Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter. Okay from your reviews I can tell two things, one most of you want Alexander Marcus' blood. 90% of the characters in this story feel the exact same way. Don't worry; I have plans for Alexander Marcus. Two, a lot of you think Amanda and Chris are so cute together, now if only they would get it together. If you're in that camp you will like this chapter.

This chapter is inspired by Roads Untraveled by Linkin Park

lyric excerpt: "Give up your heart left broken and let that mistake pass on/cause the love that you lost wasn't worth what it cost/and in time you'll be glad it's gone."

Chapter 15: Traveling Other Roads

Amanda was on her fifth cup of coffee during her all-nighter with the best family law lawyer (with a Starfleet background) that she could find, Alexis Abulaban. Chris and Dr. Jackson were also there with her to fill Alexis in on the more classified aspects of this potential child custody nightmare (i.e. the real reason Alexander Marcus was kicked out of Starfleet). Amanda absolutely hated Alexander Marcus, and he and his legal team, keep giving her more reasons to hate him by the second. This was all the bastard's fault for a multitude of reasons from pushing his daughter to be a child prodigy and start classes at the academy at 14, when she was obviously not emotionally ready, to physically abusing her.

Chris looked ready to break something, when she showed him the video that Rebecca took of Carol when Marcus physically assaulted her for getting pregnant at 15. (Amanda wasn't that happy about it either, but she never would've laid a hand on her child.) This latest stunt in Family Court was just one more thing, but thanks to the video, Alexis was looking forward to ripping the man to shreds in court.

Now they were sitting in a secure Starfleet facility going over evidence that their lawyer was only seeing because Alexis still had her top-secret clearance. She had only left Starfleet legal a year ago for personal reasons, for a private practice that specialized in tricky custody cases. According to rumor, she was taking care of her daughter's sick father (throat cancer most likely caused by OPV*) because the rest of his family wanted nothing to do with him. Even though Amanda has known Alexis for years because they work together in securing the legal rights of refugees who have a story similar to Gaila, Alexis has yet to confirm these rumors.

Since they needed to strategize on how to keep David out of the hands of his abusive grandfather, macaroni night was canceled and she had to ask "Whitney" to keep the kids overnight. Because of that they had to tell Whitney why Amanda needed an overnight babysitter, which meant telling the woman about David. She couldn't stop smiling when she found out about her first grandchild and offered to help in any way she could, even if it meant babysitting duty.

A good thing that came out of that situation was Whitney, when she was sneaking out of Jim's commendation ceremony, actually heard Alexander Marcus and Carol arguing about her undergoing in vitro and her decision to use a Vulcan sperm donor. (The fact that Whitney risked going there made Amanda a little less angry.) This new evidence is the main thing they are discussing right now.

"If she could testify, it would, at the very least, cast a reasonable doubt on the matter in which David was conceived." Amanda suggested.

"Except she can't testify because she's in witness protection and we're not even supposed to know that she is alive." Chris reminded the room as he held onto Amanda's hand for support. If he wasn't here right now, she would probably fall apart. "Yes, I know she said she would break cover for Jim, but that is an unacceptable risk right now."

"It is also not necessary. Just the mere fact that David was born several years after the "alleged" incident took place can create reasonable doubt," Alexis explained. "Marcus is going to have to produce a truckload of evidence to prove that Carol underwent the embryo removal procedure and had it frozen and then had the embryo replanted instead of just asking Spock for more sperm to create a new embryo."

"The records don't exist outside of Jonathan's hard drive. Everything was done under fake names and the records were wiped clean." Dr. Jackson said almost on the verge of tears.

"But records do exist and because your deceased husband and Marcus were friends, the man could have a copy. I'm going to need to see that." Alexis sighed.

"Friendship is not the term I would use to describe that relationship considering I am halfway convinced that Marcus was responsible for his death, even if he didn't do it himself." The doctor's voice was bitter and angry.

"I can let you look at what we found, but you won't be able to use it in court. It's too classified." Chris sighed.

"You mean it's too damning to Starfleet." Alexis mumbled under breath and Chris just stayed silent at the accusation. "Alexander Marcus is a brilliant military strategist. He probably knows that he's not going to be able to prove David's conception was not the result of in vitro as Carol told everybody. That's not the point of what he's doing."

"Then why is he doing this?" Amanda asked in exasperation.

"Obviously, he wants David." Alexis quipped.

