20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Merrick

Heart pounding, Merrick ignored the shouts from the Talins and crossed the distance to the tent at a flat-out run. A lifetime of balancing precariously on beams or rafters of space stations made him adept at jumping from piles of rubbish to mountains of trash. He could hear them slipping and falling as they tried to match his movements. In this instance, it was good to be smaller and lighter.

Even that small amount of exertion caused ragged breathing, and he was sure there were spots in his vision by the time he barreled through the tent's "door." The dark inside was a sharp contrast to the bright outdoors and made him come to a stumbling halt.

"Get out!" a voice screamed from the depths of the tent. "I'll gut you like a balb! I'll let you bleed out on my floor, then butcher and eat you! Don't think I won't. I've eaten everything else that came in here thinking I was easy to steal from."

Merrick blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the dim light. In front of him stood Grace. She was impossibly skinny, her hair was cut so short it was nothing but bristles, and she was holding a homemade knife threateningly at him.

It was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen!

"I said get out!" she shouted again,

"Grace!" Merrick cried, surprised she hadn't recognized him yet. She'd been inside, her eyes shouldn't have any issues. Had suddenly opening the tent curtains blinded her momentarily? "My heart, you're alive."

She straightened up, her mouth forming a little O of shock. "M-M-Merrick? Is it really you?"

It wasn't until she took a half step forward and to his right that he realized why she hadn't recognized him, her eyes weren't focusing. They were twitching rapidly and staring off, as if unable to focus on anything.

She dropped her knife and opened her arms. "Merrick!"

"Grace!" He rushed to her. Bending his knees, he wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up in a hug. She wrapped her arms around his head and held on tight. "It's me. I'm here, and I'll never leave again."

A child's whimper sounded, making him jerk. Still holding her, he turned in a circle, looking around the room for the source of the sound. "Where the hell is that coming from?"

Grace laughed. "My back," she choked out, her words distorted by the combination of laughing and sobbing that was coming out of her.

He dropped her gently to her feet and peered over her shoulder to see a child strapped to her back.

"Is…is…she, uh, he, ours?" he asked, unable to believe how tiny and perfect the little face of their child was with her mothers eyes and his blond hair.

"It seems we didn't need medical help to get me pregnant. Meet our daughter, Maeve. She'll be turning two soon."

"Maeve," he repeated, tears pouring down his face. "Maeve. I'm so happy to meet you, Maeve."

The child wasn't impressed by their reunion and was even more unimpressed when a bunch of Talins came storming into the tent rattling loudly. They made it sound as if hundreds of feet were pounding the ground.

Grace heard them and reacted quickly. With an aggressive growl that showed all her teeth, she turned in the direction of the Talins.

"Take Maeve and run," she ordered, trying to pull away from him. "I'll find my knife and hold them off."

Merrick kept her in a gentle hug. "We're not in danger. They're friends."

She went still. "Friends?"

He couldn't help the little chuckle that came out of him. Since she couldn't see everyone, he decided to start with the least threatening of the bunch. "Yeah, friends. Iris, meet Grace."

Even though she'd probably been told to wait outside, Iris stepped into the tent with Damascus right behind her. She wove her way around the now silent Talins.

"Hi! I'm so excited to meet you," Iris said as she got closer. Merrick knew the moment Iris realized Grace couldn't see. Iris's eyes went wide, and she forced her smile even wider. "Can I give you a hug?"

"I guess so?" Grace said as Merrick let go with one arm so Iris could come in and give his wife an awkward side hug.

"You're human!" Grace gasped. Letting go of Merrick, she ran hands up and down Iris's front. "You're human and you're a woman."

"True and true," Iris said with a chuckle. "Just like you."

That's when Grace started sobbing. "Are you with Merrick? Do you love him?"

Merrick hadn't expected those questions.

"No!" they both shouted at the same time, making Grace startle a little. Her frail body was shaking badly, and she was sweating despite how cold the planet was.

"Promise me you'll stay with him!" Grace begged. She grabbed one of Iris's hands in both of hers. Merrick saw Iris wince at the strength of Grace's grip. "Promise me!"

"I don't need to because you'll be with him," Iris said gently and looked to Merrick for help.

Grace shook her head violently. "You don't understand. You need to help Merrick to take care of my child after I'm gone!"

No sooner were those words out of her mouth than Grace started the slowest, most graceful faint Merrick ever saw. Leave it to his wife to fall with style.

He and Iris were able to catch her without bumping or grabbing at the child strapped to her back. Palathum and Utharium swept in and untangled the complicated length of cloth keeping Maeve secure. Once she was held in Palathum's arms, Utharium picked up Grace's limp form.

