by H. E. Trent
“Oh. Well, good luck.”
The doctor set his medical bag on the table and then headed to the sink. “Ais, we can do this wherever you’re most comfortable. You can sit at the table or the bed, though if you sit on the counter, you’d be doing my back some favors.”
Owen was heading to the bathroom to deal with his teeth when Ais started making her way across the room.
Although instincts compelled him to turn back and to assist her—to pick her up and set her in place while the doctor explained the procedure—he couldn’t let himself appear too invested. Amy would ask questions, and he’d deserve every awkward one.
Luke followed him into the bathroom a couple of minutes later and closed the door.
Catching a glimpse of the other man’s shit-eating grin in the mirror, Owen rolled his eyes.
“I hope you’re not gonna backslide now,” Luke said low.
Owen spit foam into the sink. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“That lady is practically throwing herself at you.”
“If memory serves me correctly, she didn’t seem so averse to you being around, either.”
“You know damn well she was just tolerating me because I was there and because I didn’t hurt her. She didn’t mind me being there, but she didn’t want my dick, and I don’t think she’s looking for variety.”
Owen spit again and then rinsed his mouth. “What are you telling me?”
“You’re smarter than you’re behaving, even if you are a bit emotionally stunted. Don’t fuck up.”
“What is it that I shouldn’t be fucking up?”
Luke gave him a sharp poke to the shoulder. “That’s your girl, dude.” Before Owen could open his mouth to suggest otherwise, Luke added, “And why not? She knows stuff about you, right? She knows you’re a cranky asshole, and probably knows a little bit about why, huh?”
Owen dragged a hand through his messy hair. It looked bad even to him but there was nothing to be done about it without a shower. He didn’t have time to shower.
“Why not see what could happen if you have an actual relationship with someone?”
“Luke, it’s been so long since—”
“Hey. And that’s fine. We all gotta pick ourselves back up sometimes. I mean, shit, I didn’t date for a year and a half when I was working through my bi confusion. Fucked plenty of people, but didn’t date. I have since, though.”
“Yeah? I don’t recall you dating anyone in recent history.”
“Hence my dry spell. There was someone, though, a while ago, but I had to be kinda quiet about him. The guy was in the closet and under deep cover. I wasn’t supposed to know that second thing, but you know how people’s secrets tend to come out when they’re naked.”
Owen scoffed. “Well, why’d you break up?”
“He got assigned somewhere far enough away and for long enough that I was reasonably sure I’d never see him again. Just as well. He probably wouldn’t have gotten along with my family, anyway. He didn’t like pasta.”
Owen laughed and pulled the door open. “I’m not making any promises.”
“Just think about things, all right? I’m looking out for you.”
“You’re trying to, anyway.”
Ais was perched on the kitchen counter and gripping Amy’s forearm tightly. Dorro had her right eye held open with some sort of spreader and was shining a light into the pupil.
“Just waiting for the drops to activate,” he explained. “The surgery itself will be faster than the drug response time. I’ve got every action scripted out in my head. Should take no longer than two minutes.”
Owen leaned against the counter’s edge near the sink, being careful not to get in the doctor’s light. “If the process is so simple, why didn’t the Tyneali do it?”
“Likely because they didn’t care to. If they couldn’t find a genetic fix for what was wrong with her, they’d leave her alone until they could. Ah. I believe I can start now.”
“Are you going to hurt her?” Amy asked.
“Oh, she have just a bit of stinging and throbbing after the fact, maybe. I believe the worst part is the anticipation…and merely having something in the eye is disquieting.” He held a pencil-shaped laser scalpel in front of her eye, and she gripped Amy’s arm tighter.
Her right cheek started to twitch. If she moved too much, Dorro would have to keep stopping. The procedure would be worse and longer than it needed to be.
Owen didn’t want her scared anymore. He sidled around the doctor to Ais’s other side and pressed his hands to either side of her face. “Don’t move too much, okay?”