"Yes, as a science experiment." Dr. Jackson spat out.

"Alexander Marcus cannot find out that David now has super antibodies. He cannot get his hands on that child. I won't let that fucking bastard get anywhere near him." Chris said as he squeezed her hand harder. (Even the very edited-for-content explanation of why Starfleet does not want Alexander Marcus anywhere near David was enough to make both her and Alexis very upset. If it hadn't saved David's life, she would have been furious that he was used as part of a secret drug trial. As a mom, she understands though.)

"I'm right there with you. The fact that I have evidence that he beat the hell out of a 15-year-old girl and tried to force her to have an abortion pretty much proves that this guy should not be in the same room as any child." Alexis added gravely.

"So we work on disproving the statutory allegation?" Amanda asked.

"You can't disprove something that's actually true and your son did have sex with somebody under the age of consent. Again, it doesn't matter. This whole exercise is about Alexander Marcus getting custody of David. The most important thing he is trying to prove is that Spock is an unfit father. Even if he can't prove that the conception occurred before the age of consent, he can prove that Spock engaged in a sexual relationship with an underage person because he did." Alexis said in the most matter-of-fact tone possible.

"But the Vulcan age of consent is 14, it could easily be argued that it was merely a cultural misunderstanding." Amanda said in her son's defense.

"Which would be really valuable for the criminal trial, but this is Family Court and the rules are different." Alexis shot back.

"If everybody used stupid things you did when you were 19 against you, we would all be fucked." Chris added. "Keep in mind that she also lied about her age. Spock was under the impression she was the same age as all her other classmates."

"Is there anyone alive that can attest to that other than Spock? I thought the majority of her classmates were killed during the battle of Vulcan?" Alexis asked him in pure lawyer mode.

"No, she graduated a few years before that because Alexander pushed her like crazy to be his perfect little genius, which explains why she went buck wild at the Academy. It was the first time in her life she had any freedom whatsoever." Chris explained. "There are lots of people who know that she did this. Even my boss can testify to that. She saw it happen a few times. Her husband busted Carol for using a fake ID at a local club and she literally begged him not to tell her dad because she was afraid of what he would do to her."

"She had a good reason. Also, I'd don't think it counts as statutory when you were hopped up on aphrodisiacs and fertility drugs, against your will." Dr. Jackson said, in all seriousness, which made Amanda very confused

"What?" Amanda asked for clarification because this was the first time anyone's mentioned the possibility that Spock's actions were something beyond normal teenage hormones and stupidity.

"You didn't tell her!" Dr. Jackson gave Chris a very sharp look.

"It was classified." Chris explained, and now Amanda really wanted to know what they were talking about.

"She's your girlfriend." Amanda was expecting Chris to refute the accusation, but he just stayed silent. There was a treacherous voice inside of Amanda's mind that hoped he was doing so because maybe he did see her that way. Amanda really did despise that voice.

"Regardless of what our personal relationship may be, I don't expect Chris to tell me something classified even if it involves my son being essentially raped. I mean, that's what you're telling me happened?" She directed her question to Chris because he would never lie to her directly.

"I wanted to show the file to Spock before I told you. He has a right to know he was unknowingly pumped full of aphrodisiacs and experimental fertility drugs at the hands of Jonathan Jackson before I started telling other people about it." Chris was right; Spock was the first one who should know about this.

"If that's what happened then this was at best dubious consent, from a legal standpoint. However, I will need to know the particulars of what was done to know for sure." Alexis said thoughtfully.

"Yes, Chris, I know that it's not something I can bring up in court because it's so classified but I would feel a lot better defending a guy who was coerced into sleeping with the underage, as some hopefully non-sanctioned Starfleet experiment, instead of just being too horny to check to see that the girl he was sleeping with was old enough to give consent."

"I want to see that file." Amanda demanded. Someone turned her son into an experiment, and she was absolutely furious about it. Nobody hurts her child like that. If Jonathan Jackson wasn't dead, Amanda would kill him herself.

"Spock hasn't even seen that file yet." Chris sighed.

"Then you better email it to him quick. If she gets to see it, I get to see it." Amanda said forcefully.

"I'm going to have to check with my boss," Chris said with a sigh.

