Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last section. You are all wonderful. Reviews keep me in a happy writing place.
Again, we are breaking from our usual format because of deep space videoconferencing.
Day 224: Quality Time with the Grandmas from London
"Okay, you seem a little more pregnant than I thought you would be for it only being early October. I think I see a tiny baby bulge." Jim said as soon Nhi appeared on screen in her Starfleet uniform, and the baby bulge was noticeable. However, he probably should've kept that to himself because he's getting the Vulcan death glare from the spouse. Jim decided it was best to put Peter in between the two of them right now.
"I'm 12, and I know better than to say stuff like that." Or maybe not Jim though at Peter's words.
"First of all, you know that Starfleet uniforms are very unforgiving. Also, I'm a little bigger than expected for just the beginning of the second trimester because I may have neglected to mention that I'm pregnant with twins." His surrogate mom said with a smile on her face. She was very excited.
"But we saw the ultrasound, and I'm pretty sure there was only one baby. Okay, I only made out one blob. 250+ years of ultrasound development, and yet the baby still looks like blobs to me." Jim remarked, but Spock was staying quiet. Why did he have a feeling that his husband already knew? Of course, he would be able to read it correctly.
"Sorry, I didn't get the 3D sonogram this early. Did you show that picture to Leonard because he would've told you otherwise?"
"No, because I did not have your explicit permission although Jo Jo told by accident," Jim said as he turned his gaze to Peter.
"She's my best friend I share everything with her. Besides, I wasn't going to say anything to Josephine's mom because she's sensitive about baby stuff." Jim sighed. He's just glad Peter is making friends.
"It's still an issue?"
"Yes," Spock answered before he could. "Which is understandable considering everyone processes trauma at different rates." 'If they process it all.' Jim thought, darkly. Thankfully the ship had Margarita, who was helping everybody process in one way or another. "Although she has made great strides in the last year."
"This is part of the reason why I'm treading carefully. Which is the other reason why I didn't show the ultrasound picture to Leonard because if I show him, I must show her, and it is just better if we keep things quiet for the moment."
"Also, according to Josephine, her mom told your niece to get fucked when she said she hopes you have a misc…" Jim quickly placed the hand over his nephew's mouth.
"As I mentioned before, remember curse words should only be utilized in a life or death situation until you're at least 18 or not working on the starship."
"Curse words are for when Klingons are attacking us." Peter rolled his eyes. Margarita said he should look forward to more bratty preteen behavior because that means things are getting back to normal.
"And let us hope it doesn't happen anytime soon. And of course, you can share the ultrasound photo with your team, especially Leonard, because he would have pointed out two baby blobs instead of one. Although make sure Nyota is not triggered and I will leave that to Spock because he's the sensitive one of the two of you."
"I'm well aware that for a Vulcan, my spouse has a surprising amount of emotional intelligence." Jim quickly squeezed Spock's hand in a Vulcan style kiss. Peter has yet to figure out the significance of the gesture, and Jim has not decided to point it out until they end up on the Vulcan colony.
"I believe that was entirely Amanda's influence," Spock remarked.
"Why do you call your mom Amanda and not mom?" Peter asked.
"In Vulcan culture, it is a tradition to refer to your parents by their given name to those not explicitly part of the family. Although in this regard, I rotate back and forth between Vulcan and human cultural norms."
"This is what is referred to as code-switching," Jim told his nephew. "Although I do it too sometimes." Because his relationship with Winona is really really complicated and Peter only knows the basics such as grandma has an alcohol problem and is currently in a sober living facility.
"Is this why you're okay with me calling you both Jim and Spock right now?"
"Yep, munchkin." Jim places a hand on Peter's shoulder. "Hey, where is my mom? This thing is only supposed to be 45 minutes, and we've already killed a few."
"Outside the door being yelled at by the soon to be former head of the engineering department. He accosted us on the way in, and only I was able to get away from him. He may or may not have been in bed with Carol's father. Regardless your mom is working through the situation, and it's a disaster. You'll have to read the classified version of the report once it's done."
"Why do I have this feeling that it will be classified at a level that's too high for my husband and me to read? Also, I would personally prefer not to have a need to know."
"Unfortunately, you will have a need to know. I'm not sure what the classification will be, but I'm sure Liz's mom will make sure that you have it." He's pretty sure even Spock sighed at her words. Thankfully at that moment, Winona walked into the room.
"I hate that asshole," Winona said as she slid into the chair next to Nhi. "He's such a moron. Like keeping me from talking to my grandson is going to make me not report his involvement with section …"
"Winnie, wave to your grandson and remind yourself that this is not a classified DVC." Nhi chided his mom. He was so making a note to ask about that nickname later.
"Sorry. Work bullshi— bull crap."
"Look, Peter is 12 and lived on multiple scientific colonies. Let's not even pretend he has innocent ears." Because Spock told him that type of behavior was stupid. "We're just working on when it's appropriate to curse."
