Winter's Warrior: Mark of the Monarch (Winter's Saga 4) (20 page)

Something else was there amplifying her gift.  That’s when she looked up and saw Danny hovering overhead.  He was barefoot, just as he liked to be and was wearing only the simple hospital gown he had on the night they found him weak and dying, strapped to the bed in the basement of that wretched Facility’s Research Hospital.  He
was watching intently, but hovered just out of reach of the attackers. 

Danny
locked eyes with Meg, and in her dream she knew his voice.  “Don’t be afraid, Meg.  Keep your eyes and heart on what is good, and you’ll never be alone.  I will not leave you.” 

Somehow his words soothed Meg and Creed, but enraged the lizard men and shadow demons.

Meg woke with a start, her fists tight, ready for the next strategic punch.

“Are you okay?”  Creed’s voice was raspy with sleep.

Meg held her head and tried to wake completely from the dream without forgetting it.

“You and I were fighting bad guys in my dream.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Creed offered a sleepy smile as he reached over and rubbed Meg’s tense shoulders with his huge hands. 

“Mmm, wow.  You’re hired,” Meg smiled despite the echoes of worry still pressing in her mind.

“Creed?”

“Hum
m?”

Meg looked up earnestly into Creed’s eyes.  She didn’t know how to say what was on the tip of her tongue. 
How annoyingly ironic, Meg!
She scoffed at herself. 
You’re a living, breathing emotional ball of goo and you can’t say the three little words Creed aches to hear you say.
 

Meg felt the yearning coming from him the moment he touched her back.   She just took for granted that he would know how she felt only because his feelings for her were so transparent.  Meg heard
his heart whisper
“I love you”
every time he looked at her with that little turn of his head, sky-blue eyes wide with adoration matching his thoughts perfectly.  Meg had seen his heart and felt his love for so long, she couldn’t remember a time when she was without it.

But Creed had lost half his memories of her.  He could not read emotions like Meg.  He followed her around like a devoted puppy but was very worried about how much the dark-eyed girl of his dreams really felt for him.

“I need to tell you something,” Meg whispered so her voice wouldn’t echo down the nearly empty corridor. 

“What is it?  Are you okay?”  Worry for her safety was always the first place his mind went.  He was so afraid of outliving her.

“I’m fine, really I am.” Meg nodded her head emphatically.  “I’m more than fine when I’m with you.  That’s what I wanted to talk with you about.”

Creed’s face still looked adorably perplexed.

“When I’m with you, I can take on the world.  I feel as though we were always meant to be together…you and me.  You make me feel beautiful and adored even when I haven’t showered, and I look like three-day-old road kill on a hot Texas highway.”

Creed’s face turned a beautiful shade of pink under his tanned skin.  He smiled as his hands moved from her neck, down her arms and stopped to hold her hands. 

“I love how, even after being raised to hate and kill, you chose to side with me and my family.  I love your unwavering devotion to what is right and good.  You were never taught to love, never had someone reach out to hold your hand.” Meg squeezed his gently. 

“You’ve only ever wanted to belong and be loved
, but no one taught you what love was.  You figured it out on your own.  Love is to put someone else’s needs above your own.  Love is humble and magnificent at the same time.  To love someone is to give them your heart completely—devotion, hopes, dreams, fears.  To love someone, you accept
all
of them.   Love accepts the darkness that hides inside each of us and loves us anyway—or maybe loves us especially because of our struggles. 

“I dream sometimes that I have wings, and at first, I thought it was my mind’s way of creating a metaphor for the enhanced gift—my
empath wings.  But now I realize it’s more than that.  My love for
you
has given me wings.”

The dark blue of Creed’s eyes glistened with unshed emotion. 

“You love me?” His voice cracked just above a whisper.

“I do,” Meg smiled widely and reached up to hold Creed’s face in both her hands.
  “I love you, Creed Young.”

