wrath of the Sea Queen (166 page)

"Stop
it
! 
Just stop! 
I can't stand any more
of this
," C
a
eli
shouted and
covered her ears with her hands, trying to press out the sounds of conflict.
  The determination in her shout brought immediate silence
and an end to the pain
.
  The only sound
s
remaining
w
ere
th
ose
of C
a
eli's sobs and the water raining down
more intensely
from the shower.

"I'm sorry, C
a
eli," Vin apologized for forgetting that his argument was taking place in her mind.

"Oh Vin
!  P
lease h
elp me," C
a
eli pleaded softly.

It pained him greatly not to be able to grant her request.  He did
n
o
t know how.

C
a
eli
continued to cry
off and on
for the next half hour
, and
Vin
sat with
her
, holding her close
.  Rika's voice did not return. 
When
C
a
eli
started to shiver, Vin reached up and turned off the water.  He pulled C
a
eli up and led her into the other room. 
She didn't resist. 
He guided her to sit in a chair while he pulled the stained sheets off the bed
, tossing
them into a pile in the corner.  There was a soft
, pale
blue blanket at the foot of the bed, which he spread over the bare mattress.  After rummaging through his own
duffle bag
, Vin found one of his favorite shirts
. 
C
a
eli
always
enjoyed wearing
his shirt
s
to sleep
in
when he was
unable to be home
at night
. 
She said they made her feel close to him. 
Vin
handed her a towel and grabbed another to help dry
her off, and then helped her change into his shirt. 

He
started to
pick her up
off the chair
, but C
a
eli
refused
to be carried
.  With Vin's support and some difficulty, she
walk
ed
across
the
painfully
short distance
and slid into
bed.  She turned very slowly, facing away from him.  After quickly drying himself and changing his own clothes, Vin climbed into bed
beside her
.  Sliding up close, he covered them both with the bedspread.  Vin wrapped his arms carefully, but protectively, around C
a
eli
.  He was momentarily shocked to feel a
very
faint tingling sensation when his arm
brushed
her stomach
. 
Vin
ignored the sensation as
nothing more than
a
cruel,
fading
effect
of what
could have
been
. 
The sensation no
longer brought him happiness.

Vin
did not let go
of C
a
eli
for the rest of the night. 
He kept their special link open so that he would know if she needed
any
thing
at all
from him. 
He
could feel her chest shake as she continued to sob softly
in the dark
. 
She did not sleep
until exhaustion finally got the best of her
around four in the morning
.  Vin
was aware of
the time
because he
did
not close his
own
eyes
all night
, feeling the need to watch
over
C
a
eli
.  The
peace of sleep
eluded
him
.

CHAPTER
37

Wednesday morning brought a continuation of the
thunder
storm
that
started the previous afternoon.  The mood at the breakfast table was somber. 
The food tasted bland to Salma, though she found herself unexpectedly hungry.  She was, at last,
introduced to Maku and Pete
during the meal
.

"It's an honor to meet you, Dr. Erickson," Pete said.

"Please, I'm a person
the same as
you.
  All this
adulation
is quite unnecessary," Salma replied.

"But you have given so many people hope with your work.  That's why I wanted to talk to you.  I need to get into your medical trial."

Salma
understood why Maku
wrote
the letters and was horrified to learn that Pete
had
not receiv
ed
any regular treatment for his illness.  Since she
was free of
conference obligations
for the
day, Salma offered to run some tests for Pete
.  They were u
nofficial, of course
, because she was not licensed to practice
medicine
in Hawaii
. 
Yet
,
Salma
c
ould not sit by and let the young man suffer.  S
he
insisted that Pete allow her to help
in this small way
.

"It's the least I can do.  I was not able to help your father, and it
ha
s been eating away at me.  I have the chance to make that right by help
ing
you," Salma told Pete.

Naturally
, Pete was overjoyed at the thought of someone as respected and knowledgeable as Dr. Erickson personally
taking an interest in
his case
and
in him
.  It was
a better
offer
than
he
sought
.  All
Pete
wanted was a
few
word
s of influence in order to get into one of the drug trials.
 
Pete was even more thrilled to have her personal attention.

After the incident at her seminar,
Ben was reluctant to let Salma out of his sight, even here in the hotel
.  H
e offered to be her stand-in nurse while she worked.  S
alma
politely declined, saying that he would
only
be underfoot.  So
Ben
resumed his online
research.  He compromised with Salma by sitting
where he could keep a close eye on her
while she worked
.

Max asked if he could help
pretty Dr.
Salma
, but Maku and Apela enlisted him as a construction a
id
instead.  They were going to patch the wall in Ben and Salma's room.  They assured Max
that the hammering
would be much more exciting.  Max di
sagreed
because there would be no pretty doctors in that room,
though
he
finally
complied
.

Neither Vin nor C
a
eli went to breakfast with the others.  C
a
eli slep
t
fitfully
, if you could call it that
. 
She was lying with her eyes closed, her mind repeatedly running through a hundred different thoughts
and her heart breaking
with each unhappy ending
. 
Although
Salma
gave
her a shot
last night
to ease her pain
, it did not
provide
as much
relief
as Salma
had hoped
.  The shower
reduced its effectiveness
, as C
a
eli intended. 
C
a
eli
did not want anything to lessen her pain or let her sleep through her guilt.  She needed to feel these
emotions
. 
Exhaustion
was the only reason she
had
eventually
closed her eyes. 

Vin
was both
tired
and
wide awake
at the same time,
despite not having slept
.  H
owever,
breakfast time had come and gone, and
h
e could not
lie
in bed any longer without
disturbing
C
a
eli
.  S
o he got up an
d
tended to
his morning routine
with
no
enthusiasm.  Vin sat in a chair at the foot of the bed, watching the rain outside as it came down in torrents.  He knew C
a
eli was still incredibly u
pset, but could
n
o
t decide if th
e current rain shower
was her doing or Rika's or a combination of both.
  They seemed to share
a
commonality in their gifts.