Spock wasn't entirely sure he would have been able to keep himself from going to her if he wasn't busy stopping Kirk from doing just that, and McCoy from going to Stelev. His heart almost seemed to stop each time Savel lunged at T'Leiarel and the ferocity, the rage, the slow drip of green onto the sand from Stelev, it all combined to twist his mind up with the urges and longings, until he could barely think. But he held onto the one thing he COULD do to help her: give her this chance to win her own life.

"Good God man! You can't just expect us to stand and watch while that fellow tries to attack that poor girl! And I have to stabilise her brother, they might not be on the best of terms but surely you can't want him to die!" McCoy was quite vocal, Kirk on the other hand was surprisingly quiet, on edge, so Spock had to be careful he didn't do something impulsive, as much as Spock wanted to be the one doing impulsive things right now. It gave him something else to be looking at instead of the fighting.

"Well... that settles that... I hope?" Uhura commented quietly, Spock felt a surge of panic but he turned back to find T'Leiarel surprisingly the one still standing.

"Through combat I claim the right to my own fate, my own future. I renounce my family and the plans they have made for me. By blood and by battle my life is my own." Her voice was strained, but she managed to get the words out clearly. Spock couldn't hold himself back any longer and ran to her, sweeping her up into his arms before he could stop himself. He had to remind himself that he hadn't the right, in fact that she had fought that nobody would have the right to run to her like this, and froze. "You were supposed to be with the priestess." She said softly, as he managed to set her down, though he couldn't quite let go of her.

"She told me the best thing I could do was to go to my bondmate." Spock replied, just as softly.

"Your... but you never..." She frowned, then her eyes went wide. "But how? When?" He could feel the surprise and wonder mingled with fear surging through her as she pulled back from him slightly, giving herself a little space, though it pained him to have her even that small step away. "We need to discuss this privately, later." He supposed it was a lot to take in, but it felt right. It felt like she was a part of him that he had never noticed but was just there, and he was deeply afraid she wouldn't feel the same way, and he couldn't push that down properly, couldn't cover it in logic, not at the moment. This must be how she felt all of her feelings... vibrant and consuming.

One of the Vulcan doctors tried to check T'Leiarel over but she waved him away, back to dealing with the two men. Instead she limped the short distance to the small group of humans. "Thank you for not getting involved."

"Are all Vulcan weddings this... active?" Kirk asked, somewhat incredulously, clearly trying to break the tension. McCoy seemed on edge as well, having been shooed away from treating the patients and still not sure what was wrong with Spock... there is no way the logical Vulcan he had known these last years would be making those puppy eyes at T'Leiarel's back like he was doing right now... There was something going on with him that they weren't telling him about properly, and he was clearly head over heels for her, though whether that was connected to this whole mess was anyone's guess.

"Apparently my help isn't needed here and your Vulcan doctors know more about Vulcan physiology than me." McCoy grumbled. "But you should at least have someone check you over, a few of those blows looked pretty hard." T'Leiarel smiled, then winced as she pulled the cut on her lip.

"Go right ahead. Them I don't trust to focus on the injuries and steer clear of telling me that I need psychological help for causing this whole mess..." She sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Family isn't always easy." Uhura commented, drawing the attention of the others, it seemed there was a story there, but she didn't go into detail. "It is worth remembering that relatives and family might be considered synonyms in many cultures, but that doesn't mean they are actually the same thing. One is about genetics and one is about love. Are you looking forward to going back to Earth? It is going to be awkward waiting for the next ship headed that way."

"I'm not going back." T'Leiarel responded with a sigh. "And I'm definitely not staying here... I guess I'll catch the first ship I can find willing to take me anywhere but here and I'll work things out from there."

"You, you're going to disappear again?" Spock frowned as he spoke, causing even more concern to his shipmates, it was clear he wanted a connection here, but perhaps she didn't. She had fought pretty hard to avoid getting married, maybe she just didn't like relationships? Little did they know that it was the depth of feelings that made her pull back not the lack of them.

