Title: Nice Vulcan
Infants Are Tranquil While Amanda Struggles
Author: Ster Julie
Series: TOS
Rating: [G]
Codes: Am, S (Baby Spock);
NVIATWAS challenge
Part: 1 of 1
Summary: Like the title says, nice Vulcan infants are tranquil
while Amanda struggles.
--ooOoo--
Amanda was mortified. Here she was, a university professor who
lectured graduate level courses to scores of students at a time, with hundreds
more auditing via comp links, and she couldn't subdue one very excited infant.
It was the first day of Mommy
and Me classes at the
The other mothers raised
disapproving eyebrows at the young oh-so-human mother and her hybrid
child. The instructor refused to begin
until Spock was either quieted or removed.
Amanda turned Spock in her
arms until she was face-to-face with Spock, but he squirmed and stretched until
he could see the babies again.
"Baby," Amanda
whispered desperately, "you have to be a good boy now. Sit up for Mama."
Spock protested with a loud
shriek, which startled the other babies into a chorus of more acceptable
whimpers. The other mothers calmed their
children almost instantly with a gentle caress across their little brows. Amanda wished she could establish a
telepathic link with Spock the way the other mothers obviously had with their
babies. It would make life so much
easier for her, for the whole family.
"That did not sound like
a proper Vulcan phoneme," one snide young mother muttered just loud enough
for Amanda to hear. Amanda blushed
scarlet with shame and insult. Just
because she couldn't calm her child with a mind link did not give the others a right
to judge her. Spock picked up on his
mother's emotional state and amplified it to the whole room with a full cry.
Furious, Amanda positioned
Spock on her hip, gathered all of his things with one hand and struggled to her
feet. She turned to the door but found
her way blocked.
T'Pau herself stood between
Amanda and escape. Wordlessly, T'Pau
held out her arms toward the squirming infant.
Stunned, Amanda allowed the elder Vulcan woman to take the baby from
her.
Instantly, Spock calmed as
T'Pau gently rubbed his forehead. He
rested against T'Pau's shoulder briefly, then resumed
his study of the other children.
"Thee are so like thy
father and his father before him," she cooed softly to her
great-grandson. "So
curious." T'Pau wandered
about the room, allowing Spock to take a good look at everything, then brought him back full circle to his mother.
"He is calm now,"
T'Pau whispered for Amanda's hearing only.
"He only wanted to examine his new surroundings."
"At times like these, I
wish I was telepathic, too, T'Sai," Amanda
whispered back.
T'Pau gazed on her grandson's
young wife warmly. "It does not
take telepathy," she said quietly. "Spock
is too young for that. Just stroke his psi points to calm him."
Amanda was stunned. It was as simple as that. Any time Spock lost focus in the games and
lessons the instructor assigned, Amanda gently brushed her fingers from Spock's
left temple to his right. Immediately,
Spock would focus on his mother and continue with the assignment, whether it
was to roll a ball back and forth to Amanda, to pick up objects, to clap his
hands, or various other eye-hand coordination lessons. T'Pau took over when the lessons switched to
basic Vulcan phonemes, since Amanda's human anatomy could not produce some of
the subtle variations in the different sounds.
Amanda sat back and smiled at
the sight of T'Pau, family matriarch in the House of Surak, all of Vulcan in
one package, sitting on the floor with her newest descendant, playing word
games with him and singing nursery rhymes.
If only I had a vid
recorder, Spock, Amanda thought. I'd
record you rolling on the ground with Gran-gran T'Pau
and keep it in your baby book. Then on
your wedding day, I would pull it back out so that your bride and all of your
relations could see what a darling you once were.
Yes, on your wedding day.
End