Authors: Susan Hayes
Alayna rolled her eyes. “They won’t admit it, but they were worried about you, too. Now get some sleep, or I’ll tell Vance you think he has a sexy voice.”
She let her eyes close and settled herself into the soft comfort of her pillow. “Like he’d care what some busted up renegade medic thinks of his voice or any other part of him. Besides, he said he has a kid, Annie, right? So he’s a happily bonded man.”
There was a silence, and for a moment Ciara thought Alayna had already gone. “He and his partner, Dane, are raising their daughter alone. Their chosen died.”
“Damn. That’s terrible. Was it recent?” Ciara asked, feeling a pang of sympathy for her doctor.
“Not really. Two years ago. They’re friends with my guys. Good friends. Annie’s my goddaughter. When you’re better, I’ll introduce you. She’s a great little girl.”
“When I’m better, I’m going back out there. You know that’s where I belong,” Ciara said.
“I know you prefer to live out there, but things are changing. I’m hoping you might consider staying here and helping me speed it along. I could use your help,” Alayna said.
Stay here, in Alliance territory? The thought made Ciara’s head throb. “We’ll talk later. I’m officially playing the ‘a building fell on me’ card to get out of this conversation for now.”
“Fair enough. See you in a few hours.”
Ciara didn’t hear Alayna leave, but that wasn’t a surprise. The girl had the reflexes of a cat and rarely made any noise when she walked, a side effect of the enhancements she’d been forcibly given when the Alliance had discovered she was a fertile female. The human race had won the Alien Wars, but the battles had left a dark legacy. Not only had the entire surface of the planet been altered and scarred by war, but the Zyphir had brought a pathogen with them, one that rendered most human women infertile.
In the power vacuum following the war, change had come to Earth. The United Federation Command Alliance ruled the planet, and their rules were sacrosanct. First among those was the protection of fertile females. To harm a woman with the scroll tattoo on her face was to invite a death sentence. After all, the Alliance couldn’t rebuild the population without them.
Ciara wasn’t fertile, and her family had considered that an unforgivable failing. Instead of living in the shadow of their rejection, Ciara had left home. She went looking for a way to make a difference in the world. She wanted to help people, and she found a way to do it. She took care of the ones who lived on the fringes of society. They needed her and in return they gave her a sense of purpose.
Out there in the badlands she had value. That was something that had been missing from her life before she left home. Alayna might want her to stay, but Ciara couldn’t see where she would fit in.
This wasn’t her place anymore.
***
CHAPTER THREE
Alliance Director of Supply and Transport Dane Foster jogged down the halls of the med-center, muttering half-formed oaths as he checked every room and closet. “I should never have taught her how to play hide-and-seek. Every time I look away, she’s gone. How the stars can someone so tiny move so damned fast? Annie, sweet pea, where are you hiding? We’re going to be late for lunch with Daddy Vance. Now isn’t the time to play. Now is the time to eat.”
He checked his wrist-unit and groaned. “Correction. We’re already late for lunch. Come on, kiddo, give your dad a break and tell me where you’re hiding.”
A nurse laughed softly, then quickly tapped her fist over her heart in salute as she noticed Dane’s rank. “Sir, I believe you’ll find your daughter in that room there.” She pointed down the hall a few feet. “I overhead giggling in there a few seconds ago.”
“Thank you!”
Dane loped down the hall until he was standing outside the indicated doorway. Sure enough, he could hear Annie chatting away to someone, her words punctuated with giggles and a soft slapping sound. He rapped his knuckles on the door, and it swung inward a few inches, revealing his daughter seated cross-legged on a med-bed. She was playing some sort of clapping game with the room’s other occupant, a slender woman with sun-streaked red hair curling down around her shoulders, wearing a green, med-center-issue gown that hung too large on her smaller frame.
“Uh, hi. I think my daughter might have invaded your room. Sorry about that.”
The woman turned to look at him, and he noticed her face and jaw were dark with half-healed bruises.
“Hi. I figured someone would be along for her pretty quick. Annie, is this your father?”
Annie looked up at Dane, her brown eyes sparking with mischief, and waved. “Hi, Daddy. Dis is See-ar-ah.” She struggled to pronounce the woman’s name. “She my new friend.”