"Do that." Alexis said just as she grabbed her PADD again. "Look, it's highly probable that I can get the statutory stuff thrown out without violating national security, but there are other damaging things that the guy is going to bring up, particularly Mr. Spock-Kirk's mental health history. There are reports that he actually tried to kill his former boyfriend." As soon as she said it, Amanda knew exactly what incident she was talking about. Out of context, the entire thing could look like a domestic violence incident and not something that happened during the heat of battle.

"Shit!" Chris exclaimed.

"I thought that stuff was taken care of?" Amanda asked looking directly at Chris.

"Lieutenant Uhura is my daughter's sister. She lived with me for a while after her mom died and stayed with me during the summers when she wasn't doing an internship. I never believed her version of events about how she became a Lieutenant Commander straight out of the Academy. There are too many holes in her story and I think I know what she never told me." Because of the different last names, it never dawned on Amanda that Alexis's daughter Ivy was also Nyota's sister.

"My son-in-law became a Captain straight out of the Academy." Amanda said trying to deflect, but it didn't work.

"Your son-in-law is the reason why we're not all dead. That leads me to believe that Ny did something very heroic. I heard rumors that she incapacitated her friend after he went off the deep end and tried to choke his ex-boyfriend to death because his father just died. When I asked her about it, she suddenly had an appointment that she forgot about. How close am I to the truth?" Alexis asked, staring Chris down.

"Does anybody keep classified material to themselves anymore?" Chris mumbled under breath.

"I'm going to take that as a 'yes, this actually happened'. You need to worry about this because Marcus was the head of Starfleet at the time the incident took place. I'm sure that he knows about this and may try to use it. I'm going to need Spock to consent to me looking at his full psych history, so I can prepare for any curveballs they bring our way." She tried to make it sound like a request, but Amanda knew better.

"I will talk to him about it as soon as possible, but that may not be until Enterprise reaches Earth. I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you that's not exactly what happened. The person who Spock attacked marooned Spock's bond mate on Delta Vega. Being separated from his bond mate during the first 72 hours caused severe psychological problems." This was a nice way of saying that between the psychic backlash of losing his father and being away from the stabilizing force of his bond mate, Spock had a complete psychotic break.

"Second, due to cultural sensitivity and the exact nature of what happened on board; the incident was classified under a C46 medical hold at the TS NNF level. Even Alexander Marcus could not access the information." Chris explained.

"Do you really think a guy who siphoned money to build secret warships is going to care about a medical hold being on the file of the guy who got his teenage daughter pregnant? I told you about operation Klingon bait." The doctor argued back. Amanda really wanted to know what the hell they were talking about. She has a feeling it would give her one more reason to be mad at Alexander Marcus.

"Do I want to know?" Alexis asked, with her head in her hands.

"No," both answered emphatically.

"Are they really going to hold something against Spock that happened under extreme duress when he's responding well to medication now and Dr. Cruz will give him a glowing report regarding these last few days with David?" Amanda questioned.

"Yes, because this is Alexander Marcus and he's going to use all weapons available. I'm sure he's also going to use Spock's husband against him too." Alexis warned.

"James is a highly decorated Starfleet Captain; I like to see him try." Amanda scoffed.

"However, before he joined Starfleet he had a reputation for being the best genius level repeat offender in the Midwest. How many times was he arrested?" Alexis asked not even bothering to look up from the file she was reading on her PADD.

"That was a reaction to his mom being beaten to death by his stepfather or at least that's what he believed at the time." Amanda told her defensively.

This conversation reminded Amanda that in addition to the custody situation they were still going to have to tell Jim that his sister-in-law's preschool teacher was his dead mother who never died, but just went into witness protection. That was going to be a fun conversation.

"I'm not even touching that. Let's say they ignore all of Jim's misspent youth and just focus on the current stuff. The jobs of first officer and Starfleet captain are very high stress positions. They don't exactly leave a lot of time to take care of kids. Also less than three months ago, children were not even allowed on starships. Which means that David would have been put in the custody of a third-party every time they went on a mission. That, and the fact that their current mission is long-term deep space, will not do us any favors with the judge." Alexis argued and Amanda could see that her points were valid.

"That was three months ago. Children are allowed on starships now, so that old argument will not work. Then there is also the fact that Jim and Spock are going to be earthbound for the next year as Enterprise is renovated to become the most family-friendly ship in the entire fleet." Chris shot right back.

"It is still a high stress job with lots of responsibilities. Any good judge is going to be asking if Jim and Spock can adequately take care of a minor child under those circumstances." Alexis explained most likely playing devil's advocate.