One of her hands dangled down. Merrick took her hand in his and kissed the back before looking up at Damascus.

"You promised, now you need to save her. Please, Damascus."

***

Grace

Grace woke up to the dark, which wasn't unusual. Even when she was outside in full daylight she couldn't see anything but vague shapes. Inside the tent it might as well be pitch black, even when they had all the hoff lights on.

What she wasn't used to was waking up to a conversation going on about her.

"...then the pressure will be relieved," an unfamiliar voice said. "We won't know if it'll completely reverse the issue, but it'll undoubtedly improve her eyesight to some degree."

"But it won't hurt her?" That was Merrick. God she loved him! It was so good to know he'd survived and found her, especially when their daughter was going to need him.

"Not at all," the voice assured him. "She is probably suffering from constant headaches, and the removal of the tumor will end those."

Removal? It'd cost a fortune to simply get diagnosed, how could Merrick afford to have the tumor in her head removed?

Fear that he'd done something drastic like sell himself into servitude made her sit up and reach out blindly. "Merrick?"

Hands found hers. "Easy, my heart. I'm here, and you're safe. I'm not leaving your side. Healer Raltinum gave you medication to reduce the tumor in your head. In a few days, she's going to use a special device to pull it out of your head through your nose, one tiny little piece at a time! You're going to be perfectly fine."

Grace felt up his arm until she could cup his cheeks and bring him close to her face. "Did you sell yourself?" she whispered.

"Be at ease, Human Grace. I'm Healer Raltinum, and I've been intensely studying human anatomy," Raltinum said. "Are you in pain?"

Grace went stiff. Raltinum sounded really close; had she heard Grace's question?

"Can you leave us alone for a few submarks, Healer Raltinum?" Merrick asked. He didn't move his head out of her grip and was gently rubbing his hands up and down her arms. Instead of being soothing, his calm attitude was increasing her anxiety. Was it too late? Had he already sacrificed himself for her?

"Certainly," Raltinum agreed. "I'll be in my office. If you press here, I'll come right back. Make sure she understands she needs to tell me if she's in any discomfort. It's important."

"I will," Merrick agreed. Grace heard footsteps, then the woosh of a door.

"Merrick?" She could hear her abject terror in that one word.

"I didn't sell myself," he answered. "It's complicated, but the people helping us are called Talins, and they really like humans and enjoy helping us."

Another thought occurred to her. She let go of Merrick's face to feel around her. "Where's Maeve?"

"She's in an incubator right next to you," Merrick said. He took one of her hands and stretched it to lay her palm on a smooth surface. "I know you can't see her, but she's sleeping peacefully right now. You should've seen how much she ate earlier. Our daughter is a hungry one!"

Relief made her feel dizzy and she collapsed back. "I haven't been getting enough to eat so I never produced much milk. Everything is so expensive on Dandilow II and work is hard to find. Especially after I started having trouble with my eyesight."

"How did you survive?" Merrick asked, making her grimace.

"Badly," she admitted. She felt tears press at the backs of her eyes. Half of her thought this might be a dream. Even if it was, she might as well enjoy it. "When we first got to Dandilow II, we had enough personal wealth to survive, even if we had to live in the slum. But then we got robbed. They took everything, including my tools and Riff's calibration equipment. Without those, we couldn't get higher paying jobs. Each day has been a little bit worse than the one before."

"Riff made it to Dandilow II?" he asked.

"And her wife, and everyone. I wouldn't have survived past the first day if there hadn't been a group of us," she told him. "Didn't you see them when they got back to the tent? We all shared that living space. It's crowded but makes us safer."

"We're on a ship, Grace. After you fainted, we rushed back to the dock to get you here," he explained. "But we'll go back and get everyone. They can leave Dandilow II forever."

"At what cost?" she pressed. "If you didn't sell yourself, then why are they helping? And don't tell me they're doing it because they like humans. That doesn't make any sense in any universe."

She heard rustling, then Merrick was pressing against her side. He'd climbed into the bed with her. Feeling around, she found his arm and drew it over her chest. His face was above hers, and he kissed the top of her head.

"There's no cost, but there is a choice," he said. "It's a lot, so I'm going to give you the highlights with the understanding that after we find everyone else, we're going to go over it all again."

He sounded so much like the Merrick she married that it made her chuckle.

"I'm ready for the highlights," she said, feeling her fears recede. This was Merrick, the love of her life and the father of her child. He'd found them even though he was supposed to be dead. That meant he could do anything!

"Right, brace yourself because Talins are a little weird," he began as she shifted a little for better snuggling. For the first time in a long time she was warm, there was no pain, and having Merrick lying next her wasn't a dream.

She fell back to sleep in the middle of his third sentence.