Surviving The Tempest: Tempest Tales

by Elsa, Sandra

  “But you married him a week later.”

  “That started out as a ploy to pluck the prez’s last nerve.”

  “It worked. I think even the chief was glad when a day went by that President Drover didn’t show up to berate us for failing to find you.”

  “I didn’t intend to drag anybody else down with me, but the moment the president wanted to meet me, my life was flushed.”

  “You could have pretended to be enthusiastic about trying to find his son.”

  “If you think that, it would never have worked out between us, Wally. Meek acceptance of a persuasion spell is not in the cards for me. Not even the pretense of acceptance.”

  “Well obviously the ploy turned into something else.”

  “Turns out we have a lot in common. We’re a helluva good team.”

  “That’s the understatement of the year. They still had markers out, going over the scene when we arrived.”

  “Then I think we’ve gone far enough over murky waters. It was never my intent to hurt you, Wally. And I certainly never planned to fall in love with the president’s son, but you know what happens with best laid plans.”

  “I do know, Frankie. I was a day late. And since I knew you for twelve years, I have only myself to blame.”

  “Good. As long as we’re clear on where we stand, I have no problem with you being here. Has anybody tried finding us since we’ve been here?”

  “I don’t think you’ll have any more trouble. “

  “Did Trooper Ralston catch up with the woman he was after?”

  “Yes. She’s been interrogated since he brought her in. Refuses to say who hired her or how they got wind that Harrison was here. She has admitted that she was hired to find you. Or to find the pair of you.”

  “Has anybody questioned her about her dinner companion?”

  “If you’re asking does the president know his nephew is here, the answer is yes.”

  “And that’s not a problem?”

  “Apparently not.”

  “Good. At least he believes none of that crap was Jerry’s fault then.” I yawned. “I can’t possibly be tired.”

  “Blood loss will do that to you.”

  “Now he tells me." I grinned at him. "God, I’ve slept nearly twenty-four hours. I want to get up.”

  “Doc said you should lie still at least another day."

  "I know I'm not going anywhere," Harrison placed a hand on his bandages. "I'm so stiff, breathing hurts."

  "Wuss." I grinned at him.

  "Remember that conversation we had about the most serious injury we ever received."

  I laughed. "You're saying bullet wound trumps hangnail?"

  "Just a bit. Even beats the hell out of being sliced to ribbons by glass."

  "I'm surprised the puddle trick doesn't heal you."

  "Flesh has the annoying habit of returning to its last known state. Especially a mage's flesh."

  "So would you have oozed water drops if you had transformed, or could we have prevented blood loss if either of us had thought of it?"

  "I'm not sure. But I like it a lot better when you're trying to figure out ways to use my magic to help me rather than kill me."

  "We should experiment. Things like that might be good to know. Next time you get shot, I’ll just toss you in a pitcher and carry you to the hospital."

  "Not planning to get shot again."

  "Didn't plan to get shot this time. You paid me to keep you alive outside District Seven. Being married to me for two months doesn't make you an expert. If you plan for the worst, you can't be unpleasantly surprised."

  Wally sat by the door, his eyes keeping track of the conversation as though watching a tennis match. He sat up straight and frowned at Harrison. "If you get tired of being shot at and want out of Frankie's life there are plenty of other men who would gladly take a bullet for her."

  "Sorry Sergeant. I went through hell to convince her to marry me, even as pretense, I'm not going to let a little thing like a bullet come between us now. She's mine, forever and always."

  "Thought you were mine," I said.

  "Yeah well, there aren't any women brave enough to suggest that if you would just let me go, they'd be happy to take care of me."

  "So when did you begin to see him as the father of your children, Frankie?" Wally asked.

  I grinned at him. "The first time I watched him blow out the tire of a car."

  "That's all you needed?" Wally sounded doubtful.

  "With a lightning bolt. Then a race down a hill with District Seven Troopers shooting at us excited him, instead of scaring him as I expected. It was all over before he confessed to being a matchmaker who saw our lives entwined."

