Jonah had to confess, he felt like he'd found his niche. He was supervising his team of miners opening up a new shaft in the west wall of the caves. He'd been told three days ago of his new assignment and yesterday they'd started the actual work on digging a new tunnel into the solid rock. His crew, all men he knew, were finding their pace and their slots as a separate team with a singular task. It felt natural giving them orders; so natural that without any posturing or bluster he just expected them to do as he said. And they did.
He knew Thera had been integral in bringing about the final decision that led to the mining of a new shaft for the much-needed ore. There was a correctness to her doing the brain stuff and him taking over for the grunt work. He supposed some people were just suited to certain things.
They were making decent progress. It looked paltry at first glance, but one had to remember they were trying to dig into solid rock.
Jonah was with the group of miners shifting chunks of freed stone into crates to be removed. He wasn't sure where the debris went, maybe to be dumped on the surface in the ice and snow.
The reverberating sound of the pick-axes and sledgehammers pounding mercilessly at the cratered depression in the wall was beginning to stagger, lose its rhythm, and Jonah straightened stiffly to survey his team. Everyone was dirty and sweaty. His men were starting to look fatigued and Jonah decided they had to stop to rest.
"Hold!" he called, and everyone paused and looked over at him.
"Take five."
Everyone looked at him strangely then looked around for what they might possibly take 'five' of. Only Carlin dropped his hammer to the ground before noticing everyone around him perplexed.
Jonah resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Take a break, get some water, and be back in five minutes."
Finally understanding, and relieved, the workers lowered their tools to the floor and made for the large basin of water.
Jonah would wait until his men had drunk before making for the water bowl so instead he found a sizable rock and sat down. He pulled his hat from his head and wiped at the sweat on his face. Doing something different was a relief and even the grueling nature of the work was a welcome change. The only down-side to his new assignment was that he didn't get to see Thera on occasion; she was back in the caves proper tending to her regular duties and they no longer happened to 'bump into each other' during the course of the workday.
Someone sat down next to him and Jonah knew whom it was without even having to open his eyes. "Carlin."
Carlin rolled his neck and shoulders to try and work out the kinks. The younger man had, as many of the workers had, removed his jacket and shirt. Normally one had to be very careful where they left their precious clothing, certainly never left unattended, but there had been a somewhat unspoken agreement reached among the miners that no one's clothing would be stolen. It allowed them all the liberty of shedding their stifling attire, and Jonah would be apt to uphold the nonverbal pact and few would want to incur Jonah's wrath by appropriating a jacket not their own.
Jonah looked over at his friend a moment. Carlin was resting with his elbows on his knees and head drooping with his chin nearly touching his chest. He would go for water when Jonah did. Carlin was well-muscled if pale. Then again, they were all sun-starved pale. And yet, Jonah would glance down at his forearm and find it odd how pallid it was. He'd never seen the sun so he shouldn't really know what his skin under its influence looked like, and yet he really thought there should have been a 'tan line' on his upper arms.
Carlin had smooth, largely unmarred skin. Jonah had scars. Not that Carlin didn't, but his scars were fewer than those that stitched Jonah's body. He didn't remember how he got them but they were his, he knew them enough to unhesitatingly claim them, and he felt strange familiarity spark at some of the signs of tear on Carlin.
Carlin was suddenly speaking, and even if Jonah hadn't registered the words the careful, diplomatic tone of his voice would have been enough. "Are you sleeping all right?"
Jonah grunted. "In this swanky place? Who wouldn't sleep like a b–" then his jaw clamped closed as he found he'd walked into a minefield of his own making. Damnit... Carlin would pick up on that.
Carlin turned his observant blue eyes on Jonah and the intellect in them was damnable. Jonah bit back a sigh and refused to let himself get up and walk off.
"Is everything okay with the baby?"
Jonah's lips were a tight line, his eyes unflinching. "Far as I know."
"Thera?"
