by HA Fortman
Elisa didn’t know she was verbally reciting everything she saw as she relived the memory. She didn’t feel Chase as he lunged from the stool and carefully wrapped her in his warm embrace, too caught up in the horror of the memory.
“He was tall, a little shorter than you, but still taller than me. His hair was dull, greasy as though he hadn’t showered in days. I don’t… I don’t want to remember it, but I’ll never forget.” Elisa shuddered as she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper; she gripped Chase’s arms like a lifeline.
“He had this… this sneer like he was excited and mad at the same time, like… like he couldn’t believe he was enjoying it but couldn’t deny it either. But it didn’t go all the way to his eyes, they looked glassed over, almost like he was on drugs or drunk or something.”
“Do you remember their color, Elisa?” Chase asked as he gently brushed a strand of her red hair off of her face, tucking it behind her.
At the mention of eyes, Elisa turned her head to study Chases’. Caught in their depths she was startled as he easily lifted her body and moved her until she was comfortably stretched across his lap.
She didn’t notice the dark tunnel that had started to surround her vision. In a haze of desire she watched as one of Chase’s large hands moved along her arm, tenderly brushing against it as it made its way up to her shoulder with a touch as light as a feather as it made its way against her skin. It kept its slow trek up along the top of her shoulder, not stopping until his palm cupped her cheek while his left arm kept her held to his body. Skimming his right thumb along the side of Elisa’s face as he gradually brought his lips against her in a deliberately leisurely pace, although he gave her plenty of time to reject him and pull away.
To his apparent shock Elisa curled her arm about his neck and pulled him in closer, twisting her body until her chest was pressed against him, her fingers twining their way into his long hair. With an almost desperate mew of need, Elisa’s lips parted enough to glide her tongue against Chase’s lips. He answered her with a soft growl as his own tongue darted out; twisting, curling, and dominating the dance back and forth. Their breaths mingled as they panted, lost to the desire found in each other’s embrace. Chase’s fingers glided back, the tips just brushing the hair behind her ear.
It was with obvious reluctance that Chase ended the kiss, licking against her lips as he pulled his head back. He realized with a start that he had moved from growling to a soft stuttering purr that timed his rapid breathing. Chase leaned his head against Elisa’s, resting his forehead as he battled with the need to take her, to claim her as his own, but he knew this was not the time. He had to be patient; he had to do his duty before he could see to his pleasures and the rest of his life.
“Elisa? Are you alright? You’re breathing just increased… if you need to we can take a break.” Chase hadn’t moved. He was still sitting in the chair as he had before; his elbow’s resting against his knees as he coaxed Elisa into telling him everything about the event that she could recall. Although he had reached forward and held one of her hands in both of his, she still didn’t know what had happened or why she had such a vivid image of what it would be like to kiss him.
“I’m… I’m not sure?” A bright red stain traveled over her cheeks, down her neck and vanished beneath the blanket. Uncomfortably, Elisa shifted her weight in the bed as she realized it was all in her mind. Chase hadn’t pulled her into his lap, he’d never touched her softly, and he certainly hadn’t kissed her breathless. “I think I might be reacting to that stuff the Healer gave me… I could have sworn… Never mind. I… was that all you needed or…?”
Shaking her head as she let the sentence hang silently between them, Elisa refused to meet his eyes again. But it all felt so real, I could have sworn he was touching me, kissing me I swear it was real! My lips still tingle and I can still feel his pressing against mine!
“No, I think right now you need to rest some. I’ll return after you’ve gotten some sleep ok?” Chase said as he pushed himself off of the stool. He turned briefly to push it away against the far wall and watched as it coasted to a stop before he turned back and pressed the controls on the bed to have it recline once more. Chase leaned over Elisa, grabbing the light blanket and tucking it around her shoulders as he whispered, “Good dreams, Elisa.”