"Like you did with Kevin?" Winona smirked at him.
"Yes." Jim sighed. "I would ask you how London is treating you, but I don't think I want to know the answer, mom."
"Work drama aside, I am enjoying my time in London. I have discovered you can get good fish and chips without going to a pub. No, I haven't been to any pubs. Still sober, even though there are colleagues, I would really like to punch out. I've also gone through a couple of candy bars." His mom jokes.
"I wasn't going to ask."
"You were thinking It."
"No," Jim told his mom just as Spock said, "Yes." Jim just sighed.
"Never marry someone that can hear your thoughts. Especially someone who will share those thoughts with your mom," Jim explained, turning to Peter. Spock raised an eyebrow at him. He's pretty sure that was his husband's "good luck getting sex tonight" eyebrow raise.
"So, Peter, how are you enjoying your time on Enterprise? Done anything cool yet?"
"It's different, and I do miss the sunshine."
"That feels like an understatement," Jim mumbled under his breath.
"That's normal," Winona replied. "Everyone misses the sunshine. It's why we're developing more realistic holodecks."
"It's not the same. I'm still adjusting, but I am enjoying myself. I have a few friends, at least. I didn't have that many on the colony." None anywhere near his age anyway. Peter was a bit of a loner, which makes sense to Jim.
"Peter mentioned earlier that Josephine is his best friend," Nhi told Winona.
"I'm glad you're friends. Maybe you'll make some more. I heard you're getting new classmates. Also, I made sure none of them were evil this time."
"Three, but I have not met any of them yet. We're supposed to have something that's referred to as an ice cream social once we leave the Starbase to get to know each other."
"With actual ice cream, I hope?" Winona asked.
"The Starfleet version of ice cream. Everything here is Starfleet mart. It's a small outpost. Nothing like Yorktown. Or where we were last time."
"James is disappointed he was unable to find Oreos at Starfleet mart."
"Well, good thing, I included a few boxes in the care package. Did you get the care package yet?"
"They're on the ship, but we've had a lot of meetings, new staff orientations, and an engagement party. We will probably unpack everything in a couple of days."
"That you wouldn't let me go to, so I didn't get to see Kevin and Liz at all."
"I'm sorry about that. The room was small, and we only had a few minutes anyway." Jim apologized.
"Not at all. Don't worry. You'll get to see Liz and Kevin in December."
"I assume that the admiral is allowing them to travel to new Vulcan when we are near the planet?" Spock asked.
"Something like that. I don't know all the details yet." Nhi replied.
"Except, you'll be too pregnant to be there."
"Unfortunately, yes. You know Starfleet's rules about pregnant travel."
"No one wants to get born 2 1/2 months early," Jim mumbled.
"Hey, at least you were a fat preemie." His mother remarked.
"You were a preemie? I was too." Peter tells the group. Jim didn't know that. Although he should have, since Peter's birthday is less than eight months after Sam left for the planet of the damned.
"Yep. Getting attacked by Romulans is not conducive to giving birth at full-term." Jim explained, mostly because Winona doesn't like talking about that at all.
"That's why you were so small in the picture where my Dad was holding you?" Peter asked.
"That and he didn't want to eat." His mom said before she went into a way too graphic and detailed story about him refusing to breast-feed as a baby — no one needed to know the story.
"I was a fussy baby," Jim said after Winona was finished now extremely red.
"I guess this means you did get the pictures I sent you of your father?" Winona asked.
"Yes, although why was someone blacked out in several of the pictures?" Jim is not surprised that Peter picked up on that.
"That would be my ex-husband." Spock squeezes Jim's hand in support.
"Sometimes, we make bad choices after losing the love of our lives, and my ex-husband was a horrible choice for a lot of reasons. We like to forget that person was ever part of our lives or existed in the first place."
"Which is why mom taking 'asshole be gone' to the family photo album." Yes, that's the name of the computer program. "The program automatically deletes the image of the person you want to forget. Unfortunately, grandma used black-box mode instead of the background cloning feature." Jim explained to Peter.
"Because I'm nowhere near as computer literate as you. I didn't want to get rid of any pictures of Sam, but I also never wanted to see that man again, so black box mode."
"He wasn't a good person. I ended up at a smart kid boarding school, and Sam ran away with your mom for about a month." Jim told Peter.
"A few months actually. Sam came back once I filed for divorce from the evil one. Although I wish we would have let your mom stay with us."
"Because my grandparents are monsters?" Peter asked, and Jim didn't want to make eye contact because that's precisely what he was thinking.
"I wasn't going to say that," Jim mumbled, really wishing that Margarita was there right now.
"They murdered my aunt." Nobody said anything after that for a good minute. Not even Spock, and you know it's terrible when Spock cannot move them to safer ground. That's his special skill. Jim had no choice but to get them on to safer ground himself.
"So, any new ultrasound pictures of the twins?" This had to be a safer subject.
