The Eden Factor (Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Romance Adventure Series Book 2) (26 page)

Dr. Maraq nodded his head. He was
a smart man, educated and worldly, and knew who Marcus Burton and Kathlyn Trent
were. Everyone in Egypt, and certainly most of the world, knew who they were.

 "Anything else?"

Marcus' jaw ticked.
"Personal things I'd rather not go into at the moment." He turned the
subject around. "Can you tell me what you've done for her?"

Dr. Maraq respected their
privacy. Dr. Trent wasn't bruised or bleeding and there were no outward signs
of violence, so he let it go. "The first thing we did was give her an exam
and draw blood. I'm going to run a few more tests just to see what could be
going on with her, physically. Mentally, that's another story. I'm not a
psychologist, though I have called one in to evaluate her. Hysterical women are
out of my scope of practice. At any rate, I've given her a sedative and I want
her to rest for the remainder of the evening."

"Then can I take her
home?"

The doctor shook his head.
"Not until the shrink evaluates her, and that won't happen until first
thing tomorrow morning."

Marcus sighed.  "Can I at
least stay with her tonight?"

The doctor could see how worried
he was. It made him all the more puzzled about Dr. Trent's condition.
"Were you two fighting? Is that what triggered this?"

"No, we weren't
fighting."

If Maraq didn't believe him, he
didn't let on. "You can stay with her, then. But don't upset her."

"I won't."

The doctor turned away.
"We're going to be moving her into a private room shortly. Come on; I'll
take you to her."

Marcus passed a glance at the
crowd behind him. They apprehensively watched him walk down the hallway,
disappearing around the corner. McGrath tried to get them all to leave, but
Juliana wouldn't budge. Lynn wouldn't go if she wouldn't go. Mark stayed
because he wanted to be around should Juliana or Kathlyn need him. McGrath, not
wanting to be the odd man out, sat down with the rest of them and waited. It
was apparent that nobody was going anywhere.

Marcus followed Dr. Maraq into a
semi-private examining room. It was well-stocked and smelled strongly of
antiseptic soap. One bed was empty and the other held Kathlyn. A nurse was
adjusting her I.V. fluids. Marcus stood there a moment at the base of the bed,
his eyes glued to his wife as the doctor looked over her chart one last time.
He said something to the nurse, who left the room. Maraq cast a final glance at
Marcus before following the nurse, leaving him alone with his wife.

She looked very peaceful, not at
all like the hysterical woman he had last remembered. She was in a patient
gown, cleaned up, sleeping curled up like a cat on her left side. Marcus just
stood there, feeling incredibly horrible, as if he had caused all of this with
his selfishness and ridiculous ideas. Slowly, he moved around the side of the
bed until he was standing over her. After a moment, he leaned down and kissed
her cheek. The gentle gesture brought tears to his eyes, but he fought them.

To his surprise, her eyes
fluttered open. She looked up at him, sleepily, and he smiled, fervently hoping
he wouldn't set her off again.

"Hi," he murmured.

 She closed her eyes.
"Hi," she whispered.

He touched her cheek.
"They're going to move you into a private room for the night. They want to
keep an eye on you just to make sure you're all right."

She sighed. The sedatives were
taking their toll. "They didn't tell you, did they?"

"Tell me what?"

"I wanted to tell you
myself."

"Tell me what?"

"That I'm pregnant."

Marcus was stunned. "You
are?"

She yawned. "A few weeks, he
said. It's barely showing up on the blood test, but it's there. They did a
urine test too, just to make sure."

Marcus didn't know what to say.
He stroked her hair and kissed her again. "Did you know?" he
swallowed. "I mean, before all of this."

"I suspected," she
said. "But I didn't want to think about it. I was just hoping I was just
really, really late."

Marcus knelt down beside the
gurney so he could look her in the eye. "I don't understand. Why were you
hoping that?"

"Because I don't want this
to happen."

"You don't want this
baby?"

She met his gaze, her pupils huge
and dilated. "Marcus, I don't know if this is our baby. Think about it; if
Fayd had me unconscious for two days, not only could he have harvested an ovum,
but he could have fertilized it too. Whatever is growing inside of me right
now, I don't know if you and I put it there."

Marcus' jaw ticked. He just knelt
beside her, stroking her head, kissing her hands. "That never occurred to
me," he finally said. "I figured they had just taken something out of
you, not put anything back. We know that you weren't raped while they had
you."

"The exam I had right after
ruled that out."

"So whatever was done
happened in a laboratory if, in fact, anything at all like that happened."

"Exactly."

He was starting to feel sick and
incredibly angry. "Christ," he hissed. "This just keeps getting
worse and worse."

His stubbled face was taut with
emotion. Kathlyn watched his handsome features, feeling his turmoil along with
hers. She squeezed his hand. "Marcus," she whispered. "I'm sorry
I overreacted about everything. You were right when you said I had too many
things on my mind. I really did but I guess I didn't realize how much. And when
Mom called about Daddy...."

The tears started again and he
kissed her hands, her forehead. "Sweetheart, don't cry. The doctor will
think I'm upsetting you and he'll make me leave. Then I'll refuse and he'll
call the cops, and I'll have to beat them all up, and then the whole thing will
get ugly. Get the picture?"

Her tears turned to a weepy
smile. "I get it," she sniffled. "But I want you to know... I
really am sorry. I shouldn't have overreacted about your not telling me about daddy.
You were absolutely right with your reasons, I think. You knew me better than I
did. And as for the other thing, well, I'm sure you had your reasons, too. It
wasn't my place to throw that up in your face like that."