She blinked the eye that wasn’t held open and swallowed. “Okay.”
“I’ll give her an anti-inflammatory and a painkiller that should get her through the next day just fine,” Dorro said.
“Just stare straight ahead if you can,” Dorro said to Ais. “I know the compulsion when someone is shining a light into your pupil is to look away, but I need to angle this beam from directly ahead. Understood?”
She swallowed and wrapped cool fingers around Owen’s forearm. “Yes.”
“You’re all right.” He leaned in close and whispered, “You’re not afraid of an asshole like me, so why would you be afraid of something as routine as this?”
She breathed out a little huff of air. “Don’t know. Is silly, yes?”
“You’re not silly.” He should have never have called her that.
He straightened up. Behind him, the puppy started scratching at his collar, making the little bell on it jingle.
Owen clucked his tongue at the beast and kept Ais’s head still. “He’s distracting.”
“I’ll give him some kibble,” Luke said.
“Oh yes. I heard about Jerry’s canine love affair,” Dorro said. He was leaning in so close to Ais that his nose nearly touched hers.
“I don’t know if it was a love affair so much as a booty call,” Owen muttered.
Luke snorted. “Mike would be so scandalized.”
“I know, right?”
“Who’s Mike?” Amy asked.
Owen sighed and turned his gaze to the ceiling. “He was my twin. He died several years ago.”
“Oh.” Her shoulders fell in that sympathetic way people with healthy emotions tended to perform. “Courtney told me there was another brother. I forgot. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks.”
“Of the five McGarry kids,” Luke said with a chuckle—he was always trying to pick up the mood in a room, “Mike was the least likely to get into trouble. That wasn’t just because he was sick.”
“He was a complete mama’s boy,” Owen said.
“You didn’t care, did ya?”
“Nah. The fact he got so much attention meant I got in less trouble than I should have.”
“What trouble?” Ais asked, barely moving her lips. She probably couldn’t with Owen’s hands pressed so securely against her jaw hinges.
“The usual stuff kids who are too curious get into, or that Luke got me into.”
“Sounds like you’re calling Mr. Cipriani a bad example,” Amy said.
Luke scoffed. “Honey, I make setting a bad example seem like a profession.”
“You think that’s a good thing?”
“It’s the best thing. It’s fun.”
“There’s more to life than fun.”
“Ah, lighten up, Red. I get plenty of work done, too. I hauled ass all the way to Jekh, didn’t I? Didn’t I bring you goodies?”
“Me specifically?”
“Well, you know. Jekh-kind. That includes you.”
“Oh, I see. Well, thank you for your thoughtful gifts.”
“That’s a perfectly politic response.”
“I’m the daughter of a politician. I suppose I know how to spin words when I need to.”
“Which is to say that you lie better than anyone else?”
Amy cut Luke a vicious sideways gaze, but he didn’t look deterred. Luke had never bee
n put off by a little snark. If Amy wanted him to go away, she’d have to try much harder to offend him. Owen wasn’t entirely certain that Amy knew how to offend anyone.
“As fascinating as this discussion is…” Dorro turned off his laser. “I’m all done.”
“Huh?” Amy peered closely at Ais’s twitching eye.
“As I said, two minutes.” He carefully removed the clamps, but held her eyelid up with one gloved finger. He squeezed in more drops and said, “If you’ll hand me that eye occlusor?"
Amy scanned the array of items on the countertop and picked up a sealed paper square. “This?”
“Mm. Could you open that, please?” He closed Ais’s eye and held out his hand.
Amy ripped the top off the packet and exposed the eye patch.
Dorro peeled the moldable patch off and then pressed it over Ais’s closed eyelid. “Keep that on until the day after tomorrow. I’ll examine the eye before doing surgery on the other one to make sure it’s healing properly and that there are no signs of infection.” He walked to the sink and washed his hands.
Owen realized his hands were still on Ais’s cheeks. He let them down.
