Rating and notes: U (there might be a few canon twists). I adopted the bunny from Ash.

Pairing: Spock/McCoy

Summary: "Sugar" + Vulcan child = catastrophe, or is it?

Disclaimer: I'm just playing with other people's toys. May I be forgiven in my next incarnation! Flamers and thieves will be adopted by my blood relatives (if you don't believe it's a threat... too bad for you!).

Editor: Mikee. The remaining mistakes are all mine, and I apologize for those.

Sugar High

"But it's not sugar!" McCoy growled. Spock was about to protest, but his bondmate interrupted him, "You never said anything about Terran fruit."

Spock sighed, and then he nodded. "You are right, Leonard. I'd forgotten to warn you. It seems that a few Terran fruits, combined with Vulcan fruits, can make Vulcan children what you call 'sugar high'," he admitted.

Dr. Leonard McCoy and Spock had been married for five years now - as long as their last mission.

They'd surprised everybody when they hadn't renewed their Starfleet contracts to go live on Vulcan.

Of course, Sarek hadn't been too pleased the day his only heir had announced that he was bonding with a man. Sarek could forgive McCoy for being non-Vulcan, but the proud Ambassador was afraid to see his family line die, and their lands and possessions go to some greedy cousins after his and Spock's deaths; truth be told, that was breaking his heart.

Spock started working for the Vulcan Science Academy, and in the wink of an eye, McCoy convinced the Vulcan healers at the ShiKahr Medical Research Center that he was worthy of working with them.

McCoy made Sarek the happiest Vulcan when he created a new technique to combine DNA - and then Spock came up with a device to harbor cells and nurture them to make babies.

Spock and McCoy were the first to try their inventions, and their daughter, T'Reah, was turning three that day. She was a little lady who had the entire household wrapped around her finger.

T'Reah was half-human and half-Vulcan, like Spock, because of some twist in McCoy and Spock's inventions. She looked like her Vulcan father, but for her blue eyes - and Amanda kept saying that it might come from her side of the family. Spock and McCoy could see that their baby had her human father's eyes, but they never contradicted Amanda.

"What can we do?" McCoy asked his beloved husband.

"If she drinks milk, her chemistry will be back to normal in a few minutes," Spock said.

"We just need to catch her, then," McCoy declared.

"I'll do it. The weather is too hot and dry for you today. Go back inside and have some milk ready," Spock said.

McCoy discreetly extended his index and middle fingers, and Spock briefly caressed them, making their link sing between them.

McCoy went back inside the air-conditioned boudoir that was Lady Amanda's refuge. From there, he could see T'Reah zooming around in the park; he saw Spock walk to Sarek, and he guessed that Spock was asking his father to help him corner the child.

McCoy scanned his daughter and smiled.

Amanda joined him and asked, "Is it working?"

"It is," McCoy said.

"Sarek never believed me," Amanda whispered.

"Our Vulcans can be particularly stubborn," McCoy said as he put his medical tricorder down on the window ledge.

Amanda sighed, which prompted McCoy to wrap an arm around her.

McCoy's mother-in-law had told him what happened when she'd given Spock a Vulcan kasa and a Terran peach. Spock had been running on the ceiling for hours, driving Sarek nuts - and worrying her, but in the end, the odd combination - she was convinced of that - had triggered some hormonal reaction that had boosted Spock's immune system tremendously. Sarek didn't want to believe it, and Spock had completely forgotten the reactions in his body at the time, but Amanda knew that the "sugar high" episode was a good thing for hybrids - and McCoy would soon have enough data to prove it.

"How long will it last do you think?" McCoy asked her.

"Spock was hyperactive for over two-hours before we managed to tackle him. It took us another hour before we got the idea to give him the glass of milk that calmed him. T'Reah is in the park; I think that it'll take our husbands a long time to catch her," Amanda declared.

As if to prove her grandmother's theory, the child managed to trick her father and grandfather as if that were the easiest thing in the universe. The look of surprise on both Vulcans' faces was priceless, and their spouses chuckled merrily.

"She's running around like a photon torpedo in a wormhole, but she'll be stronger than the other children for having gone through this," Amanda said softly.

McCoy knew that she wasn't talking to him. She was merely stating a fact - a fact that was very good for her family.

Amanda was too young to be his mother, but she was McCoy's friend, and he pecked her cheek.

She beamed at him and asked, "Do you know what would be great, once you've published the results of your study on hormones?"

"Another baby to keep Sarek on his toes?" McCoy said. She blushed and was about to protest, but he went on and said, "We've begun the process. T'Reah will have a sibling before her next birthday."

"Oh, Leonard," she cooed.

He grinned. His new life was so delightful - in spite of the hellish climate.

Sarek caught his granddaughter, but she tickled him the way McCoy tickles her, and he let her go. Sarek looked so surprised that Spock laughed at his father, which made him glare.

While Sarek protested and Spock dutifully apologized, T'Reah had slithered outside of the park and was running in the surrounding desert.

"They're not out of the wood," Amanda said with a fond smile.

"The desert," McCoy said with a chuckle.

"I've never seen them so happy," she said.

"I've never been happier," McCoy admitted.

This time, it was Amanda who pecked his cheek.

"Mint julep?" he asked.

"Mint julep!"

They sat side by side and waited for Sarek and Spock to bring their sugar high T'Reah. They talked about possible names for the next baby, and they tried to imagine how they'd trick their men into running after the second sugar high baby when it would be time to do the same for her or him - two or three years of planning sounded like a good idea...

Finis