He kissed her again, this time on
the lips. "You had every right. I didn't keep it from you to be subversive
about it, but more that I was afraid what you were going to think. You were so
perfect and wonderful, and here I was, just an average guy with this guilt that
had been following me around for eighteen years. Frankly, I was embarrassed as
hell. The longer I waited, the worse it got, until I just backed myself into a
corner. I just didn't know what to do."

"But it's no big deal these
days. Don't you see?"

"I do. But I just can't get
away from that stigma of it." He sighed painfully. "Not telling you
about that was the stupidest thing I've ever done and I'm sorry as hell."

"It's okay" she
murmured. "I understand."

"Maybe you do. But can you
forgive me?"

"There's nothing to
forgive." The drugs were pulling at her. "Marcus, I'm so scared. I
don't want this creature growing inside me. I don't want to sleep. I'm so
afraid...."

He squeezed her hands tightly.
"I won't leave you. Go to sleep and I'll be here when you wake up."

"Promise?"

"I swear to God."

"What are we going to
do?"

"Don't you worry about it.
I'll think of something."

"Marcus?

"What, sweetheart?"

"I don't want to go to Iraq.
I want to go home."

She closed her eyes and he held
her hands. When the nurses finally came to move her into her room, Marcus never
let go of her.

***

Trent and Ethan were teething,
cranky monsters. The short flight from Modesto to Los Angeles International
Airport had been hellish.  Kathlyn hadn't been feeling well in the week since
her return from Egypt, vomiting all day and night, and the uncomfortable flight
only made her feel worse.  But she had been determined to return home,
determined to collect her boys, and determined to go and see her mother. Marcus
would not refuse her. Leaving his dig to Gary and Lynn and leaving all plans
for a second Iraqi expedition on hold, he once again flew to Southern
California with a pregnant wife who spent most of the eighteen hour flight in
the lavatory.

 But it was good to be home
again. Kathlyn never realized how much she missed it until she set foot in the
hot, smoggy world of swimming pools and movie stars.  Even in early December it
was warm, unseasonably so, as they disembarked the Boeing seven thirty seven
and made their way into the terminal.  She had sent word to her mother before
hand that she was coming home so the woman would be prepared, but she herself
wasn't prepared for the familiar face that greeted her when she disembarked the
airplane.

"Robert!"

She handed off Ethan to her
husband and threw herself in to the arms of the smiling blond man. He hugged
her tightly as Marcus walked up, a squirming child in each hand a diaper bag
over his shoulder.

"Marcus," Kathlyn still
had the man in a bear hug. "This is my older brother, Robert. Rob, this is
my husband, Marcus, and our sons, Ethan and Trent."

Robert Trent was a short,
well-built man with round, rosy cheeks and Kathlyn's green eyes. He tried to
shake Marcus' hand but ended up shaking Ethan's.

"It's really a pleasure,
Marcus," he said. "We heard about Kathlyn's marriage through the
media, but, well...."

He trailed off, smiling
helplessly at his sister. They all knew the score. No one did anything without
Jason Trent's approval, not even contacting a beloved sister on the occasion of
her marriage.

"It's nice to meet you,
too," Marcus said. He got a good feeling off the man. "We had no idea
we were getting a family escort."

Robert's arm was still around his
sister. "Mother wanted to come, but she's so busy making sure the house is
in order she sent me instead." He kissed Kathlyn on the cheek, loudly.
"My God, it's good to see you again. You're so damn beautiful, I'd nearly
forgotten. There's so much to talk about I don't even know where to
start."

Kathlyn grinned, feeling her
worries ease in the presence of her older, protective brother. Since they were
children, he had always taken great care of her.  The estrangement had been
particularly hard on him.

"Where's Bill?" she
asked.

Robert took the diaper bag from
Marcus as Kathlyn took back one son. They began walking toward the baggage
claim area on the lower level.

"Our illustrious younger
brother is at home with Mother," he said. "She doesn't like to be
alone lately. She keeps us all herded around her like a security blanket."

Nearing the doors that led out
into the loading area outside, Kathlyn inhaled the scent of smog and jet fumes.
It was very comforting.

 "Because Daddy's
gone?" she asked softly.

Robert glanced at her, passing a
longer glance at Marcus over Kathlyn's head. "Yes. She can't stand to be
by herself."

He didn't say anything more as
they collected their bags. There was another man in a black suit waiting in the
baggage claim area. He took the bags from Robert and carried them outside to a
waiting limousine.  Kathlyn greeted the man in the dark suit and climbed into
the long black car as casually as if she was climbing into the back of a bus.
Marcus cocked an eyebrow at the super-shiny, brand new car with the
personalized plate of One Trent One. It was then that he began to have an
inkling of what kind of money the Trent family had. It was frankly
intimidating.

But he really had no concept of
what he was about to discover next. The limousine traveled the San Diego
Freeway North to the San Bernardino Freeway West.  After about an hour of
travel, they found themselves winding onto residential streets.  The twins had
fallen into a weary sleep, one on Kathlyn's chest and one on the seat between
his parents. Robert sat facing them, smiling at the sight of his sister and her
children.  Kathlyn, caught up in the scenery of her home turf, didn't miss his
grin.

"What are you smiling
at?" she asked.

"You," Robert said.
"I never thought I'd see the day when you would have children and a
husband."

Marcus lifted an eyebrow.
"Why not?"

Robert laughed softly. "You
just had to know her in her younger days, I suppose. She was so determined, so
driven, that nothing else existed.  While other girls were out going on dates,
Kathlyn was doing university courses.  We had this family friend for years who
kept after her and after her. He was about thirty years her senior."

"Twenty-eight years,"
Kathlyn corrected with an embarrassed grin.  "I remember Daddy throwing
him out of the house when he made a pass at me in the library. He actually
pinched my butt, that old horn dog."