Title:  Such a Mama's Boy
Author:  Ster Julie
Codes: AOS, Spock, Amanda, Sarek; h/c?
Rating:  PG
Part 1/1

Summary:  Amanda realizes that she is Spock's Achilles heel.

--ooOoo--

Amanda felt a warm touch on her hand.  She opened her eyes and looked at her son's bruised, unhappy face. "Spock?" she asked.  "What's wrong?"

"My face hurts," he mumbled back.

"I'm sure it does," she said as she opened her arms.  Spock scrambled to her side and pillowed his abused cheek against his mother's breast carefully.  Amanda carded through the heavy, ebony silk of his hair as she felt him get comfortable.  "I can give you more pain medication," she suggested. 

Spock shook his head. "It makes me sick," the boy admitted.  She felt him squeeze her gently, as if she was fragile porcelain. "Couldn't I just stay here with you?" he said softly.

Amanda could see the lights were still on in Sarek's study and considered. "Only until your father is finished with his meditation," she warned.  "You know how he is about that."

"Then could Ee-Chaya sleep in my room?" Spock tried.

"You know how he is about that, too," Amanda countered.

Spock was silent a long time. "They called you a bad name," he whispered, "a very bad name."

Amanda cuddled her small son against her side. "I know," she answered softly.  "The boys were very much mistaken.  You father courted me properly, and we both did a lot of thinking before we were married."

"Father said he married you because it was logical," Spock reported, "that it was best for Vulcan-Human relations."

Amanda bit back a bark of laughter. "You father is so full of s… soup," she replied.  "We got married because we could not be apart from one another.  It caused us physical pain to be separated."

Spock pulled himself off his mother's chest to look at her in the dim light. "Really?" he breathed.

Amanda pulled Spock back to her side. "Well," she hedged, "perhaps it wasn't pain, not like the pain you are feeling."  She gently tweaked her son's chin.  "You defended my honor today, like my very own knight in shining armor."

"Really?" he breathed again.  Spock had seen pictures of knights in armor in some of her many books and wondered at the reference.

Just then the bedroom door opened.  Spock tried to scurry away from his parents' bed, but Amanda held him fast.  Before Sarek could get a word out, Amanda jumped to Spock's defense. "The pain medication wore off," she explained, "but Spock didn't want any more because it upset his stomach."

Sarek put one gentle finger under Spock's chin and turned the boy's head.  His left eye was nearly swollen shut, and the lip had fresh blood on it.

"Have you used the cold pack, my son?" Sarek asked.  Spock nodded.  "And the salve?"  Again the boy nodded.  "The only other option is the dermal generator."

Spock cowered from that idea.  "I'll just endure it," he said meekly, not relishing the buzzing instrument so close to his ears.  He extricated himself from his mother's arms and moved toward the door.  "May I sleep outside with Ee-Chaya?" the boy asked.

"You have a perfectly good bed in your own room, Spock," Sarek chided gently.  "And if you should need our help during the night, I would prefer you to remain close."

"Then may I stay in here?" Spock pushed.

Sarek glowered in reply, but, noticing the defeated slump in his son's shoulders, he relented.  "Perhaps," he began, "just this once, Ee-Chaya could stay with you in your room."

"Oh, thank you, Father!" Spock responded.

Sarek added for good measure, "And any mess that Ee-Chaya makes, you will have to clean up in the morning, injuries or no."

"Yes, Father," Spock answered.

"Now," Sarek said, "it is late.  Take your leave of your mother and get to bed."

"Yes, Father," the boy said as he moved to press hands first with his mother and then, for good measure, with his father.

Sarek listened to Spock's small feet pad down the hall and out to the veranda to collect their great shaggy pet and drag him back to his bedroom.

"You know we have a problem now," Amanda announced.

"Ee-Chaya will only stay the one night," Sarek countered.

Amanda smiled and shook her head.  "Not with the sehlat," she clarified, "with our son."

"Explain."

"Spock's a 'Mama's boy.'"

Sarek was puzzled.  "Explain," he ordered again.

"According to the reports," Amanda continued, "Spock didn't throw that first punch when the boy insulted you.  But when he used that awful remark about me, Spock exploded."

Sarek took his wife's hand. "Spock is protective of you," he answered softly.  "We both are."

Amanda smiled wanly at her husband.  "I'm stronger that either of you give me credit," she defended.  "I don't want Spock to get into trouble someday because he doesn't like what someone says about me."

Sarek slipped under the covers close to his wife.  "I will double my efforts in training our son to master his emotions so that it never happens again," he vowed.  "Will that be sufficient?"

Amanda kissed their joined hands where they rested at her waist.  "I hope you are a very good teacher, my husband," she said.  "I don't ever want Spock to get into another stupid fight defending my honor."

END

(And we know how *that* went.)