says, wincing when he hears what he has said.
The party continues on, everyone wanting to grab the new parents to talk and congratulate them.
At one point, all three babies begin crying at once. Before Nyota can even feel her blood pressure rising or Spock can begin formulating the best tactical approach, Chekov is offering to change a diaper, Sulu and Scotty begin mixing a bottle, and Carol makes a few faces, and the world rights itself. Remembering the blind panic she had once felt when confronted with the very notion of holding three babies at once, Nyota feels a strange pride.
"I want to call Sarek," Nyota says to Spock, when they have a second together, "I want to tell him we're settled and we're fine."
"He escorted us to the landing dock, received communication of our arrival, and I sent him a notice to reinforce this. He will assume as much." But from the look in his eyes, he has already given in, as he often does with things she does that he did not understand.
"I want to call him," Nyota repeats and this time he nods. And they do later that night. It is the first of many communications.
When they begin walking back to their room, several crew members head follow, visiting with them late into the night. Most, mercifully, leave by midnight.
But not Kirk. He does not recognize (or more likely ignores) their signals for him to go and ends up spending the night on their couch. At one point, when Jamila gets fussy, he calls out, "Don't worry I got it."
"This is the way our lives are now," Nyota says when she feels Spock's flabbergast. She snuggles close to him, "We've arrived."
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A/N
On the names:
Raheem Grayson: In one of the comic, when Nyota is about seven, she and her parents go visit her Uncle Raheem and their shuttle malfunctions. Raheem goes outside to fix the problem but there's an explosion and Uhura's parents fall unconscious. He calls into the shuttle and tells Nyota to pull her parents into an escape pod, encouraging her when it gets difficult because they're heavy, and telling her how proud he is of her. Then we find out, he was blown into space by the explosion and there is no way to save him and he dies when he falls through the atmosphere of a nearby planet. It's one of the first memories Nyota shares with Spock when they're mind meld. I thought the name was something Nyota would cherish because there are good memories with an uncle, whom she probably considers a hero, behind it and Spock knows how much it means to her. Grayson, is from Spock's mother of course. I definitely think they would try to consider what the other person would want.
T'Lor McCoy: I literally just made up the name T'Lor but there is a character in another series, a lady warrior, named Loor whom I adore so I think I may have subconsciously borrowed that name. And at least one name should seem Vulcan. McCoy was chosen because in my mind, even if they were in the same room for like thirteen seconds in the movies, Bones and Uhura adore each other. You can't convince me otherwise.
Jamila Pike: I'm not gonna lie, I totally was looking for a name which was similar to James. It's also Arabic (as is the name Raheem) which is a common language in Africa so you could also say it's a cop out. Finally, the word for "family" in Swahili is "Jami" and I thought that was a nice touch since I wanted each name is represent a part of Spock and Uhura's life (Raheem, Africa; Jamila, the Enterprise, and T'Lor, Vulcan) because they come from two world but they create a common space to live in together. Pike is obviously from Admiral Christopher Pike because Spock was supposed to be his first officer and he looked just as devastated as Jim did when Pike died so I have to assume he was Spock's mentor.
PS: Epilogue to come because I can't be the only one with headcanons about Spock and Uhura as parents and 95% of the reason why I wrote this was to indulge those ideas.