A/N: A huge shout out to GirlyQ96 for the LOVELY review! Thank you my dear! I hope you enjoy this and many of my other pieces. Ok so this post I am going to give you a small warning, if Marijuana triggers you...there is a small thing about that here. IK IK that's a weird thing to have in there but yeah I did that. I think there may be one more chappy in this story...but it's gone further than I expected already. Anywho...LLAP...Love you all!

Sigik had the chance, in good light, to take a better look at Lilibeth. She was aesthetically pleasing, that much he saw from the moment she beamed aboard the ship bringing her to Vulcan. With a little more scrutiny now, he could see the malformations on her feet and her knees, especially, but even on her fingers and wrists.

"Isik for your thoughts." Lilibeth said noticing Sigik had 'zoned' on her.

He looked to the view screen, "We are not far from Risa."

The side of her mouth slowly moved upward into a lopsided grin, "Is that really what you were thinking?"

"No," Sigik confessed, "I was noticing your joints. You must be in constant pain, and yet you do not vocalize or complain."

She shrugged, "You get used to it." She stood up and placed her bag on the chair, "I need to go to the bathroom. I have energy bars in my purse if you want one. We'll talk when I get back."

He watched her walk back to the back of the shuttle and then peered over her purse. She had a lot of foods in her purse, and more than a few of them were sweets and confections. With high caloric intake he would have expected her to be thicker. He grabbed a long brown cake like bar in a wrap that read, "Herbal Brownie". He tore the package open and took a big bite. He was surprised by the taste. It had a strange pungent aroma, backed by a dark creamy textured cake. He found it very agreeable and popped the rest in his mouth.

Lilibeth came back with a sigh, "That's better." She said sliding back into her seat. Looking in her purse she frowned, "You didn't want an energy bar?" she pulled two nut encrusted bars in clear foil packaging.

"I ate the herbal brownie." Sigik said holding up the wrapper, "There were two, I only ate one."

Lilibeth placed her hand over her mouth in shock.

"Is something wrong?"

"You ate one of my pot brownies." she said with a look that was half horror and half humor. "I don't know what pot is going to do to you, but...That brownie is chocolate, and chocolate is like booze for you."

Sigik's eyes widened, "How do you know?" He asked, clearly not in the loop on human foods and their consequences for Vulcans.

"Well, let's just say I will never think of Christmas exactly the same after Sarek drank 3 hot chocolates." she chuckled, "I'm not bothered by this, if you aren't. We are almost at Risa, you said, so set it to autopilot now before it hits you."

He nodded in agreement.

888

Lilibeth watched Sigik with interest, looking for overt signs that he was intoxicated. She was not disappointed. About ten minutes out from his brownie, the first sign she saw that either the chocolate or marijuana was hitting him was that he was no longer sitting peg straight in his chair. Fifteen minutes after that, he was swiveling and swaying this chair back and forth. At that point she saw Risa coming in the distance. "How are you doing?" she finally asked.

He swivelled to face her, "I am…." he made a long pause, "Inee….ineba….into….intoxebrated."

She covered her mouth trying not to giggle as hard as she wanted to. "Ok, well then, I tell you what we are going to do. We are going to the surface of Risa, I am renting us a hotel room, and we can make our way back to Earth tomorrow."

He leaned over toward her, steadying himself before he spoke so he could present with as much dignity as his current state would allow, "That is very logical." he said with more gravitas than the sentiment deserved, "Though, I must warn you. I feel very warm right now, and that tells me that…." he leaned in further, "I may attempt sexual mischief with you…." his blue eyes widened, "With your permission, of course."

Lilibeth bit her lower lip to keep from giggling at him. He was so sincere, but there was no way she was going to allow him to do something he may not do if he were sober. She did remember that Amanda said that Vulcan men were more sensitive about rejection than human men, and well more than they would let on, so she just smiled, "Oh really?" she asked, leaning toward him.

"Yes." he stated, "I think it is only logical that you, who are human mate with me, who is vulcan." he leaned back in his chair again, "Your Sarek approves. He aided me in this effort to spend more time alone with you."

Her eyes went wide, "Oh, he did, did he?"

He nodded once, "He did. I think he thinks that I cannot attract you on my own." he nodded again only in a grave way, "He has a human fixation, you know."

"Oh I know." she said, shaking her head.

"But now I have one." he blurted out all at once, like his internal sense of rhythm was impaired, "Not all humans though, only you." he said, and pointed at her accidentally booping her nose because his depth perception was off. "It is only...logical...to keep you content."

"I'm content." Lilibeth said, and then turned to answer the hail from Risa, "Yes?" She said, not knowing all the jargon pilots said.

"Would you like to be guided into landing?" the controller on the other ends asked, this not being completely unusual in their space port.

"That would be splendid! Please have a hover chair available for me when we land."

"We are at your service."

"You do not need a chair," he said firmly, "I will carry you so your pain will be lessened."

"Oh, darling Sigik, the chair isn't for me. It's for you." She said pressing the button to release the autopilot so the tractor beam could guide them into entry.

"I am." he said, his voice getting progressively slower and more drawn out. Somewhere in the distant "sober" part of his mind he knew she was correct. He felt like an out of date computer shutting down. His thoughts felt thick, and getting thicker like a winter plomeek soup. "Not before we are married." he blurted out, following a much deeper train of thought.

