A/N: Stupid rating limit, making me cut the sex scenes . . .

-Chapter Three-

The lead Kati had made for Nolan proved very useful. Anthea could slip it over a chair leg and her son couldn't run away. He wasn't pleased by this new development, though, and cried for a good twenty minutes when Mummy introduced her latest trick.

"He really doesn't like it," she observed to her sister-in-law. "I've never seen him get this upset, aside from when he first started teething."

"Khan is not one for being tied up, either," Kati remarked.

"Oh, I don't know about tha-" Realising what she'd been saying, Anthea snapped her mouth closed. "Um."

Kati let out a surprised laugh. "I do not need details!"

"You won't get them," Anthea promised.

"It is good, though, you and my brother. Before, he never had anyone like you. No one to truly care for him as you do. He had . . . mistresses, but they were never more than toys to him. I admit, I was not pleased at first, when I learned you were his wife. But you are good for him. You help him be . . . human."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Nolan had, by this time, finally stopped crying. He sprawled on his back on the grass, in the shade of the tree his mother and aunt had sheltered beneath, and hiccuped.

"Nolan, too," Kati continued. "I know he does not let the others see, but we all know he adores his son."

"I think it's a bit silly, but I also know he's used to keeping things close to the chest. And I know why that became ingrained. But he doesn't need to do it here. It's not as if he has a reputation to uphold."

"No," Kati said, "we would all follow him into the depths of Hell. Even if he asked us to do it while wearing pink tutus."

Anthea grinned at the mental image of her intense, stoic husband in a tutu. "I'd love to see that."

"So would I."

The two women grinned at each other.

"We've decided to have another baby," Anthea confessed. "One he'll be here for."

"I think that is an excellent idea!"

"I'm a little scared, I'll admit. Last time, I had the best doctors there for the birth."

"Oh, Yves is very good!" Kati assured her. "Though I do not know how many babies he has delivered."

Anthea arched a brow at her sister-in-law's effusive support of the doctor. She wondered if Kati knew how her face lit up when she said Yves's name.

Nolan crawled over to his mother and dragged himself into her lap. Curling against her, he jammed a thumb in his mouth and grabbed a fistful of her blouse. "Mama," he mumbled sleepily.

"Looks like it's naptime," Anthea said. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go put him down for a spell."

With Nolan napping, Anthea sat at the tiny desk in their cabin. She'd begun documenting life at the colony in a series of letters addressed to her mother, which she'd never send. She missed her parents a great deal, though she would always choose Khan when it came down to it.

Mum,

We've been on the colony seven weeks now. Today is day 50.
We've built a number of cabins for our people, and more are
under construction. Khan has selected s beautiful site for
our own home, beneath a very tall, sheltering tree at the
edge of our little village. For the present, we're still
calling the ship home, though.

Khan is still working on trying to help his sister. It
worries him that he can't figure out what is wrong. He's not
a man used to failure, and this, especially with his only
true sibling, has him very stressed. I do what I can to
assist, even if it's just give him comfort.

Nolan is growing fast. I wish you could see him! Even though
he's only fifteen-months-old, he's fairly mastered walking,
and has begun running, though he still has a tendency to
fall when he does this. He still speaks only in short
sentences, but his vocabulary is expanding by leaps and
bounds. Khan assures me his rapid development is normal for
their kind. Our son has graduated from nappies now, which
was the only hitch so far. He did not want to potty train. I
prevailed in the end, however. Khan is relieved; he does not,
at present, have to change any diapers.

We've decided to try for another child. While we have no
preference on gender, I admit that I would love to have a
little girl. There are women here, but there is entirely too
much testosterone on this colony. We have nine more men than
women, Khan not included, and if we want a successful colony,
we'll need to find the men wives. Save for Otto and Chin,
who are a same-sex union, though Chin has confessed he would
like to find the couple a surrogate by which to have a child
of their own.

My conflicts with Rodriguez continue. I'm not asking him to
obey my every order, simply afford me some respect. I did,
after all, rescue his frozen arse from Starfleet. Still, he
behaves as if the women are lesser, me least of all given
that I'm "normal" and not augmented like the rest of them.
He treats me with a little deference when Khan is around,
but when my husband isn't present, Rodriguez behaves as if
I am not, either. I may bring this up with Khan, but I
don't want to cause trouble.

She leaned back and studied the words she'd written. In his little bed, Nolan stirred and rolled over, pushing his small bottom into the air as he pulled his knees up. Anthea watched for a moment, smiling faintly.

