"James, you cannot know the favor you do for me and my wife. It is vital we return to the conference on Rigel."

Using a week of leave time to watch over the health of his newly bonded bloodson and adopted daughter, Kirk shrugged.

"Happy to do it, Sarek. I haven't been there enough for either of them. Times like this help to get it all back. Just do what you have to."

"Rest assured, we shall."

Amanda was checking over a few things with Nyota Uhura, whose relationship with her Captain was becoming more and more public--especially in private.

"Now, Peter adores hot Plomeek soup, but Saavik prefers it chilled. If you hear a noise at 1 AM, that's just Peter getting Peanut Butter. If you hear a noise at 2 AM, that's just Saavik getting pretzels. If you hear a noise at 3 AM---"

Nyota jumped in.

"That's Peter and Saavik getting a drink to wash down the peanut butter and pretzels?"

Amanda half-frowned.

"Do I sound that bad?"

Nyota laughed.

"No, you sound that much like a mother. If you'll recall, I was the same way when we first left Saavik with you, and just after you found Peter. Amanda--they're grown-ups, and they're in good hands. They're in each other's arms. Kissing."

Amanda nodded.

"Touching."

Nyota frowned.

"Doing God knows what to one another."

"Oh, my Saavik was only seven, and she would cling...."

"I--I--I held Peter when he was a baby, then I saw him taking care of his baby brother--he was such a good little man..."

They both began to cry.

Just as suddenly, they stopped.

"Er...Nyota,  you do know how to use our Commlink?"

Uhura folded her arms, insulted.

"Duhhh...No, Amanda. I wouldn't know the first thing about Dat!"

Amanda's face grew sheepish.

"Oh...yeah. 17 years as Comm...well, I have to be going."

Sarek and Amanda withdrew. Outside, Sarek looked back.

"You did not tell them of our true destination, did you?"

Amanda grinned from ear to ear.

"No, Sir! Mister Ambassador...shall we away to Risa?"

"Indeed. It shall be intriguing to be under a sun that one can lie beneath for a full two hours. And Amanda? I have brought ample supplies of hand-applied sunblock."

"Hand-applied, Husband?"

"Yes. Risa is very security-conscious. So we will have to conduct a full-cavity search of one another. It may take hours."

"If...we're lucky. Are you feeling lucky? Well, are you...Vulcan?"

Sarek opened his mouth, then shrugged.

"I have no notion as to how I should respond to that."

The happy older couple drove off, Amanda taking what she could get.

Inside, Uhura called the officer who outranked her in title, but certainly not in time served.

"Will, if anything out of the ordinary should come up, your orders are clear :  Protect the ship, and all of Vulcan first. Some of Kruge's followers might not care about this house specifically. In any event, we can take care of ourselves. Am I understood?"

Another officer aboard another ship might have resented being told what to do by the Console Officer. But although Willard Decker was First Officer, his time with the Enterprise did not yet total two years. Commander Uhura's romantic relationship with Captain Kirk aside, the professional bond between them was going on its second decade. There was no rational way of sidestepping that.

"Understood, Commander. Please wish the newlyweds well, on behalf of both myself and LC Ilia."

"Its a deal, Mister Decker--if and when they ever emerge from their extended 'convalescence-honeymoon'."

When the link was cut, Decker looked around The Bridge. His face grew worried.

"Ilia, report!"

The Deltan Empath quickly responded.

"Half the crew is on leave on Vulcan's surface. The other half are just a hair short of overwhelmed, with their second shifts. But they'll manage. I assigned Bridge personnel to supervise--sir."

Decker smiled, and hit a coded sequence that sealed off The Bridge.

"Now, Lieutenant Commander, you and I can have that private talk."

Ilia got up, and pushed Decker back into the Center seat, where she bound his wrists.

"Talk is cheap, Will. I want your body."

There was much rejoicing.

Below, two lovers who had met as teenagers on the bloodied fields of Tarsus Four almost forty years ago lay back in Sarek and Amanda's bedroom.

"Penny for your thoughts, Jim?"

"Its a nickel now, Nyota. My pennies have both grown up. I can't believe how extraordinarily lucky I am. I have you. I have those two wonderful kids. They have each other, plus real parents in the form of Sarek and Amanda."

She suddenly yanked his package, enough to make him yelp.

"Oww. What was that for?"

"A reminder, Daddy. All that cutesy brother-sister stuff is done for, with them. They are reinventing the wheel, and bopping til they drop. Siblinghood is not something on their current agenda. Just be ready for that."

"I'll---get back to you on that. By the way---"

Kirk playfully put Uhura on her back, and got above her.

"Did I ever do that reenactment of Peter's conception? Aurelan criticized my technique--I need a second opinion."

Nyota feigned indifference.

"Oh, my. It looks like its going to be one of those loooong stories."

In the room shared by the much-discussed newlyweds, no noise was heard. Then, Peter broke the silence.

"Ohhh....this is paradise."

Saavik smiled, feeling better than she had thought possible.

"After all those long months at The Academy--to know this kind of bliss seems surreal."

"Saavik?"

"Peter?"

"Do you want to do it again?"

"Yes, My Darling. More Than Anything."

So they each turned over and went back to sleep.