Returned Favour

Star date: 4. May 2237

Sarek could have sworn his feet prints were still visible in the soft carpet of the fourth bedroom on the second floor of their estate in Shi'Kahr. Sarek stood at a distance behind his human assistant, Felix, who stood where Sarek had seven years prior, in front of the same window that overlooked the balcony just outside the bedroom he shared with Amanda.

The twenty-seven-year-old human clenched one hand into a ball and held it over his mouth as he watched the sight only a woman could understood unfold on the balcony. His wife, Linnea, lay in the arms of Amanda sweating, crying, and screaming in pain.

While seventeen hours was not long for a Vulcan to go without sleep, but for a human, Sarek knew that under circumstances of extreme stress it seriously caused havoc on the human body. He could see the bags under the eyes of his assistant grow redder and darker with each passing hour, and just as he was about to suggest that his servant retire to his bedroom for some sleep, Felix spoke from the window,

"Thank you for being here for Linnea, Ambassador." The young man's voice shook with a mixture of nerves and tears.

Sarek said nothing but continued to observe his assistant standing in front of the window. There was a moment of silence before he rose a brow in confusion at a series of sudden, small laughs coming from his assistant. In a mere three seconds, he went from almost crying to laughing. Fascinating, Sarek thought to himself.

"Is something amusing?" Sarek asked flatly.

"I'm just…" Felix stopped to sniff away falling tears, "I'm just amazed by Amanda. She's keeping Linnea so calm. Thank God the midwives allowed her to by my wife's side." Felix turned around, a small smile on his lips. A smile that Sarek could only conclude as a sign he was relieved.

When Felix motioned for him to come closer to the window, Sarek at first denied thinking it would be a serious breach of privacy, but when Felix insisted that he comes closer for a second time, he stepped forward.

Stopping a couple of inches away from his servant, Sarek lifted his head just enough to see the top half of Spock's labouring Nanny and his wife. Vulcan sensory organs surpassed humans and through the crippling screams of the labouring woman, Sarek heard his wife's soft voice. He could just see that her arms were wrapped around her friend, with one hand holding a wet cloth in place on her forehead and the other around her back, holding her hand.

"I'm going to die!" Linnea cried.

"You're not going to die." Amanda said softly, her lips mere inches away from distressed woman's ear. "You told me I wasn't going to die, so you won't either. Keep pushing, it's almost here."

He could see her smiling, but there were tears in her eyes. Even after nine years together, this feature of his wife still fascinated him. Felix turned away from the window with a distressed sound when Amanda suddenly reached for a bucket and began to held Linnea's hair back.

"She will be alright." Sarek said flatly.

"How do you know?" Felix asked, his voice cracking with tears.

When Sarek turned around, he watched as his servant who was holding in all the emotions finally broke down and began to cry. While it always filled Sarek with awkwardness watching human emotions unfold in front of him, he repressed this feeling and turned back to the window.

As he continued to observe his wife coach her friend with soft words, stroking of her hair and other human displays of comfort, his mind suddenly pulled him back to that morning seven years ago, in the very same room in, almost, the very same spot.

Feeling his servant's eyes upon him, Sarek said flatly,

"The female race is strong."

Seven Years Earlier 6. January 2230

It was not customary for Vulcan men to be present for the birth of the child. It made Sarek uncomfortable enough to be present when her water broke, and even though he tried to maintain his distance from the bedroom where she laboured, he was unable to deny her request when she insisted on seeing him in the mists of her agony.

After being ushered out by the midwives, Sarek continued to try and ignore his wife's labouring moans and groans throughout the night, it proved to be impossible.

He sat upstairs at his desk; it had been almost sixteen hours since Amanda had started labour. He tried to drown himself in preparing for upcoming engagements, conferences, and lectures but every time he would hear his wife's painful sounds, he would feel an odd tightness in his chest.

He allowed himself to let out an audible sigh and stood up from his chair. Through their link, he sensed intense distress from his wife and perhaps the fact that he was unable to make the pain go away made the tightness in his chest worse.

The more he thought about Amanda, the more his chest hurt, and the more his chest hurt the more he found himself debating if he was having another heart attack. But every time he would be, at least a little bit, successful in bringing himself back to reality, Amanda's groans of anguish would result in him going right back to square one.

His mind began to race, and even though he knew this kind of thinking was illogical, no matter how hard he tried to repress the horrid scene of Amanda bleeding out with her face filled with terror as she reaches for him with a bloody hand, it was still there... at the forefront of his mind.

