They left the shop together that night. Neither spoke because it wasn't necessary. They knew what had happened.

After his hands had dropped from her face they simply stared at one another, breathing heavily, distracted temporarily from what they had been on a course for previously. They were bonded. It was done. Nothing else had happened past the establishment of the bond.

Once they realized what happened, it was in a strange way enough for them both. They walked to her home without touching one another, but inserted within one another. After making it there, they entered her apartment, still tingling from the sensations of before.

They sat on her couch and simply looked at each other, in awe of the connection now between them. "It was not my intention this evening to-" he began.

But she quickly gave him a soft peck on the lips to stop his words. "Don't you apologize to me," she said softly. "I wanted it. We both did," she realized.

He was only just holding back a heavy void of sensations and emotions within. His face moved in closer to hers. "I sense you did not complete your contemplation of my offer," he said as the side of his face began to gently move against hers. "You were not fully aware of what I was doing when it happened."

She found herself close to tears as she felt the touch of his face against hers, the light hairs of his face touching her smoothness, and the feel of him deep within her mind. "So what," she whispered. "You're there now. And I like it."

He sensed the truth in her words. "I see the need to give you space at this time. You must think of what has happened between us." He didn't want to, but he pulled himself away from her. "When you are ready, come to me. Do not take too long."

She held his eyes. There were things she needed to do before starting a life with him. "I will come to you," she promised.

"I can make it to my home this evening. But I know I am no longer able to tolerate any others near me. You must speak for me to the outside world. Inform Valen to inform clan mother I shall not return to the shop until I have passed through what is coming for me. Tell them you shall attend me on my journey. I can see no one until then. My logic is faulty and I would cause shame upon myself and my family. When it is unbearable, you will feel a pull drawing you back to me. Obey it or we shall both suffer the consequences."

"Yes," she said, understanding exactly what he meant now since they were connected so intimately.

"I will meditate as much as possible until then. I wish for you to obtain rest, as well."

She didn't want him to leave, but she knew she couldn't just leave things as they were in her life and disappear for days.

##

Tila was at the shop the next morning. She didn't know how she had survived the night before. She only halfway slept. He was there, in her mind, and she found herself awakened several times throughout the night to speak with him, calm his almost raging mind. It was exhausting and beautiful at the same time.

She was so tired the next day at work but she also happened to be riding a strange wave of happiness. Valen came to the back of the shop since he had been busy crafting when she had entered. "Tila?" he addressed her. "You are overly fatigued." He realized then that there was no sign of Tiren anywhere.

She found herself smiling openly at him. "I'm fine," she said on a quick exhale. "But Tiren has sent me with a message. He won't be back until he's passed through what has come for him."

Valen's eyes widened only a fraction and then he was back to his usual impassive self. "And you are aware of this because?"

"I'm here getting things squared away for now. There was a lot left undone, so I came to fix it before I left. He wanted you to tell your clan mother that I will attend him."

He looked closely and could see just the outer edge of a mark to her neck peeking out from her high-necked shirt. It was much too warm for a human to be wearing such a clingy garment. He suppressed a smirk. "It is not necessary to cover that," he said as his eyes rested on the mark.

Her hand reflexively covered it and then dropped. "I didn't know," she said as she looked down.

"I shall go now and inform clan mother- you are Tiren's bond mate?"

She knew him well enough to know he was trying to say, 'you two had better be bond mates'. She laughed. "Yes, I am."

"Finish your work. I will speak with T'Kaletul and your parents."

"About my parents? That's okay. That's really a conversation I should have with them myself."

He seemed taken aback. "They are unaware? Fully unaware?"

She felt a pang of guilt. "Yes."

One raised eyebrow was his answer as he said nothing else, turned and walked away.

##

After getting everything in order at the office, postponing all of Tiren's appointments and hers, tagging all of the items for immediate delivery instead of waiting, she did double time at the office that day instead of her usual 8 hours.

After sixteen straight hours of work, she dragged herself to her parents' house to speak to them.

My wife, Tiren's thoughts interrupted. You are not heeding my advice. You are overly fatigued. Please rest immediately!

Not now, Tiren. I have to talk to my parents first about us. They deserve to know.

She could feel his flare-up of temper as he forcefully said Comply!

Not now, you megalomaniac!

He seemed to pause, taken aback by her words. I am no such thing!

All she could do was laugh out loud at his palpable shock as she let herself into her parents' house. "Mom, dad, are you here?" she called as she walked into the living room.

They were both sitting on the couch. Her father was reading and her mother was knitting lace. "Hello!" her mother said happily.

