Rising Tides

by Rebecca Royce

  I didn’t know how I felt about that statement. Brenden pulled me backward. “How are you going to do any of this without another doctor here?”

  “I…”

  A mechanical scream filled the air, our only warning as a bomb detonated somewhere just above, throwing all of us backward. Too close. Too damn close. I hit the ground. My ears rang, and I tasted dirt and blood in my mouth. This was strangely reminiscent to Oceania blowing up. I coughed. That time I’d landed on my back, this time it was my shoulder.

  Hands pulled me up as Brenden pointed behind him. The mansion had blown up. No, it had been bombed. I grabbed my head. We had to get inside, we had to protect the water.

  I let the Z Warriors help me inside, trying to assess if any of them weren’t okay. I couldn’t really focus. I grabbed Brenden’s arm. “Call Lewis and Ari.”

  The world went black.

  I woke up with a light shining in my eyes. Ari stared down at me. “Well, you’re seeing me. That’s good news.”

  I groaned as my head pounded in time with my heartbeat. “Why haven’t you given me something for the pain? All the med machines dead?”

  “I can’t.” He set aside his light. “Well, I can give you something but not something that is going to take the edge off. It might just be better if I didn’t.”

  That didn’t make any sense. Or maybe it was just that given that I’d lost consciousness. My head pounded like I had a one-woman band performing. I was probably concussed and couldn’t think straight. “Are other people more injured? Is that why I can’t have the machine?”

  “You can’t have the machine because the medicine it will give you will not be good for the pregnancy.”

  I gripped my head. “What pregnancy?”

  “The one you’re having right now.” Ari stared at me as I tried to make sense of what he said. “You’re pregnant, Amber.”

  “She’s what?” Brenden suddenly came into view. He was beat up, a huge cut down the side of his face.

  Okay. So we weren’t alone. Ari turned and glared at him. “I think I told you to stay in the hall.”

  “I don’t stay in the hall when it comes to her health. This is wonderful news.” His smile was huge. “The Chen Empire will celebrate even in this war.”

  I shook my head, which hurt. “This isn’t good news.”

  “Yes, it is. I know things are rough right now, but we have reason to be hopeful.”

  He was being sweet. “The condition that I get in the med machine for once a month makes it highly probable I will miscarry this baby. I’ve lost one already. That was my mother-in-law’s fault, but I would have likely lost it anyway. It’s hard for me to get pregnant, but I can. Staying that way is going to be next to impossible. There are eight—yes just eight—recorded cases of successful pregnancies of live babies born to women in my condition. None of them took place during a war. I’d need constant monitoring. I can’t have that. My husbands know. This isn’t a secret.”

  If my head hadn’t been pounding, I’d have stormed off and slammed a door right then. That wasn’t mature or helpful, but it was what I wanted to do. Why hadn’t I thought about this? It had seemed next to impossible. In all the years married and here, I’d gotten pregnant once. It hadn’t seemed particularly likely it would happen now.

  But then of course it was.

  “Let me think on this.” Ari put his hand on my shoulder. “I agree. A daily six hours in the med machine would be ideal but obviously not happening in this time of war.”

  Brenden cleared his throat. “This is Dr. Chen. She’s the Chen wife. She can have a dedicated med machine and a team of guards.”

  “There isn’t a staff to watch her. I didn’t know it had gotten this bad here. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  I hurt too much to answer that question. He must have read how pissed it made me in my gaze because he held up both of his hands as if in surrender. “I contacted Lewis. He’s coming back. I’ll stay here. They’re doing pretty well underground. I can back off.”

  Ari had been spending his time with the non Z Warrior resistance happening on Earth. We needed everyone. I pulled my knees to my forehead. It didn’t help my headache. I felt so many things right now I couldn’t handle any of them. Absolute terror ranked at the top of that list. I was pregnant, and I absolutely did not want to lose this baby.

  “Let me think about this, Amber. Lewis is coming. What we need is Dane. He brought Diana back from being a Zombie. Sorry, that’s a bad word but that’s what it was. Then Cash and Lewis fixed it up even more that you can’t even tell that she had the condition to begin with. You need one of them. They’re better at this.”