  "If I was a mage, I'd have used that line on you too."

  "Except I had to drag it out of him. Matchmaker isn't a talent he's proud of. Besides it was confirmed by somebody else."

  "Why'd you call Rollick when you needed help?"

  "Wasn't sure how you felt about me. Besides, Rollick owed me for a stunt he pulled a while back. Figured I left you in enough hot water it was his turn."

  "Then it wasn't you avoiding me? That's why I took so long getting around to asking you out. Figured if you said no I'd never see you again."

  "It wasn't me avoiding you. I always liked you Wally. No telling where it might have gone if life hadn't intervened, but I'm happy with where my life is at now. I'd like to think we could still be friends."

  "I suspect friends is probably a lot easier on a guy than significant other, where you're concerned."

  "Cool. Glad we got that out of the way. I did everything I could, short of turning myself and Harrison in, to take the pressure off you when I fell off the grid. I'm sorry if it caused you trouble."

  "A bit of heartbreak and a lot of self-recriminations, but no trouble."

  "Good. When we get out of here I want to take you and Rollick out to dinner."

  "Sounds good, Frankie."

  "We'll all go try seafood."

  Harrison ran his hand through my hair. "I've eaten seafood."

  "Yes and I apologize for the fact your father is an idiot, but entranced as you were you wouldn't have believed me if I’d told you that. Probably for the best, anyway. If they'd had more time to plan, the people that put us here might have pulled it off. Seeing us apart probably encouraged them to speed up the attack. The out-of-towners couldn't have done much besides arrive here. At least not if this whole thing stemmed from our phone calls."

  "Good point. So my father's an idiot with a good sense of timing." Harrison smiled, almost laughed, then clutched his side. "Damn it, that hurts."

  "Frankie!" Wally's voice held reprimand.

  "What'd I do now, Wally?"

  "You have the president's son cursing."

  I laughed. It almost came out as a giggle. "It's taken a lot of work, but he's almost as good as I am."

  A knock on the door announced company. Rollick opened it and said, "I'm in for dinner. You have a visitor if you're up to company."

  "God yes," I said "I need distraction."

  Paul walked in the door. "Sorry. I had to make sure you were all right. Poppy wouldn't leave me alone until I saw it with my own two eyes."

  "You're welcome to be here. Give Poppy my best."

  "She really took to you. I've never seen her attach so fast. Beached herself last night. I'm sorry I wasn't any help."

  "You weren't a hindrance. Getting the hell out of the way is about the only thing you could have done. You weren't armed and I'm guessing your magic isn't the least offensive--"

  "That would be a mistake to assume that. I'm just not much use out of my element."

  "And that's enough about you. I want to have a sit down with you and Poppy. Harrison and I are in the middle of a project I think you might enjoy. However there are other people--Harrison's father--who I’d rather didn't know who or what you are and since he has a bug in this room, now is not the optimal time to chat. And since you came back here I'm sure som
ebody will follow you when you leave."

  "We know how to keep our secrets."

  "Good then. Come over here and give us a hug."

  "I thought you'd never ask." He nearly climbed in the bed with me. Pretty sure the only reason he stopped was Harrison's disgruntled sigh. "Now Poppy will believe me. She'll smell you on me."

  "My father's here. I want you to meet him. And I didn't tell you when we spoke last time, Harrison is a biogeneticist."

  "Really? Interesting. I'll have to bring Great-grandpa to meet them."

  "He's still alive? I didn't get that impression when we talked last time."

  "Oh he's still alive. That's one result of his experiments."

  Harrison looked at Paul with new interest. In the daylight, the soft film of scales that had glittered in the moonlight was nearly invisible. “I look forward to meeting him. Perhaps he can help me and my lovely wife’s father, fill the order she placed.”

  Paul laughed. “She told me about that. Great-grandpa would love the challenge.”

  “Well then, we look forward to meeting him once we get sprung from this place.”

  “Frankie knows how to get in touch with me. I’ll leave you two to recover.” Paul looked down at me and I held a hand up to him.

