Of Blood and Angels (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 3) (18 page)

Chapter 16

Katie

Before I opened my eyes, I could hear
Caroline going full bore, her Mississippian accent getting stronger, the longer
she spoke.  The door closed and I looked around.  Senya was sitting in a chair
next to me, burying his head in his arms on the corner of my bed.

“Where's the baby?” I demanded.

“Nurse is measuring him.”  His voice was
muffled.

“You're not taking him.”

“No, I'm not taking him.”  He turned his
face up to me.

“Then what in the hell are you doing
here?”

“I need to explain.  It's not what you
think.”

“What do I think?”  I crossed my arms in
front of my chest, which was feeling very heavy and strange.  My lower abdomen
ached.

“You had a Cesarean section,” he said.

“I didn't ask you about that.  I asked you
what you were doing here because I certainly didn't invite you to come."

"I know that, Katie," he
sighed.  "Just listen to me for a moment."

"No," I replied.  "I don't
want to listen to you.  It's too late.  You had nine months to explain yourself
and you didn't.  You left me alone.  Get out of here.  Go back to wherever in
the hell you came from."

"I didn't leave you alone," he
protested lamely.  "I sent you servants and Lady Korelesk to keep you
company."

"Are you brain dead?" I
screamed.  "I didn't want a bunch of servants and Luci!  I wanted
you!"  I burst into tears.  "What were you afraid of that you
couldn't call me once or send me a text just to ask how I was?"

"I wasn't afraid.  I just could not
do this."

“You were just so damn busy.  I know.  No
time to eat or sleep.  No time to do anything but work, work, work.  That’s
fine, Senya.  Go back to work.  Go back to your planet and your company and
everything else that means so much more to you than me and your son.  We don’t
need you.  We’re going to do just fine without you.  In fact, we’re going to do
better without you.”  I swiped at my nose.

He turned away from me.  “Nothing means
more to me than you.”

“You certainly could have fooled me!” I
cried.  “You sure have a funny way of showing that!  I’ll just yell at you and
then ignore you for nine months and that will prove to you how much I love
you.”

“Katie, please,” he begged, turning back
to me, his eyes flashing brightly.  “You don’t understand why I have to do the
things I do.  I don’t have a choice in any of this.”

“You don’t have a choice?  You’re
practically the King already.  I know what’s going on there.  I know you’re
running the show.  You can do whatever you want.  You’re the only one whose got
a choice.”

“You’re wrong,” he said and closing his
eyes, he pressed his thumbs against his eyelids.  “I am only here because of
you.”

“Don’t do me any favors,” I replied.

“Katie,” he started to say again and then
rubbed his temples.

"What’s the matter?  You have a
migraine?"

"Yes.  All the time now."

"Well, turn around and come
closer."  I don’t know why I relented and began to massage his neck. 
"I'm lucky to find your head under all this hair."  I jabbed my
thumbs into the base of his skull, harder than I normally would have done.  His
muscles were knotted up tight.  "Has this been going on for a long time?”

“Yes,” he mumbled.

“Maybe you should ask another doctor about
it.  Do you want to talk to Donak?  Maybe even Jerry knows something.”  I
pressed hard into his shoulders and wondered why I was doing this.  What did I
care if he was exhausted and having pre-seizure migraines?

“No.  I will figure it out myself when I
get a moment to think about it.”

“Senya, if you can’t do it all, then you
shouldn’t even try.  You can’t be a doctor and run a company and be the king of
the whole planet.  Obviously, all this, plus going around fertilizing Rozari,
is making you ill.  Maybe what should happen is that Rehnor needs to join the
Alliance and the Allied Council takes over the government.  No planet needs a
dictatorial King in this day and age.  The Allied Council will bring in a whole
new infrastructure and they’ll fix everything.”

“You are so naïve,” he sighed.

“Screw you!” I cried and pushed him away. 
“That’s the last time I give you any advice.  Go to hell!”

“I’ve already been there and doubtlessly,
I shall be returning a few more times.”

I stared at him.  “I assume you are
speaking metaphorically and if you aren’t, I assume you deserved to go there.”

He stood up and stretched his neck and
then pressed his eyes again.  “Are you coming home?”

“No,” I mumbled.  “I don’t know what I am
doing right now.  Maybe I’ll just stay here.”  Just then the door opened and
Caroline came in with a squalling infant.  "We'll continue this discussion
later," I told him and held out my arms for my baby.

“And here's your mama and papa, little
darling,” Caroline said.  “Look who just woke up and is mighty hungry.”  She
handed him to me and I gazed down at his little red angry face for the first
time.  He was absolutely beautiful.  I turned my back to Senya.  Steven needed
me now.

Dear Katie Anne,

Your mother and I loved those pictures of
Baby Steven.  I hope you are planning to come home to visit us very soon.  We
would certainly like to see that young man in person.  Your mother thinks he
takes after me.  I don't know about that.  If you asked me, he's the spitting
image of your husband although with your coloring.  It looks like he has your
beautiful blue eyes which certainly has brought your mother a great deal of
relief. 

Regarding the little matter which you
asked me to look into a few months ago, I am sorry to say that I will not be
filing papers for your divorce.  You are probably not aware but about a week
ago, your husband came by my office and we were able to spend the better part
of the afternoon chatting.  He filled me in on a lot of information that both
of you have neglected to tell me about in the past.  He explained that his ‘job’
and ‘family responsibilities’ have kept him away from you in these last few
months.  He also indicated that it was for your own safety and for little
Steven's future that it had to be this way.