"Like Alexander Marcus is going to be any better." Dr. Jackson mumbled under breath.

"On paper, it may look that way. He has a high paying job, lots of friends in high places, and a 30-year-old trophy wife. Spock, on the other hand, has a history of violence and mental issues. His husband has been arrested at least a dozen times and at least one of those incidents was a violent offense. Jim also grew up in a home where beatings were normal. Some may think that because of that, he may believe the same way."

"Do you remember the video file that I showed you earlier of Carol Marcus's bruised body?" Amanda asked pulling out her 'I'm dealing with Stupid Vulcan diplomats' voice.

"If Carol was still alive, it might be a little bit easier to use that as evidence against him, but the judge may not even allow us to introduce this evidence, especially without any additional collaboration."

If Carol was alive, this would be an entirely different type of custody case, but nobody dared mention that possibility. It would probably be a lot more amicable, if nothing else which was saying something considering Carol had concealed David's existence from everyone.

"Look, I'm going to try everything I can to prove that Alexander Marcus is a bastard and Jim and Spock would be the best dads ever to David Marcus, but we need to go in there with a third option." Alexis told him in all seriousness.

"Like a woman who adopted two beautiful Vulcan children and happens to be a certified foster parent." Chris suggested with a smile on his face.

"You want me to sue for custody?" Amanda asked, and Alexis just nodded her head. "Won't that undermine Jim and Spock's bid?"

"Not necessarily. We're just giving the judge another viable option. Although, unfortunately we got Judge Ryan, who prefers 'traditional' families over less traditional ones." Amanda did not like hearing that from Alexis.

"So the fact that Spock is married to a man is going to be a problem?" Chris asked before Amanda had a chance to.

"I don't think so, considering he's married to a man himself. The guy is more biased towards single-parent households. As long as a kid has two parents, he really doesn't care about the gender of said parents. Chris, if you're thinking about putting a ring on it, I suggest proposing now." Alexis said in all seriousness. Now Amanda was expecting Chris to just laugh it off, but instead he got that look of pure determination on his face. She knows that look. He was actually taking Alexis's suggestion seriously.

"You're not actually considering getting married?" She asked, turning to Chris.

"Why not?" He asked her in all seriousness.

"I can come up with a dozen reasons, including the fact that you are not in love with me." She didn't shout, but it was a near thing.

"Who says I'm not in love with you?" Chris told her, looking directly at her, still with his hand in hers. He never let go.

"Wait, you're in love with me?" She asked still stunned because how could anybody fall in love with an overstressed mother of three who is still half in love with her deceased husband.

"I didn't mean to say that out loud." He mumbled under his breath.

"We're going to go get more coffee." The doctor mumbled, dragging the lawyer out of the room.

"You're in love with me?" She asks Chris one more time completely sure that the answer is yes.

Fuck! Shit! Fuck!

He was never planning to tell Amanda that he was in love with her, but it just slipped out. He blames sleep deprivation and having probably the most high stress job in Starfleet now. Discovering that Jane was feeding information about Marcus' treatment of Carol to Amanda just added to his stress level. Not to mention that he spent his afternoon with a guy who may or may not be one of the biggest mass murderers of the 20th century (but he tried to kill a pregnant Carol, so he really didn't give a fuck), when he was notified that Andrew Marcus was making his life miserable.

They couldn't even get a gag order issued fast enough before all of this stuff was all over the net. They could only do spin control right now, which means repeating the story Carol told all her friends about undergoing in vitro with donated Vulcan sperm from a friend and her specific wishes that, that friend raise her child in the event that she and her partner died at the same time.

If he finds out who notified Alexander Marcus that David Marcus-Kirk survived the massacre and was in the loving care of his biological father, Chris was going to strangle her or him. A phaser would be too good.

Half of section 31 was working on trying to connect Alex to the massacre so they could arrest him before more people ended up dead. It wouldn't be soon enough.

Chris decided that he would be the only one from Starfleet meeting with the lawyers. Too much personal stuff was going to come out during this meeting and he didn't want anyone else from Starfleet to know about it. Jane was there as a witness because of her friendship with Carol and her first-hand knowledge of Alex's treachery. She was also there to explain that due to a medical experiment that kept the child alive, Alexander Marcus should not be allowed within 1000 m of David (while giving out as little classified information as possible). The two women think that it was a drug trial that stimulates antibody production, not exposure to the genetically modified blood of a psychopath. It was better if Amanda did not know.

