by Mikayla Lane
Emily yanked the girl to her and crushed her in her arms as both started crying and talking at once. The men gave the crying women a wide berth, figuring they’d wait until the water works were long over before they’d try to get in the middle of that.
Feeling confident that they would be all right, Tristan left the new family to get to know one another.
Once the girls calmed and sat down, Joey took Emily’s hand.
“Mikey is right. He’s our brother,” she said.
“How do you know?” Emily asked, still unsure what to think about that.
“I feel the way his energy vibrates with ours. I can tell it’s the same, the same way I know that Discorian and Crator are ours too. Isn’t it funny,” Joey said with a smile, “you thought we were all alone, but all we needed to do was find our people. And you did. We don’t have to be alone anymore. You don’t have to do all of this by yourself anymore.”
“She’s right; we’re family. We take care of our own. This Joey or the other Joey, she’s my sister too, and I want to get to know her and be a part of her life,” Mikey interjected while Disc and Crator nodded.
Emily pulled Joey behind her and scowled darkly at Mikey.
“You want to take her away from me?” she demanded.
“Hell no!” Mikey countered. “I would never do that to either of you. I just want to spend some time with both of you. Learn about our parents and each other. Like a real family.”
“It’s OK, Emily. I wouldn’t let anyone take me away from you, but I do think it’s a good idea for all of us to learn to be a family. Besides, my normal form here needs constant care, and you can use the help,” Joey argued.
Emily turned angry eyes to her sister.
“Don’t you ever think you’re a burden! I love you so much, and I would do anything for you.”
Joey hugged her tightly.
“I know that, and I love you too. More than you will ever know. Your patience and love brighten my days. But here, with our people, I don’t have to be just your responsibility. Tristan is loved and cared for by everyone, and he says it will be the same for me. Our people understand what I am and what I need and can help you. Please, let them,” Joey pleaded.
“I’ll do it for you, Joey,” Emily agreed, then looked at Mikey, Disc and Crator. “And because I want to get to know our family too.”
“Emily, I’d like to visit our mom’s grave. Do you know where she is?” Mikey asked.
Chapter Seventeen
Emily stood nervously by Koda’s bed, staring down at the man she loved. It had been a week since she’d awakened in her new world. Though days had passed, she was still stunned that this wasn’t all a dream.
The changes in her life had been monumental, and she was still trying to adjust to the fact that Joey really was being raised by the whole community. Not an hour went by that someone wasn’t checking on Joey, caring for her, seeing if she was hungry, or chasing after her.
The best parts for Emily were when Joey would change her form, and they’d spend long hours into the night talking about everything and nothing like normal sisters would. It had also been really nice getting to know her brother again and her cousins, but it was so strange being here and around all the people.
There were no spirits at Base Beta. Indrid explained that the aurora australis above them provided an energy shield that completely hid the light inside of her that spirits could see. Even in her sleep, she didn’t travel anymore.
As much as it was wonderful and peaceful and what she’d thought she always wanted, she missed the spirits and helping them. It felt far too much like she’d traded her own peace for someone else’s, and it was beginning to bother her. She’d made up her mind to talk to Indrid about it later and tried to concentrate on what was going to happen with Koda in a few minutes.
Right now was the moment she was most excited about and terrified of. The neurobands were coming off of Koda; they were bringing him out of stasis and were going to evaluate the status of his brain functions.
She glanced nervously at Grai and Traze who stood on the other side of the bed from her. Grai had warned her that they may not be able to communicate with Koda at all, but she’d bonded with her beast, Basil, just in case Koda would be able to talk to her through the Shengari’ once they allowed his beast to awaken.
As much as Grai and Traze had tried to tell her not to get her hopes up too high for this first test of Koda’s brain functions, she couldn’t help but think it would be Koda’s moment. This was when he’d prove to her just how hard he was fighting.
She was convinced that he could hear her while he’d been in stasis, and she’d alternated between telling him how much she loved him to threatening him into fighting. She refused to think about all of the crying and begging she’d done as well.
A part of her believed that he loved her enough to find a way to tell her he was there and still fighting to be with her.
“Ready?” Amun asked, shaking Emily from her thoughts.
Grai looked over at Emily, and she stared at him in nervous excitement until he nodded his head sharply. Emily barely heard the sounds of the buttons and machines as Amun and Lauren began restoring Koda’s body to consciousness.
Emily stared at the brain monitor where they told her Koda’s functions would register—if there were any to register. The lines only showed that Koda’s brain was able to keep his body alive on its own at the moment, but she knew it could take a few minutes for his brain to start recognizing it was awake.
The minutes ticking by seemed like hours as the silence became more uncomfortable. Still they waited to see if any part of him was becoming aware of his surroundings, but the lines on the monitor remained the same, showing none of the spikes that Amun and Lauren had told them would be there if the healing and regeneration of the existing brain tissue had worked.
“Maybe it’s too soon; we can continue the neuroband therapy for another week,” Amun explained, obviously upset that nothing had changed, but he was unwilling to give up.
Emily looked at Grai and saw how the strong, confident man stood struggling with his emotions while Traze sat in a chair covering his face as he quietly cried. It pissed her off. She was tired of playing nice.
She leaned forward and grabbed Koda by the medshirt they’d put him in.
“You listen to me, you selfish bastard! We’ve been at your bedside and your beck and fucking call for a week now! We’ve fought like hell, and you repay us like this? You better wake the hell up right fucking now, buddy, and put a blip on that brain monitor or I’m out of here!” Emily screamed in his silent face as the entire room looked at her in shocked horror.
Blip . . .
It sounded like the entire room gasped at once from that one sound while Emily tried to hold in her excitement.
“You better do it again so I know you mean it,” Emily demanded of Koda.
Blip . . . blip . . . blip . . .
The room erupted in cheers as Grai ran over and lifted her into a bear hug. She could barely breathe as it was when Traze came and joined them.
“You kick his ass and make him come back,” Traze whispered through his tears.
“You bet I will,” she whispered back through her own tears.
He really does want me. He really is fighting to come back to me, Emily thought.
That was all she needed to know to keep her fighting beside him—and for him—if necessary.
As the small sounds continued to let them know there was more going on in Koda’s brain than just keeping his body alive, Emily, Traze, and Grai waited nervously as the doctors began the extensive evaluations that would tell them where his functions were at and how much remapping would be required to bring back his basic functions.
“We’re going to remove the blockers and see if there are any involuntary movements,” Lauren warned.
Emily had already been told about the levels of evaluation and knew how traumatic it might be to watch, but she didn’t care; she wasn�
�t going to leave Koda’s side. Grai and Traze weren’t going anywhere either, but no matter how much they thought they had prepared themselves for it, they were both saddened and hopeful when his arms and legs began to twitch uncontrollably.
Emily leaned down and squeezed Koda’s shoulder.
“You may not realize this, but the fact that your body is moving is awesome, baby. It means that once your beast is ready to awaken again; he can help you walk. Your beast is all right. He’s still recovering and will be back with you soon,” she whispered encouragingly.
The answering staccato of blips on the monitor made everyone smile.
“You keep fighting from your end, brother,” Grai said hoarsely. “Because we’re not giving up on this side.”
The blips increased again for a moment before going back to a slower rhythm, and Amun grinned.
“He is definitely responding to you, and so far the tests are looking great for remapping. We still have a full day of work to do before we have a more definitive diagnosis for you, but everything we have right now is beyond encouraging,” Amun explained, unable to keep the smile from his face. “We’re looking at the 80 percentile range we discussed earlier.”
Emily burst into tears of happiness. It was more than she’d ever hoped for when Amun and Lauren had explained to them how Koda’s functions would be rated. The higher the percentile, the more normal they expected his functions to return.
Not wanting Koda to think she was crying because she was upset, she forced a laugh and squeezed his shoulder again.
“Did you hear that, baby? It means that you’re going to be able to be that mate of mine and take me to the stars like you promised. I’m not letting you out of that, and I’m not going up there with anyone but you. So you better fight like hell, because remember when you said you owed me anything, without question because of the dirt I had on you?”
The monitor went crazy with blips, and Amun gasped while he and Lauren tapped wildly on their comms to trace the large spike in activity. Emily grinned while Traze and Grai looked at her curiously, obviously wanting to know what she had on their brother.
“I’m calling in on that debt right now. You have to do everything the doctors tell you to do, and you have to keep fighting. For your family and for us,” Emily said as the tears slipped down her face.
The wild blipping sounds ramped up again before eventually sliding back down into a slower rhythm. Emily took that as a good sign.
“I love you, Koda. Come back to me,” she whispered before she laid her head on his shoulder.
“Koda, it’s Amun. Do you remember who I am?”
The blips increased for a second before slowing back down.
“That’s excellent, Koda,” Amun encouraged. “We’re running more tests before we allow your beast to awaken so we can ensure he’s well enough to assist in helping your brain to recover. Let me know if you understand.”
The monitor sounds increased again, and there wasn’t a face in the room that hadn’t broken out in a smile at the tentative return of their friend.
Amun looked over at Grai.
“He’s doing a lot better than we expected him to. We should be able to allow his beast to awaken in a week, maybe less. As we explained earlier, there is still some remapping required to ensure the beast can reposition itself in the healthy tissue in its new location,” the doctor explained when the monitor sounds increased again.
Amun turned back to his patient, curious about how much awareness Koda may have regarding his situation.
“Koda, do you know that you suffered a serious brain trauma?”
When the monitor sounds increased, Amun looked over at Lauren, trying to see if she was tracing the responding blips. When she nodded, Amun turned back to Koda.
He knew they were in unchartered territory. He knew of no one who had ever treated someone with such extensive trauma, but Amun also knew that the spirit was indomitable and anything was possible. With nothing to lose, he tried another tactic.
