The Z training helped do just that.
We reached the water, and I stopped, taking a breath. It was healthy. The freeze hadn’t disrupted that. I put my hand in it, feeling the cool wetness on my fingers. Katie stared, wide eyed, and watched.
“Your turn.” I placed her chubby fingers in the water, and she gasped. “Do you feel it?”
She stuck her fist in her mouth, and for a second I could feel it, her energy, so familiar there was no question she was ours, mine and Amber’s.
“You do feel it. That’s your birthright. Yours and Josie’s. Uncle Amari says you guys are the heirs even if he has children someday, because you were born first, and he loves you like you’re his. He’s declared it so it’s so. Oh, and Katherine, I’ve got bad news, Josie’s going to have more choices than you. You’ll have to run Chen. I’m sorry about that and also not sorry. But, Katie, this water? This is pretty much what we do. The Chens have protected the waters of Earth since the bombs went off. You’ll never know those bombs. I’m going to see to that.”
14 Three of Fifteen
Amber
Amari pointed at the scene in front of him. “That’s what I was looking for.”
I leaned on his arm. Three of the fifteen Super Soldiers were sitting on benches outside of the orphanage, playing with the kids. I wasn’t really sure what to think or what to make of it. “Are they okay? Is it safe?”
“Those three are. They’ll start training immediately. Anyone who could live in a house with orphans and not end up playing with them is suspect. They’re all essentially orphans themselves. The other test would be to let loose a rumor I plan to train those orphans to do unspeakable things and see if they object. I don’t, obviously. That being said, I might wake up dead with this crew so we’re not going to do that.”
I shook my head. “They can hear us talking about them. Even from this distance.”
“I’m well aware.” He kissed me. “Go home. It’s going to be a late night for me. I’m going to miss my girls.”
I’d never been more glad to not have his job than right then. How did he know what to do with people?
Waverly approached us quietly. “Hey, you two.”
“Hi there.” I loved seeing her, but my joy quickly fell. She had tears in her eyes. “You’re here to say goodbye, too.”
“It’s been really good having you here, Waverly.” Amari stepped away, nodding at me. He was giving me a minute.
I embraced her tightly. “You’re going to be so missed. Are you heading back to The Farm?”
“We think that’s where we can be of the most use and we’re going to go see if there is anything left of our house. Ari wanted to wait here until he was sure you were all okay.”
It would have been weird to hug her again, too needy, too much, so I didn’t. “I couldn’t have done any of this without him. And your husbands saved us, well your future husbands, the version of them in the future.” I never did know how to talk about time travel. “And Canyon is why I’m here to begin with. Maybe why any of us are, since we’d never have worked with my husbands on the war effort if they weren’t with me. And… that’s all because of you. Canyon wouldn’t have known how to do that if he didn’t love you. So really, Waverly, you saved all of us.”
She laughed, throwing her head back. “That’s ridiculous. And wonderful. I love you, Amber. It won’t be the same on that cold planet without you. Come and visit, a lot, please. After we kick Evander back through the black hole. Just two ships. I keep asking myself, how much trouble could two Evander ships make?”
Waverly and I both knew the answer to that. “Be safe out there.”
“I will.” She kissed my cheek. “Be safe here on this blue planet. Don’t let them get lost, okay? They were without you. Now, they seem so centered, so in love. What happened to the Shane that called that first day to find out why someone hacked the tablet? He’s nowhere to be found. This Shane—he’s different.”
I had to agree with her. Shane was the most overtly different. He was the one who showed it on the outside. But there were large changes in Hunter and Amari too. No, that was wrong. They’d always been these people. We’d simply never known each other.
“I won’t let them get lost.” That was a promise from me as much to me as to her.
Her smile was huge. “Oh, here, comes Ari.”
I spun around. I really hated goodbyes. He walked up, putting his arm around Waverly’s waist. “Well, it’s time for us to go. We can physically not restrain Jackson any further. He might take apart your entire development and rebuild it if we don’t let the pirate get back into space.”
I could actually see that happening. “You know I couldn’t have done this, all of those months alone, and then the ones when I didn’t know if they’d live or die, without you. You’ve been my mentor and my friend. When you go back to tell me not to wake Sienna, not to tell my husbands that I have her, tell me in front of them that they’d move mountains for me. It’s a Z thing.”
His smile was fast. “Amari already gave me the full code. It’s more than the mountains. It’s the water, too. You’re my friend, too, Amber. Get back to work when you are up to it. You’re a very good doctor. I’d let you operate on my kids, on Waverly.”
That was a huge compliment, and I took it as such. “Thank you, Ari. Soon, I think. I’ve left the house twice in two days. That’s pretty huge. See you sometime on the other side of the galaxy.”
He pointed at me. “When we are finally finished with Evander.”
“When Sienna is safe. Since that somehow plays a role. Hey, the next time you tell me that we’ll both be in our current timeline. We’ll know why that mattered.”
He nodded. “See you soon.”
I hoped we did.