When Alexis suggested that he marry Amanda to make it more likely that she would get custody, there was this little voice inside his mind that said 'do it because this may be the only way that you would ever get to be with her'. Of course, he wasn't expecting to actually tell her that he was in love with her. Really, it just slipped out. He could lie, but he couldn't. Not to her. He had done that once before and he wasn't doing it again.

"Yes." He answered simply. Deep down she had to know. Everyone else did.

"As a friend? Because that's what we tell everybody? He hasn't even been gone for four years yet, I can't..." Amanda babbled until he brought her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips.

"I know that's how you see me. It's not like I meant for this to happen. I have a pretty good track record of falling in love with people I shouldn't fall in love with." She just laughed at him.

"You're the strongest woman I've ever met. There is this fire to you that I've never seen before. You make me laugh when I want to cry. You are the first person I go to when bad things are happening. I don't know how I fell in love with you. I don't even know when I fell in love with you. It just happened."

"Oh," was the only words that fell passed her lips. That response made him terrified that he was going to lose her.

"We can pretend this conversation never happened and I will still be your friend. I will be that guy you call over for macaroni night and babysitting. We can just leave it at that. I need you in my life and I will take that in any form available." He said, trying to let go of her hand, but she wouldn't let him.

"What if I don't want to?" He heard Amanda whisper.

"What?" He asked, completely surprised. There is no way she could mean that the way he wants her to mean that.

"My daughters already think we are dating. Actually, when I told them that I was thinking about moving into a new house that was more wheelchair friendly, they thought it was because you were finally moving in with us." Okay, thinking about it now, maybe he should've read something into the fact that Amanda asked him to go with her to the realtor. That's not a just a friend thing.

"I blame Jim." He joked.

"Probably," she sighed. "I was never supposed to be the one doing this. I was supposed to die first."

"I'm glad you're here because I can't imagine your husband handling the situation with baby David very well." He said, not wanting to address her real concern.

"Even I wish that Marcus had called me instead of Sarak. Things would be so different now. The first thing I would have done was asked for another DNA test. The second thing would have been to get her out of that abusive home. Even if she wasn't carrying my grandchild, I could not leave her with a man like that in good conscience." Amanda said, leaning into his shoulder.

"Maybe things would have been better if you had," he said, wrapping an arm around her. "Or maybe everyone would have died during the battle of Vulcan. You don't know how things could have been different if you had made other choices. It really doesn't matter now because these choices are already made and you can't go back."

Because as much as Chris wished that his Number One was there with him, he would not trade these last few years with Amanda, not even for her.

"It's been 3 years and I have to stop wishing to have my old life on Vulcan back. I have to…" Instead of more words, he feels Amanda's lips on his. It's tentative at first, but it intensifies as he realizes that this is real and something he should have done months ago. Everything goes blank as Amanda continues kissing him. At some point she's straddling him and he's panting. Making out in this chair definitely requires creativity.

"So is this the yes on marriage?" They hear Alexis asked, which causes both he and Amanda to break apart temporarily.

"It's going to be a long engagement, but we may end up there." Amanda said quickly before her mouth returns to his, not caring about lawyers or impending child custody battles for the moment.

"As your lawyer, I recommend a quick wedding. It would give us more leverage in the hearing." He heard Alexis said over his shoulders, but honestly, he's not paying attention. He realizes he's acting like a 15-year-old, but he really doesn't care.

"They just-you know, never mind, it's better if you don't know. You need plausible deniability." The last part was mumbled under Jane's breath. "Let's go talk about all the non-classified things I can tell you about Alexander Marcus before those two discover the advantages of wheelchair sex."

"I want dinner first." Amanda said, finally catching up to the conversation going around them after the two women left again.

"I assume you want a kid-free dinner." He said, pressing a kiss to her neck.

"We can make Jim and Spock babysit," She joked just before kissing him again.

To be continued

Jim and Spock were supposed to have a moment in this chapter but I did not want to ruin Chris and Amanda's. Also, I wanted to get this chapter out sooner. Those scenes will be in the next chapter.

Review if you're happy that Chris and Amanda finally got it together.

* Orion Papillomavirus (OPV). If you've read my story Starfleet Family Values, you may be familiar with this particular made-up disease. However, it acts very similar to contemporary Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Also bonus points to anybody who can tell me what else I borrowed from that particular story.