I cannot help but wonder how things are on Earth. I wonder
daily how Lindy is doing, but I can't speak to her or let her
know where I am. She always had a little more blind loyalty
to Starfleet than I did. But I wonder how she's doing with
her baby on the way. She'll be due soon, and I won't be
there for her. She probably hates me now, but then, she
never did understand. She thought I was mad for loving
Khan. Perhaps I am, a little.

The cabin door slid open and Khan entered. Anthea quickly saved her entry and closed down the computer. She wasn't hiding anything from him, it was more out of courtesy. He looked tired, and for someone with his stamina and bearing, that was saying something.

"You're working too hard," she told him as she rose from the terminal. "Did you get any sleep last night after I went to bed?"

"No," he murmured. "I couldn't sleep. I feel I slept too long."

"Khan, darling, two years in a cryotube doesn't count as proper sleep." She took his arm and pulled him to the bed. "You need a break."

He pried off his boots, ran a hand through his dark hair. "I'm responsible for my people, Thea. How can I ensure this colony's success if I cannot fix this one problem?"

"Maybe Kati isn't supposed to be fixed. I was never really one for believing in destiny, but . . ."

"What changed that?" he asked, as she pulled him down beside her.

"You did," she said simply. "By rights, you should have died, what, two hundred years ago? We would never have met. But you were in cryosleep for that time, and Marcus found you, and assigned me to work with you. I'm sure it wasn't his intention that we fall in love, get married, and have a son, but if not for such an odd string of events, we wouldn't be here, now, with our little boy."

Khan stretched out on his back and closed his eyes. "It does have a certain predestined feel to it, doesn't it?"

She brushed a stray lock of hair off his forehead. He didn't wear it gelled back as much as he had before, and she liked the look of it now, different as it was.

"I'm sure you'll solve this problem, in time. But you can't work yourself into exhaustion, sweetheart. Not like you did before."

He reached up, caught her hand toying with his hair, and drew it down to play with the ruby ring he'd given her when he'd proposed. "You're right. I was always so tired then. If I had been a little more alert, perhaps . . . No matter now. We're all safe here, aren't we?"

"As safe as we can be," she murmured. "You should take a cue from Nolan, and take a nap."

Khan rolled to his side, tugged her against him. "Or, since he's dead to the world right now . . ."

"Mm. I like your thinking."

He ended up taking more than a nap, sleeping the rest of the afternoon and well into the night. The problem with his being a "superhuman" was that sometimes, he thought he didn't have limits. Anthea knew better, and she wasn't surprised that he'd crashed so hard.

Khan had a tendency to obsess over things, fixate on them until they were all-consuming and he had to deal with it. She understood the drive he'd had to save his people, now that she knew that's what he'd been doing two years before. But he was doing the same thing with Kati, now, and she couldn't figure out, except to distract him through sex, how to get him to slow down.

At least, she mused, he was using his focus for good. She knew he and the others had once attempted to "purify" the earth. It was mind-boggling to her that her husband was capable of such a thing. Isolation from his people, his relationship with her, and undoubtedly his adoration for his son, had changed his perspective and his priorities. Still, knowing that the man who slept beside her had once ruled a quarter of Earth? It was difficult to grasp.

He made a distressed sound and jerked in his sleep, brow furrowed. The nightmares, too, were nothing new to her. He'd had them for as long as she'd shared a bed with him.

Anthea smoothed her thumb over his brow, murmuring, "Khan. It's only a dream, darling."

He woke with a gasp, blue eyes flying wide. Khan blinked rapidly, then focused on her face. "Anthea."

"Another nightmare?" she whispered.

Instead of answering, he looked around the room. "How long have I been asleep?"

She consulted the clock. "Oh, a good twelve hours, almost. You didn't even wake when Nolan threw his bear and pitched an absolute fit over it."

He sat up, and she grabbed his arm, pulling him back down. "But I need-"

"To sleep," she insisted. "Everyone else has gone to bed. There's nothing you need to do at this very instant."

Seeing she wasn't going to give in, Khan sighed and closed his eyes. "Fine."

Anthea wrapped an arm around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder. "You were dreaming. Do you remember any of it?"

"Fire," he murmured. "Fire, and my mother's voice, screaming. I've never had that one before. I barely remember her voice as it is. I do not know how I knew it was her. I tried to reach her, but I couldn't. It was so hot . . ."

He drifted back into sleep, and Anthea wondered.