“Uh huh. What did we tell you about going off and making new friends on your own, kiddo?” he asked.
His two-and-a-half-year-old shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t ’member.”
“Of course you don’t. You only remember the things you want to. We’re late for lunch with Daddy Vance, so it’s time to say bye to Ciara.” He glanced up at Ciara and found her grinning in amusement. “Thanks for watching out for her. She thinks strangers are just friends she hasn’t introduced herself to yet.”
“It was my pleasure. She was a delightful change of pace from the abject boredom I’m experiencing.” Ciara tucked a stray curl behind her ear and then waved at Annie. “Bye, Annie. No more running off on your dad, okay?”
Annie gave her a heartwarming grin and waved back. “’Kay, See-ar-ah.”
Ciara glanced over at the man as he scooped Annie into his arms. He had to be Vance’s partner, Dane. Alayna had mentioned him several times now, during her daily visits. Dane was one of Alayna’s friends, and Annie was Alayna’s goddaughter. In the last two days, Alayna had started talking about her friends and connections in Fort Saken, partly to pass the time, and partly because she was trying to convince Ciara to stay in town and join Alayna’s new cause—building trust between the Alliance and the local rebels who lived in the badlands.
Ciara was far from being convinced to stay, yet. But if more of the men turned out to look like Dane and Vance, she might add that to the ‘plus’ column. Dane had jet-black hair cut to regulation length, and his uniform was perfectly crisp and clean. Unlike some of the elites she’d known before she’d moved to the badlands, he wasn’t arrogant or domineering. If anything, he’d been rather charming, and clearly devoted to his little girl. Annie looked more like Vance, though, right down to their dark skin, shared eye color, and the way she smiled. She was likely the doctor’s biological child, but that didn’t seem to matter to Dane the way it did to some fathers.
“Thanks again for looking out for Annie. And uh… I hope whatever brought you here, you don’t have to stay too long.” Dane lowered his voice, his eyes lightening to a shade of blue that reminded her of a summer sky. “I’m not a fan of these places, and I’m betting you aren’t either.”
Ciara laughed. “I only like them when I’m the one in charge. Being a patient is no fun at all. As for how long I’m stuck here, that’s up to Dr. Sterling—Vance. When you’re having lunch with him, can you remind him I’m still waiting to have that talk about helping me rebuild my clinic? Stars, right now, I’d even take the lecture he threatened me with. It’s been two days since I woke up. I’m bored out of my head sitting around here with nothing to do but watch vids and count the ceiling tiles.”
Dane’s blue eyes widened slightly. “You’re the woman they brought in after the earthquake hit? Alayna’s friend? Shi—stars, this isn’t exactly the way I planned on meeting you. Alayna wanted to have us all over for dinner one night once you made your escape from this place.”
“What’s shistars?” Annie asked, her innocent question sending Ciara into a fit of giggles as Dane groaned.
“It means Daddy Dane almost forgot the rule about not swearing around small ears. Now, forget you heard that, okay?” He turned his attention back to Ciara. “I need to get this young lady her lunch, but we can come back and visit afterward if you’d like. In fact, I think I can smuggle something back for you. After a few days of eating the stuff they serve the patients, I bet you’d kill for real food.”
Her stomach rumbled at the mere suggestion of a proper meal. Vat-brewed proteins and algae broth were nutritious, but their flavors were somewhere between bland and disgusting. The only thing remotely palatable was the fruit-flavored gelatin desserts, and even that had lost its appeal. “If you bring me a sandwich, you’ll have my undying devotion.”
Dane grinned, making him look years younger. “And what do I get if I bring you something better than a sandwich?”
“You want more than my undying devotion?”
He tapped his rank insignia and winked. “I didn’t get to be director by settling for anyone’s first offer.”
“Of course not, you’re Alliance, and the Alliance never settles for anything less than everything,” she teased and winked back.
Dane simply chuckled. “Oh yeah, you’re cut from the same cloth as Alayna. No wonder you two are friends. I’ll be back later with food.”
“What’ll it cost me?” she asked.
“No cost. Consider it a get-well gift. Shi—stars, we really do need to get going, sweet pea.”