"How about we marry tomorrow, when you are sober enough to actually know what is going on?"

He stood up, steadying himself on the dash, he then stood as straight as he could, "Do you not want to be my mate?"

Oh dear, she thought, talk about being put on the spot. "Actually," She began, and thought about what it was he was offering her, and what she could offer him, "I am not rejecting you." She thought it best to stay relatively neutral, as she needed time to think, even if that time was only 12 or so hours.

"Good." He said with a nod, and then plopped himself down in the chair, "This is most undignified." he whispered, and his eyes closed. He drifted off into an herbal chocolate sleep.

888

Lilibeth stared down at the sleeping director. He was silver white haired, and pale like a man who worked inside from before the sun rise until after the sunset. Right now, he was currently gently snoring, laying on his side, wiped out from chocolate and-she assumed-weed. He was cute, she'd always thought so. Most Vulcan men were handsome, he wasn't an exception. That said, did she want to marry him?

Lilibeth pulled the sheets over his sleeping form, pulled the drapes, and then made her way out to the common living space. She had to get very honest with herself. She had missed being a partner with her husband. She missed stormy nights where she would wake up and snuggle into the arms of a strong man. Being a strong independent woman had it's merits, and at her age she hadn't expected another chance. So, from those perspectives marrying him was very appealing.

Then there was some doubt that niggled at the back of her mind. Amanda had told her that she knew Sarek loved her, but had not elaborated on how she knew. Everything she had ever seen didn't really indicate a lot of gushy romantic love.

Then, as she walked to the terrace, she had to kind of chuckle. Her late husband, Amanda's father, hadn't been overly romantic or tender either. In fact, he didn't meet a lot of her emotional needs. If a man of her own race couldn't do that, but she still loved him with all of her heart and devotion, the same could be true of this mixed race marriage.

She sat down and watched the Risian sun dip into the still glass sea. As the purple and red hues of the setting sun washed over the sea, Lilibeth realized she was being slightly selfish. She was thinking about her needs only. Her needs were important, but she hadn't even considered if she could meet his needs.

Her Amanda has said, without saying because she is very demure, that Sarek is a touch high maintenance. When he said to "attend" she was supposed to go to his side. She walked a step behind him, and on his strong side, because it means that he protects his mate. As she thought about it, that did seem a touch...romantic, at least in an ancient kind of Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen fame.

Then there was Sarek. Who helped set this up. That was a lot to contemplate. He apparently loved her daughter (in his own way) and saw through her the potential of human/vulcan pairings. Sarek wouldn't have suggested Sigik take this step if he hadn't seen it as logical or beneficial to all parties. At the same time, she was a touch cross; he didn't make her privy to his plans.

Lilibeth took a deep centering breath. The emotional and physical exhaustion of a galactic tour, retirement, arthritis, and now the added complexity of catching the eye of a Vulcan. Amanda had told her that once a vulcan male got focused on something they could be very single minded….

With that thought she closed her eyes to block out all stimulus other than the smell of the fresh sea air. A few deep breaths later, she was asleep on the deck lounge.

888

Sigik's eyes opened, instantly he knew he did not know how long he had been sleeping. That was the first disconcerting moment. The second was he did not know where he was sleeping. He sat up, they were in the suite Sarek had booked for them on Risa. Where was Lilibeth? Had he disgraced himself with illogical behavior? Had he scared her away as a potential mate? He could not blame her if that was the case, he knew the dark beast that lurked in the shadow of his mind. He knew if he let that beast out he would disgust her, even a human with their unchecked emotion would find the shame they hid distasteful.

He swung his feet over the side of the bed. He had clearly slept alone, and his clothes were all intact. These were good signs that nothing tawdry took place. The very second he had that more reassuring thought, Sigik realized that Lilibeth was nowhere to be seen. What if...something tawdry had happened and she rejected him and ran away? His thin lips disappeared as he tried to bring his emotional response to that idea under control.

He was about to walk out of the room when he heard a gentle snoring coming from the terrace. Instantly, he felt the tension threatening to bubble up release. Sigik took a few moments in the bathroom, smoothing down his silver grey hair, cleaning his teeth (which felt oddly textured due to the excess sugar in the brownie), and readying himself to see Lilibeth. Once he was satisfied that no odor, or disarray would offend her, he made his way to the terrace.

888

Lilibeth rarely slept for more than four hours at a time. Her joints only allowed her to sleep so much before they started to send pain signals saying they needed to move. In the warm dry air of Risa, her body felt like it was being held in a giant warm blanket. The sun was up, and now the gentle rays of the morning light were warming all the best places. She was out.

Sigik was standing over her, carefully looking at the nape of her neck and other places that had he attempted to mate or bond with her, he likely would have marked her. Nothing. Her skin was as smooth and unmarked as an infant's bottom. That made her so very tempting.

Sigik sat facing her, and gently took a finger and gently removed a stray lock of hair from her neck. Humans were such an attractive species, he thought, not noticing her eyes were now parted and looking at him.

Lilibeth felt the hair move over her bare shoulder, when she opened her eyes she saw Sigik sitting on another smaller chair looking at her with...she could only describe it as complete devotion. His hand was moving back to his own personal space when she boldly reached out and touched his hand. She had seen Amanda and Sarek "kiss" before, so she was going to see what the fuss was all about.

Holding up two fingers on her other hand, her eyes now completely open, she released his hand. The ball, as they say, was in his court.