Chapter 12: The Road Home
Zak kneels by Tara's side, who was still wincing in pain, "You're hurt.... Why did you block me off Tara?" A hurt expression on his features.
She looks him in the eyes and puts on an unconvincing brave face, "Because getting everyone out of there alive was more important than a little scratch..." She groans in pain.
Zak looks at the wound and makes a noise deep in his throat of a mixture of revulsion and rage. "What?" Doc and Drew ask together. Zak quickly gets her to her feet, ready to bring her to the med room on the airship.
Doc, Doyle, Drew, and Fisk don't see any injuries from the front but when they see her back, they gasp in horror. Tara's "little scratch" was a deep gash across her back and blood now covered her back and soaked her shirt. The flow of blood was already starting to slow though, due to her swift healing as a shifter and her own healing ability besides that.
"Whoa... That's not a scratch..." Doyle says wide eyed.
Zak says to his shocked gorilla-cat brother, "Fisk, could you go get one of my extra T-shirts?"
Fisk garbles, "Okay," and goes to get the shirt.
Tara sways on her feet and almost drops, but Zak catches her and with up most care, picks her up onto his back piggy-back style. Doc and Drew shake off their horror and follow Zak to the medical room. Once there, Doc helps Zak sit Tara up on one of the treatment beds, and Drew gets supplies for stitching up the wound out.
Drew comes back over to Tara's side with the supplies and cuts the tattered back of Tara's shirt off to give her better access. She cleanses the wound with much hissing from Tara and begins to stitch up the wound.
Zak takes up a position in front of Tara to help her. Half conscious, Tara reaches out for him and places her hands on Zak's shoulders for support as the pain increases while Drew treats her. As Doc looks on, he notices that while Tara's eyes were glazed with pain so to was Zak's, although not quite to the degree as hers were.
Soon it's all over, and Tara sags against Zak's support, but she maintains consciousness. Fisk returns with an orange t-shirt and hands it to Drew.
"Thank you Fiskerton."
Zak switches spots with his mom and turns away from Tara. Drew takes Zak's place and helps Tara out of her tattered and bloody shirt into the new one. Drew finishes by giving Tara a shot of morphine, and Doc scoops her up to bring her to the same room that she slept in the night before. He gently puts her down on her stomach to avoid hurting her back.
Thinking that she is already unconscious, Zak, Drew, Doc, and Fisk start to leave the room. They all stop when Tara whispers, "Zak?"
They all turn around to listen, and Zak turns back to her, "Yeah?"
She grins tiredly as she slips off, "I told you they'd be back... here... tonight...." Not finishing her sentence, she falls asleep.
"Yeah *yawn* you were right," he says quietly. He softly whispers to her through their bond, "Sleep, you deserve it." Zak leaves the room followed by his parents and Fisk.
He looks to his mom as the door slides closed, "She'll be alright, right?" Zak knew that his bond partner would be fine from some subconscious knowledge of wounds that Tara knew about through her medical training, but he wanted to hear it out loud.
"As long as we keep that wound from getting infected, she'll be fine. She'll be in a lot of pain in the next week or so though," Drew tells him truthfully. She watches Zak flinch, "Truthfully Zak, I'm surprised that she hadn't gone into shock back on that roof with a gash like that."
Doc asks his human son, "Why did she do that though? Had that shot been half a centimeter lower, it would have killed her!"
Zak looks up at him and says as they all walk, "She did it as much for all of us as she did for you as a person, dad."
"What do you mean Zak?" Drew asks him softly.
He sighs, his tiredness beginning to really creep up, "She knows how important you guys are to me. She knows that if any one of our pack members," Zak unknowingly refers to their family as 'our pack', "got killed, it would shatter us and hurt us greatly."
They all stop and stare at him in surprise. Doc, Drew, and Fisk realize suddenly that Tara's reasoning and Zak's words were dead accurate. If anyone in the family died then things would just become unbearable.
Unaware of Zak and Tara's bond, Doc asks, "When did she tell you all of this?"
Zak looks up at him, "Back when mom was putting her stitches in."
Fisk leaves since he already knew about the bond, but Doc and Drew give him a startled look. Tara hadn't said a word apart from hissing when she was in the med room.
As if reading their minds Zak says, throwing subtlety through the window in his exhausted state, "We share a bond, so we can talk to each other without saying a word."
His parents gape at him like two fish, and Drew stutters, "A-a bond?"
Unable to suppress it, Zak stretches and yawns, "Yeah... ask Mary about it." He turns and walks down the hall. Going into that rage earlier had depleted almost all of his energy, and Zak was very tired now that the danger had passed.
Doc quickly recovers and says firmly, "Zak. There is another reason why Tara risked her life for mine."