  “My love.” Waverly’s voice filled the room. “You took nanos out of Canyon’s eyes and rebuilt his eyes. I think you could do this, too. Sorry to eavesdrop, but no one is being quiet.” She walked in slowly. “We’ll figure this out, Amber. You’re going to have a baby. That’s wonderful news. Let’s just hold onto that. Get in contact with your husbands. Not assume the rest. Surround the baby and you with as much positive energy as we possibly can.”

  Brenden pointed at Waverly. “What she said.”

  I wanted Amari—who I still hadn’t heard from—Shane, and Hunter more than anything in the universe. Just a minute alone with them. But then I was being selfish. They were needed. There only was communication again because of Hunter. Countless people were going to have a future because of my husbands and the people with them.

  “Let’s look at the baby.”

  I sucked in a breath. “Right now?”

  “Yes.”

  I knew what Ari was doing tapping on the medical tablet. I’d done it myself a few times. It was hard for me to look up at the screen on the ceiling. In fact, any movement was agony. Tears flooded my eyes. I hated crying.

  Waverly tucked me against her side. “Amber, it’s going to be okay. It should be Paloma here. I’m sorry.”

  “No.” I waved my hand. “She’s up in the sky. I sent her up there to be protected during the battle. Are they okay?”

  Ari nodded. “They are. I heard from Wade. They met up with your sister. Everyone should be on their way back here. That was smart thinking.”

  Sometimes I had my moments.

  “Now look at that, that’s a wrinkle.” Ari pointed at the screen.

  I forced my gaze up. “What? Is it already ending?”

  “No. There’s two heartbeats.” He pointed. “Two babies.”

  Okay, now I couldn’t breathe. Two? There was no way they were going to make it. Waverly pressed her head down on my shoulder. “This is going to be okay.”

  I didn’t know how much more hope I could hold onto. It might have been my pounding head and my concussion, but I’d lost all of it that I had to give.

  Losing them… those two people who were temporarily inside of me… was going to break me.

  Being concussed without the machine really, really sucked. That was my professional opinion. Stuck in the med bay, I stared at the ceiling. I couldn’t read, couldn’t particularly do anything but sit and watch Ari receive patients.

  Eventually, he walked over holding my tablet. He handed it to me. “Try to get in touch with your husbands. You’ll feel better. I promise you that.” He pointed at me. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I know of what I say. I was once very, very low. And then Cash got blown up and almost died. I swore I’d pull my shit together and I did. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be okay. I really wasn’t. And then Waverly came and I was. We need the people we love. I’ve been missing my family like crazy. It makes the darkness come back. And then we need to remember the light. That’s my advice to you. You’ve been doing a great job of pretending your darkness is no big deal, that all the things that happened are unimportant because of this shared disaster we’re all existing in together. That is remarkable and correct in a lot of ways.” He sighed. “But it’s there, and now you have to manage what happened. I know you want these babies. We’ll fight for them as best we can.”

/>   He pointed at the tablet. “Call. We can get through sometimes now. See if you can.”

  I stared down at the tablet. “I didn’t think I should do screen time with my headache.”

  He winked. “Probably not. Few minutes won’t kill you. Doctor’s orders.” He smiled and walked away.

  I supposed he was right. My tablet was full of messages. Hunter had said he would write and it looked like he really had. I smiled. I’d read them later. I quickly typed out a message to him.

  Hunter,

  I haven’t had a chance to read your letters. We were under attack. Maybe you heard? I’m not sure how much the news gets through or if it did. I got hurt, but I will be okay, eventually. I can’t go in the machine to treat the pain because I received the news when I woke up that I’m pregnant with twins. You’re the first person I’m telling, although it seems half the Empire was in the room with me when I got the news. So I’m sure everyone knows.

  I’m afraid. Much more afraid of this than I’ve ever been of anything.

  I’m afraid I can’t keep them safe.