"Far as I know."
Carlin nodded deliberately. "Then what's going on with you?"
Jonah's left eyelid twitched. "Just drop it." He knew it would be as good as an admission there was something up, but he could think of no lie good enough to fool Carlin. The man was too damn good at ferreting out the truth... at least from Jonah.
Carlin was watching him, friendly concern and compassion on his face, and Jonah could have hit him... except that he couldn't. Carlin was too damn innocent for his own good.
"Thera's worried about you," Carlin ventured carefully.
Jonah sighed wearily and dropped his gaze. "Yeah... I know she is."
"So what's wrong? Maybe if you talked about it..."
Jonah was already shaking his head with a derisive curl to his lip. Carlin seemed to think talking would solve a lot of problems. As far as Jonah was concerned, it caused them more than remedied them.
"Jonah?"
Jonah, in a fit of frustration, gave up. He looked over at his companion and said, "I'm just having dreams."
"Dreams?"
"Yeah, no big deal."
"What are they about?"
Jonah shrugged.
Carlin, no more appeased than he'd been a minute ago, shifted closer. "What are the dreams about?"
"What are your dreams about?" Jonah countered testily.
Carlin, to Jonah's surprise, stopped at that. He looked away uneasily and said, "A woman, mostly. I almost know who she is, like she's someone important to me. Dark eyes, dark hair... she dies."
Jonah was stilled by Carlin's confession, more than he suspected he would have been.
Carlin, now troubled, started to withdraw without physically moving an inch.
"I do something wrong and my kid dies," Jonah said lowly in conciliation.
Carlin's eyes jumped to Jonah and the older man looked away.
"That won't happen again," Carlin blurted.
Jonah's eyes jerked back to Carlin. "Again?"
"I mean... it won't happen. You and Thera won't let it."
"Accidents happen, Carlin."
"What exactly happens in the dream?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"I think you need to."
"Damnit, Carlin..."
"Jonah." How one word could have so much impact and connotation behind it baffled Jonah. He suspected it was a verbal talent only Carlin and Thera possessed.
"Break time's almost up," Jonah said, rising to his feet as he did so. "We better get our drinks then get back to work."
Carlin, displeased at the evasion, knew when Jonah was immovable on a subject and unhappily got up and walked after Jonah to the water basin amid the opposite flow of returning miners.
Without any explicit intention, Thera managed to turn her and Jonah's corner into a figurative office. She was sitting on the floor with a 'clipboard' on her lap and pen in hand. She chewed unknowingly on her bottom lip, brow crinkled, as she stared at the figures before her.
That was how Jonah found her when he finally got off his work shift, sparing time only for a rushed dinner and pathetic shower before searching her out.
"Hey."
Thera looked up at his voice and the consternated expression remained stubbornly in place. "Hey."
Jonah went to her side, slipped partially behind her, and looped one arm around her body, hand at rest on her stomach, as he perched his chin on her shoulder and asked, "What's got you stumped?"
Thera huffed and set her pen down. "It doesn't make any sense."
Jonah chuckled deeply. "You can't figure it out? Are you sure that it's even possible?"
Thera snorted but privately his mood was a relief. The mining crew had been hard at work for more than two weeks and Jonah had been sleeping better since. She suspected the work literally tired him out so completely that he could do nothing but sleep through the night, but as long as he was sleeping she didn't really care. He was in a better mood during the day when he wasn't jerked awake at night by the same nightmare over and over.
Thera, content for the moment to dismiss the puzzle in her lap, leaned back into him and Jonah responded by wrapping his second arm around her in a gentle hug.
"What doesn't make sense?" he asked, his mouth so close to her ear it was a whisper that made Thera's mind spin.
"Um... energy output figures on the engines."
Jonah kissed her neck, once, as though for the sole purpose of derailing her train of thought. "I thought you knew those inside and out by now."
"I do, but I never really looked at them before."
