Author's Note: Sorry for disappearing - family stuff happened. Anyway - thank you for all the patience while we get through the expo, we should only have another chapter or two of set up (queue the inspirational montage music if you so desire) before we get down and dirty with the plot/character development. Still don't own anything.
Angela tugged the collar of her school uniform straight and gave herself a little smile in the mirror. Amanda had braided her hair earlier that morning, a different hairstyle then the ones she remembered her own mother wearing and weaving, but it functioned. Spock had walked her up the steps to the school and informed her of how to reach her classes. The building was still a labyrinth to the learning pods where her class.
"Hello," the teacher said when she walked into the room. "Are you the ward of Ambassador Sarek?"
"Yes," she replied, relaxing her face like Amanda had taught her, "I'm Angela. Thank you for accepting me into your class."
"Thanks are illogical, you were enrolled into this class," the teacher replied.
Angela ducked her head slightly in her own cultural gesture before straightening up again. "Which learning bowl is to be mine?"
"Number 42," the instructor replied. "Alert me if you have any questions."
"That would be logical," Amanda replied, moving past the female to the room and where the rest of her Vulcan classmates were waiting. She quickly walked over to the indent and walked down the side. The bowl lit around the edges and formulas appeared around her, waiting to be solved.
"Please log in." The computerized voice commanded.
"New student, login needs to be created," Angela said.
"Response incorrect, please call for assistance."
Angela turned and climbed back up, looking towards the instructor. "Savensu, the computer is not recognizing the command to set up a new student log in." The teacher pulled out her display and plugged in a few commands.
"Your log in is set up, you should alter your password after your first log in so that no one else can access your account."
"That would be logical," Angela replied. "Though in anticipation of a new student's arrival, it would have been more efficient to have the log in prepared. So, thank you for assisting me." She turned and entered the learning bowl again, pulling up a keyboard and keying in a complicated password translated from her own language. She did not notice the teacher make a notation in her padd before continuing her route to check on the other students.
Angela was to busy soaking up the information from the computer. It was programmed to start her at level one, most of which Spock had taught her on their way from her planet. Some of the cultural history required more explanation than she had been given in the short time, and a few translations had her stumped, but soon enough she was moving quickly through the exercises. Not as quickly as her Vulcan classmates, but much faster than her instructor had anticipated. When the group broke for their midday meal, Angela lingered a few moments to finish up her thought. Unfortunately it gave a few of her classmates time to linger and stare at the new girl, whose brightly pigmented biology was so different from their own.
"Your hair color is illogical," one tall boy a year older said.
"As is your statement," Angela replied. His classmates turned and looked at him, wondering what he would say next.
"Did you just call me illogical?" The boy asked. "I am Vulcan."
"Yes, I observed that," Angela gathered her padd under her arm and moved to walk around the group. "You will excuse me, it is time for the midday meal and this conversation serves no point."
He grabbed her arm in a tight grip. "You will explain your offending sentence."
"You will unhand me."
"Explain your statement." Another student bit out.
Angela bit back a sigh and wrestled her arm away from him, hoping to placate the older group. "My hair color may be illogical for a Vulcan, but I'm not Vulcan. Therefor, it is not illogical for my hair to be… what is your word… blue. Now please excuse me, you are infringing on the dining time and a midday meal is required for proper focus in the afternoon classes."
The other boy stepped into her way. Angela suddenly realized how much smaller she was next to the alien species. He could easily lift and throw her, she suppressed the shiver of fear. "You control your emotions very well for someone who is not Vulcan, the Ambassador must have instructed you well. I wonder if you also require physical stimuli to react emotionally as his son does." He reached foreword and shoved Angela to the ground, her padd tumbled free of her grip and the screen cracked against the hard floor. A jolt of pain went up Angela's arm and she hissed, quickly moving away and cradling the limb her to chest. "It appears that what my brother tells me is…" Without waiting for the older boy to finish his sentence, Angela threw her padd at him and took off at a run for the students dining hall. The few moments he was distracted by the instrument flying at his face gave her the window needed to escape, but the longer legged males were close behind her.
Spock stood when he saw Angela run into the lunch hall with two other students in tow, her arm clutched to her chest. He forgot his lunch tray and moved towards the young girl looking her her shoulder. She ran smack into his legs and looked up in fear as his hand on her shoulder steadied her. Before he could ask her what had happened she was behind his legs and the other students had skidded to a halt in front of them.
"You will not move," Spock instructed, keeping his eyes on the two young males as he summoned an instructor over to them. "Savensu, these boys have injured my father's ward. I will take a tray for her and escort her to the infirmary so that she may finish her midday meal there. My father will want to know what punishment these boys receive for their behavior, please foreword him the information once it has been decided."
"It's not that bad," Angela said quietly as Spock lifted her into his arms.
"You are minimizing the injury, it needs to be examined if you cannot move it without pain."
"She should not logically exist, the rest of her culture is dead so she should be too!" The boy shouted after Spock. "There is no reason that I should be punished."
"This child is most likely royalty, or at least the member of a high ranking family in her culture," Spock replied. "Should her family still be alive, they will want to know how she was treated during her stay on Vulcan. It is possible that you may have damaged the relationship between two cultures with your acts." Spock turned on his heel and picked up a tray from the server.
"You know that my whole family is dead?" Angela asked the moment they were out of the room.
It was the first time Spock had heard her mention the rest of her people. Since she had come into his family months ago, she had always dodged the question about her people, stating that she did not know what had happened. "That is not an excuse for the way you were treated. You still have a prominent family Angela, one who will not sit idly by while you are mistreated." He raised his hand to the back of her neck and she put her face into his neck, her whole body relaxing at the comforting gesture. "Your wrist will be examined for injury and then you will finish your lunch before returning to afternoon classes."