"Not yet. I have two more weeks before I go back in for another check-up. Although, I'm not sure about doing an ultrasound again so soon. I will send you everything."
"This is one of those families where we don't talk about things that make everyone uncomfortable?" Peter asked.
"We do, but usually when therapists are present because we have that many issues," Jim remarked.
"Unfortunately, Dr. Margarita had an emergency and could not be here to supervise. However, if you wish for the three of us to have this discussion, I will arrange a family session as soon as she's available." Spock suggested.
Jim is not exactly sure what the emergency is yet; he just knows that Margarita must be present from what his spouse told him. Although his instinct is telling him intentional overdose because Leonard is also involved. He will deal with the repercussions later.
"So, I am now part of a family that cannot even call each other without therapists being present?" Peter asked.
"Considering I went five years without speaking to my father outside of necessity until the death of my mother, I feel that our ability to communicate as a family is significantly better than that of the family of my birth."
"Peter, we are a work in progress, but it's getting better," Winona remarked.
"When will you be speaking to your dad next?" Nhi asked.
"I assume, within the next few weeks, because apparently, we have to prepare for our visit to New Vulcan."
"Since the purpose of this call is for Peter to get to know you and mom, how about until it's time for us to leave, Peter, just ask the two of your random questions?" Jim suggested, and both women nodded their heads in agreement.
"Go ahead, Peter," Jim prompted.
"Do you like being pregnant?" Of course, Peter starts there.
"Yes, although I could do without the morning sickness, apparently throwing up all the time is the sign of healthy babies. I had a miscarriage years ago, and I'm in my 40s, so any sign that tells me that the babies are healthy I can live with." So much for this being safer ground, Jim thought as Nhi spoke. "Even if that means throwing up on the shoes of somebody with a higher rank."
"Yes, that happened, and yes, I have pictures. I uploaded them three days ago, although I have no idea when the images wIll get to Enterprise." His mother added.
"Probably sooner rather than later. We're downloading a large backlog of communications right now."
"Lieutenant Commander Sulu just received images from the memorial service of his nieces' biological mother," Spock added.
"Oh good, you should be getting pictures of me doing the tourist thing in London soon. If I remember correctly from talking to Liz, we did that a day or two afterward."
"You did the tourist thing?" Jim asked, slightly surprised. He wondered when either woman would have the time with their jobs.
"I had to do something to keep sober. Next question."
"Why did you decide to raise a baby by yourself? It was always so hard for mom to be a single parent. I know that she loves—Loved me, but sometimes I'm sure she wished she wasn't alone." Note to self, mention this to Margarita during our next session.
"I know, and a lot of people thought I should just freeze an egg and wait until I remarried. But I didn't want to do that. Honestly, I have no plans to remarry. We were planning to have a family together, and just because things happened the way they did doesn't mean that I'm going to put that on hold or should put that on hold. My babies will know everything about their dad. I'll tell them stories every day. At the same time, I'm not alone because I have this huge extended family of people that love me, and that's enough."
"We didn't have that, especially after my aunt was killed." Jim wants to hug his baby. Also, Mom never talked about Sam or his family. I didn't even know anything about Jim until the Vulcan incident happened. Then she told me that my uncle saved Earth." Jim isn't surprised, although Spock is raising an eyebrow.
"I was kind of a drunk fu—screwup for a while. My therapist got killed by a drunk driver, and I did not process well. Then I went into Starfleet, where I met Chris and Nhi, who became my other family."
"Chris and I raised Jim during the Starfleet years, which mostly consists of keeping him from getting expelled. It's why I feel like I'm ready for twins."
"There are more interesting stories from this time that I want to know about."
"I'll send you some of the video files."
"Also, I will see what else I can find from Sam when I get back to San Francisco. Everything is in storage since we cleared out of the old house in Iowa. I have no idea when I'm going to find a condo. I'm probably going to end up in Oakland."
"That would be cool. I have so many questions about Sam. I don't even know where to start. I don't even know what his favorite color was."
"Blue," Jim tells his nephew. "His bedroom was covered in blue. Blue sheets, blue curtains, blue carpet, and this ridiculously warm blue comforter."
"I think I still have that comforter."
"I have just been told that we have four more minutes. So, I have an idea. Peter, why don't you write down all the questions that you have. You can send it to your grandma, Jim and Kevin. Then they can try their best to answer the questions. You can also write to me if you have questions about other things."
"I'll try. Although I hate writing assignments." Peter says with a smile.
"Don't we all."
"But it was so great to meet you, Peter, and I hope we will get to talk again soon," Nhi said with a smile.
"I think we will."
"Take care, all of you. I love you, Jim and Peter. Spock, please take care of my boys."His mom said as she blew them a kiss.
"I will endeavor to do so."
To be continued.
A/N: In my universe, we are at the point where ultrasound will be more of a brand name, then the actual technology used. The people are so used to calling it that it just kept being called that.