"What are you doing here?" asked her father with a grin. "Come for a visit with the folks?"

She sat down on the couch and took a deep sigh. "Um—yes. I'm going to be away for about a week, give or take a day or two."

"Are you going on vacation or something?" asked her father, surprised. She hadn't mentioned this before.

"Um…you could say that," she nodded.

But her mother, as all mothers could, was looking at her daughter and several things jumped out at her. "Why are you so tired? And what is that mark on your neck you're trying to hide with your shirt?"

Damn, she's good! "Um…I'm kind of…getting married- am married…I don't know what you call it-"

"Married!" her father jumped up.

Was he angry? "To Tiren," she said gingerly.

And her father knew what it was then. "Oh," he said as his temper piped down. "Ohhhh," he said again as he sat and realized the full ramifications.

But her mother didn't know what was going on. "You're with the Vulcan?" she asked, openly shocked. "You married him? When did that happen? You didn't even tell us you were going to marry anyone! I missed the wedding?!"

But she saw her mother was not angry about her getting married, just that she missed the nuptials. "Yes, I am," she said as she then looked over at her father. "Do you think you can handle this with mom? He's getting insistent and I have to go now," she informed him.

"Eesh," her father exclaimed not wanting to think about it too closely. "Fine. Go now, but tell Tiren we'll talk later. If he even understands at this point."

"Oh and you can blame grandpa for this one," she said with a grin as she made it to the door.

"Should have known my father would be behind all of this," she heard him saying as she left the house.

##

Tiren opened his door to her and hoped he could control his inner impulses until she was at least in the door. "You are here."

She could see he was less himself than he'd been the day before. He stalked behind her as she walked to his couch, sat very close to her as she sat. "What are you doing with a couch anyway?" she asked out of nowhere. It had never occurred to her, but a couch was a very human piece of furniture.

He was surprised at the sudden bend of the conversation and forced himself not to smile. "I have had many human guests come and visit who wish certain pieces of art. I noticed some were uncomfortable sitting on the floor, even on pillows. It is why I have both," he said as he pointed across to his faux coffee table and the large pillows on the other side of it. She nodded. Then turned back around and looked at him. He was less than a foot away, his eyes searching hers, intense. "You have not yet slept this night. And you slept poorly the night before. I am at fault."

"But I'm here now. I went home first and got a bag-"

"You will need sleep. I assure you of this. And though you are part Giseth, you are still mostly human. I ask that you sleep now while you still can."

"All right, I'll do that—hey!"

He did what he wanted to do the first night she stayed at his place. He stood, lifted her into his arms and carried her to his room that time. He put her in his bed where, in his opinion, she belonged. He removed her shoes since she had been so tired she'd forgotten to take them off when she walked into his home. He lay down next to her and, wrapping himself around her, he commanded, "You will sleep now."

Something told her not to fight him on this matter. Besides that, her eyes were already closing.

##

Tila slept well into the next day. She saw he was not with her when she awoke. She found the bag at the side of the bed she had brought with her and slipped into his bathroom with it to shower.

After her very thorough ablutions, she left the bathroom and found herself abruptly pulled into Tiren's arms. "Speak to me," he said in his low voice, his face coming closer to hers. "Tell me what I wish to hear."

An emotion hit her in the stomach and she was, once again, having a difficult time breathing normally. "I have given this much thought. And I am ready now."

He reached out with his hand, eyes still surveying her face. "I will not delay my wishes any longer," he said in Vulcan.

Tila extended her hand to his. He reached out with his fingertips and when they touched, she let him initiate empathic contact. The minute she put her guard down she was bombarded by more than empathic impressions. A wave of blatant desire washed from him and into her. This was what he was feeling right now? Beneath the primitive emotion being rained upon him by the ancient drives there was admiration for her, caring and some deep overwhelming emotion that could not even be described as love, something that would have to be controlled at all cost lest it take control of him and force logic and reason from his mind, more-than-love she would think of it later. What does one do to express that? One word was not enough to encompass that emotion.

On his side, he could see her deep true regard for him. She did not burn like he did, so her feelings were not driven by some ancient hormone being pumped into her system forcing her to feel what she ought not, forcing a false sense of lust into her mind. And in her short time knowing him, she felt more for him than his former wife ever had in their adult years. But he learned what he needed to. His touch did not repel her, she sincerely wanted it. It made the fire within him burn brighter. He snatched his hand away.

"What is wrong?" asked Tila, distressed by his sudden withdrawal.

"I could not bear it if you turned away from me when it is fully upon me."

She grabbed his hand. "We will face this together. I'm not going anywhere."