Thera could almost hear his frown. "You lost me."
Thera smiled to herself. Her smile grew more lascivious as Jonah's hands started to go into action, unbuttoning her jacket and slipping into the warmth between the inner lining and her clothes.
"I'd studied the efficiency of each individual machine before, in great detail, but I never looked at the big picture."
Jonah, not so subtly, tugged her jacket off her shoulders and Thera sat up so he could take her orange coat off. He laid it aside, positioned himself directly behind her with a leg on either side of her, then pulled her back against him. Thera reclined against him readily and his hands unerringly found their way to her stomach. Free of her jacket her pregnancy was quite apparent. With her head resting on Jonah's shoulder she down-turned her eyes and watched him trace tender circles over the bulge in her body. She could linger in such moments forever if given the choice.
"Engines," he reminded her, a playful taunt in his tone, and Thera knew he was entirely too pleased with how easily he could turn her brain to jelly.
"Yes, the engines... there's too much output."
Jonah's hand slowed. "Too much? I thought we were mining because there's too little?"
Thera nodded. "Each machine has a required amount of energy output and they are all falling behind, but I only just stepped back to look at the big picture and there's too much energy overall. There is more than enough power to sustain the caves, more than twice as much needed to keep us alive. It doesn't make sense. Where is all the extra power going?"
"Have you asked Brenna?"
Thera, strangely, stiffened.
"Thera?" Jonah asked with a hint of concern for her reaction.
"No, I haven't mentioned it to Brenna... and I'm not going to."
"Why?"
"I... I don't know, but I get this bad feeling when I think about bringing it up with her. I just don't think it's a good idea."
Jonah sighed and his breath was a hot puff on her neck. "Okay, then we don't mention it to her."
Thera felt a senseless wash of relief. It also touched her how much Jonah explicitly trusted her judgment, even on only the strength of a 'feeling'.
They sat in silence a moment, enjoying the stolen moment alone, when Thera felt the baby inside her move. It kicked. Thera smiled stupidly. It had only recently begun kicking, truly, noticeably kicking, and they were spared so little time together that Jonah had yet to feel it.
She reached down and slid one of his resting hands to the place where she'd felt the baby take offense to her abdominal wall. Jonah, oblivious to her intent, merely repositioned his hand as she bade and snuggled against her.
Then the baby kicked again.
Jonah jolted and Thera felt his entire body start against her back.
"Whoa! Did you feel that?"
Thera giggled and nodded.
"Wow."
Thera turned her head toward him, his jaw at her forehead, and quipped, "Less amazing in the middle of the night when he doesn't want to sleep." Perhaps as a byproduct of Jonah's nightmares, Thera had come to think of the baby as male.
Jonah, enthralled, asked, "Can you see it?"
"When the baby kicks?"
Jonah nodded against her shoulder.
"I don't know, I never tried."
Jonah silently pulled Thera's shirt up to expose the protruding swell of her abdomen. Even Thera didn't see her pregnant belly much. Their showers were sparse and short, they didn't encourage idling, and as their living and work arrangements were so communal she was always well-clothed. Staring down at her own body, though, she marveled at the thought that her and Jonah's baby was inside that stretch of skin.
Jonah trailed his fingertips over her pale stomach, sending a shudder of goose bumps through Thera and, as though in response to its mother's reaction, the baby kicked. A spot on Thera's stomach poked ever-so-faintly outward and Thera blinked down at it in surprise, despite herself.
Jonah's hand moved and his fingers concentrated on the now indistinguishable place where the baby had kicked.
"Do you still have the nightmare?" Thera asked gently.
Jonah's fingers stilled and he flattened his hand against her stomach, a protective cover. "Yeah."
Thera felt that familiar surge of sorrow for Jonah. She wished there was a way she could make his dreams stop. Instead she did the only thing she could; she burrowed further into his warmth and his arms closed tighter around her, hand still in place over her womb.