Yes, I agree that he was foolish and
callous, decidedly ignorant of your feelings.  He could and should have tried
to reach out to you in some way during this time but he was put in a very
difficult position.  Apparently, you were required to return to the ‘family
estate’ to give birth to Steven so that Steven might someday inherit that same
‘estate.’

Ron is and was as adamant as you are that
Steven does not follow in his footsteps.  It was imperative then that you give
birth to the boy in space.  Had he said that to you, he would have violated the
very laws that he is sworn to uphold.  Therefore, he chose to say nothing to
you, to make you so angry that you would choose to return to space on your own
accord even if that meant you were so angry at him, he would end up exactly in
the position he is in right now.

I can tell you, as surely you must be able
to tell, that he is exhausted and frankly, looks to me like a man on the verge
of a physical if not mental breakdown.  What has happened since the death of
his uncle has not been easy on him by any means.  I think it would behoove the
both of you to take the opportunity of Steven's birth to have a bit of parental
leave and the three of you go home, or someplace else quiet and without
interruption, to get to know each other all over again.  As one who has on more
than one occasion had to go to your mother to ask for forgiveness, I am asking
on Ron's behalf that you do the same. 

I know you love him, Katie Anne, and I
know he loves you as much if not more in return.  You've been given a wonderful
gift in that little boy who must truly be a miracle baby.  Take the opportunity
to forget and forgive.  You've got a tremendous job ahead of you, and this is
just going to be one of many stones in your path that you will have to learn to
walk over. 

You're a strong girl, Captain, and Ron and
I both know that.  We agree that while the challenge ahead of you will be
formidable, this will be something you can do and do well.

I'm very proud of you.  I'm proud of the
both of you.  I am truly honored to know Ron and I would dearly love to shout
it to the world but I know I cannot.  Maybe someday though, I can get your
mother on one of your fancy spaceplanes and we can come see that magnificent
'family estate'.  Even now after I've had a whole week to think about it, I
still find myself shaking my head with amazement.

Love,  Dad

P.S.  I always wondered who gave you those
chess pieces and why.

P.P.S.  What I still don't understand
though is how he knew to send them to you when you were only 10 years old.

I was extraordinarily tired and really
would have preferred just to go to bed, but I didn’t.  I let Siria and Tilia
fight over who was going to change the baby and rock him until he fell asleep,
and then I went down to the second floor to the offices. 

It was just past 8pm but Kinar was still
sitting at his desk typing.  He saw me and immediately jumped up.

“Madame, you're home!” 

“Hi Kinar,” I replied.  “How are you?”  My
Mishnese was far from fluent but I could carry on a simple conversation and
probably understood a bit more.

“Excellent, Madame.  And how is the little
prince?”

“Excellent too, Kinar.  How is the big
prince?”

Kinar rolled his eyes.  Then he winked at
me.  I smiled a little.  Kinar was okay. 

“Is he in?” I indicated the shut office
door.

“Yes, Madame, go ahead and go in.”  He
pressed a button inside his desk which unlocked the door to the inner office. 
It was pitch black in there except for the shadow of the vids suspended from
the ceiling where three men appeared.  They weren’t dressed in the Palace
regalia but rather business casual.  One of them looked slightly green like a
Talasian while another had the cat-like eyes of a Cascadian.  The third who
could have been either Rehnorian or Human was speaking in Mishnese.  Senya was
pacing back and forth in front of the windows, the red tip of his cigarette and
the light from his eyes defining his path. 

My eyes adjusted as I watched him pacing
and pacing.  I sat down on the sofa, nervous about my reception, wondering if
he would throw me out as I had thrown him out of the sickbay a week ago.

The conversation continued a while longer
and from the few references I understood about hospitals, it became clear to me
that it concerned SdK business. 

I considered leaving; going upstairs to
bed, to try to sleep, but my breasts were heavy and aching.  They would probably
keep me awake no matter how exhausted I felt.  I had fed Steven about an hour
ago, right after we arrived home, and already I was filled up again, able to
feed a dozen more babies.  My nipples were raw and bleeding, my incision ached
and suddenly, I was very overwhelmed by everything.

Finally, Senya thanked the men on the vids
and ended the call.  The room darkened again for just a moment and then I was
bathed in the silver light. 

“Hi honey, I'm home,” I offered meekly.

“Are you?”

I took a deep breath and spoke slowly.  “I
forgive you for what you did and I'm sorry for sending you away.”

The light dimmed.  He was standing with
his back to the windows, behind his desk, but he didn’t stand still.  He was
antsy, nervous, like he was almost ready to blow.

“I deserved it,” he said after a moment,
and then began pacing again.

“Well, yeah,” I agreed.  “But still. 
Damn!”  My t-shirt was getting soaked. 

“What's the matter?”

“Oh, just over producing.”  I tried to
laugh though I felt like crying.  “My body thinks I just delivered quadruplets
or something.  I've got enough to set up my own dairy farm with these two
bowling balls strapped to my chest.”

“How long has it been like this?”

“It started yesterday.  Is there something
wrong with me?”  I turned on a small table lamp and looked around for a towel. 
There used to be rags in the lab which wasn’t a lab anymore.

“No,” he said.  “It’s perfectly normal.” 
He rubbed his temples and pressed his eyes.

“You've got another migraine?”

“Mhm, continuously.”  There was a bandage
around his right wrist.  The cut had to be fresh and still he looked like he
was on the verge of a seizure.

“I'll make you a deal.  You find me a
towel and I'll rub your neck.”

“Here,” he agreed and there was now a
towel in his hand.  He crossed the room to bring it to me and I pulled off my
stinky soaked t-shirt and nursing bra.  I was leaking even as I stood there.