  “Just get it over with,” Harrison grumbled.

  And Paul wasted no time bending over to hug me. When he straightened he went around to Harrison’s side of the bed and hugged him too. Harrison looked distinctly uncomfortable, which wasn’t helped any when I busted out laughing. Harrison’s attention was caught by Paul’s face though, he stretched a hand up and traced the scales on his cheekbones. His interest piqued he forgot the discomfort of being hugged by a man. “Are those…”

  “Exactly what they look like.”

  “If that means what I think it means--Damn…OK… I see where Frankie’s mind raced ahead of me. We most definitely do need to talk.”

  “Then we’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Paul left and I watched Harrison work over the implication. “See, not just any old man can take me to supper.”

  “I love you.”

  “I know.” I concentrated on keeping the pain from incapacitating me as I rolled back over and put my head in the curve of his shoulder. With some annoyance I noticed there was some fresh blood seeping through my bandage. Time to go back to sleep. It was the only way I saw myself remaining still long enough to allow the wound to heal. Harrison’s arm curving under me didn’t help. His hand running from my shoulder to hip kept me aroused. “Stop.”

  He did, but I sensed his confusion even before he said, “Now what am I doing wrong?”

  I kissed the chest under my head. “Nothing. But when you can roll over here without bleeding to death, you’re more than welcome to touch me anywhere you want. Since just getting this far nearly exhausted me, I’ll thank you not to make me want to try more.”

  "I can live with that." His hand lay still on my hip. "Sergeant?"

  "Something I can do for you, Sir?" I doubted Harrison could miss the sullen tone in Wally's voice.

  Growing up the son of Jordan Drover it was likely he learned early on how to ignore the people that didn't like him. "Could you please check the drawers and see if my handheld was brought in?"

  "Personal belongings are all at the watch precinct house."

  Harrison cussed under his breath.

  I raised my voice. "If you're still listening President Drover, could you please have a handheld brought up to us?"

  It didn't take ten minutes before the door opened. Nan and Jallahan entered the room with smiles on their faces. Nan passed her handheld to Harrison. "Your friends at the watch aren't giving up your belongings to anybody except you, but if you're looking for something to read you can use ours."

  "Thank you, Mother."

  "Are you all right, Harrison?" Nan sounded motherly.

  "Fine," Harrison said. "Frankie tells me I'm a wuss, but I'll survive."

  "You shouldn't be laying on your injured shoulder, Frankie," Jallahan said.

  "In case you haven't noticed, I tend to do whatever I want, Dad. Been injured often enough to know what's damaging me."

  He grinned at me, but there was a scraping of chair legs from over by the door. "Dad? I didn't think you had any family left, Frankie."

  "Neither did I. I'm sorry, guess I forgot introductions. Sergeant Wallin was a very good friend until Jordan Drover entered my life. Wally, this is my father, Mage Jallahan, the man formerly known as the sperm-donor. And Harrison's mother, Nan."

  Wally stood and extended his hand. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Sir."

  Jallahan accepted his hand. "Pleasure's mine."

  "I can't believe Frankie--" Wally broke off as though realizing his words probably needed thinking before uttering.

  "Don't worry, Sergeant. You're not going to say anything that can offend me. I think we all know how Frankie felt about mages most of her life and that's probably mostly my fault. Fortunately, Harrison had the good sense to fall in love with her and was able to convince her we aren't all evil. I'm glad she seems to have plenty of good friends."

  Wally looked at the ground a moment before saying, "She's a good person. It's hard not to like her."

  "Get this," I said. "My father is the head of Research and Development at the Mage University. Can you believe I descended from someone with a brain?"

  "You're the smartest woman I ever met," Wally said. "That's not hard to believe at all."

  "Well we'd love to stay and chat," Nan said, "But we have plans to make. Four days from now we'll be getting married and we expect the two of you to be up and about and able to attend."

  "I'll be out of here by tomorrow," I assured her.