After ten more minutes of pacing the length of his office, his chest was now so tight he felt as though he could barely breathe, he suddenly caught from the open doorway his human male assistant, Felix.

"How can I help you, Felix?" Sarek asked flatly.

"Ambassador, I am sorry to disturb you. I wanted to inform you that the midwives have moved Lady Amanda out in the balcony for the remainder of her labour."

Sarek simply nodded and continued about his steak about the length of his office.

"Ambassador, are you well?" Felix's voice broke him yet again from pondering.

"Felix, if you would call the healer and tell them to come immediately."

"Ambassador," Felix said in confusion, "Lady Amanda is surrounded by midwives, they have said that her condition is stable and a doctor is not needed."

"The Healer is not for my wife." Sarek said flatly.

"Are you unwell, Ambassador?"

"It is none of your concern, Felix." Sarek said bluntly. As Sarek ears tuned into Amanda's loud groan, another painful contraction overwhelming her. He rose his hand back up to his chest. When he looked up at his servant, he noticed that the human's eyes closed, his face softened, and he drew in a breath. Was he too experiencing physical distress?

"Ambassador, I know I am not a doctor, but if I may, you do not display any symptoms of another heart attack."

"How are you aware of my medical history?" asked Sarek.

"It is part of my job, Ambassador." Sarek was silent and subconsciously continued his pacing, his hands now clasped behind his back.

Amanda's groans turned to screams and when he suddenly heard her yell for him, he forced his feet still underneath him, even though everything in him wanted to run to her. It was like a punch in the gut, knowing that he could not do it.

"Ambassador," called Felix from the doorway, "it is common for men in this situation to experience various levels of anxiety when their wife is giving birth."

It took Sarek several more minutes to properly calm himself. He forced his slightly elevated heartrate into a normal rhythm and after concluding, logically, that he would have been on the ground unconscious if he were truly having a heart attack he collected his thoughts and stopped his pacing in front of his human servant, who had his own hands clasped neatly in front of him.

"Are these, how you phrase, various levels of anxiety normal?"

Felix smiled smally "Very."

Sarek nodded his head and was just about to excuse himself to resume his work when Felix suddenly spoke "Ambassador, if you may come with me, I would like to show you something in the fourth bedroom. Perhaps it will ease your anxiety."

Sarek had no idea how his feet reluctantly followed his servant down the corridor to the fourth vacant bedroom on the second floor of the estate. Opening the door, Sarek stepped into the room stepping to the side to allow his assistant to lead the rest of the way.

Walking forward he walked to the back of the room, Felix peaked out the window in front of him before turning to face his employer.

"Linnea and I would come up here to watch the sunset." Felix said softly, "Your balcony always had the best view, after all."

His body suddenly became warm, and a momentary lapse in logic led Sarek to back of the room in a quick pace in six long strides. As his eyes were drawn to the sight below, a wave of relief through his chest when he saw his wife on the sofa bed. Her curls drenched in sweat, her cheeks stained with tears, and her eyes red and dark with exhaustion as she squeezed the hand of her long-time friend and Felix's wife.

He could feel her intense distress through their bond, but Sarek knew that no amount of calm that he could project would help ease her pain. He felt a dull tightening in his stomach as Amanda grasped her belly. Even though it was painful to watch his wife, the women that he loved, in pain there was something about the scene that made him unable to look away.

Through her panting, straining, tears, and the voices of the midwives his heart threatened to drop into his stomach when she spoke. Once soft, and even her voice came out rough, strained, and tired as she cried to the pointy eared woman at her feet "He won't come. He won't come."

"He is lazy." the midwife said, "You must help him and push harder."

"She will be alright, Ambassador." Felix said from behind Sarek "I've known your wife since we were four years old. She is one of the strongest women I know."

There was something about that statement, combined with the sight of his wife, that finally gave Sarek the power to begin repressing his worry and concern. He was grateful for his servant's company, who maintained an appropriate distance as Sarek watched in silence as his wife strained, cried, screamed, but ultimately welcomed their child into the world.

When Sarek sensed the gawking eyes of his assistant, he took it and breath and said,

"I express my gratitude to your presence during this time."

"It is my job to attend to you, Ambassador. In any way. I know I wouldn't want to be alone when my wife gave birth." Felix responded.