"I feel like Earth was just me waiting for something like this to happen, to try and drag me back... I need a proper fresh start, one where I can build a life, a family I guess? Like the Enterprise is for you." She took Spock's hand, he could feel such a swirl of emotion, but then his were all over the place too, it made it hard to figure them out. There was pain, longing, love, fear, there was also a healthy dose of desire there, but he couldn't be sure that wasn't just his time affecting his perception, or affecting her through the bond, or both.

"Well, if you want you can keep your room on the ship for a bit longer?" Kirk offered, not sure whether it would make things better or worse for his first officer but wanting to do something. "At least until we have to leave orbit."

"Not least because you've got several muscle tears, two greenstick fractures that really need fixing up before you put too much pressure on them and make them worse, and I'm seeing elevated levels of quite a few hormones, but since I don't know nearly enough about your condition to know if that's normal for you or not I'd like to keep an eye on things." McCoy added, though to be honest he wouldn't object to having the woman around more, it was nice to see Spock interested in someone, even if the actually seeing it part was disconcerting. Though weren't he and Uhura a couple... he frowned giving her a glance. She seemed to be taking this okay but he'd have a word with her later. "You shouldn't really be standing right now, and definitely no jumping for joy at getting out of your wedding. Hey Spock..." He didn't get chance to finish that sentence before Spock had lifted T'Leiarel again. She sighed but the small smile gave it away that she was more amused than annoyed... perhaps there was something there with those two. "I was going to ask about your treatment? That you were supposed to be doing right now?"

"It can wait." Spock replied cryptically. Kirk was amused to see both McCoy and T'Leiarel give him the same frustratedly amused frown. Though he figured she at least knew what was going on. "There's some discussion needed regarding the course of treatment to follow."

"Discussion?" McCoy asked, but it seemed that was all he was going to get from Spock, he turned his attention to the more forthcoming of the two Vulcans in the hope that she might enlighten him more, she had certainly told him more than most Vulcans tended to so far.

"There's multiple treatment options, like I said before. The first choice, traditionally, was something that didn't seem like an option in this case, you just witnessed the second traditional option, which understandably is less preferable." Her eyes looked pointedly at the blood on the ground, the Vulcan patients having already been carried away. "The priestesses can provide an alternative which doesn't always work but if necessary can be combined with some medication to increase its odds, but there's risk. The first choice treatment is the first choice for multiple reasons, and not just the fact it's the safest and most effective option." She did have a way of telling McCoy things while leaving out whole chunks of what she was talking about, explaining around the things she didn't want to say.

"Dammit, just tell me what's going on, is this some sort of Vulcan puberty or something that leads to people getting married or fighting each other or whatever? That Savel fellow was not looking well before the fight even started. Is that going to happen to Spock?" The doctor demanded an explanation, though he knew he should probably not be doing this in front of Kirk and Uhura, they were Spock's friends too though, and they had to be damned curious too.

The two Vulcans looked at each other for a very long pause, seeming to communicate through careful use of eyebrows, or so McCoy decided to believe. Eventually T'Leiarel sighed.

"Can we just get back to the ship for now? I'm actually in quite a bit of pain." She seemed to have decided something, McCoy wanted to push for more information but she was his patient right now, and if they seemed to think Spock had some time before things would get worse he should focus on treating her. Besides she might say more while she was under the influence of pain medication...

Spock also wanted to know what she had decided, but he could hope, and back on the ship where she would be safe from her family they could talk. They definitely needed to talk.

AN/

So I was asked in a review about if I had an idea what T'Leiarel looks like. I am actually fairly open to people imagining her how they like, so feel free to skip to the next chapter now if you have your own image for her. But if it's helpful for you to have a face to a name... personally I am imagining something similar to Eliza Taylor but with greener eyes.

Also, thanks to everyone for the reviews, they are really encouraging me with my writing.