Special thanks to the women of STCC Writers' Guild and Writers Anonymous for all of their help — extra special thanks to NubianAmazon and SpockLikesCats for the titles.

Their hired hover vehicle slipped through the large gates, and Spock immediately saw why his mother so enjoyed her biennial visits with his father's former colleague. The landscaping within the Uhura compound was reminiscent of that in their own home. Approximately a half kilometer from the cream colored walls, a large house the color of pale ochre sat in a veritable oasis of verdant green surrounded by and interspersed with the desert-like terrain that made up much of Garissa District's natural environment. Yes, this place was very much like the family home on Vulcan.

"Do you remember any of this, Spock?" Amanda's voice broke into his thoughts, but he did not immediately take his eyes away from the view. "You were so little the last time you were here and Benjamin hadn't completed arranging his gardens."

The quiet 12-year-old turned and met dark eyes that were focused on him instead of the designated hover-way. "The grounds I recall were less fertile; however, the structure looks unchanged. Please pay attention to your driving."

She smiled before facing forward again. Clearly, she was pleased with him; he wasn't sure why. After all, only four point two years had passed since they'd last visited the Uhuras. She couldn't possibly have thought he might have forgotten, could she?

.

.

"I hear a hover, Mama!" Nyota's left hand twitched as she patted the dozen or so fancy braids hugging her scalp. She couldn't contain her excitement, but had promised she wouldn't muss her pretty new dress. "It just came through the gates! Is it them, Mama? Are they here already?"

M'Umbha flicked a quick glance at the kitchen chronometer, and frowned. "It's a little early," she said. "Are you sure that's what you heard, binti? I wasn't expecting them for another half hour."

The little girl put on her "serious face," and nodded solemnly. Mama and Baba had stopped laughing when she told them about the things she heard ages ago. Now that she was three and a big girl, they always believed her.

"Yes, Mama. It's floating past Aunty 'Stella's trees right now." She tugged nervously at the free end of one of her neat, dark cornrows.

M'Umbha's eyes widened slightly; her daughter's acute hearing still amazed her at times. The stand of star apple and star fruit trees had been planted in memory of her brother's late fiancée, Estella Libertad. They grew just meters inside the gates.

"Well then," she told Nyota, donning a bright smile, "let's go to greet our guests. They'll be at the front door in minutes!"

.

.

"If we continue at our current rate of speed, we shall be twenty-six point three minutes ahead of schedule, Mother," Spock pointed out as the hover made its way towards the house nestled in a low hill. "Perhaps we should contact Dr. M'Umbha to alert her to our early arrival."

Amanda stole a quick glance at him and bit back another grin at the name he'd been calling her friend since he was tiny. He was staring resolutely through the side window as they slid past the variety of trees and low-growing plants which marked the hover-way. Although he would never admit it, she could tell her son was nervous about seeing their friends again. Under-Ambassador Uhura had been one of the very few members of the Diplomatic Corps to treat him as something more than a curiosity without ignoring him altogether. More than once, she'd suspected he had a little crush on the woman.

"Nonsense, Spock. Look." With her chin — her only child wouldn't appreciate seeing her take her hands off the controls! — she gestured to where M'Umbha stood at the wide front doors, a tiny figure in a crisp lemon-colored dress at her side.

.

.

Nyota's left foot twitched excitedly as the hover gently landed on the stone-paved half-moon in front of her house. She'd never met Lady Amanda in person before, but she'd spoken to the smiling woman a bunch of times on the comm. But now she was actually here, and her son, too!

'Penda and Mu said Spock was the smartest kid ever, but didn't shove it in your face like some people did. Mama said Spock was polite, which meant he was nicer than other big kids. Nyota could hardly wait to meet him. He was going to be her new best friend. Her first best friend. She'd never had one of those before.

The hover doors opened and she watched a person climb out either side. Her whole left side twitched. Lady Amanda was smiling, just like always, but her tall son's mouth was sort of straight. Not smiling. Not frowning.

That's okay, Nyota decided. He'll be happy when he meets me!

She took a deep breath, stepped forward and dipped into a wobbly curtsy. In her best big-girl voice she said the Vulcan words Mama had taught her, "Welcome back to our home, Lady Amanda and Spock."

Lady Amanda's smile turned into a happy giggle. Nyota's tummy got all fluttery. Then she was swept up in the lady's arms and squeezed. She hugged her favorite off-worlder back, looking over her shoulder at the quiet boy. His mouth was still a straight line.

"She's been practicing that all week," Mama said proudly.

Nyota grinned happily, twitching all over. This was the best day of her whole life!

.

.