Minutes seemed like hours and even through his repression, the tightening in his chest still lingered as Amanda continued to cry and strain. His heels were beginning to dig into the carpet underneath him and soon he found himself squeezing his hands that he held behind his back.

But, when he caught the expression in his young wife's eyes as she watched their child slide from her body into the world, Sarek could not bring himself to repress the small smile the grazed his lips. As she watched her tired, strained face suddenly beam with happiness and joy, the pain in his chest suddenly dissipated.

Present day: 4. May 2237

It was the sound of a high-pitched cry that pulled Sarek from his thoughts. He watched his wife lips form into a beaming smile as she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks while Spock's nanny sighed in relief and held her arms out. Turning to his servant who was now nervously pacing throughout the room, Sarek said flatly

"We should return downstairs."

Walking out of the room, he noticed almost right away when his servant did not follow. It was about ten seconds later when his servant rushed past him and down the stairs. Sarek took his time returning downstairs and waited outside his bedroom for a total of fifteen minutes until the door opened. While he immediately stepped to the side expecting a midwife to leave with more soiled sheets, to his surprise, it was Amanda who appeared.

Closing the door behind her, she leaned against the bedroom door and looked at Sarek with a sleepy smile. Her cheeks were stained with tears, and her eyes red with exhaustion but through their bond he sensed no sadness, only happiness and exhaustion.

"It's a girl." She said softly, the smile widening on her lips.

It was then as he looked at his wife, with her sleepy, yet beautiful smile, that his heart filled with an intense warmth. A warmth that he had only experienced three other times in their relationship. The first being when he first asked Amanda to court him, the second when he asked her to marry him, and the third when he saw her hold Spock for the first time.

While this feeling made him instantly uncomfortable, he could never bring himself to repress the love he had felt for his wife. It was the one thing he allowed himself to feel. Saying nothing he extended his fingers to instigate an ozh'esta, but just as her fingers touched the sound of their names being called pulled them apart.

Joining the small family on the balcony, Sarek stood at a distance from his assistant, whose arm was wrapped around his exhausted wife who cradled a rather large bundle in her arms. His mind flooded back to the time he stood on this very balcony, looking at Amanda who held Spock in her arms.

When his eyes adjusted on his wife, he saw more tears well in her eyes. She smiled and held her arm to her chest and just as he was about to ask if she was having some kind of chest pain, she said in a teary voice

"I'd be honoured."

"Sarek," asked Linnea softly, "would you be her Godfather?"

When Sarek's brow rose in confusion as the word 'godfather' reminded him of a classic Earth film that Amanda introduced to him, Amanda explained that a godfather serves as a sort of paternal figure to the child and that it is a human custom and, even though every Vulcan custom and fibre of his being said 'no' and it 'wasn't their way', the look on Amanda's face made it impossible to utter.

"If that is what you wish." Sarek said flatly. "However, it would be appropriate to know the child's name."

Linnea's eyes drifted to Amanda, she smiled and said softly, "Her name is Amanda, after her godmother, and my friend."

A statement that made more tears fall from Amanda's eyes.

When the midwives moved Linnea to her room, Amanda took a quick shower, changed into her nightdress, and climbed into bed after seventeen long hours. After arranging transport to school for the children in three hours' time, Sarek drew the blackout curtain and climbed into bed next to his already sleeping wife, while suddenly feeling quite tired himself.

Through their bond, he sensed marginal pain coming from her head. Likely another one of her frequent headaches brought on by exhaustion. She shifted slightly in her sleep before her eyes fluttered open,

"The children-" she uttered softly, half asleep.

"I have arranged transportation to the Learning Centre for the children."

"…will be delighted." She concluded, a small smile grazing her lips.

He said nothing and instead tucked the loose strands of hair behind her ear.

"Thank you… for being with him."

"You have expressed the importance of the human courtesy of returning favours."

The small smile returned, "And Godfather…"

"I am the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth." Sarek explained, "It is only logical that I become better acquainted with human customs and culture."

Her smile widened slightly before she could no longer fight her sleepiness. Her eyes shut and within mere minutes, she had fallen into a deep sleep.

As she slept comfortably at his side, Sarek could not help but admired her beauty, her strength, her kindness, everything she was, and everything she ever will be.

She was strong; the female race was strong, and while hardly anything surprised Sarek, it never ceased to amaze him just how strong the female race was.

~*The End*~

A/N: I struggled with plot summary and a name for this story for about a week. If you have any better ideas for both, I am all ears! Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed!