Spock paused in his lecture for slightly less than a second, slightly surprised at the sight of a small human child among the sea of cadets. He was even more surprised to realize that she was sitting quietly, and possibly paying closer attention to him than most of the cadets around her.

He continued to watch her out of the corner of his eye as he resumed speaking. She sat almost completely still, save for fidgeting very slightly every now and again, her feet dangling over the edge of her chair. She was dressed in a huge turtleneck that hung down past her knees. She was also barefoot.

She watched him almost through the entire lecture, but fell asleep fifteen minutes before Spock finished. She woke up again as the cadets began to leave the lecture hall, looking around in almost a panic before she seemed to remember where she was. Carefully she stood up in her chair and began to look around.

Suddenly she had disappeared. Spock momentarily let her slip to the back of his mind as a few nervous cadets approached. They wished to speak with him.

"I really enjoyed your lecture." One young lady, a human, said nervously.

"Yeah." Added one of the others, this one also human. He swallowed rather loudly.

They wished to say more, Spock realized, but were uncertain how to do it. They were terrified of him, he noted. Jim would have been hard put to hide his laughter had he been here.

"Hi." A high voice cut through the tension, and the young girl slipped through the cadets. "You're really smart."

The cadets looked horrified, and one of them began to rebuke her. Spock spoke before the cadet could manage it, however.

"Thank you." He said. "Did you enjoy the lecture?"

She smiled up at him. Her smile was very familiar. "Yes." She said. "Most of it. I didn't understand a lot of it, and I kind of fell asleep at the end, but you have a very nice voice." She was silent for all of a second before she began talking again. "It is so awesome to meet you." She informed Spock. "I've been wanting to forever, but Papa said I had to behave in school and try to stay out of trouble, and that you were pretty busy."

"And have you behaved well in school?" Spock inquired.

"Mostly." She admitted. "I try. Sometimes things just happen."

"What grade are you in, miss?"

"Second." She beamed up at him. "I'm Nakita, by the way."

She giggled as he raised his hand in the Vulcan salute. "Live long, and prosper, Nakita."

She returned the gesture, and Spock lifted an eyebrow as she delivered the same salute in what was not too badly pronounced Vulcan.

The cadets were uncomfortable now; Spock realized they probably thought the child was bothering him. Or perhaps they felt she was taking up the time they had wanted to spend talking to him. It was hard to tell, sometimes.

Whatever the reason, one of them eventually tried to make her leave. "Why don't you find your parents and quit bothering Captain Spock? I'm sure your mommy is probably looking for you, kid."

The girl frowned at him. "Don't talk about my mama." She snapped, looking around. "And Papa said I could talk to him."

"And you have, so why don't you go back to Daddy and let the grownups talk?"

She scowled at him. "Papa had work. He said for me to wait for him here."

Another cadet felt the need to get involved. "Your daddy left you here while he went to work?" She asked. Nakita nodded, as if it were a perfectly normal thing for a parent to do. "When does he get done?"

Nakita thought for a minute. "He said he would be here soon after the lecture ended, unless something came up."

"And he left you here, by yourself?" Again, the child nodded. The cadet frowned. "What kind of father drops his kid off alone at an Academy lecture for baby-sitting?" He asked. It was a rhetorical question, Spock knew by now.

Apparently, Nakita did not. "My papa is the best Papa in the world." She informed him. "And besides, Spock was here." Spock's eyebrow again went up.

"Captain Spock is not here to babysit little brats." The cadet informed the girl sharply. "And where is your mommy? Does she know about this?"

Nakita crossed her arms and opened her mouth to reply. She didn't have to. "Her mother is not around anymore." Someone behind Spock said. He turned, and realized why the child seemed so familiar. Pavel Chekov scooped the child off the floor as if she were closer to two years old than six and eyed the cadet. "Her father was teaching a class down the hall, and would not have left her here, Mister Connolly, if he felt she would be in danger." There was a dark look in his eye as he spoke. "Dismissed."

"But, sir-"Connolly began.

"Dismissed." Chekov repeated sharply. "And make sure you get tonight's assignment from someone who actually showed up for class." The cadet retreated, and the others followed, wary of making the man angrier than he already seemed to be.

Spock found it interesting to note that while Chekov's burst of emotionalism would have barely been acknowledged, and certainly would have caused little concern in his shipmates, here it seemed to frighten cadets into distancing themselves quite a bit from the group.

"I see you've met my daughter." Chekov turned back to Spock, all previous displeasure apparently gone. "She's been pleading with me for months to let her come to this."

Spock nodded. "She seemed most interested in the lecture." He commented.

"She's been wanting to meet you." Chekov replied with a chuckle.

"Papa's told me so much about you and the others." Nakita piped up, and Chekov shrugged, amusement and embarrassment both shining in his eyes. "You guys are the coolest." She added, for good measure. "Can he come for dinner?" She asked suddenly. "Nyota and Uncle Hikaru are going to be there. Can he? Please? Please?"

Chekov hesitated. "I don't know if he can, sweetheart. He may be busy."

Spock tried to decide whether Chekov actually did not want him there, or thought Spock himself might not want to join them. "It would be agreeable to see Uhura and Sulu again." He said cautiously, and was rewarded with a spark of hope in both pairs of eyes. "As long as I will not be intruding…"

Chekov grinned. "You? Never, Spock."

As they left the hall, Chekov eyed his daughter. "First thing we need to do when we get home is get you into some decent clothes."

Nakita blushed. "I fell into a puddle on the way here." She mumbled, hiding her face in Chekov's chest. "Lucky, Papa always keeps himself a spare change of clothes here. He didn't have any extra shoes though."

"I don't think they would have fit you anyway." Chekov told her, and she burst into giggles. He let loose a giggle of his own, and shrugged to Spock in a half-serious apology for the emotional display.

Spock found himself looking forward to this evening.

Disclaimer: Star Trek does not belong to me.