"Only eight months, twenty-eight days, four hours and six minutes until my new sibling is born," Spock told Surlek a couple of days later. He was cradling T'Pring in anticipation.

"You are lucky," Surlek replied, "I never even knew my mother was pregnant until she came home with a baby one day."

Spock had always suspected that Surlek wasn't very observant.

"I guess it is good--" Spock started, but then stopped himself. He was already so excited. How was he going to wait so long?

*****

"Surlek and I taught T'Pring to swing on the swings today," Spock told his parents at dinner.

It had been a week, and his parents had yet to say anything, so Spock was making a point of mentioning babies as much as possible to remind them.

"You sure do like playing with her," Amanda commented.

"She is adorable," replied Spock, hoping to make his appreciation for siblings clear.

Amanda gave him a strange look.

*****

A few days later, Spock, Surlek and Lebena were in the playhouse when Amanda came by with some lemonade.

"She is expecting, you know," Spock said out loud as soon as she was out of earshot.

Lebena looked at him tentatively,

"I suspect she is not," she said finally.

"Why?" Spock demanded, not really believing her.

"Surlek's mother was cranky, had bags under her eyes and was as big as a house when she was pregnant," she responded.

"She seemed normal to me," Surlek contradicted darkly.

Spock's heart started to sink.

"Maybe it is different for humans," he suggested quickly.

"What you need to do," Lebena mused, resting her chin in her hand, "Is test her bodily fluids."

Spock wondered if she was teasing him.

"And how am I going to do that?" he demanded.

"You could ask her," Surlek suggested.

Spock didn't even bother explaining why this was a bad idea.

*****

Spock ran into the house and found one of his mother's used glasses. He walked up to his father's lab and swabbed the saliva. Spock looked up the indicative hormones on the computer and found that they were easy enough to scan for. But they weren't in the sample. He scanned three times.

Spock got up and put the scanner away, and then lowered his head in despair. This was how his mother found him.

"Spock, what's wrong?" she asked as soon as she saw him. He lifted his head slowly and looked her in the eye.

"Mother," he asked solemnly, "Will I always be alone?"

She looked sympathetic, but also a bit confused.

"Did you have a fight with Lebena?" she guessed, putting an arm around his shoulder.

He shook his head sadly.

"No," he whispered, "You are not pregnant."

"Why would you ever think that?" she asked quizzically. She wore a concerned expression, as if she was never going to eat another caramel sundae again.

"I tried ..." Spock wailed, "I tried ... I found chocolate ... and toys ... and that outfit for father ... and I thought that maybe if I could get you to act romantic ..."

He paused and looked at his mother despondently.

Slowly, the entire story came out. Amanda gasped at some parts and stifled laughter at others. And she did seem quite worried about the package she had sent her sister.

"Well, Spock," she said finally, "I think you know you've been deceptive and deep down you know that you were wrong."

And he did. He sniffed loudly.

"But you seemed to like T'Pring so much," he answered finally, "I thought you wanted a new baby."

"Come here Spock," Amanda said, picking him up and sitting down in a chair. She breathed a long sigh,

"It's not that I don't want one ... it's just that it would be too dangerous. How would you like it if I were to die," Spock's grip tightened reflexively, "Or your new sibling were to die?"

Spock looked at her apologetically, and she spoke quietly,

"We're both just going to have to accept that you're not going to have any siblings."

He and Amanda said silently for a long while.

"But why did it not work?" Spock asked eventually. And he gave his mother a look that said that he wouldn't believe her if she said it all just hadn't been romantic enough.

"I'm going to have to tell you about something called birth control," she responded after a pause.

"Which is something," she added quickly, "That I expect you not to tamper with."

A/N: That's all folks! Sorry this chapter wasn't so funny, but I had to finish off somehow. Please review if you haven't had the chance yet :)