Cassandra's Challenge (8 page)

“Yes sir.”

“You will leave immediately. If everything isn’t
in the same condition I left it, I will knock you back down
Private
. Is that understood?”

Falco shallows hard. “Yes sir!” William
disconnects, throwing his headset down.

“Problem?” Quinn inquires. He’s known William
for over thirty cycles, knows his moods, but this is something
new.

“There’d better not be.” Damn he wants to make
sure Cassandra hasn’t spooked. But she’s right he isn’t leaving
this until this is finished.

“Set up extra shifts on all ships, I want all
transmissions monitored, recorded and analyzed.”

“I’ll take care of it Admiral.” Quinn
replies.

“Send that transmission to my ready room comm.
I’ll be in my quarters.”

“Yes sir.” I hope it’s the way you left it Quinn
thinks to himself.

Falco disconnects, sending Cassandra a hate
filled look, walks to the hatch and leaves. There is no report in
her hands or on the Admiral’s desk. Cassandra remains where she is
trying to figure out what shocks her more the jealousy she’s
feeling, knowing that this other woman feels she has a claim on
William, or the utter hatred in her eyes.

Moving back into William’s private chambers she
tries to rationalize her feelings. What is going with her?
Jealousy? Really? That means she cares about him. He’d have to
matter.

“It’s just physical.” Saying it out loud she can
hear the lie in her own voice. Running her hands through her hair
she paces the room. Hearing the hatch open and close she
freezes.

“If that bitch is back again…” She mutters
storming through the connecting door ready for a fight and straight
into William’s arms.

He instantly realizes he’s holding a very angry
woman in his arms, still he can’t help but be relieved that she’s
still here. Tipping her chin up, he kisses her as her arms tighten
around him.

“Where are you rushing off too?” Cassandra’s
hazy eyes sharpen.

“I thought I heard an intruder.” He lets out a
deep sigh.

“I’m sorry, that never should have happened. No
one just walks into my ready room.”

“How would you know?”

“What?”

“If you’re not here and the door isn’t secured,
how do you know someone hasn’t been in your ready room?” William
has no answer.

There’s a knock on the hatch and the door opens.
“Admiral?” Cassandra gives him an, ‘I told you so look’ as she
turns walking deeper into his private chambers.

“It’s just Hutu bringing dinner.” William says
in exasperation.

“Admiral, do you want me to bring it back?”

William walks back into his ready room. “No Hutu
just put it on the table over here. That’ll be all.”

“Yes sir.” Hutu leaves.

Walking to the hatch William secures it. Picking
up the tray he heads back to Cassandra, finding her sitting on the
couch, her head in her hands.

“Cassandra….” Lifting her head she looks at him.
He can’t read her expression as he sets the tray of food down.

“Come on you haven’t eaten.” He takes the lids
off two plates of food. Looking at them she doesn’t recognize a
single thing. One more thing proving she’s out of her element
here.

“Who is she?” She asks lifting her eyes from the
plates to his.

“Her name is Senior Chief Delondra Falco. She is
the navigations specialist on board the Retribution.” He replies,
handing her eating utensils.

“Who is she to you?” Cassandra narrows the
question ignoring the utensils.

“I just told you.”

Cassandra looks him in the eye for a few more
moments, waiting. “So she was never anything else.” She knows she’s
not wrong.

William goes still. Carefully he puts the
utensils down. “Nothing important.” He finally admits. He didn’t
want to discuss this, especially with her. No one who came before
matters to him including his past wife, didn’t she understand
that?

“I think she would disagree.” She’ll be damned
if she’s letting him off the hook. “Earlier you asked me not to
shut you out, I’m asking the same.” William’s eyes shoot to hers.
“I may not have been in many relationships, but I know what I want
in one.”

“What do you want, Cassandra.” He’s almost
afraid to ask.

“Honesty. Even if I don’t like the answer, I
need the truth.” As she starts to stand he grips her hand, stopping
her.

