Authoress' Note: Just a quick filler chapter with some nice dialogue. Meatier chapters to come. Thanks for the reviews and faves!

Signs

Nyota drives back to her flat near the embassy with a myriad of emotions swirling around inside of her. She drives blindly for some time, caught up in her talk with Sarek, and hardly remembers arriving home. She suddenly finds herself longing to contact Spock, an illogical action considering she hasn't spoken to him in years and has no idea of his current whereabouts.

The automatic lights flicker on as she enters her flat and the door whooshes shut behind her and locks automatically. She slips off her shoes and tosses them into her darkened bedroom before making her way to the wall display on the other side of the sitting room. She stares at it for a moment even as her stomach rumbles, reminding her that she's hardly eaten all day.

She glances over the different tabs in the feed, and then stops on the number display for Spock's room aboard the Enterprise. Her hand hovers over it for a moment hardly believing that she still has the number after so much time, and then she blinks and moves on down the list toward Aria's home number. Pressing the tab, a live feed of Aria's own sitting room swims into view as an old-fashioned telephone ring plays back to her over the two-way sound system.

The young secretary, dressed in a long Vulcan style tunic doubling as pyjamas pokes her head out of the bathroom off to the side of the screen, a toothbrush in her mouth. Nyota waves at her, and the girl's head disappears behind the door again. She can hear the sound of water running, and then Aria comes skidding into the room, pulling her hair up into a high ponytail, much like Nyota's.

"Hey girl!" she says, settling herself down in front of the screen, "How was dinner with His Vulcan Highness? Surely you two didn't get through all the courses that fast? Aren't there like six or seven different parts to a traditional Vulcan meal?"

"I don't even know," Nyota confesses, shrugging her shoulders, "but it doesn't matter, because we didn't even make it through the second."

Aria's eyebrows disappear into her fringe, and her eyes widen. "Ooh. What happened?"

Nyota raises an eyebrow at her friend's reaction. "Why must you always assume that something happened?"

Aria waves her hand noncommittally, "Why else would you get thrown out of the Ambassador's house, huh?"

"Hey! I didn't get thrown out!"

"Okay, okay," Aria says hastily, holding her hands up defensively in front of her chest, "Just tell me what went down."

"Well, we talked about the repopulation plans for Vulcan mostly, and somehow Spock got mentioned. I don't really know how. It just happened, and I had no idea we'd be discussing him, so . . . I got a little bit defensive."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, it didn't turn out like I had hoped. Sarek wasn't mean about it or anything. He's incapable of being that way, but he did lay down the law concerning his son's future, wife included."

Nyota shrugs again, and Aria stares at her with widened eyes as though the idea of somehow offending the Ambassador was one of the biggest taboos anyone could ever commit. She shakes her shocked expression off quickly and regains control of the conversation.

"Soo . . . you still love Spock, don't you?"

Nyota looks away at a Vulcan painting hanging on the wall across the room from her in an attempt to avoid Aria's question. It is a square canvas splashed with gold and red, with the contrast of a sea green bird bursting upward into the bloodied sky. At least that's what Nyota thinks it is. She squints hard at it, ignoring Aria's wheedling.

"Don't ignore me!" Aria pouts, crossing her arms over her chest, "You've got to answer that question for yourself sometime you know."

Nyota breaks her gaze from the painting and looks down at her hands twisting themselves into knots in her lap. "I don't really know, Aria," she says slowly, "I haven't seen him in so long, and although I know I said I wouldn't mind being his wife I'm still not even sure I know what that entails. Vulcans are so damn secretive."

"Not to mention, Spock could've changed quite a bit since you last saw him," Aria pipes up, and Nyota nods in agreement.

"That's true."

Silence falls between them for a moment as Nyota fights the urge to tell Aria about wanting to contact Spock again. She is momentarily afraid of how Aria could react considering she considers herself to be a fiercely independent woman. Finally she decides that it's safer to tell Aria now rather than in person, so she opens her mouth to speak.

"I almost called him today."

As Nyota shrinks slightly, Aria puffs up with indignation, her eyes flashing. "Spock? Why? You don't even know where he is!"

"I don't know, Aria, I don't know why I do anything nowadays. I mean, why do I still have dinner with Sarek when I know I'll never have familial ties with him? Why am I still on this inhospitable planet when I could be at home? None of it makes sense."

Uhura sags slightly, defeated, and looks down at her hands again, splaying them in her lap. Aria stares at her thoughtfully for a minute, giving her friend time to think.

"Nyota, listen to me," Aria suddenly becomes very serious, her eyes boring into her friend's. "What if all of this means that it is time for you to go home?