35 years later…
"Zha'mes, this is not your PADD. You must not take other people's belongings without their permission. Please return this. Now."
"It is mine, Spock," Sarek said, entering the family room. The scolded Vulcan child dashed behind Sarek's legs, and he bent down to pull the child into his arms. "I was allowing him to view a study tape on it and I must have… lost focus."
"There is no shame in admitting you succumbed to an impromptu nap, Sarek," Saavik said from the couch. The infant in her arms was attached to her breast, feeding with gusto. "It is logical that you would be fatigued after several days of serving as Zha'mes's primary caregiver full time."
"We are gratified by your assistance, Father," Spock added. He held out his hands to allow Sarek to transfer the child, but Sarek turned slightly away.
"I wish to hold him for a short time longer." To emphasize the point, Zha'mes cuddled closer to Sarek, burying his face in his grandfather's shoulder. "I expect he will soon succumb to sleep as well."
After Spock slipped the PADD from the child's fingers, Sarek walked over to large transparent doors that led to the back garden. Amanda's rose garden was in full bloom; she had spent the last years of her life cross breeding Earth roses with Vulcan flowers to produce hearty, heat- and drought-tolerant blooms. Following her death, he had voiced a desire to renovate the garden and replace it with native plants, and he was grateful that Spock had vehemently argued against it. It had been an illogical notion fueled by emotion. Viewing the garden made him think of his late wife, and that had been painfully difficult in the months immediately after the shuttle accident that had ended her life.
She had lived a long, full life. But there was not a day in the ten years since her passing that he did not yearn for her. Even now, when he was in his office and the chime alerted him that the front door had been opened, he occasionally glanced up at the security monitor expecting to see her. He still found himself making mental notes of items to discuss with her when he saw her next such as a journal article or an anecdote, especially as Zha'mes grew and Spock and Saavik's second child arrived.
Spock visited the estate more often than he had done in the years between Amanda's death and Zha'mes's birth, but the days between visits were long and lonely. Having the child full time as Spock and Saavik prepared for their second had been a welcome respite.
"If he is becoming a hindrance, we are prepared to bring him home now," Spock spoke from the kitchen as he ran the PADD through the sanitizer.
"He is not a hindrance. He never has been," Sarek chided. Spock had always been too quick to shield Sarek from the boy; Sarek wondered if it was a genetic tendency to expect too much from one's son or if his own parenting had led Spock to believe that Sarek had little interest in children.
Sarek adjusted Zha'mes who had, predictably, fallen asleep against Sarek's shoulder. "He is growing so quickly," Sarek commented to Saavik as she approached to stand at his side and gaze at the garden. The olive-skinned infant (who had yet to be named) slept soundly, her miniature lips pursed into a "O." The curve of her tiny, fragile ear was more pronounced than either Spock's or Zha'mes's had been as a newborn.
"On the contrary, his growth has always trended in the second and, at times, the first quartiles. Healer Struk is certain that he is in excellent health but is simply small."
Sarek hummed in acknowledgement. "Spock was always small until the summer before he enrolled in Starfleet. Then He experienced such extreme periods of growth that it seemed we could see the difference from one day to the next. I attribute it to his human blood."
"Amanda was diminutive even for a human," Saavik observed. They were silent for a time, both contemplating private thoughts. When Spock approached and again offered to take the sleeping child, Sarek transferred him over, suppressing a wince as the muscles in his back protested. He was growing lax in his physical fitness regimen.
"He is too old to be cradled in such a way, especially by someone of your advanced age, Father," Spock insisted.
"He is only seven. You will look back one day and realize how very young that is," Sarek replied to Spock's back as he carried the sleeping child to his bedroom. When Sarek received no reply, he initiated the gentle transfer of the infant from Saavik's arms. "And I am just past 150," he told the sleeping infant. "Do not let your father misguide you into believing that I am a decrepit old man." If he sometimes needed extra time to reach a destination while on foot or braced more tightly against the cold, it did not mean that he was incapable of being self-sufficient or ready to retire. "She is so Vulcan," Sarek observed.
"She has blue eyes," Saavik commented. "I find it a curious result of her mixed genetics."
"That would be Amanda's paternal line. Her father had what many described as 'striking' gray eyes." He adjusted the infant's swaddling clothes and rocked in a soothing sway.
"You miss her," Saavik stated. Sarek did not reply and continued to stare out the window. "You have mentioned her name 20 percent more often than usual in the past two days."
"She is on my mind often as of late. She would have been delighted that you produced a daughter. She never stopped believing that she failed our own daughter, though I would and will always contest that belief. I regret that my wife did not have this opportunity."
Saavik bowed her head. "I, too, regret it. I often wish for her guidance, especially during the gestation periods. Every mug of peppermint tea evokes her memory."
"I had almost believed you to be subsisting solely on overly sugared peppermint tea and hypospray supplements the first time." They rarely spoke about Saavik's first pregnancy and the time immediately after Spock's revival. It had been a difficult, confusing time, certainly one of the worst of Saavik's life.
"Your assessment was not completely incorrect. I was irresponsible with my health and nutritional needs during that period."
Sarek took a deep breath and turned away from the garden to look down into Saavik's face. "You were experiencing much turmoil in those months. No one in this house was thinking with absolute clarity. Saavik, I am relieved at the good fortune that you have created for yourself. That I am included in even a part of it makes me… grateful."
A crash followed by the raised voices of a middle-aged man and a seven-year-old child brought the solemnity of the moment to an end.
"He is overly tired and will be difficult for the rest of the day," Saavik complained.
"Do you refer to your son or mine?"
Despite her best attempt at self control, Sarek's jest elicited an unrepressed grin from Saavik. "Come, Sarek. Let us attempt to control our wayward sons."
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Thank you for reading. I want to do a little plug for some other wonderful authors and works you should read if you enjoyed this:
•The Race of Cain by Kerjen: FFn s/3538697/1/The-Race-of-Cain
•Everything by TomFooleryPrime, specifically "Between Now and Eternity": on AoOO /works/13259316
"Meet Me on Sunday": on AoOO /works/8859412/chapters/20315479
"An Adequate Retelling of the Development of Mutual Affection": on AoOO /works/19388035/chapters/46134520
And their "Growing Up Spock" series: on AoOO /series/890334
•StarfleetDream's series "Gratified by your Company": on AoOO /works/730138
•Darksknight's work "Ask Me Again Tomorrow": on AoOO /works/13000725