It was ten minutes past the time Jim was
supposed to meet them, but Spock knew that was hardly unusual. Ever since
Admiral Evans had retired, Jim had been taking on far more duties than he
probably should. He’d told Spock that he was only going to HQ for an hour or so
that Saturday morning, but an hour after he’d left, Jim had messaged him that
he would just meet Spock and Surak at the San Francisco Zoo.
“He’s not coming,” Surak said, forlorn.
“He did not message me indicating that.”
Spock paused as he surveyed the crowd. “He will be here.”
Spock hoped he was not lying to his son.
And then a moment later, he felt the prickle
of Jim nearby just as Surak hopped up and down.
“Daddy’s coming!”
Sure enough, Jim came into view. He’d changed
from the admiral’s uniform he’d worn that morning and now wore ripped blue
jeans, a gray T-shirt, and a red plaid flannel shirt over that, left
unbuttoned. He looked, of course, completely gorgeous.
Surak immediately started to run toward him.
“Surak, no running.”
His son ignored him and reached Jim in
seconds. Jim swooped up the boy with a laugh, holding him close.
“Hey there, Tiger.”
“Not a tiger, Daddy. Lion.”
“Oh. Right. Yeah. A lion. Hey there, Lion.”’
Jim reached Spock with their son and leaned
in to peck Spock on the lips. “Hi, Sweetheart.”
“You are late.”
“I know. Went home to change.” He smiled at
Surak. “To make up for it I’ll get you the biggest stuffed animal of your
choice.”
“Yay!”
“Jim.”
“Oh, come on, Spock. If I can’t spoil our
son, who can I spoil?” His smile widened. “I’ll buy you one too, if you want.”
He winked at Spock, who rolled his eyes.
“Sa-Mekh already got the tickets.”
“Of course he did. Your Sa-Mekh is very
efficient. Shall we?”
Once inside, he set Surak down so that the
boy could walk, though it was more like running, and Spock hoped that meant he
would be burning a lot off of his manic energy, something he somehow had gotten
from Jim, though they were not biologically related.
“Jim.” They stopped before an enclosure with
flamingos.
“Hmm?”
“I have been thinking about a blue-eyed,
blond-haired child.”
Jim glanced at him. “I’m sorry?”
“I am speaking of expanding our family. Surak
was created through me and a surrogate. I would like to suggest using you and a
surrogate for our next child.”
“Our next?”
Spock nodded. “It would please me greatly for
that child to resemble you. If you recall, when we first bonded and married, we
spoke of filling our home with the love and laughter of children.”
“Uh. Well. Yeah. We did.” Jim watched Surak
for a moment and then looked back at Spock. “With the job—”
“We can handle it, Adun.”
“Are you sure? Because the bulk of it will be
on you. And you did mention wanting to move more into diplomacy and perhaps
ambassadorship, like your dad and the other you.”
“There is time for that, Jim.”
Jim
nodded. “Yeah. I mean, if you think there is. By the time a baby would be born,
I’d probably be okay to take some parental leave.”
“I am certain.”
His mate blew out a breath. “Well.”
“Come on, Daddy.” Surak reached for Jim’s
hand and tugged him from the flamingos and down a pathway toward the next
exhibit. Spock dutifully followed.
For the moment, Spock let Jim just enjoy the
day with Surak as their little boy, excitedly dashed from animal to animal.
When they reached the lions, Surak grew pensive.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, kiddo?” Jim crouched down next to him.
“Why are they in a cage?”
“Well, the enclosure protects them from us
and us from them. It’s not ideal, of course. But see these animals are here because
this zoo works for conservation and to preserve them so they don’t become
extinct like so many other animals that used to roam the Earth. They study them
so they can protect them from being destroy by humans. And maybe when you have
children of your own someday, these beautiful animals will still be here on
Earth.”
Surak put his little hand on the glass. “I
want to help save them.”
“That would be fantastic.”
Surak turned to Jim, putting his hands on Jim’s
face. “Up.”
Jim laughed. “Okay, okay.” He stood up and
picked up their son, carrying him to the next exhibit.
And later, when they
wandered the gift shops so that Surak could choose his animal, a stuffed lion,
of course, bigger than the boy himself, Spock thought dryly, as Jim also
allowed Surak to pick out one of those giant sugar flavored hard candy on a
stick, Jim leaned over and whispered to Spock, “Yes, let’s do it. Let’s have
another.”