I walked past the orphanage. The same three Super Soldiers were outside, this time talking to Kelton, and there were two more on the ground with the kids. That made five of fifteen. Was it possible to remake men like this? Put them with children, quiet conversations. I guessed when I’d been thinking of Amari doing this I’d thought of him doing some sort of Z mind thing and getting them to think about energy.
He was just leaving them be, as far as I could tell. Maybe it was just for now.
One of them broke away from the group and ran over to me. “Hey, you.”
I stopped short. Was he talking to me? “Yes?”
Kelton chased after him. “This is Dr. Chen. She’s married to the Chens. They’re in charge here, as you know. Address her that way, not as hey, you. What do you want with her?”
The soldier took a long breath. He was tall, broad shouldered like all of them were. His hair was long, to his shoulders, and a long scar marred the side of his face. “You have babies.”
I swallowed. “I do.”
“Their father. I can hear how he’s connected to them. We resonate interesting sounds. It confuses you people. But it’s true.”
Kelton glared at him. “If you have something to say about this get to it otherwise let’s let Dr. Chen get on her way.”
“Master Kelton.” I put my hand on his arm. I noticed we were not doing without titles right now. “This man is speaking to me. It’s okay. I don’t need to rush him. What’s your name?”
He frowned. “They call me Devil.”
Well, that was unusual but Diana’s husband was named Sterling so who knew where they’d come up with this stuff. “How can I help you, Devil? You were asking about the babies and my husband Shane?”
“Shane, okay.” He fiddled with his fingers, circling them, one around the other. “His heart isn’t okay. I can hear it from here. It’s beating irregularly.”
My body went cold. “Okay. Kelton, get Ari from the comm. Don’t let him leave. I need him here. I’m going to Shane, now.”
Where was he? I had to think about it. He was at the water today. He was going to go test it and then take it back to the labs before he started a schedule again for all of the local waters. I rushed, calling into my earpie
ce. Brenden wasn’t with me. We’d had him back off just a little bit when I was what Amari called on property. There were always Z around. I didn’t need a tail. Brenden was still in charge when it came to my safety if I went somewhere.
Lately, he must have been bored. “Brenden, I need Shane. There’s something wrong with his heart. Don’t panic him. Please. But get someone to him. Sit him down. A Super Soldier can hear it.”
I rounded the corner toward the water just as two Z made my husband sit down. Shane looked up as I came in. “Amber, what the fuck?”
“Shane, not to worry. We’re going to check out your heart.”
He put his hand on my chest. “Thought that was over.”
So had I. “Feel okay?”
“I’m a little bit tired, but the girls were up last night. You were, too. I’m otherwise fine.”
I kissed him, hard. Where was Ari?
Brenden ran up behind me. “Too late to stop Ari. They’re gone.”
Then it was me. I didn’t know any of the doctors moving in here who I’d be working with. They weren’t even due to start until tomorrow. This hadn’t been well done. Too many moving pieces, and none of us paying close enough attention to it.
“Come with me,” I took his hand. “It’s all going to be fine.”
Looked like I was back to work today, and with one of the five most important people in the universe counting on me to keep him safe.
I stared at the scanner as Shane stared at me in the med bay.
“I feel fine, and I don’t want to get back in that thing.” He chewed on his fingernail.
I ran the scan again. No damage from the drug. That was what it kept showing, over and over.
“Amber? I feel fine.”
I knew he did, but his EKG had been wrong. Now, it was fine. There was obvious damage. Unless there wasn’t.
I turned around to the Z waiting by the door. “I need one of you who was here when Master Shane was a baby. An older Z. Now. Please.”
He didn’t question me, running out the door.
“Amber,” Shane said again. “Look at me. Not the scanner.”
I did as he asked. “Shane, I’m glad you feel fine. I am enormously glad. But something is wrong. Let me do this. Think about something other than how irritated you are that you’re in here. You know, it’s my birthday coming up. Think about what we should do to celebrate.”
He brightened at that. “I know it is. We’ve already discussed it, the guys and me. We have something planned. I’m not telling you what.”
Let him think about that. “Is it related to water?”
“You know, despite all evidence to the contrary, I’m not obsessed with water.”
I grinned at him while I also looked at the scanner. “It is, isn’t it? It’s water.”
The Z I’d sent out arrived with an older Zansi Warrior and Amari in tow. My oldest husband stood over my left shoulder as Hunter ran through the door.
“Talk to me,” Amari whispered.
“In a second.” Right this second I needed the older man. “Sir, my name is Amber. I don’t think we’ve met.”
He nodded, once. “Yes, Dr. Chen. I’ve been with the family a long time. I served their late father and was on the ships fighting Evander with Master Hunter during the war.”
“Did you know Master Shane when he was a baby?” I needed someone who had. My hunch was right. I knew it was. Ari had taught me to trust it. Dane hadn’t missed this. He simply hadn’t known what to look for.
“I did, indeed. I’ve always known the Masters Chen. Since they were each born.”
“Amber?” Shane said to me again, and I took his hand in mine.
They had to let me get through this or I was going to kick them all out of the room and sedate Shane. “Was he a fussy baby?”
