"S—awk!" came a childish shout.

Kirk stopped reading his novel.

"Spawk!" the shout grew louder.

Kirk placed the novel onto the counter then propped himself up. Sam and Lyionel were playing blocks together in the center of the living room. Lyionel seemed to be intrigued by the blocks, most importantly by Sam's, "Poop," comment. Lyionel nodded his head. Spock and Kirk put Sam in charge of helping Lyionel learn words. Basic words, at least.

"Spaaawwwk," It was loud and insistent. It wasn't coming from Spock.

Kirk made his way to the backyard.

"Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwkkkkk!" How could the child just learn to say 'p'. He wasn't a genius. Was he?

Lo' and behold was Spock tending to the garden carefully ignoring the child was tugging at the Vulcan's sleeve. Spock gazed up toward his husband with a plea in his eyes and in his side of the bond: Husband, attend. Kirk snickered. He came over to the child putting on a pair of gloves. He picked up the child looking over in bemusement.

"Failing, Ambassador at not telling him your name?" Kirk asked.

"He remembered, ashaya," Spock said.

"What?" Kirk said, alarmed.

"I erased clear references and he remembered," Spock said. The elder Vulcand looked defeated. "Clearly, one of us is mentioning my name verbally to the little one. "

Kirk shrugged.

"My bad," Kirk said. "Think you can do that again?"

"He is a toddler," Spock said. "He may remember."

"You succeeded the first time around," Kirk said.

"Admiral," Spock said. "I did that."

"Two more days, baby," Kirk said, placing a hand on the elder's shoulder. "And then you can do it. Right before they leave," he squeezed it. "and change it to Selek."

Spock looked up toward Kirk, skeptically.

"Do not forget children have a tendency to continue calling relatives by nicknames," Spock said. "we have to make sure James does not know of the name before the captain ceremony."

Kirk paused, thoughtfully, then nodded.

"It's harder than it looks," Kirk said. "I never had a hand in raising myself."

"I wish there was a manual," Spock said.

"We have one thousands of light years away," Kirk said.

"Ashaya," Spock said. "After that final mind meld, it must be the last."

"There's a medical problem regarding that?" Kirk asked. Spock nodded.

"Too many mind melds on a child may warp their developing mind and it may cause memory problems for the rest of their lives," Spock said. "Studies on Vulcan Children given extensive mind melds have shown it can lead to short term memory loss. It may change the existing personality. That is only if there have been more than two mind melds. Hundreds of mind melds is where the red tape starts. Which is why there is a light mind meld defined as identification meld and does not harm the mind in any form. I only wish that the third meld is that."

Kirk nodded in understanding to his husband's concern then looked over toward Jim.

"What is it that you want, Jimmy?" Kirk asked.

"Uncal," Jim pat on the elder's shoulder. "Uncal."

Spock grew concerned.

"He pronounced it as uncle," Spock said.

"S—baby, you only gave him one mind meld," Kirk said.

"Uncal," Jim said.

"That is gravely concerning," Spock said.

"Uncal," Jim repeated, clapping his chubby hands together.

"He is just messing with you," Kirk said. "Aren't you, Jimmy?"

"Uncle," Jim said.

Kirk smiled looking over toward the elder Vulcan.

"See?" Kirk said. "kids experiment with words…" he looked over toward the child. "Until they're not words anymore."

"And Lyionel?" Spock inquired.

"Come on, Sam's learning new words," Kirk said. "He is not making words into not-so-much-words."

Spock raised a right eyebrow.

"Four year olds are always sneaky," Spock said.

"Yes, they are," Kirk said. "Kirk's are not sneaky."

"Then go on and check on Professor Kirk teaching his student words," Spock said, gesturing toward the house.

Spock dismissed the admiral then knelt back down toward his garden. Italian was behind him running after a garden snack in the background with Maru on his tail. Kirk huffed turning away making his path into the house. Kirks were not sneaky. If he had a penny every time a Kirk was sneaky, he would have nothing. Nothing at al—

"Poop," Lyionel said.

"Poop!" Sam took the block out.

The large collection of blocks fell to pieces.

"Nice poop," Lyionel said. He looked over toward the admiral who looked horrified. "poop?" Lyionel held the block out.

Kirk placed the young Jim alongside Sam.

"Block," Kirk said, holding the block. "Nirsh poop."

Lyionel was faced with the image of hands flying making signs he couldn't understand and a loud concerning shout. He remembered holding a small necklace that was opened holding a small circular white object. It was dimly lit in the room that he was in. It was a shade of gold rather than gray. He remembered that. He looked up, confused. Sam had fallen over laughing. Jim was clapping his hands. Kirk appeared to be concerned.

"Nam-tor tok-ti nash-veh?" Kirk asked. Are you fine?

Lyionel slowly nodded.

"Vokaya," Lyionel said. Memory.