Not knowing his heart could actually leap with joy, Creed gasped at the
affect.  He leaned down and swept Meg’s lips tenderly before diving deeply into the most beautifully life-defining kiss he’d ever known.  He only came up for air to say one thing, “I love you, Meg Winter.”  And with that, those unshed tears of joy slipped down his soldier’s masculine face wetting Meg’s cheeks and christening their devotion.

The aroma of coffee tickled Meg’s nose.  Her hands were wrapped around the large Styrofoam cup of hospital coffee as she sat deep in thought.  Creed had awakened before her and gone down the hallway to score two cups from the nurses’ station.  The women had taken such a liking to the Winter family that they’d bent the rules a little allowing them access to their private stash.  They knew the Winter children loved their mother very much, but it was a very rare thing to have young adult children formulate a schedule and rotate shifts, keeping vigil over her. 

“Good morning, Meg and Creed.  I would ask you how your night went, but I know you probably didn’t sleep one wink,” the pudgy nurse wearing light-blue scrubs offered a sympathetic smile to the two blurry-eyed people quietly sipping coffee.

“We’re fine, Barbara, thanks.”  Meg stood stiffly and put her drink on the end table beside the sofa seat they’d occupied most of the night.

Creed stood beside Meg and offered the bright-eyed nurse a sleepy smile.  His hair was sticking up adorably bed-head, not that he’d slept in a bed.  He slept sitting up, one beautifully heavy arm wrapped around Meg, his head tipped back and resting against the hard peach wall behind him.  His long legs sprawled in front of them, taking up half the alcove that acted as their waiting room.  Meg had slept tucked in Creed’s strong arms, her legs curled up beside her.  She looked like a little girl next to the young man’s hulking figure.  As they stood side-by-side, the nurse couldn’t help but notice what a strikingly handsome couple they made. 

Meg self-consciously tried to run her fingers through her thick, curly hair only to get her fingers caught halfway through.  She gave up and grabbed the black pony holder that had been wrapped around her wrist.  With practiced movements she gathered her long, unruly locks at the back of her head and wrapped the elastic band around twice.  Her hair would slip out eventually, but it made her crazy to have her scalp tugged on too tightly. 

“Well,” the nurse looked down at the clipboard in her hands, “I have to go take some vitals.  Wanna come in and see if our patient will wake for us?”

Meg smiled at her but laughed inside.  She knew her mother would be battle ready if possible…and probably would be demanding coffee.

“Sure,” Meg glanced at Creed and as he nodded his reassurance, his gravity-defying hair flopping adorably. 

Barbara headed straight for Margo’s door, knocked three times, waited a moment then opened it wide.

Margo was awake and staring out her window.

“Morning,
Mom,” Meg offered tentatively.  She was trying to get an empath reading without wanting to be too intrusive.

Margo’s head turned to look at her daughter and a wide smile filled her face.

“Hi Meggie,” she offered in a groggy voice.

“How are you feeling, Dr. Winter?” Creed asked tentatively.

“Well, I could be better, but I could be worse.” She took a slow deep breath.  “Is that coffee I smell?”

Meg giggled. 

“Just let me finish taking your vitals, Dr. Winter, then you can have one cup of coffee,” Barbara said with practiced authority.

“I suppose that’s fair enough,” Margo shrugged, allowing Barbara to slip on a blood pressure cuff.

It hissed to life and started puffing around her pale arm.  Meg was concentrating on sending her mother soothing waves.

“You don’t have to do that, sweet one,” Margo whispered with a knowing smile.

“I just want to help,” Meg sat in a chair on the other side of her mother’s cuffed arm.

“You help me just by being here,” her mother said softly.

“Dr. Gentry will be by for rounds in about half an hour.  I’m sure he’ll want to perform a neurological exam.”

Having checked everything she could with guests in the room, Barbara turned to Meg and was about to ask them to step back out into the hall.  She didn’t have to say a word.