Her uncovered eye pivoted toward him and her eyebrow darted up.
Leaning in, he whispered, “You should get something to eat. Painkiller’s gonna make you nauseated. What do you want??”
“I pick?”
“Yeah, you can pick. Anything you’d like.”
She sighed. “Want pudding.”
He chuckled and let her down from the counter. “Of all things?”
“Want it.”
“I’ll see if I can find some at the house.” He took a step away to go get her pudding and some real food, too, but she grabbed his arm.
For a man who tended to shun touch, he was actually pleased that she gripped him so unhesitatingly. There was a neediness in her touch that wasn’t unexpected, but also slight possessiveness. She didn’t want to unhand him.
Wasn’t put off by him.
Odd woman.
Maybe she didn’t know any better, and perhaps that wasn’t such a terrible thing. “I’ll be back in ten, fifteen minutes,” he said. “I promise.”
“Can’t see.”
“I know.” He pushed her braid over her shoulder and smoothed down the collar of her dress. It still needed to be tightened. “Harder with one eye, right?”
She nodded.
He tucked in a bit of hair that hadn’t been tamed during her harried morning preparations into her braid. “The day after tomorrow, you’ll have one eye that’s a lot better, and a couple of days after that you’ll have two that are pretty good.” He leaned in even closer and whispered, “Maybe in a few weeks you won’t try to give me a heart attack by stepping off ledges you can’t see.”
“Sorry.”
“Just don’t do that again. Next time, I’ll feel like you falling is my fault, okay?”
“Okay.”
She let go of his arm, and he called over to Luke, “Going to see if there’s pudding left over for Ais to take her medication with.”
“You go, too,” Amy said to Luke. “I’ll hang out with Ais until you get back.”
“I feel like you’re trying to get rid of me.”
Amy narrowed her eyes and canted her head coyly. “I thought perhaps you’d like to see your siblings this morning. I believe one of them is very nearly acclimated to Jekh time. The other…” She shrugged. “Not so much.”
“Eh. Not worried about them, but I am curious to see if Salehi worked out any of that code last night when we were…” The corner of Luke’s lips twitched. “Otherwise occupied.”
Owen edged away from Ais and gave Luke a discreet punch to the back that made him cough.
“Yeah,” he wheezed, following Owen to the door. “We’ll be back soon.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“You see dog?” Although Ais could hear a lot of snuffling, she couldn’t see the puppy in the tall grass near the cottage.
“Yes, I see him,” Amy said. “He’s sniffing some plants at the edge of the field. You can’t see him, probably, because his fur is blending in with the thatch. So, anyway, what do you picture yourself doing once you have two good eyes?”
Shrugging, Ais folded her legs in front of her and straightened her dress around them. “Oh, sew, maybe?”
“Hey, not a bad idea, in my opinion. There’s only one seamstress in Little Gitano, and she keeps threatening to retire. No one else is really volunteering to apprentice under her. What’s got you interested in sewing?”
“Books. From station.” Ais didn’t know how to articulate what she meant in either Jekhani or English, but hoped Amy would catch on, anyway. Owen seemed much better at making sense of her piecemeal statements.
Owen had brought her pudding, watched her eat, and then had disappeared with Luke, who’d been chattering excitedly about how someone had broken the code he’d brought. They were probably huddled around a computer in the office. Ais wanted so badly to be in the thick of things, but knew she’d just be in the way. She couldn’t help, and suspected that sitting and watching would have been pathetic.
“What kind of book did you read?” Amy asked.
“Books,” Ais said, emphasizing the plurals “Novels. Long dresses. Balls. Remind of…” She indicated her skirt.
“Ah. Regency stories?”
Ais nodded. For whatever reason, those had been the only books available in the database that had audio versions. She’d listen to the narrators describe the clothes the women wore and would fondle her simple shifts, wondering if she’d ever have anything grander. At the time, the concern had seemed petty and she’d dismissed it, but if there were going to be opportunities on Jekh, she wanted to grab one. She wanted a trade—not just a job.
