In the TOS days canon was that Spock was an only child. It was also assumed that Sarek and Amanda were an unusual couple, which would make someone like Spock a true rarity, possibly unique. He must have had a very peculiar upbringing, which would go a long way toward explaining his future choices.Think about it. Here you have the most unlikely couple imaginable. I mean, not only did they marry outside their race, but outside their frigging *species*. I imagine Amanda Grayson may have chosen to live on Vulcan because the Vulcans accepted her, whereas her family might have rejected the whole disgusting idea and disowned her. I mean, we don't mind Vulcans for neighbors, but who wants their daughter to marry one? This pioneering couple was no doubt deeply dedicated to the whole idea of their love. It must have seemed a grand, romantic adventure, at least for her. Sarek, being a practical man, simply accepted the good luck fate brought him without complaint. Not that it didn't put a spring in his step and a song in his heart. My word, yes. That house was full of music with Sarek jamming on the harp in his folksy, atonal fashion, and Amanda improvising quirky songs of love, volunteered in a fine soprano voice. |
What did Amanda teach? Terran culture and history. Amanda was an avid reader who was highly educated, and she still had all her textbooks and favorite novels. And of course, her precious Bible. She had her hands full explaining its contents to the skeptical and rigorously logical Vulcans...but that was nothing compared to what awaited her.
It was with mingled shock and joy that Amanda realized she was pregnant. Nobody expected it. Amanda wouldn't allow herself to hope for too much. Common sense told her the infant would probably not be viable, and was even likely to be monstrously deformed. She had frequent nightmares as her pregnancy progressed, in which she saw the infant through a window in her belly, and he was wearing his intestines on the outside like a sweater. Or he had a stomach where his head belonged, and kidneys for feet. She would wake up, shaking, sweating, and Sarek would have to hold and comfort her.
At last Amanda went into labor, and it was a horribly lonely time for her. Sarek, the midwife, her assistant, and Sarek's elder sister T'Pim who had become Amanda's close friend were all there to attend her, but Amanda as the only human being in her whole universe knew herself then as marooned and bereft of human comfort. They didn't understand, they didn't understand...She called helplessly for her mother as she went through transition.
Everything snapped into focus once she began to push, and fifty minutes later was mercifully delivered of a baby who looked whole and seemed healthy. A boy. A green baby boy. He did not cry, but blurted a small comment and fell silent. His body was limp. The green-black umbilicus, reddened with red maternal blood, was wrapped so tightly around his wee body that he had a rope-burn along his ribs. He had to be unwrapped like a Christmas present, and the Vulcan midwife was so deliberate as she did this that it angered Amanda.
"Give me my baby!" she wailed.
It troubled her that Spock was silent. Her instincts told her this was not right. She required the women to lay Spock on her breast, and Amanda began to fervently massage the tiny child. She talked to Spock, encouraging him, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both. He was alive, alive!
The Vulcans watched this, stunned with fascination. She seemed to know what she was doing. Little Spock's color improved and his limbs came to life. Amanda was laughing and talking to the baby in a weird, high voice, breathless with excitement, gazing directly into his black eyes, tears of happiness pouring. The child pondered, then delicately extended a tiny blue tongue and licked his mother's red nipple.
Sarek suddenly stood up and demanded that attention be paid to the fact that red blood was pouring out between his precious wife's legs like chocolate syrup and he thought something should now be done. There was general agreement that this did not look good, but no one was sure how serious it was or what to do. Naturally they had studied Amanda's college Biology textbook and had gleaned all they could from it, but something like this wasn't mentioned.
Amanda lost a lot of blood before the placenta was finally delivered. This left her weak, but nevertheless in fine spirits. She experienced a radical resurgence of her Christian fervor, becoming convinced at this time that Spock was a miracle child, no doubt destined for Glory.
When Spock failed to thrive on his human mother's milk, Sarek convinced her to give the child to T'Pim to nurse. When Spock rallied on this diet and grew fatter, Amanda was of course relieved, but also, illogically, anguished. She insisted on holding him constantly, except when he was nursing. She also insisted on being the one to feed him his first semisolid food, and used a Terran style spoon to do it.
Spock's earliest memories include this image: His mother being surprised at the appearance of a trickle of red, running down her leg.
"Oh! Bloody nuisance!" she said.
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