Elisa nodded as she gave him the ghost of a smile, “Thank you Chase.” She closed her eyes and turned her head to the side closer to the wall, attempting to calm her rioting emotions so that she could drift off to sleep.
He stood and watched her for a moment, a slight quirk of his lips. Chase knew why she had blushed profusely and it pleased him that she had wanted to take things to the next level. With that thought in mind Chase turned and slowly made his way from his Anare, the one that could piece his heart and soul together.
Chapter 11
As he passed by Yannick’s office, he peeked in and nodded to the healer as he said, “She’s getting some sleep now. When she’s in a deep sleep, go in and retrieve the cortex recorder. I placed it on the inside corner of her lip.”
Yannick nodded and leaned around the door frame to peer at Elisa. The slow rate of her breathing, her eyes fluttering under her lids, told him that she had fallen into a deep sleep. She had turned onto her side facing the rest of the room, curling into a loose ball. She looked peaceful and almost childlike as she had tucked one hand under her cheek while the other rested on her hip above the blanket.
“I will give her a bit more time before I fetch it, Commander. Shall I alter anything while I am retrieving it?”
Having stepped back to allow Yannick to peer around the door, Chase turned to glance at the woman sleeping peacefully finally. “That sedative is finally working and should be enough to make her think she only dreamt everything while she was here, so unless you think there’s something else you need to do then go ahead. I’ll be back in a mark or two to collect her and take her home.”
“Do you want me to leave it in place or remove it completely, Commander?” Yannick said as he turned to a cabinet and began removing various tools from it.
Chase shook his head as he came to a difficult decision. “Don’t remove it, we might need it later. Just retrieve the data on there from my investigation and the attack on Elisa.”
With that being said, Chase turned sharply on his heel and left the medic ward. His thoughts had already turned toward the next steps needed to capture Mestrock and remove him from harming anyone else.
Yannick waited for several minutes before he approached the sleeping figure on the bed quietly, he didn’t want to wake Elisa but he also wasn’t sure how long the sedative would keep her asleep. His fingers moved in a feather light touch as he straightened her body on the bed before brushing the back of his knuckles against the side of her cheek. Once he had her laid out on her back with her arms and legs straightened, the Healer pulled a long wand from his coat pocket. It looked like a metal tube with a ball at the end, the handle was black leather-like and had several buttons all the way around it.
Depressing two of the buttons as Yannick scanned it down her body and back up the other side where he paused to read from a small handheld screen in his other hand. With a smile he nodded and put his fingers on three of the buttons while holding it over her lip. For several minutes he held the scanner in place, watching with a small smile as the data transferred from the small hidden device in Elisa’s lip to the one he held in his hand.
*~*~*
Chase paced the halls of the large ship, his hands gripped tightly behind his back and his head held high. He didn’t feel bad about placing the cortex recorder inside Elisa when he crashed into her intentionally at their police station. He knew the evidence he had gathered previously would be needed when the Council called him after his assignment was over.
“Commander, have you got a moment?” Chase stopped as he heard his name, cocking his head to the side he watched as Tracker came up beside him. With a critical eye he noticed that the first offi
cer was tense and needed to speak with him. Slowing his steps and allowing his friend to catch up to him, Chase waited for the other to speak. “How goes the case? Are we close to leaving this primitive space?”
“It goes. He attacked an Earthling earlier, but Yannick is seeing to her as we speak.” Chase said before stepping onto the bridge. He didn’t pause, knowing that Tracker would follow him into his office off to the side.
Tracker nodded before he made his way to one of the two wing back chairs, locked to the floor in front of his Commander’s desk. His form suit was quite similar to the others on the ship, the only difference being its dark green color that matched the intense pale emerald of his eyes.