Ciara snickered. “Annie’s going to have an impressive vocabulary of half-curses at the rate you’re going.”
“You’re telling me.” Dane was finding it hard to leave. When Vance had told him about his rebel patient, he’d mentioned that she was brave, but had somehow forgotten to mention the fact she was beautiful. Even with her face marred by bruises and wearing nothing but the standard-issue med-center bedclothes, Dane found himself drawn to her, and he hadn’t been interested in any woman since their chosen, Christine, had died.
“Hungry, Daddy,” Annie announced.
That was his cue to go, but not for long. He had a few questions for Vance, and then he was coming back here to spend more time with Ciara. It wasn’t the way he’d planned on spending his day off, but enjoying time with someone new and interesting seemed a lot more fun than hanging out with only Annie for company.
“Annie, we’re going to eat now. Ciara, we’ll be back in a while. Until then, try not to get too bored.”
“I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises.” She waggled her fingers at Annie one last time. “Bye, little one.”
“Bu-bye!”
Dane left, settling Annie more firmly on his hip once they were out in the hallway. When they were out of earshot, he glanced down at his daughter and asked, “Did you like Ciara?”
Annie nodded, sending her dark waves of hair bouncing around her face. “She nice.”
Dane found himself agreeing with her assessment. “I think so, too.”
* * * *
Alone again, Ciara left her bed and carefully made her way to the bathroom. One look in the mirror had her groaning in dismay. If she was going to convince anyone she was healing up well and ready to be released, she was going to need to clean up, get her hair untangled, and see if she could talk someone into bringing her something to wear that actually fit. Preferably before Dane came back, or Vance dropped by to see how she was doing. Not that they had anything to do with her sudden need to make herself presentable. Her only motivation was to get out of this place as fast as possible.
At least, it was the only motive she was willing to admit to.
* * * *
An hour later, Vance and Dane arrived at Ciara’s private room with a tray full of food. Neither of them was sure what she would want to eat, so they’d opted to grab a little of everything and let her decide what she wanted. Vance had vetoed a few of the items as being too spicy or hard to digest, but otherwise, he wasn’t too worried about her diet. Ciara was recovering incredibly well for someone without any enhancements. Of course, some of that was inherited from her enhanced parents, the first small steps of the human race toward the next phase of their evolution. In her case, though, Vance suspected most of it was pure willpower. He’d never met anyone as determined as Ciara Fanning.
Dane rapped lightly on the door while Annie took a more direct approach. “See-ar-ah. We here!”
Ciara’s voice filtered through the heavy door, her words lilting with laughter. “So you are. Come in, Annie, and bring your daddy with you.”
Vance hung back for a second, giving Dane and Annie time to enter before joining them. “I came along, too. I heard you had convinced Dane and my daughter to smuggle you in some real food. Tired of algae broth already?”
Ciara looked up from her seat near the window and gave them all a dazzling smile that hit him like a runaway rocket.
Holy nova, she’s beautiful.
The thought surprised him, but not as much as the transformation Ciara had undergone since he’d seen her on his rounds the night before. Her hair tumbled around her shoulders in a riot of gleaming red curls, and she’d swapped her ill-fitting gown for a pale green cotton robe and matching pajamas.
“You brought me food! Real food. Thank you. If I had to face one more bowl of green slime, I might have lost the will to live.” She got to her feet with care, and Vance was pleased to note that despite her improved appearance, she wasn’t pushing herself too hard. It would be a while yet before she was fully healed. He had seen far too many patients set back their recoveries by trying to do too much, too soon.
Dane set Annie down on the floor, making sure that the door was firmly closed so she couldn’t make an escape. “We did. We got you a little of everything, at least the stuff Doc approved for you.”
Ciara swept in and scooped the tray out of Dane’s hands with a gleeful laugh. “I’ll take it. Thank you both so much. Hey, Annie, do you want to help me decide what to eat first? It all looks so good!”
“Pie first,” Annie declared without even looking at the tray.
“I knew I liked you, kid. You know what’s important in life.” Ciara retreated to the bed and gestured for the two men to take a seat.
Dane sat down, but Vance moved over to the bed and deposited Annie at the foot before retreating slightly to lean against the nearest wall.