"You're going to call Miss Amanda instead of Mr. Sarek, aren't you?"
"I will call our home, whomever answers first will be the one that I speak to." They both knew that Amanda would be the only on at the house during the day.
"I think we should consider adopting her Sarek," Amanda argued that night in their quarters after Angela had been put to bed. "If the diplomatic corps hasn't found her family by now, I think it's safe to assume that she doesn't have any living relatives. She told Spock this afternoon that her relatives were dead."
"We are not her family," Sarek stated simply. "She is an emotional child who may not fare well on Vulcan."
"She does fine with you and Spock, she's already picked up on when to behave quietly and when it is appropriate…"
"The incident at her school today may only be the first of many incidents. 'Romping' with you in a couch fort and challenging Spock to a 'pillow duel' is hardly appropriate behavior."
"The incident was not her fault. As to the aftermath, she was behind closed doors and helped clean up the mess afterwards. Sometimes a little bit of mess is a good thing."
"Angela distracted Spock from his studies for 0.3761 hours."
"I think a twenty minute break in eight hours of study is perfectly reasonable. Your son is half human and he should entertain some emotions so that it doesn't bottle up and explode." She pulled her braid over her shoulder and tied off the end before climbing into their bed. "Besides, we both know that Vulcans control their emotions, not ignore them entirely." She smiled and trailed her first two fingers from his arm to his pulse point on his jaw. "Either way she needs a guardian. Who better than you to make sure she is taken care of."
"We will continue this discussion later, wife," Sarek said, reaching back to turn out the light. "In the morning."
Twelve hours later Sarek ended his conference call with the high council and the Starfleet admiralty. He leaned back and steepled his hands in front of his face; his wife was not going to like the outcome of his conversation. Wether or not anyone would believe it, he had fought hard to keep the child's guardianship. He had felt the same urge Amanda did to protect the child, to keep her safe from anyone that could hurt her. Despite his original misgivings about the girl, keeping her on Vulcan had come to… feel like the right thing to do.
It could have been the reason for the Vulcan High Council to side with Starfleet in removing the girl from the planet so that she could reside with a guardian on Earth. Angela seemed to evoke those types of protective emotions in those around her, at least when it came to his family. Spock had already proved to be a strong source of support for the girl on their return trip from her own planet. Her trust in them allowed Amanda to give the child a name, and his own acceptance had given her a home. His argument that stability would be the best source for her had been turned down despite the fact she had excelled all expectations at the Vulcan Elementary Academy. Even his angle of studying her had been disapproved, with her remarkable intelligence and adaptability the council seemed too afraid of the emotions she raised.
"I'm guessing by that look they didn't agree with us," Amanda said. "They're taking her, aren't they?"
"Yes, she is being transported to Starfleet headquarters at the end of the week," Sarek replied. "I managed to get in a clause that while she will be under the care of Starfleet, she is still our ward and we have final say in any extenuating circumstances. So if anything should happen while she is under the care of Starfleet, she will immediately be removed and taken to the Vulcan embassy."
"How would we be able to do that? The Vulcans only have so much power on Earth even with diplomatic immunity."
"But as a Terran citizen, you can go wherever you wish without detection. If needs be we could use you or Spock to remove her, then once you use dual citizenship to get into the embassy, I can have her taken from there the same hour."
"Is there any logical motivation behind that clause?"
"I do not know, I have never experienced this…. feeling. I can tell that she needs to be protected, prudence is logical and we should prepare for the worst situation. Ideally, she will be placed with a loving guardian and excel in her new environment. Angela has proven to be a resilient child and should handle the move well once it is explained to her."
Sarek was right, though Angela was not at all happy with the situation she understood why the caring adults had to hand her over. Amanda kept the child home for the rest of the week to help her Standard skills and selecting a school for her to enroll at once she arrived in San Francisco. To the small family, it seemed as though time moved more quickly till they were standing inside the hanger bay with a small suitcase.
"Here," Spock said, crouching down so he could look at the small child. He pulled out the small stuffed sehlat and extended it towards her. Amanda had gotten the small stuffed creature after I-Chaya had died and he'd kept it because he knew she'd want him to, though it seemed appropriate to give it to her. Angela smiled widely and gave her little squeak that he'd come to signify with an endearment towards him. She hugged the stuffed animal to her with one arm and then wrapped them both around Spock, her smile fading a little as a whine built in the back of her throat. Spock returned the hug, knowing it would comfort her, and gently ran his hand through her hair. "There is no need to worry; your guardian will take good care of you."
"Promise?" She asked, extending her pinky in a ridiculous gesture. When he didn't extend his own she plumped her lower lip in a pout. "Symbols have meaning to remind those viewing it of the spoken or nonverbal message behind them Spock." He couldn't help but let a smile in his eyes and extended his pinky, linking it with hers. Amanda was able to keep the tears in her eyes as Angela hugged him again and than ran over to the woman who knelt to hug her as well. "I'll see you soon Miss Amanda." Surprisingly she turned to Sarek and all emotion dropped from her face, though not her eyes as she raised her hand in the traditional salute. "Live long and prosper Mr. Sarek."
"And you Angela," Sarek replied, returning the gesture. "Peace and long life." She turned and walked to the human waiting for her, looking up at the tall man with a smile that wasn't returned right away. Sarek consoled his wife by saying that she would be transferred to a family once she reached Earth. Spock looked after the young girl and felt a strange emotion flit across his consciousness, an illogical wish that he would see Angela again soon