They had not removed their luggage from the hover. Perhaps I can convince Mother to leave it there and seek out a hotel, Spock thought.

Fifty-seven minutes had passed since their arrival. He and Mother had been given cool drinks and fruit. She and Dr. M'Umbha had spoken briefly of past visits and then taken the young girl upstairs to change out of her dress. They had been exchanging stories about work and child-rearing as they walked away.

As they'd returned, Dr. M'Umbha had been giving Mother the look that adult humans so often used around their children. She'd touched one of her ears and gestured towards her daughter. Nyota had been smiling up at his mother and had not seen.

The young girl talked nearly incessantly. He briefly wondered if she was taking in sufficient oxygen, but her verbal precocity suggested that her brain functions were operating sufficiently to eliminate any doubt of her intake.

Of the twenty-three point four minutes that had passed since their mothers had chased them from the house with a "Why don't you show Spock your garden, Ennie?" she'd been silent a total of five point two minutes. He'd barely had time to answer one of her surprisingly intelligent questions about his home planet before she'd launched into another one.

The onslaught had begun when they'd been six meters down the garden path. Her small hand had found his and she'd declared that he was her 'first best friend." Upenda and Muta, her older siblings, were busy with their Betazoid lessons — the sister would begin spending a month on the planet each year starting the following year; the brother would most likely follow two years after that — but, she'd confessed, they rarely allowed her to play with them, anyway.

"But, now I've got you, Spocky!" she'd told him. He'd gritted his teeth at the nickname. "And you have me. So you can smile, now."

The words had continued, almost without a moment's break, from there.

She was still speaking. Right in his ear, since she'd insisted he give her a "piggyback ride" once she'd grown tired of darting around her small patch of garden, pointing out various plants and asking if anything of the like grew on Vulcan.

"How come you're so quiet, Spocky? Are you sad or something? Do you miss your daddy?" she asked after a pause of less than ten point two seconds. "Sometimes Baba goes on trips and I miss him a lot. That makes me sad."

"I do not miss my father," he murmured too quietly for her to hear, "but I am beginning to understand why your siblings avoid your company."

He felt her little body stiffen against his back and then warm liquid dripped onto his neck. Her mother's words came back to him. This child's ears! She heard your hover come through the gates! Obviously, he had underestimated the aural sensitivity of the small human he carried.

He had made the child cry. Perhaps, he thought, I should not have spoken in Standard.

She didn't howl or sob in the manner of the other human children he had observed. Instead, Nyota clung to his back, tears silently dripping from her eyes. Her rigid torso didn't shudder or quake. For the first time in his life, Spock understood what Sam Grayson, his human uncle, meant the time he'd said "I felt like a shit."

Abruptly, he stopped walking and glanced over his shoulder to assess the damage.

"Nyota," he said, not knowing what should come next. A memory of his own mother comforting him when he was even younger than the girl came back to him. "Do not cry, Nyota. Please."

Despite her visible efforts — rapid eye-blinking, deep breaths that made her shoulders shake — the tears didn't abate.

Sinking down underneath an Acacia tortilis, he helped his charge slide to ground before turning to face her fully.

She lifted wide brown eyes to stare at him. They filled and then spilled over. She blinked and they welled up once more. He placed a hand on her narrow shoulder.

"Please do not cry, Nyota," he tried again. "I will tell you a story if you can be quiet."

Hiccupping, she wiped a bare arm across her eyes, which filled more slowly this time.

"In Vulcan?" she asked in a quiet, shaky voice.

Spock forbore pointing out her comprehension of his native language was insufficient to make it useful in the endeavor. He didn't want to make her cry even more. "In Vulcan," he agreed.

.

.

In the fifteen minutes that had passed since he'd begun telling her the story of a boy in the desert with his sehlat, she'd only had two questions. He'd been so surprised to learn she understood enough of his language to ask the names of the boy and the sehlat, he had answered truthfully, rather than tell her that the names were unimportant.

He enjoyed her company much more now that she was not talking. Her unexpected intellect was intriguing when he was not getting bombarded with evidence of its existence.

Gently shifting her weight to one arm, he opened the kitchen door as quietly as he could manage and stepped through. He put a finger to his lips when the mothers looked over at them. Slowly turning (and missing the amused look M'Umbha and Amanda shared), he closed the door equally quietly.

She stirred anyway.

Lifting her head from his shoulder, she addressed the mothers sleepily. "I'm going to marry Spocky when I grow up."

A/N: See Nyota Uhura and S'chn T'gai Spock grow up. See them become friends. See more.

Warning: Starts off very K, but eventually flirts with M.

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek, any Star Trek characters or any Star Trek concepts. I also don't get paid for writing about any of those.