Winter's Warrior: Mark of the Monarch (Winter's Saga 4) (11 page)

Meg sighed deeply too tired to think.  “Okay little brother.  But if you’re upset at me about anything, you’d better not take it out on my raw hand, or I’ll just have to kick your butt.”

Evan smiled at the touch of that feistiness usually such a big part of his sister’s personality. 

Having prepared completely, needle poised and ready, he glanced at Creed for moral support when he said, “Okay, you’ll feel a little pinch, Meg.  Sorry.  I’ll be as gentle and quick as I can be.”

Meg curled up against Creed’s wide chest, still sitting in his lap.  Her hand was resting on the tray table Evan had set up as a makeshift surgical table. 

His fingers worked carefully, but the pain of the needle piercing her already angry flesh was enough for her to see stars.  Creed leaned over her, pressing his forehead to Meg’s wishing he could give her the strength for pain tolerance that seemed to come so naturally for him. 

“Almost done,” Evan breathed.  Meg’s left hand was clenched into a white-knuckled grip, her jaw locked and eyes squeezed shut.  Just as Evan was positioning the last stitch, the plane pitched violently.

“
Ahh!”
Meg screamed as Evan’s fingers jabbed the curved needle in her deeply.

The vibrations in the cabin persisted, worsening.  Evan turned to check his mother, making sure nothing was going to fall on her or cause her to move. 

“Sorry, Meg,” Evan quickly yanked the needle from her hand and waited for a lull in the vibrations before he moved to make his one last stitch and closed with a knot so fast you’d think he was in a hog-tying competition that ended with the pig squealing on its back and both his hands up in the air showing the judges he was
done!

The vibrations started back up.  Creed lifted Meg off his lap and set her in the seat beside him, reaching around her to grab the seat belt and fasten it.  She was still holding her hurt hand to her chest, tears trickling from the corners of her eyes from the jabbing pain…literally. 

“Creed!  What about Danny?” Meg’s dark eyes were wide with worry. 

He leaned to look down the aisle and saw Alik hurrying back and stopping in the row where the little boy was sleeping.  The boys caught each other’s eyes and a guy-nod was exchanged.

“Alik is with him.  I’m staying with you.”

Alik had just gotten settled into his seat when he felt the whole plane pitch and vibrate violently.  The pudgy flight attendant went stumbling into a corner of the wall, whacking her head hard.  Farrow was out of her seat in a flash, not concerned at all for personal safety, and grabbed the woman, shoving her into a passenger seat.  Yanking the buckles together around the woman’s substantial middle, Farrow had her secured in place and pressing a cloth napkin on the gash in her forehead.  Alik was impressed.

Alik had moved to help, but Farrow had the stewardess completely under control, so he made his way back toward his family using the seat backs to steady himself as he walked up the aisle fighting the pitching and vibrations compliments of the turbulence they’d stumbled into.   Knowing he was approaching the row in which the little boy was sleeping he scanned the seats with searching eyes. 

All he saw initially was the rough blanket hanging half off the seat and draped over a little lump.  Ignoring the pain in his chest, Alik ducked to peek under the blanket.  Sure enough, there was the little boy, his knees drawn up tightly to his quivering chin.  His large blue eyes reflected sheer terror as he peeked up from the Sleeper Sleeve he hugged. 

Alik glanced to the back of the plane and caught Creed’s worried eyes.  With a simple nod, they had silently agreed to take care of those they were with.  Alik had no doubt Creed would take care of his family while he stopped to help the littlest member feel safe.

Alik offered a soft smile just before another round of turbulence hit the plane.  “This is a great idea, big man.  Mind if I join you down here?  It’s probably safer here than strapped into one of those chairs,” Alik nodded encouragingly.  Without waiting for an answer, he squeezed himself onto the floor in the aisle just far enough away from the child so as not to make him feel trapped, but close enough for him to see Alik wasn’t going to leave him alone during the scary moments.