  I wasn’t going to bother you with this. You have enough going on. But Ari said it was important I tell all of you. Please don’t worry. I’ll keep it together. All will be fine at home. I will read your letters when I’m given permission to read again. The trouble with not being able to treat a concussion. I shouldn’t even be doing this but… I am.

  With my love,

  Amber

  I almost didn’t hit send. Was it okay to burden him with this? In the end, I hit the button and tried not to overthink it. I needed to talk to Shane. Although they would belong to all of them, he was their daddy. I scanned down. My tablet to his tablet. Maybe he would get the message, maybe he would answer. I chewed on my lip.

  Shane’s face appeared. He rubbed at his eyes, and then he grinned. I must have woken him. “Hey, beautiful. We must have just moved into range. I was going to try later today. Hey, you look funny.” His smile fell and serious, silent, unmoving Shane appeared in his place. “What’s wrong? You’re hurt.”

  “We were attacked. We came through okay. Called for help. The Super Soldier, Blaze, and some of his people arrived. It’s a very long story.”

  He pointed at the screen. “Where were the Z with you? How did they let you get hurt?”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “They were with me. The bomb came down. We all got hit in the shockwave. There isn’t much they could have done in that moment. Don’t blame them.”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. That was a huge movement for Shane when he went silent. “Now that you have treated others you need to put yourself in the machine and get better.”

  “I can’t. That’s why I’m calling. We’re going to have babies. Two of them. Twins. Just found out. So I guess your visit was… ah… fruitful.” Oh by the universe, that was such a stupid thing to say. I spoke faster. “And they can’t treat the concussion. I wasn’t sure if I should tell you but Ari said it was very important.”

  Shane’s eyes widened. The silence was gone. “Babies? Plural? We’re having twins?”

  “Yes. Well, I’m pregnant. I mean, we know that I’m probably not having these babies.” My voice broke, and I had to look away.

  “Amber,” Shane said my name with such forcefulness I had to look back. “I love you. And whatever happens, I love you. Is there anything you need that you don’t have? That I can have sent to you?”

  You. Hunter. Your brother Amari who seems like he vanished into the universe. “No. I have everything I need. Only time will tell now.”

  “I’ll be home before the babies come. I promise. I’ll hold you, and you’ll be okay, right there with us.”

  I hoped he was right. The last time he’d been here he’d told me he would be home in weeks. That hadn’t happened. I wasn’t sure what was going on with the battles. I wasn’t involved in any of that.

  “I love you. Be safe.”

  He smiled. “Be good to yourself. Stay hopeful. Believe for me. I’m sending you lots of energy through the universe. If you can, meditate every day. I promise. It helps.”

  Meditate? Yes, I needed to make myself do that. It would help. I wouldn’t love it, I doubted I ever would, but it would center me. Ari had been right about this. It helped to call.

  “I love you.” That seemed better than goodbye.

  I tried to do what I had with Shane and reach out to Amari, but the signal was lost three times. He was leading the battles, he and Melissa Alexander. Maybe it was really good that he was unreachable. If he couldn’t be found then maybe Evander couldn’t find him either.

  I sat back.

  I did feel better. Filled up in a way that had emptied.

  “Aunty.” Ben Sandler ran into the room. I spun too quickly to look at him and dizziness assaulted me. Still, I smiled and scooped him up.

  “You’re back?”

  “We’re back.” Quinn pushed the med machine holding Aaron into the room with Paloma walking slowly behind him. “Looks like you got beat up pretty badly here. Thanks for getting us to safety, Amber.”

  That was downright chatty for Quinn. I brought Ben to my face, kissing him. “I’m just glad Artemis can still fly.”

  “Yes, but not with us on it.” Paloma plopped down next to me. “Blaze decided it would be smart to switch ships as a secondary precaution. We took the shuttle, and he changed onto Artemis. This was after he vented the cryogenic chamber into space so it couldn’t be tracked.”

  I tried to jump up and Paloma grabbed my arm. “Whoa. What are you doing? Sorry. The girl wasn’t in it. Wade took her out. She’s in a med machine.”