Chase sat at his desk, leaning back in his chair and folded his fingers together under his chin as he braced his elbows against the armrests. He studied the man before him. He’d known Palee “Tracker” Stalvik since they were children. Both men entering the United Galactic Securities together, Chase was sure the only reason the other man survived the time in training was because of their tight friendship. Tracker had always been serious and didn’t have much of a sense of humor when it came to… well… everything. That severity increased tenfold as they both advanced through the ranks and Chase was astonished each day when Tracker refused to take command of his own battle cruiser, instead staying at his place at Chase’s side.
“How do you know it was our perpetrator?” Tracker’s tenor voice was such a surprise for most people, expecting a deep bass instead from the six foot eight man. His lean body often had them believing he was less of a threat meant that he could go into situations where most would instantly be suspect.
“I was able to place a cortex recorder inside her lip. If I hadn’t then we would have lost her Tracker, and I wouldn’t have survived. She is my Anare.” Said Chase as a huge grin split his face at the shock spreading throughout Tracker’s angular face.
Steely white eyebrows rocketed up into the high and tight hair on his friends head, nearly blending into one line. “Are you sure? I know tradition says we only need to gain the scent of our Mates but neither of us has met anyone other than our parents that have been mated, and even then it was an arranged mating. To find your Anare here would be… both a blessing and a curse I think. If word gets out the rest of the crew will be demanding leave time to try and track theirs down.”
“I’m aware of that Tracker, but I cannot deny what she is to me. I intentionally had myself arrested when I followed her home from one of the crime scenes, and realized she was doing her own investigation. When I smelled her there I lost all thought and the next thing I know I’m tackling her down and kissing her so I can place the cortex recorder on her.” Chase laughed as he filled in Tracker, not skipping any of the details. He knew that while she was laying in the bed in Medical telling him of her attack that the sedative was working on her. That's when she had stopped speaking verbally and shared her thoughts unintentionally with her that the connection between their hearts and souls was already strong and growing stronger.
“I wish you luck with it Chase. It sounds like you are going to need it.” Smirking as he said this, Tracker leaned back in the seat and surprised Chase as he began to truly relax. It wasn’t something the other man did, even when he wasn’t on duty. “Does she know about us?”
Chase dropped his hands to his lap as he shook his head from side to side and spun his hover chair about. His gaze turned to the plant through the stasis field far below them, “She hasn’t a clue what we are other than we’re not from around here. I am not sure how to tell her about it all. I need to take her back to her planet after Yannick has removed the information from the device. I might have to use her to get to him, but I am loathing the thought of using her as bait because she’s already been through so much.”
“Sometimes we need to do what we don’t want to in order to protect the greater good Chase. If she truly is yours, then we all will do our best to protect her. I know you have a plan, tell me what it is you are thinking and I’ll get the men together.”
“Thank you Tracker. I need to settle a few things first, but then we’ll depart for Earth as soon as Yannick clears her.” Chase said as he turned back to his desk and the mountain of reports he had yet to go through.
Chapter 12
The soft rhythmic beeping is what finally awoke Elisa, the annoying sound pounding into her sub consciousness like a jack hammer. Stark white walls greeted her as she finally peeled her eyes open. She wasn’t one that imbibed in alcohol and imagined this is what it must feel like to wake up with a hangover.
Groaning softly, she tried to lift her hand, but was stopped as intense pain met her movements. Glancing down, she saw tape held an IV in the crook of her elbow. “What the…?”
“Easy now Miss. Let me just adjust the bed and we’ll get you something to drink. Would you like that dear?” The soft, warm voice of a female drew Elisa’s attention to her left where a woman in an obvious nurse’s outfit was turning the volume down on one of the beeping machines. The nurse turned and helped Elisa sit up when she was done, holding the cup of water for her to drink from.
After Elisa took the small paper cup and drained it several times, she allowed herself to lie back on the bed once more and took a moment to look around her. She was in a hospital. She was in a hospital and hooked up to machines. “How did I get here? Wait… where is here? I’m really getting sick of being just dropped wherever and never knowing how I got there!”