“It was nearly eight cycles ago,” He begins. “I
wasn’t even an Admiral yet, I was in command of the Battleship
Babirusa, we’d just come back from a one year tour, we’d taken
heavy fire.” William watches her face. “We put in, orbiting
Diomede, for repairs. I took a five-day leave. I met Falco. She was
on leave from the Battleship Talaria. Things…happened”

“It wasn’t a one night stand.”

“No.” She waits. “It was three days.” He says
through clenched teeth.

“So a fling.” William raises an eyebrow at her
term. “Something you enjoy for a while then forget about.”

“That would fit. I didn’t even realize she was
assigned to the Retribution until after we were underway.”

“Would you have reassigned her?”

“No. There was no reason too.”

“So what is your term for the three days?” She
needs to know.

“Leave.” He tells her bluntly.

Cassandra looks at his face, realizing he isn’t
used to being questioned, that he’s tolerating it for her. She
turns her hand over in his.

“Okay,” She squeezes his hand. “But there are a
couple things you should be aware of.” William laces his fingers
into hers.

“What.”

“Falco doesn’t consider it ‘leave’ and she’s
been in your quarters before.” She puts it out there.

“Why do you believe that?”

“First because of the way she looked at me after
you ordered her out. And second, where’s the report she was
bringing you?”

“What?”

“Did
you
see one on your desk? Because
she sure didn’t leave with one.”

Rising he enters his ready room going to his
desk everything is exactly as he’d left it. There is no report.
Turning he find Cassandra in the doorway.

“So what’s the stuff on the plates?” She asks
letting the subject drop. This is Admiral territory he’ll decide
what he’s going to do. Walking her back to the couch they sit.

“It’s called Zebu.”

“How does it taste?” He looks at her then
chuckles.

“I’ll let you decide.” Picking up a piece with
his forc he puts it to her lips. “Open up.” Trusting him she opens,
letting him feed her.

“Not bad.” She finally says after she swallows.
Swooping in for a quick kiss, he hands her a forc, then orders.

“Eat.”

They eat together in a comfortable silence with
Cassandra all but licking her plate clean. Finding him watching her
she gives him a sheepish look.

“I didn’t realize I was so hungry.”

“You needed it. Do you want more?”

“No. Where do I put these?” She gestures to the
now empty dishes.

“I’ll take care of them.” Rising he picks up the
plates.

Returning he finds her in the middle of a big
yawn. Seeing him she grins. “Sorry, it’s not the company.”

“You need sleep, come on.”

“William its only 2130.”

“And you’re tired. You need sleep.” Cassandra
looks at him as he leads her to the bed.

“William…” She isn’t sure what to do.

“Cassandra, get undressed, get into bed, go to
sleep. I have paper work to do. I’ll be in later.” He pulls the
blanket and sheets down on the bed, realizing she’d restored
it.

“But, I thought…” She stuttered to a stop.

“Thought what?” Realizing what she’s thinking he
finds he wants to hear her say it.

“That we’d…” Confusion fills her eyes as she
looks up at him.

“Cassandra, don’t think I don’t want to mate
with you again.” He rubs his hands up and down her arms. “Your body
needs time to recover. We have time. Get into bed, get some sleep.”
Pulling her up, he kisses her then walks into his ready room.

Standing by the bed she watches him leave. Is
she ever going to figure him out? She expected a repeat of this
afternoon and finds she’s disappointed. She can’t stop the next
yawn that hits her. Maybe she’d just take a short nap. Undressing
she puts her clothes on the chest at the foot of the bed then
climbing in she’s almost instantly asleep.

In his ready room William is replaying his day.
Cassandra. The transmission. Falco. All in all an eventful day.
While she’s brought up some good points concerning Falco he thinks
she’s reading them wrong. Leaning back in his chair he remembers
how responsive she’d been. That she’d been able to accept his
entire length. His never experienced that before, she truly is his
life-mate. Now he just had to make her understand what that
means.

Turning his attention to his desk he thinks
about Falco’s missing report. That is something to deal with
tomorrow. At the comm center he brings up the Regulian transmission
to study again.

The nightmare has Cassandra sitting straight up
in bed looking franticly around. Where is she! Where’s Victoria!
Heart pounding she tries to get her bearings. There’s a light but
it seems so far away. It’s the scent that finally calms her.