  He took her out of the chamber? I grabbed my head, and Ari strode over. “Well, that shot your blood pressure right up. Paloma, your sister is concussed. She needs to take it easy, both for herself and the babies. Don’t make her upset.”

  Paloma’s mouth fell open. “Babies?”

  “Shit.” Ari shook his head. “I can’t keep track of who knows and who doesn’t.”

  I kissed Ben’s cheeks. That would help. I wanted this. I did. I loved my nephews, but I wanted the two in my stomach. It was terrifying to even think that because it showed how much I had to lose. We were at war, everything could be lost. Shane’s face when I’d told him…

  Paloma squeezed me tightly. “This is great news.”

  I hoped she was right. I wanted it to be.

  Ten days was a long time to not be allowed to do anything but sit around the med bay and take treatments, especially when I was obviously needed. Lewis had returned, which was a great help, but we had the fallout from a huge battle in quadrant seven. There were injured everywhere.

  Ari had finally released me. The sun was shining and the cold air that had come to the region wasn’t too sharp yet. I rubbed my arms but strolled around the compound, Brenden with me.

  “How did the date go?” I shouldn’t have asked him. I should have minded my own business, but I did it anyway.

  He smiled. “Really, really well. How many did we lose?”

  This was the first time he’d asked me for a death number. “From the Chen Empire or the war in total or the last battle?”

  “Let’s start with the Chen Empire.”

  “I think the last count I heard was several hundred people.” It might be more than that. Realistic counts weren’t going to come until this was over.

  Brenden nodded. “You had your treatment today. Right?”

  I had. I was in and out of the med machine, conscious the whole time, while it removed my scar tissue and hopefully left the fetal tissue alone. Several hours a day that would only become longer as this went on.

  I’d taken to counting down in my head from three thousand. It was easier than thinking about the people I wasn’t helping who cried out in pain while I used a med machine the other doctors could have used to treat them.

  Was I really allowed to be this selfish?

  “I want to go look at what is left of the mansion.”

 
Brenden winced. “Not much. I think it’ll have to be broken down to its pieces and we’ll go from there.”

  “Let’s look.”

  We turned in that direction. “It’s just a pile of rubble.”

  He was right. There wasn’t anything left to it, and I’d never been more grateful that we’d moved everyone out of it so quickly. There wasn’t anyone in it they could have hurt. I touched the brick in my hand. “They built this monstrosity right after the bombs went off. And a bomb took it down.”

  “Not the same kind of bombs. At least Evander hasn’t pulled them out yet. But then again, the nuclear bombs would take down the resources. Not so much profit.”

  That was when I spotted her. At first I thought I must have been hallucinating. My mother-in-law didn’t live here anymore. She’d been banished to Sandler Space for what she’d done to me. And yet there she was.

  Callie Chen had always been a beautiful woman. Dark haired, dark eyed. Her sons resembled her, although the bones structure of their faces were different, much more the portrait of their father I had seen.

  My whole body went cold.

  “Brenden, do you see her?”

  He turned. “Who?”

  The second he recognized Mrs. Chen, the Z warrior stiffened. “Amber, get behind me.”

  “Now, now. I hoped you would come here. I’ve waited for days. I told myself that at some point the illustrious Mrs. Chen… oh, I’m sorry, it’s Dr. Chen isn’t it? Well, whatever, would have to come outside. You do like to hide away like the creature of the dark you are, Amber.”

  I stepped behind Brenden. Someone else might argue. I didn’t want that woman coming anywhere near me. I touched my stomach.

  “Mrs. Chen.” I knew he wasn’t speaking to me. “You’re not welcome here. You need to reboard your vessel and leave.”

  She laughed. That wicked sound that made my stomach clench. Oh, how I hated this woman.

  “I’m not going anywhere, young man. I’m not alone.”

  Like they came from the shadows, four men who had to be Z Warriors seemed to appear next to her. Brenden touched his ear bud. “We have a problem. The former Mrs. Chen and four disgraced Z are here. They’re at the old mansion. Come fast.”