Evan came running past Alik.  “I’m going to see if I can help the pilots,” he called over his shoulder.

Alik nodded at his little brother then looked back at Danny.  “Don’t worry, kid.  Evan is the problem solver in the family.  He’ll get this plane to behave.”  The little boy watched Alik carefully, but didn’t respond at all.  It occurred to Alik that maybe he didn’t speak English.  Glad he’d taken the time to learn German, he switched languages.

“
Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” Alik asked if he spoke German.

The little boy frowned slightly, but said nothing.

Alik shrugged, showing it was fine if the little guy didn’t want to talk.  He tried to think of something he could do to bring the little guy out of shell, when he noticed a penny lodged between the metal strip running the length of the aisle and the tacky paisley runner it held in place. 

With every ounce of showmanship he could muster, he made a big deal about looking surprised at the found coin and pulling it free.  Without saying a word, he used his facial expressions to show off the coin to the little boy who watched him intently.  He pretended to polish the coin and kept losing it in his hand only to find it in some unbelievable places like his pocket or under the seat and even behind the little boy’s ear. 

He continued to play games with the little fellow for the next ten minutes, long after the plane had stopped its scary pitching and jarring vibrations.   With each trick, the little boy’s eyes widened in surprise.  Alik was even graced with a few unguarded moments when Danny’s face lit up in a full-blown smile. 

Evan got to see this for himself as he moved to pass by with the injured flight attendant in tow.  He shook his head, completely impressed with how naturally his brother took to children.  “We should have smooth skies from here on out,” Evan said, watching his brother make the penny disappear.  Reaching into his pocket, he snuck another penny out and pressed it into Alik’s hand in a practiced, lightning-fast exchange.

“Great, Evan.  Thanks for helping there,” Alik said winking up at his little brother’s offering of more entertainment ammunition.

“No problem,”
Evan nodded back.  “I need to help the flight attendant with her injury and check on mom.  You guys keep having fun,” he said even as he pushed the woman past Alik and back to the galley-way where Margo lay peacefully.

Farrow had made her way over to watch from a distance.  Her heart swelled in her chest watching Alik with the traumatized little boy.  After a while, the toddler crawled closer, so he could search for the missing penny in Alik’s hands, his small, sticky fingers pulling
Alik’s huge, thick ones open one at a time, concentration deep in his face as he really was trying to figure out where the missing penny went.  Then Alik would reach around the little boy’s head and produce the coin from his neck or behind his knee or even from inside the Sleeper Sleeve. 

After one especially clever trick where Alik magically turned one penny into two, the little boy burst into the most beautifully contagious laughter.  Farrow and Alik couldn’t help but laugh, too. 

The two boys sitting on the floor of the airplane, and bonding over magic tricks, had drawn an audience and before the last trick was performed, Meg, Sloan, Farrow and Creed were watching in awe as the little guy had gone from terrified on the floor between the seats to curled up in Alik’s lap, relaxed and playing with a simple coin.

“Alik, you’re really amazing with him,” Meg cooed softly at her brother, handing him the bottle of
sports drink with a straw in place.

“Nah,” Alik said smiling down at the small body squirming in his lap.  “He’s the amazing one.”

Without a word, Alik held the bottle up to the little boy.  Danny cocked his head to the side before reaching out to take the straw between his lips and sipping once.  He seemed to like the taste well enough, or recognized it to be what Meg had given him before, because after he swallowed the liquid, he ducked back down to take a few more deep draws on the straw. 

“That’s the way, big man.  That will help you get your strength back.” Creed smiled over at the little boy who’d obviously won everyone’s heart.

“Maybe you have an appetite now?” Meg asked, not expecting an answer.

Danny looked up at Meg over the drink he was still sipping grasped in his hands.  His eyes went wide and he nodded a few quick jerks of his head, blond curls fell into his big blue eyes adorably as he moved. 

Alik grinned widely, “Well, at least we know you understand English, kiddo.”

