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Chapter Twenty One
"Has something remarkable happened, Mother?" Spock asked with a flat expression. Amanda was practiced enough to know that it hid real concern, but still reflected on the odd way he used the word "remarkable." Perhaps it was because she had just been speaking to her very human sister.
"It's November, Spock. I wanted to wish you a happy new month," she smiled.
Spock did not reply to this, as he did not have any comment. His mother had contacted him outside of their appointed time, and he waited for her to reach her point.
However, Amanda proceeded to tell him of her day, as it happened to be evening on Vulcan though afternoon in San Francisco, with no apparent trajectory of conversation. She seemed especially happy, and though he waited to hear of some event that may have caused her felicity, he heard nothing of note.
"And you Spock? How was the Halloween party?" Amanda asked. Perhaps she had called in order to ask him about his evening, and had postponed the question to deflect his attention; he was aware of this strategy, as she had used it quite often throughout his childhood. The most important, personal questions came approximately 2/3 through the conversation.
He could not help but pause, and he saw his mother's slightly quirked lips when he did. "I was able to execute my duties satisfactorily," he responded.
His mother nodded patiently. "Did anything…remarkable happen?"
He paused again before saying, "I stopped two drunken men from harassing one of my students, Cadet Uhura."
"Drunken men? She's the one whose thesis you're helping with, right?"
"Correct."
His mother waited for him to explain, but he did not. "Well what happened?" she prompted.
"She became involved with a group of older students who imbibed too much alcohol for their systems. She attempted to leave and two of them followed her. I simply walked up and told them to desist, and they left."
Wondering if there was, perhaps, a bit more to the story, Amanda prodded, "Was she alright? Did you make sure she got to her friends?"
"Cadet Uhura assured me that she was unharmed, and I waited until I was satisfied she had somewhere to spend the night."
"Spend the night? Didn't she just go to her dorm?" Amanda frowned.
Spock sighed internally. He did not feel this information was important for his mother to hear. Perhaps it would have been more logical to omit some of the truth. "Her roommate was…occupying their room, and her other friend had not yet returned."
Amanda studied her son. Picking her words carefully, she asked, "So you felt it was your duty to wait with her?"
"Yes," Spock acknowledged. She had asked quite slowly and deliberately…Frowning minutely, he asked, "Is there a secondary question implied in the query?"
"Astute, sa-fu," Amanda smiled. "I suppose my real question was…did you also stay because you recognized the human politeness in the act?"
Spock knew his mother was eager for him to understand human customs. She had worked so hard over the years…He paused to consider the question. "No," he admitted truthfully. "I also stayed because I wished to, and believed the cadet would appreciate the gesture."
Amanda just smiled softly. That was probably even better.
XXX
"Librarian alert," Ling stage whispered across Sarah's body.
Nyota and Sarah both looked up from their desert; Mory groaned. "Oh, come on! He didn't even have the sense to stay away for a whole day?" she exclaimed.
Nyota raised an eyebrow. Marcus walked towards her, looking admittedly and satisfyingly hang-dog.
"Want me to fend him off?" Sarah offered, half way out of her seat already.
"Thanks Mory," Nyota said, "but I'll get it." Abandoning her fruit salad, she stood and walked up to Marcus, back straight. She pulled him by the arm to the side of the room and looked at him expectantly. "What?" she demanded.
"Nyota, I'm sorry!" he said sincerely, his expression repentant. "I shouldn't have taken you to Nandi's, and I shouldn't have gotten drunk."
"And?" she prompted.
Leaning toward her and dropping his voice, he finished, "And I shouldn't have grabbed you. That was low of me. I'm really sorry."
"Okay," Nyota shrugged.
His expression lightened. "Okay? You mean we're good?"
"No, Librarian, we are not 'good.' But you apologized, so okay. Now we don't have to talk to each other again," she said, face impassive.
He frowned. "What else do you want?"
"Nothing. I don't want anything else except not to talk to you."
"Just like that? No second chance?"
"You want a second chance?" she asked, finally showing emotion with a disbelieving expression. "Marcus, that was our first date, and you got drunk and physically assaulted me. So no, I'm not giving you a second chance."
"Assaulted? I wouldn't go that far. And you're the one who wasn't paying attention anyway, watching that half-Vulcan the whole time…"
Nyota sucked in a breath and glared at him. "Well if you think I was watching him the whole time, why do you still care anyway?" she hissed.
"I don't know," he snarled. "Maybe I don't."
"Fine, then we're done here," Nyota snapped. "Neither of us cares."
"Fine," Marcus spat, and Nyota spun on her heel to return to her table.
As soon as she threw herself into the plastic chair, she felt like a middle schooler. "You know," Sarah said, leaning over, "for that first part I thought even Spock would have been proud. But near the end there—"
"Oh, shut up," Nyota spat testily.
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Touchy. I'm just glad he's gone."
XXX
"Aha!" Nyota grinned. Gaila looked up from her seat on the floor, where she was rubbing polish off her toenails.
"What?" she asked curiously.
"I got a message from the woman at Oteru. Look," Nyota said, leaning down from her bed to hand the PADD to her roommate. Gaila scanned the contents quickly and smiled.
"Nice. So you can start using the old version soon?"
"Yeah, I just have to decide whose computer I want to use. You know how it says it can't be a portable version? I think I'll have to get a professor to host it on their desk top…" Nyota explained, standing to take back her PADD and move to the door. "I'll be right back."
Wearing just her favorite yoga pants and a tee, Nyota slipped down the dark hallway to Sarah's room and knocked. "Mory, let me in," she called, leaning against the door.
"Ny? Just a sec," came the answer; five seconds later Sarah's head appeared in a cracked open door. "Hey," she smiled.
"You hiding something?" Nyota asked, peering over her friend's head into the room.
Shrugging, Sarah opened the door farther. "Just Benji."
On Sarah's floor sat a shaggy blond haired boy with sad-ish eyes and a cute half smile. "Nyota," Sarah gestured, "this is Benji. Benji, Nyota."
Nyota brightened and stepped into Sarah's room. "Is this…?" she trailed off. Sarah nodded covertly while Benji scrambled to his feet. "Nice to meet you," Nyota grinned.
"Likewise," he nodded quietly.
Nyota looked between the two of them curiously. He wasn't Sarah's usual type…but maybe that was a good thing, considering how Sarah's usual relationships tended to go…
Sarah was just looking at Benji fondly, so Nyota held up her PADD. "I have good news," she offered.
"Oh?" Sarah asked, finally turning back to her.
"I can use the Oteru version of the document as soon as I have a faculty desktop computer."
"Oh, cool," Sarah smiled, taking the PADD to skim the message. "You gonna use Spock's…or Ferrous'?" she asked, looking up.
Nyota glanced over at Benji. She had kind of wanted to discuss this…and tell Sarah about Ferrous' offer of that morning. But she couldn't send off Benji, especially if this was a new thing…
"I'm not sure yet," she answered, shrugging it off. "Probably Spock's. I just wanted to let you know," she said, backing toward the door again. She knew Sarah didn't particularly care at that moment; she didn't mind. They'd talk about it later. Maybe the next morning before Subspace…
"I'm excited!" Sarah said. "Tell me more tomorrow morning?"
Nyota nodded. "Yeah, I'll see you at breakfast. Nice to meet you, Benji," she smiled again before leaving. That relationship needed some breaking in, she thought as she returned to her dorm.
XXXXXXX
A/N I know it's really short…But I want to just move on to more interesting things that don't fit in this chapter. I'm doing my best, I promise.
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