“You?” Ais gently rubbed her throbbing eye through her patch, trying not to aggravate the healing cornea. The doctor had said the painkiller would need a couple of hours to completely take the edge off. He’d also hinted that she’d probably sleep through most of the dose’s period, muttering something about her weight and that he’d wished he’d been able to compound the drug specifically for her. “What Amy do?”
“Hmm. Good question.”
The puppy ran over to them, then back into the tall grasses as if he simply needed to check that they were still paying attention.
“You know,” Amy said, “no one’s ever asked me.”
“No?”
Amy grunted softly. “I guess people either expect me to go into politics or be a housewife. They never ask what I’d rather do.”
“What do?”
“Nothing.”
“Sorry?”
Amy sighed and flopped onto her back. “I mean, not nothing nothing. Before I knew the lifestyle wouldn’t be in the cards for me, I thought I’d be like my mother. She didn’t work for money, but she was out so much, talking to people and taking care of them, that what she did may as well have been a job.”
“What people?”
“The people at home. In Leyund, I mean. When she moved into Buinet, she wanted to make sure they were doing okay, so she’d go home and find out what services they needed that no one was paying attention to. I don’t know if she ever brought anything she learned to my fathers’ attentions. She just got things done.”
“She take you?”
“Yes. By the time I was six or seven, I could name every single person in her old neighborhood. When we went there, she actually let me play and get dirty. She’d pack a spare dress for me to change into and make sure my hair was tidy and nails were clean before we went back to Buinet, and my fathers never said anything. I guess they never caught on. She was an interesting woman. I didn’t understand back then that her shuttling me around with her was unusual.”
“Because fathers mind?”
“Yes, they’re the primary caregivers, usually, but mine were too busy, I guess. I can’t remember a point where there was a transfer or anything like that, of my fathers tending to
me and my brothers and then her taking over the tasks. I remember the caregiver always being her, so I don’t buy into the assertion that Jekhan women are distant mothers. I think they behave the way culture demands, but I don’t believe for one minute they’re born just to pop out babies and hand them over to their fathers.”
“Hope not. Want mine.”
“Yeah?”
Ais nodded and hugged herself, smiling. “Always want, for me. No nanny like in books. Want see.” Assuming she could even have any. She’d have to ask the doctor one day if he could fix her womb, too, or whatever other thing had kept her from conceiving in all that time Reg had kept her.
“And have them about making lots of noise when you’re sewing.”
“Yes.”
“Sounds like a dream.”
“Lonely?”
“Sometimes.” Amy sighed. “Okay, a lot of the time. I got used to that, though. Sometimes, even when I’m around people, I feel isolated because no one person knows everything about me anymore, and I guess there’s no one I think who’d care enough.”
“I care.”
“Oh, honey, I bet you probably do. Don’t let me bring you down, though. I’m sure my problems are a drop in the bucket compared to yours.”
“No compare.”
“Maybe you’re right. There’s no good reason to pin down who had things worse, but I daresay you’ve got the better lot right now. Hello, Owen McGarry?”
Ais whipped her head toward Amy to put her one good eye on her.
Amy snorted her laughter. “Oh, you totally just gave yourself away. If you’re trying to keep a secret, you need to be better at being mysterious. I was just guessing.”
Closing her eyes, Ais sighed and swore in the Tyneali tongue.
“So, what’s going on between you two? I can never make out what Owen’s thinking because he’s so closed off, but I see how much attention he pays to you. Comparatively speaking, of course. He’s observant enough to be noticeable because very little pulls at his attention. There have been women in Little Gitano who’ve straight-out asked him to come visit and he totally blew them off. I promise, I won’t say anything.”
Ais was glad he’d “blown them off” if that meant he’d told them no. She turned her hands over in concession. “I…like.”