“William.” She whispers. But he’s not here,
picking up the pillow that carries his scent, the nightmare comes
back to her and she lowers her head to the pillow.

She’s been having the nightmare since the
Regulians attacked Earth. There’s supposed to be a light but all
she sees is death and destruction. Every time she tries for the
light someone she loves dies. Its’ all her fault…if she’d just been
smarter, she could have saved them all. But tonight the nightmare
changed, for the last seventeen days it’s always had her dropping
Victoria, falling after her, something that even now makes her
shutter. But tonight it included William, William falling out of
the Raptor after both of them. What does it mean?

Her maternal Grandmother had always told her to
listen to her dreams to learn from them. They would reveal things
that we need to know. She’d always believed her, but she doesn’t
know what this means.

What she does know is she wants William. He
scares her, not with his size or passion, but with what he makes
her feel. She could lose herself to him, trusting he would take
care of her. How did she know that? It isn’t her mind telling her,
it’s her heart. She’s never trusted it to anyone other than family,
but her heart says she can trust him. Does she have the courage?
There are so many things they don’t know about each other.

In the later part of his life her father had
been a carpenter. And while he’d loved to build things, he’d gotten
his greatest pleasure out of restoring pieces that had been either
forgotten or neglected. He’d tell her that sometimes you just need
to strip away the outer layers to see the true beauty. That it’s
what’s underneath that really matters. She can hear his voice in
her head telling her this is such a time.

So if she strips way all the crap that’s been
going on since the Regulians attacked, striped back the layers,
what’s really important to her. Her first thought is, ‘William’.
Could she let herself trust that? Could she not?

Staying in bed is no longer an option. Getting
up she wraps the blanket around her. There is only one place she
wants to be. There’s the light and she moves to it. Standing in the
doorway she sees him, he’s her light, just him. Sitting at his desk
with his back to her, walking over she touches his back.

William is so deep in thought that he doesn’t
realize Cassandra’s behind him until he picks up her scent a moment
before she touches him.

Turning in his chair he’s floored. She’s
standing in front of him wrapped in a drooping blanket that exposes
bare shoulders, moving between his legs she sits. Pulling her
closer she nestles into him, the blanket falling away

“You should be sleeping.” He caresses a bare
thigh.

“Bad dream.” She rests her head on his
shoulder.

He should have realized, with everything she’s
been through, the attack, the destruction of Earth, not only
saving, but caring for her niece, trying to find her way in a new
world, and then him on top of it, how much is one small woman able
to take. Putting a hand on her cheek he pulls her in close.

“Cassandra.” Sighing her name he kisses the top
of her head.

“Just hold me for a minute, I’ll be okay, and
you can get back to work.”

William isn’t getting any further then he had
before in figuring out the translation, his mate needs him and that
takes priority. Shutting down the comm center he cradles her in his
arms as he moves into his private chambers.

“You still have work.” She mumbles.

“No I don’t.” Laying her on the far side of the
bed he quickly disrobes pulling her close. “Sleep Cassandra, I’ve
got you.” Without hesitation she wraps herself around him, her
utter trust humbles him, together they fall asleep.

Hours later his secondary line rings,
instinctively he picks it up.

“Zafar.”

“Admiral?” Leander quizzes. “I’m looking for
Cassandra.”

“Hold on.” Realizing this has to be about
Victoria he nudges her, “Cassandra, its Leander.” She’s instantly
awake reaching across him for headset.

“Leander what’s wrong?” Her voice is
panicky.

“Victoria had a nightmare. We’ve tried to calm
her down but…”

“I’ll be right there!” She tells him sliding
across William. Dropping the headset as her feet hit the floor.
“Shit I should have known better.” She mutters pulling on
clothes.

William follows her, pulling on his clothes he
listens to Cassandra berating herself.

“Stop. Cassandra stop!” He grabs her arm. “You
couldn’t have known.”

“I should have!” Sitting she pulls on her boots.
“She’s been having nightmares ever since the attack. They haven’t
been as severe lately but still.”