He looked into her eyes and saw she was sure of herself. He delicately reached out, touched her face at the right points. She'd been to enough betrothals to know where her hands belonged on his face and placed her fingers at the proper points.

##

Tiren's father explained the entire process to her mother whom was more than shocked, she was horrified. "My baby consented to that?"

Her father sighed. "I spoke to dad. Apparently this young man has had a bad time of it in the past and decided to just let this time come up and do—well he decided to do nothing."

"I thought you said he would die if he did nothing."

"Exactly. I remember his last wife. A tall, haughty thing. She had been such a sweet little girl. We still don't know what turned her into that. It isn't against the law to have your bond stripped or to challenge so it's not like anyone had to require her to undergo examination."

His wife sighed deeply. "So you think your father and his grandmother-"

"It's obvious. They were set up to fall for one another from the beginning."

"And they fell for it, too," she said. Then she had to admit, "At least he's nice and I like him. She could have married that snake, Samuel. I like this son-in-law much better."

"Son-in-law," said her father with a smile on his face. "You know what a son-in-law can lead to."

"Grandchildren!" they both said in unison with big smiles.

##

Ironically at that moment on a subspace communiqué T'Kaletul and Orin were musing much the same thing. "You know what these unions lead to?" he said.

"Great-grandchildren," she answered with a satisfied nod. She'd gone out on a theoretical limb to keep one of her favored grandchildren from dying. She would never admit that to anyone else but he was one of her favorites. And now he was saved due to Orin's granddaughter.

"It's been great conspiring with you," he grinned wide enough for the both of them.

"Likewise," she acknowledged.

"What a set-up!" he laughed.

##

The two were achy, exhausted and spent but the fires were finally doused. Half the furniture in Tiren's place was broken and they were both bruised. He would have to make new furniture for their home. New waves of heat, all his own, drifted into his mind.

"Don't you go thinking about that again," she said as she sat up in bed. It was one of the only articles of furniture not broken but it didn't exactly feel sturdy anymore.

She'd picked his mind up through the bond and always knew when he was having 'thoughts' about her. "I shall try my best," he said as he leaned back and kissed her hard and deep, his mouth fully open, trying to incite passion in her once again.

She broke free. "Tiren!"

"I apologize, wife," he said as he stood. "We have much to attend to. I have an ancestral home sitting on the edge of the desert, unclaimed. I am truly bonded. It is ours now."

##

Time slipped into the future and one month later as Tila cleaned out the last of her things from her apartment she got an unexpected call from Earth. As she accepted, the face on the other side of the screen made her mouth drop open in shock. "Samuel," she nearly whispered. Had she completely forgotten about him? Yes.

"You and I haven't talked in a long time," he said as he shrugged. "I thought it was only right that I call and see how you were, you know?"

She sat in front of the view screen and wondered how she was going to explain all of this. "Um…do you remember that conversation we had about seeing other people and how upset I was?" she asked almost delicately.

He sighed and looked at her through the view screen, his emotions clear on his face. "I was so wrong. Can you forgive me? You've been away for so long and I just called to say that I miss you and I want us to start over again. What do you say? I mean I know we need to talk for a long time and I'm willing to do that to work this all out. I'll do anything you want. I'll come there if that's what you want."

The irony of the situation was so ridiculous she had to force herself not to laugh through a wave of nervous nausea. She forced herself to really think about how she was going to phrase this. "Samuel, sometimes people say things and because they say these things, a whole chain of events happens that neither one of them anticipated. I understand you want to take all this back but it's too late now."

"Too late?" he said. "It's never too late."

"Um…" She didn't know how to say it so she just came out and said it. "I'm married now. It came out of left field-"

"Married!"

"-I didn't even see it coming. That word 'whirlwind'? That's pretty much the best description for what happened. But that's where I'm at right now and that's all. I'm sorry if that hurts you but I'm actually happy so I'm not sorry for me."

He didn't say anything at first, just sat there, not believing what he was hearing. "Do you love him?" he asked.

She swallowed. "With all my heart."

He nodded, trying to accept that he'd caused this chain reaction of events. "Who is he?"

"Why do you want to know that?" she asked.

"I want to know who I lost you to. Who is he?"

"He's one of the crafters from my grandfather's shop," she said.

"But I thought you told me the crafters were all Vulcans?"

She didn't answer verbally but just sat there nodding with a silly grin.

A/N - This was the end of my story when I did it years back. But I'll leave it up to you guys in the reviews. Should the story 'end' here officially or should I add to it? It's all up to you! Weigh in!