“I’ll go fix something for you to eat, and be right back.  Okay?”  Meg smiled at the pink coming into the baby’s cheeks.  He was already feeling better. 

After the gentle encouragement to respond, Danny seemed to blossom.  He nodded again and offered a half smile.

“Excellent,” Meg grinned back and stood from where she had been kneeling to head back to the galley, ready to move heaven and earth to find some food for the sweet little boy sitting in her brother’s lap. 

“Oh hey,” Meg stopped and turned back to the toddler curled in her brother’s wide lap.  His large blue eyes looked up at Meg expectantly.  Her first thought was an empath reading. 

He
feels safer with us than he ever did at the Facility. 
She smiled at his emotion.

“Do you already have a name?”  The little boy frowned and looked down at the shiny pennies still in his hands.

“Look, my name is Meg,” she said, pointing at herself.

“That is my brother, Alik.”  The little boy followed Meg’s eyes and looked up into the smiling face of his magician playmate.

“Do you have a name or do they just call you M and a number?”

The little boy reached up to his shoulder and pulled up the little cotton sleeve.

A black tattoo was already etched deeply into his baby skin.  It read M618.

“Yes, sweetie.  We were given M numbers, too.”

Creed moved closer to the little boy and pulled up his sleeve to show him he was marked with an M number, too.  “See, little man?  The mean doctors did that to me, too, but I go by the name Creed.”

“We all have M numbers, but we don’t go by them.  Our
Mom named us.”  The child’s face looked surprised.  “Yes, Alik, Evan and I were at a place like the Facility when we were your age and people in white coats did bad stuff to us, too.  I’m so sorry that happened to you, but you’re safe with us.  We’ll never let someone hurt you again.  Okay?”

The little boy’s eyes were wide as he stared into his lap.  Meg could sense a deep well of trauma and sadness.  He looked as though he had almost disconnected from everyone, lost in his own mind. 

Meg almost winced with the crisp empath reading her feelers delivered straight to her heart—tearing it wide for the little boy.  After working with him for hours, their connection was deep and though she knew it would drain the small reserves her rest had only just replenished, she reached out with her heart to toss the warm, white blanket over his sadness.  She wrapped it around carefully and grasped the four corners with two hands.  A precise pull was required to budge the deeply entrenched vein of trauma.  Meg reached out for Creed’s hand, trusting he would have instinctively moved to be right with her.  The warmth and strength in his touch gave her the peace of mind to finish what she started. 

A deep breath and silent prayer gave her the strength to grasp the corners of her empath blanket.  It bulged, ballooned and quivered with the blackness that had been around the baby’s heart.  With a deep breath, Meg used her gift to heave the bundle into the sky, giving it to God.

Danny shuddered against Alik and leaned back, his whole body seeming to melt against him, relaxed and peaceful. 

“There, little one.  Do you feel better?” Meg’s voice was winded, but a wide smile distracted everyone from the paleness of her face.

The child nodded slowly, his baby blue eyes wide with wonder.

“Would you let me name you?”  Meg asked him.

A small smile crawled across his peace-filled face.

“Yes?” Meg asked, wanting to be sure before she gave him the name she’d already chosen.

Little ringlets moved to fall into his eyes when he nodded.

“Your name is Daniel.  It means ‘God is my judge.’  But we’ll call you ‘Danny’ as a nickname.  Is that okay?”

The little boy’s mouth opened wide but instead of uttering a single word, he just yawned deeply.  Danny’s eyelids fluttered as he nodded his head, accepting the first gift given to him by his new family.

Chapter 18  Nuggets of Wisdom

Creed had to help Meg steady herself to walk back to the galley, but by the time he got her there, he just moved to sit her exhausted body down. 

“I’ll get him food.  You just rest.”  His breath was sweet and warm against her forehead as he leaned down to kiss her gently before moving to start hunting for food in the cabinets and small refrigerator.