“Koda, the area where your beast used to reside in your brain was partially destroyed. We’ve been able to relocate him to another area that you’ve never used before and stimulated the area with neurobands to help him form energy connections in the new tissue. If there is any way that you can help him find his way through the new routes and tissue, your recovery time would dramatically decrease,” the doctor explained, keeping his expectations low even though his hopes were high.
When the monitor went crazy, Amun’s excitement caused him to shout, “Yes!”
“That’s incredible,” Lauren whispered.
“What does it mean?” Traze asked, daring to hope it was wonderful news.
“It means,” Emily said through her fresh tears, “that he’s really there, and he’s really going to help make it happen.”
Amun laid a comforting hand on Traze’s shoulder as he grinned at him.
“That’s exactly what it means. Koda’s there and actively trying to help in his recovery,” Amun verified.
“The area around his beast is already lighting up with increased activity,” Lauren explained as she pointed to one of the monitors.
There was clearly a dimly lit area around Koda’s beast that hadn’t been lit up before.
“You may deserve me after all,” Emily teased Koda as she placed a kiss on his cheek.
The answering blips caused everyone to laugh, and Traze hugged the breath out of her.
“I don’t think he will,” Traze said hoarsely. “But he can sure as hell keep trying. The T’Alq brothers don’t give up that easily.”
The rest of the day passed with test after test until Emily could barely keep her eyes open, but she refused to leave Koda’s side throughout it. Finally, Amun and Lauren turned to them.
“His current progress has been nothing short of a miracle,” Amun admitted. “But, even with the strides he’s made today, we have a long way to go. Because of the effort Koda is making, we’re going to put him back in stasis overnight.”
Emily gasped in fear and Grai looked ready to argue.
“Don’t panic; it’s a good thing,” Lauren rushed to assure them. “He’s making such an effort that we want him to completely shut down and rest as much as possible before we bring him back tomorrow. We don’t want him to burn out and spend days trying to recover his energy before he can make such an effort again.”
Amun nodded his agreement as he started the stasis process on Koda.
“We may continue to do it depending on how much energy he exerts during the day. Stasis will allow for a complete recovery of his operational systems overnight, so he can start fresh each day,” Amun explained, assuring them that it wasn’t a setback, but a step forward.
Grai laid a hand on Koda’s shoulder and grinned.
“Always proving you’re the smartest. There was never any contest, brother. We’re going to put you back in stasis like Amun said. But we’re going to be here in the morning when they bring you back out. I promise,” Grai said hoarsely, his pride in his brother overwhelming him.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Traze agreed, his voice cracking.
Emily kissed Koda’s face, a single tear landing on his cheek.
“I’m staying here with you too, baby. You’re not alone; we won’t let you be by yourself through this,” she whispered.
“Stasis in 10 seconds,” Lauren said, warning them to step back from Koda as they sent his body into a suspended state.
“Stasis complete,” Amun added when the process was done.
“Is he really doing as well as you said?” Grai asked, needing to know if the excitement had been real and not for Koda’s benefit.
“We wouldn’t lie about it,” Amun reassured them. “He really is making remarkable strides in helping to activate the area where his beast has been moved.”
“If he continues at the pace he set today,” Lauren added, “he could be walking and talking in two to three months instead of a year.”
“But you st
ill don’t know what, if any, limitations he may have?” Grai asked.
Amun and Lauren looked at one another then shook their heads.
“This is still . . . an incredible situation,” Amun explained. “Even with our technology, we’ve never seen a beast so damaged or anyone with such extensive brain injuries that was still alive.”
“You have to remember,” Lauren interjected, “his beast showed extraordinary strength in keeping Koda’s body alive for as long as it did. Even though Lara basically brought it back to life and repaired it, the beast is still weak and in an unfamiliar location.”
“We have to get his beast to bond in the new location before we can expect it to be able to assist in the rest of the remapping required in Koda’s brain,” Amun added. “I know the initial responses are beyond encouraging, but we still can’t know the extent of limitations until we can get a better idea of how the remapping progresses.”
“I think he’s doing beautifully,” Emily whispered as she caressed Koda’s cold cheek. “He’s fighting like hell. We can’t expect anything more of him right now. It’s enough for me that he is.”
Grai drew a deep breath and blinked away the mist of tears in his eyes.
“You’re right,” he said gruffly, squeezing Koda’s shoulder with affection. “In typical Koda fashion, he’s proving that he’s one hell of a man and one hell of a brother. I couldn’t be more proud of you.”
“Ditto, bro,” Traze teased as he held up a comm and took a picture of he and Koda together. “And don’t think that I’m not recording all of this either. I’m titling it, ‘A real superhero.’ You’ve been my hero since the day I was born, bro, and you’re still proving to me why every day.”
Overcome with emotion, Traze kissed his brother’s forehead and left the room with his head down so no one could see the tears shimmering in his eyes.
It took another hour for the room to clear, leaving Emily and Joey in the huge room alone with Koda. She checked on Joey, saw her asleep in the pink covered and ruffled bed Thjodhild had brought into the medlab for her, and turned back to Koda.