"You're right," Zak doesn't look back at them as he hangs his head and says loud enough for them to hear, "She didn't want me to feel the pain that she does..." Zak walks away and into his room before he collapses on his bed.
Doc and Drew share a look, "The pain that she does?"
*******
Doc and Drew join Mary on the bridge, Doyle already having retired for the night to his quarters. They greet their old trainer warmly, "Long time no see, Mary."
She grins back, "I'm glad to see that you two are alright," she looks at them seriously, "We have much to discuss."
"Indeed." Doc nods.
Looking at their distracted expressions, Mary states, "I'm under the assumption that Zak has told you of the bond he and Tara have?"
Drew nods to their old mentor, "Yeah he told us to ask you about it."
Mary crosses her arms and gives them a look, "I doubt I know about it any better than he does, but I suppose I can put it into words better. Well, with the bond Zak and Tara can sense each other's location, feel the others emotions, and telepathically communicate to a limited degree." She informs them, "I was able to talk to them separately about it, and every response they made was identical to say the least," she pauses for an moment and says, "They said that while at first the bond was only strong enough to get vague feelings of emotion from each other, and at the time when they told me, their connection had become much more powerful."
Doc and Drew's eyebrows rise, and Drew asks, "Is it still growing in strength?"
Mary shrugs apologetically, "Sorry, I don't know. After I asked those questions of them, they kept mostly to themselves."
"Wow... Drew?"
"Yeah Doc?" She answers in a slightly shocked voice.
"Back in the med bay while you were treating Tara, Zak looked like he was in pain too."
Drew and Mary's eyes grow wide. Mary asks, "Are you sure Solomon?"
"100% positive. The look in his eyes where like something you see in the eyes of a wounded person, like Tara. The thing is he wasn't wounded."
"Oh my," Mary mutters, "That's a surprise now isn't it?"
"Hmm... I've heard about bonding incidents before, but there hasn't been a legitimate case since the late 1800's. The ones afterwards were hoaxes, elaborate and otherwise, but the people involved often times had things to gain, money. Zak and Tara's case shows all the signs of being legit though." Drew says nodding to herself, "Not to mention even past cases haven't been very strong either."
"I want to run a couple of tests to check this out later, but for the moment we should contact Fred and Linda, they're probably worried sick about Tara." Doc and Drew walk over to start sending a transmission, failing to notice the sorrowful expression on Mary's face.
Drew turns when she hears Mary say, "They won't answer when you call. They can't hear you any more."
The two Saturdays look at her in a confused manner, she clarifies, "I'm sorry, I know you four were good friends." A knot forms in the Saturdays' stomachs and they somehow knew what Mary was about to tell them, "Linda is KIA and Fredric is MIA. They've been gone for four years." Her voice quivering with grief.
Doc and Drew look at each other in shock, how could this have happened? And how did they never find out?
"What happened?" Doc asks first.
Mary sighs, "They went to Saudi Arabia with an archaeological group, and they took Tara with them. One night they were attacked and Fred was kidnapped by them. They found Tara holding Linda's body down in the ruins the next morning.
"They questioned Tara about what happened and she just wouldn't answer to anything whatsoever. She just stared at you with... blank eyes." Mary shakes her head, "Her eyes used to hold so much fire and life, but after watching her mother get murdered and then learning of her father's disappearance that fire just... went out."
She then looks up at them with an odd expression, "She's never told me or anyone else what happened that night. I never thought she would ever recover from this, I never thought I'd see the fire back in her eyes. It would seem that that's all changed now."
"You mean to say that being bonded to Zak is helping her somehow?" Drew asks.
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The fire has returned to her eyes a little since she met Zak, and it wouldn't surprise me if she has told Zak everything that happened that night."
Her features softening, Drew asks, "Where does Tara live now?"
"She had been jumping around from a few distant relatives of hers before living with Sergeant Major Cordan for the past few years."
Doc and Drew remembered Sgt. Major Cordan from a joint mission that the USMC and the Secret Scientists participated in twelve years back. He had been close friend to Linda Valdeze.
Mary continues, "Why do you ask?"
******** Sunrise Ashford, Washington
"Wake up! Come on you stupid morphine, let me wake up!" Tara willfully snarls at herself.
Her wound had healed up and the stitches had dissolved hours ago. Now she was trying to fight through the fog that the morphine kept over her body. Once she didn't have to focus on stopping the bleeding, she was able to bring her severed muscle, veins, and skin back together. Ever since the bonding, the focus needed to control her power had increased many times and her powers were far more efficient.
She stops in her wild, unorganized struggles through the fog of the drug in her physical system. Thinking for a few moments, Tara's internal self sat tapping her chin next to her griffin form. Tara-griffin krees, "You humans are a curious bunch... You cloud your minds with these things that are only semi-effective as pain relievers and only slow your healing energies."