“Oh, yes, out of all three of them, he was. He cried all of the time.”
“Well, now we at least know where Katie got it from.” Shane sighed. “Can I go now?”
It registered on Hunter’s face, and the second it did, he strode over. “His heart wasn’t injured in the Evander incident. No, it was always off. Since birth. We were so rarely scanned. Father didn’t want people to know how the Chen do what we do. If they can find it in our DNA they can copy it. That was the idea, to protect us. We grew.”
Amari nodded. “We were healthy. The energy came to us. There was no need.”
“Hunter got hurt. Dad stood over the med machine the whole time. They kept him awake.”
I remembered that story, vividly. Hunter talked about how his uncle talked him out of panic. I hadn’t understood why he was awake.
I pointed at all three of them. “Sit down. All of you. We’re scanning for birth conditions. Things we wouldn’t look at now. You’re grown-ups. You should be dead if it’s some of this stuff. But you’re Chens. You move energy. I’m not ruling anything out. All three of you. Now.”
Hunter hopped up on the table fast. Amari did it slower. In the end, they all stopped complaining. I found what I was looking for, and I wasn’t even surprised by the results.
Amari and Hunter were fine. Shane had been born with a birth defect that should have killed him before the age of two. A small clot, hidden from view unless we looked for it, in the left ventricle of his heart. In the old days they’d have called it a widow maker. After the bombs, when whatever was left in the atmosphere here on Earth happened, things that used to happen to old people started showing up in children. It was a two-generation problem. Those with these issues hadn’t lived to reproduce.
Shane should have died in childhood.
The good news was the machine would get it out. Now that I’d found it. These things were miracle workers, but it took us to run them, to know what they missed.
“Amari, go get the girls, please.”
I already knew what I’d find.
The machine fixed Shane in half an hour and Katie in ten minutes. Josie was free of the issue.
“Would it have eventually killed him?” Amari passed me a glass of wine. This was the old kind from the third vintage after the bombs in quadrant two. We sat on our porch and stared at the night together. One of the new doctors arrived early and was eager to start, so I’d put him in charge.
I pointed to my breasts. “I can’t drink. Not yet. Soon.” I might wean the girls onto synthetic breast milk soon. I’d had to pump to leave them the last two days, and I really hated it. The synthetic stuff wasn’t quite as good for them. I sighed. Nope, I’d keep doing it. I loved those girls. I’d make this work.
Amari set down his glass. “Sorry, love.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t drink it. Don’t want to waste it now that you opened a bottle and poured.”
He nodded. “Fair enough. Would it have killed him? Katie?”
“Yes, probably. And her, too. Maybe early. I don’t know if she’d have made it like he did. I think she was trying to tell me. I think he tried to tell your mother and father. The cranky. Doesn’t have to mean anything is wrong, but I think it did. Then they get older and give up.” I put my head between my knees.
“Is that your medical opinion, doctor, or a tired mom and wife who had a scare?”
I kicked him not lightly in the shin, and he oomphed. “Sorry. Shouldn’t have done that. They were both cranky babies.”
“And I have brown eyes and so does Brenden. You know better than most. Correlation does not causation make. Go see your daughter. Go check on your husband.”
I kissed his cheek. “One of the Super Soldiers saved them.”
“I know. It might be… good… to have them here.”
It might be.
Hunter snored lightly, Katie slept next to him on one side, in her little basket Shane had made her so she could safely co-sleep with us. Josie was on his other side, in her basket. They’d taken to sleeping in their cribs, but tonight, I guessed Hunter wanted them close. He had his hand on Katie’s back as though he wanted to feel her breathe in her sleep. I walked over and di
d the same. Her breaths were good, and her pulse was strong. She needed to rest after her ordeal, but she’d be fine.
Her heart was healthy now.
The girls were thriving. We’d caught this. By the universe, today we were lucky.
Hunter was beautiful when he slept. He’d hate that description, only it applied. I left him to go check on Shane.
He was face down on his bed, snoring louder than Hunter had been. And they all teased me about my snoring. I shook my head.
Before I could overthink it, I crawled on top of him, which woke him immediately.
He rolled over, keeping me on top of him the whole time. “This is a nice wake up.”
I kissed him. I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to feel him. I was glad for stolen moments. I was stealing this one.
He kissed me back, not saying a word. Maybe he understood. Some things were just too much to be said. Every time we were together, every time we’d done anything, he’d been at risk of dying. I put my hand over his heart and felt it beat. He wrapped his arms around me, holding onto me tight as he kissed me.
I bit down on his lip, and he grinned.
I leaned back, pulling on his shirt. Once it was off, I started at his neck and kissed downward, everywhere I could reach on his chest.
He let me for a while until he took off my shirt. Then his hands were everywhere. I didn’t stop what I was doing. He could touch me, but damn it, I was going to kiss him everywhere. That was all I wanted.
He pulled off my pants and it gave me no choice but to stop my constant kissing of his chest. Shane pushed me down on the bed beneath him. We were both naked, and he was so hard that he poked into me, brushing my leg with his length.
Rising Tides Page 17