“Why don’t we go prepare that cup of coffee for you, Mom?” Meg offered discreetly.

The nurse smiled and nodded appreciatively.

Meg leaned down and kissed her mother on the forehead.  Creed held Margo’s hand for a moment and offered a gentle squeeze.  “We’ll wait outside with that coffee, Dr. Winter.  You just holler when you’re ready for it.”

“Thank you.”

“No, don’t thank me.  It’s just coffee.” Creed shrugged sheepishly, shoving his large hands into the front pockets of his blue jeans.

“I mean, thank you for taking care of my Meggie
,” Margo clarified.  Her eyes shined with genuine gratitude.

“I love her and her family,” He confessed.

“You are a blessing to our family,” Margo smiled softly.  She was already feeling a little sleepy, but was fighting it so she could look strong for the sake of the children.

Meg and Creed walked out of Margo’s room and quietly closed the door behind them.

“Those two are just precious together,” Barbara commented as she checked Margo’s bladder and bowel maintenance equipment.  Inside, Margo sighed heavily.  She suspected the surgery must not have helped.  She couldn’t feel anything the nurse was doing to empty her colostomy bag or catheter for urine collection.  But she also knew it was probably way too soon to know for sure.  There would be swelling after the surgery.  It may be a long time before she knew any more than she did right that moment. 

“Yes, they are.”

“Will there be wedding bells soon?”

“I hope not,” Margo coughed
. “My daughter is only sixteen and Creed is eighteen!”

“Oh, I’m sorry dear.  They just look and act so mature,” Barbara backpedaled.

Margo pressed her lips together, trying to think of what to say.

“They have had to endure a lot in their young lives.  It would mature anyone.”  Margo sighed deeply, feeling every bit her forty-two years.

“Well, I have a feeling about those two,” Barbara kept talking as she began giving Margo a sponge bath.

“They’re so young, but I think you may be right.  Sparks flew the moment she met him,” Margo smiled at the memories.  “But life is so fleeting,” she sighed.  “Half of me wants her to grasp love with both hands and not let go because her future isn’t guaranteed.”  Margo caught a curious look on the nurse’s face.  “I mean, life can take some very unexpected turns
.”

S
he stared at her useless legs.  The nurse nodded, accepting Margo’s explanation, completely oblivious of the real reasons that Margo wished her daughter happiness today with the boy she loved.  How could anyone understand the peril her children must face daily just because of what they were
made
to be?

“Okay, Dr. Winter,” Barbara said, as she repositioned her blankets.  “Are you ready for me to invite your daughter back?”

“Yes, thank you, Barbara.”

The plump nurse moved with purpose to the door and opened it widely.  Margo heard her say, “Oh,
Doctor, you’re here.  Well our patient is all cleaned up and ready for your visit.”

Margo looked anxiously over at the doorway. 

Instead of Dr. Gentry, in walked Theo.

“Hello beautiful,” he said with a shy smile as he passed her the lidded cup of coffee Meg handed him moments before.

“Hi, um…I’m sorry, I thought you were my doctor.  I’m so nervous about the exam he’s sure to perform this morning.”

“Have you prepared yourself for the wors
t, Margo?  I mean, really it’s probably too soon to tell if the surgery was successful.  You know that, right?” Theo’s soft blue eyes took in her pale skin.

“I
know, but it’s so difficult.  How can one prepare for being told they’ll never walk again?”

Theo nodded gently, pursing his lips together as though desperate to reassure her that
everything would be okay, but unable to give her false hope.

“Where are Meg and Creed?”

“Just outside waiting.  I asked for a few minutes alone with you.”

“Oh?”

“Margo, I know you’re going through a lot right now.  I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I wasn’t there for you in Germany.  Maybe if I’d been there…”

“You would have been killed, like I almost was,” Margo’s eyes flashed with darkness at the memory of the pain ripping from her lower back, down her legs.  It was the last time she felt anything below her waist.