“I’m Nurse Karen and you’re at San Francisco Metro Hospital. I’m not sure what happened to you before, but a young man dropped you off. I’m going to guess from what you just said that you don’t remember what happened?” The kindly looking older woman peered at Elisa with concern. Her dark blond hair was pulled back into a tight bun, making her slightly rounded face stand out more. Those deep brown eyes held a world of caring in them as they moved over Elisa’s face.
Elisa shook her head, her brows pinching together into a frown. The last thing she remembered was being on the ship with Healer Yannick and Chase. She was still shocked that he was a commander and not just some random man that was drawn with morbid curiosity to the murders. She knew there was more to that, but hadn’t been able to ask him about it yet.
Chase must have taken me here instead of to the house for some reason. Maybe he thinks I won’t want to go back or he doesn’t want to be responsible for me? Whatever the reason she was sure she didn’t want to stay here for very long.
“The friend you spoke of that dropped me off?” Nurse Karen stopped her fiddling and looked up expectantly at Elisa. “Was he tall with long black hair and very light blue eyes?” Elisa relaxed back against the bed with a smile when the nurse nodded.
“When will the doctor be in?”
“He’s making his rounds now and should be here in a few minutes sweetheart.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Hmm, according to your charts you were brought in about eleven at night, you’ve been out since then and it’s now three in the morning so you’ve been out for a little while but that’s nothing to be concerned about. The first doctor that saw you before shift change gave you a dose of pain medicine because you seemed to be hurting. Do you have any allergies we need to be worried about dear? Good, your friend didn’t think you were but it’s best to find out from the patient themselves whenever we can. Is there anything you need before I go see my other patients dear?” When Elisa gave a negative shake of her head to both questions she made a note on her chart, then smiled and moved to the side of the bed after attaching it to the foot of her bed before turning towards the curtain where she paused and pointed to a device by Elisa’s head. “There’s a controller, there draped over the head of the bed, if you need anything just press the little red button and a nurse will come as soon as one of us is able to. You just rest until the doctor gets here ok?”
Elisa watched as the nurse slipped through the soft tan curtain with a flutter of fabric. The divider wasn’t
able to settle as an older gentleman in a doctor’s smock walked in followed by an officer in a tan uniform and smiled at her. The tired but friendly smile he gave her fluttered over his brown eyes made Elisa smile back, her eyes trailing over his softer features. She guessed that he was in his late fifties by the salt and pepper, brown hair and the wrinkles that gave him the look of everyone’s favorite grandfather.
“I’m Doctor Evans and this is Officer Jackson, how’re you feeling Elisa?” Without waiting for her to answer, he grabbed the clipboard from the foot of the bed and read whatever the nurse had written then put it back and approached her.
“I want to go home Doctor. When can I leave?” Elisa watched as he rested his hands against the side of her bed. She knew she was being pushy, but she truly hated hospitals and didn’t want to be there a second longer than she needed to.
“I’m sorry to say sweetheart, but you were beaten pretty badly and I’m not sure when you’ll be heading home. We might have to admit you into the hospital for observation, judging by the damage to your head, it’s very likely that you have a concussion and we need to make sure there’s no other damage.
“Thankfully the other tests come back as ok, so you don’t have any internal damage or broken bones or factures but I’d still rather be sure you’re safe to go home. Do you live alone? Do you have anyone that could stay with you if you were released?” Said the doctor as he moved the stethoscope from his neck and began to check her breathing and other vitals.
“I don’t see why I have to stay Doctor and no offense, but I want to go home. I… I don’t have any family…” Taking a deep breath, Elisa was about to go on when the officer stepped forward and cleared his throat to gain her attention.
“I’m sorry, Miss, but it is standard procedure whenever there’s been a domestic violence case brought into the hospital for them to call us. I have to file a report.” The man looked like he had just graduated from the police academy, and if Elisa weren’t already interested in Chase she might have been taken with him.