  "And she's not going anywhere without me," Harrison added.

  "You take what time you need." Nan said. "We'll keep an eye on her."

  "You don't understand, Mom. First, I need her to keep an eye on me. Second, when she gets out of sight, I can't breathe. I might be a wuss, but if she leaves tomorrow, I will get out of this bed."

  "I hardly recognize my son. What have you done to him, Francesca?"

  I laughed. "You should know the answer to that better than most. He left District Seven a mage. I turned him into a real man." Pink rose up in Harrison's cheeks and before he could take offense, I added. "Which is only fair since he turned me into a real woman."

  Wally looked like he had something to say; mercifully he kept his mouth shut.

  Nan and Jallahan both smiled, then said, "We'll see you later."

  "If you're putting things together for a wedding, will at least one of you need your handheld?" I raised my father's toward him.

  "We have our chips if we need to buy anything. You go ahead and read."

  The door opened and food arrived. My interest in reading, or weddings, or any and everybody else that existed in the world faded in favor of the scents rising up from the trays the nurse carried in. She lifted the lids to reveal boneless turkey breasts and baked potatoes and broccoli with cheese sauce.

  Nan and Jallahan walked out without acknowledging the food so I decided it hadn't come from them. It definitely wasn't standard hospital fare. I decided not to let the source ruin it for me, even if it came from Jordan Drover. Imagine how happy I was when the nurse said, "Compliments of Captain Jarvis and the troopers of Two-Three-Seven."

  It was official. They were my heroes.

  I ate every bit of my meal and Harrison guarded his from me as he finished the last couple of bites a hair behind me. When the food was gone, another nurse arrived to check bandages and vital stats. When she disappeared we picked up our parents' handhelds and started scrolling through the libraries. My father's was filled with Scientific manuals and research. Nan's was filled with romance novels.

  "Don't suppose you want to trade?" Harrison asked.

  I scrolled to the latest download on Jallahan's. "The Treatise on Genetics and Magic. At this level you'd probably get a lot more out of his. Don't kno
w about reading your mother's romance novels though. If they're not dirty, they'll be boring. If they are dirty I'll just end up getting hot and bothered and knowing way more about your mother than I want to." I handed him Jallahan's handheld.

  He accepted it, then said, "What would you like to read?"

  "You know your mother's passwords?"

  "Unless she's changed them recently."

  "Something written a thousand years ago, about a different world, with fairies, and elves, and unicorns…oh..and Mer people and naiads and I don't know…"

  He was typing in key words and sent the search engine out to find something that matched. It came up with more than three hundred books, none of which matched all the criteria, but I’d already read three from the first page so I settled for one of the two remaining on the page.

  Chapter 13

  We read until doctors made their obligatory rounds and paused again to talk to Rollick a little when he and Wally went off shift, replaced by two troopers I’d seen but hadn't talked to. By that time it was morning and we slept again.

  Doctors attempting to pry us apart, woke us up sometime in the afternoon. I rolled over and the dark-haired woman at my shoulder stripped off my bandages, applied antibiotic and a fresh wrap, then declared me ready to leave as long as I kept it clean.

  Harrison's doctor was a bit hesitant to give him a clean bill of health, but when it became apparent that he had every intention of leaving with or without their permission they said he could leave as long as he traveled via wheelchair. ""Hah," I scoffed at him. "Your turn to be the invalid."

  He laughed back. "Not like you're going to push me around with that shoulder."

  Jordan Drover stepped in the room. "I will get him where he wants to go."

  I stared at the doorway, hoping for Nan or my father, but they failed to appear. With resignation, I watched as the doctors wrestled Harrison out of bed and into the wheelchair his flesh paled as they settled him down and his father grasped the handles. I walked beside the wheelchair with my back to the president. Our car waited in the parking lot surrounded by about a dozen troopers. Gerrill held the keys out to me and I smiled at the young trooper and thanked him. With considerable grimacing and lightening of flesh tones, Harrison managed to get himself from his chair to the passenger seat of the Forester.