"Normal humans can't harness their energies like shifters, healers, and many cryptids can. If they did, half of their problems would be solved." Tara-human says, "How to get out of here?"
"Why not just wait for the drug to wear off?"
"The last thing I want is for Doc or Drew to give me another dose because they think I'm still in pain. We'll be stuck here for a while if that's the case."
"Point taken. You know, we haven't actually flown for just the sake of flying instead of fleeing from a pursuer or into battle."
Tara feels a twinge of guilt, "I know. We'll do that soon enough though."
An idea pops into her head, and Tara focuses her energies in her physical body. The energy flashes harmlessly through her body cell by cell, burning the morphine out of her system. The fog lifts, and Tara's eyes open.
She rolls over onto her back and swings her legs over the side of the bed. She stands and turns her back towards the mirror in the room. Lifting the back of her shirt, Tara inspects the scar that trailed from the bottom right of her ribcage to her left hip. The scar was thin and the skin was smooth. There was no sign that there had been any stitches and the coloring was only a couple shades darker than her skin.
That was one effect of her power. If any are left behind, the scars are darker than the skin rather than lighter as it normally is when a wound is left to heal on its own.
She smiles, content that she was fully healed, and changes into one of her extras from her bag. Tara leaves her room and heads to the control bridge. Suddenly she feels Zak's mind, and with a slight grin she contacts him, "Good morning Wolfie."
He starts lightly then responds, using his nickname for her, "Talon! You're awake. Is your back..?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Where are you?"
"With everyone else on the bridge."
"Righto, I'll be there in a few moments."
When Tara walks in she has a neutral expression on her face but her eyes were alight with hope. Zak regards her with a smile and says, "Hey Talon."
Doyle, Fisk, Mary, Doc, and Drew turn to see who walked in, and they do a double-take in shock.
"Tara! You should still be resting!" Drew says in a concerned tone.
Tara waves off her words and joins Zak at the holo-table, "What can I say, I'm a fast healer."
"Rriigghhtt." Doyle rolls his eyes in disbelief.
"Don't believe me?" Tara lifts the back of her shirt enough to see the bottom edge of her scar, "Why would I lie about this?"
"Outstanding... Your power did this?" Doc gasps.
"Uh huh... Where are we?"
"Ashford," Mary speaks up, "They were just going to drop us off."
Tara and Zak's faces fall in disappointment. Tara turns to go grab her pack when Doc says, "Tara. We want to speak with you."
She turns and regards Doc and Drew with saddened eyes.
"Doc and I have been talking, and we want to know if... if you want to come and live with our family." Drew asks the preteen in a soft voice.
Instead of happily accepting the offer, Tara instantly goes on guard and hisses, "I hope you realize that I know what you're doing. People have been trying this crap for the past four years." her voice lowers, "I refuse to be a charity case..."
Drew smiles internally, 'Oh yeah. She's definitely your kid, Linda.' "It's not what you are seeing it as." Tara narrows her eyes in mistrust, "We want you to come and be the medic for our family. Some of our missions are pretty dangerous and as much as I hate to say it, someone is bound to get hurt at some point or another... "
Doc and Drew had been warned by Mary ahead of time that Tara would decline any offer that even whiffed of 'charity case', even if she wants to come with them.
Doc picks up the comment, "And even though we know enough about medical problems to take care of most injuries, having a specialized medic for those things would be invaluable. If you decide to come with us, we'll take care of basic living expenses and you'll be given and allowance. When you're off duty you'll have school courses."
"You'll be earning your keep and doing a job Tara, so you won't be a 'case'. My folks will stay true to their word." Zak says in an almost frantic manner. He wanted her to stay as bad as she wanted to.
She nods to him, then turns back to Doc and Drew, "What's the catch?"
"That you take combat training with the rest of us." Drew says.
Tara looks to Mary, "What of Sgt. Major?"
"They've already spoken to him and he thinks it's a good idea." the older woman states truthfully.
Zak and Fisk give her a thumbs up and nod eagerly when she glances briefly their way. She returns her gaze to Doc and Drew and answers, "I accept."
"Oh yeah!" Zak and Fisk shout. Fisk takes three huge strides and envelopes her in a colossal hug.
"You're... crushing... me..." Tara wheezes as she giggles softly.
Zak, Fisk and Komodo promptly start to drag Tara off a tour of the airship. Doc and Drew say their farewells to Doyle and Mary, and take off for the last leg of the journey home.
Okay I apologize for how late this chapter is in being posted but I was stuck at band camp without Internet for 2 weeks so yeah...
This chapter was for Fisk4President, who reminded me how long it's been since I've updated.
P.S. This story takes place right before Fisk gets nabbed by Argost.
Your Humble Authoress,
Sangheili Warrior Girl