“We need to discuss this situation,” Dr. Graymard started. “You four are under contract to the DSMC, but with the circumstances, we would release you if you asked it. But then we also have Ambassador Raoulx’s offer to consider. It would be a huge boon to our knowledge base to have personnel placed with the Beyant, if you were open to them joining yours. Not to mention it would help strengthen the Beyant relationship with the Interstellar Treaty Coalition.”
“Would the DSMC allow Yanna and Pabo to join our crew?” Emi asked.
Graymard nodded. “Because they are now a treaty race, you could even add them to your bonded crew status.”
“Whoa.” Aaron held up a hand. “Can we please back up a few steps?”
Emi filled him in. Ford nodded. “I’m for it.”
Caph looked puzzled. He was still woozy from the sedatives. “I’m not sharing her with them. And I’m damn sure not doing them!” He pointed at Yanna.
Emi laughed. “Calm down, big guy. That’s not what he meant.” She translated what Caph said to Yanna, who hadn’t understood the phrase.
“Do not worry, Caph,” Yanna assured him with a smile. “You are not my type. Also, I have no desire to sleep with my sister or my sister’s husbands.”
“Bonded crew status would make the paperwork easier,” Graymard assured Caph. “Bypass diplomatic red tape. It’s not just for romantically involved couples, but families, too.”
“Oh. Okay. I didn’t think about it like that. Yeah, sure. If you guys are okay with it. But that means a retrofit to add a new cabin for them and stuff.”
“That wouldn’t take long,” Aaron said.
“First, she needs to recover,” Graymard said. “We need to treat her, see if we can recover her memory. The four of you need time together to emotionally heal. We may need to bring her back to Earth to the base there for intensive treatment in the sim unit.”
Ultimately, as captain, Aaron had the final say. “I don’t mind. If Emi wants Yanna and Pabo with us, then they’re welcome.”
“Then that’s settled,” Graymard said. “I will coordinate with Ambassador Raoulx and get the paperwork started to make it official.”
Caph really needed a shower and shave, but he didn’t want to leave Emi’s side. With her surgical wounds bonded and safe to expose to a shower, she reached for Caph’s hand and sat up. “Help me up, big guy. You can take a shower with me.”
More than a shower, he needed time alone with her. Aaron would need that time, too, but in this way, she sensed Aaron was stronger and could wait.
Caph needed her attention immediately. She needed to reassure him she was healing despite her pain. The surgeon had removed several fibroid tumors from her uterus and abdomen during the surgery. Apparently they’d formed due to what she’d been drugged with. They’d administered some of the antidote and noticed immediate changes in her reproductive system as it responded to the medication. The general consensus had been to close her up and monitor her progress with abdominal scans to see if her healing continued.
Caph looked down at her, his green eyes full of sadness. “I missed you so much, baby. I never thought I’d see you again.”
“I know. It’s okay.” She shrugged off her hospital gown and stepped into the shower. He stripped and stepped in with her. He wanted to bathe her, but she made him sit on the fold-down seat. “No, I want to do this.” She slowly washed him, holding him as she did. He draped his arms around her hips and rested his forehead against her chest as she stroked his hair. “I’m back for good. You won’t lose me again.”
That was when he started sobbing. As the bathroom steamed up, she held him, soothing him, rocking him to comfort his grief. After several minutes he finally pulled himself together. He gently touched her stomach, where the faint pink line from the surgical wound was visible.
“Maybe we should quit the DSMC.” He kissed her tummy. “Stay on Earth, get a house. We’ll get a big house, and Yanna and Pabo can live on the other side and study Earth from Earth. We can sleep late every day and raise a houseful of kids.”
“You wouldn’t be happy on Earth.”
“Yeah, I would. With the three of you, I’m happy no matter where we are. That’s all that matters to me is you three. You all are my home.”
After a while he stood and she shaved him. Then he bathed her. Nearly an hour had passed by the time they dressed and emerged from the bathroom.
Her hospital room was empty, but she sensed Pabo’s protective, watchful presence guarding the door outside.
Caph helped her back into bed and once again took up the chair on her right, holding her hand while they watched a Martian news program about her return and the Beyant treaty signing on the vid screen.
The ambassador and Yanna showed up a while later. The ambassador carried flowers and scowled a little at Caph until Yanna explained who he was.
The ambassador’s English wasn’t very good, so he preferred to speak to her in Beyant. “I was told this is a Terran tradition,” he said as he leaned in to place a kiss on her forehead. “To bring flowers to the ill.” A nurse brought a vase in for her, then left again after taking her vital signs.
Emi smiled as Yanna arranged the flowers on the dresser. “Thank you, rah’tein,” she said. “They’re beautiful.”
Yanna sat on her other side and tipped his head toward Caph. “Does he always look at you so intently?” he asked.
She smiled. “He has since I’ve been here.” Her smile faded. “He’s very sad about the baby.”
Ambassador Raoulx agreed. “Even I can see it. He loves you very deeply.”
Caph rested his head on the bed again and stared at her. He brought her hand to his lips, kissed it, then cupped his other hand around it, too.
“Do you need to translate for him?” the ambassador asked.
“I don’t think he honestly cares what I say or what language I speak as long as he can sit here and listen to me.”
The ambassador laughed. “I would concur with that assessment.”
Yanna nodded. “He would sit there all day long and listen to you, I’m sure.”
“I think I like him,” the ambassador said with a decisive nod. “He seems worthy of you. I believe you are in very safe hands with him. And the others, of course.”
Emi smiled and turned to Caph. “He likes you,” she told him in English.
“I don’t care if he likes me or not. Who the hell is he?”
“Your father-in-law, Ambassador Raoulx. Yanna’s father. You can call him rah’tein.”
Caph blushed a little. “Oh. Tell him it’s a pleasure to meet him.”
She translated. The ambassador smiled as he extended a hand over the bed toward Caph. Caph reluctantly let go of Emi’s hand and shook with him before taking her hand again.
“Is it normal for a Terran male to be so…clingy?” the ambassador asked her.
“I think he will be clingy for a while, rah’tein.” She squeezed Caph’s hand and smiled at him. While she still had no clear memories of him, her heart and soul did remember the feelings she’d had for him. And without a doubt, she knew how much he loved her. “And that’s fine by me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Emi was never left truly alone. If one or all of her men weren’t in the room with her, then either Yanna or Pabo were. If given privacy, at least two men guarded the door of her room. And Aaron, Caph, and Ford usually all spent nights crammed in the room with her, taking turns on the pullout sofa and sitting in a recliner chair next to her bed.